The last two weeks have been fairly uneventful, although quite exhausting with end of term business/busy-ness. My immune system finally gave in to a cold (Covid test was negative) last weekend, so I took the Friday off school and had a very quiet three days of rest and reading so I could be ok for the last week of school. Luckily book club was virtual so I was still able to attend that on Sunday afternoon and we had a great chat about The Salt Path by Raynor Winn – would definitely recommend that as an interesting read.

The last week of school was busy but also uneventful, with everyone just desperate to make it to Thursday afternoon – thank goodness for Good Friday! It definitely feels like we haven’t had a break in a long time, despite February half term only being 6 weeks ago. I think because we weren’t able to do anything during that break, it just doesn’t stick out in our memories, and with the craziness around the return to school it’s been a particularly crazy half-term.

On Monday we had our first relaxation of restrictions, with the announcement that the stay-at-home order was being lifted, we could now meet up with six people outdoors, and organised sport and outdoor swimming pools were to re-open. To back this hopeful change up, the weather for the first two days of the week was absolutely beautiful – 22 degrees and sunshine, so on Tuesday after school we went down to the park near our place and had a little picnic in the sunshine with a beer. Our legal representative also finally got back to us with the final draft of the letter to our landlord, so it was a huge relief to get that sent off to her. Hopefully that should keep her at bay at least until May, when the eviction ban is due to end again.

  When it was beautiful and sunny on Friday again (albeit very cold), we went for a lovely walk across Tower Bridge and down through Bermondsey. It was a nice change in routes given the extra time we could take with being able to leave the house for more than an hour!

As a result of the change in restrictions, we were also able to have our first meet up with some friends on Saturday! We met up with three of our ‘bottle-share group’ friends for some socially-distanced picnic beers at a park in Denmark Hill. Peter was extremely excited to be able to open one of his magnums (a 1.5L bottle of beer), and it was a beautiful fruity saison – a sour farmhouse ale, which turned out to be most people’s favourite beer of the day.  We ended up having a great catch up and headed back to the station at around 8pm, where we said goodbye to Justin and headed home to bed.

Unfortunately, Peter had caught my cold the week before and his ear had been starting to bother him again on Friday and Saturday. This kicked off into a full-on ear infection on Saturday night and we both slept terribly as he was up most of the night in a lot of pain. Luckily we were able to call 111 (the non-emergency NHS line) in the morning and he was able to immediately pick up some anti-biotics and painkillers when the pharmacy opened. This made for a quiet Easter Sunday morning, but I still did a little Easter egg hunt for Peter and we shared some hot cross buns and a coffee while we skyped Mum and Dad. We had a restful day and skyped Peter’s dad in the afternoon, and then had a family call with Peter’s mum’s family. It’s always interesting talking to them as they’re all over the UK and Northern America – from Ruth in Toronto, to her siblings and cousins in Philadelphia (US), Isle of Wight, Durham, Reading, Corbridge and Berwick-upon-Tweed. Unsurprisingly we mostly talked about the state of Covid and the vaccinations process in all of the different places, but we had some nice family catch ups too.

We’ve made a delicious leg of lamb for dinner (courtesy of Ruth) and for the rest of the night, we’re just planning to watch the Good Place and then go to bed early to catch up on sleep!