What's been going on this week?

This is the desk and lamp I bought at IKEA last weekend! Very pleased. It's a bit big, but is exactly what I want, as my computer - unlike the practically sized laptops - is a monster of a desktop so needs quite a deep space to sit in. My cousin has given me her old desk chair, so I'm all set. :) £55 for the desk, £15 for the lamp, £3 (?) for the bulb and I bought a cushion as well.

I bought a new notebook for Ireland (green, my favourite colour and appropriate for Ireland): £1.75

An unbelievable find at a charity shop for 'new' hiking pants (the zipping kind!) £3.50! A perfect fit, too, which just proves they were meant for me. Olly is kindly adding essential cat hair for me.

I dropped a dozen or so items at one of the charity shops in town today and spent some time poking around all of them. I found this for .50p!

I decided to go through my Goodreads lists and see what I could order from the library (why this has never occurred to me before, I have no idea). I'm currently at about 21 items on hold (at .50p a reservation) and 14 of them came in pretty much all at the same time! Yikes. And here I am going on holiday in less than three weeks. I've decided to start at the top and work my way down and just see how far I can get before I go - probably three, maybe four. Whatever I don't get to I'll just renew and get to when I get back (or not). This stack cost me £7.50

Southampton currently has zebra statues around town - you're probably familiar with these installations, even if your town or city hasn't had them. A few years ago there were hippos around, painted and auctioned off at the end of their display period to raise money for one cause or another. The zebras are being auctioned for conservation (of zebras!), which I think is a great idea. There's a map and quite a few are located near work, so I could actually get some exercise at lunch and go find a few to photograph.

These are the ones my sister and I found on Thursday when she came to see me for lunch. Because it was so quiet at work my supervisor allowed me an hour and a half for lunch (!), so we definitely made the most of it.

'Zeffe'

'Fantastic Mr Fox' - in honour of Roald Dahl.

'Who's You?'

'Zippy'

'Allegra'

'Zeeberry'

I walked to work past this one the next day and someone(s) had pushed it over! There was police tape around the area and a lady - I'm assuming somehow connected to the zebra - standing over it. This is apparently the second time it's been knocked over. Such a shame that people just can't leave things alone.

'Frederic'

I'm going for a walk with my sister tomorrow somewhere in the Forest. We'll likely have tea and cake afterwards (or before) as we usually do. Next weekend we're going to Portsmouth for the day to use one of my passes. Possibly a trip up the Spinnaker tower too, but not certain about that yet. We'll see how the day goes.

I was uber-productive at work this week, despite not having much 'real' work to do. I tidied and cleaned out the stationary cupboard and the storage cupboard in the meeting room (soooooo much junk!) and even attacked all the offices on the second floor. 99% of stuff is off the floor and I think the MD will be quite pleased with his office. There's still a way to go, but it's a definite start. I was full on all day Wednesday and Thursday, filling filing boxes, sorting, tidying, etc. I was exhausted but it feels so good to have done it. No one else was willing so it was better than sitting down all week and doing nothing.

Before he left on holiday, I asked the MD if I could have a new office chair (and one for my colleague as well) and he said to pick out a couple to look at and I could have what I wanted (win! Does no one ask for things in this office?). I've got a couple that I quite like - office chairs are expensive! - so I'm hoping that either one will be approved. I'd say I've earned my chair this week...ha ha!

Anyway, 20 days until Ireland and I'm starting to get organised in my head. I'm pretty much set but do need several more pairs of hiking socks and at least two more t-shirts just to be on the safe side.