It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… Whether it’s the very early Christmas decorations going up everywhere, or the debates up and down the country about who to form a Christmas bubble with (if anyone at all!) As I revealed last week, we are already well into our preparations as a family, including trotting out the regular “you’d better stop that, or you’ll end up with only a lump of coal…” I’m sure Santa wouldn’t be happy at being used as a threat.
I was woken up this morning by my kids bounding into our bedroom shouting that there are only 2 sleeps left until they can start opening their advent calendars. Priorities for a Sunday morning! Shortly after that I overheard E singing happy birthday to herself in the toilet. When I asked why she was singing it she explained she sang it twice whilst she was washing her hands. I’m glad she is remembering the covid essentials! What else has stuck in my mind this week to make the top 5?
1. The week did not start well. Certainly it didn’t for mini me! Now I know that physical punishment is not acceptable in this day and age, and I therefore promise that what happened was a complete accident. After winding up his mammy and daddy all morning, M decided to try and stop a cupboard door from being closed by daddy. Sadly he decided that his nose would be the best tool to use, and the next thing I knew there was blood pouring everywhere. A Frozen plaster seemed to do the trick, or so I thought. He has still taken to telling everyone he has met this week that daddy hurt his nose and I have received some fairly filthy looks. I suppose I should take some comfort from the fact that his personality certainly hasn’t changed! 
2. You’ll be pleased to hear that things have gotten better as the week progressed, particularly with the arrival of our new homemade masks from the amazing Anne King. Any day I now pick E up from school, she rolls her eyes and says “you again Spiderman?” It’s a vast improvement on the disposable ones although I do miss the feeling of ripping those off my face when leaving a shop, pretending I’m a top surgeon leaving the operating theatre after a successful surgery. I wonder if I can chum her up to make me a Christmas themed mask? Surely a subtle mention in my public diary will do the trick! 
3. The end of the week saw a very important event in my professional life, as I had to attend court, in person, for the first time in nearly 9 months. Over the last 13 years, attending court has very much become a regular feature, as one might expect when choosing a career as a litigation lawyer. Lockdown however has resulted in a huge number of my cases being adjourned, and those that have proceeded have all been by remote means. I was therefore a little surprised to receive notification that my case on Thursday required an attendance. I was even more surprised to discover that I would not be attending my usual court, but rather one of the new Nightingale Courts which have been set up to ensure social distancing. The case itself was very much bread and butter from my perspective, but did feature a significant challenge in the form of having to actually pick out a suit, shirt and tie for the first time since March. I can report that the only thing that still fits is the tie! 
4. I was very excited this weekend to be asked by E to help her with writing her Christmas cards for her school friends. We have been given very specific instructions by the school to ensure that the cards are Covid secure, including a no licking rule! We even had received a full class list to ensure correct spelling for the names of all the children, and I thought that it would be a fairly swift process to simply get her to write out the cards. How wrong can one man be! The actual writing of the cards was fairly straightforward, but I had not appreciated that she had decided to draw a picture on the inside of each and everyone. This was no generic picture however, perhaps of Santa or a reindeer, but rather a bespoke picture for each person in her class, connected in some way to their favourite things. There were football pictures and group portraits and we have only made it to halfway by the end of the weekend! My favourite was for one boy where she seem to be struggling to identify what the picture should include. I asked what she was thinking of and she said, “roadblocks”. I looked quizzically at her, and she simply said “you know daddy, roadblocks. I don’t know what it is but he talks about it a lot.” 
5. Now those of you who know me very well will know that I am not necessarily a “manly man” and therefore the concept of carrying out DIY jobs strikes fear into me, and perhaps most importantly my wife. It’s not that the enthusiasm is not there, but the ability to execute is sadly lacking and therefore it is usually safer for all involved if someone else comes in to carry out the work. Lockdown has given me an opportunity to try and remedy this, and as a result of my wife’s plans to convert the garage, my main task this weekend was to finish clearing it out, including trips to the tip (how much more manly can you get?) and then painting the garage floor. For many husbands and fathers, this would be a fairly easy and straightforward project however I very much viewed it as my own personal Everest. To my immense surprise, I have managed to ascend to the summit with minimal issues (the only one being leaving my phone on the windowsill when I finished, meaning I couldn’t get to it without stepping on the wet floor!) Steph is, of course, delighted, but inevitably concerned that I will start getting a little cocky about undertaking future projects. I have reassured her that this is highly likely to be a one off, as I do not want to push my luck! 
LawyerLow Diaries 