Yesterday, on the spur of the moment and in the spirit of the New Year, I went and volunteered in a local charity shop that specializes in selling used books.

The bookstore is in Streatham, about half an hour's walk from my house. I took the bus down this morning as I was worried about running late but what with the price of busfare form now on I've decided I'm going to walk it and will only take the bus home if I have heavy shopping to carry. I've just got back from a morning spent desperately trying to get the stockroom in some kind of order (it's like trying to drain a swamp with a seive, honestly). This involves a lot of lifting, carrying, standing on stools rummaging through shelves and putting on of handcream. Amazing how much dust there is back there.

Current idea is to work three mornings a week.

Not much, I know, but considering that I'm not getting paid for this and I've spent the last six months doing bugger-all save feeling rather sorry for myself, I don't want to go too mad too quickly. Plus, I still need to job hunt and chase my college about getting a meeting to finalize this leaving thing. I need a letter saying I've quit for the welfare office - there's always something, darlings.

(I admit it, one of the major reasons I'm doing this is for the sake of the work experience. I want to find paid work in a bookstore, I currently feel like I suck a lot where recruiters are concerened because I have no real experience of work in that environment and have been doing very little with myself... the way I see it, doing voluntary work in a charity bookstore can't exactly hurt my prospects. It'll give me experience even before I've managed to get a job, allow me to get a feel for the kind of work I'd be doing, and maybe I'll be able to use my manager there as a reference. Plus, at least I'm doing something with my time now.)

Anyway, as I said I've just gotten home.

I feel a bit achy but a lot better than I have done for some time, and I have no idea why I didn't think of doing this before. There's only so much nothing you can do before it starts to get a bit tedious. At least this gives me something to get out of bed for.

I'm definitely wearing my trainers in tomorrow. Monika the store manager was wearing trainers today, so I know I'll be able to get away with it (I checked). Walking in'll be a lot easier if I can do it in trainers.

With any luck this will earn me some kind of credit with my parents as well. My father was nagging me over Christmas to get out more in the New Year and do my damnedest to get a job, so there's another positive to all this. My brother, so far as I can gather, isn't actually doing anything much to improve his prospects in the job market - so if I'm working just because I want to work (and I do, desperately), maybe that way they'll finally get it into their heads that my brother and I are not interchangeable work-shy blobs.

I can but hope, anyway. Wish me luck, please?