Week 1

Week 1 of Home School survived.  Some ups and downs and I think we're all looking forward to the weekend.

The afternoon was filled with biscuit making and a reasonable amount of work was done.

Half the government seem to have Coronavirus.

In The Swing of It

Nearly a million people from all over the world have been doing 'PE with Joe' this week.  Up until now, we have not been amongst them, preferring to enjoy the unusual experience of not racing to school in the morning.  Today was different though.  Today we did PE with Joe - and you can too by clicking here....

https://www.thebodycoach.com/blog/pe-with-joe-1254.html

Rishi did some great exercising and, after refusing to have anything to do with it, even Ishan made a cameo appearance.  If it proved one thing, it's that I am massively unfit and that as I get older getting fit again only gets harder.

Some great counting from the tiny person and then off to the garden where the boys both mistook the weather for summer and stripped down to their pants before spending the rest of the morning outside.

 This evening saw a pleasing number of people standing on their doorstep to 'Clap for the NHS'

Day 3

The day began with the delivery of our new kitchen units.  The delivery guys, from Yorkshire, bring deliveries down to London every week and were amazed by the ghost town they were visiting this week - we were in fact their last delivery for the foreseeable future...

Many of the memes on Facebook today showed parents in a terrible state on Day 3 of home schooling and having the kids at home.  It's not that bad in the Bills household.  It's hard work juggling both of us working from home and trying to keep the boys educated, entertained and informed (you can't remove the BBC from me that easily) but it can also be great fun.

In this fine weather the garden is a great way to get them to blow off steam and for all us to keep our sanity.  Getting them to go outside is almost impossible - they have to be threatened with a loss of Tv and stories to make them get their shoes on.  Once outside, naturally, we can't get them to come back in again

Rishi was in much better form today and spent a lot of the morning on his 'pirate ship' in the back garden once convinced to leave the confines of our house.

Ishan was excited to get to finish his clock today and I eventually got some work done. 

In between all that there was a shopping swap of highly valued items such as toilet roll, washing powder and yeast between various family members over thresholds with a suitable distance between us!

Keeping Time

Jigna sorted the boys out this morning and Rishi was not in particularly good form.

This afternoon was down to me and I had grand plans of making clock faces with them to go with a clock movement that J gave me for Christmas.  Needless to say the kids had a different vision of how this should turn out and were really more interested in a session of spin art and the maths of how many degrees there are between the numbers - still , I think we all got something out of it.

Rishi did some great writing of numbers and Ishan turned the afternoon in to a French lesson, by writing a song about time in French on his clock face - which is what he would normally do on a Tuesday afternoon.

I think both boys have had enough of home school now - Ishan is adamant that he is going back after Easter and Rishi wants to know when he's going to nursery again.  I'd be quite enjoying the opportunity if it wasn't for the fact we both have the same amount of work to do PLUS becoming teachers and having to re-adjust to the madness ourselves.  Don't get me wrong - I am grateful to still be able to work when so many others are struggling and many people are making huge sacrifices to help others, but it doesn't make it any less hard work!

New World Order

So, the world has changed a lot since my last post 6 years ago.  There is no Glastonbury this year, so I can't post a picture like in the last post.  I also have 2 mini Mr Bs!

The biggest change is the crazy world of Pandemics - putting even the bullshit of Brexit in the shade.

The schools are closed and we all have to wrok from home (if possible).

Today was the first day of Home School.  Ishan was surprisingly keen on getting on with it - although there were many tears last week at the thought of missing his friends.  He was downstairs and getting himself breakfast before I'd even got up.  He was through the bathroom before I'd had breakfast and was asking for work to do before I'd had my shower.

Obviously it couldn't last and there were tantrums about correcting work and going outside, but on the whole the day went pretty well.

Rishi decided that now was a good time to have a temperature, so we are now stuck in the house for 2 weeks.  Other than that, he seems fine.  He spent time doing some important playing - just like he would have done at nursery.  I spent the morning getting my VPN working so I can work from home effectively - such excitement.

Let's see how the next few weeks pan out and whether I can keep politics out of what should be a crisis that rises above such things, but probably won't...

It Feels Like Yesterday...

...that I was last queuing in the middle of the night for a prime Glastonbury camping spot, but somehow another whole year has passed.

Still, Ishan's 'pope-mobile' has been serviced, the tents have once again been erected with an excellent view of the Pyramid Stage and the rest of the family have been collected from my parents' house for a brief interlude of heightened Bills mayhem.

Start the festival with a halloumi cone, a nutcase claiming we moved his tent, the worst value food I've had on site ever from a Rip off Falafel stall, Crazy bhel & dosa combo & a trip to the Cider bus where Mr B Junior was rather sick - and he didn't even have any!

Project Ishan

It's a long time since my last post, but rest assured dear reader that this researcher has not been idle during the break.
I did my last OB (for the time being) over a year ago at the Australian Grand Prix having decided that a new challenge was needed. After briefly considering space travel, to truly make this a guide to the galaxy, a far more challenging and long term project was begun.
Now, some might think I refer to the building of our extension and, whilst it is challenging, long term and will no doubt get a mention, for the most part all you need to know is don't involve Technocrates or Watford Roofing.
The actual project I refer to is our son, Ishan - my biggest, and best, 'engineering' challenge yet!
Stand by for frequent uploads...