It's a Good Job.

My young French Student left this morning, with a cheerful smile. She was going out to buy pillows, duvet, sheets and towels in town, for her new flatshare. She had seen some in a shop she couldn't pronounce, which I finally decoded as Woolworths. She just couldn't get her tongue around it, and we went through all the shops in town before we located it. I remembered that my first part-time job was as a 'Saturday Girl' in Romford Woolworths. The first day I worked there, I wore a pair of flat black ballet pumps that I had bought new for the occasion. That was my first mistake. It was a long hard day, on my feet all day, but thankfully my Dad came to collect me in the Morris Eight. My feet were so swollen that he and my Mum had to cut the shoes off when we got home, and then I sat with my poor feet in a bowl of warm water for a couple of hours while the swelling went down. And for that day's work I was paid the princely sum of nine shillings and six pence in old money. (That's just under fifty pence to you.) I don't remember much else about that job, but it taught me one very important lesson. Never, ever, wear new shoes on the first day of a new job.

Speaking of jobs, my Student and the Arrogant Frog apparently got on like a house on fire, and she is going to be working there full-time from next week. This time she will be fed on the days she works, and is being paid what she thinks is a reasonable wage, plus her tips. The only snag I could see is that all the staff, as well as the owner, are French! And she is here to learn English! Spot the deliberate mistake.

I went to the Birthday Party with Daughter and Grandson, just as a backstop really and in case she had to lift him up at any point. It was the usual bear-garden bun fight that I had almost forgotten about. None of the children were really old enough to play the games that Jamie's Dad had organised, but that didn't stop him. 'Pin the Horn on the Dinosaur' was very popular, though the children mostly just lifted up the blindfold when it was their turn, which rather missed the point of the exercise.
I had a glass of wine, some dolly mixtures, a jam sandwich and a piece of very sweet Birthday cake with green icing. No wonder I didn't really want my supper this evening..