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End of school year

We received an email from school. When the school reopens in September all COVID restrictions will go, in line with Government instructions. No masks, no support bubbles, no social distancing. Not the best time for Hawklad to potentially return. Hawklad who because of his anxieties will be looking for the reassurance of masks, space and safety measures.

How much social pressure will Hawklad be under to ditch his mask. Too much. It’s like the idea that he would put up his hand in class and ask for help with reading words. As much as he needed the help, putting that hand up in front of 30 other pupils was never an option.

It’s such an unnecessary mess.

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Delivery

Don’t you just love Amazon. I bought a repair kit for our paddling pool and a replacement electric pump. It’s one of those pools that would take at least a decade to partially inflate if I tried old school. So with a mini heatwave hitting this weekend, I ordered in plenty of time. The items arriving from the same supplier on Wednesday. Wednesday arrived and the repair kit arrived but no pump. The order now showing delivery on Thursday. Thursday came and went…..

The order now showing that the pump was at an incorrect carrier facility. It had been at our local facility with the repair kit but had somehow found it’s way to one 150 miles away. On Friday the pump had moved, further away. Now 200 miles away but delivery was still expected on Thursday……. But hope was there. It was now in transit again…

So where are we now. Its Sunday and the pump is NOT HERE. It did make its way back to our local facility. Briefly. It is now not even in England…. It’s mystery bus ride has taken it to Scotland. But again there is hope 😂😂😂😂

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 39 Comments

global storming

It’s finally summer and it feels warm. It’s especially sobering when you see the horrible floods Western Europe have been suffering. So much loss of life. How many wake up calls does it take……

For what it’s worth I wish they had called man made climate change as Global Storming. Severe storms are becoming more prevalent. That’s summer and winter storms. I still here people talk about warming up the planet as being a good thing, making those beach trips even better. I heard that yesterday on the news. Staggering. But surely even those heat seekers don’t want to sign up to more severe storms.

Whether you believe in man made global warming or not, surely we can all agree that we should be doing all we can to stop polluting the world. It’s just the right thing to do. Preserving its beauty and protecting its natural habitats.

It’s still such beautiful planet which we have an obligation to protect for future generations.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 40 Comments

Together

Here in the UK we are apparently all in this together. We all need to make sacrifices. The Government fought tooth and nail against attempts to extend free school meal support to help the thousands of children living in poverty in my country. The Government cut £4B from the overseas aid budget, aid aimed at the poorest around the world. They have cut benefits to the poorest in our land. I could go on and on. We are in this together.

In separate and unrelated news the Government has topped up its very own wine collection. Over the last year the Governments wine cellar holding has been increased by £26000.

We are in this together. Some of us are more in than others.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 30 Comments

Appointing…

There is a new rule in England. If there is an independent body then our Prime Minister will appoint his friends to make those bodies definitely not independent. It started with BBC News. Then the media watchdogs and it’s just getting silly now. There is an independent body that advises on ethics in public life. Guess what. He has appointed an old university friend, who with Johnson was part of a notorious drinking and partying private club. That’s modern England for you.

So clearly it’s ok to appoint whoever you like to anything these days. So why don’t we all do that. What fun we can have. How easy life will be.

So here are a few of my appointments.

I would like to appoint myself as James Bond.

I would also like to appoint myself as the new Thor.

I would also like to appoint myself as the next winner of the Great British Bake Off.

I would like to appoint our family dog, Captain Chaos as my Countries Prime Minister. Far more qualified than the current numpty and our dog doesn’t lie. The Cap is also not a racist, sexist or homophobic.

I would like to appoint our family cat and gerbils as his Government.

On discussion with my son I would like to appoint Hawklad as the new Darth Vader, Head of Disney and lead guitarist of Iron Maiden.

Further appointments to follow.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 49 Comments

Squall

Somedays you end up looking back more than you look forward….

That brief rain shower had passed through a earlier. A heavy squall but soon no evidence on the ground that it happened. Just a receding cloud on the horizon.

Yes it’s been one of those days.

Reflecting on life rather than looking forward. I know it’s not good for me. Can so easily descend into a world of full on melancholy Pink Floyd and Leonard Cohen lyrics.

I did try to refocus. Do stuff but so much is really working today. I even got a pencil and blank piece of paper out to write out some short term goals. An hour later no writing just a brown circle matching perfectly the base of the coffee cup which had found its way onto the paper.

Signs of a half empty coffee cup on a so called sheet of Hope…….

Pants…. gone all Leonard Cohen and Roger Waters on you already.

Yep somedays are like that….

But then I remember what is important. Truly important to me. I smile. Even on days like, the sun can shine.

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Ketchup

Joey Chestnut has apparently declared himself the greatest athlete of all time after breaking the world record for eating as many hotdogs as you can in 10 minutes. He ate 76 in 10 minutes. 76…. Jody was clearly not eating hotdogs from outside my so called football teams stadium. It takes at least 10 hours to get served and I dread to think of the chemicals and additives entering into the body after just 1 of those monstrosities never mind 76 of them. Only shed loads of tomato ketchup is saving that.

Yesterday food delivery came with 18 missing items and various random substitutions. Brexit is going really well………

So as I we picked through the damage. No favourite sausages – ok Hawklad can live with that for a week or so. No favourite salad and fruit – again he will make do. It went on and on in a similar vein until. NO Tomato Ketchup. To many amongst us that will just not fly. To Hawklad that’s worse than a zombie apocalypse. So today we go out ketchup hunting.

Needs must…..

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 31 Comments

DEFCON

Guess who has been baking again. Yes NORAD have raised the threat level to DEFCON THREE.

Years ago I worked in a Police Force as a civilian. I was based at an old country mansion which acted at the Police Headquarters. At the front desk there was a sign on the wall saying THREAT LEVEL. It had a slide in colour board. Usually it was Green (it’s all cool dude), sometimes yellow (it’s not so cool but no need to panic dude) and rarely Red (it’s time to assume the crash position dude). We also had white which meant ‘everything was cool, but the government audit team is in so put on a tie, dude’. One day the threat level went brown. No one had a clue what that meant. Even granite chiselled veterans had never seen that colour in decades of work here. Much confusion and speculation ensued. The receptionist was not there so we couldn’t ask her. She was like Thor’s Heimdall. The Gatekeeper. No one got in or out without her approval during the day. She also maintained the threat level board.

Finally she was located. Apparently Threat Level BROWN was ‘she had put the board in back to front’. If just one of us muppets had bothered to look on the other side of the board we would have found that it was in fact GREEN…..

And yes DEFCON THREE was wrong. Apart from the earthquake cracked crust it was a rather fine gluten and dairy free loaf. Time to lower the threat level.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 59 Comments

Don’t do this

Kids don’t try this…..

Lack of sleep does strange things to the mind and body. It took me 30 minutes into a yoga session before that the odd sensation I was experiencing was attributed to me putting on my compression shorts back to front. If only it stopped there.

I decided I needed a milky and sweet coffee to get me going. The sugar is next to the kettle. So what sleep induced madness sent me to the cupboard. Made me reach out and grab a large bag. Open that bag. Carefully add two spoonfuls of the white powder into my drink. Then stir and stir. Rather puzzled at the enfolding congealed mess. Then taste what was clearly something approaching wallpaper paste.

Only a lack of sleep ends with self raising flour being added to coffee.

Well at least it cut down on the calories…..