A far too early start all round this morning as Ady got the kids up at 7ish and I staggered down soon afterwards to assist in the chivvying them to getting dressed then they all left to go to Julie’s and work.
I hung some washing out, let the chickens out, put another wash on, sorted a load of laundry, made a cup of tea and then got dressed (another Nice Skirt Nicola day, worn over leggings again. It’s a pink raggedy edged skirt with layers which makes me feel like a dancer but I suspect makes me look more like an elephant in a tutu! :lol:). I had time to check my emails and then headed off to work.
I’ve not done a Wednesday morning for ages thanks to holidays and then having to book another off as I’d muddled up my Wednesdays and booked RI and W&G Science Museum for a day I was supposed to be working. I think Wednesdays are my favourite day to work actually, only four hours and generally busy so the time goes really quick. I spent the first half an hour, pre-opening marking off the daily papers the library has (Times, Telegraph, Guardian) and one of the weekly ones (West Sussex Gazette) and stamping them with the ‘please do not remove from the library’ stamp. Then we opened and I was on the counter for the next hour and a quarter but it was nice and busy with a steady stream of customers coming in and lots of delivery to unpack and split into stock to go back onto the shelves and stock to be put aside ready for borrowers to collect. This included 3 slow cooker recipe books for me :).
Next was tea break where I chatted to Y about my evening course and made her laugh describing some of my fellow attendees who are high in comedy value.
After tea I was on the enquiry desk for an hour. I dealt with very few enquiries but did print some stuff off for someone for her daughters homework on ‘kingdoms’ which we eventually realised was about classification of species and the varying types of groupings – something I had learnt a bit about last week at the Darwin Cocoon. I did some work on a print out of reservations outstanding for more than 30 days, 60 days and 75 days to ensure people weren’t waiting for items that are never going to arrive.
Finally my last hour was spent on an ‘off’ which means you are not rota’d anywhere but get on with your own jobs. I sorted out the Reading Groups that are managed at Lancing, ordered some promotional material for some upcomming displays and then did all the closing routines of locking windows, shutting down computers and so on.
We closed at 1pm and I drove straight to Julie’s. It has rained, heavily, all day long today without any break so driving was not as relaxing as usual. I had a cup of tea with Julie, who commented that all the kids had been a bit crazy today – wet play syndrome – and we coordinated diaries for the next few weeks before heading for home.
Davies and Scarlett wanted to watch Star Wars so they headed off to do that, although from the banging coming from Davies’ room I suspect they didn’t watch it too closely. I ate marmite on toast and drank tea. They reappeared back downstairs after about an hour and I offered to read to them as I’ve promised to do but hasn’t happened for a couple of days so we spent about half an hour sitting with me reading a large chunk of
I then made the kids tea which they scoffed down before getting changed and we left for Badgers. Ady was only about five minutes behind us but we decided not to wait for him incase he was held up too much and I dropped the kids off. There is a single Dad (his twin boys were at badger camp with Davies) and a single Mum (her 5yo daughter started Badgers last term) who also hang around as it’s not worth driving home and back and have been asking Ady and I to go to the pub / coffee shop with them. We had intended to go last week but got asked to stay so this week were planning to go along. But it was raining so hard we all stood around outside under the porch of the building trying to decide what to do. Eventually we went for ringing the doorbell and asking to go and sit in the lounge at Badgers instead of venturing out. They let us make ourselves tea or coffee and the four of us sat and chatted in there. It was really nice :). We didn’t admit to Home Ed this time although I suspect it will come up pretty quickly but they were doing most of the talking about their nightmare ex partners and one of the twin boy’s special needs. I was really inspired by how well this Dad knows his boys. He says his ex was never very maternal and I think he has pretty much raised them himself but I know plenty of parents who don’t have a clue of who their kids are, he has them spot on and loves them and works with them to make them the best they can be. Top bloke :). Ady and I both decided we never want to split up – it sounds like hell and that we’ll carry on Home Edding – neither of them had much positive to say about schools! They did say that for a long while they thought we were not a real kosher couple but were having an affair as we turned up in seperate cars and headed off holding hands before going off in our seperate cars again afterwards 😆 Reminded us of our neighbours in Manchester speculating about us for ages before they got to know us well enough to ask why Ady worked funny hours and headed off in a fancy suit – they had decided he was an undercover policeman! 😆
Davies won Badger of the Month for the third time and was commended for being mature, helpful, responsible and grown up. He’s been doing lots of helping with tasks like getting drinks and putting tables away apparently and is very hopeful he may be made a Follow-Me Badger which I think is a bit like being a prefect for the last year of Badgers. From what Julie was saying last week and him winning BotM tonight I suspect he is indeed on track for it. 🙂 Oh how I remember the early days at Lancing Badgers where I had to sit in the cloakroom!
Back home again we finished the book as we were enjoying it so much before bed.