The week started in it's usual quiet way on Sunday. I took the dog out for a walk in the morning. It was our local Jumble Trail event, whereby lots of people have stalls outside their houses and sell stuff they don't want. I stopped off at a stall selling plants near the park and bought four small plants that the lady had grown from cuttings. Three of them are trailing plants, but they are all very cute. I've already got lots of house plants, but I can never resist getting more when faced with a good selection. The trouble was, I then had to carry them along on the dog walk, but they got home safely in the end.
On Monday, I woke up and was ready early, so I decided to head off to the gym, dropping into a local Lidl on the way to do my grocery shopping. The whole experience was a nightmare, it was far too busy, with people taking a ridiculously long time to get through the checkout and I was getting really stressed and frustrated, as I was booked in to do my first Zumba class in over 18 months with my favourite instructor at 10am.
In the end, I got there with just a minute to spare. I took it steady in the class and was pretty careful not to over exert my knee after my injury earlier this year. I really enjoyed it. All the steps came back to me and it was great fun. I'm so happy to be back dancing again. At times I thought I never would be. I can't wait to go back again next week.
In the afternoon, I had a little more grocery shopping to do, so I headed off to ASDA. There were a few things that I couldn't get at Lidl and I ended up throwing a few extra things in the trolley for good measure, mainly because of all the hoo ha around supplies of CO2 running out. I also went to Poundland, but didn't spend much this time, and the Card Factory for cards for a few upcoming events. My last stop was B&Q, as I needed some beading for OH to properly secure the glass in the vestibule cupboard. I ended up treating myself to a couple of decorative plant pots whilst there, as many of my plants are outgrowing their pots and I don't have big enough pots to house them.
I also completed a little job that I'd been meaning to do for a while on Monday. Whilst tidying out the shed a couple of weeks ago, I found my old Brother label printer. It was a bit dirty, the batteries were dead and I had no tape for it anymore, so I was going to donate it. Then I decided to take a look on eBay and found that you could get tape for about £3 or £4 a roll, so I sent off for some. I got some new AAA batteries (it takes 6!) and I was in business. I used it to re-label a set of drawers in the craft room and they look great. It felt good bringing something back to life and making use of it. I'm not sure what I'll use it for next, as I don't want to label everything in sight, but I'm sure I'll find other uses for it in the future, maybe re-organising our family photos, my fabric collection or something similar.
On Monday night I boiled up some homegrown beetroot to pickle as it was starting to shrivel up a little. It made 2 and a half jars, but there's still quite a bit left on the plot. I'll either have to save a few more jars or buy some more before I can harvest and process them.
Tuesday, I was back at work. It was a busy day and we were focussed on getting more autumnal clothing into the shop, as we've been having some success lately, selling coats in readiness for the weather changing. As they sell for more than the average item, it has been boosting our sales totals this last couple of weeks.
Wednesday, was my day off and I stayed close to home all day. I wasn't feeling too good for most of the day, so had a nap in the afternoon. I booked an eye test for next week which is long overdue, postponed due to us having Covid.
We also finally booked a cottage for a week in Whitby in October. I'm quite excited about us having a week away. It's so nice for us all as a family to get out of London for a while and it will probably be our last chance before Christmas to do so, as work will get busy and LB will probably be working again in the lead up to Christmas.
Talking of LB, she headed out to a nightclub with friends in the evening and I found it hard to sleep anticipating her return, which was incredibly late. As a consequence, I was shattered the next day going to work.
In spite of not having slept, Thursday at work wasn't too bad. I was a bit grumpy through tiredness though, which wasn't good. It was one of those rare for me days at work, when I just wanted to get through the day and get home to bed. We had a good day sales wise though which helped.
On TV, we've been watching Manhunt - The Night Stalker this week, which was a really good dramatized series depicting real life crimes. Horrible crimes, but a very interesting serialisation of the investigation that led to the eventual arrest of the perpertrator.
On Friday morning after a very good night's sleep, I went out with the dog for a long walk. I then stayed home in the afternoon, sleeping for a couple of hours, as I'm still catching up on sleep from earlier in the week.
In the evening, OH, LB and I headed out to our local Mall, to a Tapas restaurant as a family treat. I hadn't been to the Mall for months, in fact, I can't remember the last time I went. I wanted to take a look in a couple of shops there and needed to pick up a few groceries for the weekend whilst there too.
To be honest, it wasn't a pleasant experience, way too busy. I'm always reminded how I'm really not missing anything by not going very often. The meal was very nice though, we all thoroughly enjoyed it, but I don't know how people afford to eat out regularly. I think I've become so used to being quite frugal, that the final bill always shocks me.
Saturday, I was back at work, but needed to go in for 10am, as the Shop Manager had taken a few days off. I noticed a long queue for the local petrol station on my way in. I'm hoping we can manage to get hold of some petrol in time to go on holiday in a few weeks time.
I got in to work in a little early and spent the time vaccuuming the shopfloor, before continuing downstairs into the stockroom and office and doing these rooms too. Sometimes, I just need to get to grips with the mess and make the environment a nicer one to work in, before I can get stuck into the day's work. It helped that there weren't many donations waiting to be processed. We had another great day of sales today and even bettered our recent best last week.
I was able to leave early, due to having started early and the return of the Shop Manager, so I rode my bike home mid afternoon, instead of in the evening when it is starting to get dark. It made a nice change to be home earlier. I watched a bit of Strictly tonight, but then OH and I started watching the film Molly's Game on Netflix. (I say started, as it was a long film at 2 hrs 20 mins.) We've still got the last hour to watch. OH needed to get to bed early as he was running the Hackney Half Marathon in the morning.
I can't believe that we're now nearly in October. Where does the time go? Hope you had a good week.
Yep, we are into the dog days of summer as my mother would say.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you managed to bring your labeler back to life. I use mine to label items in the freezer and all my canning jars.
God bless.
I am hoping we can get hold of enough petrol to get us back down home in a week's time. We have limited petrol stations in this little corner of Scotland.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like business is brisk in your Charity shop. It is ages since we went shopping other than food and bits in town. I don't actually miss it that much either and hopefully the less I buy now the less I will have to declutter further down the line!!
Have a good week.