An afternoon catch-up!

Day 88

We awoke to another overcast day and I looked at the sky anxiously because of our work meet this afternoon in the park... I just hoped that the cloud and rain would clear!

I took Sophie to work this morning as I was borrowing her car this afternoon and it was really strange to see the office car parks so empty. There was only one other car parked! By 9am they would have been full so most of the people who work nearby must be working from home. The offices were locked so we had to wait for Sophie's manager, and as soon as she arrived I sped off home to have a quick breakfast with Keith. The plan was to go to Mum's this morning and make sure the house was ready for a viewing if anyone wanted to go along over the weekend.

We spent two hours in the house and I hoovered everywhere, re-made my Mum's bed to make it look really pretty and shampooed the hall carpet that was looking a bit grubby. When we left it was raining hard, which was a real blow. I messaged my colleagues and suggested postponing, but no sooner had I sent the text than it cleared and the sun came out! We all decided to push ahead and meet up at the Park Cafe at 2pm. We would all bring a chair each and sit nearby for a good chat.

I managed to park where I used to wait for Mike and walked over to the cafe. I was the first to arrive, quickly followed by Sheila and Kathy, Jo and then Sara and Denise. We sat near a lovely WWI commemoration bench and Sheila had brought us all home-made masks to wear, which I thought was really lovely.

As I hadn't had time for lunch before I left I went and bought a sandwich and a cup of tea, and it was very pleasant sitting in the sun and catching up with what the other women had been up to during lockdown. Sara had been working since our last day and had been dealing with literally thousands of emails. I said I wished we had been able to help and I do think that things could have been handled better, especially during the first week when we were sent home after just one day. Even if we'd been able to work a week after we had closed the centres, it might have helped.

The good thing is that four of us, plus Sara, are back to work on the 4th July and doing reduced hours to start with. Because no-one knows how busy we'll be we are working a different rota to start with and then we'll see how things go. I am just glad to be going back to work but things will be very different at first, with only gym sessions available. A lot of our classes will still be available online and I don't think any of the children's activities will be running for a while. This, of course, is all dependent on what the Government says!

We all sat chatting until about 4.30pm when I had to leave to go and get Sophie from work. She had had a busy day so it was great to get home, pour a glass of Prosecco and watch 90 Day Fiance! Keith cooked dinner this evening and we enjoyed chilli before relaxing in the living room to watch an Alfred Hitchcock film - The Man Who Knew Too Much starring James Stewart and Doris Day. We ended up sinking two bottles of Prosecco (they were low in alcohol) and going to bed late! Lie-in tomorrow!