Weekly Blog - W/E 7th August 2021

It's hard to believe that we're now in August, it has come around so quickly this year. July seemed to fly past. 

This week got off to a pleasurable enough start with a lie in reading a new book and a leisurely Sunday morning walk with the dog. When I got back, I had some lunch and caught up with watching a few YouTube videos, which is my regular Sunday routine.

In the afternoon, whilst sat at the kitchen table looking out at the garden, I decided that I needed to do a bit of cutting back of some of the growth around the edges of the garden.  Some things were starting to get a bit smothered by a climbing plant that grows over and around the perimeter fence, so out I went, secateurs in hand and chopped away at it. 

I managed to fill the brown garden waste bin, which was timely, as it's our week for garden waste collection this week. I pruned a few branches of the apple and cherry trees which were starting to obstruct the footpaths around the garden, and the hazel bushes and blackcurrant bush too, to tidy things up a bit. There wasn't a whole lot to do and an hour or two's work was all it took. I will probably do a bit more work out there once the brown bin has been emptied later in the week and I have some space to put more cuttings, but it will have to wait until then now.

On Monday, I had booked another class at the gym. This week the instructor that used to teach us Zumba before the first Lockdown, was back and it was the first time I'd seen her for 18 months.  I was able to watch the last five minutes of her Zumba class and I was itching to get back in there, but I just daren't push it, in case I do any further damage to my knee, so I'll wait for a few more weeks before I sign up for that class.

Anyway, it was lovely to see her and find out how her little girl, whom she was pregnant with when she stopped teaching just before the Pandemic hit. She showed me a video of her daughter dancing along to her Zoom classes and she is such a lovely lively little thing. After the class, we had a good chat and it turned out that her young family had had a difficult time during the Lockdowns. I felt for her, but I hope that she's through the worst now.

I enjoyed the Body Conditioning class, then I headed off to do the weekly shop at Lidl and then went on to Home Bargains, for the first time in weeks, to get some toiletries and other things we'd run out of.  Both places were very busy and I was glad to get out of them and get home.

When I got home, I found out that LB had arranged to go for a Covid PCR test later in the day, as she'd had sleep over contact with a friend who'd subsequently received a positive Covid test result. LB had had a cough last week, but a lateral flow test had been negative and it cleared up in a couple of days, so she had continued with her life as normal. 

Although I had no symptoms, as a consequence of all this going on, I took a lateral flow test before cycling in to work on Tuesday, just to be sure, which was also negative.  I told LB to text me as soon as she found out her PCR test result and before I set foot in the shop, I checked my phone to find that it was negative, so I could happily carry on to work as normal. Had it been positive, I would probably have had to turn around and go home to self isolate, but fortunately this wasn't the case.

After this uncertain start to the day, work was pretty productive, although it's still pretty quiet compared to how it was before the school summer holidays started. We'd had a good week in terms of sales last week though, which was very encouraging, but I'm not sure if it will continue into this week.

On Wednesday, I didn't need to go anywhere for once, save for walking the dog in the morning. Wednesday morning walks have now become blackberry picking walks, as I came home with another bag full to make into jam. I just love being able to forage for free food, even in London. Talking of which, I found a great place to forage hazelnuts the other day, if the squirrels don't get to them first. I'll be keeping an eye out for them to be ripe enough to pick.

I got a very welcome email from National Savings and Investments on Wednesday, to tell me I'd won a prize on the Premium bonds. I knew it was only going to be a small one, as the big ones had been notified a few days before, but it was the first time I'd ever won anything on the Premium bonds, so I was thrilled, despite it only being £25. Thousands of people must have been checking at the same time, as it was the first time ever I've experienced a queue to get onto the site. 

Obviously, I'd have preferred the big one (£1million) or even £50 or £10K would have been very nice, but frankly I'm very happy and grateful to have finally won something. I had £1K of bonds for over 10 years and never won a thing, so I cashed them in, then more recently I've bought some more just for the fun of it and it is fun to get an email saying you've won something, even if it is just a small amount. It's now been reinvested automatically into more bonds, so more chances to win!

On Wednesday afternoon, I desperately needed to do some ironing, as I was fast running out of summer clothes to wear for work, so that was the main priority for the rest of the day. It took me about 3 hours, but I managed to virtually empty the ironing basket. There must have been 4 or 5 washloads to iron, but it feels great now it's done and I can pick out my favourite clothes to wear, instead of throwing together whatever random things I could find.

Having considered my current wardrobe whilst ironing, I decided that I needed a couple more pairs of leggings to wear under dresses and skirts whilst riding my bike to work, so I placed an order with H&M for two pairs of 3/4 length ones and a jersey vest dress. I qualified for free postage due to being a member, which was a plus.

On Thursday, I was back at work. There wasn't too much work to do on clothing when I got there, as most of the donations had been processed, so I decided to work on pricing some homewares for a change, which I quite enjoy but don't always get a lot of time to do. I also worked on a few other jobs that hadn't been tackled in a while too, which is always quite satisfying.  Following on from this, I decided to do a bit a cleaning and vaccuuming in the stockroom. Again, this is a job that doesn't get done too often, as other things tend to take priority, so when I do get the chance I quite enjoy it, or should I say I enjoy the results of it.

Cycling home after work, it rained constantly for the whole 50 minute journey, so I was pretty much drenched by the time I got home. At least it was the homeward journey and not the journey into work.

Friday, I had good intentions of getting on with a few bits and pieces I'd been meaning to do for a while, but  in the end the day slipped away from me. I spent the morning walking the dog, chatting to a former collegue on the phone and visiting my favourite local Charity shop where I bought 5 interesting books to read and a t-shirt dress.

In the afternoon, I felt really tired and retired to the sofa for a snooze. Not a very productive day, but it's good to have some days where you just kick back and chill. That's my excuse anyway.

Saturday here was a total washout. Torrential rain from when I woke up to the time I had to go out and get the bus. Yes, I got the bus to work, and am so pleased that I did as it rained on and off all day. As a consequence, it wasn't as busy in the shop, but I managed to keep busy in the stockroom from the donations coming in.

OH decided to drive into Central London to meet me from work. He doesn't do it very often, as he has to pay the Congestion charge now, but I had bought a few bulky items a few weeks ago, that were still at work and I needed him to help me get them home. 

We made a night of it by going to one of my favourite pubs in Bloomsbury, The Museum Tavern by the British Museum, for supper and a few drinks.  The dog came with us as the pub was dog friendly and we had a pleasant hour or so in there before coming home.

We ended the week by finishing watching the series The White House Farm Murders on Disney+. We'd been watching it all week and watched the last two episodes to bring the week to a close.

I hope you guys have had a good week, despite the rain.