LONESOME (AND LATE) TEA BREAKS
Look at this picture readers. You may think it is a store-cupboard but no, this has been the archive staff tea-room for the duration of the pandemic.
No longer permitted to use the staff room downstairs, we sit one at a time with the piles of chairs and tables which were removed from the main area of the library to make social distancing easier.
Gone are the merry days of inter-departmental chats over a cuppa accompanied by sticky home bakes all taken from a communal plate. The library staff are are still using the downstairs staff room but with limited numbers. We sit alone over our lonesome cups of tea and, alone, we stare out at the car park and, if we go on our tip-toes, the supermarkets. Sometimes we play our harmonicas to while away the minutes. (We are not very good.)
Also, the desk staff are quite often trapped in our perspex bubble for the mornings and so have to take a tea-break in the afternoon. I know! 10.30am has been tea-time for many years and hot drinks just make us snoozy in the afternoons.
Thank goodness for the atrium over the lending area. We can press ourselves against the glass and still see our dear librarian colleagues. The above photo also shows that L is for Looooooong way out. Archive visitors still use the same staircase to enter the search room but, upon exiting, they are requested to follow a series of arrows right to the end of the corridor, down the Western staircase, and out the fire exit.
Fingers crossed that 2021 sees the return of sociable tea-times.
Aw! I'm so sorry your tea times are lonely. I wonder, do any of you knit or crochet? Would you be allowed to make a small mascot to sit in one of the empty chairs, and be with you while you sip your cuppa? The mascot could sort of "live" in the tea room, so that there wouldn't be any danger of contamination. Maybe, if you don't have a mascot for the Archives already, a little penguin, or a stormy petrel, or even a unicorn would do. You could chat with the mascot, cry with the mascot, yell at the mascot if you've had to deal with a particularly frustrating patron or situation (which probably never arises there). You'd have to name the mascot, of course. Given the names you've already assigned yourselves, I'm sure it would not be hard to come up with a suitable name. ^_^ Only, if you do this, we want to see a picture of your pal!
ReplyDeleteSue.
P.S. If you can't get ahold of polyester fiberfill for stuffing, old pantyhose work well. So do snippets of yarn, though they can leak out through stitches occasionally. :)
Thanks for the sympathy Sue! We do have an archive gibbon (long story) and a teddy with an HBC jumper so perhaps they can become our tea-time pals. It's better than talking to ourselves...
ReplyDeleteEither the gibbon (sounds like a variation of a Terry Pratchett theme to me!) or the teddy would make a good teatime companion. And, you know, as long as you don't answer yourself every time, talking to yourself is not always bad...not ALWAYS. ^_^
ReplyDeleteWe've put a picture of them for you in our latest blog post.
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