A Penance

We had a wonderful extended weekend, last weekend. We are open in our business 5½ days per week, closing at 1 pm on Saturdays. For those living in UK or the USA this might sound strange – when I was in retail in England it was drummed into us that ’Saturdays are for Selling' – but outside of the big cities, Scandinavia closes on Satuday afternoon. We have worked out a staffing rota which means we are free every third Saturday. Unlike the rest of the staff, we don’t take a day off in the week but now that we can confidently leave the day-to-day running of the place to the others, we can allow ourselves a free day now and again. Then someone came up with the brilliant idea of taking that free day on the Friday before our free Saturday, giving us a long weekend every three weeks. We took the first of these last weekend. We went to our summerhouse on Friday morning, intending to spend the entire weekend there, and were delighted by the glimses of yellow that had appeared since last time, from the minature daffs we had put in around the edges of the lawn.

The daffs are just as colourful as last year. Don't they know there's a crisis on?

Not content with just one long weekend, next weekend is Easter and there is a public holiday from Thursday right through to Monday. We are open on Saturday as normal but, as we worked last Easter Saturday, it is someone else’s turn this year. In theory we could head off down to the summerhouse on Wednesday night and not come back till Tuesday morning, so if there is a gap in my posting to this blog, you’ll know why. We don’t have web access at the summerhouse and in a way I don’t really want it.

Two long weekends in a row! But it doesn’t end there, for the following Friday we are off to UK for ten days to finish off the holiday that was so abruptly cut short last September. Just Heather and me, without the kids, spending some time in the company of Family, of good friends, and alone in a little cottage in the heart of Snowdonia.

But there is a price to pay: There is always a price to pay. A kind of penance, if you will

We got back on Monday morning to a madhouse. Two of our assistants have the week off this week, a third has a regular day off on Mondays, so it was just Heather and myself against the world. Plus, someone had let all the crazies out again. We had to deal with crap like the irate woman who said accusingly ”I came down here on Friday but you WEREN’T HERE”. Well pardon us for having the temerity to take our first free day since New Year without running it by you first. It didn’t let up all day and by the end we were totally drained. Today is shaping up to be much the same and tomorrow could be even worse as people rush to get things done before the Easter break. Easter is a time for visiting family or having family over to visit. There are gifts to buy, and gifts are a substantial part of our business. At our local supermarket they say that the week before Easter is busier than the week before Christmas. At least we have got some help again today and tomorrow, and then we’re all off for a well-deserved rest. Ok, we’re having lunch with the rest of the family over at Heather’s parents’ summerhouse on Thursday. We have to take a whole day out of the calender every Easter, and Whitsun for that matter, for the big sit-down meal that lasts interminable hours. Another penance.

But in a fortnight, it will be just us two, alone, among the mountains.

I can’t wait.