🐛 Day off day log 3
It's been a long time since I've done one of these - I was surprised to find I've done two, so I've added a tag for them.
Things have been very strange and unsettling at work recently. After a period of work being very quiet, it was announced that the company was being bought out and as part of that deal, redundancies were going to happen. This was a significant percentage of our (small) company. I didn't lose my job, but I definitely didn't feel safe, and it's really upsetting to see people you've worked with for years leaving. I was also on holiday when this was happening, and it was a really bad time to be out of the loop.
This day off was after my first day back at work having found out I wasn't getting fired, and having to have a redundancy meeting with one of my line managees I like a lot and didn't want to say goodbye to.
Because I'd returned from holiday two days ago, and hadn't had time to tidy or unpack with everything going on at work, I spent the morning tidying and cleaning a bit. I watched a youtube video - a whimsy guide to a no phone summer from Taitai's life - their editing style is so cute, I love it. Would recommend if you need something to brighten your day.
I had a GP appointment at 11am, so I wandered up there a bit early. This was to get my contraceptive implant replaced - it's not pleasant, but I'm a lot less freaked out about it than I used to be. The nurses are usually very nice, and the nurse today was no exception. She kept me chatting about holidays and hobbies while she numbed my arm, extracted the old implant (this is the worst bit for me - although it doesn't hurt because of the aesthetic, I keep expecting it to) and then injected the new one. I got my arm bandaged up and left.
I like visiting my GP surgery because it's such a fancy building - I keep meaning to look it up but I think it's a house that was converted in the 60s (?) so you get high ceilings, stained glass, dark wood panelling and staircases, with retro reception desks, cubicles, waiting rooms, all slotted in.
After the appointment was over I treated myself to a nice lunch in a café. On the way, I bumped into someone from work who I knew had been sacked as part of the redundancies. Initially he thought I had been too, being out in the middle of the day, which made me shrivel up a bit inside. I tried to get over the assumption he wanted someone to join him in - in whatever he was feeling being unemployed, and made small talk. He said it hadn't really sunk in yet. I talked about having to be in the meetings where other people got fired in a way to commiserate, but I still have a job so I couldn't really. I hope he's ok and can find something to move on to, but I didn't ask.
In the café I chatted to the waitress about a seagull sitting outside eyeing up their bins, and listened into the conversation of the family next to me - the young couple where explaining race around the world to their parents, and trying to think of a sob story so they could apply to go on. I started reading The Night Manager by John LeCarre and got quite engrossed in it.
I had a salad bowl and this incredible carrot cake with pistachio topping.
I stopped in a charity shop where I saw some very cool book covers and bought some DVDs. Then another café for a peppermint tea, working my way through The Night Manager.
The actual reason I stopped here because I desperately needed to pee - I wish people took public toilets more seriously! I remember talking about this with a friend (who works in the council and thinks about these things) who introduced me to the phrase "the urinary leash" - a feminist term for "The former situation of women being largely confined to their homes because of a lack of public toilets for women."[source] Well, wiktionary says "former" but it continues to be a problem for people with disabilities, small kids, and anyone who can't easily pee behind a nearby bush (not that that's ideal either!).
On the walk home, there was a man and his dog sitting on a bench, the dog obviously very interested in something and the man holding him back by the collar. He beckoned me over to see a very cool caterpillar!
I looked it up when I got home and apparently it's a Lime Hawk-moth caterpillar.
That's it for today. It was nice to have a day to mostly do what I felt like, and try and unwind from work - I'll try and write a blog post about my holiday soon, but I wanted to record all the little interactions and nice things that happened today first. Bye 👋