A New Week and Another Twist

After my last post, which ended in a very negative way, I just wanted to apologise to anyone who may have been offended. I really didn't need to be quite so literal in my description of what happened on Saturday night and it wasn't fair to inflict that on my readers. I think I was still in shock.  So I apologise for that and there will be no graphic language in this post.

This week has been another challenging one. After a couple of days off on Sunday and Monday, I returned to work on Tuesday. Before I'd even put my bike away, one of the volunteers who had helped to run the shop the day before, called to say that she had tested positive for Covid and I was informed that the intern who had been left to run the shop on Monday and who was present in the shop, was also feeling unwell.

As a consequence, the first hour or so was spent calling and emailing around the 7 or 8 volunteers who had been working the day before, to warn them that they may need to take a test in the next day or so, as they had had contact with someone who had had a positive test. I eventually managed to contact each one of them, so hopefully they will have received the messages/emails. I wasn't sure how many of them would return to the shop later in the week.

My focus was then on getting hold of some lateral flow tests, so that our intern, who was visiting the UK from abroad, could take a test. A volunteer who lives locally, kindly volunteered to go home and bring some back to the shop, so that he could test himself. Fortunately, his test was negative, but as he was feeling unwell and to minimise risk to others, I sent him home to rest. 

Sadly, the drama didn't end there, as when another volunteer came in in the afternoon, they tested positive too and had to go home, which left just myself and one other volunteer for the rest of the afternoon. As a consequence, I had to work on the till, which was okay, as I quite enjoy it and never get the chance normally. We limped through the rest of the day, but I wasn't sure if we'd remain open or what was going to happen for the rest of the week.

On Wednesday, I tested negative again and headed into work for 10am. One volunteer and the intern didn't turn up, so it was just me and one other volunteer until some new volunteers arrived at 12noon. I had to get them trained up on the till in one hour and then they spent the afternoon getting used to it, as there were no other volunteers to do it, as two more volunteers had called to say they wouldn't be coming in. They did well though.

On Thursday, my day at the shop started out a bit manic, as I had two collections arranged, one of which I had no knowledge of and had to scramble around collating the items they were coming to collect. Eventually, though the collections were done and things calmed down a little and I was able to do some work in the stockroom. I decided to price some bags, as the pile was getting very high and a few people had come into the shop asking for specific types of bags.

Later, I managed to get out to the bank. I was quite glad of the long queue, as I could just chill whilst I waited in line. I did some clothes and homewares pricing when I got back and then did the last 20 minutes on the till, so it was a varied day. I had to ride home whilst it was snowing lightly. It was so cold. It felt so good to get home and relax, knowing that I'm done for the week and hopefully next week too.

When I got home, I decided to look for some accommodation for us all to get away for a few days. I'm desperate for a break. We managed to book a lovely little cottage on the East Coast of Yorkshire, near Spurn Point, for a short stay. I can't wait to go and we'll be able to visit family too, which is a bonus. A super positive end to the week.