Long Time No Blog Post

Hi there, apologies for not blogging lately, I was working two weeks solid whilst the Shop Manager was on leave and this week, since he's been back, I've still been trying to get back to normal, as I'm still recovering physically from the extra exertion.

My two weeks in charge of the shop went okay, the first week being worse than the second, due to several unexpected events, such as an audit of the shop, which we knew was due, but it was just my luck that it happened in the Shop Manager's absence.  I don't know the results of it yet, but I did my best in the circumstances (of being very short staffed and overwhelmed with donations).

In spite of the shop having had a sale on for the past month, I also had to deal with quite a few unpleasant shop lifting incidents in the manager's absence.  I say deal with, but there's not much you can actually do (the Police aren't really interested), so all you can do is ask people to leave the shop and not come back. There were at least six different occasions on which this happened, which does upset me quite a bit, as we try so hard to make money for the charity, but people think they can just come in and help themselves. The shop is quite large too, and it's layout does make it difficult to see parts of it and what is going on in said parts. With few staff and volunteers it's very hard to prevent theft and it's an ongoing problem that we have to deal with on a daily basis.

Anyway, needless to say, I was happy to see the Manager on his return and hand the reins back over.

I did manage a nice evening out with friends from the gym in the midst of all the work. We took a couple of bottles of Prosecco to a local restaurant where you can pay corkage and had a lovely meal together, catching up on each others' news after not seeing much of each other for most of the summer months.

As a consequence of being so busy at work, the house is a mess and I haven't had the energy to do much about it as yet.  I've got a few days off over this coming weekend, so I hope to get more on top of it then. The kitchen cabinet doors arrived this week and as I speak, OH is working on them ready to put them on the cabinets, hopefully this weekend.  Once they're on, there's just a new fridge freezer to order and a new microwave to buy and it's finally done.  I'll do a post should that day come this side of Christmas.

Talking of Christmas, we've decided to stay put in London this year, as LB and OH want to spend it at home. I'm okay either way, but it will make a nice change not to travel and spend it in a rented cottage or someone else's home. I can indulge us a bit and buy some nice treats that we can enjoy. Workwise, it will mean that I can work right up to Christmas Eve which might be interesting (or not). I've also just read on Google that there might be some severe weather between Christmas and New Year this year, so we might have to do our visiting before or potentially risk getting stranded.

The past few weeks, like everyone else (or so it seems), I've been watching The Bodyguard, Killing Eve, Vanity Fair and more recently Strictly, of course, although I did vow that I wouldn't watch it this year, but I can't seem to resist once it actually comes around. Cooler nights make for cosy nights in front of the TV, something we've not done much of lately, but being a bit of a homebod, I'm more than happy to do.

I have managed to catch some classes at the gym in the last few weeks, as the shop had to stay closed for two days per week on Sundays and Mondays whilst the Manager was away. I have, however, stopped going to my Thursday class for now, as I'm just not feeling it lately.  I need to seek out some new classes I think, that can give me more flexibility when it comes to work and in any case, sometimes a change can be a good thing.

That's most of my news I'm afraid.  Not very exciting, but I am starting to get excited about Christmas now I know we're staying put. We're already selling Christmas products in the shop, which is insane, but they do sell well to visitors to London, so I understand why they sell them so early.

I've been booked to attend a much belated Management induction course for work for a couple of days in late November, which will include an overnight stay in a hotel.  I've not had to travel anywhere for work purposes for over 20 years, so it should be interesting.  There's also the possibility of attending a trade show at Olympia in London with a work colleague next month, which should also be an interesting outing, so there's plenty going on, in addition to the usual manic lead in to the festive season.

I'll try to blog a bit more in the coming weeks and keep you posted on any life/work progress.