More snow

The snow just keeps on coming. We have had quite thick snow outside for 3 weeks now. I’ve never known anything like it. More is forecast so we’re just trying to get on with things.
That isn’t so easy however when the council has run out of grit. None of the main roads are now being gritted and we live down in a valley in the middle of the Pennines. Since we are relying on benefits at the moment we are entitled to a £25 cold weather payment when the average temperature is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over seven consecutive days. Today has seen a 3rd payment of £25 be triggered. That means that for 3 consecutive weeks the temperature here has been an average of below freezing. That is a long time to be cold!

Our car broke down the day after Boxing Day anyway so we’re reliant on public transport and good old Shank’s pony. Yesterday I thought I’d stick an Asda home delivery order in to come later on this evening. I ordered all the heavy stuff on there so we wouldn’t have to lug it back from the shop ourselves.
This morning, 12 hours before our shopping was due to be delivered we got a phone call from Asda to tell us that because of the untreated roads all deliveries for our little town and the next one along have been cancelled. Next available slot is Friday. We need the stuff before that so we cancelled and tomorrow will walk down to our little supermarket and get a taxi home… if there are taxis running in the snow that is.

Katie was supposed to have an appointment at the hospital tomorrow but we have had to cancel. We were all set to get the train and then taxi to get us there but the snow has made us rethink. Public transport is being cancelled all over the place. The appointment has been cancelled and we will get a chance to rebook soon. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long!

My sister has had no hot water or heating since her boiler broke down on Christmas day. She rents the house and it needs a new boiler. It was supposed to have been fitted yesterday but because of the snow it couldn’t be done. It was rescheduled for today but yes, you guessed it, couldn’t be done because of the snow. BT have managed to get out to install her new phone line though, it is being done at the moment. She should have internet by this evening lol.

Schools all over the country are closed. Robyns remains open thank goodness. They pride themselves on keeping open in all weathers. If we chose not to send Robyn in that wouldn’t be a problem. They stay open for the kids that want to go/have no choice. Some working parents are very glad of the school’s policy, I’m not sure all the children are lol. Robyn loves school though, she would rather be there with her friends than stuck at home.

When will things get back to normal?! It is rather good fun to play in though!

5 days…

Not including today it is 5 more days until Robyn goes back to school and 5 more days until Katie starts playgroup 3 afternoons per week.

I have on the whole enjoyed the summer holidays but it has been stressful and now I am on countdown. Very soon I will be able to get back into a routine. No doubt I’ll be moaning before long about the rushing around in the mornings etc. I’m never happy lol.

Normal blogging service will hopefully resume soon

Sports day

Sports day was one of the events in the school year that I used to dread. I have never been very sporty and unfortunatly one of my senior schools was joined onto the leisure centre. School had full use of all the facilities. Gah!

I used to manage to get through a rounders match at school by ensuring I’d be out as soon as possible & therefore spend the rest of the time sat at the edge of the field making daisy chains! If I was on the fielding team I’d strategically stand  where I knew the ball was very unlikely to land so that I could stand still for as long as possible.

When it was netball I took a similar approach… always being goal keeper meant that I was confined to one end of the court so didnt have to run very far. Jumping around a bit when the other team tried to score was about all that was required!

Cross country was my idea of complete hell. I can remember the course we had to take like it was yesterday. Round the athletics track once, round the small bike track, round the big bike track, down the side of school and behind the leisure centre, along the back of the netball courts & hockey pitches, up the side of the art block, round and along the English block, along the mound and back into the school entrance to the leisure centre. Once back at school you had 5 mins to shower and change before going to your next lesson. There was never enough time to get dry properly so I’d end up damp and uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

Swimming on the other hand I used to enjoy. No running involved you see! I even used to take up the chance to go swimming at lunchtime once a week. I still enjoy swimming now. I’m not terribly good at it but I always find it quite a relaxing experience so long as its an adult only session!

Yesterday was Robyns sports day. She told me yesterday morning she was going to win a race for Granny Mary and she excelled herself! My wonderful daughter won 4 out of 6 races, something that I could only dream of! After school we walked through the park to see my mum and dad. We passed the ice-cream van and so I rewarded Robyn (and myself & Katie of course!) with a lovely creamy 99 with raspberry sauce.

Football Star!

Number 1!

On her way to victory!

Ten on Tuesday…

This week’s Ten on Tuesday is “’10 Things you didn’t like about school”. Here’s mine

1. Bullying: This has to be absolutely top of my list. From the age of 11-16 I was bullied daily… never physically but mentally. I got called the nastiest names, was taunted everywhere I went, people damaged my stuff and generally made my life hell. This bullying really affected me as an adult… I’ll never forgive those bullies.
2. P.E Lessons: I’ve never been sporty and always been conscious of my appearance so changing into a P.E kit was my worst nightmare… made worse of course by bullies. I used to dread double P.E on a Thursday afternoon!
3. Uniform: At school we had to wear a skirt (not the boys of course… that would just be silly!). I hate skirts and have hardly worn one since school apart from my Wedding day! Now at all my old schools trousers are part of the girl’s uniforms. So much better!
4. English Lessons: Reading out loud in class always filled me with dread! I used to pray for the bell to ring before it got to my turn!
5. Boring Teachers: I sometimes really wish I had taken GCSE History but I was completely put off doing so by my year 9 History teacher… she taught us the history of medicine in such a boring and uninspiring way that I couldn’t wait to ditch the subject!
6. Music Lessons: So boring! I love to sing and I love to listen to music but I can’t play for toffee!
7. GCSE Coursework:Maths was the worst… I could never quite get the hang of what I was meant to do and by the time I figured out the formula it was too late to start doing any of the extension stuff. I used to get grade F a lot in Maths coursework… how I ended up with an overall grade B is beyond me!!!
8. The Playground: Always too cold for me! I was too afraid to walk across the middle in case I got hit by a football so stuck to the edges. I used to go and sit in the library a fair bit to get some homework done rather than brave the playground!
9. Science: Still bores me now!! Drawing all those diagrams used to drive me mad!
10. Revision: I never had any motivation to revise. I could sit for ages with my books but spend all my time making a new revision timetable in lovely colours (after all the teachers all said how important it was to have one… right?!!). Then I’d get into an exam and wish that I’d revised!