This evening we bought Escape Hunt’s Murder at the Mansion – a play at home game for £14.99
It took a little while to setup as it was easier for us all to paw around printed materials rather than trying to move around the materials in the TV.
It took us a little over an hour to solve and we nailed it first time 👍
We really enjoyed it and had to work together to figure out who did it, where and with what weapon – kind of like Cluedo in a strange kind of way.
We are most definitely going to try the other ones – there are two others available and they are also £14.99 so a pretty cost effective evening’s entertainment.
When we finally got the boys setup with HSBC bank accounts last year, we couldn’t get a current account for Oliver because he was only 10.
Just last week we we’re talking about how painful it will be to get one arranged for him (as he is now at 11, old enough for the account ) given the measures in place due to Coronavirus.
All that was in vain as he got an email stating that his new debit card was on the way. It arrived this morning and lo they have automagically created an account for him and sent the card out to him. Brilliant automatic service that has him delighted and a small pressure off our to do list.
Simon has been working on the office over the last month or so during our lockdown – the plan was to convert the space into two offices where one of them could be a space for the kids to hang out or a gym.
At the moment, it is setup as two offices with a playseat and exercise bike in place until we figure out how we want to use it.
In short, there has been additional insulation applied to the external walls, network and power points put into the new office, plastered walls throughout, electric underfloor heating and a new laminate floor to finish it off. The flooring is setup to work with Alexa so we can ask her to set the temperature if we need to use the space etc.
See below for a couple of pictures to show how it is looking now.
This week has seen the start of the Zoom school lessons for the boys – well only Elliot so far but Oliver’s start on Thursday.
It has to be said that the teachers have done a brilliant job translating over to video lessons, with Elliot’s English teacher leading a particularly impressive lesson yesterday. She totally commanded the virtual room and kept all that were online, attentive and on point – great work Miss Smith.
Later in the day, Simon had not been aware that Elliot was in a lesson, and the ensuing flatulence was not a particularly welcomed noise for the virtual lesson….. whoops
All joking aside, the education from Silcoates through this tough period has been really very well put together and has kept both boys engaged and on point. Oliver has needed more extra motivation in order to get going and keep going but Elliot has taken to the approach like a duck to water.
We are fortunate that the boys both have a laptop and that there is space in the dining room for it to become a virtual office during the day – shame that the real office in the garden is not yet finished with the renovations as that would make it better still – hopefully we will be finished down there by this time next week – the photos below should demonstrate the current progress – we are waiting for the plaster to dry. (ignore the bikes, they are just being stored in here short term since all of the office furniture is in the container, hence there was no room for the bikes
