First Week Back at Work

You might be able to tell that I'm now back at work, as the blog posts have slowed down somewhat. I mentioned my first day back on Tuesday in a previous post.  On my day off on Wednesday, I was really tired, despite sleeping okay.

I ended up spending the afternoon in bed reading a new to me library book by Lucy Worsley called Jane Austin at Home. It's a really interesting biography of how Jane Austin's life was really lived in the different homes in which she lived, her influences, what activities occupied her time (besides writing, of course) and the education she received as a girl in Georgian England. Information therein has been taken from letters she and her family wrote and other family accounts of her life, plus it references the books she wrote and that have been written about her and the lives and careers of her siblings and other family members. I'm really enjoying reading it.

In between chapters, I fell asleep for a couple of hours. It felt wonderfully self-indulgent to sleep during the afternoon, as I didn't actually get much time to snooze and relax on my week off, as there was so much to catch up on at home.  The back reception room was full of the new sash windows that were delivered earlier in the week, waiting being put in, so it wasn't possible to get on with any ironing. Instead, I holed myself up in the spare bedroom upstairs.  I paid the price for that afternoon nap in the evening, as I didn't sleep a wink.

On Thursday, I was back at work again. My first priority was booking some more leave. I've booked a week off at the end of this month. I've got a couple of things planned that week and we might get away for a few days this time.

I didn't dive into processing the donations today either. I decided to spend an hour re-organising parts of the stockroom and getting out the last of the winter bags of clothes that we'd put away last year. They needed to go into the shop, whilst there's still a chance of them being bought and pricing them was another task I completed later in the day. 

I probably really annoy anyone who works with me, as I'm quite particular about how tidy I like the stockroom to be when I'm in it. No one really keeps it that way when I'm not there, it's just an ongoing one woman battle against chaos, but it keeps me feeling like I have some control. I just don't function well when I'm surrounded by mess and chaos. Anyway, I managed to eat my sandwiches at 4.30 pm instead of 6pm, which is the usual, so I was kinder to myself today.

Friday morning here was rainy, so the dog wasn't keen to go out early. Instead, I did the washing up, sorted some laundry, had a leisurely breakfast and pottered in the garden pruning a few plants that needed it. Eventually, we got out for a two and a half hour walk!! (That's just how long it took, as dog is very slow these days). That was the morning gone. 

In the afternoon, I decided to sign up for a 6 week free trial of Readly, which is a magazine/newspaper subscription app. I kind of got lost down that rabbit hole for the afternoon, but I did find a few interesting magazines to read. I rarely read magazines, as they are so expensive to buy. After the free 6 weeks, it costs £9.99 per month.  Not sure if I'll continue to subscribe. I'll see how much use I get out of it, but it is nice to find something to read on afternoons when I'm not at work and it is more sustainable than buying paper magazines, although I do love them.

Later, I watched a TV programme on iplayer about Jane Austin and her connection with the county of Hampshire. It was originally shown on Channel 4 and was presented by Mariella Frostrup. It tied in nicely with the book I'm currently reading that I've mentioned above.

On Saturday, I was due to work from 10am instead of 12noon, as the Manager wanted the day off. I didn't have many volunteers working with me, but we managed. To be honest, I prefer working with just a few people, as sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming when there are lots of volunteers working who all need to be assigned tasks and taught how to do them in many instances. We had a good day with regard to sales and I was able to do a variety of tasks. For the most part, I was working alone in the stockroom, which I don't mind at all

I managed, with the help of a new volunteer, to get the winter scarves replenished, as we need to get as many sold as possibly in the next few weeks, before the weather turns warmer. The boxes of scarves in the stockroom had been seriously overflowing, so I was able to get them back under control, which felt good.

Later, I also priced a whole heap of gloves that had built up, so we had plenty of those on sale too. They tend to sell quite quickly, once they get out onto the shop floor.

I also sorted through the heaps of shoes that had accumulated and sent a few bagsful to other shops and put some in storage for the summer months. This helped get this area under better control too, so this side of the stockroom looked a lot better by the time I'd finished. It felt like a productive day. I need to price some shoes in the coming week, but I didn't have the time on this particular day, as I also needed to process Gift Aid donations and re-organise a couple of other messy parts of the stockroom.

I left feeling like I was getting things back in some sort of order at least, for how long, I don't know. I didn't over do it though and ate my lunch at a reasonable time too, so I'm making progress.

Currently, we are watching Ricky Gervais's After Life and I am quite enjoying it. We started season two this evening and then watched one of three episodes of a documentary about Andy Warhol that we'd recorded.

My sleep pattern is very disturbed at the moment. I keep waking up really early, sometimes 4 or 5 am and am not able to get back to sleep. It leaves me quite tired the next day. I'm hoping it doesn't continue for too long.

I hope you've have a good week.