Enjoying A Day At Home

Today, I'm on the first of a couple of days off work and I'm thoroughly enjoying being at home pottering about.

It's been a tough week, as I am in the middle of  a volunteer recruitment campaign at work.  Our numbers dwindled so much ,that we got to a very critical point and it had to be done with bells on.

Anyway, the last two days I've had a dozen candidates coming in to chat about the volunteer roles we offer in the shop and to be honest, it's been exhausting.  I'm sick of hearing my own voice.  It's very intense and in between candidates, I'm trying to get some work done in the stock room.

Having said this, I think by the end of next week, we'll have a lot more volunteers working with us, which is a relief, so it's been worth it. From now on, it's just got to be an ongoing task that doesn't get overlooked.  We just got into a downward spiral of being so busy, because we were short of volunteers, and then not having the time to recruit, so we've been forced to do it and it has been successful, although very hard work.

We have had lots of lovely young and older applicants, but not all of them become volunteers sadly. Many must get put off or maybe aren't serious in the first place.  Many don't even turn up at the arranged time which is annoying, but sometimes a relief. In fact, I'm not sure how long the recruited volunteers will stay with us either, some stay for a few weeks, some for a few months to even a year, but we've got to keep going. After an intense month of  recruitment, I'm going to give myself a 2 week respite shortly and just tackle the applications I have already received.

In other work news, our returning Manager will be working with me on Sunday, when he officially returns to our shop.  I'm looking forward to working with him, as I haven't done so properly yet, save for one day way back when I began in my current post.

Work covered, today I'm having a stay at home day. I took the dog out this morning and it was lovely sunshine and blue skies.  A bit windy, but I'd call it bracing and fresh.  It's now a bit cloudier and looking like it might rain, so being at home is probably the best place to be.  I'm catching up on paperwork, banking, laundry, etc. and doing my best to unwind and just chill.

I read on the web today that the Queen (aka The Royal Family) has started her own Instagram account (well, her assistants have, I suspect), so I am now officially one of her 4.6 million followers. It's interesting to see who she follows i.e GB Hockey, the Royal Navy, the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, etc.  It's all a bit of fun and good to see her getting involved. If anyone's seen her posts, doesn't she look fabulous in that orange outfit. Very stylish.

Talking of Instagram, and yes work again, I've taken charge the Instagram account for the shop, for the moment at least and I am trying to post regularly and increase followers.  I'm quite enjoying it.  If I take a couple of photos whilst I'm at work, I can post them when I'm on the bus on the way home, thus saving time doing it at work. It's good fun and gives me something to do on the journeys to and fro, plus keeps up the social media profile of the shop.

On my days off recently, I've been watching a programme on TV called 'The Best House in Town', where a panel of residents visit three houses/apartments, etc. in their own town and then they all vote on which was the best house.  It's quite interesting and there's some lovely homes in it.  I find it quite compulsive watching when I'm not at work. In fact, I'll probably interrupt this post to watch today's episode.

My house, however, is currently a mess.  I'm now waiting until I have a week off at the end of this month to do a big blitz of it all.  OH is going away on a cycling holiday with some of his chums from the cycling club, so I'll have the place to myself during the day and can just get on with it. It will feel good to get it done and then I can really chill on my days off, knowing that I've got it under control again.

I'm itching to get to the allotment now.  It just needs a quick dig in of the manure.  There's not too much weeding to do, but it's a bit wet at the moment, so I don't want to go until it dries up a bit.  Maybe tomorrow if we don't get another downpour. I'll create a post if I do go. The dog is itching to get back there too, to sniff out any rats, cats, foxes, etc.

Anyway, I'm now back from watching 'The Best House in Town' and getting lost down a Netflix rabbit hole watching multiple half hour episodes of 'The Kindness Diaries'. A series about a British guy who travels the world on a vintage motor cycle with side car, relying on the kindness of strangers.  It was quite interesting to watch him cross the US and Europe meeting random* people who offer him shelter and food. It makes you feel like you want to be more generous in your everyday life, especially when we have so much in this country and many people have so little.

*I am always slightly suspicious when watching this type of programme, that the meetings are all random events, as television needs to be entertaining, but it was interesting nevertheless. Maybe I shouldn't be quite so cynical, as we ourselves have often benefitted from the much needed random kindness of strangers on our family travels.