Rain, Rain go away come again another day. How many of you feel like that & how many are relieved for a respite from the warm weather. I don’t mind the respite & was thinking if we hadn’t have had some rain we would be looking at a drought later in the year especially with so many of us being at home, lots of paddling pools out in the garden this last couple of weeks. Plus the grass etc looks really nice after the rain, however let’s hope it’s not here to stay for weeks on end, not as nice walking our dogs in the rain.
So the headlines in the news this week have been as much about the protests against racism as the corona virus it appears. Most of the protests have been peaceful thankfully though as often happens you have a minority that basically use the reason for the protests for their own agenda, causing trouble, vandalism, looting. Thankfully here in the UK I believe we have had none of this. In the US tensions have been very high, I’m unsure of all areas but in NY a vast amount of buildings have been boarded up & they’ve had a curfew in place too. To those of you that have asked again, Ellie is safe & well, & thank you so very much for asking. She lives in an area (East Village) where there have been lots of people gathering to protest but thankfully all bar one night no trouble. The one night that any violence did occur she said there was a large police presence & multiple helicopters flying all night. At no time has she felt worried however as the minority are targeting buildings for their own gain (looting) rather than causing violence amongst people. Another side to all of the protests though has been the mass gatherings as we still continue to fight the virus that is causing so much death & worldwide disruption, a difficult situation for the police. We all will have no doubt our own & quite often strong opinions on the issues raised this week through the death of George Floyd & sadly it is one of the many issues that have existed for far too long. I will never understand why people judge each other by the colour of their skin or by their life choices – whether that be religion, sexuality, politics etc. Okay so you may think I want to live in a happily ever after “rom com” or Disney movie & yes I guess I do really but ultimately doesn’t it boil down to treating others as we would wish to be treated ourselves.
Children have also gone back to school this week or at least some of them – so far for those that have gone back I’ve heard nothing but praise for the measures the schools have put in place, any dissatisfaction has been based more around the days they can go back, perhaps 2 out of 5 days attendance. Ultimately they are trying to do their best, in early years schools it must be so difficult to ask the young ones to stay away from each other when they are used to being able to play socially together, isn’t that really how they learn too.
Like so many of you holiday plans have had to be changed this year, I was due to be flying to NY today as it was Ellie’s birthday this week, but we chatted & face timed pretty much all day Friday which was so nice, I constantly say I am so grateful for technology. She was thrilled as her box of chocolates we sent arrived too, can’t beat a bar of Cadburys!! For anyone that doesn’t know Alison & Ellie share the same birthday & that is yet one more reason I have to be grateful to Alison. I woke at 5am with mild labor pains, Craig then driving us to the hospital in rush hour traffic arriving 7.30am, admitted to hospital, fully dilated & ready for El to be born. Well not quite as quick as she should have been due to her being turned the wrong way, so she was actually born at 12.15pm, quite a quick labor so I was not complaining. All this however happening a month earlier than she was due. In the time between me waking & leaving for the hospital Craig had to empty the car as he been to the wholesalers shopping, phone our family, see to our dog & then pack a bag for the hospital which we hadn’t done – me kneeling on the floor shouting at him what he needed to pack. All fun & games.
Alison had taken a few days off work as it was her birthday so when she received a call from me at around 6.30am saying “I think I’m in labor” can you go to work for me, she never hesitated, jumped out of bed, got ready & went in to cover for me for the day. When I got the chance around 1.30pm to call her she thought I would be saying I was either home again – it’s a false alarm or labor had just started, instead me on the phone saying “it’s a girl” – so all’s well that ends well as they say except that’s not the end of the story. You see it took us a couple of months to correct all the cuts Alison had done that morning as she was soooooo hungover from celebrating on the eve of her own birthday!!!!! Ha Ha I’m only kidding – Alison has never ever done a bad haircut, she the ultimate professional – she did however have the worst hangover that much is true! I think maybe Alison should write next week’s email to tell her side of all these stories & get her own back on me for sharing so much of our times together :))
I hope for those of you that have returned to work this week you feel safe where you are, I can imagine it could be scary & challenging for the first few days getting used to new routines, ways of working, I feel sure it will be the same for us soon. And that was another story in the papers this week, that hairdressers would be allowed to reopen on 15th June, sadly I have to say this is at this time not true. Until any further announcements we are still hoping for a date in July.
So yet again my email has gone on sorry, jumping from one topic to another this week too. I genuinely hope you are all staying fit, well & healthy & fingers crossed less people are being affected by this terrible virus, till next week you lovely people (or will it be Alison!) Take care Lynn x