Just when you thought it was safe to park…
The first thing I’m told today is “be careful where you park!” in the free car park outside — yesterday someone forgot to put their handbrake on and their car rolled across the car park, into two other cars… it has happened at least 5 times before (although not the same car, obviously!)…
Not long after we open, someone comes in for a bus pass, permitted based on learning difficulties. I watch the completion of the online form, the webcam used to take a photo of the applicant, and the little scanner used to scan the documents for processing by head office (?).
I also have to ring up ‘Inertia’ (or similar), the IT help desk, because I don’t have Alto, the LMS, or Netloan access on my desktop. I have to give the asset number so the machine I’m using can be ‘taken over’ and shortcuts put on my desktop. It’s a very quick and easy process.
I spend most of the day returning books to the shelves and tidying the children’s fiction and non-fiction sections. While I’m tidying the non-fiction (what a muddle!), I’m behind the couch where the two teenage volunteers are sitting, waiting to hand out BFR packs to children taking part in the challenge (actually, most of them seem to come in after these girls leave at lunchtime), and I can’t help overhearing their conversation. It’s sentences which all seem to end in questions — “I’m not sure if I want babies?” — “Maybe in my thirties?” and the topics, apart from babies, are dating (girls as well as boys, it seems), mothers, hair and nails.
Three other ‘youfs’ come in and sit on the other sofa, making loud noises sucking the remnants of the contents of their drink cans. Are they noisy? I can’t tell as the volume on the TV has been turned up (a colleague turns it down later). I see a colleague speak to them and they disappear shortly afterwards.
A woman comes in to return some books and I notice she has a large tattoo on her chest. She’s thin, so I wonder how painful it was to have that tattoo done!
Another woman comes in and tells us she has been very ill after eating ‘field’ mushrooms which she bought from a veggie shop. My colleague comments that perhaps they weren’t ‘field’ mushrooms after all!
A man comes in and asks for the bus timetable to Monmouth, the 35, he tells me. I give him a booklet with all the bus times in it. He disappears with it but is back in an hour, telling me that the timetable I’ve given him is for June, and he wants the timetable from September, because a new bus company is taking over that route. I tell him that’s the only one we have. He then proceeds to rant about things being online and what are people supposed to do if they don’t have computers? I nod my head empathetically but keep quiet, as I don’t want to be drawn into his argument. Eventually he thanks me for his help and leaves.
My colleagues warn me about a woman who keeps coming in and out of the library in a businesslike manner. Then she comes to the desk to ‘have a word’ and tells me she’s a volunteer, and has been for 50 years, as well as working full time at the council, and having her own business (a restaurant, she tells me when I ask). Later I notice her keeping an eye on us to make sure we deal with the customers at the desk in a timely manner (which we do, of course). I’m ready to ask her what exactly her role is, so she knows I know she’s a busybody…
I’m working with a colleague I worked with last time I was here in Coleford, plus another I’ve not met before. She asks me about my accent. When I tell her I’m from Malawi, she looks at me in amazement, and tells me she was also born there! We exchange details of our childhood and the things we did. For a small country, it’s surprising our families never met, and or friends in common, even though we went to the same school.
She also has a dog (Angus) and is bringing him in for story time on Saturday! She’s going to read a Slinky Malinky story. How wonderful!
I go for a 2 mile walk to the Devil’s Pulpit for some fresh air after work.
