Work for me today. It’s been quite an enjoyable if slightly frustrating at times sort of day. I’ve spent all of it either on the counter or the enquiry desk with a wide range of enquiries including ‘how to spell unequivocal’ from my favourite drunk who was typing an email to someone. He said he ‘didn’t want to look like a twat’ by misspelling it so I fetched him a dictionary and then watched from afar as he struggled to focus on the keyboard and screen sufficiently to type unequivocal in the middle of a load of ranting swear words on his screen! 😆
I ‘helped’ an old lady – ’86 you know’ – who said she’d been sent to us by her GP as she’d gone to find out what help was available for elderley people in the way of being taken out for the day and taken somewhere for free meals. She was incredibly demanding and rather deaf so quite hard work. I found her details of two local volunteer services for old people and contact details for the local branch of Help the Aged but she wanted more from me and actually asked if I could ring them for her at which point I had to refuse and explain the library’s role as information givers rather than practical support offerers. I still don’t think she quite understood and I suspect her GP may have been partly responsible for her misunderstanding.
I had another woman who wanted details of who our local MPs are and how to contact them. She was very doubtful her letter would be read by a real MP and I assured her I’d had a reply recently from writing to our MP and explained about the surgeries they run where you can actually meet them. She really wanted to tell me what it was she was wanting to write to them about but I didn’t encourage her and she ended up telling me if she didn’t get any joy from the MP she would go to the Sun newspaper so I gave her contact details for them too! 😆
There were also the usual lost library cards, ordering in books for people, sending several faxes and it seemed today that every single person who came in to use the photocopier needed help with it so I spent a lot of time standing infront of that making things darker or bigger or smaller or double sided.
I chatted to J, the Saturday assistant this morning.I like him a lot; he’s 16, very charming and full of confidence. He is doing similar A levels to what I did at the same college I was at so we chatted about that and which tutors are still there and what he wants to be when he grows up. He asked my opinon of uni and then asked about what other jobs I’ve had so I gave him a potted career history of the last 20 (gulp) years and explained I am probably not likely to be the best advocate of formal education or educational institutions ;).
I had my lunch break with H, the new girl who is struggling a lot and spent a long time chatting to her. She has been officially told she’s not doing so well and given a time scale to improve which is terrifying her. We chatted about her trying to work out whether she thinks it is the right job for her and whether she wants to make it work and does enjoy it. I feel very strongly that fear of not having a job isn’t a good enough reason to stay in one you hate and I was saying to her that I don’t think there is any shame in realising something is not for you and walking away from it, but conversely if she feels she could do really well she shouldn’t give up at the first hurdle and that noone wants her to fail and she should take support from us all in getting better at the job if she wants to stay rather than falling into a self fulfilling prophesy of deciding she is crap at it and therefore being crap. That was a rather long sentence wasn’t it!? 😆
In the afternoon there was a lighter feel to the place and A, S and I spent a happy couple of hours between customers challenging each other with book titles to see if we could name the author. A is a real proper librarian and certainly knows her books although I was surprised at just how much my knowledge has come on from working at the library. S, who previously worked in Woolworths knew the barcode for a Cadburys Creme Egg and I impressed everyone by also knowing barcodes for B&Q growbags and T&G flooring. As S and I said, book knowledge is all well and good but it takes a good solid retail training to really shine! 😆
Back at home Ady had been home with Davies and Scarlett in the morning and they’d done a couple of runs to the tip. Ady had asked the guys working there if the kids could get out the car and see what was happening as it was fairly quiet and he chatted to them for a while about recycling and refuse which Ady said was interesting. I think they both slumped around lunchtime though and by the time I got home at 5 the house was a bit gloomy.
Mum was here for the afternoon and I think she’d been giving Tarly a hard time about everything while sitting with Davies on her lap.He had been playing up to it and appeared to be almost in need of an ambulance when I came home but amazingly fairly perky mere moments after she went home :rolls: – she even followed him to the toilet to ‘check he’s okay’ – arrghhh!!!
Scarlett was being princessy and stroppy and Davies was being pathetic so I finally got everyone sorted out, admired Davies’ Iron Man built from geomags and persuaded him to tidy them up and then when they were in their pjs we read some stories. I finished The Cat Who Got Carried Away
Ady cooked toad in the hole which was delicious and I’ve been playing picpic on the DS. I’m now debating one last game before bed…