A week in the life

My present place of work

Here we are, another Sunday.  I'm on a reasonably nice site tonight, albeit one that is infested by an array of creepy crawlies, and it has been incredibly warm all night.  I can't say much more than that really, because I continue with my attempt to not mention places of work, but to instead just say that I work wherever they ask me to work.

As I start writing this blog it is 3.24 in the morning, and I have more than three and a half hours left of the shift, having started at six in the evening (finish at seven).

A small selection from my collection.

This blog finds me in a reasonably good mood.  Okay so there are still bills to catch up on and all of that, but that is just normality's attempt to undermine the joy that I want to feel.

This week I went to take a student model violin that I was given by my dad not too long ago.  When he gave it me it was missing a string anyway, and I knew that it was a student model and that a better bridge would possibly make it sound better than Wagner on a night out with Jedward.  So I took it to a violin repairer, who said that it would cost £120 to get it to a good level, but also said that it wasn't worth anywhere near that, even if the work were done as it was a cheaply made item from some Asian country (other countries probably make them, but this was made in one of those, I can't remember offhand which one).  With that I decided there and then that I would sell the item at the local auction.

Mansfield marketplace (stock photo)

While I was at John's though (the violin repairer), he did say that he had a zither that he wanted to sell, which I was immediately attracted to the idea of.  He showed it to me, and I thought that it was absolutely gorgeous.  It needed tuning obviously, but it was a lovely instrument to look at and to feel.  I asked him to take care of it for me because he was really interested.

This was on Monday.

On Tuesday I went to Mansfield to see if the comics I had ordered (and paid a decent deposit for) had arrived.  Once again this visit was to no avail.  I asked the shop owner if since I had ordered the first three issues, if it might be just as easy to wait for the fourth and final part of the series, to which he agreed.  He will contact me when they would be there to pick up.

I also took some CDs to a cash converter type place in Mansfield (the one in Newark doesn't buy CDs), to see if I could get some money for them towards my studio recording fund.  Alas they said that they could pay me a penny for each disc, netting me £1.18.  I thanked them for their time, put the CDs back in the bags, and took them with me, and thereby rejecting the financial offer they had made.

Cash Converters (another stock image)

After that I went to visit my brother's house in Mansfield, where I was dropping off some things for him.  Neither he or his wife were there, so I stayed a good while chatting to their children (not that they are that any more I can assure you).

When I got back to Newark, I thought that I would try John's, because I so wanted the zither.  He wasn't in, which reminded me to never visit people on a whim, without making sure they know you are coming first.

Wednesday was a day of my much better half's mother visiting.  For me I was up very early (seven in the morning).  Please remember that I am predominantly a night shift worker, so I would normally be getting into bed around that time, not getting out of it.

I had sorted the aforementioned CD albums out into boxes, adding another 2 to make a full amount of 120 split into two boxes of sixty.  I also boxed up 136 CD singles.  All of these were sealed with brown tape.  So, at 8.30 in the morning I took these and the violin to the local auction house, where I filled in paper work to keep me on their system, since it is entirely likely that I will be selling more there.

The two types of zither on floor.

They said they would contact me about the sale that would be taking place on the Thursday (the following day).  After that I went to John's and bought the large 32 string zither from him, along with another form of zither known as a melody harp, since it has 15 strings, all tuned to a single major scale (G), which I also really liked.  This was paid for from my studio recording fund, after a few people said it was a better idea to buy the zither from the funds.  I tend to agree that they were right.

The rest of Thursday was mainly a case of me and my sweetheart trying to have some time together as just the two of us, until I left for work at about a quarter past six for a seven o'clock start - I like to be early for work surprisingly enough.

I'm all a zither.

I received my renewed security licence through the post that day as well, which made me happy in a way, but also irritated me because here I was paying £220 so that I can keep on earning basic minimum hourly rate for the next three years - lovely.

I had a play on the melody harp zither, which was lovely, and Louise too had a go on this magical instrument.  It is fun to play, and most probably the easiest instrument in the world to play, although smarty pants here has started writing something for it that utilises both hands at the same time playing accompaniment and melody.  I've got to practice though because just like the piano, it is similar to patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time - possible, but takes some getting used to.

Travel scrabble anyone?

We also had the chance to get a game of scrabble in using a travel set that Louise's parents had got us from a car boot sale (the copy of the game is dated 1958), which is always a good thing, because we love playing scrabble and all sorts of word games.

On Saturday I received a cheque in the post for the CDs and the violin, which meant that I could add that £39.39 to my studio fund (they had taken off their commission by this time, which I expected anyway), which made me really happy.  I also decided to carry on selling items through the auctions there.

Me with ukulele at work last weekend.

And so now you find me here at work, and finally coming to the end of this incredibly long (and picture-filled) blog at 4.38 in the morning (yes, an hour and 14 minutes to write, mainly because I have had work to do at the same time).

Actually, I will just add that last Sunday evening I took my ukulele to work with me, and had a lovely time with it.  I learnt the chords to When I'm Cleaning Windows, thus having a better answer when people ask if I can play it - the inevitable question when you say that you play the ukulele.  I suppose that means that I should learn Losing My Religion for the mandolin, and now The Harry Lime Theme on the zither.  Great, no pressure then!

Thank you for reading, and please take care.

August 19 2012 (41 years, 8 months, and 24 days old).