Going solo

Whew! I've just rescued my reduced fat hot cross bun - it almost became too blackened to eat there!!

Fortunately I was doing it for me and not for David - they guy I'm working with. He'd have thought that so funny he'd almost certainly have told everybody about it - for weeks. As it is, the other workers I've been shadowing have remarked how well David seems to have taken to me - apparently it is not unknown for some service users to blank new workers for a while.

But no - he likes my beard, my shoes, my watch - and patting my belly and telling me I'm too fat - to which I return some light-hearted, faceitious remark which makes him laugh. So I think we're going to get along just fine. Today I'm working with him alone, from 10-12 and again from 4-6: this will be the first time I'll have worked with a client one to one.

Good Friday was quite action-packed, actually! I'd forgotten that the buses were running to a Saturday timetable - so getting to work on time was a little hairy, though I was comforted greatly when both my boss and my fellow worker got on the same bus further down the road from me! (Lothian Buses are always winning awards for being Beritain's best bus company - which I wholeheartedly support, save for the fact that they reduce the service levels on both English Bank Holidays AND local ones - what's that about?).

Then I had only just enough time to return home and get changed before meeting Richard and Liz at Sainsbury's at 1pm - as time was running out before last night's divisional meeting, I'd roped them into helping me with some hall cleaning for what I thought would be a couple of hours - and promised to buy them lunch as a reward for the favour. Which is what we did - except that Sainbury's was busier than any of us had ever seen before and everything took much longer. Plus, Iain and John were already in the hall - they'd been painting and doing odd jobs - and as I said, the neighbours must have been saying to each other, "The Sally Army's getting visitors again - you can always tell...!"

And all that took much longer too - though it has to be said, we're nothing if not enthusiastic. It was snow and hail that eventually stopped play - or window-cleaning, to be precise - at 5.20pm. By then it was too late for Richard and Liz to get home and back in time for the meeting, and I again had less than half an hour at home - just enough to get changed into my uniform etc. And of course, it was then a case of all hands on deck - I ended up being default welcoming sergeant, as well as caretaker, etc - and didn't get home until nearly 11pm.

While there are many others with keys who could do so, part of my caretaker role is to lock up after special events you see. The trouble is, you always get a crowd who sit around chatting at the end - and it's very nice that they do that - though I do wonder how many of them had been out since 8.30 in the morning and have to return to work again today? Fortunately not until 10 - had it been any earlier I suspect I'd be ringing in sick with burnout, come Tuesday.

Finally, I could have spoken with the divisional commander last night about the subject in my last post, but I need to pray about it a while first, I think. I'm certainly not against the idea - I'm quite taken by it actually, but if I'm going to survive I need to start as I mean to go on and pace myself a little. Along with Advent Sunday, Good Friday has always been one of the most spiritual days for me, and so I treated the meeting and subsequent social time as my personal space. If he doesn't reappear at the corps for another few weeks I'll drop him a line or phone, requesting some time to meet, and leave to forward some of my thoughts on paper, prior to the meeting. To me, that sounds far more satisfactory than grabbing a few minutes in a crowded room with millions of distractions around...