It felt so great to get back to work on Tuesday. I took it steady on my bike and probably took a bit longer than I normally would, mainly due to being a bit out of practice at cycling. It took about 50 minutes.
When I got to work, it was a case of running through lots of checklists to make sure everything was working okay and the shop was ready to open to the public. It was good to touch base with other work colleagues and find out what they'd been up to over lockdown.
The Shop Manager hasn't returned to work yet, so it's just myself and fellow jobshare Deputy running the shop this week. I've managed to arrange for enough volunteers to keep the shop open and we re-opened to the public on Wednesday and started taking donations again.
I didn't work on Wednesday, but I was back at work on Thursday, which I quite enjoyed (save for getting drenched on the cycle in). I was able to spend time working on dressing one of our windows for Christmas. I rarely get the time to do this kind of thing anymore, so it was fun. It was also one of our volunteers' 60th birthday and he came in to work a shift. It would have been lovely to go to the pub and have a drink after work, but as we are in Tier Two, we couldn't do this unless we ordered a meal and sat outside. So much for getting back to normality.
On Friday, I spent the day at home. I finally got around to painting the inside of the vestibule cupboard, and this time I really do like the colour and it's a keeper. I had a few problems with previous paint peeling off the wall, but with a bit of a sand down and re-paint, it worked out okay. It probably won't be to most people's taste, but is needed because of the roughness and unevenness of the inside of the cupboard. The dark paint helps to hide all the flaws. I've very happy with the results, especially after trying so many different paints on it. I was losing all hope of finding one I liked. We just need the paint for the feature wall now.
Later, I went out to a class at the gym. Two of my favourite teachers have returned to teaching there, so I now at least have the option of going to a couple of classes a week. I was really excited to go back and do a class I actually enjoy and it didn't disappoint. I've really missed it and could really feel how unfit I've become in respect of this kind of exercise. You just don't appreciate what you have until it's taken away from you.
After the class, OH and I headed off to the mall to do a spot of Xmas shopping, which was a kind of evening out for us. Whilst out we ate out in a Tapas restaurant, which was very nice. It felt strange though. Luckily, we got seated in a very quiet corner, away from everyone else in the busy restaurant, which was very reassuring.
I'm feeling a lot more motivated at home now that I'm back at work. I think I needed to get out of the house. It was a bit suffocating staying home all the time. There's something about bouncing ideas off work colleagues and chatting about nothing much with people. I've missed it a lot. I've also missed the exercise of riding my bike and feel much better now I've reversed the weight slowly piling on.
On Saturday, I was back at work. Once again, I really enjoyed it. I've now got two days off together which is always good.
I hope you've had a good week now lockdown has ended.
So far we haven't had a real lockdown, the government here in my province is doing all they can to avoid that. However, we have those conspiracy idiots who keep complaining that we are in fact in a lockdown.... Sighs.
ReplyDeleteSounds as if the back to work is doing great for your mental and physical health.
God bless.
Ah, I'm glad you've managed to get back to work and enjoyed it. It's great to have had an opportunity to dress the window. I'm glad your class at the gym was good too!
ReplyDeleteIt's quite nice to have a meal out, isn't it! We went to a cafe near Chalkwell on Saturday and it was so nice and empty- we were no where near anyone and it was so nice to eat out!