A Few Days Off

Firstly, apologies for lack of paragraphs in recent posts. I'm having all sorts of trouble with formating on blogger. Aside from that, I've had a lovely relaxing few days off, just what I needed after the intense first few days of going back to work. I managed to meet up with my colleague who has now left the shop on Saturday afternoon. He came over to give me his shop keys, so that I could give them to the new temporary Shop Manager. We went for a walk with our dogs and had a good chat. I don't really blame him for leaving, as he couldn't get day care or dog walkers for his dog if he'd come back and had no-one to look after it, plus he's sold his house and is moving out of London in a couple of months, so he'd be leaving soon anyway. Anyway, meeting him ticked one item off the work to do list, which was good. On Saturday night, we had a take out tea for the first time in ages. Suited me as I couldn't be bothered to cook. Not especially healthy though. I spent most of Saturday just recovering from work, doing a bit of laundry and catching up with blog reading/watching YouTube. On Sunday morning, OH and I took the dog out together and went on to try to buy a new bike for me to ride to work on, as mine is so heavy and clunky. What a pallaver. The queues at Decathalon and Halfords were too long on Sunday and when we went back today (Monday lunchtime), Decathalon had no (well, two unsuitable) bikes for sale in the shop and non available on the website. I hadn't quite grasped how difficult it is to buy a bike at the moment, until this point. Halfords had a queue, which although not that long, was just not moving, and they didn't have any bikes to sell in store, just to try for size, so we gave up. All I bought was another pair of padded cycling shorts for £5.99. When we got home, we had a look online and the same situation was apparent on most websites selling bikes. In the end, I went on good old eBay and bought a used bike just like my old one (that I loved and that got stolen last year), but a women's, as opposed to men's version, for £120. (More than I paid for mine new) At least I know what I'm getting and it was Buy It Now, so I can go and collect it on Friday or OH can go on Saturday. It's quite a trek out to Berkshire, but it is doable and it's necessary, if I'm going to continue to cycle to work, or I will completely exhaust myself on my current bike. I think I can just about manage another week on it. Today, I also had to pop to the local shops for some groceries and a few bits for work tomorrow. I was a bit horrified by a woman coughing all over the place in one shop, claiming it was the dust. I wasn't convinced, so just kept well away. I don't think she was even wearing a mask. When I'd taken the dog for a walk this morning, I passed the local charity shop where I'd dropped off some items last Sunday. The Shop Manager was outside having a smoke so I had a chat to here. They had opened the following day on Monday last and she said that she'd spent the whole week trying to ask people to comply with the new precautions and had encountered a lot of very arrogant people who were just not interested in doing so. That's probably my fate this week when we finally open. I have, however, today read a couple of very nice and supportive emails from some of our shop donors, in response to my emailing them about opening hours this week. That was a bit more encouraging. I'll let you know how it pans out. The new Shop Manager won't be working on Wednesday this week, as he's got to prepare his own shop to re-open and it currently has a bees nest in it! Luckily, we're just opening to take donations that day.