Ireland and before...

The week before I went to Ireland I was at Barnardo's on Monday as usual. I spent the whole morning 'decoding' the stock on the shop floor. It was called 'culling' at the Red Cross, which brings images of dead seals to mind! Anyway, it means getting rid of stock that has been out on the shop floor for a while; checking the date on the label, deciding whether it is to be sent on to another shop or ragged or even reduced. Whilst I was doing this the Manager was reorganising where the clothing went and generally refreshing the whole shop. It certainly worked, because as an example, a rather nice pink coat from Zara, which had been languishing on the pink rail (the shop colour codes the clothes) for weeks was moved to another part of the shop and bought ten minutes later by a young woman! I enjoy the decoding as it gives me a chance to look through what there is on the shop floor in detail; and I put aside four reduced items for myself. A bright green M&S cardig