20 September 2022 (Tuesday) - Rostered Day Off (!)

As I scoffed toast I saw that three Facebook friends had a birthday today. As only one has made any effort to stay in touch over the last ten years I only sent out one birthday video. I also saw that pretty much all of the Royal funeral talk had gone from the Internet.
I posted on to one of the local Facebook groups asking if anyone could recommend a plumber to do a couple of small jobs round the house. I’d posted the same question on another Facebook group over the weekend and the post had been deleted. I got told that the group I’d posted on wasn’t for that sort of thing. I’d love to know what sort of thing that group was for as it seems to be rather moribund.
I then got on with the business of the day…
 
When I drive to work I drive past the tip. Usually I pass it about five minutes after leaving home. It took me half an hour to get there this morning. I was the only customer there (if customer is the right word), and with nothing else to do the tip operative watched me “like a pork” (as “My Boy TM” used to say), peering into my car to see what I was getting rid of, and following me to check everything went in the right skip
From the tip I went to the pond shop at Rolvenden. Yesterday I mentioned the latest problem with the pond and my idea to fix it. I got new pumps and connectors to extend the existing hoses. That only cost two hundred and fifty quid…
 
From there I went to Dad’s house. It seemed rather odd letting myself in. I picked up a suit for him to wear; he needs to look smart as the funeral directors can arrange for people to see the body before the funeral. I got the suit that I got married in. A few years ago I realised I was far too big for that suit, and I swapped it with Dad for one of his suits that he was too small to wear any more.
I then went to my brother’s and together we went to the solicitor to check that everything we are doing with his estate is legal. Fortunately it is… mostly. We need to formally apply for “probate”. Probate is the legal right to deal with someone's property, money and possessions when they die. Getting probate will cost money. Personally I think it is a total rip-off. My Dad (and Mum too) spent good money paying for a will saying what they want to happen with their property, money and possessions. And now we’ve got to spend more money getting probate as well. What a con.
 
By then it was lunch time so we went for McLunch. The place was absolutely heaving with children who probably should have been at school. The chap behind the counter said that they’d never been so busy and blamed their having been closed for half a day yesterday.
From McLunch we went to the funeral director’s and made a start on planning the funeral. I say “made a start”; Dad had already paid for it and left instructions for much of it. So what could have taken hours was all done in half an hour.
 
I came home, and took the dogs to the walk for what must have been Morgan’s worst-behaved walk ever. We got to the woods where I opened the boot, and he jumped quicker than I could catch him. It was ten minutes before he came close enough for me to get the lead off of him.
He vanished (with Bailey as partner-in-crime) in the deepest part of the wood for ten minutes.
As we came round the loop at the top of the wood he vanished, and was captured (on the road!) by a fellow dog-walker on her way home,
I shall plan a route round the woods that doesn’t go anywhere near that road…
 
“er indoors TM boiled up a decent bit of scran which we scoffed whilst watching “Derry Girls”, and I then spent a very frustrating half hour on the parcelforce website. Whilst I was going here and there “er indoors TM heard the dogs barking at the door and had found a “we tried to deliver your parcel” note. As is always the case, “we tried to deliver your parcel” meant that the delivery chap had come to the door and put a note through the door.
I’ve asked for the parcel to be redelivered on Thursday. If we get another note the parcel can go back to the sender and I will make a special journey to a shop to buy the thing directly. I’m fast going off of the idea of on-line shopping; it only works *if* the delivery people actually make an effort to deliver what you are buying.

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