12 July 2018 (Thursday) - After the Night Shift

As I drove home after a rather busy night shift I listened to the radio with something of a sense of disbelief. The pundits on the radio were interviewing the new Brexit secretary about today’s publishing of the government’s formal Brexit strategy. When you bear in mind that the Brexit referendum took place on 23 June 2016, it has taken the Government over two years to devise this plan.
This morning on the radio it was suggested that those who are for Brexit don’t like the government’s White Paper since it doesn’t actually get rid of all the European laws and oversight that doing Brexit was all about. It was also suggested that those who are against Brexit don’t like the government’s White Paper since it will cost the country a fortune. And it was also suggested that the thing was already dead in the water as it contains many concepts and ideas that the EU negotiators have already thrown out. During the interview, the new Brexit secretary blathered a lot but didn’t actually deny any of this.
It seems to me that when the vote was taken, the UK had three years to come up with plans. It has taken over two years to come up with a suggestion that is already (seemingly) dying on its arse before it has even started …

Once home I took the dogs round the park. As we walked Fudge made off with another dog’s tennis ball. I got it back before he destroyed it, but there were one or two bald bits where he’s chomped it. The nice people whose ball it was were very good about it; I suppose it’s a dog thing. You either get it or you don’t.
As we came through the co-op field we had an “episode”; Treacle ran into a hedge, and two seconds later I heard a sploshing sound. Two more seconds later she emerged from the hedge seemingly unscathed.
Then I looked closer.
The trouble with having black dogs is that the dirt doesn’t show.  As I looked so I could see foul black ichor dripping from her belly. As I got closer I could smell what she’d fallen in. It might once have been a deep puddle, but now it was a stagnant hell-hole that had been left to rot. The only thing I have ever encountered that smelled worse was a months-dead fox that Fudge once rolled in on a hot day.
Treacle stank to high heaven.
We came home and had a bath. I say “we”; Fudge stayed well clear; Treacle was actually in the bath, but I got just as wet as I scrubbed.

I settled her in her house and popped into town. I had to go to the bank to get some Euros for the weekend’s planned road trip.
Oh dear…
I rarely travel abroad. Over the last several years I have tried to get Euros from the bank on three separate occasions. I can never remember it being easy. In the past they have sold out, the person who does international stuff wasn’t available… today my local branch had lost all the Euro-passwords and were waiting for Head Office to email them new passwords. I suggested I might come back in fifteen minutes; I could see from the expression of the woman behind the counter that fifteen minutes or fifteen years were all the same to her. There was no way that she was up to selling Euros.
I went up the road to a little kiosk in what was once the Tufton Centre where I got Euros (with no quibbling) at a better exchange rate than the bank was offering.

I also saw Matt in town. I’d not seen him for ages; we had a good gossip. And as I was in the area I went to the Chili-Time milk shake bar (they were open for once) where they made me a custom milk shake. Milk, ice cream, two large slices of Battenberg cake all got blended together. Very nice.
I came home and as I opened the door I was faced with the stink of stagnant pond water. Poor Treacle still reeked of whatever it was she’d fallen in. She got a second bath, then I took myself off to bed for a few hours.

I woke feeling like death warmed up and did the ironing whilst watching a film. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” was a rather formulaic American teens-at-school film – the sort which if you’ve seen one of the genre, you’ve seen the lot. But it was watchable. However I did spend much of the time trying to work out who one of the actresses was. It turned out that one of the leading actresses was Emma Watson – “Hermione from Harry Potter.

"er indoors TM" came home with a pressie for me – a rather meaty power pack for my phone and “Hannah” for when we are away on holiday.
Talking of which I then completed my epic GPX file of the Dunkirk-Lille area of France and Belgium in readiness for the weekend. I shall watch some “Trailer Park Boys” then I really should have an early night. I’ve got a busy day tomorrow…


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