END OF WEEK SIX IN LOCKDOWN

Here we are another week has gone by, cannot believe it’s been 6 weeks! I remember when I was a kid I use to love the 6 weeks holidays, with not a care in the world wishing my life away so that I was old enough to get into clubs! Now at the grand old age of 40 (for another few weeks anyway) at the end of a 6 week lockdown and as an adult, I’ve discovered I cannot drink more than a couple of glasses of wine. I quite like not being a 100 miles an hour, defo appreciate what I do have in my life, stopped stressing over things that are out of my control and focus on what I can change. Missing my friends and family terribly.

So, what else has happened in the world this week? Tom Moore turned 100 and the RAF did a flypast, he was waving away saying how lovely it was. Bedford school had transformed their Great Hall into a sea of tens of thousands of birthday cards that he had received and to top it off his charity has now reached over ￡30m. What an incredible man, I shed a tear seeing him on telly this week, he melts my heart, what a hero!

Matt Hancock is saying they are throwing everything at the country’s efforts to find a vaccine for COVID-19 and apparently two of the leading vaccine developments are taking place in Oxford & Imperial – not sure where this place is? I googled it and it came up with our local Chinese eeeekkk say no more! However, I did then find an Imperial college in London so maybe it’s this place that’s trying to save us!

Congratulations to Boris & Carrie who had their baby son and have called him Wilfred, let’s hope he gets Carrie’s hair and not his. I was shocked to learn he has 6 kids that he knows of – ooo errr missis! This week we wait with anticipation as to whether the lockdown will be slightly lifted with an announcement from Boris on Sunday how we will unlock the UK economy going forward. I am so looking forward to getting back into a routine of going out and going to the office. God I miss my office and doing a proper days work, but it will take time and like all of this, everyone is working together to get life back to what I think will be a new normality for all of us, let’s keep positive.

Mortgage update – I have done a lot of reading this week to keep on top of lenders changes as I am sure all my broker friends have! Lots of positives as lenders are pushing loan to values up, meaning they will lend more money with a lesser deposit. Affordability is being tweaked due to those on Furlough with other criteria being changed short term to see us through this. The doors are still open, and mortgages are still going through.

The government have announced new support for businesses. The Bounce Back Loan scheme will help small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between ￡2,000 and ￡50,000. The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there will not be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months. Loan terms will be up to 6 years and no repayments will be due during the first 12 months. Businesses can apply for the loan if they are based in the UK, have been negatively affected by coronavirus and was not an ‘undertaking in difficulty’ on 31 December 2019.

A Business cannot apply for a Bounce Back Loan if they are already claiming under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). If They have already received a loan of up to ￡50,000 under CBILS and would like to transfer it into the Bounce Back Loan scheme, the business can arrange this with their lender until 4 November 2020. The Bounce Back Loan scheme will launch today with more information about the scheme being published shortly.

Monday & Tuesday – Myself and Jono have launched our charity run that we are doing on the 11th May, we will be dressed up as a doctor and nurse running 5k followed by a 10k bike ride – All within the hour (hopefully). See more details here; https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fancydressfornhs. House cleaning day - love that feeling when the house is all clean, tidy and oh my god fresh bed sheets are the best! Ha ha the simple things in life!

Wednesday – Got my run down by 1 minute 10 seconds today albeit I lost a contact lens en route so I was running around like one eyed willy – maybe I should run with no contact lenses it speeds me up! Dug the slow cooker out today and did a beef stew. Well I didn’t, Jon did, and it was bloody lovely. This took me back to being a kid as Mum would cook us this, what she called “Joggers Hot Pot”. Also had to give into the acrylic nails coming off today as I had grey tips! 1 ? hours those bad boys took to come off and now I look like I have man hands!

Thursday – OMG I tried a new HIIT class today with a guy called Angus Warburton on Instagram recommended by my good friend, Lee. It was so good but tough, I got very excited as he gave me a personalised shout out ‘morning Kel’, anyway he finished with “up sally, down sally” anyone ever done this? My legs were f*cked!!! Had the boys for the day, think lockdown has finally got to the youngest one, Jacob now thinks he is a female dog and has changed his name to Pexster! Yes, he acts like a dog and if we don’t call him Pexster he has a melt down! How funny are kids? Every time we have them, they make me laugh with their comments and ideas!

Friday – PB run today, well chuffed with myself! I have helped a friend with their mortgage and we needed to get the deeds signed to which they didn’t have a printer, so I printed off, drove over to get signed and scanned back to the solicitor to ensure they complete on time. All whilst being conscious of the social distancing rules. Wow going out in the car for the first time in 6 weeks, other than to the shops at the end of the road and back, I felt like a learner again! So nice to see someone else and felt very emotional that I couldn’t give her a hug – it is a strange world we are living in! 2-hour facetime and drinks with my friends Jo & Natalie – yep you guessed no kids this weekend and I was p*ssed again, we laughed the whole-time, perfect medicine!

Saturday & Sunday – Saturday was a right off, I was hungover say no more, my ar*se did not move off the sofa! Sunday however we did our practice run & ride for our charity. I was pleased with the time but work still to be done in a week. Jon makes it look very easy, he is super fit and hardly broke a sweat after our run, I on the other hand had sweat coming out of every nook and cranny, I defo don’t find running easy BUT I did it!!! I can do this for the NHS Heroes!

Let’s see what this week has in store. Keep positive, be there for each other, stay home & stay safe = save lives!

Care for others

Once a day pop out for essentials

Video call to see people’s faces

In it together

Don’t be tempted to meet up with others

19 – months from now we would have come through this

Keep safe everyone, if I can do anything to help ease those financial worries around your mortgage OR you can’t get out and live in the Southend area I’m happy to help go and get those supplies that you need!

Kelly xEND