Friday, November 01, 2019

NaBloPoMo 1: working from home

Welcome back to my annual blogathon.

Today I woke up to Lydia grumble crying around 5am. So I went in to get her up, gave her a cuddle and then took her down stairs in her pijamas for first breakfast. In this phase of toddlerdom she is a regular hobbit and requires first breakfast as soon as she wakes up in lieu of the morning breast feed she was having until recently. It was Tom's morning for a lie in as he had the whole day off today.

Lydia feasted on multigrain hoops and fizzy water, and we spent a happy hour 'talking' together whilst she ate and I drank my tea. When the kitchen became boring, we moved to the family room and played with the crayons and Lydia practiced getting on and off her new little chair.

Around 6am I took her back to upstairs for a nappt change and to get dressed. After some negotiation over which clothes were acceptable, Tom helped her choose some socks whilst I got dressed. When I took her in to him, she woke him with gentle pats on bed saying 'Daddy' and gave him a big hug before insisting on playing Horsey Horsey.

Then it was off to nursery, with a short pitstop for Lydia to don the new ladybird raincoat bought by my mum, currently 3 sizes too big, but oh so appealing. As ever, she did not give me a second glance as I left, much more interested in her second breakfast of toast.

I pootled off to what would be one of my last drives in my black Golf to acquire rolls and sausages for breakfast. Alas the butchers didn't open till 830am so the Sainsbury's ones had to suffice. I joined a queue of pensioners waiting for the supermarket doors to open at 8am. They were bemoaning the lack of trick or treaters round their way, sweets going to waste and bemoaning great grandchildren traipsing mud through the house.

Breakfast acquired, I drove home, and once we'd cooked and eaten breakfast, I settled down to crack on with some work. Tom spent the morning packing for our trip and getting the cars cleaned up. I'm selling my Golf to my sister, and buying Tom's former company car, his Passat. Whilst he's waiting for a new electric Golf company car.

I'm excited about the electric car. Whilst it being smaller will mean some some work inconvenience for Tom in having room for a bit less gear, having access to an electric car for our trips around Southampton that can't be done by bus will be great for our emissions. The cost of an electric car outright was putting us off, so the offer of an electric company car is a real gift horse.

We've been making as many planet friendly small changes as we can recently. Something that I'm also excited by is that we're managing more and more veggie and vegan meals since our friends Jo and Sarah introduced us to smoked tofu from Tofoo. Tom's using it to replace chicken in a lot of dishes, like stirfries and so on, and it's really tasty.

After catching up on emails, thinking through a Christmas PPC approach and taking to one of the region's directors about collections content on social media, I ran out of time to actually do what I was supposed to today on my half day, so I will look at that this evening when Lydia is asleep.

Tom collected Lydia from nursery and dropped her off before going to get the Gold cleaned, so I spent another hour packing last minute things, stuffing Lydia with snacks and playing with dollies and trikes.

Upon Tom's return around 2pm, it was time to set off. It's another Bradshaw planning weekend, this time in Wiltshire, in a modern Airbnb. Tom left the Golf at Ellie's and I met him there, before driving the first leg to Newbury where we shopped for supplies. Lydia was starving after her nap, so I went ahead with her and bought bread sticks for her to munch. She was insistent on milk so we went and sat in the car whilst she drank her cup of milk.

Then we were off again, eating a late picnic lunch of Waitrose's finest reduced food and admiring the autumn colours. When we arrived, we admired the minimalist decor of the family home we're renting, something we could never achieve, nor would we want to, in our own home. It's fun to try and piece together the owner's personality from their decor.

Lydia refused to eat tea, settling for a slice of bread and peanut butter and explored all the new toys. I'm currently tag teaming with Tom as she's still awake after her late nap. The first set of friends have just arrived, and the others will be here shortly with curry....

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