Week 10 - Walks, BBQs and NASA

It's half term this week! Yay!  Except that doesn't actually mean anything because it's my turn not to be in work anyway, and Matt is still doing work for Shanghai, who aren't on half term!  Actually, on Friday, he only had one lesson and was finished by 7.30am, so he had more of a long weekend than a week off.  He managed to finish his big data project for his new school by Tuesday and everyone was apparently very impressed by it, which is great.  We did have a slight panic on Tuesday when he though he'd deleted the entire thing, but it all worked out in the end.  He's only got 3 more weeks working for China, and will be glad when it's over, since it's very hard work doing two full time jobs!

I am back at work every day from Monday.  Monday is a teacher training day to work out how we are going to manage with the year 6s coming back on Tuesday and to make sure that everyone is on the same page teaching-wise.  The after school club is stopping until September and i'll be in as a teaching assistant from 12.30-3.30 every day, working with the key worker kids.  I've been furloughed from my after school club job and will be in from Monday as a volunteer, which I have been assured by the Education Advisor for the government is perfectly OK to do, despite it sounding a bit dodgy.  I'm not used to working every day and i'm going to be exhausted by the end of next week I think!

The rest of this week has been nice.  We've been for a few nice long walks, and Matt and I went for a picnic on Wednesday to Yew Tree Bottom in the New Forest.  We pretty much had the place to ourselves.  It was lovely.

We all went for a nice walk to Hengistbury Head today.  It was fairly busy even at 9am, but it was so lovely to be somewhere different for a walk!

This week we have also spent quite a lot of time watching NASA live TV, watching the first ever commercial rocket launch.  It went from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the first time American's have taken off from American soil in 9 years.  The two astronauts were both experienced test pilots and have gone to space before.  We just now finished watching them enter the International Space Station and get interviewed.  The first thing one of them did was cut his head, live on TV in front of millions of people.  We could lip read his conversation with his fellow astronauts and it was quite funny!

Fish 'n' Chips

Matt has had a very very busy week working his two jobs, but now at least it's the start of half term at his UK school.  He still has lots of data work to do for them, but at least he doesn't have lessons to teach.  We've been going on our evening walks, which has been lovely and we've been on a couple of walks in the forest now that Matt is on the car insurance.  One was to Brockenhurst, where we saw ponies frolicking, which was wonderful.  The second was today and was to Holmsley enclosure, where we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

I love how all the ponies walked over the bridge even though it was only a tiny ditch they had to step over!

Lola was upset that we didn't take her out with us into the forest and showed her displeasure from the stairs...

The pony we named mabel that is a new resident of Barton common was getting a bit cross with Matt and wouldn't let him walk past her on one of our walks.

Yesterday, we went for our usual walk around Barton on sea, but instead of visiting the coffee shop, we accidentally ended up with fish, chips and a battered sausage on a park bench.  It felt so naughty, but it was so delicious!  I regret nothing.

The sea was incredibly rough and we sat for a while watching the waves crash against the rocks at the beach.  I had to tie my hair up because it kept swiping me in the face, and Matt got a face full of spikey gorse bush - not much fun for him!

Week 8!

It's week 8 thousand (or so it feels) of lockdown, but don't worry, here is a cute photo of Lola waiting for Matt to throw a tennis ball in order to cheer you up.

This week has gone both painfully slow and super speedily.  My two weeks away from work are up and i'm back in from tomorrow.  It's surprising just how quickly those two weeks go by.

This week, Matt and I have been on lots of nice walks over the common and down to the beach to collect pebbles (more on that in a minute). We take Lola if we go in the evening.  I had a bit of a wobble on the common on Monday, when I didn't feel well, but that was over pretty quick.  No medical emergencies this week and no calling ambulances, which is always a good thing!

I took, or tried to take some photos of the birds in the garden this week.  They move so quickly, it's impossible.  Plus, they all fly off the second you get your camera out and only come back once you've packed up for the day.  I think they do it on purpose.  I even resorted to some excellent camouflage...

On Saturday night, for our weekly Harris Family skype, we had a horses and dogs racing night, which was fun.  My horses/dogs won 3 out of 12 races, and Matt's won 2, so we didn't do particularly well, but it was fun.  Afterwards there was a James Bond quiz, which Matt scored 16 out of 16.  James Bond would definitely be his Mastermind specialist subject.

Matt had done a quiz on Friday night too, with a group of friends.  It was a quiz on YouTube and they came 17th out of 383 teams, and only 5 points behind the joint winning teams!  He got to bed at 1.30am!

This is the rock that Matt and I found on our walk a couple of weeks ago.  We walked past the same spot 2 days later and it was gone, but it must have inspired someone, because a week later 'Barton on Sea Rocks' had sprung up!  It's a painted rock swap.  Mum and I painted some to add to the collection.  We came back the next day and 4 out of 5 of ours were gone.  Off to live in someone's garden in our neighbourhood.  I love the idea, so Matt and I went on a rock collecting mission to the beach on Thursday and Mum and I did some more painting.

We're going to start our own collection in the front garden, and i'm also going to start one with the kids at school.  I think they are going to really enjoy it.  We'll keep the school ones in the reception so that they don't get taken though, for the teachers and kids to enjoy!

I particularly like my half eaten m&m chocolate rock!

Matt and I went for a walk yesterday, going via the roads, trying to avoid the very busy beaches now that people are allowed to sit on them all day if they want to.  We found an open bakery that sold bacon butties and a coffee shop too, where we sat on a bench on the cliff top watching the para-gliders.  We enjoyed so much going out for a coffee.  I still can't decide if that's incredibly sad, or if it's just making us appreciate the little things in life more.

We went for a walk today too, as Matt is now on the car insurance.  We wanted a change of scenery, so drove to Brockenhurst and had a walk on the plain, where there were so many horses and cows.  We saw several lines of 6 or 7 horses, galloping just for the fun of it.  It was wonderful to see.

Matt collected a computer monitor from school this week, to help him with his data analysis.  It happened to coincide with the restart of the German football...