Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

First of all, a brief recap of what I've been up to since I last posted.

Despite getting very little sleep Thursday night, I felt quite bright and breezy Friday which I can only put down to that Friday feeling :) Work was OK, got some good work done on some outstanding NEG queries and was able to scamper off at 4pm as planned to go to Pauline's retirement do at Family Placement (where I worked before moving to SFU). I arrived a bit late though, all the sarnies and munchies were gone but there was cake! Which was scoffed happily :) Pauline was pleased I'd made the effort to go so I'm glad I went. I wasn't there long though, about 30 minutes all told and thus I got home earlier too, which was nice.

Saturday morning was cancelled, mostly, though I did surface before noon, which was a minor miracle. Saturday afternoon saw me getting cheerfully lost driving round Hoddesdon, a nearby village, attempting to find the house of a lady who was offering two free toilet bowls (no cistern or seat) free to anyone who'd collect 'em. My toilet bowl has a cracked base and could do with replacing but it's out of my budget atm, so I figured a free one couldn't be ignored. I found the house, eventually, but alas the toilets were not the sort I like and would require extra plumbing to fit, rather than the equivalent of plug and play. Oh well. I have to say, bibliogirl, I thought of you when I saw the house. Basically, there's a builder's yard out front and it looked as if they've ripped off the whole front of the house and extended it plus done some work to the back. It's nearly finished now but the lady was saying it's taken them just over two years. Sheesh!! I repeated bibliogirl's mantra of "It'll be lovely when it's done!" to her and she laughed :) Possibly with a tinge of hysteria.....

Sunday was spent loafing as only as Mitchy can. Monday was relatively peaceful at work but things are slowing up for real now and I have six weeks to look forward to where I do very boring and shitty jobs to while away the time. I hate summer at work. On the plus side, the phones pretty much stop ringing, so that's a bonus.

This brings us to yesterday, where BigBouncy sidled up to me late afternoon and said "Fancy a jaunt tomorrow?" Me, being the ever cautious and wise admin, asked why before committing myself. Turns out a school that is going to be merged with another school had got itself into a tizzy about archiving its records and needed some help. Records Management had already been out there to get the process going but they needed someone to go over and basically empty all the storage boxes into proper HCC archive boxes, label 'em and enter the details into a spreadsheet. As this is basically what I do whenever I archive stuff at work (and you know I bitch about it :) ) and as the school was in nearby Hatfield, BigBouncy wondered if I'd volunteer.

Shitty job v. morning out of the office? Guess which I chose? :)

Naturally, because I wanted an early start today, I got another attack of insomnia last night and didn't get to sleep until 4am. *headdesk* Thanks, body, I needed that. *mutters naughty words* Somehow, after 3 hours sleep, I managed to prise myself up and trundled over to the school more or less on time to see what sort of fun and games I was in for today. It didn't start well - BigBouncy had assured me that there'd be a laptop available with the spreadsheet Records Management wanted completed available to me, no problems. First thing secretary says when I asked about it "Oh, BigBouncy said you'd be bringing a laptop!" Well I know she wouldn't have said that because we don't HAVE laptops in our office for use by the serfs on trips out and about anyway. So I can only assume the school heard what it wanted to hear and went deaf to everything else. It was ever thus. After much faffing about, I was finally set up with a laptop and the right spreadsheet and could get stuck into the archiving.

It took me 3 solid hours of non-stop work. I am absolutely knackered now. And I haven't finished it all, either. I ran out of the labels that Records Management left, and despite the headteacher's hints that I could perhaps go and get more and come back that afternoon, I declined and said I'd be back tomorrow to finish off. Sadly, I have to go to work first, rather than straight to Hatfield (Hatfield and Hertford are in opposite directions from me :P) because I couldn't get in touch with anyone IN RM to get more labels, dammit. Oh well, it's practically done, everything's boxed up in the proper boxes which is the main thing. I just have to label the last few, inventory the contents and transfer the info to the spreadsheet. Unless they generate 20 more boxes before I get there tomorrow, it shouldn't take me more than an hour to do.

Went back to work via home, where I had a shower and some lunch and got into the office just in time for the riveting Team Meeting. Bleh. The afternoon was spent slurping tea and sorting out some paperwork, plus going over a few last minute details with PartyGirl, who finished work for the summer today. Jammy cow :)

And now I'm home, typing this up, before I keel over for a power nap. Mmmm sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.......