A horrible day - Lorry versus Mother.

This post is completely unrelated to work, but I feel the urge to vent so this seems to be a good place!

I try and do my bit and whenever possible I walk to collect my daughter from school or son from playschool. It saves me petrol (bloody expensive now!) and keeps me fitter (eating chocolate while you walk doesn't count does it?).

Unfortunately my daughters school is on a very narrow road. The parking there is tricky to say the least which means some parents park on the zigzag lines, double yellow lines, half up on the pavement and double park. You can imagine how much fun negotiating all that is with a double pushchair.

Last wednesday I had walked up the school and my 3 year old was walking so I just had the two year old in the pushchair. As we came out of the school there was a HGV sitting at the side of the road, on the "wrong" side, engine turned off sitting on the zigzag lines. The driver was refusing to move and was trying to make the drivers of cars coming the other way back up so he could get where he wanted to go.

I basically ignored it all and was smugly thinking ha ha this is why I walk up! I walked on the pavement with the children alongside the lorry.

Unfortunately this is when my smugness got shattered. The lorry moved and as it swung back out to the right side of the road its tailgate bars swung out and caught my pushchair. This started to drag my pushchair (containing the 2 year old) backwards and towards the road.
I don't remember much - according to some of the other mothers I dragged the pushchair off the bars, shoved the 8yr and 3 yr old into the hedge alongside the pavement to get them out of harms way before shouting in not so polite terms at the driver.

The driver of the lorry seemed to think that since the children were unharmed and it was only me that had been clipped by the tailbars on my arm (as well as wrenching my muscles by dragging the pushchair away from the HGV) that all should be forgiven and ignored.

I am not so forgiving when it comes to situations like this - IF my 3 year old had been in the pushchair like he is normally those heavy metal tailbars would have hit him in his face doing god knows what kind of damage, if I hadn't have dragged the pushchair off the tail bars my 2 year old would have been dragged down the road in the pushchair. And due to this the police were called.

Have got to admit that the youngest two are having nightmares as am I at the moment.

Hopefully the parking situation will resolve its self soon but it has put me off walking up to school for the time being.

Thoughts whilst pedalling.

To try and get fitter so that I can run around after the children and control Dave (the dog) better at agility I have an exercise bike in the conservatory. I sit there, looking out over the garden (when oh when will it be time to mow the lawn again - I miss it) and think/plot.

Today I have thought of a way to promote ECO awareness, EPCs and my business all in one fell swoop! Not quite sure if its going to work though but I can hope. The idea is a colouring/drawing competition in the local primary schools in my area. The winner will get a very very large easter egg, 2nd and 3rd prize will get a smaller easter egg.
The children will have to draw their idea of an eco house, the best 15 will be selected from the entries and then voted for via my company page on facebook.

Obviously the children will get a prize if they win, and hopefully it will encourage more eco awareness in the children. Its going to take me a couple of weeks to set it up and get it organised properly but am really looking forward to doing it now.

Not a bad thought really when I was pedalling away!

More products?

Its a bitterly cold wednesday. Ice on the cars and on the roads. But I am in a happy place right now - I managed to get all 3 kids fed, washed and dressed before 8am without having to shout once! Normally I have turned into the fishwife from hell by 8am on a school day shouting at one or the other to hurry up, we will be late, get moving etc so to have not had to do that feels so good - don't want to jinx myself but maybe the kids are getting into the routine finally?

Work this week is quiet so I am concentrating on researching other products I can offer to my clients and (hopefully) potential clients. I already do EPCs, commercial EPCs, floorplans and inventories so other than check ins of tenants am not sure what else I can offer (any ideas let me know!). Have thought about videos of properties, a walk through of a property for sale - it would save time as potential buyers would be able to get a wonderful feel for the property but am not 100% on that at the moment. It would be similar to the 360 tours that were in fashion some time ago but it would incorportate all of the property so that idea needs some looking into.

The current situation with mortgages is worrying me at the moment, unless the Government does something then the market is going to continue on its current path. We need to see the lending "freeing" up so that more people can get on the market! If the Government wants more people in work it would certainly help alot of builders get back to work if the housing market started moving again and it would, with stamp duty etc, give more revenue for the Government and help the UK get out of debt.

To snow or not to snow?

So The bad weather started early last week and since then I have been glued to the weather reports and the websites such as the met office. It finally started snowing here overnight Friday and we woke up to 5cm or so of snow lying on top of the dreaded ice - the council gritters were no where in sight despite all the warnings of snow and the side roads were like an ice rink but I had appointments booked for Saturday morning so of to work I went.

I managed to do all my appointments and only fell over once or twice - injuring my pride rather than anything else!

We all went sledging in the afternoon and the kids loved it, it was the first time the boys (age 3 and 20 months) had been and they really did enjoy it.

But now we are in limbo - you get up every morning and rush to see if there is enough snow to shut the schools and if there is that much snow you then have to wait for the official announcement via the local radio that "yes the school is shut" or you risk life and limb by chucking all 3 kids in the car for a trip to school via the local skating rink (the roads closest to the school - the school is on a bus route but the gritters still don't go down there) and hope that a few of the teachers have arrived and the school is open. Depending on which website you go on we are in for lots of snow overnight and all day tomorrow or a little bit of snow tonight and none tomorrow - complete and utter limbo, definitely a wait and see situation.

I do miss the snow from my childhood (that makes me sound old - although it is my 33rd birthday in just over 10 days) when there was enough to literally stop the country for a couple of days rather than just enough to make it awkward and difficult for 2 weeks.

So while awaiting the news from Cancun I will be watching out my window for the snow........