16 July 2020 (Thursday) - Early Shift


I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go only to find it was half past midnight. I then saw every hour of the night. I did manage to doze off at one point only to find myself embroiled in a nightmare in which I’d somehow taken my car to Turkey and had absolutely no idea how to get it home again. The obvious way would have been the same way that I had got it there, but that never occurred to me at the time.

Over a bowl of granola I watched the last episode of “Pure”. I wonder what I shall watch in the mornings next? 
I tuned in to the Internet and sent out some birthday wishes, and saw that an old friend had been in the area (ish) overnight. Had I known we might have met up. Or we might not… We were best buddies forty years ago but over the years we have gone our own ways. I googled his job recently – I estimate he earns about ten times what I do. It is commonly said that money doesn’t buy you happiness, but he seems to be smiling in most of the photos in which I see him. Don’t get me wrong – I’m pleased for him, but sometimes I wonder what might have happened if I’d made different life choices back in the day.

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were spouting their usual drivel. All talk of coronageddon is now but a distant memory as the Great God "Economy" once again takes centre stage. Apparently the economy didn't much like coronageddon. I think it is fair to say that no one was particularly keen on it, but the economy is clearly the one whose opinion counts. Various people were wheeled on to speak about it including the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Anneliese Dodds and employment agency supremo James Reed. It is a shame that (having taken the trouble to seek the opinion of these experts) those conducting the interviews didn't let them offer that opinion. So often the pundits on the radio bring on a guest speaker, then talk over everything that speaker has to say.

I got to work, deployed a virtual crossbow onto the motorway (it's a Munzee thing) and got on with the early shift. It was surprisingly busy. Annoyingly busy. So much so that I couldn’t engage as much as I wanted in what has become my favourite work-related pastime.
In order to allow social distancing, the hospital has erected marquees and gazebos in the grounds where staff can go at break times. The one outside the blood bank window seems to me to be “the naughty step”. It only ever has one occupant at a time. The first one today was sitting on the grass inside the gazebo eating a hard-boiled egg and looking very miserable about it. She then went somewhere else and was replaced with someone who lay down and went to sleep, but slept so still I found myself wondering if she was dead. Either she woke up and went, or someone removed the body as I was too busy to see her go.

An early start made for an early finish. I did have a vague plan to take the dogs to the woods but "er indoors TM" was busy working, and by the time I’d had a quick cuppa the dogs were all fast asleep. So I did a little more pootling on the geo-map plotting and planning for my next geo-project, then spent a couple of hours re-writing an old Wherigo project to use again.
We tuned in to the on-line geo-meet and spent an hour chatting with friends.

"er indoors TM" boiled up pie and chips and I set the washing machine loose on some shirts. And with pie and chips scoffed I then had a little fight with the washing machine as I tried and failed to persuade it to open its door. To be fair to the washing machine it was the sensible one – it won’t open he door until all the water is out, and the water couldn’t go out until the drain was unblocked. It has happened before, and this time I managed to unblock the drain without flooding the kitchen.

I bet my rich mate don’t fanny about unblocking his washing machine, and I bet he has staff to iron his shirts… in another plane of existence there is another version of me that has staff who would do all ths laundry-related fannying around.
I wonder what that version of me does with all the spare time that would generate…

No comments:

Post a Comment