A bit of a bill

I’m sat in Doris waiting for my final call to a deputy head to close the 11x 360s I’ve just completed. On that, I’m really pleased with how they’ve gone. It’s my second batch with the school and the mood music is all very good, both from the staff and the senior team. Indeed, from a chat with academic deputy this morning I’ve already been lined up for some more in the summer and there is other work coming my way between now and Easter. All in all a good result … and, just in case I thought I could put my feet up I am working with the MoD team next week. It’s about the right level of engagement, especially during lockdown 3.

out mugging old ladies

On just as a dull note (why do people read this?), we’ve had a bit of an electricity bill. A lot of it was due to a late reading, but with a house that only has electricity (Economy 7) it felt like a friendly crack dealer, we’d been supplying to the whole street. Of course, we normally spend a good slab of January away from home skiing, which makes a difference. But, nonetheless, neither of us are sure where the amps have gone. So. I’m running a bit of a daily spreadsheet, looking particularly at our Economy 7 wall heaters. The aim is to find 30% savings without catching hypothermia. I’ll let you know how it goes. And if you don’t hear from me, somebody please pop round with a flask of something warm and a couple of blankets.

We’re still running and walking. We’re still watching slabs of telly – now onto The Serpent, on BBC, which is fab. And we’re getting towards the end of Schitt’s Creek (Netflix) which is Canadian comedy and very easy … and, on occasion, laugh out loud. Apparently, along with the next Marvel film on our list, we have to watch It’s a Sin, (C4), about the AIDS epidemic which has, apparently, blown all previous streaming records. We’re up for that. Oh, and we’re a third of a way through A New Life In The Sun, which keeps me amused. On the face if it, it may sound as though we do nothing but watch telly. That’s not strictly the case …

our Jen’s getting good at this. All from a computer drawing programme

Other than that we’re fine. The weather is mostly keeping us inside, when what I’d like to be is out smartening up Doris’s flanks. That will come. And I do have a long list of outside jobs, including fully servicing the bikes. But I will wait for some decent weather before I give that a go … as well as resealing Doris’s roof lights (a big job), I am keen to resort the garage and put some more permanent shelving in. Currently it’s our larder, where C keeps our nuclear fallout stocks. I think that would look better on a set of shelves, don’t you think? Get on it Roland.

Princess Rebecca and Viscount Henry

I hope you are all well. It seems that, leaving aside the appalling virus death rate, the realisation that as a 3rd country our trading relationship with the EU (and, bizarrely NI) is lengthy and complicated, and that, having taken control of our borders we seem incapable of securing them against covid infections (something so many other islands have managed), the vaccination process is going well for us . And all of the jab efficacy results seem to point to the fact that we might be coming out of this … I hope so. This has been, in it’s way, something to tell your grandchildren about. But it’s now close to not being funny. Fingers crossed.

Keep safe, everyone. Wear a mask, keep your distance and don’t believe everything you read on SM. And it’s OK not to be productive. It really is. Especially when there’s so much decent telly on …