I slept through till three o’clock this morning then lay wide awake for a couple of hours before giving up trying to sleep and getting up.
Over brekkie I watched another episode of “Superstore” then sparked up the lap-top to see what was going on in the world. Yesterday my Facebook feed was awash with Monty Python memes; today it was daleks. Why?
As I drove to work on another very dark and wet morning the pundits on the radio were taking their orders from Dame Jane Goodall. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Dame Jane was saying that all attempts on reversing climate change are doomed to failure until world poverty is sorted. She made a very convincing case that the environmental impact of my drive to work is just pissing in the wind compared to the wholesale deforestation that is going on across the world in the under-developed nations. That did soothe my conscience a tad. However offering millions of farmers living on subsistence level a better living than they can make from cutting down forests for farmlands will take some doing. Dame Jane seemed convinced that the idea was not only feasible but achievable, so there is hope for the future. Even if details were a little vague.
There was a lot of talk about how Prince Andrew should be crapping his pants in terror following yesterday's conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Should he be? Has he actually interfered with children as has been implied on the radio? Perhaps he should talk to the FBI as has been suggested. Mind you if I was him I wouldn't go to talk to them; I'd invite the FBI to come to me. What with the media already having decided he's guilty he's far safer not setting foot on American soil regardless of whether or not he's actually done anything wrong.
It was still dark as I got to work, but as I walked away from my car the dawn chorus was in full swing. The birds were rather noisy this morning, and their songs were rather cheering. It made me think of a science fiction story I once read where on the fictional world of Yom there wasn't so much a dawn chorus as a "quiet time" when all the wildlife stopped singing and making noise and went quiet for an hour or so every afternoon. Whilst that was just a little novelty detail for the story, I've always found that idea rather scary.
Work was work, and with it done I came home. I am reliably informed I missed a major incident on the motorway by minutes. Had I left work a few moments later I would have been three hours late getting home.
“er indoors TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching “The Greatest Showman”.
On New Year’s Eve in years gone by we would have gone to Folkestone and done it the Spanish way. But for the second year running we are doing it virtually via Zoom meeting. I’m going to wear my red New Year pants as a hat… with Maria fifteen miles away I will get away with it.
And that’s it for this year. I suppose that I should end with a look-back at this last year, shouldn’t I? The highlight must have been the wonderful holiday we had in Lincolnshire over the summer, and I had a rather good afternoon tea for my birthday, and once a month we had fun family Zoom bingo-quiz nights. We had an amazing stag do over the August Bank Holiday and an excellent Christmas Day and Boxing Day with the fruits of my loin. And the new telly and the new car weren’t too shabby either.
Sadly what with the (laughably made-up-as-we-went-along) lockdown regulations thwarting plans, I spent a lot of time and *lot* of money in the garden this year, and it was April before we were able to meet up to go for a decent walk with friends. But much as I do look forward to our walks, the weather was against us for much of the year. We had quite a few really good weekend walks, but we did get soaked on the Romney Marsh a couple of times and had to call off more walks this year than ever before.
I did manage to organise two geocaching trips to London both of which went rather well (even if I do say so myself) and we had two rather good geocaching meet-ups.
But it hasn’t been the best of years, has it? Last New Year’s Eve I mentioned about how “I try to hope for the best whilst expecting the worst” and that really was how the year panned out for me. It started off with lots of rather horrible drives through ice (and even snow) to the hospice, and when that was all over I was to and from the in-patient department of the vet’s. Closer to home, but far more expensive. Ending the year with half the dogs and half the parents I started the year with, I also lost three old friends too.
So… what does the future hold? Tomorrow I’m staging the first local geocaching meet of the year and I’m hoping that we might re-boot the noble and ancient art of rummaging under rocks for film pots. We’ve got quite a few meets planned for the New Year.
In less than two weeks I’m due to have surgery - another nasal re-bore. I can’t pretend to be looking forward to that.
We are off to Norfolk for a week just before Easter.
We’ve got a holiday in Grand Canaria in June which I suspect will be cancelled.
We’ve got a week in the New Forest in August… I got the confirmation confirmation of the time off from work today.
So again I shall hope for the best… and be rather circumspect about that which I might expect. See you all next year…
Happy New Year Dave! Hope all is well x
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