Hi again!

About last week, I ended up getting quite sick. I thought I might be able to persevere anyhow, what with me skipping volunteering on that day and taking some painkillers, but it was at around the height of the illness, and I happened to be quite active the day before. Since that lead into the start of the week too, I just didn’t really have time :v.

But we’re back again! It’ll be a while till I recover academically from the days off (yes it WAS that bad) but that can be sorted (;n_n).

So, where to begin, I honestly don’t know. I guess it would be nice to start with volunteering, as that’s something that’s been on my mind lately.

Since around march of 2026, I’ve been volunteering at a local charity shop every week (I won’t say which for privacy’s sake), and it’s been quite nice! Originally, I’d done it to get out of the house and to have some experience on my record for when I would finally need to prop up a CV and go get a job, but I ended up liking it quite a bit!

It wasn’t the best, mind you. I had to deal with A LOT of weird interactions at the start, whether it be from odd people and circumstance or just my mental state going into it, but since starting, I’ve learned quite a lot.

It started pretty small I though, a little pricing, a little sorting, mostly cashiering in all honesty, but I never quite realized how much of a respect it gave me for thrifting.

I was never really one to thrift, I felt like I always had a bit of an inclination to just buy stuff new, like my family always have, even knowing the benefits. It always just seemed better, even for clothing, since you don’t have to use clothes other people have used right?

(BTW, reading this I realize this doesnt apply to my views on technology, it’s pretty straightforwardly great to buy secondhand electronics after all so just keep that in mind :3)

But since working there, I got to see firsthand the selection of goodies, you know? I was PRICING THEM, so I guess I had to >:).

Men’s, Women’s, and everything on the spectrum, anything that my manager would need me to do I would hope to sort for the store, and it feels like over the months what started as just a dull clothes place has started to look like something I can actually translate in my head. Like I could actually SHOP FOR CLOTHES there.

But that’s just clothes anyhow, there’s a lot more stuff I’ve found to be quite useful too! I ended up buying a harmonica to mess around with, and monopoly to play with friends. We’ve already got a lot of playtime out of it, and I found going through the box initially and trying to piece together why the original owner left two jokers in there to be mildly perplexing, but weirdly funny. It felt like they had left me a small token within the donation, and whatever it means is sort of just up to me to figure out.

(on a separate note, it the board and it’s pieces smell like rainwater, not that they’re in bad condition, but it’s quite cozy to me :))

Also, a JUMBO CARD DECK, it isn’t used for every card game since we already have the balatro deck but when it is it always adds a bit of flavor to the session.

There’s also homeware and other goodies, but mainly, as of today, a CD binder:

Now, is it a CD collection intended to be the world of david walliams, a kids collection of stories? Yes it is. But I happen to now have a bunch of CD’s on top of my existing selection of CD’s, in a small little binder! Isn’t that fun?

Also, I think the art is cute :).

In all honesty the CD’s on here, including the ones given, are gonna have stuff on here that has absolutely zero correlation to the collection whatseover but I still think it’s a fun way to store them.

But easily, EASILY the biggest purchase that I’ve had the privileged to make recently was a whole bike! Its been quite a lot of fun commuting with when I’m not walking to class with friends, even if the incline is ROUGH on the way there, the decline more than makes up for it. What comes up must come down, and I’m telling you the trip back is worth every bead of sweat it takes to go up that damn incline in the morning.

Lots of other stuff I’ve been buying too, but I think you get the picture in that regard, even if I happen not to volunteer moving forward (which I’ll get to in a second) I’ve found more fun and good savings than I could have thought of just going to the mall. It’s been a treat.

In other aspects too, talking and getting to know people, although it was much harder at first, got a lot easier as time progressed! I got to hear from my manager quite a lot, they treat me quite kindly and have helped me out in all sorts of situations over each shift including helping me decide on buying the bike.

Other volunteers have always been a big one though. Some will come and go, that’s how it is with the job for everyone really, but the people I do see are often quite pleasant to be around, and by a total stroke of luck, I happened to meet a graduate CS student there too!.

He was fucking awesome, if your reading this by some stroke of luck, I loved getting to talk about your game engine, and literally the only person I know in Leeds to have watched re:zero :).

So yea, despite the many messy days, it’s been a great boon for me that I ever decided to join, and I feel like I don’t regret a thing.

As of recently though, my circumstances have changed, and so now IM gonna unfortunately be one of the volunteers leaving to go find a part time job, I need to start making some money to support myself after all (and the extra time while not working will be nice for study too) but I hope that regardless of that, I left a good impression on the people that I got to meet :).

O also, I’d been using a travel card that worked like straight ass since moving to leeds, and only this summer did I finally start using a regular bank account, so now I can properly shop at the charity shop as well (before I’d have to withdraw cash with tons of fees which was quite annoying, the travel card didnt like ANY charity places >:u).

I’ll be on my way out soon in terms of working there, but I’ll still be going a LOT. Best believe that going forward I’m gonna have to be careful with my spending, cause for as much as I was careful before, I mostly held back by my stupid card. Lots of good stuff but I’ll try not to spend all my money in one place ;).

Anyways, that’s all I have to write about for now! For my recommendation, go play Mesmalie! I might end up talking about it sometime, but either way it’s a short and sweet adventure point and click and I think anyone reading this would like it! I love it’s artstyle in particular it’s so stylish <3.

If not that, at least go enjoy a bit of the soundtrack. I really like Mesmerique, it’s a short and sweet piece for one of the game’s endings.

That’s all from me for now. See you all next week!