Wet & Windy back to work

Back at the fun factory after the Christmas break and still lots of Christmas bits of stock around.  Customers seem confused at some of the empty shelves but this is as a result of a lot of stock being written off after last Christmas.

Most people seem to have survived the period quite well.

I managed to convince my old friend "Bulmer" from my  Hereford days that the 15 Peaks event in June would be  good for him and his wife approves so it will be good to hook up with him for the walk.  Hopefully "the girls" will approve and it will mean we keep our exclusive group together.

We had a lovely walk in the windy sunshine yesterday up near the millstones pub at Hathersage.  The pic was taken down near the river and the view still has an autumnal look about it.

 

Onwards to the new year

 

Boxing day hunt

We attended the gathering of the Bakewell Hunt at the agricultural centre yesterday.  Normally its in the town centre but I think they changed it due to the sales being on.  Being "in the country", there is quite a lot of support around here for the hunt.  One of the joint hunt-masters in his speech before setting off mentioned the hope of a change in the law to allow hunting with dogs again.  I wonder if it will ever happen?

Phew made it!

Right that's it Christmas is over with for another year along with the promise of not spending as much next year.  I had an idea that maybe to cut down on the cost and the blatant commercialism we might only observe  Christmas every other year.  This brought frowns and reverse smiles so I guess that's not a good idea.

We had a quiet start with a light breakfast then opened the presents, most unusual I got was a 3D webcam!  that will doubtless provide hours of entertainment.  Sally was so enamoured with the birthday T towels I repeated the gift today and it went down "just as well as it did last time".

The local pubs only open for a couple of hours so we visited The Church and The Square & Compass before trudging back home up the old railway line footpath.

Tomorrow being boxing day the local hunt will be leaving Bakewell town centre and as usual we shall attend.  Here's hoping the "fluffy bunny brigade" keep a low profile.

And finally, our little girlie kitten, Tesco, has taken to collecting earth worms from the garden and dropping them on the kitchen floor?  Very strange but it beats dead mice I suppose

Bah Hamburg

Lots of "Happy" Christmas shoppers in the old shop today with maybe a little more frenzied application than normal.  Quite funny this morning getting ready for work I only realised at 6:45 that I should have been in at 06:30.  No-one seemed to notice but it just meant I had to work until 3.00pm rather than 2.30 if I had been on time.

Quote of the day has to go to a bloke in the warehouse who noticed that one of the girls was wearing a Bah Humbug hat and said, "Why has Rachael got Bah Hamburg on her hat!"

Winter Soltice tomorrow at 0530 so thankfully it will be getting lighter each day from now on!!!!!!

Christmas shopping frenzy!

The Christmas shopping frenzy has begun.  Its the time when people in the shop react to the crowd around them by panicking! Its as if they imagine there's not going to be enough to go around or if they don't run around like chickens with their heads cut off they will never complete their shop!!

Silliest request of the day was "do you sell solder?"

We are way down on the target for last weeks sales so if you are going to shop in Matlock Sainsbugs this week don't expect to get out through the doors unless you spend at least £150!!

laptop RIP

One of the laptops I use for our website has finally given up the ghost.  It was the one which supplied the still and  webcam stream from the old greenhouse at the top of the garden.  I have been getting messages for ages that its been overheating and should be shut down but this morning it stopped itself.
 I have managed to replace it with a "box" from an old desktop tower machine.  Everything is fine except I cant get the sound to play from the webcam.  The microphone on the camera is picking up the noise but its not transmitting it with the broadcast picture.
It will no doubt be something simple but at this moment in time I cant fathom it.

Book prep!! Book what book.

The e mails have been zinging between myself and 2 ex SAS friends in the past week.  To maintain the SAS myth and mystery though I shall not name them except to give them codenames.  One lives in Spain so he shall be "Manuel"   the other lives in Hereford so he shall be "Bulmer".

I have been asking various questions about events that have popped up in our communications and wanting their "take" on dates and times and tales.  Manuel sent me his version of the mounting of one operation and I was in tears of laughter trying to read his mail to Sally.  Bulmer on the other hand brings a note of seriousness to the table.

Its strange that I just remember the various people we talk about, "as they were", full of tough determined complete professional get up and go!.  To hear from Bulmer that one has terrible arthritis and can hardly walk, another has Alzheimers and doesn't recognise him and a third talks and moves really slowly is reality hitting home.

The 3 of us can count ourselves lucky that any "scars" we might have dont show!

I really must get started on this damn book!

Monday Monday

Sainsbury's (the kitten) brush with the washing machine seems not to have had any lasting effects on him.  I cant set the thing going without checking the inside at least twice now though!!

Quite a busy weekend with finishing off the Christmas decks on Saturday then a walk down to the pub for a couple in the afternoon.  An unusual, well no, downright unusual sight struck me on the way back from the pub.  Sally had not taken off her jacket in the pub so obviously didn't feel the benefit of having done so when we emerged into the cold and windy afternoon to walk home.
So there we were walking along with her saying how cold her back was, she then broke into a run!!   Anyone who knows Sally will tell you that this is totally unheard of as she is opposed to any form of exercise.  I could not unfortunately get at my camera as she was hanging onto my shooting arm.  So alas, this unusual occurrence has not been recorded.

Sunday we had Kevin & Karen over from Worksop and visited Haddon Hall not Chatsworth as I had earlier recorded. It was a nice visit although the weather was absolutely foul.

Highlight of the visit was to see Ruth Goodman from the BBC TV series about living in the Victorian Era.  I saw her as soon as we entered the great hall and thought, "I know her from somewhere?", thinking that she worked on the checkouts at sainsbugs!  Shes the one in the pic with the white headscarf to the right of the bloke with the mustard pantaloons!,

Sainsbury the cat has a rinse!

I popped a couple of towels into the washer left the door open and went upstairs to get the rest of the towels, threw them in slammed the door and set it going.
A couple of minutes later I could hear this howl. like 2 cats when they are squaring up to each other for a fight.
There's been a couple of fully grown cats chasing our kittens so I thought it might be that and went outside to investigate.  No cats, sat back down again to hear the howl again, switched off the radio and heard the howl again, From inside the washing machine!   


Frantic and I mean frantic long minutes later we get him out without injury but obviously soaked and very very, well clean.

The look says it all "get me the F outa this thing" 

Not too keen on the rinse aid! 

The corporate spectre is abroad!

Whew!,  survived another week at the fun factory on the way to Christmas.  Dont get me wrong I like the spirit of Christmas but you have to admit 99% of it is designed to part us from our hard earned cash.

Talking of cash, "a survey has revealed", this was on Radio2 news yesterday, that, "there will be X thousands of people who will take out a short term high interest loan in the next 6 months".  The newsreader then followed it by saying, "the survey also revealed that there are an increasing number of people who are concerned at their level of personal debt".   Come on!

Anyway I digress, back to the "corporate spectre" at Sainsbugs, a notice appeared that there would be a "Colleague Christmas fayre tasting on the 4th of December at 1600 in the store cafe".  The reason, there needs to be one? was the help that colleagues gave to the store during the 2 recent power outages.  Now stop me if I'm a cynic, OK OK! I am but hey we were at work the power go's off we carry on working?

I did think though that it was a fine gesture and made a note to attend as it would be "on" 1 second after the end of my shift that day.  About 1545 I saw one of the trainers going round the store filling a trolley with goodies, but wait! they were by and large the "basic" range of goodies.  Putting this aside I finished my shift and collected the usual bits and bobs on our shopping list, so its 1615 as I'm coming up to the open entrance to the store cafe.

I pause and scan the faces of the people there, they are not stuffing their faces with Christmas fayre they are sitting there like people with the pox in a doctors waiting room.  I notice colleagues I definately do not want to share the free fayre with.  I also notice that the "organisers" are still "organising", a full 15 minutes after the scheduled "start" of the event.  Still "paused",  I sweep the room once again staring into their "eager" pale faces, wave weakly to the assembled throng and leave thinking, is it me?

I muse on the Sainsbugs corporate spectre, dont get me wrong I enjoy the old job its simple you meet interesting people, both collegues and customers.  There needs to b a strong corporate grip on a company that big with so many outlets ( Thinks my old company Remploy could have done with the same stranglehold!).  But being as old and cranky as I am it does some across as a, "hoary old chestnut"

Finally,  we were given the Ho Ho Ho Father Christmas hats which "You must wear" yesterday.  Mine was dirty, having make up on the inside, i wondered if it had been male of female who had been wearing it last!

Finally finally, P. S the sales target for the last week before Christmas is £1.1 million so get your hat on and your arse in gear Michael its going to be a bumpy ride!!!