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Day 52 – VE Day 75 Celebrations

We had another full on day with prepping for the afternoon socially distant VE Day 75th anniversary celebration, although the start was a bit later than yesterday, and we had a slightly more relaxed evening as there was nothing else to prepare for tomorrow!

In a moment of boredom and anticipating the VE Day street party I got some chalk and a tape measure to make safe 2 metre squares on my drive. (Photo: James Kemp)

The first step I took in getting ready was to chalk out some squares in our driveway. I wasn’t sure how distant we’d be with our neighbours, so I got the kids pavement chalk and a tape measure out. The first line was the yellow one just over two metres from the pavement edge of the drive (I measured two metres, and then drew the line in the middle of the next whole block along). As it turns out our drive is a bit more than 8 metres from front door to the public pavement.

1925: We put some bunting up round the house for the VE Day celebration, as well as improvising a flagpole. (Photo: James Kemp)

I did the chalk outlines yesterday, but thought I’d keep the description clear from Lucy’s birthday celebrations. We also put up the bunting and improvised a flagpole with some old gazebo poles last night.

Alexander getting a short back and sides for VE Day, a lockdown haircut! (Photo: James Kemp)

We decided to dress for the VE Day 76 celebrations, and Tracy has some 1940s style dresses. Alexander thought he could pull off a typical 1940s schoolboy look, but he needed a haircut for that. So we got my clippers out and Tracy obliged his desire for a lockdown haircut, a short back and sides 1940s style!

Alexander as a 1940s schoolboy, with Tracy. (Photo: James Kemp)

Here they are dressed in their 1940s outfits.

Tracy looking fabulous 1940s style! (Photo: Jame Kemp)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I got the table and chairs out of the garage and put them on the drive, Tracy was very busy in the kitchen making a sumptuous buffet that our forebears in 1945 would have been jealous of. We also had a slow conversation with our next door neighbours over the fence. Dan told us that he had re-joined the Army Reservc, and showed off some of his new kit (he’s a year younger than me and spent five years as a regular infantry soldier in his teens).

It was a beautiful summer day, so we baked on the drive while eating in the late afternoon.

A laden table our forebears in 1945 would have dreamt of, no rationing here! (Photo: James Kemp)
Lucy and Alexander enjoying the buffet on the front drive as part of the socially distant VE Day celebrations. (Photo: James Kemp)

 

 

While we were eating a few of the neighbours stopped by on their daily exercise walks and said hello from the end of the drive. When the light faded we went indoors.

Dusk on VE Day, and the lights came on as I was tidying everything away from the drive. (Photo: James Kemp)
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Day 50 – Birthday Eve

It’s the day before, and after Lucy went to bed we got prepping to make tomorrow as special as we can. Three hours of blowing up balloons, hanging bunting, wrapping presents and tidying up afterwards and I’m hoping she’ll squeal when she sees it!

The day involved Alexander clearing all his homework before making dinner. I spent about two hours on the phone to Virgin Media and running broadband tests, and putting stuff back in the garage so that we had room for tomorrow.

Lucy has been doing VE Day themed school work, and she read the horrible histories book woeful second world war. We also did a WW2 theme for the alphabet game when we went on a walk this afternoon.

After the walk Lucy did a martial arts session via zoom. This worked really well, although I think she’d like a mat for the floor when she was lying on it trying to do sit-ups.

Broadband Bother

I’ve noticed that the zoom meetings I’ve been on have had unstable connections and are pretty wobbly. So I found the time to do a speed test. It registered my broadband speed as about 7Mbps down. This isn’t bad, but I’m paying Virgin Media for 200Mbps. So it’s a bit short.

I first did the test about a week ago. I was in WiFi then, and also thought it might be split several ways with other devices. I found a couple of Ethernet cables and got the powerline going. On Monday I joined a work call while wired in and it was noticeably better. So I ordered a few new cables.

This morning I tested the broadband speed again. It was still around 7Mbps, even when wired directly to the router. After poking around the Virgin Media website I gave in and called them. There was no way to contact them via web form or email. The woman was pretty patronising, clearly following a script and told me that I’d need to do a hard reset of the router every 10-15 days. When I did do the reset and got the same speed she said it would settle in an hour or so.

I called back an hour and a half later when the speed was still the same. The second lady was much more helpful and seemed to know what she was about. None of the tests showed anything wrong, but she decided that the router was a bit long in the tooth and ordered a new one to see if it will make a difference.

Decorations

Tracy pushed the boat out for Lucy’s birthday, given that we’ve cancelled the birthday party with her friends we want to make the day special. So Tracy bought a helium canister and a load of balloons. We’ve also got extra banners and bunting. All three of us spent the evening decorating the living room.