New for 2020, ‘5 to 9’ is the new format for our boosst team updates.
With a name inspired by the things we have been doing outside of working hours, here you will find plenty of social activities, team achievements and personal touches. This ‘5 to 9’ post is shared by Gabby.
Welcome to another ‘lockdown 5-9’ post!
All of the team here have continued to find new ways to embrace the situation we find ourselves in and adapt our lifestyles to lockdown. We hope you have been able to find joy and happiness in this uncertain time.
Home working has become more and more normal for us, with the team smoothly adjusting to new processes and procedures. Our regular team catch-ups on Zoom have helped us all to stay connected – on both work and non-work matters – and they have proved rather invaluable in a time that could otherwise be quite isolating.
You may have seen in our recent blog that we have recruited two experienced team members – Jon and Chloé. Taking on new team members in a virtual environment certainly meant some serious planning had to be done in order to prepare for their initial training and onboarding! We usually have a structured onboarding and development plan for new joiners, but the process had to be completely water-tight this time around, as onboarding from a distance brings a new dimension to consider! The whole team have been involved in small parts of their training, to bring them up to speed and embed them into our culture as seamlessly as possible. Credit must go to Chloé and Jon, who have fully embraced the virtual working environment and are both excelling. We are very much looking forward to working with them both in the office once we return.
That’s enough of what we have been doing 9am to 5pm, here’s a summary of what we’ve been doing from 5pm to 9am!
Dawn has been enjoying time with her children in the sunshine, as they have been spending a lot of time outdoors, either in the garden or on family runs. This month Dawn built her own herb garden from an upcycled pallet which is pretty impressive. With her children stuck at home, Dawn has been giving them regular cooking lessons, so I’m sure these extra herbs will get plenty of use!
Jon has had a very exciting month, becoming the proud father of a beautiful new cockerpoo pup called Willow! This is the family’s first dog and they are loving the time that they get to spend with Willow whilst she is growing up. She has recently reached the teething stage though, and Jon is quickly realising how sharp puppy teeth are! Chew toys are certainly helping to save Jon’s ankles at the moment. Jon reports that Puppy training is going well so far – Willow can now sit on command… but there are plenty more tricks for this pup to learn.
Chloe recently had the fantastic news that she passed her AF8 Retirement Income Planning assessment! This tricky exam comprises of 3 modules of coursework based on a client case study, where you have to allocate their resources and plan for their retirement. In the wider financial planning community it has been seen as one of the more challenging exams, with a limited word count lots to explore… but Chloe passed all 3 modules first time with flying colours!
Chloe was also due to go on her hen do this month which sadly couldn’t happen, but she has fully embraced the lockdown and instead hosted a zoom with all of her hens. Apart from being thrown out of the zoom meeting on one occasion, it went to plan… although it’s safe to say that her volunteering work booked for Sunday morning at St Albans Cathedral was more challenging than usual!
Josh celebrated his birthday last month and to make it special, Linda had the brilliant idea of getting Josh’s friends and family to send in video messages, so Keith could put together a video montage of birthday wishes. In a world without COVID-19, we were booked to go to the French Open for Josh’s birthday weekend, so we thought we would start the montage with Keith, Linda and I pretending to be watching a game of tennis (with champagne in hand of course!). The video montage went down tremendously and it will be something for Josh to keep, reminding him of this strange birthday in lockdown.
With warmer weather emerging, Keith decided to christen the new pizza oven on Josh’s birthday evening. For our first attempt, Linda prepared some homemade dough and the four of us headed down to the office with pretty much every potential pizza ingredient that we could think of. As the pizza oven reached 400 degrees, we knew we were ready to give it a go. Josh was on the oven doors and Keith had his pizza paddle ready with the pizza balanced precariously on the end. It was a military operation to get the oven door open and closed quickly enough in order to keep the heat inside! Safe to say, we had a couple of burnt pizzas, but we are beginning to perfect the art of pizza making ahead of future client events at the office.
Rewinding back to the start of May, VE Day was a great opportunity to reflect on those that fought for us, and it helped to put the day-to-day difficulties of lockdown into some perspective. Reflecting on the war days is a great way to remember how fortunate we are to live in peace time. Even though the street parties and celebrations weren’t able to take place as planned, the Queen put it perfectly by saying that ‘our streets are not empty, they are filled with the love and care that we have for each other’.
Dawn and her family celebrated with some socially distanced celebrations with neighbours, whilst the boys created a union jack on the wall. Keith, Josh and I spent the afternoon eating Linda’s fabulous cream tea and listening to wartime music.
As June draws to a close and lockdown begins to ease, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on the last few months and look forward to the future. It’s worth considering:
- Are there things that you’ve enjoyed doing with the extra time, that you hope to continue after lockdown?
- Have you had different thoughts about how you wish your future to look?
We think it is healthy to ask yourself these questions, before ‘normality’ returns and we find ourselves back in our ‘normal’ day-to-day routines.
We hope you and your family continue to stay safe and well, and we look forward to seeing you very soon.
