Thursday, yesterday (although I suspect by the time I hit publish it will have been the day before yesterday) was my back to work day. With the best part of a week between my shifts anyway having a week’s leave in the middle means I’ve practically forgotten I have a job by the time I go back to it after a holiday :).
Ady was at home in the morning and he and the children did bedroom tidying. I think he gave them both a lecture about being grateful for having their own spaces and looking after them accordingly. I’m fairly sure it will have fallen on deaf ears but it’s only right he gets to waste his breath on such inane parenting cliches every so often to take the pressure off me to do so ;).
At lunchtime Dad arrived and between them they carried out the finely orchestrated process required to get my car to the MOT centre, Dad and the children back to our house and Ady on his way to work (Dad drove my car there with Ady and the kids following in Ady’s car, then Ady brought them all back home again on his way to work). The second part of the plan was for me to get a later lunch break and ring the garage to check progress then walk to the garage to collect it.
The first part of the plan worked but when I rang them later it was to find out it had failed and needed a small amount of work doing to it to pass. This was completely unsurprising as my car has never really had any money spent on it and has sailed through it’s last 4 MOTs so was probably due a small spend. The guy quoted me 80 quid and said he’d have it ready for me today. This then required further fine planning between me and Dad as we were not going to be around and the garage is closed on Saturday. We arranged for Dad to go and collect it, drive it a short distance down the road and then leave it there for me to collect later tonight. I also arranged for Dad to pay for it for now and be paid back by me after Christmas :).
This did mean I was stranded at work withouth a car which during daylight would be fine as it’s only a 15 minute or so walk home but it is not nice in the dark and I had a heap of books to bring home so Ady managed to come and collect me in the end.
Meanwhile I had a nice day at work. I’d not really felt like going when I woke up as I was feeling a bit grotty and tired but it was actually nice to be back once I was there. In the afternoon I had a review of my appraisal and was told once again that I am a real asset to the team, given a few more jobs to do which give me a bit more responsibility and chance to use some initiative and offered the chance to go on a few more training courses. Disappointment was expressed that I don’t work enough hours for me to qualify for a few more training courses but they can’t justify that investment when I’m only there 11 hours a week.
I read the children a big pile of library books (mostly Christmassy ones) and was in bed super early as I was very tired and blah.