This Week - W/E 18th February 2023

I do love Sundays. It's my weekend. It's short, but I love it, especially after a busy Saturday at work.

This Sunday, I spent most of my time working on LB's quilt. Now I've reached the infilling bit between blocks, I felt motivated to make up lots of the infill rectangles to enable me start pieceing it all together. It's quite exciting.  

I enjoy all stages of English Paper Pieceing: the cutting out of the paper, the pinning and tacking of the fabric around the paper and the sewing of the pieces together and then the removal of the papers. It provides lots of variation from day to day, so I don't get too bored.

So a lazy, stitchy Sunday it was. I rang LB for a chat to see how she was doing. It was nice to talk to her rather than just message one another. You can tell so much more how things are going by actually having a proper conversation.

OH and I finished watching the Aretha Franklin film too in the evening, which was good and then it was time for bed again, ready for work the next day.

I was due in work early at 9am on Monday, which is unusual for me, as I never usually start until the afternoon. I still had enough time to do part of the weekly shop before I went in to work, which was good.

I didn't mind this particular shift, but I was alone on the till for the first couple of hours. As the morning wore on it got quite busy, partly I think because it was half term. One of the managers also gave me another job of marking down prices on some products, which I did between customers, so I was kept very busy the whole time, but it did pass quickly.

I finished the shopping on the way home and then when I got home, I decided to do some financial reckoning which was long overdue and I also paid a couple of bills. I get paid again this Friday, how quickly did that come around? I love that about this job.

LB sent me a picture tonight, as she'd received her box of treats for Valentines Day. I always give her something. She was very happy with it. It got there really fast, so a big thank you to the Post Office.

After walking the dog, the rest of the evening was the usual mixture of stitching, making supper, watching TV, etc.

On Tuesday, I woke up really early due to a having a bad dream and struggled to sleep well after that. When I got up, I came downstairs to some lovely flowers and some chocolate from OH for Valentine's Day, which perked me up.

I had time to take the dog out for a long walk, but unusually for her, she just wasn't interested and diverted me around the block for a very short morning walk. I think she just wanted to get home and sit in the garden instead.

I spent most of Tuesday stitching on LB's quilt. It's really coming along. I've stitched three rows of blocks together already, which is almost half of the blocks. After spending a full day on it, I've decided to give it a rest for a couple of days. There are a few household tasks that I need to get on with. I often get obsessed with things and then find myself needing to take a break. I'll probably be back working on it in a day or so.

As a treat for Valentine's Day, OH took me out for lunch at a local cafe, which was nice. I had a dish called Chatchouka, which was fried eggs on a bed of fried onions and peppers and was very tasty. We promised ourselves that we would do this more often, as there are lots of lovely cafe's around where we live.

I treated myself to some new trainers for work from eBay a few weeks ago and they arrived today. They came from China, so they took a while. I ordered a size 7, but they feel more like an 8 or bigger, as there is a lot of room at the toes. I added some inner soles and they are a little better, but still big.  Hopefully they'll be okay though. I needed some that were all black and my gym shoes have white soles. They were very inexpensive, so it's not a big deal.

In the evening, OH was cycling at the track, so I indulged myself by watching some romantic movies on TV as Sense and Sensibility and Four Weddings and a Funeral were both on Film 4. I've watched both of these films before, but enjoyed watching them again. It seems to be wedding season for us again at the moment, which is lovely, as several of the younger generations of both of our families are getting engaged and married over the next couple of years.

On Wednesday, I woke early and decided to have a read of my current book, for the first time in a couple of weeks. As mentioned in a previous post, I'm reading Georgette Heyer's The Nonesuch, which is part of the Comfort Book Club on Miranda Mills YouTube channel. I quite enjoyed reading another few chapters. It's a nice easy read and I like some of the characters. 

In the car on my way to and from work, I'm currently listening to William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair, which is great. I loved the TV dramatisations of this novel and I'm thoroughly enjoying the audio book. There are over 25 discs, so it should take me months to complete.

I also managed to take the dog for a long walk this morning which was nice.  When I got back I did a few chores about the house and then got ready for work. I was due in at 5, but as usual I went a bit early to miss the traffic and picked up a few things we needed from Home bargains en route.     

Work was quite quiet on Wednesday, so I enjoyed stocking up shelves in the till area and later went to do some recovery work in various sections of the store that had been assigned to me. I enjoyed it and it made for a stress free shift.

OH took the dog to stay overnight with a new dog sitter tonight, to get her used to staying with him before we leave her with him when we go on holiday next month.

On Thursday, I was off to my voluntary work. They had a photographer there to take photos of volunteers, but I wasn't happy to participate, as I don't like having my photo taken at the best of times. It was a busy shift, with a new young volunteer who was fun.

When I got home, the dog was back from the dog sitter. She was a little disgruntled for an hour or so, but soon settled back in. I did a little job in LB's room that I've been meaning to do for a while. Her bedside cabinet is all stained on the top and looks unsightly, so I bought some sticky vinyl in a marble effect and covered it.  Here's a before and after:

It's not a perfect job, but I think it looks better than it did and will prolong the life of this little piece of furniture. I've got plenty left and may use it elsewhere too.

Later, I ended up retiring to bed for a few hours, to read and nap a little after getting up so early. I made good progress on the book club book and had just a few chapters left to read by the end of the day.

OH booked us a villa for our forthcoming holiday in Lanzarote today. I'm so looking forward to the break. It's the first time we've all been abroad together since before Lockdown.

I was at work for 10 am again on Friday, so had a bit more time to get ready. It was busy for most of the shift, with quite a lot of customers. The new Store Manager visited for the first time, so we were on our best behaviour, which we are for most of the time anyway, but I didn't actually get to meet him. He starts work proper in a couple of weeks.

I was tired when I got home from work and had a nap and did a bit of reading before spending most of the evening watching TV with OH.

On Saturday I was working in the afternoon. It was quite a quiet day at work for a Saturday, which was unusual. Possibly because of half term or maybe the cost of living crisis is starting to bite. Anyway, I quite enjoyed the day, as the atmosphere was positive and it made it an enjoyable shift. It was nice to finish the working week on a positive note.

I hope your week was a positive one.