Nothing messes up your Friday by realising it’s only Wednesday. Well at least until you work in hospitality. I always used to feel a little aggrieved. That it was just plain rude waking up to discover it wasn’t Friday.
I got over that once I started shift work with the police and have now completely come round to its advantages. These days I find myself looking forward to a Monday or Tuesday as sometimes things are a little calmer midweek.
There are no grand expectations involving how to spend time off. Friends mostly work Mon – Fri so while am grateful they’re very patient and understanding regards consistently missed events, I get to prance round TKMaxx unsupervised! To be fair, this is never a good thing. Employees of mine have threatened to give the shop staff a photo of me and have me barred.
I merely maintain I am a simple person with a complicated mind. I used to pop into the store when the kids were doing their (supervised) swimming lessons nearby. Purely for business purposes of course.
Our establishment would need adornments for Christmas/Easter/Halloween (insert required Hallmark occasion here) and I would just take a wee peek to see what they had in stock. £200 worth of purchases in the boot later, I’d return to the lesson assuring whichever child it was they had been super and yes! I DID see their big splash right at the end.
This need to spend extensive time shopping really isn’t my fault but, in fact, a by-product of my indecision. For example, when choosing an item to purchase, I can’t pick any of the items up before buying them because I will have gotten their hopes up.
It will believe it has to be chosen to come home with me and I then won’t be able to put it back. This is a very real quandary especially when looking at Christmas gonks or Easter bunnies.
Fellow shoppers hear me quietly apologise to the other fruit and veg excusing myself for leaving them behind.
This phenomenon extends beyond the department store and can hit me smack in the face in other establishments. I can be merrily shopping in the supermarket diligently following a list until WHAM, the fruit and veg aisle.
The absolute nightmare that is choosing ‘loose’ vegetables or fruit. I need a lie down, just for a moment, because of the guilt I always feel when I choose one over the other.
I may even draw sideward concern glances from fellow shoppers who hear me quietly apologise to the other fruit and veg excusing myself for leaving them behind. It’s nothing personal Madame Carrot it’s you it’s me, please don’t be sad Mr Aubergine, your new family will be along soon to take you home.
The lockdown dilemma
Being on lockdown is weird for me, as I’m sure it is for all of you too. I feel tired and fidgety at the same time. I want to see people but I also want people to leave me alone. I wish there was more to do but I also feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
I’m just a little lost and this last week hasn’t helped in the slightest. I managed to book some time off work but this was filled not with household and garden pootling as planned, but instead with a mild health emergency and my brilliant medical team enforcing some serious rest.
The balance between physical issues requiring rest and mental health demanding items on the ‘to do’ list being accomplished is NOT an easily achieved.
Imagine taking the above shopping dilemmas and applying them to internet shopping. Instagram demands you ‘swipe up’. Facebook wants you to ‘shop now’.
The email subscriptions telling me its National Stationery Week lead me to 54 essential notebooks and matching pens are making their way to my letter box now. My credit rating is doomed.
Every small business reminds me that I alone ensure their survival (I include ours in this) and every large retailer wants me to know they’re on the cusp of reopening.
I just can’t decide where to look. I aim for Pinterest. What a mistake and how in the heck IS it Friday night? When I first logged on to look for ideas for the garden I swear it was only Tuesday afternoon.
