A DAY IN THE LIFE OF......FENNIE

I roll out of bed, usually between 6.30 and 7. I like to be down in the kitchen anyway to listen to the 7 o’clock news while I am making my tea, and breakfast of porridge, followed by Activia Yoghurt flavoured with a spoon of Bonne Mamam Apricot Jam. Keeping one ear open for any radio interest, I catch up on yesterday’s paper and read a column or two. I like Jane Shilling especially who turns up in Times2 most Fridays. Then it’s back to bed I’m afraid.

If I have an article to write - which is about once a week - I will sit cross-legged in the bed sketching something out in longhand, but on other days I will chant for 20 minutes ‘Nam Mho Renge Kyo.’ This is a Buddhist chant I learned some years ago. I suppose its a form of meditation really. The words are medieval Japanese and are supposed to refer to the Universal Law of Cause and Effect - or in slightly other words: what goes around comes around.

Chanting is supposed to stir up the innermost recesses of the brain like the mud at the bottom of the pond and when it settles again it settles in a pattern slightly better than previously. And thus you progress onwards and upwards by little steps towards your own enlightenment.

I have no idea whether I am any more enlightened than when I started - but it is quite easy to use this time to let ideas come into your head about what I want to be doing later or how I might approach a problem. So it is not entirely a self-indulgence. And I miss it when I can’t do it.

Now it’s time to go to work. I work from home and commute from one end of the house to the other. To make this a more interesting journey however I take a turn outdoors around the block, which takes ten minutes provided I don’t get side-tracked into a long conversation by neighbours, walking dogs or running errands.

Although I write a few articles and sit on a UNESCO Committee, relics really of my previous existence in the world of matters ‘European,’ my main work is the little family labels business that we ‘inherited’ from my sister and brother in law. We sell stock labels and do some of our own printing, sub-contracting the more complicated jobs. J, my partner, does most of the actual printing as well as the packing and despatching, while I run the office, dealing with the orders, quotes and queries, the invoices and the bills and generally trying to balance the books. A lot of business is done on the telephone and of course these days by email.

We hold a stock of about 5 million labels, which sounds a lot, and we sell about 350,000 in an average month. Our labels go all over Britain and occasionally to Ireland, all to businesses and shops. But they are not going to make our fortune. Nor is it a business that is growing. Still it provides a living for the two of us and we are our own bosses.

Our warehouse is the garage which we converted to two rooms for J’s Mother in Law when she came to live with us towards the end of her life. Unfortunately we have also had to relinquish the dining room, though as we rarely used this anyway it was no great loss. No matter we have a large and friendly kitchen.

Half way through the morning I force myself to do ten minutes of exercising - stretches and sit-ups and some running. I have done these for years and they keep me supple. Mid-morning however is the only time I feel I have sufficient energy to do them.

Lunch is usually taken on the run as my to-do list will be lengthening: some scrambled egg, perhaps, and a piece of fruit. Then quickly back to the grindstone. At four o’clock we label up all the parcels and one of us takes them down to the Post Office - a 500 yard walk away. Usually this is me and it’s an opportunity to shop for any odds and ends we need at the same time.

Then it’s back to the desk, finishing off the day, checking emails again,and carrying out the end of day routines. I try to finish by 6.30, to allow time for a little bit of evening chanting and then to prepare a quick supper and a welcome glass of wine. Again we take turns to do this.

Sometimes in the evenings we go out, drive into Cardiff to see a film perhaps. Or I may have a committee meeting of some sort. If I’m in a play - for I belong to the local drama group - then I’m out rehearsing 7.30 to 10. Occasionally, if we are very busy, then I will do an evening shift on the printer or even go back to the office. I rarely watch television apart from the 10 o’clock news. It’s not great news but the pictures are valuable.

Then its almost time for bed - a catch up with the paper perhaps - a snack of an oatcake and a little bit of butter and then up to glorious bed to read - if I’m not too exhausted - until turning the light out, ideally by 11.30, though it’s frequently later. I’m reading Helen Mirren’s entertaining autobiography at the moment.