Starting to Feel Festive - W/E 16th December 2023

The week began with my declining a shift at work on Sunday, as I wanted to spend some time with LB whilst she was home, but as she didn't come in from the previous night's party until 5am, she slept late.

Whilst LB slept in, I finally got around to making some mince pies, which I enjoyed. I won't be eating many of them, but I did have one. I did some laundry and a few jobs about the house and then spent a few hours chatting and catching up with LB, before it was more or less time to get ready and go out to the work Xmas party.

I was a bit anxious about going, as I hardly knew anyone, but I wanted to make the effort and the evening was actually okay. We had a meal at a Shisha lounge and restaurant. The cuisine was Turkish, I think, and I really enjoyed the food. The company paid for the food and some soft drinks, which was good, so all it cost me was my homeward bus fare. I didn't drink any alcohol, mainly because I was getting the bus home and didn't want to be drunk, plus I had a busy day planned the next day. I ate far too much food though and even brought some leftover meat home for the dog. It seemed a pity for it to go to waste.

There was entertainment in the restaurant, provided by a belly dancer. She was very good. She kept getting members of our group up to dance and a few of the girls were really good sports and had a go. One in particular was very good at it. It was entertaining and a new experience for me. I left at 10pm and I was home by 10.30 pm. I was glad to get to bed after not sleeping well the night before.

On Monday, I had promised LB I would take her shopping out of town. We've both wanted to visit The Thrift Factory in Silvertown, East London for a while. It's a huge warehouse filled with second hand clothing items. We'd been meaning to go for almost a year, so it was good to finally get there. It took a bit of finding, mainly due to lots of roadworks, but once there we went in and worked our way around the rails.  

Two hours later, we emerged, completely overwhelmed and with a 2kg+ bag of clothes. I've never actually bought clothes by weight before. You don't actually get too much per kg, maybe 3 or 4 items, but it depends on what you buy. It cost me £23.20 in total, which included 3 items for LB.

I bought 5 items including a pair of black trousers to wear for work. They fit well, but just need taking up an inch or so. I bought a pair of joggers, as these are my go to when I'm hanging around at home on days off. I also bought a lightweight black dress for next summer, that I can just add a belt to. I think it was from Zara originally. My final purchases were a black t-shirt and a pair of tartan trousers. The latter probably sounds pretty horrible, but I quite like them. I used to have a pair many years ago and loved wearing them. These were a size below my normal size and do fit, but are a little snug. Once I've lost a bit more weight they'll be fine.

It was an interesting experience anyway. I haven't been thrifting with LB for a while, so it was fun. It's our favourite mother/daughter occupation.

Once we'd finished at the Thrift Factory, we went to the cafe in a large Tesco superstore for lunch. Unfortunately, the woman who served me misunderstood my order and I ended up with two lunches to eat. One was taco beans on toast, the other poached eggs on avocado toast. I ate both, as I wasn't going to waste them (they weren't huge) and as LB didn't like avocados or eggs, she couldn't help me out. In total it came to about 1000 calories, but it probably worked out for the best in the end, as I was working in the evening until 10.30pm and knew I wouldn't want to eat much when I got home after the shift, so I just had a bagel before work and that was enough. As a consequence, I kept within my calorie allowance inspite of the big lunch.

After lunch, we dropped into a couple more shops, one being a big new Cancer Research shop that has just opened on the retail park. It's the first charity shop I've ever seen on this shopping park and we were both thrilled to see it had opened. We had a good look around and I bought a couple of things in there too, including an amazing cooling mint foot gel that I used to get from Boots years ago. I think they might have stopped selling it now. I used to love it, so I will enjoy using that again, especially now I'm back working in retail.

After this, we were all shopped out and came home. I then had to get ready and go out to work. Work was okay tonight, but the store is now opening until 10pm for the next two weeks. The last hour was very quiet though, as I don't think people really realised that we were opening later. I busied myself tidying rails of clothing, which I'm happy to do all day, although it's not a section that I actually work on normally.

On Tuesday, I was booked in for my usual class. I was very happy to head there in the morning. When I got home, my aims for the day were to make a chilli for my lunch/OH's supper and then just chill before heading off to work again in the evening. I was scheduled to work 5 nights this week, which wasn't great, but that's what they are employing me for at this time of year, so I just get on with it. 

LB returned to her halls on Tuesday, just for one night, to say goodbye to her friends and to get her stuff together, ready for us to bring it and her back home for Xmas on Wednesday.  She's got shifts scheduled at her old local theatre job in the lead up to Xmas and beyond, which is good.

In the afternoon, I did a bit of sewing on my current quilt project. It feels like days since I've picked it up and I've missed how it helps to restore my sanity when things get busy. It was a miserable day weatherwise and rained for the most of the day. It was nice to stay home for once and do something I enjoy, until it was time to go to work.

On Wednesday I got a bit of a lie in and then got up and got ready to go to South London and bring LB home. The journey was a bit longer than usual due to traffic and coming back wasn't much better, so it blew out most of the day, but it was good to get LB home again. When we got back, I decided to go out and do the weekly shop, as we were running out of some items of food. It wasn't a huge shop, but should see us well into next week hopefully.

I got stuck in a traffic snarl up on the way home, which was very frustrating. When I got in, I made us all a lasagne for supper. I'll hopefully eat the last leftover portion with some salad for lunch tomorrow, before going to work. Today, was my only full day off this week, apart from Sunday last.

Thursday, I was booked into the gym, so after walking the dog, I headed there for a work out. Before doing so, I made sure to write all of our Xmas cards. I finally got them sent off today, which felt so good.

In the afternoon, I got distracted by another ASOS sample sale and purchased a few items for £3, £5 and one for £10. I'll post about them when they arrive. OH received two lovely M&S food hampers today, from a work associate, which was a nice suprise. I think they were both from the same sender. I allowed myself one of the lovely florentines that came in one of the boxes.

I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction when I got to work later, which was very embarrassing. I'd put on a PU skirt that I've hardly ever worn, but have had for years. It was fine when I put it on, but by the time I got to work it looked like this in numerous places:

I was horrified and couldn't work a shift looking so scruffy, so I had to buy a new skirt. I opted for a sequinned number from a nice brand, which was in the clearance section. I paid about £15 for it. I won't be wearing it for work again though. I'll save it for going out in or Xmas Day/Boxing Day. Needless to say, the old skirt went in the bin.

On Friday, I'd planned to go to the last Soca class, but when I got to the gym, it wasn't on. I think I got the time wrong.  Anyway, I walked into town instead and a did a bit of shopping and then came home. I spent most of the afternoon wrapping the remaining Christmas presents I'd bought. I'm all done now, thank goodness. I'm definitely all Christmassed out this week, it's been way too busy. At least with the cards and wrapping done, I can now focus on other things in the week that is left, such as doing a bit of cleaning and finishing off the crackers. I'm hoping next week will be a little less manic and I can actually enjoy it a bit more.

Saturday, was a much calmer day, thankfully. I took the dog out in the morning, which was relaxing and helped restore my sanity. I then had the day to do as I pleased. I mainly spent the time doing some household jobs in the kitchen, getting a large bag of LB's laundry done and then I did some work on my finances, before getting ready to go to work. It felt good to get caught up on a few different things.

Work was busy, as I was doing something different from what I've been doing at work lately. I enjoyed working on the shop floor, tidying up the area I was assigned to. We all picked up our Secret Santa presents today.

OH was out when I got home, as he had gone out with some cycling friends for an Xmas drink.  It was nice to just chill and go to bed late, knowing I wasn't at work the next day.

So, it's been another busy week, but the madness will soon be over. Hope you had a good week and are enjoying the lead in to Xmas.