15 November 2018 (Thursday) - Job Lot


When I went to bed last night I arranged the duvet so we would all get fair dibs of it overnight. I woke up shivering in the small hours. I thought about trying to wrestle some of it back, but I would be fighting a losing battle, and the old adage about letting sleeping dogs lie has never been more true than at three o’clock in the morning when everyone is finally quiet. I shivered for a bit.
 Over brekkie I watched another episode of “Prison Break” then had a quick look at the Internet. A friend of mine who lives in Ohio had posted something to Facebook which amazed me. An American glassware manufacturer is giving all of its employees a handgun as a Christmas bonus. Each person gets to choose exactly what sort of gun they want; apparently “giving employees their choice of revolver as a gift is part of an effort to promote personal safety and team building”. I *really* don’t understand how Americans feel that having everyone walking round with guns makes the world a safer place.

I set off for work. Bearing in mind just how bad the journey was yesterday I again got my phone's sat-nav app to have a look at the journey for me. It said "motorway" today, and who am I to argue?
As I drove the pundits on the radio were discussing the Brexit withdrawal agreement. Bearing in mind the document only came out late last night and is over five hundred pages long I was amazed at how the people being interviewed this morning claimed to have studied the document thoroughly. I challenge anyone to pick up a five-hundred-page document, read the thing overnight, and be able to discuss the thing with any authority the next morning. (Go on - download the book "The Mote in God's Eye" (one of my favourite reads), read the lot in one go, then email me the location of Horace Bury's cabin and tell me who Angus and Brigit are. I'll give you till tomorrow morning... bet you can't do it...)
As I drove it was announced that the Northern Ireland secretary had resigned over the Brexit agreement. At tea break I saw that the Brexit secretary had also resigned. (Mind you he was a twit - he was on the news last week claiming to have had no idea of the importance of the port of Dover). By lunchtime the Work and Pensions secretary had also thrown in the sponge. And by mid-afternoon there were calls for the Prime Minister’s resignation.
Looking at the news it amazes me that anyone is surprised at this. Did *anyone* think it would go smoothly?

I drove home much easier than I thought I might; once home I walked the dogs round the block. This is a job which is much easier to write than do. Leaving aside the mayhem of four dogs, with the new “lighting” used on the streets of South Ashford, much of the pavements of Francis Road were in utter darkness.
Now that’s not “not very bright”; that’s “so dark I couldn’t see my dogs”. I’d send another letter of complaint to the council if I thought it might achieve anything.
With walk walked I refereed dog feeding time. Fudge then sat on the sofa with me, and Treacle ran in circles round Pogo who was being vigorously “gayed-up” by Sid. Sid continued in this vein until he got too breathless to continue. Fortunately (being a pug) that didn’t take too long.

My phone then beeped. The email I’d been hoping for. A couple of days ago I’d seen something on eBay of which I liked the look. A “job lot” of Lego. Three kilogrammes of the stuff including two motors, lights, gears, base plates… It looked like a rather good “job lot”. In a fit of idiot enthusiasm I put on a maximum bid of fifty quid secure in the knowledge that there must be a hundred quid’s worth there and I didn’t have a hope of winning it. I expected the final price to be about a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty pounds.
This evening I won it for seventeen quid. Result !!
Of course I’ve still got to receive the thing, but the seller looks to he a hospice so I’m relatively confident they will send the stuff.
A few years ago I had plans to make a 1970s Lego diorama with buildings and train track and stuff. I think it might be time to start that project… 

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