Coping with the Wiggly work trauma and then learning of Freda and Alf’s poor financial planning and so to attempt Redgrave organising day
Having experienced Wiggly being upset last night, I could have done without her making me late for my Redgrave day by having another paddy this morning.
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She had not put her boss Charles in the picture about our arrangements for today and, when she eventually got hold of him, he wanted her in the office so that she would not have been able to help me today.
She wailed about her quandary and sought my help, hoping (I think) that I would tell her to stuff her job and come with me, but I would not do that.
I delayed my departure so that she could think and then, as a last resort, helped her list the pros and cons. In the end, I just had to set off, made late by these histrionics, and she opted to go into work first and take things from there.
I walked Sam at The Coneygear, drove on to Barton Mills and then walked him again there. In the meantime, I heard from Roger Brittain and first briefed him on my new personal circumstances and then asked his advice about Redgrave and established that I should trade it as a personal business with expenses offset against profits.
The rush on to Redgrave where I had time to brief the Butterfields and tell them about Wiggly being tied up with her work and my need to enlist them for meeting the visitors I had planned.
There then followed visits by two builders, two plumbers, a fencing man and three wholesale representatives. The Londis man came first and I criticised him for not keeping in touch with them and allowing the lottery opportunity to go by.
It seems that due to some misunderstanding over direct debits, Londis had downgraded them from category 1 to category 5 and no longer allowed them to trade with their "drop ship" suppliers.
Because of this classification, they were not on any visit programme and had not met a Londis rep for three years! Soon Wiggly telephoned and told me she had left work and was on her way.
She helped me with receiving these visitors and, after joining me for a lunch in the pub, was vital when both the Spar and Booker representatives were here at the same time.
Finally, she walked Sam again before leaving for her evening District Group meeting but I stayed on for the last builder and then to brief Freda, Alf and Chris about my latest thoughts.
I could see a fairly straightforward way of dividing the premises and then selected Londis and Spar as possible "badge" wholesalers.
They both seem willing to conduct business and store surveys to help me evaluate the future viability of retaining the store and upgrading its activity level to actually get into profit.
I was able to reassure Freda and Alf about the sequencing of the conversion work so that their life would not be made too unbearable. Even so, they still exhibited their customary prejudice against normal retail business methods and would never have willingly agreed the changes necessary to make their business a success.
I made my own way back home; stopping off at the Barton Mills Little Chef for a snack tea after giving Sam a good walk across the road. I got out each of the merchants packages and read them thoroughly, resting there in the knowledge that Wiggly would be back quite late.
The journey home and to unload the car, put Sam back in the shed and then logged in to CIX and updated most of the day's journal before Wiggly came back.
She was in a black mood and was soon in tears over what she took to be criticism of her from her political colleagues. I heard the full story with bags of sympathy and reassurance until she was just about consoled in time for another 1.00am bedtime.
The warm weather is so wearing in a small and poorly ventilated house but I am lucky to have a roof over my head. Wiggly exchanged calls tonight with her newest cast member colleague, "Mike" from Cambridge about some tickets for a show this Friday.
It seems that his wife cannot go and I wondered if he was disappointed to hear that I was going to accompany her.
It is my view that he fancies Wiggly as he was certainly being a bit mischievous at the party, offering her cigarettes and chatting her up.