Immediately after academia and then for over thirty years I was employed by the same organisation in a variety of office based roles. I really enjoyed it but as with all good things it came to an end just over five years ago via a compulsory redundancy when the company started struggling financially for a number of years. Despite the length of service and my pleasure in the roles I held surprisingly this wasn’t a phase of life that was difficult to say goodbye to.
Armed with my redundancy payment and immediate access to a company pension I was looking forward to trying out as many new activities as possible. One of which was volunteering in a charity shop. As well as hoping I might be useful to the shop the regular days and part time hours would provided a useful bridge towards full retirement.
Sadly this is also coming to an end in the next two weeks and will definitely be difficult to say goodbye to. The shop has been struggling to hit sales targets and is closing with both permanent and voluntary staff being made redundant. I’ve made a lot of new friends through the shop, both colleagues and customers. Both categories containing their fair share of characters. I’ve also learnt lots of new skills and felt a real sense of accomplishment, contributing to something that helps others.
Big Dave 
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