Happy Easter!
Is that a thing people say to each other? Well if it isn’t it is now because I say so. We are celebrating this bitch. I have chocolate. And that’s about it. What else are you meant to have to celebrate Easter? A rabbit maybe? Some chickens? I have no idea. But anyway, I hope you’re spending this time doing nice things, we may not be able to spend it with our families or going anywhere nice (which is sad because the weather has been beautiful here the past couple of days) but we can do it nice things all the same. I mean, I’ve spent my 4 day weekend breaking up cardboard boxes, sorting my recycling and watching the cats that like to lounge in my back garden. Who says I don’t know how to have a good time?
Anyway, it’s been a bit of a trying week this week. Despite being psyched to get back to blogging (it’s been awesome) I have to say the real world was out to kick my ass and try and bring me down. It’s been tough. And considering I was only working three days this week you’d think I’d be a little bit more upbeat but honest to God those three days had a lot going on!
Since we haven’t spoken I won’t recap everything. You don’t have the time to sit down for that long and read my life recap. I mean, actually, it wouldn’t even take that long because it’s not like I’ve done a lot the past few weeks. But let’s recap the tryingness of my week. I had Monday booked off from work this week. I booked it ages ago because I was meant to be going to an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London last Saturday. For obvious reasons that didn’t happen and I was so upset about it. And then I was more upset because my company has stopped any annual leave cancellation for the foreseeable and so even though I wasn’t going anywhere I still had to take my day off on Monday which sucked. After all, I get bored enough at weekends being stuck at home by myself, three days was a bit much. That isn’t why this week was trying, though, oh no. Work managed to intrude into my day off even when I wasn't allowed to log onto the system. Lunchtime I’m merrily trying to draft posts for the blog and then I find myself getting a phone call from one of my colleagues at work. I figure she’s bored and wants a catch-up, I did tell people to talk to me so I don’t get lonely. Oh no, she’s panicking about a conference call she’s booked in for with our boss and HR. She was right to worry, she got furloughed. I ended up spending about 3 hours on a group call with my team with all of us complaining about them furloughing her and how she can try and cut costs. It was three women who work in finance trying to figure out ways to save money when you’re already struggling to make ends meet. It was not a fun call but we still managed to make each other laugh. So yeah, my working week was starting on a low even before it actually started (by the way, if you aren’t in the UK and don’t know all the ins and outs of what the government is doing, the furlough scheme here means companies can claim 80% of an employees wages from the government if they place them on furlough and they don’t work. It’s shit because 80% can be below minimum wage but it’s allowed).
My week did improve, though. I mean, I saw my dog (at a safe 2-metre distance from people) which was really the highlight of my week. my mom’s been sending daily dog (and cat) videos and pictures to our family group chat to keep me and my brother happy but seeing my dog in person? It’s enough to make you want to cry, I’ve missed his little face. I already know the first place I’m going when this lockdown ends and it won’t be the pub (that’ll probably be the second place I go, we all miss the pub especially since we’ve had beer garden weather and haven’t been able to take advantage).
Then the week took a sharp downward turn on Thursday when a company-wide email went out. Not only are we doing more week as they furlough staff (for very understandable reasons, I get we want to save jobs during this time) but they also want to give a three-month pay cut to all staff who are still working to help recoup some of the losses we’re having lately. I just… they want me to do more work for less money and there’s no guarantee after the 3 months they won’t extend this reduction in pay. I just, I felt sick all of Thursday. I was going to get so much done on Thursday, I was feeling so productive… and after that email, I spent most of my day on the phone with everyone I could think of trying to figure out if we had to agree to the pay cut and trying to find out what people can do to help cover their costs. I mean, I’m ok, I' save money every month and don’t often have to dip into it but I know plenty of folks who are going to struggle. It was just a truly awful day all around and really put me on a low for the start of the bank holiday weekend.
But if you think having a payout will stop me and my online shopping you would be hella wrong. I’m finishing this post on Saturday and let me tell you we have had some absolutely stunning weather for the start of this weekend. Friday was beautiful, when I was in my back garden it genuinely felt like summer. The same was true for today. I mean, the rest of the weekend isn’t looking so hot but that’s fine. I actually ended up buying myself some garden furniture online this weekend. It looks so pretty, though, and I’ve been saying I want somewhere to sit in the garden so at least I can get outside a little bit. Hopefully, the weather will pick up again next week when it’s delivered. I need something to get me outside… I just need to sort out the absolute state that is my back garden. I have a little patio area, a tiny patch of grass, and then loads of gravel. I need to get rid of the gravel and hopefully try and grow a lawn again, but that may involve me getting someone in for the garden, there is only so much one woman who has never gardened in her life can do.
Well, that’s been my week. I’m actually surprised at how many words I’ve got on the page telling you about it. Let’s move on to books.
What I’ve Been Reading
I know I said I wouldn’t recap the whole year to you guys when it came to life goings-on but I’ve not exactly been reading that much this year so I have recapped my whole years worth of reading for you guys. Yes, that is all I’ve read in 3 and a bit months. I am very sad about it. This has been the year of the slump. But I rated most of the books pretty high and even my lower ratings were 3 stars.
My favourites of these books though? Love Lettering, Headliners, Caressed by Ice and Birthday Girl. I mean, I enjoyed all of them, but those were the ultimate of ultimate, you know? I wasn’t going to count as Birthday Girl as one of my favourites as it’s not as highly rated as some of my other reads… but I read that book in a day yesterday, that is the sign of a good book. Definitely glad I borrowed that on Kindle Unlimited now.
New To Me
I suppose I did my reads for the year, I kind of had to do the same for my book purchases. I would like to begin this by saying, I know, I have a problem. The fact they were cheap deals, preorders and some freebies does no justify the sheet number of books here. Even the fact that I’ve read some of them before and just wanted to own a copy and support the author doesn’t count as an excuse does it? God, these are the things I need as a reminder to read more. I’ll be talking about my quest to buy less and read more in another post (if I can finish it anyway) but here are the new to me reads (not that new when some are 3 months old). I genuinely thought I hadn’t bought that much during my book slump. And I’m pretty sure I’m missing a couple of books in all of this. I’m pretty certain some of my preorders are missing because I preordered them so long ago. Honestly, never has a blog post highlighted that I’ve got a problem as much as this has. Oh well, we all cope with high-stress situations in different ways. Sadly, I buy things, my bank account hates me. I think some of the purchases were meant to help make me want to read and that obviously didn’t happen.
I’ve also been taking advantage of my libraries ebook services during this time and I’m hoping to read these couple of books. Hopefully, I will as Crimson Bound has been on my shopping list for a while.
Finally, I have a few arcs as well. A couple of others I removed out as I ended up buying them as well so no point showing them twice. I am half behind as two of these are already released but the other two I have until June so you know. I’ve got time to catch up.
And that is my week. What have you been doing this week? Have you got a happy story for the week? Or do you have a book in my many new ones you think I need to read ASAP?
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