First Week Back at Work

It's been a hectic few days. After heading back to work on Wednesday, for three consecutive days, I've now got three days off and boy, do I need them. It's been very intense, but in a good way, we got a lot done, with just 3 or 4 of us. Two paid members of staff and two experienced volunteers. There's still a lot to do, but we are just about ready to re-open. I cycled in for the first two days. It was tough, as my body just wasnt't used to it. The first day I was 5 minutes late, as I set off late and then took a wrong turn and the second day I was 15 minutes late, due to torrential rain. I got soaked through, both going to work and going home. It was a tough commute that day. I also got lost again because the rain fogged up my glasses and I missed a turning. Cycling to work is definitely a big learning curve. OH has now added an app to my phone which predicts the chances of rain from one hour to the next. It will be a game changer. On Friday, I decided I would take the bus, but I really didn't like being on a bus at all. I feel like I've got more control when I'm on my bike. I don't have to wear a mask, I am in the fresh air and I get the exercise to boot, so I'm going to persevere with it and hope my stamina, fitness and ability to stick to the route improves. I might catch the bus the odd day. The shop itself, wasn't too bad when we got inside. There were a couple of small issues we had to report, but nothing that would stop us re-opening. Day one was mostly about paperwork, following re-opening procedures, making assessments, taking out some of the old stock, a bit of cleaning and just generally getting our bearings again and figuring out how we were going to lay out the shop for re-opening. Day Two was more physical, as the brunt of it involved cleaning and moving things around. What with the rain and the commute I felt a little defeated, but got through it.I was so pleased to get home that night and slept like a baby. Day Three was more cleaning, more paperwork, some stock sorting and a bit of organisation in the stockroom, plus some work on the financial side of things. By the end of the day, I think we had broken the back of it and there are now just a few last minute details to attend to and tweaks on the shop floor, we need to clean the shop windows outside and work on the signage, then finally replenish the stock in the shop. We will be opening the shop on Thursday and Saturday to customers and Wednesday for donations only next week, so we should be ready. I was very lucky to work with a great Manager from another shop and two really good volunteers. I couldn't have done it without them. We were all exhausted when we left on Friday night. It will be interesting to see how busy we will be once we do re-open. I'll keep you posted.