Trying to get more organised

Off to Hereford this morning on a very full bus for a spot of retail therapy.

I can no longer see the glowing hands of my alarm clock in the dark, so I treated myself to a clock with a glowing display instead. I picked up a wind-up and solar powered torch at one of the camping shops that's having a closing down sale, too.
Over the Christmas break, I've been getting enthusiastic about craft projects again, so I picked up a couple of hanks of black embroidery threat to create a blackwork picture of a badger. One of my presents was a "knit your own shoulderbag" kit, which involves cable, which I've never done, so I'm working my way up to it gradually.
So I'm making the effort to get more organised, and to use up my crafting stash - I've started weaving triangles with some of my odd balls of wool on a mini loom, too, which will be sewn together to make a small blanket.

I was hoping to look in the army surplus shop for a Thunderbirds hat, too (or more correctly, an RAF flight hat) because one of my Christmas presents was an International Rescue patch - but they were closed.
I was hoping to get rid of my sofa too, having just got the new settle, so I went into the British Heart Foundation to ask about collection. They said no problem - they send a van to the Hay area every other Friday - but the sofa needed to have a label to say it was safe in the case of fires. When I got home to check, the label is no longer attached - it must have come adrift long ago - so it's back to the drawing board for that. I've tried Freecycle and Freegle, but just before Christmas was perhaps not the best time to try to shift it, and the only person who was interested asked if I could deliver, which I can't, sadly. Still, it's not too much in the way for a while.

And I discovered that Poundland (now next door to Maylord Orchards) do a very nice selection of Belgian style biscuits....

One thing took the shine off the day, though. I saw a man sitting on the pavement near the bus station with a home made sign saying that he had three children and he would take any job, please. Nobody should feel so desperate that they have to beg for work on the street. It was like looking right back to the Great Depression of the 1930s - and it shouldn't happen in a civilised modern society, especially when there was an article in the Hereford Times this week about how unemployment in the county is going down.