1 year, 126 days since the start of the 1st lock down in March 2020
I had not been looking forward to this morning as I had a 9.00am meeting with Jen Shenton at Waterstones in Kingston. I know her from many years ago and got on well until she returned to Kingston and refused to take my card spinner back into the shop despite assurances it would return.
Colin drove me to Kingston bridge and waited in the car as I began the walk of doom. I had prepared well and knew exactly what I wanted to get out of the meeting - whether that was the same as Jen remained to be seen.
The Bentalls Centre was very quiet with just a few shop employees arriving early for work. Eventually I was spotted and One opened the shutters to let me in and treated me to a cup of tea in the cafe. It was an hour long meeting and I have to say we covered a lot and it was very productive.
She Is going to try and get my spinner back into Kingston which will be great and especially as my arch rival (a book seller in the store) has had her spinner back on the shop floor since last January (although many of those months were closed during the Covid lock downs). She reassured me that me spinners will romain on the shop floors in both Teddington and Richmond. It is a little more complicated with Twickenham that is currently going through a refit but it looks like it could be hopeful. She even suggests that the Windsor and Greenwich branches might want to take on some of my Central London designs.
I felt drained after the meeting but in the event I think it went really well and was a lot more positive than I had feared.
It rained heavily for the rest of the day and I wrote emails and a summary of the meeting.
