Hello, Come on in!

Someone suggested to me the other evening that it must be two years now, since I retired.  When I told him it was actually four years ago this week, he was staggered.  He quickly invoked the now familiar, 'I suppose you're keeping busy?' to which I responded that, after a couple of years during which I had found time heavy on my hands, this was now indeed the case. 

In fact, after decades when the number of places where I could be considered 'part of the scenery' could be counted on one hand, followed by a number of years when I was recognised in many factories, shops and business premises by both uniform and purpose, life has now settled to a mid-range, 'double-handful' of such locations. 

Apart from church activities - bell-ringing in one direction; and worship and a whole lot of other things in the other - the place where I feel most 'at home' is the hospice warehouse.  Here, although it's only a day and a half a week, I can walk through the door, be recognised by any one of a score of possibilities, and am quite happy to take my seat and organise my surroundings to best serve the purpose for which I'm there.

The other half-day of my 'working life' is the Ark drop-in.  Here, too, I can turn up, greet those in charge and get on with my allotted duties with a minimum of fuss.  In these last few weeks, two more situations have been added to that list.  The first (although not chronologically) is the campaign office in St Albans, where I've been helping in the run-up to the General Election. 

Whoever is in charge when I arrive welcomes me and, after I've signed in, can give me something to do, whether it's data entry (even sorting out the awkwardness of finding, yesterday morning, that my mouse needed 'feeding' with a new battery!), or something more physical, like bundling leaflets or (as yesterday) helping to put up Christmas decorations.  Yesterday, at the end of the day, we found ourselves still waiting for a delivery of leaflets that should have been there before lunch!  The camaraderie in those few hours was incredible ... although what I shall walk into on Monday can only be guessed!

That will be the last day of that sequence; I've enjoyed the commuting, driving to a convenient point and then catching one of four possible buses to take me to the city centre.  I have to say that whenever I've waited for the bus it's not been wet, although the morning when two scheduled buses didn't turn up, I was getting pretty cold and despondent!

The other new welcome came this morning as, for only the second time, I helped prepare for the church's Community Cafe, where we are able to offer 'best before' food items (thanks to local supermarkets), and a children's clothing exchange.  Although many of the other helpers are not known to me by name, I have already become an accepted part of the team, and my unfamiliarity with the visual appearance of clothes for a 3-, 6- or 9-month-old infant is acknowledged and worked around quite satisfactorily.

On Thursday, I was one of seven who gathered at a restaurant in the town for a 'Christmas curry evening'.  This was the third such event I've attended (not all at Christmas time, I might add) and, as I left, I realised that I'd enjoyed this much more than on previous occasions.  Again, the welcome factor had kicked in.

Also during this week I submitted my name to be a Counting Agent next Thursday after the polls close.  This will be a second for me, having attended the count for the local elections eighteen months ago, when I was one of the candidates.  It will be interesting to see how the two compare, not least in the matter of time, since this will be at night, whereas the local elections were counted the following morning. 

I don't envisage being up at 6.30 next Friday morning!