It’s 530am and I’m awake with a cup of tea (in my favourite Christmas mug) listening to the wind whistle down one of the two chimneys that apparently need lining at £800 a pop above gas fires that need replacing at considerably more cost.I was told this on Monday by a workman who arrived with no mask, talked mostly the kind of gibberish that makes you feel stupid for not knowing about the intricacies of ventilation and stayed for far too long, charging me for the privilege of telling me nothing works. Don’t you just love it when you can tick “get gas fires serviced” off your list.

I’m up early because this happens to me everyday now. Sleeping past 5am is so boring. Plus I had to get up and book National Trust tickets so we can actually see my parents’ lovely faces over Christmas, even if they will be tinged blue because we can’t go inside. I logged on at 5am and there were 243 tickets left so perhaps not the emergency I’d imagined. Could have stayed in bed. Although I couldn’t because my body apparently won’t let me do that anymore.

I’ll be honest I’m a bit antsy this morning. Unsurprisingly Sheffield is still in Tier 3, despite infections dropping. It’s not that I even think it’s the wrong call – on this occasion it’s still such a massive problem it would be madness to do otherwise. But then if you fuck up dealing with a pandemic for so long don’t be surprised when the waves keep on hitting you. It’s ok though because vast swathes of people still think the Tories are smashing this out of the park.

School is out for Christmas which is frankly great news. Basically because I don’t have to make packed lunches for a bit and the kids can have a lie in. School have been phenomenal overall this term – but just have a look on the news and Twitter to see what nonsense the government want them to add into their working days from January. I’m so livid on their behalf I could scream. Ironic that they aren’t allowed to give out paracetamol or take out splinters but they now can apparently stick cotton wool swabs into throats. The months they have gone through have been absolutely mental – I think less than half of Y8 were in school at one point in the last couple of weeks but they kept on educating. They still manage to inspire my kids to do their homework, learn robotics, join Eco council, and this week to plan, play, record and cut together a song to make their music teacher smile because they miss playing together. Obviously I’m proud of my kids, but I’m proud of all the students – this term has been nothing like the school they love but they’ve managed it. I watch them walking down in their different year bubbles and I don’t think I’d have handled it so well.

And then of course the dreaded B word from January. We had cod this week. I can live without it if I’m honest. I’m definitely more concerned by the potential lack of oh I don’t know, funding for areas of the UK and freedom of movement for my kids’ future. But crack on let’s get the shitshow of 2021 going and see what all hell can happen. Maybe Unicef can start feeding the British adults as well as the kids.

You can tell I’m not too chuffed this morning I bet? I can feel my blood pressure rising as I sit here hitting the keys a bit too hard. I need to do some Dr Chattergee breathing and have another cuppa.

Today is actually destined to be a positive one because as it’s my day off it includes baking mince pies and watching Arthur Christmas with the kids. I bothered to tidy the kitchen before I went to bed, and I’m going to get my inflatable polar bear back out of the garage since there’s less chance of him being playfully punched by a passing school child (yes there are a few that annoy me). We’ve got one thing to make and wrap and then we can play postpeople delivering things to people we love across the city this weekend. I’m also going to buy some marzipan. I’ll be honest it doesn’t entirely balance out a pandemic, child poverty and leaving the EU without a deal but you have to take what you can get. For now I’m going to don my exercise clobber and air punch some stuff to get out some of this adrenaline Boris has created. I hope you have a stress free day…