26 October 2020 (Monday) - Late Shift

I had a stroke of genius this morning. Fudge rarely eats all of his breakfast in one go; preferring to finish it after our morning walk (when he is hungry). But by then all the other dogs have forgotten that they finished their brekkie earlier, and they get the hump. Finding myself awake at really silly o’clock (what with the clocks going back) I had this idea that if we went for our walk before brekkie, Fudge might eat all of his brekkie when we came back.

We drove down to Orlestone Woods where we had a really good walk. It was pretty much the walk we usually have, but good in that we didn’t see another soul, and had the place to ourselves.

As we walked I saw something which made me think. Paw prints in the mud. Whatever had left them had been big. Deer? Wild boar? One of those big black cats? It was probably a big dog, but before I could take a photo of the paw print a game of dog-chase (featuring Pogo and Treacle) charged right through the thing destroying it completely.

 

As we drove home the pundits on the radio were talking about the hijacking of the oil tanker Nave Andromeda. From what was said and from what has been reported, something seems odd. The hijackers stowed away on the ship in Nigeria and hid until the ship was five minutes away from the headquarters of the Special Boat Service when they sprung their hijack. The commandos of the SBS had the tanker re-captured in less than ten minutes. And the hijackers are supposedly asylum seekers hoping to get into the UK.

Really?

If I was hijacking an oil tanker, I’d do it on the high seas, not within sight of a commando unit. And if I wanted to seek asylum in the UK I wouldn’t hijack an oil tanker on its way there.

Either the hijackers are a bunch of half-wits, or there is more to this story than meets the eye.

 

We got home where Fudge only ate half of his brekkie. So much for my stroke of genius.

As I scoffed my brekkie I peered into the Internet. In less than a month there’s a whole new Animaniacs series coming to our tellies (together with a resurrection of “Pinky and the Brain”). I say “our tellies” – there is if your telly is hooked up to Hulu. But seeing how Hulu is an American subscription video on demand service not available in the UK, that is something else I shan’t be seeing. I’ve whinged about this in the past, haven’t I? Back in the day there was God’s own BBC. Then those common oiks from ITV got in on the act, but using advertising their channels were free to the public. The thin end of the wedge was almost thirty-four years ago when BSB kicked off (remember their squarials?), and Sky TV followed them four years later. And now the pay-per-view market is getting silly. If you want to watch the new episodes of “Star Trek” you have to subscribe to three different pay-per-view outfits, and I will probably never see the new episodes of “Spitting Image”. I suppose I am lucky in that I lead quite an active life and telly isn’t *that* important to me, but there are a lot of people (I used to work with quite a few) whose entire life revolves around watching the telly and incessantly talking about it with their equally TV-obsessed acquaintances.

 

With a few moments to spare I did a little CPD. The blood transfusion simulator gave me an ABO discrepancy combined with anti-s, but I rose to the challenge. I was rather pleased about that. I then added to a Munzee virtual garden (which was easier said than done).

 

I set off in the general direction of work. Pausing only briefly at Leeds Castle for a flat friend (it's a Munzee thing) I then went to Notcutts garden centre with the vague idea of getting "er indoors TM" a Christmas pressie or two.  It was a shame that seemingly the rest of the human race had had the same idea. The place was heaving.

I had a little look-see at what they had for sale. They had all sorts of things, but nothing cheap. To be honest when I saw the artificial Christmas tree which was up for sale at five hundred pounds I turned round and walked away. I went to Aldi hoping they might have had something in the cheapo-bargain aisle, but there wasn't anything worth having. They had some bottles of red wine though... I got one of those.

I drove on to work and did my bit. Having a late start means I can do stuff before work... but I don't like the late finish.

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