Friday's Fave Five - 30/4/21

 

Friday's Fave Five is hosted by Susanne over at Living to Tell the Story and it's where some of us come together on a Friday to share our blessings from the week.

Here are mine:

1) 

 

I had my second Covid vaccination today!  Hubby and I are both fully vaccinated now. Phew!

2)  I've finished the A-Z blogging challenge.  Despite having spent so much time in lockdown I was very badly prepared for this and there were several days when I only just got my daily post done in time but I managed to get the last few posts done in advance and scheduled for the right day.   For anyone who hasn't a clue what I'm talking about the challenge involves posting every day during April (except Sundays) working your way through the letters of the alphabet.

 

3)  Hubby did his last day at work today - he is now fully retired.  He still has to send all his IT equipment back but hopefully the packaging etc he needs for that will arrive next week.  Leaving when everyone is working from home has clearly presented new challenges to employers.  Hubby had various things that were security issues and sorting out what to do with them caused all sorts of frustrations for him.  It was supposed to be his line manager's responsibility to check them in but he's based in Birmingham.  Also many of their offices (he was a civil servant) have moved to hot desking and moved away from paper usage so they have little or no storage.  Eventually a solution was found but only after lots of phone calls and emails being exchanged!

4)  Dry weather.  We did have some rain on Wednesday but we've had lots of dry weather over the last week or two and sunshine.  It's still been quite breezy so not that warm but it has meant I've been able to get out and walk most days.

I don't think I'll ever get bored of this view:

5)  Time with family.  We babysat Grandson Nathan last Saturday and we had Rory & Vinny and Mummy here on Wednesday.  We also had a good zoom chat with hubby's siblings yesterday.  I love family time.

Have a good weekend all.

Life in Lockdown - Z is for Zoom Meetings - A-Z Challenge 2021

 

Click here for the A-Z blog to find out more about this challenge.

You'd think by now we'd all be experts at Zoom meetings if we're working from home but judging by the comic stories that keep popping up we're clearly not. Of course it's quite amusing to watch children creeping into view, or someone appearing with a Cat filter on, completely unaware and having no idea how to turn it off.  And as for working out how to use the mute button.  Definitely good to be the controller of a meeting and able to "Mute All" at times.

It also pays to scrutinise your backdrop before going live - your books on your bookcase can tell their own story.  A plain wall or a computer generated background can save a lot of embarrassment.

And just to show I'm not biased I've also used Google Duo, Whatapp video chats, Facetime etc to contact people.  I think the main one I haven't used is Microsoft Teams but then I'm not actually working from home so there hasn't been the need.  Oh and I did dabble with House Party briefly.

It's hard learning all these new apps but they have proved so useful during the pandemic.  Coping with too many people on a video call can be challenging though.  Even with just 4 of us on my cousin chats it's hard to get a word in edgeways sometimes and when we get together with Hubby's siblings there are sometimes 8 screens to follow and it's extremely hard to follow everyone.  It's probably worse when there's actually no agenda and no one in charge.  I've glimpsed my daughter running a meeting and she's orchestrated when people speak and it's much easier to follow the conversation.

I'm sure this way of working will continue but I expect that some people will be glad to get back to face to face meetings too.  I'm just happy to carry on watching the antics of the grandchildren.

If you'd like to read about more Zoom disasters you can click here or just go to google like I did.  (Although beware, some are funny, some are just daft and some can be explicit!)

Life in Lockdown - Y is for YouTube - A-Z Challenge 2021

 

Click here for the A-Z blog to find out more about this challenge.

 

I don't use YouTube a lot but I have found it useful during the pandemic.  Need to learn how to re pressurise your boiler - look on YouTube, want to find a walking routine because it's too wet to get outside - look on YouTube.  I've certainly done both of those.

Yesterday we watched Grandson Rory do CosmicYoga following the "We're going on a bear hunt" story.  It was hilarious but a good workout for the little one (and his Mummy).  I was an armchair viewer.

It's also good for keeping a just 4 year old entertained.

I've never uploaded anything of my own and I certainly don't just watch it for the fun of it but it definitely serves many a purpose.  Especially for solving DIY problems during lockdown when you couldn't get someone in to do things for you.

Now if it could solve the problem of the multiplying laundry or the conundrum of what to cook for dinner each day it would be perfect.  Yes I know it could probably show me lots of videos of people cooking meals but I have a hubby who does that for me.  Yes I'm lucky.

Are you a YouTuber?  Is that a thing or have I just created it?

Life in Lockdown - X is for Xenophobia - A-Z Challenge 2021

 

Click here for the A-Z blog to find out more about this challenge.

Xenophobia - Fear, hatred, or mistrust of that which is foreign, especially strangers or people from different countries or cultures.

Well forget the strangers and other people but the Coronavirus is definitely something foreign and it has created fear, hatred and mistrust  around the world.

 

 I don't think we will ever be free of it but hopefully with the advances in vaccines and treatments we will fear it less.