October - A month of many books and much work! November 03 2017

And then it was November.
October has been a long hard month.

Interesting?
Of course.
Fun?
Certainly.
But oh so hard.

Essentially we have not had any time off and by the end of the month I was not only exhausted but the last remaining active cells in my brain went on strike and REFUSED to work any longer.
It just happened that way I guess but I certainly took strain. As is expected in retail we work a six day week. And even though we do not rest on the seventh day which would be wonderful, the day and time is ours to choose how we spend it and generally there is time to share a meal or a glass of wine with our nearest and dearest.
Why do we work on a Sunday? Well we need to catch up on admin.
We need to price the books purchased during the week. Respond to our emails and a zillion other things.

However ..

This month every Sunday was taken up buy a different sale or market. We started the month with the library book fair ( hail and mayhem followed that one). The next week we we were seated under the very hot tin roof of the Rosebank market.
No cats in sight! The following week were at the beautiful Nirox sculpture gardens , and this last weekend we hosted the sale of the Thorold’s book stock.

And so we did not get a day off. But the admin was still there.
Unpriced books mounted up and our shops had to be attended to.

It was exhausting.
And then I looked at the calendar .
And it is November .
And we a can settle into a kind of normality.
Well a book dealer’s reality.
And the sun is shining. And we made it through October relatively unscathed .
And all is well.

Just a niggling thought that those few remaining active braincells went with October to wherever October, missing socks and hiccups go to.
But maybe that is not a bad thing. So if I look at you blankly , it is because there is something missing from my brain. But I am smiling a lot and I am not sure they were really necessary in the first place.