|
1
February 2017 (Wednesday) - A Reunion
For
the first time in seemingly ages the puppy was quiet and slept all night.
Instead my phone kept me awake. I have the thing close by as I use its alarm,
but despite the wifi, mobile data and Bluetooth all
being turned off somehow it was beeping about notifications of emails and
Facebook messages all night long. I
came downstairs a few minutes before the alarm was due to go off to find
"Furry Face TM" had spent the night in his
basket. He seemed very tired, and he didn’t stir once as I watched “The
Darling Buds of May”. I worry about that dog; perhaps too much. I wonder
why he was so subdued; perhaps the puppy keeps him awake too and he also just
needed a good night’s sleep. I
had a quick look-see on-line. Very little had really happened on Facebook
overnight, but I had an email from PayPal. They are changing their terms and
conditions and are legally obliged to tell me so. I read what they sent; I
did admire their cheek. “You do not need to do anything to accept the
changes as they will automatically come into effect on the Effective Dates
shown below. Should you decide you do not wish to accept them you can notify
us before the above date to close your account”. Basically the gist is
that they are unilaterally deciding to do whatever the hell they like, and if
we don’t like it we can get knotted. I must admit I respect anyone who takes
that stance. I might not like it, but I respect it. And
so to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how
Parliament is wasting time debating whether or not to actually allow the
Prime Minister to formally start the Brexit talks. Whilst it may well be a
legal requirement for Parliament to have to give permission, does it really
have to take up more than five minutes. The decision has been made; all the
nastiness was done and dusted six months ago. Why drag it all up again? There
was also talk of how scientists have managed to
communicate
(with seventy per cent success) with patients in long-term vegetative
states. One chap even managed to convey his displeasure at his daughter’s
choice of boyfriend. If
ever I end up in a long-term vegetative state let’s not mess about with
science. If it happens to me and it looks like being permanent, I want the
plug pulling. Just
as I got to work my phone pinged. An email. On Monday I’d hidden a geocache
at the base of a tree. The geo-feds had given it the big thumbs-down. There
is the final stage of a puzzle cache too close nearby. But I was tol which puzzle was in the way do I shall have a go at
solving it later. I
went in to work where I met a friend. A chap who I
trained
seven years ago is now a colleague again. It is a small old world in my
business… |
|
2
February 2017 (Thursday) - This n That
For
the first time in ages I slept like a log; waking only five minutes before
the alarm went off. Over brekkie I watched an old episode of “Dad’s Army”
that the SkyPlus box had recorded for me, then I had a look on-line. In
addition to the stuff from LinkedIn which I never read I had an email which
had been sent to my astro club account from Mike Tulisa. He said “My name is Mike Tulisa,
I am writing to find out if you have any accommodation available for one week
from the 22nd April to the 29th April 2017, it will
be for me and my wife. Please kindly send me the details of the cost and your
availability for that period or if you have anything close to that period as
my schedule is a bit flexible and i could change
dates”. Mike
Tulisa isn’t the only person who’s emailed the astro club recently trying to book accommodation. I
wonder where these people get the idea that we are running a hotel? I
set of to work; I had a good run up the motorway. As I drove the pundits were
talking about “health tourism”; they cited the case of a Nigerian
mother of quadruplets who went into labour on a trans-Atlantic flight. Having
had fertility treatment on the NHS she was then refused entry to the USA
because she couldn’t afford American health care and on her way back to
Britain she went into premature labour. Two babies died, and she ran up half
a million pounds worth of medical bills that she can’t afford because she’s
not a British citizen… Well,
what do we as a nation do? On the one hand we can’t afford to treat the
world. On the other hand do we just let them die? Yesterday
I mentioned that my new geocache had received the thumbs-down from the
geo-feds. In order to be able to put out a new cache I had to work out where
the final location of a nearby puzzle cache was. Last night after a bit of
to-ing and fro-ing and wracking my brains I came up with the answer by a
non-standard way of solving the puzzle. There are lots of non-standard ways
of solving geo-puzzles; last night’s method of choice had Gordon and Lisa
both telling me the answer to the puzzle. So once in the works car park I
went to have a little look for the thing. I couldn’t find it, but knowing
where it was allowed me to relocate my new cache to somewhere that the
geo-feds might allow. It
is in quite a scenic location with squirrels and blue tits to keep it
company. I
went in to work. Having started in a new place last week I rather assumed the
cold that I’ve had for a week or so was something I picked up there. But
today several people were coughing and spluttering. Perhaps I’ve infected
everyone else? I hope not. I
did my bit and came home to find that "er
indoors TM" had beaten me home and taken the dogs for a
walk. That saved me a job! We then scoffed a rather good bit of dinner whilst
watching the latest episode of “Taboo”. It started well,
but it doesn’t seem to make much sense now… |
|
3
February 2017 (Friday) - Unions, Mortgages
I
slept like a log; finally waking just a few minutes before the alarm was
about to go off. I noticed my little dog wasn’t on the bed; is it him that
gives me restless nights? I found "Furry Face TM"
asleep on the sofa. He seemed content, and as I scoffed brekkie and watched
the antic of Pop Larkin on the telly, so my dog snored. I
set the washing machine loose on my undercrackers, then had a quick look at the Internet. I had the usual
haul of emails including Amazon trying to sell me that which I’d already
bought from them, and supposedly dethroned African royalty trying to scam me.
Not
a lot had happened on Facebook, and so I set off to work. As I
drove the pundits on the radio did their level best to boil my piss. They
were interviewing some official or other of the rail union RMT. The RMT have been
embroiled in some dispute with train operators for months and the official
was furious that the dispute has been resolved without them. In fact the chap
seemed determined to carry on negotiations over a problem
that had been solved. I
don’t know who this bloke was, but I’d like to meet him, if only to offer a
slap. In theory trade unions are a brilliant idea. In practice they attract
troublemaking twits like this who clearly was more interested in the sound of
his own voice than in resolving the very problems that the union was there to
solve. There
was also talk about houses aren’t selling anywhere near as much as they used
to. All manner of rubbish was being spouted about why houses weren’t selling.
However the so-called experts were adamant that falling house sales was in no
way related to house prices. What
rubbish. When
I took out my first mortgage it was standard to offer two and a half times
your annual salary as a mortgage. Now it is up to five times your salary.
Clearly the average man in the street can’t afford a house. I
made good time getting to work, and once there I did my thing. My Ham Street
Lover moved house today; ideally I would have helped him move. But taking
leave on my second week in the place seemed a little bit cheeky. And
with work done I came home via the petrol station. I have a gauge in my car
which tells me how far I can go before refuelling. When I worked in Ashford I
could do four hundred and twenty miles on a full tank. When I moved to
Canterbury that became five hundred and twenty miles; presumably because my
car is more efficient on “A” roads than it is around town. I had hoped
for even more efficiency from motorway driving; but today’s refuelling gave
me the same range that it always has done for the last five years. I
came home and watched an episode of The Crystal Maze. I could be wrong, but I
think this episode had the worst team ever. At one point they had two team
members locked in; at the end they had one crystal, and their final score was
minus thirty-seven. Oh, how
I laughed… My
dog’s just been sick…. |
|
4
February 2017 (Saturday) - The British Museum
I
slept reasonably well; I was conscious of the fact the puppy was sleeping on
the bed, and that did keep me from being as relaxed as I might have been. She
isn’t so much a puppy as a furry shark or crocodile and I was expecting a
fang-attack at any minute. But I dozed until the alarm eventually woke me. Over
brekkie I had the obligatory look-see on-line. Very little had changed
overnight. Jimbo and Stevey arrived, we settled the dogs ("Daddy’s
Little Angel TM" was coming to play later) and we made
our way to the railway station where we met the rest of our number, and soon
we were on the train to the wicked city. We
arrived at Charing Cross without incident. Jim’s sciatica was giving him
grief, so half of our team took the tube to the museum; and half of us
walked. We had a rather good walk through London, we found the obligatory
geocache, and after fifteen minutes we were at the British Museum. Fifteen
minutes later those who’d taken the tube caught up. I don’t know London very
well, but I’ve always had this theory that it is quicker to get round the
central bits on foot than by public transport. We
found a rather good restaurant over the road from the museum where we had a
spot of brekkie. A very good spot of brekkie. And suitably fuelled we crossed
the road. The
obligatory security check only took five minutes, and soon we were in the
British Museum. It’s a rather interesting place but now having been there
twice at weekends I think I’d like to go back mid-week when it is not heaving
with tourists. We were in there for about three hours; we probably only saw
about half of what was there. If we weren’t having
to fight our way through hoards of utterly bemused
foreigners I might have had a tad more patience. Whilst
there I saw something which made me think. There has been a lot of
controversy recently about whether or not the burka should be banned in the
UK. Should it? I don’t know. But I watched one burka-clad woman go
arse-over-tit down the staircase because she couldn’t see where she was
going. We
adjourned to the Museum pub over the road where a pint of “Old Peculiar”
slipped down nicely, then we all wandered slowly back to Charing Cross. We
went via an old haunt of mine: “Forbidden Planet”. Twenty years ago “Forbidden
Planet” was *the* place to buy anything sci-fi-ish
or geeky. Before the Internet the place was the best comic and book shop
anywhere. Nowadays the comic and book section is non-existent, and the place
is full of window-shoppers who were openly looking at the goods on the
shelves then calling up the items on the phones to buy them cheaper on-line. As
we carried on I was stopped by an American tourist at Leicester Square. Would
I take a photo of him using his phone? Of course I would, but I did tell him
off for trusting a random stranger. I wouldn’t trust my phone to any random
passer-by in London. Once
at the station I bought a hog-roast baguette, and then slept most of the way
home. Compared to some of our trips to London today was rather short, but I
did find it rather tiring. We
got back to civilisation, said our goodbyes, then we
came home to chaos. I can always tell when my grandson "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM"
has been round to visit. We cleared the mess, then
took the dogs for a walk. I’d had a message that the dogs’ worming treatments
were ready to collect, and I’d confirmed with the vets that the dogs’ worming
treatments were ready to collect. We got to the vets to find they had sold
out of the stuff. I gently suggested that when they confirmed they were ready
and I said I would be along to collect them, they might have put the stuff to
one side. After all the tablets are a named prescription.
The nice receptionists blamed the system. Personally I would sort out a
better system… "er indoors TM" boiled up
some pancakes and set off to the film night. I devoured the pancakes and set
about ironing shirts. Something of an anti-climax after such a good day in
London, but shirts don’t iron themselves… |
|
5
February 2017 (Sunday) – Hackington
Another
good night’s sleep. I like those. I came downstairs to find my dog asleep in
his basket. I did my morning things and had a spot of brekkie, and then
perused the geo-map A
week ago I put out a new geocache near work. After a couple of days the
geo-feds gave it the thumbs-down so I moved it. Last night I got a message
that the place to which I’ve moved it is equally unacceptable as it is too
close to another nearby puzzle cache. I spent a little while puzzling, and
after getting a little hint I soon solved the puzzle. Sure enough my hide
isn’t within the rules. Looking at the map it doesn’t look like there is
anywhere near my new place of work that would be suitable for a new cache. Oh
well.. I
then spent a little while weeding out my Facebook friends list. I had 478
people on the list. Many are friends with whom I desperately want to keep in
touch. Some are ex-colleagues, some are people I’ve met here and there, and
some are family and friends I rarely see but with whom I want to keep in
touch. But
on that list are also there are people who I added because they once (many
years ago) came to the astro club, and people I
met at kite festivals ten years ago, and people who added me back in a
previous life when said people wanted to suck up to the boss. There are so
many people about whom I get notifications about whom I find myself asking “who
on Earth is that?” So I had a little weeding-out. The list is still
rather long, but it is better than it once was. I
was a little dismayed to see that today was the Ashford 10K road race. Not
content with making it crystal clear that we are not welcome in our own park
once a week, the jogging community today effectively closed the town down.
Fortunately we’d planned to be away before the road closures came into
effect, and by mid-morning we’d met up with our geo-buddies and were
wandering the lanes and footpaths found Hackington. We
had a rather good walk; a week ago the mud was frozen. Today it had thawed
out and was rather squelchy. As we walked I saw a few rabbits, and the
pheasant-shooting community were out in force from what we heard. It was only
a shame that the day noticeably got colder as it wore on. Geocache-wise
it was a good walk; the paths were clearly marked, and the stretches on roads
were either on incredibly quiet roads, or roads with good pavements. The
hides were good even if one did fox us. Personally I felt they were rather
spaced out; there were twenty two along a route which could probably have had
thirty, but that’s just me. I took a few photos as we walked; and
with the route walked we retired to the Golden Lion in Broad Oak for a pint (or
two). Once home we hosed the mud off of two rather grubby dogs who then
both went to sleep. As
did I… |
|
6
February 2017 (Monday) – Daleks
I
had something of a restless night last night. I blame the dogs. I was awake a
little while before the alarm, and over brekkie I watched the Darling Buds of
May doing what Darling Buds of May do. Charlie got more than he was
bargaining for from Primrose’s teacher and Mariette wasn’t happy. I
had a quick look-see on the Internet. Amazon suggested a few random e-books,
but other than that there wasn’t a lot of note in my in-box. Facebook however
had invited me to join the Bala Sailing Club. Based in North
Wales, it would take me six hours and three hundred miles to get there. It
looks like the Bala Sailing Club have
paid to have themselves advertised. I would suggest they’ve not got to their
target audience. I
also saw a friend had posted some complete rubbish about how the pension of a
UK war hero is only six thousand pounds per year whilst illegal immigrants
get thirty thousand pounds. "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
posted a link showing that this was all lies, but it was too late. Sixteen
other people had already shared the post. It amazes me how people take such
lies at face value and spread them with no regard to the truth. I
set off to work; as I drove the talk on the radio was all about how President
Trump’s latest scheme had been kiboshed by the
American judges. Whether his scheme is good or bad is immaterial; what
bothers me is that he communicates his contempt for the judiciary to the
world via Twitter. I believe David
Cameron also tweeted when he was Prime Minister? I can’t help but feel this
somewhat lacks dignity. I
got to work and retrieved the geocache I put out last week, then had a rather busy day. I’m now on the third week,
and…. I’m quite enjoying it, but there’s a *lot* of differences
between what I’m doing and what I used to do. On reflection I probably made
the right decision in moving, but there is no denying that retirement can’t
come quickly enough. I
was twenty minutes late getting out this evening, but being twenty minutes
late getting out gave me a clear run from work to the motorway, and I was
home at 6.30pm. So
far it seems to make no difference what time I leave work in the evenings; I
always seem to get home at 6.30pm. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of scoff, then she went bowling leaving me with the puppy. My
dog is no trouble; the puppy is a tad demanding. As she ran riot I watched a
Doctor Who DVD. Starring William Hartnell, “The
Dalek Invasion of Earth” is a classic. In order to fake a deserted
London, many of the scenes were filmed in the very early hours of the morning
when there weren’t many people about. But if you look very closely you can
see the odd pedestrian going here and there. After a while I found myself looking
for the people who weren’t supposed to be on screen rather than watching the
actual program. And
then I realised that one of the heroes was a very young Mr Rumbold from “Are You Being Served”… |
|
7
February 2017 (Tuesday) – Stuff
Not
a bad night’s kip I suppose. It would have been better had my phone not told
me about a Facebook Messenger message at half past midnight and an email at
5am. I wish I knew how the thing gets these notifications when all its
Internet connections are turned off. I
got up, and watched the Darling Buds of May buy a brewery and win an
election, then I thought I’d best see what that
message and email were all about. The message was a rather cute picture of a
dachshund, and the email was my leccie bill. The
dachshund picture was cute, and the leccie bill has
gone up by seven pounds each month. I
was rather amazed by the leccie bill. A couple of
days ago I had a message from the leccie company
telling me they were putting up their prices, and my bill would increase by
about fourteen pounds over the next year. But an increase of seven pounds
each month works out to an increase of eighty-four pounds a year? I
also saw there was news from Geocaching HQ. they’ve
appointed a new head honcho. I wonder what difference (if any) that
will make to hunting Tupperware. I
had a hunt round the Internet for mention of yesterday’s Sapphire jubilee. Yesterday was the
sixty-fifth anniversary of the Queen’s ascension to the Throne. No other
British monarch has reigned for so long. I would have thought the occasion
would have been marked in some way. But it looks like absolutely nothing had
been done for the event at all. Something
of a shame, really. I
set off to work; it was a cold morning, and I was nearly driven off the road
by a rather arrogant Audi driver. Personalised number plates are especially
good when you want to remember someone’s bad driving; if any of my loyal
reads see a white car with registration “2 MSE”
I’d suggest keeping your distance. As I
drove the pundits on the radio were discussing the Speaker of the House of Commons. Speaker
John Bercow doesn't want President Trump to address Parliament and he has
said so quite forcefully and publicly. It is quite unprecedented for a
Speaker to make such an opinion known; the Speaker of the House is meant to
be politically neutral. Whether he thinks President Trump should be invited
or not is *not* something he should be voicing opinions about. But
if he does feel strongly, why did he previously allowed the Emir of Kuwait to
address Parliament (Kuwait allows the imprisonment of homosexuals, doesn't
punish domestic violence and allows marital rape) and why has he invited
the President of China to address Parliament? (The list of human rights
abuses of which China is accused is too long to list) I
got to work, had a rather good day really and came home. I left work on time,
but didn’t get home any earlier than yesterday (when I left twenty minutes
late). I
ran the dogs round the road, and then we had a bit of scoff. The usual
suspects were mostly unavailably for the usual
Tuesday meet-up, so we had a rather good curry and a bottle of plonk instead. |
|
8
February 2017 (Wednesday) - Bit Dull
I
had a little fiddle about with my phone last night and discovered I can set
the thing to automatically keep quiet between certain times. I can’t stop it
getting notifications from the Internet all night long (despite its Internet
connection being turned off) but I can tell it not to tell me. I *think*
it mutes the ringtone as well, so if anyone phones me in the small hours it
won’t go off, but being phoned in the small hours hopefully wouldn’t happen
anyway. But
for all the phone was silent last night, the puppy
was incredible restless and so either way I didn’t really sleep. "Furry
Face TM" had the right idea; he spent the night
downstairs in his basket. Over brekkie he sat with me as we watched the
Christmas episode of “Darling Buds of May” in which our heroes
harboured an escaped convict. I
then had a little look-see on-line. I had several emails: the Oriental bank
of Commerce (who?) were trying to scam me, Match dot com wondered if I
was “up for it”, and some cheeky bunch were offering a free hearing
test. Nothing much had happened on Facebook, so I set off to work. It
was a cold morning, and narrowly missing being rammed by a taxi I was soon on
the motorway to Maidstone. As I drove the punters on the radio were talking about
Parliament’s discussions about the Brexit deal. Basically Parliament want the
power to veto any deal the Prime Minister makes, but given that Parliament
doesn’t like what the Prime Minister comes up with, exercising their veto
would just give the nation an even crappier deal. Didn’t
*anyone* think this out before the referendum? I
stopped off at Aldi before work to get some scoff; whilst there it struck me
that I might hide a geocache there. So once at work I used the wi-fi to look at the geo-map to see if it might be
possible. It tuned out I’d parked within yards of a cache. I shall have to go
look for it. I
did my bit at work, and came home to walk the dogs round the roads. With "er indoors TM" off bowling I was home
alone with the dogs. Fudge was no trouble, but the baby was somewhat
troublesome. One minute she would be calm and placid, the next she would be
nipping and biting. I wish she’d stop doing that… Today
was another rather dull day… |
|
9
February 2017 (Thursday) – Stuff
I
slept like a log until 4am when the puppy started walking all over me. That
little dog really needs to start spending the night in her own bed. I tried
to get back to sleep, but the puppy wouldn’t settle, so I gave up and got up.
I had a quick look out of the window; the forecast frost hadn’t happened,
which was something of a result. As I
scoffed brekkie I watched the last episode of “The Darling Buds of May”;
did you know they only made twenty episodes of the show? I’m now at something
of a loose end for what to watch in the mornings before work. Being something
of an early bird I need something to keep me out of mischief for the best
part of an hour each morning. As it looks like I shan’t be doing nights and
odd hours for a few months, I need to find something with more than a few
episodes to keep me occupied in the early mornings. I’m
thinking about going through “Battlestar Galactica” again, or possibly “You Rang M’Lord” I
set off to work, and as I drove my piss boiled as I listened to the radio.
The news alternated between how hospitals are continually missing various targets and how things are
getting worse in the NHS, and talk about Brexit. Have
you been to a hospital recently? Hospitals are places where the average Brit
is either unqualified to work or unwilling to work. Consequently they are
staffed by non-UK nationals; many of whom are feeling more and more uncomfortable
with the aura of xenophobia which has swept the nation since the Brexit vote.
Many have already gone home. Sooner
or later someone is going to make the connection… I
got to work and tried parking in a slightly different place to where I have
been parking. I rather thought I’d been parking at the wrong end of the car
park and having discovered a new back door to the hospital, this evening I
got away five minutes earlier than I have been doing so. I
got home just as "er indoors TM"
was taking the puppy to puppy class (the vets run a free puppy class)
and so this evening’s dog walk was just me and "Furry Face TM".
I quite liked it just being me and my dog this evening. As
we walked I kept looking at the sky. Some of the astro
club were supposed to be running a stargazing event for the sixth form of a
local school. There was no way I could have got there in time, and in
retrospect I’m glad I didn’t go. The idiot teacher organising the event
didn’t actually tell any of his students about it until this morning, and it
turned out that all the students had gone to some other sixth form event
which *had* been publicised… |
|
10
February 2017 (Friday) - The Wizard of Oz?
Finally
I had a rather good night’s sleep. I don’t think the puppy bothered me at
all, and I woke a few minutes before the alarm to find I was cuddling my dog
as though he were a teddy bear. Over
brekkie I watched a couple of episodes of “Chewing Gum”. I hadn’t been
that impressed with this second series, but now it seems to have picked up
somewhat. I
then had a little look on Facebook. Trivia and squabbles abounded in equal
measure. And in my email in-box was the offer of ten quid’s worth of Gala
bingo. I declined the offer, and set off to work. As I
drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing the boss of some plumbing
firm. One of his contractors was
suing the
firm because he seemed to want all the advantage of being self-employed as
well as all the perks of being an employee. I couldn’t quite understand the
ins and outs of the case, but when it was mentioned that the chap in question
was earning eighty thousand pounds per year I realised how this chap could
afford to take his boss to court. Courts are beyond the pockets of the
average worker. I
made good time to Maidstone, and thought I might save time in the evening by
getting petrol in the morning. I wonder why I didn’t think of that last week.
It is much easier navigating a petrol station in daylight than in the dark. I
got to work, and had a rather good day. And I got my name badge too. Having
made good time to work in the morning I made good time home, and was soon
walking the dogs round the road. Yesterday I only had to walk Fudge; I had
both of them today. It is certainly easier walking just one. As we came home
so the snow started. "er indoors TM" eventually
came home; she’d been visiting "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
and "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM", but she brought home fish and chips. We
scoffed it whilst watching the first episode of “Emerald City”; a twenty-first century
re-make of “The Wizard of Oz”. It
was rather good, but I don’t think Dorothy had to be *quite* so “chesty”… |
|
11
February 2017 (Saturday) – Dinner
I
have made a decision. Whether "er indoors TM"
likes it or not, the puppy is no longer sleeping in our bed. On it, maybe. In
it, no. I finally saw red when she shoved her nose up my arse crack for the
twelfth time last night. Being
wide awake I thought I might as well move my car. Parking is at a premium
round our way, and yesterday evening the only place I could park was
somewhere where parking isn’t allowed after 8am, so at 4am I thought I’d sort
the problem. There had been a light sprinkling of snow overnight but it felt
warmer in the snow at 4am than it had felt at 7.30am earlier this week. I
soon parked up and went back to bed for a couple of hours. Over
brekkie I had a look on-line. One or two people had commented about the snow;
rather more were making sarcastic comments about social media becoming the
Weather Channel. I felt it was rather ironic that those making snide comments
were the very people who *never* have anything positive to say for
themselves. Mind
you if Facebook is turning into anything, it is turning into eBay. More and
more people won’t even flush the toilet without first seeing if they can sell
it on Facebook. I
drove round to "Daddy’s Little Angel TM". Regular
readers of this drivel may recall a Sunday in August
last year
when I drove the most recent fruit of my loin to Ramsgate. She paid good
money for a second hand wardrobe and at the time I broke my back loading it
into my car and lugging it to her flat. Today we took the fragments of that
wardrobe to the tip. If
anyone else has anything they’d like me to collect from forty miles away and
take to the tip… With
the tip run done I had a cuppa with "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
whilst "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM" was watching some odd kids program which
seemed to be about a load of hippy-tree-hugging-kung-fu
elves. Kids TV ain’t what I used to be. I
then walked the dogs round the park. The snow had given way to drizzly sleet,
and the paths and fields were damp and muddy, and the puppy insisted on
continually jumping up at me. We
came home, "er indoors TM"
then set off to take "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" to
the shops and I had a look at the contents of my letter rack. This is the
sort of job I used to do on mid-week rostered days off, but it will be a
while before I get those again. I
had a reminder about getting the boiler serviced (dated last November) I
had reminders about my professional registration and my professional body. I
needed to tell them that I now work somewhere else. I
had a letter about my tax codes. I often get those; they mean nothing to me.
I also found my P45; that too meant nothing to me. And there was even a
letter about claiming tax relief on the uniforms that I have to buy and
launder for work. (What uniforms?) There
was the annual mortgage statement. Just under seven
thousand pounds still to pay off. Legal
and General sent some rubbish. I wish they wouldn't. I have no accounts with
them, and their letter just takes up space in my dustbin. There
was a reminder about next week's car service, and a money-off voucher for it.
That was a result. There
was a letter about renewing the insurance on the SkyPlus
box, and a similar one about the washing machine. I need to think about
whether it is cheaper not to pay it and just buy a new one when the old one dies.
But that's the gamble with all insurance. There
were some Christmas bargains from the Internet company which have now long
since expired. There
was the house buildings and contents policy from The Policy Shop which I
cancelled in favour of Hastings Direct, and there was the house buildings and
contents policy from Hastings Direct. And
there was the parcel of geocache supplies which I'd ordered... which
contained totally the wrong things. I
then ironed my shirts. Just as I finished ironing the last one "er indoors TM" pulled up outside and
my phone beeped about a new nearby geocache. We made a minor diversion on our
way to Tesco and got a cheeky First to Find. And with shopping at Tesco done
we came home and got the house organised. Kev
and Jane arrived, and we had a rather good evening. We meet up so
infrequently that we’d been saying we’d organise an evening for ages. We did
so tonight. Really will have to do so again soon… |
|
12
February 2017 (Sunday) - Milton Regis
I
slept reasonably well now that the puppy has been banished to outside the
bed. I would have slept better had my cold not returned with a vengeance; I
got up shortly after 7am being unable to breathe, and spent half an hour or
so coughing and snotting. I scoffed
brekkie whilst seeing that nothing much had happened on the Internet
overnight, then we got ready for today’s adventure. Today’s
adventure was a walk wound Milton Regis country park where a new series of
geocaches had recently gone live. We met up with a whole load of friends, and
eight of us took the dogs for a rather good walk. Much of the walk was on
hardstanding and on decent footpaths; for all that I wore wellies I didn’t
really need them. We
had “dog episodes” as we walked. The puppy was limping at one point;
we extracted two really nasty hawthorn spikes from her paw. "Furry
Face TM" was limping at another point; we never did find
out what that was all about. His limp came and went, and eventually went for
good. (This happened to him the last time we went to Milton Regis). Both
dogs found rather stinky mud; I can’t say I was delighted to see them covered
in the foul slime, but they both seemed happy. And (after all is said and
done) the Sunday walk is something which is to be enjoyed. Geocache-wise
I rather liked the walk. I’d been told that the person who’d hidden the
series had taken over several caches in the area and had got rid of the old
ones and replaced them with new ones. I can remember going round the area a couple of years
ago
on a geocache-walk and at the time I rather thought we were rather randomly
going from cache to cache, making up our route as we went along. Today’s walk
was much more structured. I must admit there was a stretch along the main
road which wasn’t as scenic as the rest of the walk, but in order to make a
circular walk going up the main road was unavoidable. There
was another point at which we found ourselves presented with a locked gate.
We found the way round it, and had we actually read the written instructions
provided we would have seen that directions had been provided here. After
six and a half miles we found ourselves back where we started. It would have
been nice to have slipped off for a pint, but we were all cold (the puppy
was intermittently shivering) and the dogs were a bit whiffy. So we came
home and the dogs got scrubbed. Once scrubbed "Furry Face TM"
went straight to his basket and to sleep. The puppy fought sleep for a while,
but she was soon enough snoring. I took a few photos as we walked; once
I’d done the ironing I posted them on-line whilst we watched “Carry On
Matron”. There is always some dire film on telly on Sunday afternoons. "er indoors TM"
then boiled up a rather good bit of dinner, and we scoffed it whilst watching
the latest episode of “Taboo”. I think I need to watch the series from
the beginning; I haven’t the faintest idea what is going on… |
|
13
February 2017 (Monday) - Freebie Telescope
I
woke shortly before the alarm was due to go off to find I was holding "Furry
Face TM"’s
paw. I got up being careful not to disturb my dog, and over brekkie watched
the last episode of “Chewing Gum”. I suspect that much of the show
went over my head, but it kept me amused for half an hour or so. Despite
having had no Internet connection all night my phone had still received all
sorts of notifications. But now that it spends the night in “Do Not
Disturb” mode it doesn’t shout about them all night long, which is
something of a result. I
thought I really should see what my phone had seen overnight. I had a couple
of emails which weren’t really of any interest at all. Facebook was similarly
uninspiring; there was talk about comet 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková. But only talk.
The thing is too dim to be seen with the naked eye, and those people who’d
got up at silly o’clock to look for it found an intermittently cloudy sky and
a bright moon stopped them seeing anything. "My
Boy TM" messaged me; by brother’s in-laws are having a
big family party to which we are all invited. My brother’s in-laws are a very
friendly and welcoming bunch, but only seeing them once a year (at most)
means I hardly know any of them. "My
Boy TM"’s
also got work worries. The local news is full of stories of his firm going
bust, and he has no idea of what is actually happening. Worrying times. I
then played “Genies and Gems” for a while before setting off to work.
I had been told that the roads would be quieter today because it is half-term
week. As I drove, the pundits on the radio were talking about how Tesco have
been overcharging
customers
as they haven’t been taking down signs advertising offers which have long
since passed. Is it a series of mistakes or a deliberate conspiracy? I don’t
know about Tesco, but if it were Aldi I would say it was. The Maidstone Aldi
is conveniently placed for me to visit on the way to work, but the staff in
there are perhaps the most surly and uncooperative people I’ve ever met. The
roads *were* quiet on my way to work; I made good time. I had a very
busy day, and then came home through *very* heavy traffic. The cars
which weren’t on the roads this morning were out in force this evening. I
made a little detour on my way home from work; over the weekend the astro club had been offered a telescope. A chap had been
given a Celestron Astromaster
130EQ but didn’t feel he could use it, and wondered if the astro club could make use of it. I collected the thing
this evening. I’ve
posted on the club’s Facebook page; the membership have
been offered the use of it. I hope the thing gets used, but in all honesty my
gut feeling is that the thing will still be in its unopened box this time
next year. We
have *loads* of kit that never gets used… |
|
14
February 2017 (Tuesday) - Lemony Snickett
Not
a bad night’s sleep really. The banishment of the puppy from under the covers
continues. So rather than rummaging about under the covers she does spend an
inordinate amount of time marching about all over me. But she’s still a baby
really. Over
brekkie I watched a very old episode of “Dad’s Army”, and when it
finished I found the telly was tuned to “Off the Hook:
Extreme Catches”. It was a disappointment; supposedly a fishing show,
the wrestler who presented the show gave up with rod and line and dived into
the water to wrestle with a catfish. For no reason I could fathom he enlisted
the help of two bikini-clad bimbos to wrestle with the catfish too. He then
went in search of sea urchins; apparently each sea urchin has five gonads,
and you eat them raw. Yuk! I
had a quick look-see on the Internet; I had an email telling me that Russian
women are still hot for me. I would post the link they sent, but puritanical
values and a desire not to spread viruses made me decide otherwise. Over on
Facebook I had another friend request from some woman I don’t know (who
wasn’t wearing much). I
did have a wry smile at some of the Facebook groups I follow. There is to be
a new Star Trek
series;
reading what is being posted on the Internet it would seem that most
so-called Star Trek fans have decided against the show before it has even
been made. Why do people do this? I
wrote out a hand-made thank you card for the chap who’d given the telescope
to the astro club, and set off to deliver it on the
way to work. I’d thought about posting it but by the time I’d farted about
getting a stamp and finding a post box it was quicker and easier to deliver
the thing myself. Narrowly
avoiding being run off the road by a French Norbert Dentressangle
lorry I made my way to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking
about how Rolls Royce are losing money hand over fist. The general
consensus was that if they stuck to engineering all would be fine; their
losses were all to do with currency deals. Personally I think there is
something morally wrong where you sell pounds to buy euros, sell those euros
to buy dollars, sell those dollars to buy yen, sell those yen to by zlotys,
and when you sell those zlotys to buy pounds you end up with more money than
you started. But enough other people seem to make a living doing it with no
moral qualms. Work
was busy; again the roads to work were empty and the roads home were
incredibly busy. I got home just as "er
indoors TM" was taking the dogs out. Perhaps I should
have gone with them. I didn’t; I had a little doze. I was feeling rather done
in. Being
Tuesday the clans gathered; tonight in Somerset Road. Matt provided loads of
sweeties, and we randomly watched the first episode of “A Series of
Unfortunate Events”. It was a rather good evening; and then we got the
news that my father-in-law had died… |
|
15
February 2017 (Wednesday) - Out For Dinner
I
slept reasonably well; I would have slept better had I got up and had a tiddle at 2am rather than laying
in pain. I do that so often. Over
brekkie I watched an episode of “Dad’s Army” whilst the washing
machine set about some jumpers, then I checked out the Internet. Not much had
changed overnight, and I’d had no emails at all. I hung out the jumpers and
set off to work. As I
drove to work I listened to the radio (as always). Amazing as it may
seem, the theory that Donald Trump is a
Russian agent
seems to be gathering credence. I can’t pretend to be an expert on the matter
and I’m sure he’s getting a very bad press, but the bloke does come over as a
bit of a twit. A
Russian agent? Time will tell… Once
at work I had a rather busy day, but nowhere near as fraught as "er indoors TM" and "Daddy’s
Little Angel TM" who were in Hastings following
yesterday’s family bereavement. Once
home we walked the dogs, then we went out for a meal with "My Boy TM".
We went to the Harvester; I’ve walked past the place so many times over the
years but had never been there before. It was rather good. Might just go back
again… I’ve
spent quite a bit of time today thinking about my father-in-law’s death
yesterday evening. When I first met him in 1982 he was active and full of
life; there is no denying he liked a drink from time to time. But over the
years he slowed down; so much so that for the last ten years or so he was
always in “his” chair when we went to visit. His health hasn’t been at
all good for years following all sorts of scares. We
went to see him when he was in hospital on 8 January. At the time he was
chirpy enough, but was clearly struggling for breath. Over the last few weeks
he’d got worse and worse. There is no cure for pulmonary fibrosis and his
time was up. The last few days were terrible for him and all those around
him. There
are those who are against euthanasia. I can’t say I’m without reservation on
the matter. A blanket policy of putting them all down once they hit
retirement (a la “Logan’s Run”) is clearly wrong. And there are loads
of people who have been written off by the medical profession who then go on
to live for years (I know one such person). But
some people are clearly terminal and want the pain to stop, and forcing them
to suffer is just wrong. Let
me be crystal clear - if I end up like Frank, I want the plug to be pulled. |
|
16
February 2017 (Thursday) - Cornish Aid
A
very good night – the puppy didn’t march about the bed, and Fudge spent the
night in his basket. Over brekkie my dog stayed in his basket, and snored
quite a bit. He has seemed rather subdued these last few days; "er indoors TM" says he’s lost weight
but he still looks like a little barrel to me. I
sparked up my lap-top and had the obligatory check on-line. I had an email
from Ms Evelyn Adams (?) who addressed me as “My Dearest Beloved in
the Lord”. She wanted to give me six million pounds because she was dying
and there was “no hope for her to be a living person again”. If she
was really dying I would have thought she would have been far better spending
her money on medical treatment rather than randomly giving it to some
stranger. I also had emails from Nuffield Health and Health Insurance First
who were both offering to sell me what I get for free from the NHS. I
had a friend request on Facebook. Sarah Carla Haddix wanted to be my friend. She also wanted to
“share naked with naughty boys!” My back wasn’t up to any of that
nonsense so I set off to work. As I
drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing several angry Cornishmen.
They were very forthright in their opinion that Cornwall gets very little out
of the UK Government, and they cited all sorts of examples of local projects
and initiative that had been funded by EU initiatives. They were rather
worried that the EU funding was going to dry up after Brexit, and at that
point they felt that Cornwall would be akin to a third world country. Ironically
the next article on the radio was all about how much money (in overseas
aid) the UK gives to India and China. The point was made that should we
be giving aid to countries that have successful space programs.
Personally until such time as Cornwall launch their
own moon shot I think we should be keeping the money more in-house. Work
was good; though I must admit I sulked a little. Several friends were off on
a mid-week geo-walk today. A few months ago I would possibly have been in a
position to have joined them. Oh well, the opportunities will come again. I
came home and walked "Furry Face TM" round the
roads; "er indoors TM"
had taken the baby to puppy class. We had a good walk, and came home to play
“tug”. “Tug” is a game in which my dog destroys as many teddy
bears as he can before "er indoors TM"
catches him. "er
indoors TM" came home and caught him, then went off out
to craft class; leaving us all “home alone”. I
watched more episodes of “You Rang M’Lord”
whilst the dogs ran riot. As dogs do. And
in closing today I’d like to say hello to my new readers. Every week this
blog gets read about four hundred times (on average); over the last
week that has gone up to over two thousand. That’s a lot..
|
|
17
February 2017 (Friday) - Windscreen Repairs
Last
night I set the washing machine loose on my undercrackers.
I got up a few minutes early this morning with a plan to sort them out only
to find that "er indoors TM"
had already dealt with them. That was brave of her. Over
brekkie I watched an episode of “You
Rang M’Lord” before doing my morning check of
the Internet. I’d had no emails of note and Facebook was equally dull so I
set off to work. It
was foggy as I drove to work; as I drove the pundits on the radio were
lambasting President Donald Trump again. Whilst it is still early days for
him, he seems to be making something of a hash of being president. I can’t
help but feel that the trick to holding any elected office is pacifying all
sorts of competing factions. Mr Trump has never before held an elected
office, nor has he done any military service (in which he would have to take orders). Instead he’s always been
his own boss, and having had a lifetime of giving out the orders hasn’t
prepared him for an office which he *can’t*
effectively run as a dictatorship. I
got petrol, then went on to Sainsburys
where I got doughnuts for work. In my last workplace fifteen doughnuts would
have been plenty. I’m now working in a much bigger place. I bought forty;
next time I’ll get fifty. But getting doughnuts was a good move; people who
until now have only nodded politely are now chatting to me. I
took an extended lunch break. There was a chip in my windscreen and National
Windscreens were only a couple of miles away. They fixed the chip whilst I
stood and watched. I was fascinated. I’ve never seen a chip fixed before. The
nice man also repaired the iffy window trim too. I can’t recommend National
Windscreens highly enough. Especially as they fixed the chip when Autoglass said it was not repairable and wanted to
replace the entire windscreen for several hundred pounds. I
was only ten minutes late back to work. I
was a little late out of work this evening; I wanted to make up the time. I
came home and walked the dogs round the block, then advertised next week’s astro club meeting all over Facebook. "er indoors TM" came home
with a curry. That got scoffed, then I got the
ironing board out. Shirts don’t iron themselves… |
|
18
February 2017 (Saturday) - Car Wash, New Collars...
I
slept surprisingly well in between jumping in and out of bed to check for car
parking spaces outside the house. Yesterday I’d parked on the double yellow
lines round the corner in Whitfeld Road and I had
to move the car before 8am. A space became free at 7.15am. Having
moved the car I set the washing machine loose on some whites then did some CPD (it’s a work thing). Continuous
Professional Development is easy to do; all of us in every walk of life do it
all the time. Some of us have to record it though. Recording it is also easy,
but that does take a little effort. I made that effort this morning. The rules say we can record
our CPD in whatever format we like; some people
have reams of paper stuffed into folders. I prefer to blog. I originally
started blogging CPD in a previous life when I was
a training officer; I did so to demonstrate to trainees how easy it was. Over
the years the thing (like this blog) has developed a life of its own;
the hit counter remains dormant until I update, and when I update it goes
through the roof with hits from all over the world. I
hung out the washing to dry, and took the dogs round the park. Fudge was
itching to go out; Treacle didn’t seem overly fussed about going. As we
walked we saw a chap fishing in the river near Bowens Field. I know a little
bit about fishing; one of the best tips I could give would be not to fish
over the brambles. Ideally you should go to where you can get right to the
water’s edge. If this chap hooked anything he would have a terrible job
getting it over the thicket behind which he was fishing. He’d also set up his
rods as though he was beach-casting so he obviously had no idea what he was
doing. I
speculated about pointing out the error of his ways but decided to leave him
to it. He will learn from his mistakes, or he will not. We
came home, and I then spent over an hour cleaning up my car. It had gotten
rather grubby inside and out over the last few weeks, and I had this (admittedly
simplistic) theory that a clean car is more likely to pass its MOT on
Monday morning. Also I needed to get all the dog hairs out; we can’t arrive
at the funeral on Wednesday covered in dog hairs. I
actually filled a dustbin bag with all sorts of rubbish that I’d been
carrying around in the car (that should improve the fuel economy) and
I swept and Hoovered the inside before giving the outside a good scrub. It is
a shame that it still looks like it needs cleaning. I might take it to a car
wash tomorrow, As I
scrubbed I noticed that my car has euro-number plates (I’ve never really
paid attention to them before). I wonder if they will have to go with Brexit? "er indoors TM" mate arrived
with new collars for the dogs, and we then cleared up two puddle of puppy tiddle. I had vaguely been hoping to help a geo-pal move stuff into storage this morning, but it was
mid-day before I’d finished fiddling about. I’d intended to sort out my
fishing gear today, but time had run out. We had a quick bit of cheese on
toast and set off to Kings Wood where we met Tracey and the girls. Together
we all walked the dogs round some rather pretty woods (finding a few
geocaches as we went). We
only had a short walk, and with the walk done we then relocated to a nearby
pub where the monthly geo-meet was in full swing. It is always good to meet
friends; it was only a shame the pub was so hot. After an hour or so I was
feeling rather ill, so we said our goodbyes. That took an age as everyone
wanted to say goodbye to the puppy. Perhaps she too was feeling the heat as
she was sick on the way home. I
then pretty much wasted the evening dozing in front of the telly… |
|
19
February 2017 (Sunday) - Family Dinner
I
was dozing when I was awoken by a text message at
745am. Despite having cancelled them three days ago, Autoglass
had confirmed that they were on their way. I phoned them back to remind them
that I’d cancelled them, and during the course of the conversation the woman
I spoke with contradicted everything the previous two representatives had
said to me. I
pootled about on the Internet for a bit, then decided I’d lazed about enough.
I took the dogs for a walk round the park. The Park Run people were there,
but fortunately hadn’t started their run so we were able to get round without
too much trouble. When they run, they do so six abreast and swear at everyone
else daring to walk along the paths. I know they use the park on Saturdays, I
didn’t realise they did on Sundays as well… With
the dogs walked we drove to Tesco’s at Park Farm, and on finding it closed we
went to the Tesco by the hospital. Whilst the nice people gave my car a good
valeting (as opposed to the poor one I did yesterday) we got the
makings of dinner. We then went home and "er
indoors TM" boiled up a rather good lunch. As she cooked
so the family arrived. We had a rather good time, a really good dinner; loads
of puddings, port and cheese. Then I tried to stay awake as we played cards. All
too soon the littluns had to go home the smallest
ones have got school tomorrow. Jake managed to lose one of his shoes; that
took some finding. We
need to do family dinner at home more often… after all nine of us ate for
what it cost two of us in the Harvester in the week, |
|
20
February 2017 (Monday) - A Day Off
I
had a bit of a lie-in today. But only a bit of one. I was up shortly after
7am and once ablated and breakfasted I got the dogs breakfasted and we set
off. I
had a day’s leave today because my car was booked for its MOT and service
today so we drove out to the garage and left the car there. We walked through
Newtown where we met up with "Daddy’s Little Angel TM",
Sid and Pogo, and we went for a little walk. We wandered all around South Willesborough; finally ending up at McDonalds of all
places (would you believe it?). The humans had a cup of coffee each,
and some of a sausage and egg McMuffin. But only
some of it; dogs like sausage and egg McMuffins. We’d
vaguely hoped the car wouldn’t have been long in the garage so we’d stayed in
its general vicinity hoping to pick it up, but there is only so long that you
can loiter, so we eventually went home. As I came past Asda I made a quick
geo-find - a geocache had appeared there a
couple of weeks ago, and I’d not had chance to go look for it until today. I
soon find it and did the secret geo-rituals. Once
home Treacle had a quick bath; she’d got very muddy playing with Pogo whilst
we’d been out. I then settled the dogs and walked into town. "er indoors TM"
wanted some money bags and I had a cheque to pay into the bank. Whilst in
town I popped into the mobile phone shop; apparently I get 500Mb of data
every month that can be used overseas. That will come in handy for my
upcoming trip to Bruges. I
then made my way home past the Chill Time milk shake shop. In a novel
break with tradition they were open (they are usually closed whenever I
pass), and I got myself a Battenberg milk shake. Very nice. I
came home again; I had hoped the garage would have phoned whilst we were out,
but they didn’t. I was piddling about waiting for the garage to ring when
"Daddy’s Little Angel TM" phoned in high dudgeon.
She’d applied for a job as a recruitment administrator. The company had
emailed her wanting to know specific details of her childcare arrangements. I
thought that employers weren’t allowed to ask that sort of thing. I know I
wasn’t when (in a previous life) I used to interview potential
recruits. I
put on a “You Rang M’Lord” DVD and slept
through it until the garage rang to say the car was ready. I thought about
getting a taxi, but by the time I’d waited for a taxi it would have been
quicker (and cheaper) to walk the two miles to collect my car. So I
walked. My
car had passed its MOT, but by the time they’d MOT-ed,
replaced a couple of bulbs, re-gassed the air-con and done a service the bill
was a little more than I’d been expecting. I was naively hoping to pay just
under a hundred and fifty quid; it came out at two hundred and forty quid.
And to add insult to injury they reminded me that in eighteen months’ times I
shall need to replace the cam belt (about five hundred quid). As I
drove home I got a message. Pogo has been limping ever since our morning
walk. I felt guilty – I’d trodden on one of his front paws when he ran
underneath me earlier. But he was having problems with his back paw. I was
off the hook. I
had a shower, and then video-ed
the aftermath.
*Every* time I have a shower Treacle has to lick my head like a
lollipop. Once she’s done that she falls asleep behind my head and snores.
She makes for a comfortable pillow, albeit a noisy one. With
"er indoors TM" off to
the bowling beano I was left “home alone” for the evening so I watched
a DVD I’d bought whilst in town earlier. ID2 was very good (if you like
that sort of thing). I will need to watch it again at some point when the
dogs aren’t making such a noise… |
|
21
February 2017 (Tuesday) - Happy Birthday to Me !!!
I
decided not to take my birthday off work on my nineteenth birthday. The first
birthday I had whilst at work was a Saturday, and the second was a Sunday.
However my nineteenth birthday (21 February 1983) was a Monday. I
didn’t think to book a day’s leave, and I can remember that day; it sucked. I
have booked a day (or week)’s leave for the subsequent thirty-four
birthdays. However
the trouble with having a birthday in mid-February is trying to do anything
to celebrate that birthday. I always do all sorts of things around my
birthday but finding stuff to do on the day itself can be problematical; most
local places are closed, and it is usually rather cold and everyone else is
at work. Looking back at my last ten birthdays I see I did the following: 2007:
Went to The Weald & Downland Open Air Museum 2008:
Went to the Shepherd Neame brewery 2009:
Went to the London Dungeon 2010:
Went out for dinner with friends from Brighton 2011:
Went to see my mum 2012:
Went for an interview 2013:
Went to the zoo 2014:
Had fish and chips in Rye 2015:
Had a serious booze-up 2016:
Had a rather good pub lunch There’s
no denying that I was probably going to be at a loose end today. "er indoors TM"
couldn’t get the day off work, and with her step-father having died we
weren’t really feeling like doing much anyway. "My Boy TM"
was similarly rather down in the dumps with the local news carrying the sad
story of the demise of the firm where he works.
But he was off work today, and so we decided to go fishing. We both like
fishing. We
started off at Rocky’s café for a fry-up; we were there before they opened.
It was a good fry-up and once it was scoffed we set off to Shirkoak. Not only had the car park been opened before we
got there, the chap who owns the place let me fish for free as It was my
birthday. It
was a rather good day to be out; we saw a woodpecker doing his thing. It was
a tad cold, but not *too* cold, and the rain didn’t last for long. I
got to try out my new fishing chair (that I rescued from the tip) and
I was pleased to find it was ideal. I even got to use my new net too. Fishing-wise
we had a good day, but (to be honest) we both had the quietest day at Shirkoak we’ve ever had. I suppose that isn’t really
surprising bearing in mind it is mid-February. But because the days are now
longer than they are in December we got to stay out for a couple of hours
longer than we did last time. You
can see what we did by clicking here. We
came home shortly after 5pm; I out my tackle away and walked the dogs round
the road. As always Fudge was raring to go on his walk, and Treacle didn’t
seem fussed whether she went out or not. "er indoors TM" came home,
and we went to the local Wetherspoons for a bit of
birthday dinner. Compared to previous birthday dinners tonight was a rather
quiet do, but what with what’s on the cards tomorrow a
quiet do was ideal. Ten of us had a rather good dinner. Must
do steak night more often… |
|
|
|
22
February 2017 (Wednesday) - A Funeral
We
buried my father-in-law today. I
first met Frank some time in 1982 in the bar of the Regent hotel in St
Leonards. I’d just started going out with "er
indoors TM" and it was time to meet her (step) father.
I’d been told his Irish accent was rather thick. He seemed friendly enough;
he bought me a pint, I am reliably informed that he was cheeky about my coat
(I wore a very distinctive coat at the time), but I didn’t understand
a single word he said at the time. I smiled politely; hoping for a
translation. That
really set the scene for the next thirty-five years. I always got on well
with him; but never understood a word he said. Over
the years the fruits of my loin would go and stay with him. They both loved
him. They would help him in the kitchens of the various bed-and-breakfasts he
ran. On one of the occasions I understood him he was shouting “oh sweet
Jesus” as the toast under the grill had caught fire. On
another occasion he got an allotment. Not to grow anything but so various
grandchildren could play (under his strict supervision) with a
petrol-powered rotavator he’d acquired. In later
years he had a mobility scooter which I never saw him use. I’m told he went
to the park in it, but I am sure that this too was a toy for the younger
members of the family. As
time pushed on so Frank’s health deteriorated. He recovered from cancer of
the throat a few years ago, but that was but one of his problems. Last
Christmas he jokingly showed us a list of all his conditions. After a recent
bout in hospital he’d asked one of the doctors to write him a list of what
was wrong with him; it filled an A4 sheet of paper. Today
was the funeral. There was a minor disaster as the road outside his house had
been closed for resurfacing, but the contractors stopped work to allow us in
and for the funeral procession to leave. We made our way to the Catholic
church in the Old Town, and the priest gave a very good service. Frank had
been a churchgoer there, and the church had looked after him in his last
days. From
there we relocated to Hastings cemetery for the burial. Again the priest gave
a good service at the graveside. Short and sweet, which was what was called
for on a cold windswept afternoon. From
the cemetery we moved to Hasting sea front for the wake in the sea angling
society’s social club. The wake went as well as a wake can go. I
was rather relieved to get home. Today had been rather tiring… |
|
23
February 2017 (Thursday) - Not in the News
I
had a rather early night last night and slept like a log. Yesterday had been
rather tiring. I got up just before the alarm this morning. Over brekkie I
watched an episode of “You Rang M’Lord” then
had a look-see at what was going on in cyber-space. It
seemed that very little had happened on Facebook overnight; that was probably
for the best. Things have been rather fraught on there over the last few
days. Maybe one day I’ll elaborate on that at some point; maybe not. One of
the good things about being autobiographical here is that I can dwell on the
better things in my life and gloss over the rest. I
had an email from LinkedIn. Unlike their usual stuff, this one was
interesting. It linked to a rather interesting
article
which was talking about how in this digital age employers are expecting their
staff to be available (via mobile phone and internet) all day every
day, and how there is now legislation in France to allow staff to have “the
right to disconnect”. I can remember back when I was in a supervisory
role I didn’t seem to have that right. Looking back I was effectively on duty
all day every day from the summer of 1988 until the autumn of 2011. I would
regularly get phone calls at all hours of the night, and be expected to go
into work to solve problems at a moment’s notice. Even when I took the scouts
for extended holidays in Canada I was still hounded with questions and
problems from work via email. I
also had an email about a supervisor vacancy where I now work. I considered
applying for maybe two minutes… As I
browsed my lap-top had a visual C++ runtime error. I wonder what that was all
about? Usually
I take the entire week of my birthday off work. This year I didn’t; I’d only
booked three days off. I thought it was rather cheeky asking for more only
having been in the new job for a month, and I’d (rather pessimistically)
thought to save a few days in case Monday’s MOT had gone badly and I needed
more time off over the next few weeks for some vague unspecified car-related
reasons. As I
drove to work I wondered if those on the radio would give any air-time to
today being the fifty second anniversary of Stan Laurel’s death. They didn’t;
neither did they make mention of the star discovered to have seven earth-like
planets.
Instead they wittered on about political trivia which will be forgotten by
tomorrow. I
stopped off at Lidl’s for supplies, then went in to
work. I had a good day, and because of various hiccups I was over an hour
late getting out. But I didn’t mind. In fact I was rather pleased about it. The
bosses were very appreciative of my efforts. It is some years since I’ve felt
I’ve done anything worthwhile at work… |
|
24
February 2017 (Friday) - Long Day
Storm
Doris hit yesterday. After a spot of brekkie I checked the back garden for
damage. We lost a couple of fence panels. I say “lost”; fell down is a
more accurate description of what happened. I suppose I’d better sort it out
at the weekend. The panels look fine; I just need a new upright and a way of
keeping it up (ooer!) I
then had my obligatory check of the Internet before work. Edna Haviva Tse had sent me a
friend request on Facebook. I don’t know her but she assures me that her sexy
breast and her naked body will make me really hot! That’s something to which
I can look forward… But
seriously though. This person is advertising pornographic sites. I went
through the reporting process and the powers that be at Facebook said that
this pornmonger was not breaching any of their
rules. They ban people for using an alias but allow the promotion of
pornography. There is something wrong there. With
no emails at all having turned up overnight I set off to work. As I drove the
pundits on the radio were discussing the state of the Labour party. Two of
their prominent MPs have resigned and there were by-elections to replace them
yesterday. The Labour party held one seat (with a seriously diminished
majority) and lost the other seat (which has been a safe Labour seat
for over fifty years) to the Conservatives. Much as it pains me to say
so, the Labour party is clearly rapidly going down the toilet and its so-called
leader Mr Corbyn is pulling the flush himself. And
again the fellow takes no
responsibility
for the state of his party. I
stopped off at Sainsburys for petrol, and went to
work where I had a rather frustrating day. I was working in a part of the lab
where there was a notice board with various photographs of staff parties and
staff families and the like. There was a photo of one of my new colleagues
with a woman who looked incredibly familiar, but I couldn’t identify her.
After a few hours the chap walked past; I asked him who this woman was with
whom he’d been photographed. He giggled nervously, and said he had no idea.
Apparently she was some celebrity from the telly. I wonder who this celebrity
was? I
had hoped to get some McScoff after work, but time
was against me. I went straight to Woodchurch to
find I was the first member of the astro club
committee to get to the hall, but not the first person. Half a dozen people (who
had never been to the club before) had turned up incredibly early. I got
the keys, asked them to give me a few minutes, got set up, and then had a row
with them. One silly old bat had set herself up as their ringleader and
refused point-blank to pay two quid to come to the meeting. She’d lived in Woodchurch all her life and why should she pay to come to
a meeting of the astronomy club when she had no interest in astronomy. She
was actually looking for the meeting of the parish council in the hall next
door. This
boils my piss. Every single meeting of the astro
club is plagued by locals who make a grand entrance only to find they want
the parish council meeting taking place next door. Surely anyone going to something
as local as a parish council meeting would know where the thing is taking
place? Once
we’d got rid of the parish council the astro club
meeting went rather well. We had several new people, and it was standing room
only when we started. Mind
you I was glad to get home. I arrived home shortly after 11pm; only sixteen
hours after I left home this morning… |
|
25
February 2017 (Saturday) - Fence Fixed
It
was well after midnight before I got to bed last night. I slept like a log,
and was pleasantly dozing when "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
woke me with a text saying how they’d hardly slept. I made myself some toast and had a look at the Internet. I found myself looking at a geocaching-related group called “geocarping ”. The whole idea of the group is that you go there to whinge and moan about all things Tupperware-related, but it is rather depressing. I have rarely read such a load of nastiness (and being on the Internet it is up against some rather stiff competition).The door bell
rang; Jose and Maria came for dinner. We had a rather good time… |
|
26 February 2017 (Sunday) –
Eastbourne
|
|
27 February
2017 (Monday) - When I Croak...
|
|
28 February
2017 (Tuesday) - This n That
|
