Bits and bobs. in Hello.

The weather is glorious but I can’t go out to play in it because I promised I’d take John to the city and he’s still in bed. He got excited and said he wanted to go to the museum while I went to get my tattoo, so I’d feel bad if I just went alone.
A lot of my long term friends will remember my cockatiel, Syd, who died in August last year aged 26. The last time I went for a tattoo must be about 2 years ago now and my tattooist was asking me what I was thinking of getting next. He made lots of jokey comments about getting copper stills and things then blurted out he really likes doing crystals and skulls. So when Syd died, I toyed with the idea of getting something to remember him by. I’m not a fan of words or dates (for me, don’t mind them on other people!) so I thought back to what Ollie said and thought I’d get a cockatiel skull. It will be on my left wrist and will be in the same style as the pine cone I have on my right wrist. I’m getting excited to see what Ollie has in store! I trust him totally, I fired off a couple of pictures for him to work with and he’s usually brilliant at interpreting what I want.

Perimenopause. Skip if you like because I’ll be talking about periods.
I think I’m entering perimenopause. No big surprises really, I will be 50 in November. I’m not mourning it. I’m exhibiting a lot of symptoms, my weight won’t shift, despite me having no appetite. I really should start doing more exercise. I find it increasingly difficult to control my body temperature, I’m either freezing cold or boiling hot. Our thermostat has been up and down loads these past couple of weeks! My period, while still coming once a month, is very light, to the extent that I don’t even need a pad or a tampon, I just clean myself up when I go to the toilet. I’m hoping when I do hit menopause, it will be quick and easy. So many of my friends have uncomfortable hot flushes, it doesn’t look like fun!
Work continues to be grand. There are talks of experimenting with new enhanced tours, which I’m excited about. The classic tour is the normal 1 hour tour. The enhanced ones are generally much more in depth, take 2 hours and finish in the farmhouse rather than the shop. It’s the more experienced tour guides that do those, of which I am one. There’s also talk of us doing professional qualifications, which are recognised within the drinks industry.
I’m really liking our new manager, Ben. Not only does he have a wicked sense of humour, he’s also very proactive and actually does stuff when he says he’s going to. Not like the guy who Ben replaced who said he would “look into” whatever you asked him to do and would never get back to you about it. I also found out before the weekend that Ben is a drummer in a psychedelic rock band! But he took a call while he was telling me about it and I haven’t seen him since. Today we have a new tour guide starting who is a guitarist. He was in a metal band a few years ago and I did a bit of snooping on YouTube, they’re really good! I reckon we should set up a work band.
It feels really weird now restrictions have been completely lifted. But there was no song and dance about it, like I expected. It just kind of....happened. I had even forgotten about it if I’m honest, until I was asked to take down all the QR codes and the posters about wearing masks. It’s nice in a way, but we’re still not taking cash unless it’s the right amount, and it’s made me feel funny about touching it. One woman paid me with loads of coins the other day and wanted to put it directly into my hand. I asked her to just put it on the counter and she said “I feel sorry for you guys having to touch money all day. I’m glad I don’t work in retail any more.” I think I made her feel quite small when I told her she was the first cash transaction of the day! 🤣 I’ll be keeping the big bottle of hand sanitiser next to the till for a while yet, I think!