A Quiet Black Friday Here

As the title suggests, it was a very quiet Black Friday here.  So much so, that I didn't venture out to a shop and I didn't spend a penny.

I was working on Thursday and it was a very busy day with lots going on.  The two new Deputy Managers were both working and the Shop Manager came in so we could all have a meeting together. 

In addition, I spent the last two hours of the day creating one of our Christmas shop windows, trying to choose suitably sparkly clothing and accessories, attach fairy lights and decorate the small tree (I got help with this from our intern). The resulting window, I thought, looked quite pretty, but I didn't really get chance to take a photo, as by the time I'd finished it was time to close up the shop.

Consequently, on Friday I was feeling a bit frazzled and couldn't really face getting stuck into anything at home or going out anywhere shopping.  Instead, I had a quiet day at home trying to devise a Christmas music playlist for the shop, watching a Christmas movie and starting a jigsaw that I'd bought a few weeks ago.  I needed something to help me wind right down from work and shopping just wouldn't have done it for me.

I may venture out today with OH in an attempt to buy his main Christmas present, (he would like some new trainers) if we both feel like it, or we may just leave it until another weekend.

On Wednesday this week, I had arranged to meet a couple of friends from the gym to go out to lunch and catch up. Unfortunately, one friend wasn't feeling well and had to cancel, so the remaining friend and I decided to make a change from visiting our usual restaurant and meet at Canary Wharf instead.  It's probably a year since I've been there and I always enjoy visiting, especially as there were lots of twinkling Christmas lights, making it feel very festive.  We had a lovely Vegan burger at the Gourmet Burger bar, a good old chat and had a bit of a mooch around the shops too.  It made for a very pleasant afternoon.

Talking of restaurants, on Sunday night after I'd finished work, OH and LB came into town to meet me and we all headed off to a local Italian restaurant to eat.  I deliberately wanted to try this restaurant, as this is where I have now booked our shop's Christmas meal.  The food was good and the prices were within our budget, which is the most important thing. Last year, after arriving at the chosen restaurant, we found that the prices were more than the menu I'd found online, which wasn't ideal, as we have a very defined budget to spend. Anyway, I now just need to telephone the restaurant manager and confirm the booking/prices and then it will be one less thing to think about in the coming weeks.

Other things I did this week included posting off Christmas cards to my sister in Australia. I thought I'd missed the last posting date, but I think I confused economy parcel post with air mail for letters. As I only send cards these days, it is much easier and much less expensive these days too.

I also spoke to my other sister, who lives in Yorkshire this week, and we had a bit of a catch up and a discussion about Christmas presents for our respective daughters.

In all, it's been a mildly productive week.  I bought a few more Christmas presents, both from the CS and whilst out grocery shopping and paid a visit to Poundland, where I bought the contents for a Christmas Eve Bucket for LB.  It will include flavoured popcorn, chocolate, a drink and a movie.  I always buy her pyjamas to open on Xmas Eve, but this year I decided to make her an extra little something, after getting the idea from a YouTube video.  I hope she likes my choice of movie, Footloose with Kevin Bacon.  She likes 80's fashion, so I'm hoping she'll like a good old 80's movie to watch.

With mixed feelings, I have to report that the mouse that never went near a mousetrap, finally succumbed to one this week.  We felt a little sad, as it had almost become part of the family, but it's not really ideal nor hygienic to have mice in the house.  I hate to kill any of God's creatures, but some creatures are not so welcome in our homes. RIP mousey, I hope you had a good life and enjoyed your stay whilst you were with us.

This weekend I'm not working, so I will probably catch up with housework, tackle the ironing mountain and continue with my jigsaw.  Not very exciting, but enough for me at the moment.  LB starts her mocks next week and is busy revising, so we're all very home centred at the moment.

I hope you had a good week.