A Week Off

Yesterday, was my last day at work for 9 whole days.  I'd booked another week off during LB's summer holidays from school, so that we could hang out together a bit before she goes back to school. To be honest, I was glad to get away.  Just recently we've had lots of shop lifters in the shop and it's starting to get me down. We work so hard to raise funds for the charity and people just come in and help themselves to whatever they want.

We try to keep an eye on people acting suspiciously, as much as possible and do sometimes deter or catch shoplifters in the act, but we also can't  be expected to catch or prevent every single one, especially when some are under the influence of who knows what and quite scary or intimidating to approach. It just makes me a bit cynical on the whole and disappointed in humanity.  After all, these people are stealing from people who have very little, not even basic human rights in some cases. It makes my blood boil.

Anyway, no more talk of work, I've got a whole 9 days of not having to worry about it.  The shop is closed for 4 days during my absence for maintenance work, which makes it easier for the manager in some ways.  The takings will be down, but it can't be helped. We start the shop sale when I get back, which should be interesting.

So, what am I planning to do this week?

We are heading up to Yorkshire for 3 days to visit family which will be nice.  It will be good to get out of London, especially in light of the way I'm feeling at the moment and just have a complete break, as it allows me to forget about work for a while and not wonder what's going on in my absence.

On the other days, I'm intending to do a whole new raft of decluttering around the house.  I've already pulled out about 15-20 books from the bookshelves in our bedroom that I'm going to part with, as I'm not going to read them again. I've also got in mind some items in the kitchen cabinets that I'm going to donate, some of which belonged to my mum, but I just don't use them. I will keep one, as a memento, but the rest can go and find a new home.

I need to get LB's hair cut before school starts again and before she goes to a music festival at the end of the month.  I got it cut a few weeks ago, but the stylist was frightened to cut it as short as LB wanted it, so bottled out, but this time around we both want a good 6 inches cut off for going back to school. It will be good to get rid of any split ends.  LB has lovely long thick hair, not at all like mine, but it takes quite a bit of managing, so getting it cut into a long bob will mean a lot less work for her and besides it will probably grow back in no time and a change can be a good thing every now and then.

I really need to try to do some cleaning around the house this week too, but I'm not sure how much of this I'll get around to doing. I've not really got much interest in housework at the moment, but it needs to be done so I am hoping to get around to cleaning some rooms.

Thankfully, the allotment is more or less taking care of itself at the moment, what with more changeable weather.  We harvested lots of tomatoes and beetroot last week and I need to pickle the beetroot, use up some rhubarb and continue to use the mountain of tomatoes in the fridge. I've frozen a few bags of ones that had split through being so ripe, but I may have to freeze more to get the best use out of them.

I'll try to post a few times during the week to keep you up to date with my progress.