Work went well yesterday and by 2.00 I had the parcels packed and in the post. I walked back into the shop thinking that my next move should be to ring Julia and tell her that I would be able to pick her up. This is always a problem on Friday as she finishes a bit earlier than normal and it can be a bit difficult.
As I got back to the computer I realised that we had a new order. It was for one gum card (Alma Cogan from the A&BC Who-Z-At Star Series, 1961). That’s easy enough – compliments slip, into a holdr (we have some left over from a stamp collection we bought) , into a board backed envelope, first class stamp and address.
While I was doing that another order came in – banknote. Same again. Easy to find and simple to pack.
Then another came in. He wanted fifty different items. I haven’t a clue where half of them are…
So Julia didn’t get a lift home last night and I worked late. However, as I’m currently being paid for my full week for working one day, I can’t really complain if I have to work a bit longer.
It’s amazing how quickly I adjust. When I started full time work at the age of 16 we used to do five nine hour days, then I moved to doing six eight hour days. We had two weeks holiday in those days. Am I sounding old and crusty?
Now I do six hour days and have four weeks holiday. I work Saturdays but have Sundays and Wednesdays off (the latter being my choice so I get a day off when Julia does). It’s not hard. In fact I’d like to do longer days, as it hardly seems worth it to go in for six hours. The strange thing is that I still feel tired by the end of the week. It’s not just an age thing, because I know someone a lot younger than me who has similar hours and he complains about how onerous his working life is.
I think we’ve just got softer as a nation. At the risk of sounding like one of the Four Yorkshiremen, there are people who are just ten years younger than me who think they are badly done to as they work 35 hours and week and have a month off, plus Bank Holidays. For the sake of my American readers, who are probably reading this with an expression of disbelief, here is how the rest of the world does it. Even Kazakhstan and South Sudan have better holiday provision than you do.
Work, gum cards, holidays, snowflakes – amazing where a blog can take you.
They say that hard work never killed anyone but on the whole they are lying when they say that. I remember having just two weeks holiday a year when I started work. I basically spent a whole year waiting for those two weeks.
Yes, they did seem more important when there were only two of them.
As for hard work, I was listening to a TV presenter last night, telling people that working on TV was harder and less glamorous than it looks.
I remarked to Julia that working on a poultry farm was also less glamorous than it looks, but the pay was worse and the words “coke” and “chicks” had a different meaning.
Working on TV has never looked very glamorous to me. Interviewing people you nothing about on subjects that you know even less about while some idiot shouts into your earpiece looks like very hard work. Mind you, I am not enormously attracted by the thought of chicken farming either.
I have a great fund of manure anecdotes. Not that actually used the word manure…
I can believe it.
🙂
I agree with Laurie and Helen on all counts. Aside from the map of paid holidays shown on the link, we have fast been becoming the “gig economy” over here, which makes things ever more difficult. Those surviving gig to gig can’t take a vacation.
I just got the packet for my health insurance. The deductible is worse than what was listed on the Exchange. It is not $8000, but $8550 according to the packet, and I am paying $278 a month for that privilege. Prescriptions are covered either by counting against the deductible, which still comes out of pocket, or by copay, but nothing is covered at no charge. A relative once described health care in this country as similar to gambling at a casino, as health insurance is provided by for profit companies over here. The odds are always in favor of the house, not the client.
I have family in South Africa, where they have an insurance scheme – they are having to scrimp and save to afford heart medication in retirement. UK has many faults but I wouldn’t swap the NHS and holidays with you. I would like to live in a desert, eat your burgers and have a Ford Mustang though…
It’s been a rough day here. The oldest cat suddenly died in his sleep after breakfast, curled up in his cardboard box hangout. I found him after lunch, buried him this afternoon. No joy here tonight.
That must have been a terrible shock. I’m very sorry to hear the news. Having said that, when my time comes, Though it’s of no immediate comfort, it’s good to note that he’d had breakfast and a nap as a prelude.
I’m tired after 3 days work but then it’s more the mental fatigue. I don’t believe it is good to do work for the sake of doing work. Better to do work properly than do lots of work.
It is commonly said, is it not, that no one on their death bed wished they’d done more work. Bearing this in mind, when one of my bosses asked me recently if I wanted to go back to full time, I had to decline on the grounds that I prefer richness of life than richness of pocket.
I look at my bank balance and wonder if I should have worked harder. Then I think about all the time I’ve enjoyed with Julia and the kids and it makes up for it. You have made a wise decision. If I had more money I would either fritter it or worry about it, so it’s no great loss. You are right about the deathbed – and as they say in Nottingham – there’s no pockets in a shroud.
Yes, you can’t take your money with you!
🙂
I am reading not with disbelief but with admiration and envy. In the U.S. there is a frenzy of work at all levels, and to not be out straight ALL the time is an indication of moral turpitude. No wonder this country has such problems. We are all worn down to a frazzle, with not even the guarantee of health care to comfort us.
You have so many natural advantages, it’s a shame to think of so many people living under pressure. I don’t always take my holiday, but it’s nice to know that it’s there.
Yes, yes!
At least business appears brisk
Yes, it’s not too bad on eBay. We would be in trouble without it.