Swamped with emails!

This morning, I allowed myself a lie-in and noticed that Sophie had texted me at 3am to say she was back in her room so she'll be a bit weary this evening! She sounded like she'd had a brilliant time, though, so that was good.

I went to work at 10am and was horrified to discover that there were 93 emails waiting for me in the customer service inbox, and a further 54 in our contact centre mailbox! I wished I'd gone in at 8am as usual!

I worked steadily all day and managed to clear most of them, as well as chasing people up who owed me a response to old emails. Sara is back next week and I don't want to leave her with a lot of work to do! I stayed until 5pm as Sophie's train was getting in at about 5.30pm, so it worked out perfectly and much better than going home and then driving all the way back into Northampton again! 

I drove down, picked her and Luca up, took Luca back to the office and we returned home where it was time to relax and hear all about Sophie's two days away!

Meeting up.

Tuesday was a normal, uneventful day. I was off the phone at work and dealing with the customer service emails again. The phone calls have certainly subsided now, and there were long gaps between customers ringing in.

On Wednesday morning I took Sophie to work, we picked up her colleague, Luca, and then I drove them to the station so they could catch a train to Birmingham. They are attending an exhibition for two days, with a gala dinner this evening, so Sophie was excited about that, and mingling with people she talks to on a regular basis.

Back home, I had a coffee and Keith and I decided to go out for breakfast. We had toyed with the idea of having dinner out this evening, but the thought of the high prices for drinks put us off! We went to Glebe Farm near Kettering and had a delicious full English with a big pot of tea. It was lovely to sit and relax and look out over the gorgeous views from the café.

Back home I pottered about and at midday, I didn't feel well at all. Maybe the breakfast was too much for my tummy! I sat on the sofa and nodded off, with Monty curled up next to me. He put his paw on my hand, bless him!

I was due to meet my cousin Beverley and her husband Steve at the care home at 1.30pm and, although I really didn't feel like going, I dragged myself off to see them, saying to Keith I wouldn't be long. By the time I met them I was feeling a little better and we had a great catch-up with Mum and Dad, sitting in the lovely lounge overlooking the A14. It was lovely to have a chat with them and I do sometimes miss seeing my extended family!

Before I left, Mum and Dad had their covid booster jabs, which was great. I said goodbye to them, saying I would see them next Wednesday when I'd arranged to take my Dad to the dentist, and my Mum shopping.

I had a much-needed cup of tea at home with Keith and we had a very quiet evening. Neither of us fancied the dinner we had planned, so I had cheese on toast and Keith had a sandwich! I went upstairs and watched the last episode of Help! We Bought A Village, and I had an early night! I had a feeling that Sophie wouldn't be turning in early!

Good news!

We were all waiting for the news from our MD today about the working arrangements for the Queen's funeral next week. It's been declared a Bank Holiday but that means nothing to us, as we're normally open anyway.

We were all hoping that everywhere would close out of respect and to allow people to watch the funeral at home. Luckily, just after lunchtime, we received the unexpected news that we would indeed close, which was great. I was fully expecting to work and would have gone in, but this was a bonus.

Nicola was back from her holiday this morning and was hilarious as always, regaling us with stories of what she'd been up to with her family! I manned the phones for a while but as it wasn't too busy, I came off to deal with the ever-rising tide of emails. We had several phone calls about our opening hours, but strangely, no emails!

Back home I discovered that one of the items we'd sold on eBay was faulty, while another hadn't been delivered. I do sometimes wonder if it's worth it. We still had some items to sell so I took them off as I wouldn't be able to send them off next Monday anyway. I think we'll give it a rest for a few weeks!

Dinner tonight was a delicious chicken casserole with dumplings, the meal we should have had yesterday! Although today had been warm, the evening turned chillier, so it was the perfect meal for an Autumn night!

P.S. No hedgehogs again. At least I'm spared from buying an automatic feeder for them while we're away!

Where are the hogs?

I was very annoyed this morning when I discovered the batteries I'd bought yesterday were AA and not AAA, so it meant we had to go out again and buy some more! We use the AAA batteries in the keyboard as well, and that was playing up, too! Grrr!

It worked out well, though, as Sophie had booked a yoga class at the gym, so we dropped her off and popped to the nearby Wilko where we bought batteries, a doormat (Monty had weed on the old one) and some more calciworms for the hedgehogs. I didn't see them last night and this morning there were some left on the plate. Keith had commented the other day that they didn't seem to like the rain so maybe they were staying undercover? I think we had some heavy downpours last night as the ground was saturated this morning.

We also popped into Boots and I bought some suncream! We haven't done that for a while! Before going back to pick up Sophie we had a coffee in Costa, which was packed with people enjoying brunch. 

Back home it was leftover cold meats and nibbles for lunch and then preparations for dinner (sometimes it seems endless), while Sophie hoovered again. Monty is being a little monkey at the moment and seems to be going out of his way to annoy us, constantly asking for our food even though he has plenty of biscuit and wet food available. The holiday may stop this cycle he has of wanting what we eat and turning his nose up at cat food. He has taken to standing on one of the bar stools now and trying to climb up onto the island if there's any diary about, like cheese, milk or butter. He is acting like he has an addiction! I think he's going to be in for a big shock while we're away, as it's the longest we've been on holiday since 2017!

Sophie and I applied gooey green face packs in the afternoon and lolled on the bed. We played Scrabble and she beat me, as usual. We all agreed that we weren't hungry after our lunch so we skipped dinner tonight, deciding to have it tomorrow instead!

We didn't see the hedgehogs again this evening, which was a bit disappointing. I think it's way too early for them to hibernate! Maybe they're fed up with the food I put down!

Feeling nervous.

I woke this morning feeling a bit of trepidation as Sophie was going to Birmingham to meet a new man for lunch. She had met him online and today was the day... Personally, (and she knows this) I think it's too soon after breaking up with Zain, but at 26, she can certainly make her own decisions.

We dropped her at the station at 11am and returned home where I did some housework. I was doing my best to keep busy and not check my phone every two minutes! She did text to say they'd met up and were going to play crazy golf, followed by something to eat. She sounded happy, so that's all I can wish for.

Today has been dull and cloudy with occasional rain showers. Autumn is definitely here now and I can see the trees slowly begin to change. Some of them didn't do so well in the drought that we had, and are already shedding their leaves.

In the afternoon I indulged in a rare bath, and then lay on the bed and watched a fascinating documentary about James Joyce and his novel, Ulysses. I've never read it and didn't even know what it was about, but it was a bit racy in parts!

Sophie texted me to say she was going to get the 5.30pm train home and that she'd had a great time, which was a relief. On the way to pick her up, we called into a very busy Aldi in Kingsthorpe to buy some more cat litter (we'd left the tray out in the rain) and some batteries as the mouse on our computer is playing up.

Sophie arrived at about 6.30pm and told us all about her date and although she sounded happy she said that maybe it was a bit too soon. She doesn't expect to see him before we go on holiday so she'll have plenty of time to think things over!

Dinner this evening was a simple cold meats and new potatoes meal, followed by a film Keith and I watched called The Catcher Was A Spy. It was a bit mediocre but I do like Paul Rudd who was the main star!

A tide of mawkishness..

The news was obviously full of the Queen's death this morning, and I do wonder how much they can wring out of what's happened? It seems that we revel in these kinds of events, dragging up old footage and photos of the Queen from when she was a baby to the present day. Everything is discussed and dissected ad nauseam...

I sound like a complete whiner and an Anti-Royalist (I'm definitely not!), but this huge coverage really irritates me. It leaves any other news items out in the cold, and although it's massive about the Queen, there are other things going on in the world that we'd like to hear about! She had lived to the fantastic age of 96, had had a truly fabulous life and had been very frail in the last few months. It was going to happen one day!

At work, I had an email from someone asking if one of our early morning swims was still on, in light of the events? Why wouldn't it be? This theme carried on for most of the day, and we received a lot of calls from people asking if we had cancelled swimming lessons, and classes or just if we were still open? It felt like the early stages of the pandemic all over again.

I hate to say it but the speculation in the office was: When is the funeral? And will we get a day off? Several of us were convinced our holidays would be affected by the funeral. I think the funeral will be when we're on holiday! And will we get another day off for the coronation of King Charles III? It still feels funny to say that! And of course, not forgetting Queen Camilla! I never thought I would hear that!

The mawkishness flooded Facebook today with ghastly profile pictures of the Queen walking off into the distance with Paddington Bear, and one particularly vomit-inducing cartoon of the Queen and Prince Phillip sitting on a bench with the words, "Hello again Lilibet"

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I have a feeling that the Queen was not overly sentimental at all. I didn't know her personally (obviously) but I think she was a fan of the stiff upper lip and had no truck with this kind of thing at all. You only have to remember how she reacted to the death of Princess Diana, which was truly shocking news.

As well as all the sentimentality, we also learnt that a great number of sporting fixtures were to be cancelled over the weekend, including Keith's Sileby match. I understand it was out of respect to the Queen but would she have wanted this? What about our national slogan, Keep Calm and Carry On? Couldn't we have played the National Anthem, have the players wear black armbands, and have a minute's silence?

Sophie texted me to say that there was talk of the staff in her office wearing black ribbons or armbands, and the conference she's going to next week being cancelled. She was looking forward to working at the Gala Dinner afterwards, but that is very much in doubt.

Our newspaper today had 85 pages of news about the Queen. How they managed to come up with that at short notice is mind-boggling! 

Shock news...

I was back at work and doing my short shift today, but we had one member of staff not able to come in, so it was a bit hectic! I covered the lunch breaks, and in the afternoon we heard on the grapevine that the Queen was ill and that the senior members of the Royal family were on their way to Balmoral... was this the end of an era?

I was very glad to get out at 2pm as we'd had various niggles with the computers all morning! I'd arranged to pick up my Mum at 3pm and take her to do some shopping, and we went to Tesco where she bought some clothes, toiletries and treats. I was going to take her home for tea and cake but we stayed at Costa instead, something I was very glad about when I heard there'd been a problem on the A14 and the traffic was horrendous!

I dropped her off and saw the line of vehicles stretching from the A14 slip road back to Broughton. Poor people! And all because of a broken down lorry! Back home we watched the news and I was just sitting relaxing with a drink and Help! We Bought a Village when Sophie rushed into the living room to say that our Queen had died. I was shell-shocked, to be honest, as I didn't expect her to die so quickly! She'd only seen our new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, the other day, and although she did look frail she was up and about.

Predictably, all five television channels were covering the news, something I knew would go on for the foreseeable future. When Prince Phillip died it was just blanket coverage on the BBC channels all evening, which was a bit ridiculous. 

We were all shocked and it felt very strange to hear Charles now called King Charles III. I do wonder how long he will reign seeing as he's already in his 70s? I am a bit ambivalent about our Royal family... Some of them do a fantastic job and I admired the Queen and Prince Phillip for their incredible work ethic, but I just know there will be an outpouring of sentimentality for the next few weeks, which I will try to avoid!