So, I picked Monday not just because it was Halloween and I wanted to see if anyone did fun stuff, but because it looked like being a fairly typical working day for me, which I thought might be illuminating. And it pretty much was the usual, apart from the murder. That only happens every other year…
(I meant to take more photos, but I forgot)
7:30am – awaken, probably from my flatmate leaving. I was having a dream about something that happened in a previous dream, that I’m now almost starting to believe actually happened. Try to sleep a bit more.
8am – pick up my iPhone and check my mail, Twitter, Instagram and The Guardian. Not much going on. Spot my 5 year diary and realise I forgot to write anything last night. Have difficulty remembering what I did.
8:30am – get up and dressed. I put on my Haunted Housework tshirt since it’s Halloween. While pondering breakfast, I notice there’s a line of police incident tape cutting off our back street, manned by a lone policeman. Now I’m intrigued. I got off the bus yesterday to find a bunch of a police and incident tape at Bridgeton Cross, but nothing on the BBC news site. Make some tea and go back upstairs. Finally there is an update, though without much detail – it just says someone died.
9am – check my shops for new feedback and things to relist, approve some new SCK ads.
9:15am – was that the postman I hear? It was, and all he brought was a subscription renewal reminder from Fire & Knives. Bah.
9:30am – Make a list of orders that need packing today. This involves much scrawling of acronyms so that half the time I can barely understand it myself. Lots of zines today. I really love how it goes in waves. Another day it will be all badge sets or book hearts.
10am – Finally located everything I need for packing. Not a huge amount of orders but I have a gallery order so that takes a bit of time to organise. Then I pack them up with postcards and business cards and cute address stickers.
10:30am – finished packing. Now to weigh them and do all the postage online.
10:42am – all postage done and downloaded. Online postage saves me so much time I would otherwise spend handwriting addresses and standing in the post office.
11:20am – postage labels printed and stuck on. I did some scanning as well since the printer was on and organised all the documents to go in the gallery order. I may well make it to the post office before the lunchtime rush! Pack up parcels and some books to donate, put on outside trousers, socks and shoes and get ready to go find out where the buses are diverting to. Learning from my mistakes the last week, I only put on a thin summer coat since all the buses and shops have their heating turned up to volcanic already. And it’s not even particularly cold outside yet.
11:30am – we are all incapable of not gawking at the police line even though there’s nothing to see. Luckily the buses are only slightly diverted so I don’t have to walk far. I post my parcels and then go to the post office for Recorded Delivery. The staff here are always 100% on script. I don’t even have to listen to what they say, just go First Class Recorded please! No, no, no, no, that’s fine, no, thanks, bye. Then I drop off a bag of books at Oxfam and only buy one book for myself, about the Western Isles. I get some food supplies from Sainsburys and treat myself to orange San Pellegrino – it’s a bit of a weakness. Then I get the bus home.
1pm-ish – arrive back to Bridgeton to swarms of police vans and a mobile police station. Oh dear. Updated BBC News now calling it a murder. Third one in five years. Oh well. I make some gnocchi for lunch with some tomato and chorizo sauce I made at the weekend.
2pm – update this blog post and stick on iTunes so I can sort out that stuff I scanned earlier. I recently completed my years-long exercise in rating every song in iTunes so I listen to some random 3 star stuff, which is songs I like but don’t love.
3:30pm – finished editing scans and have now signed up for Issuu. I’m planning on publishing some of my zines from the olden days for your amusement. Bet you can’t wait.
4pm – finished fiddling about with Issuu. More news soon. Now to deal with SCK ads since it’s November 1st tomorrow and there’s a lot of new ads to go up. Plus I’m working tomorrow so I need to get everything ready today.
4:45pm – SCK ads ready for tomorrow and I scheduled a blog post while I was there. Answer a few emails. It’s pitch dark outside now. It’s also officially Winter, as I take my tower fan to pieces and store it under the stairs. While I’m still finding our house really warm, at least opening the window makes a difference in Winter. Then I do the washing-up. The policeman and incident tape are gone from the back of the house, but the main road still seems to be closed. It’s eerily quiet without the bus and traffic noises. Also possibly less general shouting and firework setting off with so many policemen around.
5:22pm – an email to say one of my exciting new products has shipped. Hurrah! My laptop is overheating a bit so I stop for a book reading break.
6pmish – someone knocks on the door and oh dear it’s the neighbour kids trick or treating and I have nothing for them. No-one has ever knocked on my door at Halloween since I moved away from home – I figured it was just a small town thing. They don’t make a fuss though, and anyway they’re always making a racket so whatever. I make my dinner since I’m downstairs, reheating some curry with noodles.
6:45pm – woo, I got a stall at the Made in the Shade market in December. It doesn’t really feel like Winter without a craft fair on the horizon. Pay my stall fee while I remember and answer a few more emails.
7:40pm – been doing one of my favourite things – coding something clever in Shopify. Few things give me such a sense of achievement.
20:30 – answering emails, filling out more applications, reading blogs. Have now reached the stage where I’m opening and closing tabs and programs without a clue of what I’m actually doing. Time for a break. Can’t decide whether I want a cup of coffee or a glass of water so I have both. Rewatch an episode of Game of Thrones. Whyyy is there nothing I want to watch on TV this Autumn?
10pm – writing my monthly update post – having a blog AND a diary is a real help for this. Realise I should probably remove that Halloween slider from my shop before I forget. Wonder how long til I can get away with putting up a Christmas one.
22:30 – I’ve had enough. Time to update my diary and read in bed. Hope you had a good Halloween!
PS. If you did Day in the Life, leave a link to your post here or on the previous post and I’ll collate them all soon.
