After the half term break, Boris Johnson made his announcement for the ‘road out of lockdown’ on the 22^nd, with the first step being all students returning to schools on 8^th March. As a result, most of the last fortnight has been spent preparing for that! The stay-at-home order ends on the 29^th March as well so that’ll give us some flexibility for longer walks and maybe walks ins some different parts of London (I’m SO sick of our normal routes). There are also dates set for various reductions in restrictions on April 12, May 17 and June 21^st so we’ve got a long road ahead, but it’s nice to look forward with a bit of hope.

Last week I had some nice virtual book clubs for February’s fiction and non-fiction books, and also watched a virtual chat with the author of one of last year’s books, which was great. I finished knitting my jumper, which was exciting, so I’ve been wearing that quite a bit. It’s very warm, which will be perfect for the crossover in the next few weeks between ‘less layers but still a coat’ weather and ‘no coat but heavier layers’ weather. It has been very up and down, with last week’s weather being absolutely stunning clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-teens, and then this week’s weather very foggy, gloomy and quite cold again. Spring is on the way though, and the days are getting noticeably longer – it’s so nice to get to work when it’s light!

I ordered a fun subscription box which came with a plant, book, puzzle and candle, which was a fantastic mix of all the things I like. I think I’ll do it next month as well and then see if I think it’s worth continuing.  I also ordered a couple of cute cactus plants in nice pots to replace my other cactus and succulent that died (/were eaten by bugs).  

Most of this week was taken up with dealing with our landlord again, who has begun seriously pestering us about when we intend to move – which of course we can’t answer, as we still don’t know. We gave in and just contacted the solicitors who we’d spoken to in October and January and we’ve requested they write a ‘pre-action letter’ to tell her to stop harassing us and to deal with communication with her. It may seem like an extreme step, but it’s worth it for both of us in terms of our mental wellbeing.

Luckily for me, the stress with Susan was balanced by a busy and positive week at school. It was ‘teacher treat week’, which was a very sweet thought by our parent community to thank us for teaching throughout lockdown. Throughout the week they got the children to make ‘thank you’ signs for us, sent us funny videos, organised a nice lunch and on Friday gave us a pastry morning tea and a personalised mug each. It made us all feel very appreciated! It was World Book Day on Thursday and I dressed up as Luna Lovegood – because what else could I do but something from Harry Potter, after our half-term binge! I also had an ‘interview’ with David (the head teacher) and the Senior Leadership Team about a leadership role, and I now have the position of Key Stage 2 Phase Leader for Year 6, which means I’m head of year 6 and will be on the leadership team for the school. That’s exciting to look forward to over the next few terms and into next year.

We’ve had a pretty quiet weekend, but that’s what I needed after such a busy week – and looking ahead to an even busier one with the return of all the children. After dealing with some admin for the solicitors regarding the landlord on Saturday morning, we went for a nice walk through Wapping. When we got back, I made a pastry that mum used to make (ham, cheese and wholegrain mustard in puff pastry) and we had that with some champagne that we got for Christmas. We finished the theatre show we’ve been watching (Angels in America) on Saturday night, and we chatted to Mum and Dad and caught up on some reading today.