I have now, I think, finally done my last shift at Psalter Lane. It is true that I have a shift booked for next Friday morning, but I will be surprised in the extreme if it actually happens. The stock is on its way down to Adsetts and I think the library will be bare by Friday. It is possible that I may still go – but it won’t be for an information desk session. And I think it more than likely that I won’t actually go.

It’s a bit sad.

It’s sadder still. Today I handed back my keys to Roger’s office and to the L3 team office. When we all come back after the Bank Holiday weekend (or whenever we do come back – I’m actually off that week), everyone will have moved to their new locations. There will be no need at all for me to have keys to those offices. I’ve had that key to the L3 team office for nearly ten years. Bye bye, key :-( And I don’t really like it down in the L2 office. It feels really quite remote from everyone else. And apart from Gavin and very occasionally Roger – nobody ever comes to see us. Roger and Bea are moving all the way up to L6. I expect I shall get very fit climbing up all those stairs to visit them.

I woke up on Wednesday morning. Went to speak to The Builder and Marlo – and nothing emerged from my mouth at all. Not so much as a squeak. Tea and glasses of water failed to restore it. I still had the remnant of the high temperature I had had the day before. So I stayed at home. The Builder struggled into work with his horrible ear infection. Actually, I had quite a nice day at home. The weather was lovely and I spent quite a bit of time sat out in the garden with Marlo. I paid a leisurely visit to the allotment (not with Marlo). I pootled about. I didn’t actually need to speak to anyone apart from to The Builder when he rang mid-morning until he came home again in the evening. I did forget at one point and tried to speak to the cat. He looked a bit surprised by the strange squawk which emerged.

Had Thursday not been a Psalter Lane day (always very difficult to fill at short notice) and had it not been my last ever desk shift there, I would probably have taken yesterday off too. But a pleasant afternoon sat in the sunshine at the Psalter Desk wasn’t particularly taxing and I didn’t need to speak to very many people. The Builder, mind you, wasn’t at all well in the evening. He failed to eat all of his homemade lasagne. He only drank TWO glasses of wine in the whole evening. He slept through the theme tune to EastEnders – which always, but always has him leaping for the remote control to turn it over before any of the characters have a chance to get into the lounge room. Clearly not a well bunny. I was expecting him to be too poorly to go to work today – but he seemed quite a lot better this morning.

Some weeks ago, I booked us into the Swan at Stoford for a Saturday night in September. Then we decided to go down on the Friday. The Swan didn’t have a room, so we decided to stay the Friday night in Marlborough. I booked a room at a discount rate at a pub on the main drag.

Thank goodness it was at a discount rate. I had an email today from the web people asking me to rate our stay (they do this whenever we book a place through them). I was a bit surprised. It’s only August, after all. Nowhere near time for rating the hotel. I checked back at my booking confirmation. Oops! I had inadvertently booked it for August the 12^th :-( And we, of course, hadn’t gone, the 12^th being a Tuesday and a school night. Fortunately, it was only £50 down the drain, as against the usual £90. I’ve booked us in for the right night this time, only not at that hotel (no discounts available) but at a place called The Inn with the Well in a hamlet called Ogbourne St George a wee bit out of Marlborough. I must check my email confirmations more closely in the future!