Morning guys, Pontypool and Caerphilly are open.
It's a nice day today, lovely day.
I'm gonna crack on.
I've started taking down the fancy dress because of course we put fancy dress everywhere before Christmas because people were buying loads of it and then I've started to see we still got some Christmas bits out.
You see a little gingerbread poking out there and a few So I'm gonna try and pull them all in one area today now and get my stuff ready for when Dan comes to do the window so that it'll be annoying because I'll have to wait for him to put the thing up.
I'm gonna clean the inside, put it all out, put it all back and then it'll be done then from now until probably the end of January now.
Maybe middle of March because I gonna change it till then, there's no point.
Yes, so I'm gonna do that today.
I'm just waiting for my get up and go to kick in and I'll be ready.
Thank you to everybody's support so far with our GoFundMe, I'm just giving page not GoFundMe, sorry, for the rescue and for the food bank.
So you know the fascia bags, the food that's in date, but shorter dates and you can buy it and it comes to like, I don't know, five pound, well they're not supposed to charge them on three pound for it, suggested donation of three pound.
Well we're looking to buy that by the ton now.
I think if we raised an extra thousand pound a month that would be two ton, maybe two half or three of food and then the mums can come in and they don't need to pay the suggested donation of three pound whatsoever or vulnerable, you know it doesn't have to just be mothers either.
We can do the elderly as well then if we hit our target of an extra thousand pound a month.
Now if I had extra thousand pound a month previously it would have gone on a shop or two shops, but I think going forward people are struggling with food now so because the prices are going up in there because I'm like well you know my outgoings haven't really changed other than gas and electric right that's the thing that's gone up and I'm really still paying the same because I'm like well I can only pay the same so there you are you can even take it or leave it but I'm like well it isn't you know and I live quite frugally you know and I don't eat as much as I used to.
I used to eat quite a lot but I don't now.
I eat small and often now or I munch through the day I'm picking at things through the day and I've got problems with my stomach so I'm not drinking as much pop so I'm sipping my pot whereas before I was gulping it down so I'm not drinking as much pop so I'm actually my food bill should have gone down but it hasn't it's gone up so it's like you know it's quite you know apparent really in it So,
yeah, I think that's what would serve us better at the moment.
Because we know if we get another shop, we're going to fill it.
So if we get another two shops of an extra £1000 a month, we're going to fill them.
And then we're going to be in the same boat.
Shops too full, can't get the food in.
So, let's scale the shops back a bit, go forward for warehouses.
And, yeah, work on the food now.
Do that, is there?
I think.
Do that.
Because we know we're going to be in the same boat with a shop.
I can pick up a shop today for £400 to £500.
But we're going to fill it.
Within a week it's going to be full like this, isn't it?
So is there any point like, you know.
It's going to be like Ground Dog Day, isn't it?
It's going to be a different shop.
Same stuff everywhere, isn't it?
So concentrate on warehouses.
Racking, pump trucks.
I was talking to the council this week and I was saying to them, you know, racking pump trucks.
They were like, oh god, you're on it this year?
I said, yes, yes, I know what I'm doing this year.
She said, oh, it sounds like you've got a plan.
I said, yes, I have.
So, yeah, that's my plan.
I got big ambitions to move this shop around on Sunday, but there's not enough hours in the day to do it.
But I'm going to start doing some stuff now.
But I think it needs a general tidy up because we were putting stuff everywhere, like baubles here, because people were just picking them up and going.
Well, of course, I can put the Christmas all in one area now because it'll still go.
But I don't need it everywhere now.
We can concentrate on more sort of like florals and little plaques and stuff that people will be doing for spring, I think.
And see if I can do that today, streamline it a bit.
There's no point me getting like the A-Team in because you're just playing Jenga.
So there's no point me.
That's why I haven't booked the A-Team to come in, because right now you're going to be playing Jenga.
When I have the A-Team in is when they totally need to get it.
So the next time I probably have the A-Team in will probably be Pontypool shop, either when we're getting it and taking it to the new warehouse in Torfaen, the excess stock, or when we shut that down as a warehouse and open another shop and don't have a warehouse and use the shop as a warehouse.
That's probably the next time we'll have a bulk of volunteers in.
Volunteers, yes, you can go in with Daniel today.
I don't know if I want any volunteers today, because sometimes it's too much because I'm dealing with so much online and so many messages.
I mean, look at the messenger I had, you know, the guy like I want to volunteer and then he's saying I don't like your charity.
And he's like, well, what do you want to volunteer for then?
You know what I mean?
I'm having to deal with that type of people as well.
And, you know, genuine requests and genuine help and things like that.
So, you know, I'm dealing with that.
I don't really need to have sort of conversations as well when I'm in work.
It's nice for me to just chill out and only talk to the customers when I'm in work.
And the thing is, it's not just please, thank you, have a nice day with the customers either, because they come in to talk to me, to ask me about stuff.
And I like to tell them about stuff, especially if they're new customers.
I like to tell them what we do and walk them around the shop and explain certain things.
Because we do do things a little bit differently.
Are you kids, Rob?
Yeah, so, you know, I get a lot of interaction in a day.
So I don't really need people chatting to me all day either.
It's probably the nicest way I could put that.
So maybe if you're moot.
If you're a volunteer and you're moot, come in.
Best way to say it.
So I'd like to address this that was put on one of the websites yesterday.
So I'd like to address this little comment that was put, this paragraph.
Okay, so, oh, am I gonna be, oh, it's gone, it's gone, it's gone circle again.
I can't read it when it's circle.
I need it square.
Why does it go circle?
I don't want it circle.
How do I get it square?
Oh, yeah, it might be square now.
Yes, here we are.
Right, so this was put on by one of Sherlock's multiple personalities.
I mean, I'm quite concerned now because there's different personalities coming through.
We all know who Sherlock is.
We all know it's Hayley Thomas.
We all know it's, you know, being fooled by Nicola Williams.
We all know they're all in it together.
Ian Smith, at least he got the decency to put his own name on the comments and not make them up as they go along.
We know it is.
We know it's this bunch of dickheads, yeah, that run these these charities that have been money laundering and filtering it off for their nails and their boob jobs and their turkey teeth and all the rest of it.
We know that, okay.
We've proved it.
We know who they are.
Anyway, so they got.
Now don't forget, remember when she resigned for the 9th and 5th time?
That's actually a word now, 9th and 5th.
She was like, oh, are you gonna step up?
Well, you know, we have to say to her, we've already stepped up.
What are you talking about?
If you knew anything about us and you weren't so narcissistic, you would know that we've already stepped up and probably serve him more families in the community than you, because you've limited yourself to 15 food banks a week or a month, I can't remember.
Anyway, anyway, right?
No going on about her today.
So what they've put due to... nice little bookmarks.
Dawn to make some of them and my busy Dawn.
So they've got a better course of action would be to put together bundles of clothing and set a specific day where they are given out for free to mothers with no charge, no conditions and no expectation in return.
Not customers, not donors, simply people who ask and need help.
So pinned at the top of my page is how the baby bag works.
And it's been working like that since we started.
Okay?
I don't know what end of the spectrum of stupid these people are on.
Okay?
There is no intelligent end of it.
It's just stupid to stupid.
Okay?
Stupid to stupider.
Now, if you knew anything about us, you would know that we do our filler bags for fiver, we do filler bag for pounds sometimes, don't we?
Do we do filler bag for a penny sometimes?
We don't even take the pennies.
Every mother in Wales can have a note to 12 month bundle of clothes for free.
Baby clothes.
Plus we put other things in there like toys and books and things that might be applicable and cardigans that the old ladies have knitted from the wool has been donated the ladies in the nursing homes that can't get out in the blankets.
We also put in nappies, you know, things like that.
Every mother in Wales, as long as they can collect, because I can't be running off to blooming, you know, Aberavon and places like that, can ask for a note to 12 month bundle, and they get to choose a Moses basket, or a baby bath, or a bouncer, or a play mat,
or they can have all four.
Because guess what?
We got tons of stock, right?
And that's the issue.
The issue is with these groups, is that we're more popular than them, and we get better donations than them.
Okay, and we are set to be bigger than them.
If they stop trying to push us back, and hold us back every five seconds, we would be bigger than them.
So if you knew anything about us, you would know that.
If you knew anything about us, you would know that two to three years into this, we actually said we're in a position now to offer out a one to five year bundle to any mothers in need in Wales.
And I mean, we've had, we've sent bundles.
And I'm sure I've got people there that will say yes, my daughter was homeless, and you gave me a bundle.
And I took it to Nottingham.
I took it to Hampshire.
Yeah, I'm quite sure people will say that.
So we've even given them out in Wales.
So not only do we do a note to 12 month bundle for mother in Wales, we do a one to five year bundle.
If you have children who are bigger, stockier, and need adult clothes, we also honor the price on that.
Instead of charging one pound or two pound on our one pounds and cheap brails, we honor the price and do them at 50p.
If you knew anything about us.
If you knew anything about us, you would know that we do domestic violence bundles, where we give out clothes to people in need.
If you knew anything about us, you would know that when I was in Egypt two years ago, and we had two house fires on Christmas Eve, that my volunteers filled their cars and took carfuls of donations of clothes and other items to these families.
If you knew anything about us, you would know that NHS workers come in, and if they need clothes and pajamas and stuff for the hospitals, we let them have them.
Including, we also give nursing homes and hospitals incontinence pants,
because we work with the incontinence service, because obviously I did a placement with them when I was training as a nurse, so I know them quite well.
We also give out books, CDs, records, board games.
We do it to after school clubs.
If you knew anything about us, we're already doing that, and we do that seven days a week.
And we've also set aside another day a week this year to do a baby shower to give stuff for mothers for free.
So these people who are writing complaints about us online 24-7, I don't know what end of the spectrum of stupid you're on, but perhaps you should do your research and not just put it all down to AI, because we've been doing this for nearly six years.
What have you been doing in six years?
Apart from trying to hold me back, writing complaints about us online, writing complaints to the council.
Chief of the pavements came out yesterday, he's okayed me.
So what are you going to do now?
Because chief of the pavements have okayed me to put my stuff there.
So what are you going to complain about this week?
Can you not see that every time you try to damage us, we just get bigger and better?
Can you not see it?
I really think you should just give up now.
Pack up your website and go.