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1 March 2020 (Sunday)
- Before the Night Shift
I slept through till nine o’clock this
morning. Perhaps I needed it after the exertions of yesterday? Seeing it was the first of the month I
changed my razor blade. All these on-line sites for getting razor blades
claim to be so cheap – they are only cheap if you change the blade every five
minutes. I reckon I can get six weeks out of a decent razor blade. I made myself some toast and peered into the
Internet. It would seem I wasn’t the only one who was aching after
yesterday’s house move. The Munzee clan war
had ended; we’d done rather well at sticking bar codes onto lamp posts, and
are staying in “the cup of cocoa” clan. Which I rather good if you like
randomly sticking bar codes on to lamp posts. And it seemed there were all sorts of
e-badges available for finding all sorts of geocaches on yesterday’s leap
day. I was rather busy yesterday anyway, but it would have been nice to have
known about them; I might have got one or two. But more and more this is how
the local geocaching scene is going. Five years ago there would be events and
outings organised to publicise this sort of thing and to get people involved.
Nowadays one person tells everyone else what they have missed after it is all
too late to join in. Such a shame… Bearing in mind I’m a couple of pounds over
my ideal weight (!), the first of the month seemed a good time to
re-start a diet. At a shade under seventeen stone it is time to shed the tons.
I have these diets from time to time; some more successfully than others. I
wonder how this one will go. I don’t like being a porker, but (from a
lifetime’s experience) everyone has a diet plan that doesn’t work. For me
the only way to lose weight is to be constantly hungry. We took the dogs up to Kings Wood. Usually
this is a good place to take the dogs, but I usually go mid-week. At the
weekends all the idiots would seem crawl out of the woodwork. One such twat
asked if my dogs were safe, and said that if they weren’t he’d give them a
boot. I didn’t actually tell him to get f**ked, but he seriously didn’t
understand why anyone would take offence at his attitude. As we parted he
wished us a good walk. I wished him that he wouldn’t break a leg on the way
back to the car park. I think he could tell I wasn’t sincere. But other than that we had a relatively good
walk. "er indoors TM"
had a new game in which all of the dogs start with one hundred points, and
each loses a point every time their name is called. Treacle made it all the
way round with a clean slate. Pogo lost a few points, and I think it fair to
say that Fudge ended up in negative numbers because he straggled so much. With walk walked we came home. The dogs had
the mud washed off of them, and "er indoors
TM" boiled up a couple of baguettes before I took myself
off to bed for the afternoon. I’m off to the night shift in a bit… |
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2 March 2020 (Monday)
- After the Night Shift
The night shift went as well as any night
shift could do. As I drove home I laughed out loud. The pundits on the radio
were interviewing the president of “British Naturism”; the
organisation for the nation’s naturists. They’ve got the hump because
everyone else points and laughs at them and suspects them of all manner of
perverted and unnatural behaviours simply because they run round without any
clothes on. I felt a little sorry for the bloke until he announced that
naturists should be an “official minority” with all the rights and
protections offered to any other minority. He seemed to feel that running
round in the nip should be regarded as some sort of philosophical or moral
stance, and was therefore almost a religion. Consequently (so this twit
maintained) ripping the piss out of those in their birthday suits was a “hate
crime”. This was followed by the weather forecast
which predicted a warmer day. The interviewer commented (rather
sarcastically) that the naturists should be grateful for that… I got home and took the dogs round the park.
It was rather muddy, and we saw that the frogs were laying loads of frogspawn
in Bowens Field. Spring is on the way. The walk went rather well until we were
nearly attacked by some out-of-control wolf-like canine which flew out of a
house and ran down Jemmett Road at us. It went for
Pogo but stopped dead in its tracks when I yanked Pogo behind me and shouted
a swear-word (very loudly) at it. The dog then stood there looking
rather sheepish until a little weasel of a man came running after it. He
didn’t seem pleased that I’d been disrespectful to his dog, but couldn’t
really say anything as he couldn’t deny that he was clearly in charge of a
dangerous animal. We walked away; I felt rather smug that (for
once) it wasn’t my dogs causing the problems. We came home; I went to bed and got up four
hours later. I made myself some toast, watched an episode of “Uncle”
then wasted half an hour. The leccie company had
sent me a letter saying that the tariff I was on was coming to an end. I
wondered if I might get a better deal elsewhere, so I phoned U-switch. After
half an hour I finally told the woman at the other end of the phone line that
I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. I *think* she as saying
that I was already with the cheapest provider, so I used the on-line thingy
of the company I was with already to get a better deal. I had it sorted in
minutes. And whilst I was at it I renewed my fishing
licence. That’s thirty quid for something I will use maybe half a dozen times
this year. Still feeling rather tired I went upstairs to
the attic room and played Lego. I built a couple of platforms to make a start
on a little Lego station for the train. That wasted a couple of hours. As I
built and took apart and re-built so the dogs barked on and off for no reason
whatsoever. It’s a dog thing. "er indoors TM" boiled up some
dinner. I counted its calories, then she went bowling. I watched a film on
Netflix. “England
is Mine” was based on the early years of the singer Morrissey and it
was rather crap. I think I might have an early night… |
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3 March 2020
(Tuesday) - Community Celebration Event
I slept well, but after the night shift I
rather thought I might. I watched an episode of "Uncle"
whilst scoffing a bowl of granola (diet food), spent rather too long
fussing Fudge, then set off. As I scraped the ice from my car I was
accosted by one of the normal people who was walking up the road. This chap
made a point of coming up to me and loudly announcing "Good Morning!!".
He then stood and stared intently at me as if daring me to return the
greeting. I gave him a half-hearted "allright?"
and carried on scraping ice. I've better things to do than bandy pleasantries
with passing nutters. I had planned to drive to work via
Staplehurst as a new geocache had gone live there yesterday evening, but the
FTF brigade had been out overnight. That cache will hopefully form the basis
of a little adventure some time in the future when
it isn't quite so cold. As I drove to Pembury the pundits on the
radio were talking about the corona virus (so-called) outbreak. There
is now talk to fast-track retired-NHS workers (out of retirement)
through the registration requirements of the statutory regulatory bodies to
get them back into work to deal with the crisis (should it happen). I
couldn't help but wonder if anyone has asked the retired if they want to be
drafted back into service. There was also talk of the elections of
Presidential hopefuls in America where the front-runners are twenty years
older than me. Am I the only one who doesn't want to work
forever? There was also talk about home security
cameras. Did you know that the unscrupulous can hack into the things
and use them to watch what is going on in someone else's house? Some villains
are using them to see when people are out so they can go burgling. Others are
more imaginative; some footage was played in which some despicable individual
was using the camera's speaker to try to groom an eight-year-old girl for his
own perverted ends. A *lot* of air-time was devoted to
keeping children safe from this, but no one touched on why anyone would put a
video camera into the bedroom of an eight-year-old girl in the first place. There was a minor delay getting to work; a
bus had broken down on the A21. Right in the middle of it. You would have
thought that between making an odd noise (with smoke belching out of the
engine) and actually grinding to a halt, the driver would have had some
opportunity to steer the bus to the side of the road, wouldn't you? But this
one was stopped right in the middle of the northbound lane, seemingly
deliberately positioned to block everything. Seeing that today marked the start of the Munzee clan war I thought I might contribute to the team
(clan) effort. As a group we have to get a certain number of a specific sort
of bar code stuck to a lamp post. My Munzee app
said there was one of these in the car park of a hotel I was driving past. My
app lied. So I contented myself with sticking a virtual crossbow on the
bypass and went in to work and did my thing. As I do. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good curry for dinner. We scoffed I whilst watching last week’s
episode of “Hunted” which was rather good, and last week’s episode of
“Doctor Who” which wasn’t. And I’ve had an email from geocaching HQ.
I’ve been offered the chance to stage a
Community Celebration Event. It’s basically a bit like the geo-meet I ran
a couple of weeks ago, but on a larger scale. I’m currently thinking beach
party some time over the summer… |
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4 March 2020
(Wednesday) - Stuff
I felt particularly hungry when I got up this
morning. But hunger is what weight loss feels like (!) so I’m seeing
this as a good thing. I had a bowl of diet granola as I watched an episode of
“Uncle” then quickly had a look-see at the Internet. It was pretty
much the same as ever. Pretty much nothing at all had happened on Facebook
overnight, and there weren’t any Earth-shattering emails in my in-box. The
power company had emailed to say my new tariff starts in April. I’ll be
intrigued to see how this goes. My smart meter said I’d used one pound and
thirty pence worth of leccie and gas by six o’clock
this morning (how is this possible), and the direct debit is planning
to take twenty quid a month more than the monthly tariff that I agreed to, so
it could be interesting. If power bills can be interesting, Yesterday as I scraped the ice from my car I
was accosted by a nutter who loudly announced "Good Morning!!"
at me as though it was some sort of challenge. This morning the same nutter
hurried past me oblivious to my presence. What was that all about? As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were talking about one of many problems with the government's plans for dealing
with corona virus. Given the first sign of infection, their advice is to
self-isolate for a fortnight. However most employers only give sick pay on a
self-certification for five days. The Prime Minister has announced that the
duration of sick pay will be extended for the duration of any
self-certification. However there are those who see this as a free fortnight
off work, and there was talk about how self-quarantining might just become a
good skive. I'd be up for some of that. There was also talk of yesterday's elections
in America to select someone to challenge President Trump later in the year.
Presidential hopeful Michael
Bloomberg was looking set to drop out of the running having spent about
five hundred million dollars (of his own money) on his election campaign.
Five hundred million dollars!? I'd like to be able to afford to (effectively)
waste that amount of cash. I got to work and parked up. As I walked in I
saw a new notice board had gone up in one of the public areas at the front of
the hospital. It had names of the members of staff who had served in the NHS
for the longest. I was rather pleased to see my name in the thirty-five years
section. Some small recognition was good. That's why I like working where I
am now. I know of "other places" where loyalty is rewarded
with a knife in the back. Not that I'm bitter... Just as I was looking at the notice board so
my phone beeped. A new geocache had gone live in Kings wood. i was there only the other day. With space for at least
thirty more of the things, *one* has appeared. Oh well... it's one more than anyone else has
put out recently. As I did my bit I found myself thinking about
this "Community Celebration Event" that Geo-HQ have given
me. I must admit that i would have had a serious
sulk if I hadn't been given one, but now that I've got it, I have no idea
what I want to do with it. I've basically got to stage some sort of event or
activity that is to be two hours long. Ideally it should be free to anyone
who wants to join in; a beach party, a summer picnic... But then again we
want it to be exclusive to the invited audience. We don't want the public
crashing the thing. Perhaps I might hire a village hall somewhere and have a
quiz? "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of scran. We scoffed it whilst
watching “Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly”. I do like that show. Pogo was
watching it rather intently too… |
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5 March 2020
(Thursday) - World Book Day
Yesterday evening we had the margarine on the
table with dinner. This morning as I tried to make a sandwich I could only
find the lid of the margarine. The actual tub came to light eventually.
Hidden behind a chair and licked clean. Treacle is the prime suspect; Fudge
wouldn’t do something like that and Pogo would just be brazen about it.
Treacle knows it is wrong and so tried to hide the evidence. Did I ever mention I never wanted dogs? Today is “World Book Day”. I say “World
Book Day”; my Facebook feed was filled with photos of children in fancy
dress. Rather than being a celebration of literature, “World Book Day”
is just an excuse for dressing up at school The spirit of the thing was
summed up entirely today by one little incident. A colleague was grumbling
that she’d been up till after midnight making a frog costume for her son to
wear to school for “World Book Day”. When asked if he was “Toad of
Toad Hall”, she said that he was just a frog. Apparently most of the
girls in the class had gone as various Disney princesses since you can get
colouring-in books of most of the Disney films. I suggested that the lad
should have gone in his usual school uniform; he could claim he was dressed
as “The Boy Whose Mother Couldn’t Be Arsed”. I’ve ranted about this before. Last year on “World Book Day” I
started a little project in which I recorded all the books I’ve read since
last March. You can see that by
clicking here. I’ve kept the thing going for a year… shall I keep it
going? I got the dogs into the car and we drove out
to the garage where "er indoors TM"
had left her car to get it serviced. We collected her, took her to her work,
then went to the park for a walk. It was raining, but we still like our walk. As we walked we had an “episode”. I
maintain we were just innocent bystanders… Fudge was straggling. As I looked
back for him so I saw some woman was cycling along with her dog. The dog was
on a lead tied to the bike. As the woman cycled past Fudge so her dog ran
round the front of the bike to see Fudge. This was a big dog (about the
size of a rhino) and with a lead attached; when the dog stopped it was as
though the bike had dropped anchor. The bike (and cyclist) skidded in
the rain and hit the tarmac path like a rubber duck. As I helped her up she
had things to say about dogs that weren’t on leads. I did explain what had
happened; a dog lead was entirely the cause of her falling off. Silly cow! We came home and dried off. I hung one load
of washing on the clothes horse and put another load in to scrub then took
Treacle to the vet. She’s been doing the “bum wiggle dance” recently (it’s
a dog thing) and the only cure is for the veterinary nurse to shove a
finger up the bum to empty her anal glands (Treacle’s, not the veterinary
nurse’s). Yuk! As we waited there was a minor fracas kicking
off. Some six-stone weakling was trying to restrain his dog. His dog looked
to be a cross between a grizzly bear and a t-rex and was named “Zeus”.
Have you ever noticed that small men always have humungous dogs and name them
“Zeus” or “Tyson” or “Death Bastard”? You never see a
little man with a pug named “Petal” sporting a pink ribbon, do you? Treacle got the finger up the bum. I can’t
say she was impressed with it. She also got put on the scales and would seem
to have lost no weight at all. I didn’t tell the vet about the tub of
margarine… I hung out the second load of washing and set
off to work. In the past I would have had a little
geo-adventure on the way to work. More recently I might have gone Munz-ing. But with the forecast "light rain
shower" becoming more and more torrential I drove straight to work.
As I drove I caught the end of some drivel on the radio about journalism in
Russia, but when this was replaced with a wannabe pretentious saxophonist
learning the fine art of pretentious-ness from a guitarist I turned the radio
off and sang along to my fine choice in music. I eventually found a space in the car park
and went in to work. Beef lasagne was on the menu in the works canteen; that
was rather good. But being (supposedly) on a diet I skipped pudding.
That was rather abstemious of me, wasn't it? I did my bit on the late shift. As is so
often the case on late shifts, the best bit of the day had been before noon.
Mind you the journey home was interesting. I nearly ran over a deer, the road
at Sissinghurst was flooded, and the road at Bethersden was closed… |
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6 March 2020 (Friday)
- Late Shift
I was sleeping like a log when the bin men
came crashing up the road. I wish they would crash quieter. Over brekkie I
had a look at the internet and was rather pleased to see that the WhereYougo app is being revived. It is one of a very few
ways of playing Wherigo, and without it Wherigo will probably croak. I’ve
volunteered to be a beta-tester. Mind you if you don’t go Wherigo-ing it is probably a matter of the utmost indifference. With no emails of note I got the dog on their
leads and we went for a walk. I did have a vague plan to go for the First
to Find on a geocache in Kings Wood, but didn’t want to get the dogs too
grubby so we went round the park. In retrospect we might as well have gone to
Kings Wood; after yesterday’s rain everywhere was waterlogged and the dogs
were loving running through the puddles and wet grass. The area by the
fountain was knee deep in water; I know that as some idiot schoolboy tried to
cycle through and fell in. I’d just taken a photo of the flood; getting my
camera out again would have been just a bit *too* obvious. As we walked I was having Pogo and Treacle
stop and sit every time we came to cross a road. Several people commented on
how well-behaved they were. I’m not sure who was more impressed with those
two today, the normal people or me. We came home; I programmed “Hannah”
for tomorrow, settled the dogs, and seeing the weather was far better than
yesterday I set off on a little adventure. Firstly I went to get some petrol.
Bearing in mind I am on a diet, with superhuman willpower I didn't buy any
sweeties. As I drove to Pembury "Women's Hour" was on the
radio. Against my better judgement I listened to the show. Some vicious
harridan was ranting that white men are responsible for all the racism and
sexism in the world purely because they are white men. And people like me
trying to say that they aren't racist or sexist are just making matters
worse. She seemed to think that the world would be a better place if people
like me just admitted to being sexist racists. When challenged about this,
this silly woman just ranted that this was the way of things. One lives and learns. I stopped off of the way to work for a little
Munzee adventure. I scanned bar codes like a thing
possessed and came back to my car to get a shock. The back window was
smashed. I don't think it was vandalism; I'd not
walked far from the car and no one else had been about. There was broken
glass both inside and outside the car, and the window was broken at both
ends. I think it just shattered somehow. Old age, perhaps? An annoyance, but it was when I phoned the
insurance people that my piss boiled. The breakdown people said it wasn't a
breakdown issue; I had to phone the insurance people directly. OK - fair
enough. But as I was trying to phone the insurance people so the breakdown
people phoned me back to remind me that they weren't coming and that I should
phone the insurance people. I thanked them for repeating themselves and tried
to phone the insurance people again. I was again interrupted by the breakdown
people who wanted to be sure that I knew they weren't coming. When the breakdown people phoned me to repeat
themselves for the fourth time I was rather rude to them... I tried to phone the insurance people... I
got nowhere. By now over an hour had passed so I phoned the window repair
people. They don't do roadside repairs and suggested I went to their nearest
branch. So I punched out as much of the broken glass
as I could and drove to the nearest window repair place. They told me that
they didn't have the right part in stock, they were busy, how would two weeks
on Monday suit me? I told them the trouble I'd had; when they heard the word
"insurance" they changed their tune. If I could quote a
policy number, they could fix it there and then... They eventually gave me a plastic sheet with
which I bodged a temporary repair and I drove in to work from where I phoned
the insurance people, got straight through, and made an appointment for a fix
next week when the nice man will come to the house and do a roadside repair.
If it isn't raining... Work was work; it took my mind off of the
broken window. I did my bit. Amazingly the bodged repair held all the way
home. I’ve reinforced the bodge with a plastic bag to make it waterproof
overnight, and I’ve got a plan for making it even better tomorrow… |
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7 March 2020
(Saturday) - A Walk Round Norton
I didn’t sleep that well. For some reason "er indoors TM" had brought a candle
up to the bedroom and its flickering was rather disturbing. Not that I would
dare tell her that. When I finally did doze off, Pogo made himself
comfortable behind me and started scratching my back. I got up and stood on the scales. In one week
of diet I’ve lost four pounds. I say “diet”; that’s not so much “diet”
as not getting a cheeky bar of chocolate on the way out of work and not
having a bowl of cereals for supper. I shell keep this up for a while. As I got off the scales I manage to get a
sliver of glass in my foot. Where did that come from? I had toast and coffee (three hundred calories)
and peered into the Internet. I’d had an email from the nice people who
provide the infrastructure (big word!) for this blog. “Alex”
had made a comment on my blog entry about when I went to the eye clinic last
year. He’d tried to comment with a link to some spamming website, but I
wasn’t having any of it. I had a look at Facebook. Quite a few people
had offered plastic sheeting to help with bodging the broken car window for
which I was grateful. Other than that, not a lot had happened. I spent a few minutes looking about on-line
to see what local pubs had a function room; I’ve got a vague idea to stage a
“fun night” for this geocaching “Community Celebration Event”
I’ve been given. An evening of bingo, beetle drives and a quiz. The trouble with this idea though is that it
requires people to spend money. We got the dogs (and ourselves)
organised and drove out to Norton church where we met Karl Tracey and
Charlotte. Together we set off for a little wander. The “G4me On”
series of caches was put out as a little gift to me… a while ago a friend
said he was going to walk a series of geocaches I’d hidden. I gave him a few
paper logs to replace any that were wet. It turned out that very few were
wet, and so he used the logs in creating this new geo-series instead. We had a rather good walk. Treacle climbed
trees, we walked field and footpath and country lane. We saw loads of
frogspawn in the swamps. Bearing in mind how much rain we’ve had recently the
fields and paths were amazingly dry. Geocache-wise it was an excellent series.
Some hides were rather straightforward; some were rather more challenging. We
replaced one cache... as we searched a rather nosey old biddy came bustling
up and wanted to know if we were lost. She seemed rather put out when we said
that we were find and didn’t need any help from her. Three hours and six miles after we started
saw us back at the cars. From here it was only a short drive to Doddington
and the Chequers. The Chequers is an old favourite pub of ours; we’ve been
there for a pint or two a few times in the last few years. Today we went for
dinner. And a good dinner it was too. Despite the three pints of stout, being
on a diet I went for the mushroom stroganoff, and I think I made an excellent
choice. Mind you, everyone else’s dinner looked rather good too. You can see photos of the dinners and of our
walk by
clicking here. We said our goodbyes, and in a novel break
with tradition I stayed awake for the journey home. As we drove we tried to
listen to Steve who was broadcasting his show on Radio Ashford. Unfortunately
he was interviewing someone whose music was in a field of its own, and (quite
frankly) it would have sounded better in a field on its own. Reluctantly
we turned it off. We came home. The dogs were soon snoring. "er indoors TM" set off to visit
"Daddy’s Little Angel TM" and "Stormageddon
- Bringer of Destruction TM". I spent an hour or so doing
the ironing (dull!) they watched yesterday’s episode of Star Trek:
Picard. I was amazed at how un-natural one of the major protagonists appeared
to be. Plastic surgery perhaps? It was a shame I spent quite so much of the
evening asleep in front of the telly… |
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8 March 2020 (Sunday)
- Early Shift
It was very dark when I got up this morning.
As I fumbled in the dark I thought I could count two dogs on the bed I
wondered where the third was, and found him as I tripped over a sleeping
Pogo. I fussed him, and as I fussed him he was
crying. I was standing on his paw. We sorted that, and soon I found myself
fussing all three hounds. We had a little "Good Morning"
ceremony, then we all had our morning ablutions. Some were less keen than
others to go out for a tiddle. It was dark and wet; I wasn't keen on going
out, but I did, if only to check that tiddles were
done. As I scoffed a bowl of granola I watched last
week's episode of "Inside No 9" which was rather cleverly
done, then with all the dogs settled I set off to work just as the dawn was
breaking. As I drove the morning got lighter, and less
windy and less rainy, which was a result what with my rear window being on
the iffy side. I only had to stop twice to bodge running repairs (which
was good). As I drove I listened to the radio which started off with some
really pretentious drivel about poetry. This was followed by a wildlife
program about where the flies go in the winter. It turns out they carry on
flying around like they usually do, but far fewer people go outside to see
them in the winter. As some professor of entomology was droning on I couldn't
help but wonder if I might have been a fly-ologist.
I bet they don't have to drive thirty miles to start a shift at half past
seven on a Sunday morning. I got to work; just as I parked I realised
I'd left my lunch at home. Oh well... that will do for tomorrow. I went in and walked straight past the
canteen. Diet means no cooked brekkie. Mind you for all that hospital
food is very good, the brekkie does leave something to be desired. Every time
I've had one I get a guts-ache from it. And when you have as much guts as me,
that's a lot of ache. Hence the diet. The shift went well. Apart from a little
hiccup with the Duffy blood group system, today's was one of the better
weekend shifts I've had recently. I drove home, not needing to bodge the rear
window repair at all (which was a result). Once home I took a dustpan and brush to the
car and swept out as much of the broken glass as I could. I might need to
have a go with the Hoover in the week. "er
indoors TM" then helped me reinforce the bodged window
cover by hoiking a shower curtain over the back.
It’ll do until I get the repair done properly. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching last week’s
episode of “Hunted”. I could do that show… Once we’d scoffed, we then gave the dogs
swede and cauliflower for their dinner (with a little gravy); They all
loved it. Who would have thought it? |
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9 March 2020 (Monday)
- New Neighbours
I woke up giggling at three o’clock. I have
no idea why. I wonder what that was all about. I didn’t get back to sleep
after that. I got up at five o’clock. Amazingly the Smartmeter said that we had used one pound twenty-nine
pence worth of leccie and gas since midnight – how
is that possible? (We’d only used two pounds sixty pence worth of the
stuff by nine o’clock this evening…) Over a bowl of granola I watched another
episode of “Uncle” then peered into the Internet to see if I’d missed
much overnight. I do this every morning just in case something good,
interesting or amazing had kicked off. I’d had a friend request on Facebook from
some weird new-age-hippie bloke. His supposed name was as long as your arm
and with nowhere near enough vowels in it. Dwyfd Dltyghth ap Fggyth Plnthch (or something along those lines – I can’t
remember now). Having been posting all sorts of drivel about bees,
mediumships (?) and Barsoomian airships I
thought that I didn’t really need this nut case on my list of cyber-friends. As I drove up the motorway I drove rather
slower than usual, but the window repair held. As I drove the pundits on the
radio were fuelling the flames of national panic over the corona virus
outbreak. Some expert was saying that it was now too late to panic. When is
it *ever* too late to panic? Some government spokesman was explaining
that the government was in contact with the supermarket chains to ensure that
essential supplies will be available; spokesmen from the supermarket chains
were explaining that this was the first they'd heard of any contact from the
government. For those of my loyal readers who don't do
politics, this is the drawback of a capitalist system (Conservative).
The entire ethos is that market forces control supply, and the last thing
that should ever happen would be that a government should get involved in a
supply chain. To be fair it is a system which works OK for most of the time,
but when uncontrolled panic buying sets in, it becomes painfully apparent
that there is no control over what is in the shops. Or isn't... There was also talk about how serving police
officers are less likely to be convicted of domestic abuse than any other
member of the general public. I wasn't so much amazed by this as by the fact
that this was presented as being surprising. It's not as though the local
police haven't cautioned anyone for an offence for which they obviously
hadn't committed, is it? Of if the local police haven't imprisoned anyone
with absolutely no evidence whatsoever is it? Of if the local police didn't
tell me that I am *not* to complain to the Chief Constable about them,
is it? It's a shame really – the actual idea of a
police force is a good one. I got to work; an early start made for an
early finish. I came home via Aldi partly because I needed supplies, and
partly because I’d heard that because of the corona virus scare there was a
national shortage of bog-roll and that supermarket shelves were bare. And it
was true (in part). The shelves where the cheap bog-roll sits looked
as though the locusts had been through. There were a few rolls of the pricier
stuff left. Not that I want to condone panic buying, but after a week or so I
might just be choosing which socks to abandon, so I got some expensive
bog-roll. I came home. The bodged rear window was
flapping a bit by the time I parked so I fixed it, and then took the dogs for
a walk. When we came home we met our latest new neighbours… On 28 May 2018 I ranted about “nice-next-door”
(as opposed to “not-so-nice-next-door”). Back then, as one set of
neighbours moved out and another moved in I wrote “I can’t help but wonder
just how transient this lot will be”. Today that question was answered.
The couple who will be recorded here as “them what went off to run a pub”
lasted a year and ten months. As occupants of that house that’s quite a long
time. The new people (as yet un-alias-ed)
seem pleasant enough but doesn’t everyone the first time you meet them. The
young chap was telling me that a lot of the house has been bodged together; I
got the distinct impression he wasn’t happy with the place. I wonder how long
they will last… Gone by Christmas? Probably. Once I got in I saw that the postman had
been. I’d ordered a couple of maxi-figures from eBay. Politically incorrect I
suppose, but then the 1970s were. "er indoors TM" went bowling;
I wrote up a little CPD. Tear-drop
cells… |
|
10 March 2020
(Tuesday) - Stuff
I slept like a log, waking only ten minutes
before the alarm was die to go off. Over a bowl of granola I watched an
episode of “Uncle” then spent a few minutes peering onto the Internet.
But only a few minutes. Absolutely nothing at all had happened overnight.
Having sent work-related things to professional Facebook groups and having
had a whinge at Munzee HQ I was hoping to have had
some response, but nothing… Perhaps it was too early? As I drove up the motorway I again drove
rather slower than usual, and was rather glad that the window repair held. As
I drove the pundits on the radio were still fuelling the flames of national
panic over the corona virus outbreak. There is now talk of people
self-quarantining for a week after a sneezing fit. I must admit I'm rather
confused about the whole corona virus thing. On the one had we were told that it is a mild
form of flu. Serious for those already ill, but a mild inconvenience to most
people. On the other hand Italy is in lock-down and
the British government is preparing for Armageddon. Bearing in mind the death toll for other
epidemics
am I being *that* cynical if I make
the observation that it is over a week since I heard anything at all in the
news about Brexit, and corona virus is a useful smokescreen? When I got to work I went for a little walk
and a crafty deploy (it's a Munzee thing)
and then again checked my phone to see if anything had happened on the
Internet once people had all woken up. An acquaintance of mine who sells
kites was sining the praises of the corona virus.
He loves it. As well as people panic-buying toilet rolls it would seem that
there is now a national shortage of kite lines (the stuff you use to fly a
kite), and he is having to ration his customers. Kite lines and
bog-roll... hardly what I would panic-buy. Work was work, for some inexplicable reason I
spent much of the day whistling the theme tune to “Huxley Pig”, but a
third consecutive early start made for a third consecutive early finish. I
came home. As I walked to the house I listened for sounds of barking (as I
always do). I couldn’t hear anything over the noise of new-next-door’s
Alsatian which was barking and throwing itself at the front door (from the
inside). I took my three round the block; they seemed
to ignore the Alsatian as we went out. We didn’t go far, only round the block
but it was far enough to encounter an idiot with a precious princess of a
dog. As I was gathering up Treacle’s dung I heard
barking. Rather high-pitched. Some idiot woman was standing ten yards down
the pavement with a dog that I can only describe as a rat on a lead. This one
was straining at its lead desperate to fight. My three just looked at it; not
even Pogo responded. Once I’d bagged up the dog dung I loudly announced “We’ll
cross the road, shall we?” and we crossed the road. Idiot woman then came
past; clearly she’d been waiting for me to get out of the way. Stupid woman;
why didn’t she cross the road to get past? "er indoors TM" boiled up a
particularly good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching “Sandilands”; the
latest offering from the UK Gold channel. It was rather good… |
|
11 March 2020
(Wednesday) - Late Shift
A rather cold night; an alliance of "er indoors TM", Treacle and Pogo
monopolised most of the duvet and I shivered. Over some toast I looked at the Internet. It
was much the same as ever. Facebook was filled with rants by people who
didn’t understand that about which they were ranting. One of the local
fishing pages made me roll my eyes. There was a lot of hatred being spewed
about otters in Kent. Apparently they were illegally released in parts of the
county and have spread. The “thick element” were advocating taking
shotguns to the otters when fishing, and were surprised that the anti-fishing
brigade were making a *very* good case for banning fishing in some
parts of Kent based on the anti-otter posts on that very Facebook page. These people are allowed to vote, you know.
Sometimes I think it must be wonderful to be stupid. I set the washing machine and dishwasher
going, then took the dogs out for our morning constitutional. The walk went
well, and passed off without a single “episode”. We met other dogs,
and we all just sniffed each other nicely. We met OrangeHead’s
posse and they were civil. We did get a bit grubby though. Bowen’s Field
is a swamp, and parts of the park were rather waterlogged as the river is
still very high. We got home just as the rain was starting. I
did the dull laundry thing, and put more in to scrub, then watched an episode
of “Uncle”. It was rather good. I hung out a second batch of laundry, and as
the dogs snored I set off to work. As I drove away from home there was a huge
thud as something bounced off the car's windscreen. I *think* it was a
rather large bird (possibly a hawk?) I would have stopped, but the car
behind was ridiculously close, and there's not really anything I could have
done. By the time I could have pulled up, one of the local cats would have
already been in like Flynn. Rather than going to work along up the
motorway I took the A-road as I'd heard there were delays on the motorway. As
I drove Alexei Sayle was on the radio. Among other
things he was ranting about how the British justice system is biased in
favour of the prosecution. It is the state which brings cases, and which
juror in the case of "The Crown versus Scousie
McStabface" is going to go against Her
Majesty? I think he's got a point. I got to work; I had a very good plate of
chicken and chips for dinner, then got on with a rather busy late shift… Today was dull… |
|
12 March 2020
(Thursday) - World Kidney Day
As I scoffed brekkie and peered into the
Internet I saw that yesterday had been budget day. It’s amazing what you miss
when you don’t pay attention. There was a budget calculator on Facebook; I
put in some numbers (the right ones I hope) and it said I will be
eight quid a month better off because of the budget. That’s a result. There was also a lot of doom and gloom about
the corona virus… I seem to be rather cynical about the thing. Having given
the matter quite a bit of thought I think that my problem is that I’ve been
let down before. It was a matter of common knowledge that the
world was going to end on 1 January 1980. I can remember walking round
Hastings with my mate Douggie Small the day after.
Both of us were at something of a loose end; the world hadn’t ended.
Similarly the world didn’t end at the end of the last century. And humanity
survived HIV, bird flu, swine flu, the millennium bug, Nibaru,
raptures and all sort of other
scare stories. For me, corona virus is just the latest in a long line of
hype. And our old friend science would
seem to agree with me. I also saw that today was World Kidney Day.
Bearing in mind that Fudge has chronic kidney disease I donated to the
fundraiser that "er indoors TM"
started. If any of my loyal readers feel so inclined, you can donate by
clicking here. I took the dogs out. Again Bowen’s Field was
a swamp; the dogs got filthy. As we walked into the park the Jehovah’s
Witnesses smiled politely. They always do. It’s odd; the Jehovah’s Witnesses
have a reputation of being a right pain in the glass (!) but the bunch
at the park are always friendly and aren’t pushy at all. Today one of them
remarked on what a bright morning it was, and how it made a nice change. I
smiled sweetly and resisted the temptation to comment that if anyone could
change the weather it would be their boss. We walked on; we met Teddy. There is this
thing with dog walkers – you don’t know the names of other dog walkers but
you know the names of the dogs. Fudge and Pogo tried to hump Teddy, and far
from being cross, Teddy’s mummy asked if she could walk with us. We had a
good walk; the dogs all played nicely and having a dog play nicely with Pogo
is always good. It was a shame that Teddy had to jump into the filthiest
ditch he could find, but that’s what dogs do. Teddy’s mummy said she works in London but
had been told to work from home for two weeks for fear of the corona virus.
Having just spent out six hundred pounds on a monthly train ticket she was
hoping to get a refund. When we got home I checked Facebook and saw
an ex-colleague had posted a photo from Victoria station at half past eight
this morning, The place was deserted. I would seem to be in the minority with
not taking this corona virus scare seriously. I put some washing in to scrub, harvested a
crop of dog turds from the garden, watched a bit of telly and had a fight
with the banking app. I tried to pay Cheryl for the holiday she’d booked last
night, but the bank had logged giving money to my own daughter-in-law as a “high
risk transaction”. I didn’t dare tell her that. Eventually I got the money sorted… corona
virus outbreak permitting we’re off to Marrakesh. I say “we” – I’ve
got a couple of months to arrange dog-sitting. If any of my loyal readers
fancy taking on a hound do let me know. I plan to (hopefully) send
them all on individual holidays of their own; I can’t imagine anyone taking
on all three… Once the hailstorm finished I set off to
work… and that was pretty much it for today. I drove up the A-road to work,
parked up, had lunch, did my bit… not a bad day… but rather dull. |
|
13 March 2020
(Friday) - Rostered Day Off
A good night’s sleep.
When the dogs sleep well, everyone sleeps well. Over brekkie I had my
usual look at the Internet; the fear of corona virus is still sweeping the
nation. With many other nations effectively in shut-down, how much longer
will it be before the UK follows suit and stays permanently at home? It’s
relatively irrelevant to me as I shall be labelled as a “key worker”;
when most of my colleagues will be at home looking after children it will
fall to me to keep the service going. I don’t dislike my job, but yet again I
find myself questioning my career choice. Again I would say to anyone looking
to find a job – never work anywhere that doesn’t put up a “closed”
sign. I wasted quite a bit
of time looking at rubbish on the Internet, only stopping when Pogo was sick
on the carpet. I then phoned the car
windscreen people. They were supposed to be letting me know when the nice man
was coming to fix my car. Bearing in mind that they might be along any time
from eight o’clock onwards I thought it odd that they’d not been in touch by
half past eight. I phoned the number I’d been given and spoke to a rather
officious chap who said they only turn up at the depot at eight o’clock, and
I should expect a call by half past ten. If I’d been told that
I would have taken the dogs out earlier rather than having sat around wasting
time. Working on the
principle that the bloke wouldn’t be arriving any time soon I took the dogs
for a walk. We did our usual circuit of Bowen’s Field and the park; we didn’t
have any arguments or fights, and all the dogs played nicely with all the
other dogs. If only every other day could be like that. Once home I ran round
with the Hoover, and ironed for a while. As I ironed I watched a film on
Netflix. “The
Young Victoria” was a period drama and I quite liked it… once it got
going. Why do all films start off with “Aardvark Films Present… in
association with Channel 28 ¾ … a Spizz Titsey production… by Gutsache
Studios…” and so on. Does anyone care about this drivel? At quarter to eleven
I again phoned the car windscreen people. They told me the bloke would be out
today and seemed rather surprised that I felt that “today” was on the
vague side. At quarter past eleven the man doing the fixing phoned. He
explained that he’d started in Hastings, was currently in the Medway towns,
he had a job in Sittingbourne and would be with me last as he lives in
Ashford. Finally I had a vague
idea of when he was due. Seeing I had a couple
of hours’ grace I popped into town. I’ve been after a Kindle to take on
holiday. Much as I like the Kindle app on my phone, it eats the battery. I
remember my old Kindle’s battery lasted for ever. I got a really old Kindle
from the CEX shop, and a generic cover for it from one of the the phones accessories shop. I had to hunt about for the
cover; several of the people in the phone accessories shops laughed at how
old the Kindle was; who would have a cover for something that was six years
old? I got a sandwich from
the corner shop (five hundred calories!) on the way home, and I
scoffed it whilst setting up the Kindle. With dogs around and on me I read my
new Kindle for a bit, but fell asleep until I was woken by the arrival of the
car window man who finally rocked up at three o’clock. He’d had quite a day,
and he said he used to live in the house just over the road from us. After forty minutes
he was done. The new car rear window looks the business. Mind you anything
looks better than having a cheap shower curtain taped over the back. The nice
man said that the rear windscreen wiper might not have survived the process,
and that I should leave the whole thing for the glue to set. On the plus side
he’d been in and out of the car with an industrial vacuum cleaner so
hopefully he’s shifted all the glass fragments. I then watched the
first episode of “Noughts
and Crosses”; a program set in a Britain which was invaded and
conquered by an African empire some time in the
middle ages. It shows promise… As I watched telly so
the dishwasher had a go at last night’s dishes. I’d forgotten to set it going
earlier. Having run out of dishwasher tablets I thought I’ give it a hefty
squirt of washing up liquid. Perhaps too hefty a squirt? I then ran the
dishwasher until all the froth had been shifted. "er indoors TM" came home with
fish and chips, and we scoffed whilst catching up on episodes of “Star
Trek: Picard”. I want to like it… |
|
14 March 2020
(Saturday) - Late Shift
Once I got up and done what you do when you
get up I stood on the scales. I’ve lost another pound this week. Not much
really, but a couple of late shifts with dinner after ten o’clock didn’t
help. And “lost” rather than “gained” is a step in the right
direction. I scoffed a bowl of granola (diet food!)
then had a look at the Internet. I saw that because of fears of corona virus,
Geocaching HQ have postponed the “Memory Lane souvenir challenge”. I
think this might have caused more consternation if anyone actually knew what
the “Memory Lane souvenir challenge” actually is. There was a lot of consternation being
expressed on Facebook about how travellers will have to get passports stamped
every time they enter the European Union. Those who loudly advocated for
Brexit and wanted to “take back control” were seriously upset that
Brexit means delays when going on holiday. How can anyone be so stupid that
they are complaining about that for which they campaigned? I wasted an ago struggling to solve a geo-puzzle before asking a friend
how he’d solved it… Basically you have to convert letters to numbers with the
added complication that (say) the first instance of “B”
translated to being “6” you then had to ignore the second instance of
“B” for no apparent reason. The trouble I have with solving puzzles is that
having a degree in maths I’m used to thinking logically (can you believe
it?). Geo-puzzles are often best solved by listening to the strange
voices in your head. My piss then boiled as I checked my emails.
Some chap had been out and walked the series of geocaches I’d hidden near
Benenden. Having written “Found OK, thanks for the cache” for
twenty-two of his “found it” logs, the chap had the cheek to write “All
caches found OK, and a few of them were somewhere near where our GPSrs were pointing” on the twenty-third. I’ve sent
the chap a message saying “I see you had some issues with the co-ords of some of my caches – if you could let me know your
readings I shall look at amending the formulae”. It’s a shame that the chap lives a hundred
miles away; he’s stuck a few film pots under rocks. I’d like to go find one
and be equally petty in what I would have to say about it. Thinking that the rain had stopped we took
the dogs out, the rain hadn’t stopped; we did a quick circuit round the block
and came home to dry off. I wasted an hour playing Tetris, then set off to
find my car. The first thing I did when I got into my car was to press the
de-mister the button just in case it all blew up. I'd prefer that if it was
going to explode, it did so with the car at home rather than leaving me
stranded miles from anywhere (like it did a week or so ago).
Fortunately nothing blew up. In fact nothing happened at all when I pressed
the button, which was probably for the best, but with a not-misted window I
didn't expect anything to have happened. I shall have to wait for the window
to steam up and try it then. Despite the fix-it man's dire warnings the
rear windscreen wiper had survived the ordeal of window replacement for which
I was grateful. As I drove I was conscious that I could see
out of the car's rear window. The side mirrors are good, but you can't beat
having a rear window rather than a shower curtain. I drove to Sainsury's
to get some petrol. At the moment petrol is the cheapest it has been for
ages. I would have thought that the same corona virus panic-buying mentality
which has lead to shortages of toilet roll and
pasta (and kite line!) might have led to a run on petrol, but apparently not.
Yet. I drove up the motorway because I could. I've
been going to work along the A-road recently which made for a much slower
journey. The drive was amazingly quiet without a shower curtain noisily
flapping about behind me. I got to work, deployed a Munzee
not that far from the works car park, then went into the canteen where I had
a very good bit of dinner. However I was rather amazed to find that the same
meal which cost four pounds seventy-five pence on Wednesday was only
three pound sixty pence today. I commented on this to the nice lady on the
till; she told me I was wrong. I got on with work on what was a rather busy
afternoon. I was rather glad when the relief turned up. Now to program “Hannah” for tomorrow… |
|
15 March 2020 (Sunday)
- Stuppington
As I scoffed my toast this morning I saw that
I’d been defriended by someone on Facebook. Some people on my Facebook list
are family, some are friends, some are colleagues. Some are people I’ve not
actually met for years but with whom I want to keep in touch. Some are vague
acquaintances. There are a precious few I keep on the list because I love
following the drama of their lives. It was one of these that has de-friended
me. Living in a half-million-pound house with a daughter at a private school
costing six thousand pounds a term, this person regularly goes for
two-month-long international holidays and still has the cheek to be
constantly pleading poverty on social media and seemingly wanting hand-outs. I shall miss her… I saw that I had been promoted in the Munzee world. I am now “QRew”
which is a serious elevation for those who go round sticking bar-codes on to
lamp posts. For everyone else I suppose it is a matter of the utmost
indifference, but I am pleased with it. Everyone else is just jealous! We got ourselves and the dogs together and
drove out to Canterbury where we met Karl Tracey and Charlotte. With
extending leads on some and boots on others we went for a little wander; this
time guided by the “Stuppington Stroll”
series of geocaches. We had a very good walk. The route wasn’t
that muddy really (when you consider how much rain we’ve had lately)
and followed well-marked paths with only a little lane-walking, no cattle,
and some wonderful views of the cathedral. At one point we followed some overhead power
lines which randomly came to an end in the middle of a field. What was that
all about? We spent a little while peering into a building site that we
passed. There were several odd
green things in there. What were they? Just as we came away from the
building site we found a little shelter from the wind and stopped for a bite
to eat. Some random passing looney decided to come and watch what we were
doing. This chap made a point of walking past us a few times, all the time
staring at us intently, and seemed not to realise he was stomping along a
rather muddy path wearing carpet slippers. He eventually cleared off, and we then met a
bloke wielding a metal detector. Is it just the ones I meet, or do all metal
detectorists go around dressed as though they think they are in the SAS? Just as we came toward the end of the walk so
Treacle found a tennis ball. Having carried her customary huge stick for
miles she dropped it for the tennis ball. A ball has the advantage over a
stick that the other dogs will want it; it is good for a quarrel. Geocache-wise this was a very good walk.
Thirty caches spaced out over five miles of well-marked lanes and paths.
Mostly straightforward hides, there were one or two more challenging ones in
there, but all with good hints to help us. We were pleased to have found the
lot. I
took a few photos as we walked. Usually we’d go for half a pint of weak
shandy after a walk, but lunch time on Sunday isn’t the time to turn up
hoping for a pint. All the pubs would have been heaving with the Sunday
dinner crowds, so we came home. We had a cuppa, and I went upstairs and
played Lego. Since I revamped the train track a while ago I’ve needed to
re-organise my
Lego town. I tend to do it a little at a time. Today I re-built Darth
Vader’s riding school. I relocated it to the other end of town, gave it a
fence and put some overgrown grass round the fence. That took an hour. I then had a bit of a surprise… My Lego
spares are a bit of a jumble. I thought that I had put all my maxifigure bits and bobs into one box. There were several
sets of arms with featureless heads. I found an envelope with heads (with
faces) which were missing most of the arms. I put the two together and cobbled
together six more maixigures. Much as I like the
Lego minifigures (and my Lego town is built to the minifigure scale),
I do like the maxifigures. They are what I had when
I was a lad. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching Celebrity
Bake-Off. I say “celebrity”; out of the four people on the show, I’d
heard of one. Does having been on “Love Island” really make anyone a
celebrity? |
|
16 March 2020 (March)
- Bit Dull
I didn’t have a good night. Treacle was
restless and quarrelsome, and a night of snarling and growling wasn’t
restful. I gave up any attempt at sleep at five o’clock, and over a bowl of
granola watched last week’s episode of “Inside No 9”. Usually a very
good show, this one was (sadly) perhaps the weakest one that has ever
been done. I sparked up my lap-top to peer into
cyberspace. It would seem my ex-Facebook friend with more money than sense
had de-friended more people than just me yesterday. I then left one of the
Facebook Munzee groups; an attempt to reason with
an idiot was fast descending into petty bickering. I’ve mentioned this before
– why is it that when I say “I disagree with you for the following reasons”
people respond with “you disagree with me therefore you are a prat”?
I’ve wasted too much of my life trying to reason with people who are
incapable of reasoned debate. There wasn’t much else on Facebook this
morning other than a colleague’s holiday snaps. A lot of people can be very
disparaging about that sort of thing but being a naturally nosey person I
love seeing other people’s photos. And these photos left me pondering. Based
on my own (admittedly limited) experience, do all Mediterranean hotels
have populations of feral cats in residence? I sent out some birthday wishes, and checked
my emails. There was nothing of note. I got dressed - I put on new trousers.
Perhaps rather dull, but on a dull day, new trousers was (relatively)
exciting. I walked seemingly half a mile to find my car
and drove off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were fuelling the
fires of panic over corona virus. The crisis is now expected to last for a
year or so. Ho hum... There wasn't much else on the news at all
today. The Prime Minister is supposedly going to be addressing the nation on
the matter on a daily basis. That will be nice. Just as I got to work so my phone beeped. I'd
driven past a new geocache in Harrietsham. If the
geo-feds had done their bit earlier and had I driven up the A-road I might
have had a cheeky First to Find. Oh well... With a few minutes spare I continued my
exploration of the estates near work. I had no idea there were so many houses
at the back of the hospital. I had a vague idea about moving to one... not
that "er indoors TM"
would be up for it. I went in to work for the early shift and did
my bit. Work was much as it ever is… but on re-reading that sounds rather
negative, doesn’t it? Looking back five years, work nowadays is far better
than once it was. As always, an early start made for an early
finish, and an early finish meant that there was a parking space near home. I came in and saw "er indoors TM" had converted the living
room table into a workstation; she’s been sent home from work to work from
home for a week. I didn’t disturb here *that* much as I took the dogs
out. We walked round the block, we (the dogs;
not me) got fussed by a couple of young girls sitting on the green box at
the end of Francis Road. And then we met a toddler. He was fascinated by
Fudge and Pogo tiddling up the walls. He and his mother walked with us to the
end of Bond Road. They turned right, we turned left… and then the toddler
burst into hysterics. He had waved goodbye to the dogs and they hadn’t waved
back. He was inconsolable. His mother and I spent a couple of minutes
showing that dogs are physically incapable of waving; their paws lack the
necessary articulation (I put that in terms a toddler could understand).
I explained that a wag of a tail is a dog’s way of waving, and he seemed
rather impressed with that as he went his way and we went ours. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of dinner, then went bowling. I sat in front of the telly
with the dogs and slept through the second episode of “Noughts and Crosses”.
The SkyPlus box has automatically downloaded the
third episode… I don’t think I shall bother with it… Today was dull… |
|
17 March 2020
(Tuesday) - Rostered Day Off
Some nights there is plenty of room in the
bed for two humans and three dogs. Other nights there isn’t room to swing a
cat. Somehow I found myself precariously balanced on the edge of the bed with
maybe a few inches of duvet to keep me warm. I gave up trying to sleep, and scoffed a bowl
of granola whilst watching an episode of “Uncle”, then had a look at
the Internet to see what I’d missed overnight. It would seem that that the
paranoia about corona virus is gathering steam with no end of events and
activities having been cancelled. This was mentioned at work yesterday – with
under-twelves’ football having been cancelled (to prevent spread of
disease), all the kids just met up and played football anyway. Presumably
viruses only spread at organised activities? Also several after-school clubs had been
cancelled. Viruses aren’t active during normal school hours? It has been said that I’m not taking the
national crisis seriously… perhaps I might not seem to be doing so. But after
thirty-eight (and a half) years in hospital laboratories not knowing
what diseases with which I might come in contact (on a daily basis)
means that infection prevention and standard precautions are part of my
everyday life. And (it has to be asked) when has mass hysteria helped
any situation? I‘ve been trained to stay (relatively) calm in
stressful situations. The Prime Minister has announced effectively
a national lock-down. While everyone is concerned about travel bans,
government enforced quarantines, not going down the pub and being out of
school/work for who knows how long, who do you think will still be allowed
and required to go to work? Yes – me. So please bear with me if I appear flippant.
As the world shits its collective pants in unreasoned terror, it’s business
as usual for some of us… Having said that… if you take the
historical perspective it would seem that corona virus is pretty small
fry to what has gone before; especially as we’ve been led to believe that the
disease isn’t *that* severe to most people. So I have to wonder what
is all the fuss about? Are people being paranoid, or is there something that
the government isn’t telling us? (takes a deep breath…) The plan for today had been to go join in
with a geo-walk that had been planned some months in advance, but yesterday
the event had been cancelled because of fears about this corona virus…I also
had a vague idea to go visit my mum and dad, but I phoned them and decided to
be sensible and follow the government’s advice. Dad’s a bit frail and mum’s
had half a lung removed last year. So I took the dogs up to Kings Wood. Bearing in mind the broken car window of the
last week or so it was good to be able to do “boot dogs” and have all
three hounds in the back of the car.. As we drove the pundits on the radio were
interviewing some representative of the pub industry who have (understandably)
got the arse following the Prime Minister’s suggestion that people don’t go
down the pub during the current corona virus panic. He was suggesting that
the government might like to bail out pubs that would otherwise go bankrupt.
The government was taking the line that not going down the pub was only a
suggestion and not an order and so they shouldn’t have to stump up anything. Yet another example of how a socialist
government is a bad thing until you actually need a government to step up and
govern…? We got to Kings Wood, we had an excellent
walk. A couple of hours walking a few miles through the woods during which
time we only met one other person. It was a shame that Fudge tried to hump
their Labrador. Bearing in mind that the Labrador was over twice Fudge’s
height, and also bearing in mind Fudge’s spondylosis, you
have to admire his enthusiasm. We came home for a bath. Trying not to
disturb "er indoors TM"
who is working from home I loaded a load of rubbish into the car and went to
the tip to unload. I asked the nice man at the tip what I should do with all
the broken glass that was once my car’s rear window. The chap was insistent I
threw it in with the old mattresses. How does that work? From the tip I went to Smyths toy shop. I
need some Lego road plates; they didn’t have any, but I deployed a Munzee in their car park and then went on to Tesco. Tesco was an experience. Many of the shelves
had been striped bare. Every time someone put
something into their basket they were jealously watched by everyone else. I
honestly felt that if I exclaimed “Oh my God – they’ve got pickled
octopus!” it would have started a riot. With no Belgian buns to be had for love nor
money (they’ve not had them in for over a week!) I settled for a
couple of croissants. I picked up the second-to-last pack of dog food and an
eight-quid bottle of wine and came home again. The croissant wasn’t as good as a Belgian
bun, but it wasn’t bad. And I’m supposed to be on a diet anyway. I went out into the garden and mowed the
lawn. The first mowing of the year is more of a scalping, and the ground is
still really wet, but it needed doing. I then woke up the pond. What with it having
been asleep all winter I’d rather forgotten how many Koi were in there. Fudge
seemed happy to start running round the pond watching the fish like a hawk.
It is only a matter of time before he falls in that pond. Again. I had planned to then slob in front of the
telly, but what with "er indoors TM"
working from home I went up to the attic and played Lego. I had an idea to make
a little bridge over the Lego train track. It look a little while, but I was
pleased with the result. I made a
little video of the bridge in action. I then spent a little while ordering bits and
pieces of Lego maxifigures on-line. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
very good bit of dinner which we washed down with that eight quid bottle of
wine whilst watching last week’s episode of “Hunted”. Both were rather
good… |
|
18 March 2020
(Wednesday) - Coronageddon Continues
The dogs were settled last night, but I
didn’t sleep very well. I woke shortly after two o’clock and dozed fitfully
for much of the rest of the night. I got up at five o’clock, scoffed granola
whilst watching an episode of “Uncle” then sparked up the lap-top to
have my obligatory peer into cyberspace. Paranoia, misunderstandings and outright lies
about corona virus was still rife. I clicked the “haha”
button on several comments that I read on Facebook, and wished there was a “FFS”
button. Did you know that some supermarket managers are forbidding the drivers
of the delivery lorries from using their toilets for fear of disease?
Thousands of the general public can have a tinkle, but not the delivery
drivers. I put on the new shoes that I bought from Go
Outdoors a month or so ago. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to try
the things out. I set off to work on a bright morning. As I
drove up the motorway one of the head honchos from the local brewery Shepherd
Neame was being interviewed on national radio. In
view of the government's advice that the general public should avoid pubs,
this chap can see his profits going straight down the pan. He was therefore
suggesting that the government do away with the need for employers to pay
national insurance contributions for the duration of the corona virus pandemic.
Bearing in mind how it is common knowledge that Shepherd Neame
screw their tenants for every penny they can get, I thought this rather
cheeky. The pundits on the radio then debunked the
myth that pregnant women are especially at risk from corona virus, and also
wheeled on an expert who laughed at the rumours that ibuprofen just makes the
illness worse. They spent a few moments worrying about the power of social
media; at this time of national panic people are believing any old rubbish
that is posted on-line. I got to work with time to spare, and went
for a little walk, deploying a Munzee as I went. As
I came in to work there was some consternation. Following the government's
advice about who is most at risk from corona virus, the little old ladies who
run the hospital's league of friends shop have been told to close the shop
and go home. They weren't happy. I remember the league of friends shop in the
hospital where I used to work. The volunteers in that shop used to hate each
other; I'd make a point of going there when the shifts changed over. Those
starting would go through the till and loudly berate those leaving about how
little money they'd taken. I did my bit at work. At tea break my phone
beeped. I'd seen a rather rare and obscure Lego set on eBay yesterday. I
wasn't going to pay the price that was being asked for it, but I saw there
was a "make a bid" option. I offered between a quarter and a
third of what the set was probably worth, and the seller had accepted the
offer. Result!
"er indoors TM" boiled up a very
good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching last night’s episode of “Celebrity
Bake Off”. Once it was scoffed she told me that the stuff had a sell-by
date of four years ago. I rather liked it… which is probably for the best.
What with the expected shortages to be coming with coronageddon,
we don’t dare throw anything out… |
|
19 March 2020
(Thursday) - A Day Off
On Tuesday night we had a bottle of plonk and
a decent helping of port. Yesterday I was feeling full of energy and raring
to go. Last night I was in bed at half past ten; I slept for over eight hours
and woke this morning feeling like death warmed up. I had a bowl of granola whilst watching an
episode of “Uncle” which was rather sad. Why do comedy shows insist on
having upsetting episodes? I wish they didn’t. there’s quite enough misery in
the world already. I watch comedy to cheer myself up, not to go on a downer. I then had a look at the Internet. There were
loads of squabbles kicking off on some of the geocaching pages. Ironically
one person who was very openly demonstrating his ignorance was calling anyone
who disagreed with him “retarded” and that had started quite the
argument. Others were seeing “self-isolating” as being synonymous with
“staying at home”, and apparently nothing spreads corona virus faster
than having the likes of me walking through the countryside looking for film
pots under rocks. I pointed out that we are all doing a hobby which involves
finding things left out on the open for months, covered in mud and slime and
moulds and suddenly everyone is hygiene crazy. A few people saw the irony. Having been unable to get the Lego bits I
wanted from the local shops I had planned to pop up to the Lego shop in
Bluewater today. But coronageddon means that the
Lego corporation have closed
all of their shops (all around the world) for the next two weeks.
I ordered what I wanted on-line from someone in Hong Kong; it will take a
while to get here, but hopefully will be here before the Lego shops re-open,
and (provided it actually does arrive) at half the price too. So rather than going to Bluewater I took the
dogs up to Kings Wood. A year ago I hid thirty-odd geocaches up there. I
really need to do a maintenance run and replace the paper logs in all of
them… but I’m not happy where the geo-art lies on the map, I’m not happy that
when walking the series you have to back-track the last quarter of a mile…
Bearing in mind that the series has had nearly a hundred “Found It”
logs it has pretty much run its course. I thought I might just make a new
series by expanding what’s there, so I had a little explore and found
locations for a dozen new caches. There are those who would say I should have
stayed in the house today because of coronageddon,
but I was pretty much as isolated in the woods as I was at home. We only met
two other groups of dog walkers, and there seemed to be an unspoken agreement
that we would all keep our distance (that was odd!) One woman was
walking two large Labradors on long leads. She said that I was brave letting
my dogs run. Apparently when off the leads in the woods, her dogs often
return with bits of deer in their mouths. You have to wonder just what is in
Kings Wood that is large enough to dismember a deer. We had a good walk; as I drove home I noticed
the rear window had steamed up. I got to test the de-mister – it worked; for
which I was grateful. There was also a distinct smell of fox poo, so once
home we went from being “boot dogs” to “bath dogs”. I then popped up the shop to see if they had
any milk. They had. The woman in the shop said that they had never been so
busy. We all laughed about corona virus, but no one mentioned that she was
wearing rubber gloves. "er indoors TM" made cheese on
toast for lunch. She ate hers in peace; I had an audience and ended up
sharing mine with three dogs. The dogs *never* scrounge from "er indoors TM" but always demand my
dinner. With "er
indoors TM" still working from home I got out of her way.
I had intended to strim the lawn’s edges, but the rain put me off of that
idea. I went upstairs and
played Lego. Did you know there’s a shortage of bog roll in Lego Land as well? My Lego world is effectively in limbo until I
can sort out the roads, and it will be a while before they arrive from Hong
Kong. So I fiddled. I enlarged the church’s graveyard by four graves and gave
the vicar a parking space and a congregation. I then made a few more Lego
cars (for when I have roads) only to find I’d run out of wheels a
while ago. I had a look for some on eBay. Having seen
that the specific sets of wheels I wanted were going for a quid each (plus
postage) I tried another eBay store and got eight for a fiver (including
postage). It pays to shop around. "er indoors TM" went shopping.
I made a start in collating the information I gathered on this morning’s run
with a view to putting out a new geo-series. After three hours I had all the co ordinates and a route sorted. Now…do I just put them
as straight geocaches and have all the bitter sarcasm about “another film
pot under a rock” from those who’ve not hidden a cache in years, or do I
obfuscate the locations with a puzzle which will bring all the complaints
about puzzles from those who seem to have no problem in obtaining the answers
by one means or another? "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of scran which we scoffed whilst
watching “Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly” and “Young Sheldon”. Good
stuff. I think I might have an early night… today
was a day’s leave just to use the leave rather than loose it… I’m worn out. |
|
20 March 2020
(Friday) - Star Trek: Picard
I heard Fudge jump off the bed in the small
hours. When I came downstairs at five o’clock he was running in circles by
the back door. I let him out and he shot off like a bullet. Had he been
desperate for the loo all that time? I had a bowl of granola and watched an
episode of “Uncle”. I could have watched the latest episode of “Star
Trek: Picard”, but (to be honest) I couldn’t be bothered. When the
show started I watched it as soon as I could over brekkie, and again a day or
so later with "er indoors TM".
Now that it hasn’t lived up to expectations I watch it when I remember. In
many ways the show has become like “Doctor Who”; I watch it out of a
sense of duty rather than because I enjoy it. Which is a shame. And with telly watched I sparked up the
lap-top to peer into the Internet. Pretty much nothing had happened overnight
which was probably for the best. I fussed Fudge, then set off to find my car
on a cold morning. It seems the further from home that I park my car the day
before, the colder the next morning is going to be. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were again worrying everyone with the ongoing coronageddon
panic. Today the nations’ schools have all closed to all but the children of
"key workers". "Key workers" are those who
are involved in keeping the nation going, and the definition of "key
worker" is rather broad. I'm a "key worker"... I'm
not sure if that's a good thing. There was then a telephone interview with a
doctor who was stranded in Peru having gone there on a holiday and found
himself unable to leave when the Peruvians closed their borders. It was
rather amazing how they managed to drag "I'm a doctor and I'm
stranded in Peru" over such a long period of time which could well
have been more constructively used. There was also talk about how retired medical
professionals have been approached to come out of retirement for this period
of national panic. This clearly hasn't been thought through. The current
advice is that the older members of the population should self-isolate to
avoid the virus, and here's the government asking thousands of over-seventies
to go get involved with the infected. Go figure... I got to work and once I'd been for a little Munzee adventure I did my bit. As I do. As I did I spent
much of the day whistling "Zippity-Doo-Dah";
having read at tea break that the Disney corporation is withdrawing the 1946
film "Song of
the South" in an attempt to retrospectively censor history. I came home via Aldi where there
wasn’t much left to be bought, and that which was left was being severely
rationed; a maximum of four of any given item per customer. Once home "er
indoors TM" boiled up pizza and chips which we scoffed
whilst watching yesterday’s episode of “Star Trek: Picard” … as I
mentioned earlier it wasn’t that good… |
|
21 March 2020
(Saturday) - Barham
I stood on the scales this morning. I didn’t
lose any weight this week. Mind you I didn’t put anything on, so it wasn’t
all bad. I scoffed a bowl of granola, then had a look
at the Internet as I do. Not much had happened really; coronageddon
had prompted one or two jokey memes, each of which had been reposted a dozen
times. I checked my emails and saw I had yet another
spamming email ostensibly from the chap who took over running Teston kite festival. This chap’s email account gets
hacked at least once every week; you’d think he’d do something about it… but
looking back at what was effectively the demise of one of the best events in
the social calendar I’m not surprised he hasn’t really. The numero uno
honcho at Sainsburys had emailed me to tell me that they were changing their
opening hours and will only be open from eight in the morning till eight in
the evening during the crisis. That’s something of a pain the glass for me (as
"Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM" would say).
I wonder if they really are doing this because of staff shortages, or if coronageddon will be used by the supermarkets as a means
to get away from being constantly open? Do they really make that much money
being open at four o’clock in the morning? I sent out some birthday wishes to friends (the
ones whose birthday was today obviously!) then got ready for the off.
There are those who feel that the current nationwide directive to “self-isolate”
means to stay at home. We can effectively avoid the masses by going for a
walk in the countryside. We drove out to Barham where the local shop
had bread (can you believe it?). We were soon joined by Karl, Tracey
and all of the girls. They had been to the farm shop up the road and had got
us some mince (that stuff is like gold dust!) and some turnips for the
dogs (all vegetables are in short supply). We then had a rather good walk around the
area following well-marked paths and some rather quiet lanes. Barham is
rather beautiful; we’d
been there before. As we walked today we met sheep who were probably in
the wrong field, we saw buzzards flying in the sky, we played in the fords.
The water in the fords was flowing at a very impressive rate. There was a
rather dodgy hole we had to avoid at one point where a tree had collapsed;
Fudge nearly fell down it. As is usually the case our route was guided
by a series of geocaches. A rather excellent series. It was a shame that the
people who’d walked the series yesterday didn’t quite understand how to put
the paper logs back inside the plastic pots properly, but we sorted it all
out. Usually we’d end our walk with a pint in the
pub, but the Prime Minster has asked all the nation’s pubs to close
because of coronageddon, so we took some beer with
us, and had a couple of crafty pints whilst out. One as we walked, and one
with a snack. And I
took a few photos as well… We said our goodbyes; as we drove home we
listened to Steve broadcasting on the radio. You can’t beat a bit of the
electric light orchestra on the way home. Once home we unpacked, and it wasn’t long
before the dogs were all snoring. "er
indoors TM" set off to visit "Daddy’s Little
Angel TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM". I went out to the garden and harvested
so much dog dung that I blocked the chodbin. It was
nothing that a few buckets of water and some frantic chivvying with a trowel
couldn’t shift, but next time I won’t put quite so much dog dung down the loo
in one go. Feeling rather peckish I got myself some KFC.
Walking to the KFC was odd. Our road is the main thoroughfare from central
Ashford to the southern parts of the town. There are always people walking up
and down it at all times of day and night. At four o’clock this afternoon
there was no one. No one at all. I got my KFC and scoffed it whilst watching “The Adventures of a Plumber
in Outer Space” which was one of the funniest things I’ve seen on
telly for years. It was a cheesy, low budget, frankly crappy film, but if you
were brought up on “The Benny Hill Show” (like I was), you’ll
love it. With the dogs fed I then spent the evening
ironing shirts whilst watching a film. “Ender’s Game”
is rather good, but (like most films) it would be better if it was
half an hour shorter. The washing machine has just finished its
third load, and it is refusing to open its door… this could be entertaining… |
|
22 March 2020
(Sunday) - Gardening, Breakdown
I had a good night’s sleep; having Pogo doss
down on the bedroom floor (for no reason that I could see) probably
helped. It was only a shame that Fudge was sick when we all got up. Over a
bowl of granola I watched an episode of “Uncle” then sparked up my
lap-top. Facebook was heaving with misunderstandings
about coronageddon. Just reading it for five minutes this morning reaffirmed my honest
conviction that allowing the masses to vote and do jury service is a *really*
silly idea. There was some voice clip circulating on
Facebook messenger. It was spoken by someone who claimed to be a nurse (therefore
it had to be true) claiming that the way to avoid infection was to drink hot
beverages every half an hour to wash the virus into stomach acid. There were quite a few pointed comments aimed
at people (like me) who have actually dared to set foot outside the
house. Not that I’m trying to justify myself, but from what I can work out, the virus has a two per cent death rate in those
who are already very ill. For the well public (which is most of us)
the disease is like having the flu. It makes sense to do the social
distancing thing (to slow the spread), but unless you are going to live
in a hermetically sealed space suit, sooner or later you are going to come
into contact with the virus. Ironically the same people who felt that I
should stay in the house and not take the dogs out had no problem with me
going to work in a hospital where I would come into close contact with over
fifty people every day. Seeing that the washing machine hadn’t gone
west after last night’s hiccup I fed it a load of laundry, fed the dogs some
chicken flavoured dog food, then took the dogs out. It was a rather bright (if
cold) morning and bearing in mind how dry underfoot yesterday’s walk had
been I thought we might try Orlestone woods. As we drove the five miles to Ham Street we
didn’t see another car on the road. Not one. We got to the woods and found that my plan
wasn’t that good; the woods were rather muddy. Not that bad that the dogs
needed a bath, but still wet underfoot. We only met one other person in the
woods. For some inexplicable reason this woman was in the depths of the
forest but still had her dog on a lead. Why don’t these people let their dogs
run? I greeted her with a cheery “hello”: she cowered behind her dog
as if I were a combination of rapist, axe-murderer and escaped psychopath. I
can understand how coronageddon has swept the
nation; I made a point of keeping my distance, but would it have caused her
physical pain to have said “good morning”? Being mother’s day I had intended to go see
my mum today. But what with her being over eighty, having half a lung
missing, and having had a constant cough since Christmas, she is someone who
should be self-isolating at the moment. We came home, and with nothing better to do I
did some gardening. Despite having been round with a trowel and bucket
yesterday, I got another bumper crop of dog turds this morning. I then strimmed the edges of the lawn. I must admit I didn’t
recognise the strimmer when I got it out of the shed, but looking
at my diary I see I’ve had the thing for nearly a year. With strimming strimmed I then gave the lawn another mowing before
spending seemingly ages pulling weeds out of the gravelled areas of the
garden. I’m not sure what went wrong here; the whole point of having
gravelled areas is so that I don’t have to do weeding. I had a sandwich, watched the last episode of
“Uncle”, then went back out into the garden. I got out the pressure
washer and had a go at the patio. I say “patio”; I mean the concreted
bit by the shed. It gets rather grubby and the pressure washer brings it up a
treat. It makes a mess at the time, but after all the floods have subsided it
looks “not too shabby” (to coin a phrase). I thought about
pressure washing the front garden too, but decided against it. Instead I got
out a pair of shears and trimmed back the jungle pouring over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door.
Before he disappeared I once mentioned to “Nutty Noodle” that I’d
appreciate his trimming back his plants. In all seriousness he told me that
having roses and clematis pouring over the fence was a good thing as it would
deter burglars, and that he would encourage it to grow over the fence as it
would reduce my house contents insurance. I then kicked the gravel around the pond to
cover up the anti-weed membranes. There’s a bit of a problem with the shingle
round the top of the pond. Being rather higher, all the shingle migrates down
the slope from there and the bare membrane are rather obvious. I’m not sure
what I can do about it. I did have an idea to pop to the garden centre to get
more shingle, but what with coronageddon that
wouldn’t be a good idea. I’ve got some rather large concrete cores that once
held up fence posts; maybe I might do something with them? By then it was well past three o’clock. I’d
started in the garden shortly after ten o’clock, and I was worn out. I’d
spent over five hours doing hard labour, and (in all honestly) the
garden didn’t look *that* much different from when I’d started. Did I
ever mention how much I hate gardening? I was just sitting on the loo
planning a Netflix binge when my mobile phone beeped. "er indoors TM"’s car had broken down
some twenty-five miles away. The RAC were on the way, but could I drive out,
collect "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM"
and take him home? As I drove I activated my phone so as to
transmit my location. Smallest grandchild was (so I’m told) fascinated
with following my progress. I collected him and left "er indoors TM" waiting for the
recovery van. As we drove, SBOD ("Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM") told me about his latest playstation game which feature goats with jet packs. He
was also made up with the gauge on my car’s dashboard which showed how many
miles I could drive before needing more petrol. He said that nanny needed one
in her car because the reason she’s broken down was that she’d run out of
petrol. If only… Just as I dropped him off I got instruction
to collect "er indoors TM"
from the garage where the recovery chap was taking her car. We’ve got to go
back in the morning to talk to the garage people; there is talk of “cam
belts” and “warranties” In the meantime I’ve uncorked a bottle of the
red stuff. This might get messy… |
|
23 March 2020
(Monday) - A Prime Ministerial Announcement
There’s no denying that I felt rather grim
when I woke. Red wine, port and amaretto does that. This morning I had a hot cross bun for
brekkie; there was no bread in the corner shop yesterday but they had hot
cross buns and so I panic-bought four of them. Not a bad brekkie really I
suppose. As I scoffed it I had a look at the Internet. Coronageddon
panic was everywhere with maybe one person in a hundred seeming to appreciate
the difference between “social distancing” and “self-isolating”.
I resisted the temptation to point out the fallacy of some people’s attempts
at logic, but you can’t argue with stupidity, can you? I then put the telly on and watched the news.
The Minister for Health was being interviewed. The chap has got a very
difficult job at the moment; it is easy to knock politicians but at these
difficult times they really do need our support. Having said that he didn’t
come over at all well. He wasted ten minutes of air-time spouting meaningless
phrases rather than saying anything of note. I drove "er
indoors TM" to the garage where we salvaged as much gear
as she needed from her car before going to talk to the nice garage man. Or
that is she went and talked to him; I stayed in my car. The nice man in the
garage said it will be two weeks before they can even look at the remains of
her car. I must admit I thought this might be the case; whenever I’ve been
there they’ve always had a full diary. Oh well, probably as well that she’s
working from home. I did suggest that she come for a walk with
me and the dogs, but she felt she should get on with work. So I dropped her
home and took the wolf-pack down to Orlestone woods
where we had a good walk. We met one other person; a little old lady with a
Jack Russel and a large poodle who we’ve met her before. There is a nodding
acquaintance in the dog-walking fraternity; just both having dogs is reason
enough to strike up a conversation. The little old lady summed up her
attitude to coronageddon and she seemed to be in
complete agreement with me. She’s in the “at risk” group (in
several actually) but her dogs need walking. Bearing in mind I was the
only person she met in the woods and she could see we were both keeping a
sensible distance, she was as isolated in the woods as she was at home. And
having come out she could at least talk to someone rather than being totally
alone all day long. We came home, and I then popped to Tesco. I
had orders to get cherry tomatoes; they didn’t have any. In fact they had
hardly any vegetables at all. Loads of fruit, but very few vegetables. Go
figure! They had bread so I got some. They only had two bottles of diet
Doctor Pepper, so I panic-bought those, as well as a few bottles of beer (just
in case). Once home we had a cuppa. I didn’t really
have much of a plan for today; I just had a day’s leave which I could use or
lose, so a month ago I decided “use”. I spent four hours writing a
very simple Wherigo, and another couple of hours re-writing three others.
Then two more hours creating geo-art. I say “art”; “geometry”
is closer to what I did. We had a rather good dinner, and for afters
we had fresh raspberries and cream. With no toilet roll or dog food in the
supermarkets, there was plenty of cream and raspberries. And then we watched the Prime Minister’s
broadcast to the nation. I expect this will be something about which the
future historians will wax lyrical, and I will be able to say “I was there”. He’s put the nation in lockdown. I can now
only leave the house to get essential food shopping, one bout of exercise a
day, and to go to work. It’s all getting rather serious… |
|
24 March 2020
(Tuesday) - The Day After Lockdown
I slept well… I think. I have a vague
recollection of "er indoors TM"
fighting with the dogs, but it could have been a dream. Over brekkie (Aldi’s
muesli) I watched an episode of the new season of “The Good Place”;
perhaps I would have benefitted from having re-watched what had gone before,
but it was entertaining enough. Facebook was rather dull this morning, but
admittedly I was up early. There was something of a row kicking off on some
of the geocaching pages. There is a very vocal demand that the hobby be
suspended in its entirety for the duration of the crisis for fear of disease.
People who don’t really know the first thing about microbiology were
advocating not leaving the house for fear of corona virus. They seemed to
think that it would attack in much the same way that a tiger might do. Yet
again there were a *lot* of people showing they don’t know the
difference between self-isolation and social distancing. But (as always)
trying to talk sense was doomed to failure. Despite having multiple degrees
and being educated to a post-graduate level and with thirty-eight years of
experience of dealing with human disease on a daily basis, I have been put in
my place several times recently by “Karen from Facebook”, I contented myself with posting a link to a Coursera course
that many people would be well advised to take, and left it to others to
undertake the utterly futile exercise of trying to talk sense to those who
have decided not to listen to reason. I got dressed taking care not to disturb "er indoors TM", then went out to find
my car on a rather cold morning. Colder than I had realised. Seeing the
windscreen was rather grubby I squirted the windscreen washers, and the
screen rinse froze on the screen. I spent five minutes scraping it off. Bearing in mind the Prime Minister had
announced that only key workers were allowed to be out and about today, the
roads were just as busy this morning as they ever were. Vans bearing the
logos of swimming pool suppliers, pumps accessories and all sorts of
seemingly unimportant trivia were out and about. The pundits on the radio were talking about
the lock-down. They wheeled on a senior policeman to ask exactly how the
police were going to enforce the lockdown. The chap said he had no idea; he
said he'd heard the same announcement we'd all heard last night, and that was
the extent of his knowledge. They then interviewed someone from Sports
Direct who tried to make a case that selling sporting goods was a vital
service in the time of national crisis. They didn't fool anyone. I got to work, and bearing in mind that most
people weren't even allowed out of the house I decided against going to stick
out a Munzee. I went straight in to work and did my
bit. It wasn't a bad day; we had cake. However we also had a rather foul
manure-ish smell permeating the entire hospital.
Some local farmer had been muck-spreading. I wish he'd stayed in lock-down. Bearing in mind we’re allowed to go food
shopping, "er indoors TM"
sent me a list. I welt to Aldi after work and found
it far more controlled than it had been last week. With the exception of
toilet roll they had pretty much everything I needed (even if I don’t know
the difference between pasta sauce and lasagne sauce) Coming home down the motorway was odd. This
morning had been like any other morning. This evening when coming home the
motorway was incredibly quiet. The only time I’ve seen it quieter is on
Christmas morning. I did have orders to get dog food, but in
this new world order of lock-down, Pets at Home closed at six o’clock and I
was too late. I came home to see the postman had been. The
Lego “Red Indians” set that I’d ordered from eBay had arrived.
Originally released over forty years ago this set was never available in the
UK. Rather politically incorrect, the “Red Indians” bit is actually
the Lego corporation’s official set name, and is in no way racist or
pejorative… Originally both the figures in the canoe had
paddles, but over the years one went missing. Such is life… |
|
25 March 2020
(Wednesday) - Rostered Day Off
I slept reasonably well; over a bowl of
muesli I turned on the TV news. It was rather different to the morning’s
radio in that there was a *lot* of repetition. I turned the telly off
when they started asking for volunteers to help the NHS… volunteers… that’s a
rant for another time. Facebook was much the same as ever. There
weren’t quite so many showing off their ignorance this morning, but there
were enough for me to change my Facebook status to “Dear Facebook… in
addition to the “like”, “love”, “haha”, “wow”,
“sad” and “angry” reaction response icons, could you please create a “FFS”
one with which I could respond to much of the fuckwittery
I am seeing posted on a regular basis right now…” However this morning did see an upsurge in
posting from the hypochondriac brigade who were noisily staying at home.
Don’t get me wrong – I have several friends who aren’t well and who do have
chronic illnesses who really should be at home during the current coronageddon. However I also have several people on my
Facebook list who go to the doctor if they so much as fart twice in half an
hour. It was the latter who were making the most of it this morning. Amazingly the co-ordinate projection software
was working this morning (it’s a geo-thing). I got rather cross with
it yesterday evening when it could project anything I wanted provided it was
in a due north direction, which is no use when you are trying to make a
circle. I’m looking to make a pretty pattern with geo-icons for a new series
of geocaches that I am planning. There are those who don’t like that sort of
thing, but on the whole, those who don’t like it are those who contribute
absolutely nothing to rummaging under rocks for film pots. I managed to eventually produce my geo-art.
I’m quite pleased with it. It’s just a geometric shape, but "er indoors TM" says it looks like a
peacock. Despite the current lock-down, the Prime
Minister has said that everyone is allowed out for one bit of exercise a day.
I could have walked the dogs round the park, but we would encounter people
there. I drove up to Kings Wood where we walked for four miles and only saw
three other people. One of them had headphones on and was utterly oblivious
that I had said hello to him. (I thought that was rather rude). One
was a chap on a mountain bike. We kept at least ten yards apart; the chap told
me he was self-employed and was rather concerned for the future. He asked
what I did; I told him. He thought I was some sort of super-hero. The third
one we encountered came past as he was driving a four-wheel-drive down one of
the rough tracks some two miles from the nearest road. I wonder what he was
up to? We had a very good walk; the mud had dried
out, we saw a huge bird of some sort. Heron or buzzard? It was about the size
of an ostrich. It was only a shame that the dogs had to eat
quite so much horse manure. As we walked my phone beeped. Someone
somewhere had scanned a bar code I’d stuck to a lamp post and the resultant
points I’d got had made me a level 101 munzer.
Result! With walk walked we came home. The Prime
Minister has also said that everyone is allowed out for essential shopping,
and Pets at Home was closed yesterday when I went there so I popped round for
dog food. Oh dear… Fuckwittery was in full force
there. They had a little old lady on the door
controlling how many people were in the store at any one time. A good idea in
theory. In practice did she have to take quite so long to decide to let me in
when there were only two other customers in there? I got the dog food and took it to the till. I
put it on the counter, and the chap at the till asked me to step back to the
yellow square marked on the floor some six feet away. So I did. When he asked
for payment I explained that I couldn’t reach the card reader device from six
feet away. He said that I could come forward; I only needed to keep my
distance when he was scanning the stuff I’d bought. Sensible… so I came
forward expecting him to move back. He didn’t. Instead he leaned forward and
(with a smile) started banging on about how more people should be
co-operative like I’d been and abide by their rules. I smiled sweetly and
resisted the urge to ask if viruses only attack the checkout lad when he is
otherwise distracted by scanning merchandise? I spent a little while (three hours)
doing geo-admin for the new cache series I have planned, then looked at the
household accounts. Today I looked at the annual summaries… I try to put
aside money that we might need in case of disaster and (despite one or two
disasters), we’ve ended the year with slightly more in reserve than when
we started, for which was pleased. I also saw that the council tax for next
year has gone up by a fiver a month, but the water bill’s now cheaper. As
always I seem to be doing OK financially… not ridiculously wealthy and
rolling in money, but OK… I can remember when I first started testing
blood for a living in 1981. Up till then I’d been working in my spare time in
a seaside restaurant. I’d often spoken with the boss about taking the plunge
and buying a restaurant of my own. It would mean tremendous bank loans and a
lot of risk, and I decided against it. I plumped for a regular wage. At the
time my boss (“Boss” was a little fat Italian chap who was in retrospect
one of the wisest men I ever met) told me that by doing this, I would be
comfortable financially in life, but I could be so much more. Yet again I find myself looking back to this
chap and wishing I’d listened to him. "er indoors TM" cleared some
space in the freezer (as we’d had a meat delivery) and she found a
bone that we’d frozen for the dogs ages ago. I say “dogs”; it was
probably from a time before Treacle. With the bone defrosted I sat down and
supervised the dogs who enjoyed it immensely. There was no quarrelling or
squabbling. Each dog had a chomp and waited patiently (mostly) for
their next turn. My dogs might not be the best behaved dogs in the world, but
there’s not many that will share a bone. "er indoors TM" then took the
dogs out (for her daily exercise). In all the excitement Fudge sicked up the meat he’d chewed from the bone, and before
anyone could do anything, Treacle and Pogo ate it. Dogs can be foul creatures… |
|
26 March 2020
(Thursday) - This n That
I had a rather fraught night. I was woken by "er indoors TM" having something of a
row with Treacle. I woke in intense pain, and lay in intense pain for some
time until I struck on the (frankly genius) idea of rolling over. The
pain went right away, and I saw the alarm was due to go off two minutes
later. I nodded off and woke seemingly ages later to see it was only three
o’clock. What was that all about? I watched an episode of “The Good Place”
as I scoffed a bowl of muesli, then I had a little look into the internet.
Still more people were showing their ignorance on Facebook. It is a sad
reflection of our society that any vocal half-wit can become an oracle these
days. On a more serious note, one or two people had been laid off as their
firms closed up for the foreseeable future as the coronageddon
situation worsened. Rather than keeping people on it is cheaper to let them
go. I understand that lists of companies doing this are being drawn up. When
this is all over we will know where not to spend our money. I eventually found where I'd left my car and
set off to work on a rather cold morning. As I drove the pundits on the radio
were making a rather poor attempt at describing how testing for corona virus
is performed. One can either test for the actual virus which takes an age and
costs a fortune. Or one can test for the body's having had a reaction to the
virus. This is relatively quick and cheap but has the disadvantage that the
test will remain negative until the body has had a reaction which can take a
few weeks after the initial infection. Therefore it will have a high
incidence of falsely negative results. Perhaps it's because this is what I do
every day, but I can't understand why the people on the radio had such a hard
time understanding this. It's all rather simple. In fact this has been the
case when testing for glandular fever for about a hundred years ever since messers Paul and Bunnell devised their test all those
years ago. There was also an interesting (if chilling)
thought posed by the ex-chief scientific advisor to the government. He said
that this corona virus pandemic is going to cause a world-wide economic
recession, and attempts to alleviate it will make that recession worse. He
went on to say that the corona virus will (for the most part) take out
those members of our society who are least economically productive, and that
a global economic recession would also cause many deaths. He suggested that
by *not* treating the elderly and infirm and leaving them to croak we
could lessen the effects of the coming global recession and in the long run
have less deaths in total. Is he right? Is this really how the government is
thinking? I got to work and found that since I was last
there the door now had a lock on it and that my swipe card didn't work on
that lock. As I had a cuppa before I started by phone
beeped. The geo-feds had checked the locations of the potential new geocaches
I'd been working on and had given me the thumbs-up for most of my plan. That
was something of a result. There was a minor hiccup with one bit of what I
had in mind; I thought that I might sort that on Saturday until I had an
email from the head honcho at the forestry commission. He has announced that
they have closed
all their forests to the general public for the duration of the current
emergency. Why? I was in one of their woods yesterday for
hours and only met three other people. There's far more social isolation to
be had in a forest than there is in the local park. As the day went on I heard of more lunacy. A
good friend of mine is the manager of a branch of (let’s call it) a
well-known high street store. He’s been told to close up for three weeks.
Another branch of the same store not thirty miles away has been told to stay
open as that branch is “key workers”. I came home via Aldi where I got more
supplies. I’m getting better at this shopping and got pretty much everything
I was after. Some of it (the chili sauce) went into tonight’s dinner.
It was rather good…. |
|
27 March 2020
(Friday) - Lego Delivery
I went to the loo in the small hours and came
back to bed to find that the entire wolf-pack had made themselves comfortable
where I’d been sleeping. I should have hoiked the
entire lot off the bed, but instead I wormed my way in between them and tried
to sleep despite Pogo’s grumbling every time anyone
moved. Over a bowl of Aldi muesli (which isn’t
that good) I watched an episode of “The Good Place” then had a
look at the Internet. The new sparks single has
been released; like the muesli it wasn’t that good either (unfortunately).
Facebook was fairly quiet; with the world on
lock-down no one had been doing much. I posted a couple of birthday videos to
friends (whose birthday was today obviously!), I sulked a bit because
today is smallest grand-dog Rolo’s birthday and due
to coronageddon I’m not allowed to visit, I saw I
had no emails at all, and I got ready for work. I spent a few moments wiping the condensation
off of my car, then set off to work. There was an iffy few seconds as I
joined the motorway as a truck of the Green Box recycling company (registration
number emailed to the company) followed perhaps five yards behind me as I
drove up the slip road, and stayed that close to me for quite some time. I
don't know if he thought that by driving so close he would force me to
overtake the van in front where there was no space to do so. I wish people
wouldn't drive like idiots, but when they do so in the company's van at least
you have the ability to bring their idiocy to the attention of someone who
can do something about it. As I drove the pundits on the radio were
talking about the Chancellor of the Exchequer who made a speech yesterday
which was well received. There was talk about the Prime Minister's latest TV
and radio appearances looking rather weak in comparison. Doesn't it speak
volumes about our political system in that a leader isn't judged by their
ability to lead or by the policies they devise, but by how well they amuse
the masses? As I arrived at work so my phone beeped.
Those Lego plates I was going to buy from Bluewater last week have now been
posted from China. I wonder when they will arrive? I had a cuppa before I started work. As I did
I had a look at Facebook on my phone again. Not much had happened earlier;
people had woken up now and there was a lot of concern being expressed in
that the vape shops haven't been declared "essential" and
have all closed down. Those who like puffing clouds now have nowhere to get
their supplies. This was apparently a major issue - has no one heard of
on-line shopping? At lunch time there was some chuckling at
work as we got the news that the Prime Minister has succumbed to the corona
virus. I say "succumbed"; he's got a cough and a bit of a
temperature and is now self-isolating. Will he carry on running the show by
video link as an example to us all? And if he goes down with it, who takes
over? You'd think that the country would have
thought about this before the leader went down with the virus which has
been sweeping the nation for weeks, wouldn't you? I came home and with "er indoors TM" still diligently working
from home I took the dogs out. I wanted to go to Kings Wood to get GPS
co-ordinates to put the finishing touches to my new geo-series, but a blanket
ban on supposedly non-essential travel meant that I couldn’t. To be honest I
didn’t go to the woods simply because of respect to the Forestry Commission’s
request that people don’t go, rather than because of this travel ban. We went round the park. On Wednesday we
walked in the woods for three hours and met two other people; neither of
which came within fifteen yards of me. Today in three quarters of an hour
walking locally we saw dozens of people, and despite my best efforts
twenty-two potential disease-carriers came close enough that I could have
touched them. As we walked home we came past the allotments
where social distancing certainly wasn’t being observed, and neither were the
rules about avoiding non-essential driving with all the gardeners having
brought their cars. With walk walked I went to feed the pond
fish. I will need to scare up some more food for the Koi soon. I really
should stop the dogs from scoffing quite so much of it; especially as in his
greed, Pogo fell in the pond this evening. I then spent a few minutes opening the post.
Some of my Lego had been delivered today. I had a little look-see to check
that what I’d ordered had arrived. All I’m now waiting for are those large
base plates from China. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of
“Star Trek: Picard”. Now I’ve seen the series I must admit that it was
a disappointment… Such a shame. |
|
28 March 2020
(Saturday) - Locked Down
The dogs were settled last night, and when
they sleep, everyone sleeps. I stood on the scales this morning – I’ve
managed to put on two pounds this week. On the one had I want to lose about
three to four stone in weight, on the other hand despite what I do or don’t
eat I’ve always been a porker. I had toast for brekkie (for a change),
then peered into the Internet. The geocaching groups were still at each
other’s throats about the national lock-down. This is something which is boiling my piss
right now. Despite the ongoing arguments and bitterness
it is possible to leave the house and still avoid spreading the corona virus.
You just avoid people. But there is a school of thought which says that
people should not set foot outside the house for any reason whatsoever. Many
of those who advocate this are extremely forceful in their opinion, but none
seem to have a valid reason for what they are saying. There are those who
think that the corona virus is like a tiger in that it is crouched behind the
neighbour’s hedge poised to ponce on them (much
like a tiger might). And there are those who advocate staying at home
because “that is the law”, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this
law has been devised by someone who is even thicker than they are. Don’t get me wrong – I am on no way
advocating business as usual or civil disobedience, but a little education on
matters microbiological would go a long way right now. I sent birthday wishes to one of my nephew’s
three Facebook accounts then had a look at my emails. The geo-feds have given
the thumbs up to my latest tweak to the geo-series I am planning.
Interestingly with the country on lock-down, the chap who contacted me to say
all was well had sent the email before six o’clock this morning. I also had emails from the dentist and the
vet saying they were closing for all but emergencies. I suppose that’s
understandable under the circumstances. Whilst "er
indoors TM" got herself organised I sorted Lego. I found
a huge box of the stuff that I’d forgotten about. There were several sets of
wheels in that box; it was a shame that yesterday’s delivery included quite a
few sets of wheels that I’d ordered as I thought I’d run out. The plan for today had been to drive out to Hemsted forest where we’d planned to meet up with
friends, but that plan went doubly west. Firstly we aren’t allowed to drive
anywhere to walk dogs, and secondly the Forestry commission have closed all
their woods. So instead we went for a little walk locally.
Out through Willesborough dykes to the top end of
Park Farm and home via South Willesborough and
Frog’s Island. We had a fairly good walk, "er
indoors TM" found a geocache (I’d found that one eight
years ago!) and Treacle fell in something. We aren’t quite sure what; it
was near the river but we didn’t see her anywhere near the water, but
suddenly she was soaking wet and covered in foul-smelling mud. With walk walked and dog bathed we had a
light lunch (scones and jam with coffee) then I ordered some food for
the pond fish. It should be here by Tuesday. I can’t help but wonder how many
other people are ordering stuff like this on-line. At the moment on-line
ordering is great; with "er indoors TM"
working from home there is always someone at home to accept delivery. I then played Lego for a bit. With
yesterday’s delivery of spare odds and sods I managed to make fifteen more
maxi-figures including two which will be part of a statue in the Lego world’s
park which I shall make once the base plates arrive. I then had a message. A little while ago I
mentioned that someone from Sweden had been using a VPN to cheat at claiming
a find on my Adventure lab cache in Ashford. It would seem that the answers
to this Adventure have been posted onto a cheat page on Facebook together
with how to trick your GPS to make you think you are miles away from where
you actually are. I’ve disabled the thing for now (no one’s allowed out to
do it anyway) and shall decide what to do with it if and when coronageddon has subsided somewhat. Bearing in mind I’d had to re-vamp the end of
my geo-walk in Kings Wood I then re-programmed one of the Wherigos
and created some of the web pages for the geo-series. I’ve got over half of
the web pages done now. I’ve just got to create the last twenty-four web
pages, decide what the puzzles are actually going to be, add then to the
pages… it will keep me occupied during coonageddon
if nothing else. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of dinner which I washed down with the bottle of beer I had
intended taking out for today’s cancelled walk. As we scoffed we watched a
film. “Year One”
was something of a disappointment… |
|
29 March 2020
(Sunday) - Stuff
I was sleeping like a log when "er indoors TM" and the wolf-pack all
came to bed at half past two (or half past three bearing in mind the
clocks went forward). All hell then seemingly broke loose, and mayhem
continued right up until five minutes before I had to get up. Over brekkie I watched an episode of "The
Good Place" as I scoffed muesli. The milk might have been past its
best, but in this new world order of coronageddon,
manky milk is better than no milk, so I made the most of it. I didn't bother looking at the Internet this
morning as I was on a mission; I set off for work. It was rather cold as I searched for my car.
I eventually found it, and as I drove up the motorway the pundits on the
radio were talking about religious stuff as they do most Sunday mornings. And
(as always) there is an incredibly fine line between "religion"
and "stark-staring-nonsense". There was an idiot being
interviewed who wasn't at all happy about the advice that churches should not
open because of the possibility of spreading the virus. This idiot claimed
that the virus had been made by Satan with the express intention of having
churches close. He was also adamant that God wouldn't allow any transmission
of infection to take place in a church. I would have thought that if God could have
prevented the transmission of the virus then he, she or it might have stepped
in a little while ago, but what do I know? There were then some interviews with people
who run crematoriums (crematoria?). It would seem there are no
national guidelines for funeral services. Some crematoriums are carrying on
as usual. Some are restricting attendances to randomly selected figures
between six and twenty-five depending on what the individual crematorium
manager decides. And some have closed to the public altogether. The ones that have closed have come up with
an interesting suggestion. They are carrying on cremating the dead. They will
present the family of the deceased with the ashes, and a service can be
carried on at a later date. It's been suggested that this service doesn't
need to be in a crematorium or church. It seems that this idea might catch
on, and traditional funeral services might become a thing of the past. I like the sound of this. I've got this idea of having my ashes
scattered in the depths of Kings Wood, if only to have those few who will cry
at my departing trek some miles into the woods to do their blubbing. I'd left home early and not looked at the
Internet this morning so that I would have time to get some shopping, but
Aldi was closed. The nice man at the shop said that they were opening at half
past nine for NHS workers. I explained that I was an NHS worker and that at
half past nine I would be well into my shift. He said that despite all the
current crisis the laws governing shop opening hours hadn't changed. Oh well... they can close the nation on the
Prime Minister's say so, but they can't open a supermarket an hour earlier... Finding myself with some spare time I went
into work and had a cooked breakfast. As always I ended up wishing that I
hadn't. Their dinners are excellent; brekkie not so. I got on with my work. Often when working at
the weekends I sulk because of what I might be missing. Ironically today much
of the country (if not the world) would envy me because I was
legitimately allowed to leave the house. Mind you it was raining hard for
much of the morning, with the rain periodically giving way to hail. I hear
there was sleet and snow back home. With work done I came home via the branch of
M&S at work. I was hoping to get all sorts of shopping bits and bobs, but
the shop was more geared up for the lunch market. But they did have some
lemon Danish pastries which we had with a cuppa. It was a shame that we made
the cuppas with the last of the milk which was definitely past its best. We took the dogs round the park. There
weren’t many people out, and those we met (unlike Friday) were doing
social distancing. It was odd; a month ago you’d pass someone on the pavement
without a word. Now you all make a point of keeping apart and smile at each
other and shout polite pleasantries and apologise for the social distancing. With walk walked I spent ten minutes
re-designing the Lego statue I made yesterday. It’s now vaguely along the
lines of the statue of Bill and Ted in San Dimas. Ideally it would be in
grey, but they don’t do maxifigure arms in grey. I
then had the (frankly genius) idea of re-doing it in blue. I need to
do something about the yellow maxifigure heads… I
need to get some blue paint or blue indelible marker. Karl then video-whatsapp-ed
and we had a little video chat. We filmed dogs eating turnips, and Treacle
seemed intrigued with the video. I need to work out how to cast it to the
telly. Wonder what’s for dinner? |
30 March 2020 (Monday) - House Party
After
a rather fraught night I poured away the last of the skanky milk and opened a
fresh bottle for this morning’s brekkie. I watched an episode of “The Good
Place” before having my morning’s root around Facebook. Quite a few
people were posting brain-teasers on Facebook (which is more than many
usually do), but there was a worrying undercurrent of resentment aimed at
the NHS workers. A week ago the sun was shining out of the bum of the NHS
workers; this morning there were quite a few other key workers who were rather
envious of all the free coffee, half-price pizza and special shopping hours
supposedly being offered to NHS staff. There
is something of a misunderstanding here. The free coffee and half-price pizza
are very limited in numbers (maybe fifty to one hundred when there are
about a thousand or so eligible for the offer), and these offers are
issued on a first-come first-served basis. Advertised by internal
email, they are snapped up by those who have time to be constantly reading
internal emails. As
for the special shopping hours, speaking for myself the special shopping
hours coincide with when I’m working, and from what I’ve heard any “key
worker” can turn up; the criteria for being a “key worker” being
to declare yourself as such. I
got dressed taking care to let sleeping dogs lie. Now that we are in British
Summer Time I put on a thinner summer shirt (I have winter shirts and
summer shirts – it came as something of a surprise to find that most people
don’t) and set off work-wards. As I walked to my car I was very conscious
that I wasn't wearing a winter shirt. The summer ones are much thinner and it
was rather cold this morning. Last
week the roads in the morning had been much the same as ever, this morning
the roads were noticeably quieter. Lock-down is starting to really take
effect. As I drove there was talk of the virus on the morning news. It would
seem that this lock-down will realistically be in place for at least three
more months. Looking back over the last few weeks I was rather sceptical
about the whole coronageddon pandemic when it first
kicked off. It
would seem that I was wrong. However
the whole thing is a classic example of "the boy who cried wolf"
isn't it? With the media having been declaring the end of the world so many
times over the years, when something serious happens (like this current
pandemic), no one takes it seriously. I certainly didn't. I would suggest
this is why so many people are still flaunting the advice to stay at home and
are still staging parties and barbecues. And
talking of serious, the pundits on the radio were saying that the virus has
now taken a hold in Africa (a little behind the rest of the world). If
there was ever any doubt, my Moroccan jolly planned for July is now
definitely out of the window. I just hope that the week away planned for
August can still go ahead. At this rate I can see my holiday this year being
downscaled to a weekend in a tent in the back garden. I
got to work for the early shift. Some early shifts are straight-forward. This
one wasn't. My
plan was to go to Aldi after work. I went to Aldi, took one look at the queue
and came home. I got the odds and sods we needed from the corner shop, then
took the dogs round the park for a walk. One
of the many disadvantages of coronageddon is that
what with many people off work and not allowed to drive and are only allowed
out once a day, Viccie Park is getting more than
its fair share of “The Great Unwashed” who until last week would never
set foot in the place from one year to the next. We
met a young family. Mum and dad had three young children with bikes. They had
clearly never ridden their bikes before; all were going full-pelt in straight
lines and could only stop by jamming on the brakes and falling off. Mother or
father would then run up, stop the crying, and watch helplessly as each child
then sped off again only to be in tears thirty seconds later. We
met a musclebound chap doing his sit-ups. Pogo thought it was a great game
and started licking his face. And
then we saw a father and young child both on a scooter being towed by a dog
the size of a cart-horse. It was going rather well up to the point when a
squirrel ran across the path in front of the dog… It
was with a sense of relief that we left the park, but just as we were passing
the shop up the road from home I overheard some “delightful young lady”
bellowing into her phone that she’d gone right through the park and was at
the shops by Singleton. I wondered if I should tell her that the shops by
Singleton were about two miles away, but I thought it best not to interfere
in other people’s balls-ups. I
phoned my mum and dad to wish them a happy wedding anniversary. Ideally we
would have visited, but visiting isn’t something that happens at the moment.
And having phoned them we had an experimental video game with "My Boy
TM" and his tribe. “House
Party” is a rather good app in which you can see people with the
video camera whilst playing silly games. If
only I could get my mum to do this sort of thing… |
|
31 March 2020
(Tuesday) - Before the Night Shift
Over brekkie I watched “Lake Escapes”;
a program in which two celebrity anglers went fishing in a river. I have a
theory about celebrity anglers. They aren’t on telly because they are any
good at fishing; they are on telly because they come over very well
on-screen. Take today’s pair who were brandishing fishing rods as though they
were swords. When the fish takes the bait you should gently pick up the rod.
You *shouldn’t* thrash the thing back over your head as though trying
to launch the fish into orbit. This was followed by the morning TV news in
which it would seem that both the National Police Chiefs' Council and
the College of Policing have
issued a statement telling the police to be consistent in their approach
to forcing the ongoing lock-down. It does nothing for public confidence in
the Boys in Blue when they publicly lambast people for walking in the
countryside when (it transpires) that these people live there. Usually I wouldn’t go out for the morning
dog-walk at half-past eight but with the world on lock-down, half-past eight
was rather quiet. We only had one “episode” as we walked our usual
circuit. As we came through Bowen’s Field some woman started shrieking at me
from her garden. “Your dog’s done a shit” she continually ranted. When
I turned round she ran into her house, closed the door and peered at me from
behind the net curtains. I think she’d got confused as Treacle squats to
tiddle, so we carried on. This harridan ran back into her garden and started
squawking again. And again when I stopped she ran back inside. I went back
and had a look but could discover no errant turds. This continued for five
minutes before I finally shouted back that unless she could direct me to the
site of the download, then I could do nothing. The woman glowered at me from the safety of
her kitchen. We went on into the park where we met quite a
few more joggers than usual, and a few dog walkers too. My wolf-pack all
played nicely with the other dogs. And I did chuckle when I saw the remains
of a kite flapping in a tree. You can tell that the normal people are using
the park more and more - I can’t remember the last time anyone flew a kite in
Viccie Park. As dog-walks go, this was one of the better
ones. We came home, I went round the garden with a
trowel and bucket and harvested a bumper crop of dog turds. It never fails to
amaze me how the dogs manage to “do” anything when we go out when you
consider how much they’ve already “done” in the back garden. Usually I would then slob in front of the
telly, but with "er indoors TM"
working from home I didn’t want to make too much noise. So I wrote up some CPD (dull!).
As I wrote so the door bell rang. The job lot of
fish food I’d ordered at the weekend had arrived. At only two thirds of the
price of the stuff I got last year it seems to be quite the bargain. Or it
will be *if* the fish eat it and *if* it doesn’t cloud up the
pond. I then spent a little while creating the last
of the web pages that will describe the geo-walk I’m planning for Kings Wood
(once normality is resumed). I eventually got them done. All I need
now is a puzzle for each, and to go and actually put film pots under rocks
once normality is restored. I spent most of the afternoon asleep with
Fudge on the bed with me. "er indoors TM"
working from home meant there was no dogs barking at all during the afternoon
which made for a good few hours’ shut-eye. I’m off to the night shift soon. I wonder how
coronageddon will affect it? |
