Weekly Blog - W/E 11th December 2021

This week got off to a good start as OH didn't go cycling for once and took the dog out in the morning. That meant that I could take my time getting up. After breakfast, I decided to tackle the spare bedroom/sewing room, as it has been a complete dumping ground lately, what with housing a stash of food/household products, a stash of stuff for when LB goes to University next year, a food stash for Xmas, plus things to donate to Charity, all my sewing paraphenalia that I've been using lately and other Xmas bits here and there.

Initially, I needed to clear some space for OH to get into the loft for the Xmas decorations, but I decided to use the opportunity of being able to get into my fabric stash drawers, to have a bit of a cull of my fabrics.  I've got so many and some I probably will never use. This task has been on my to do list for months now, so it was good to finally be able to cross it off.

I pulled out a pile to sell at some point, a pile to donate and a few bits to recycle. It felt good to reduce it, even though it was only a relatively light cull. 

After lunch, OH took the Xmas decorations out of the loft for me, so I decided to put them up. I cleaned around the living room first and started with the tree. I'm like the Grinch when it comes to putting up the tree. I don't enjoy it at all. I only start to enjoy it when it's up, branches positioned correctly and lights on it. This year I bought some tinsel from the charity shop and had to put that on too. I went with a pink, silver and gold theme this year as the tinsel I bought was pink and silver. It looked okay once I'd finished.

I then put up the various other decorations around the house and had another quick vaccuum around to pick up any dropped bits from the tree. It felt good to get the decor done. I still need to clean the second reception room and put some lights up outside, but I need to tidy up the garden first.

This was a productive Sunday for me, much less chilling and more doing.

On Monday, I slept in a little so I didn't have a lot of time to get ready, get breakfast, so my usual lateral flow test and get out of the door to my class. The test was negative, thankfully. I was using some new tests that I got from the pharmacy, that only require you to swab your nostrils and not your tonsils, so that makes it a lot easier. I needed to register the result online and by the time I had done that I was running late.

My class was good. From there I went off to do the shopping. I called into Home Bargains today, as we had run out of quite a few things I usually buy from there. I always enjoy a mooch around the store, but rarely spend less than £30. I did pick up a few presents though.

From there I needed to stop off at Boots to buy a few more gifts, then Tesco for more gifts and some bits of food I couldn't get from Lidl. Then the final stop was Lidl for the grocery shopping. So it was a bit of a shop fest today, but I managed to get most of the gifts I needed to get to take to family in Yorkshire.

When I got back I just had time to unpack the shopping before I needed to take the dog out. I found this lovely floor tile that someone was throwing out, whilst coming back from the dog walk. 

I decided that it was coming home with me as I can use it as a trivet or to put a plant on. This is the first photo I'm managed to upload using my chromebook, despite having had it for a year. You'll have noticed a distinct lack of photos in posts lately as I've only been able to upload using my old netbook, when I can be bothered. Hopefully, there'll be more photos in posts going forward.

A busy day, I was glad to finally get home and be able to chill for the rest of the evening. 

On Tuesday, I was due at work early again, opening the shop at 10am, so the Manager could take the day off. I managed a quick walk with the dog before setting off and luckily it wasn't raining on my journey in. I wasn't looking forward to the day to be honest, but it didn't turn out to be so bad. 

I got to do a variety of tasks today, which included pricing hats, gloves, scarves, shoes, belts, bags and clothes, of course, as there was a table full of those to price. I even did the steaming of some of the clothes, which I don't very often get a chance to do.

By the time I left, the shop stock had all been topped up, as much as I possibly could, the stockroom was looking very tidy and we had quite a good day of sales too. 

On Wednesday, I was back at work as I had swapped one of my days around this week. I'd been told that the charity's Visual Merchandiser was coming to the store to help re-do the windows and advise us on visual merchandising. I always enjoy seeing his work, as he has good ideas, but I just don't get much time to put them into practice on the shop floor. He also hails from the same part of the country as I do, so we always have a bit of banter about home.

Anyway, I was back in at 12 noon which was good for me. There weren't too many donations when I got in, so I spent some time pricing more Xmas decorations and getting them in the shop. Later in the afternoon, a huge Gift Aid donation came in, so I spent the afternoon processing that before I left.  At least it meant that I left two full rails of clothes to go in the shop for the rest of the week, as I wouldn't be back to the shop until the following Tuesday.

On Thursday, we packed up and headed off up north to Yorkshire for an early Xmas visit. We eventually managed to get away for 1pm, as OH had some work to finish off in the morning. We dropped in at OH's parents on the way and then headed to our accommodation in Driffield, East Yorkshire this time. The accommodation was good. The host had left us milk, biscuits and eggs. The milk was especially a god send.

Our first full day we spent grocery and Xmas shopping in Driffield, which is a small rural town, but has lots of lovely little shops. I always enjoy staying here, but usually we stay outside the town centre. This time around, we were closer to the town itself. We got most of what we needed there, but there were still a couple of things that we needed to find, so after a nice lunch back at the cottage, we headed off to Beverley, another small East Yorkshire town, to find the last few bits of a gift for OH's mum. Before shopping, we took the dog on the Westwood, which is like a common area with lots of green open space and woodland to explore.

Later, it was lovely to have a walk around Beverley, see their Christmas lights and visit a few more shops, so in all we had a lovely day. We then returned to Driffield and went out to a pub for supper. As is sometimes the case when we go home, we ended up doing most of our visiting on the same day, on this occasion Saturday, as this seemed to be most convenient for those we were visiting. It was nice to have a day to ourselves to relax and unwind after the journey though.

On Saturday, OH got up and went off to do a Park run and I took the dog for an early walk. Later we headed off to meet my sister and her family for lunch in a pub near to where they live. We had a lovely lunch and it was nice to catch up, as I hadn't seen her in six months and LB hadn't seen her for two years due to Covid. Later the same day, we headed over to OH's sister's house where we spent the evening catching up with her and her family. 

On Sunday, it was time to pack up ready to head home. On the way home we stopped off at OH's mum and dad's again for a few hours and spent some more time with them, before heading back to London. A quick visit this Christmas, but sadly, it was all we could manage, due to work committments.

A busy week, but now we can settle down and enjoy the rest of Christmas here in London.