April was 75% excellent and then a week of feeling ill after vomiting. It marked the first month where I managed multiple weeks back-to-back hitting my exercise goals for a little while. I was getting pretty decent at my 2 miles every other day before work before I was sick. I took a week off to get properly over it and I run into May ready to stitch together more weeks!

First Weekend

We got out on Saturday morning and took the kids to the shops to pick an Easter egg. They seemed bemused by the whole endeavour but the shopping experience was much better than the last time. There was a trip to the Library thrown in too.

On Sunday I took Kid B to the park in the morning . They then had a play date in the afternoon. I played a bunch of Football Manager and started watching “The Night Agent” on Netflix. I enjoyed the show as it felt about as close to “24” as we have had since well.. “24”.

Second Weekend

With the bank holidays this was a joyous 4 days off.

On Saturday we went to a farmers market, and then had a date night in the evening while a babysitter put the kids to bed.

On Sunday we took the kids to a big bouncy castle kind of place which had a very drunk giraffe at it. This is an activity $eldest would traditionally have been unable to keep themselves safe at. This was great to see them coming when called and not attacking the walls.

On Monday we went to see the Mario movie at the cinema. This is the first successful cinema visit as both kids sat for the duration. New out of the house activity unlocked. We have wasted untold £s having to leave cinemas 20 minutes in before.

I really needed the four days off and to get out the house everyday.

Third Weekend

Saturday we got out early and did some errands. Dropped $ELDEST at a birthday and took $YOUNGEST to the park for a run around. It was really nice.

Sunday I took $YOUNGEST to their first ever activity group (a football kick about). It went well. They listened to the instructions and learned how to do some stuff. Fears that they would be as impossible to coach as $ELDEST appeared unfounded. Spoiler alert: next week they refused to do it exactly like $ELDEST.

Fourth weekend

I got to the end of work on Friday just about and then started feeling nauseous. Few hours later yup a big old vomit. A really poor nights sleep and generally a bit miserable.

On the plus side my really long night allowed me to watch the entire last season of Brookly-99 that had just arrived on Netflix.

Unfortunately this meant I had to cancel our trip to Edinburgh to goto the Dr Who exhibition.

Final Weekend

We booked into the Dr Who exhibition again and this time made it! $ELDEST had a lovely time looking at all the things. While $YOUNGEST tried to run through the entire thing in 30 seconds. We have spent weeks watching the first 4 series of (new) Dr Who to prep them for this and it has been nice doing so. A little bit of ritual family time before bedtime most days has been nice.

On the Sunday my partner took me shopping for clothes (which hasn’t happened in a very long time). We needed a babysitter to do it because the kids tolerance for their own clothes shopping is almost zero and for us it is zero. It was nice to try on stuff without a complete rush and I now have some trousers that actually fit and aren’t falling apart/really for exercising. So that is nice. Feeling pretty good about that.

Other bits

• DIY Guitar Kit – I have *still* not started work on the kit guitar finishing like I thought I would. I have all the items. But I lacked the energy to sand a guitar for hours and hoovering up the dust from the living room is going to be an ongoing chore. I will get on it in March April May!
• Football Manager 2023 – I have a save game as Birmingham City. Their finances are so fucked in reality. It was not going to be much fun playing this on “reality mode”. The fun of the game is to sign players and make a team you like. It would take like 5 seasons of struggle to even start to replace the players legitimately. So I cheated and used a rich team to sign a bunch of players to free the wage bill to allow me to sign a few free/cheap players. Somehow that squad made it to the premier league (as runners up) and somehow I have managed to keep them there in that first season with a few games to spare. The club might actually have turned the financial corner with that so I might have some budget for next season. The only plus points are that my team has a backbone of their real academy players that have now had like 3 seasons in the first team while mostly being < 22 years old. I could sell a few for real money and thus increase the quality of the squad by getting like 3 players that are better for that money. Now the fun begins. Trying to consolidate a place in the premier league while incrementing the quality of the squad until you might win a cup or two.
• The Night Agent – A TV show on Netflix that was a nice thriller. Really enjoyed it and encourage you to give it a go.