I woke in a bit of a panic following a rather vivid dream
in which my old PE Teacher was demanding to know why hospitals send certain
blood tests to specialist laboratories rather than testing them themselves.
What was that all about?
Being on an early shift and not being awake quite as early
as usual I skipped watching telly and peered into the Internet as I scoffed
toast. There was a lot of consternation on one of the Dad's Army Facebook pages
I follow. Yesterday someone had posted a photo of some of the cast sitting in a
pub all with a pint of beer each. Someone else had reported the photos as going
against Facebook's community standards and had the photo removed. I resisted
the temptation to get involved; on-line arguments rarely achieve much. But
again we see the farcical nature of Facebook's community standards. Having
reported stuff myself I now have first had experience that a link to a close-up
of a lady's lady bits doesn't breach their standards whilst a photo of three
old men having a drink does.
And on the Facebook page I follow about UK footpaths and
rights of way there was a lot of indignation being expressed about how someone
got a Facebook suspension for mentioning a path which follows Offa's Dyke.
And there was a beach hut for sale
on a beach near Hastings. Thirty eight thousand pounds for the shed and eight
hundred quid a year for ongoing unspecified expenses.... that's more than my
first house cost. We once borrowed a beach hut for an afternoon. By the end of
the afternoon we'd had more than enough of it.
I set off to work. Whilst I'd been eating my toast so the
seagulls had been squawking; as I walked down the road they'd shut their rattle
and the sparrows were all hollering. I'd never before noticed that the birds
don't all sing the dawn chorus together.
I made my way to work via nineteen Points of Interest and
four QrewZees; there's never a dull moment in Munzee. As I drove I listened to
the radio. The pundits were interviewing some windbag about why economic
forecasts are invariably wrong. It turns out that when making an economic
forecast, those making the predictions look at the current situation, consider
what the rules governing economics say, and then pontificate. However it would
seem that economics is blissfully unaware of these rules. It has been suggested
that the so-called experts revisit cause and effect in economic theory as it
seems that the causes aren't giving the effects they are supposed to. Perhaps someone might like to do the same for
weather forecasting?
And there was a lot of talk about food security... farmers are
worried that they can't grow crops if their fields are flooded, and matters
aren't being helped by insurance companies refusing to pay compensation as the
flooded farms are "too
far" from the rivers doing the flooding.
Seriously? I would have thought that you couldn't get much
closer than being directly under or in the river.
I got to work. Without going into details, I’ll just make
the observation that looking back at my many years of being in charge, I am far
happier letting someone else sort the problems.
In between this and that I was asked if I'd like to be in
the sweepstake for tomorrow's Grand National race. My horse is Latenightpass
which has odds of 28/1.
I might win.
I also spoke to the pension people who assure me my
paperwork has progressed to the stage where it is being processed. I suppose
that's a step in the right direction. It's further along than when I last
enquired.
I did my bit; I came home. Via the pond shop. Wanting a
waterfall for my next pond project I'd already phoned Aylesford Aquatics as
that place is only a five-minute drive from work. They said that they don't
keep waterfalls in stock, but if I told them what they wanted they could get it
in for me. I resisted the temptation to tell them that I too could get stuff
directly from Amazon, cut out the middle man and get it cheaper. So I drove to
Dobbies garden centre instead. They had one left. An ex-demo one they offered
to me at half price. I offered a fiver less, brought the thing home and spent
some time puzzling jut how I might get the waterfall bit to work.
Rather annoyingly “er indoors TM” then
hit on the frankly genius idea of lifting up the back of the existing splash
pool. The problem I’ve got is that the sides of the splash pool are too low.
Hopefully lifting up the back will solve that issue. I will have a major job to
lift it up, but it will still be easier than building a whole new splash pool.
This entirely does away with the need for the new sleepers
and the waterfall. But “nil desperandum” (as a dead Roman might say);
I’ve an idea what I might make with those.
“er indoors TM” then went off to visit
Sarah. I stayed with the dogs. As time goes by I’m getting less and less keen
on leaving them alone. We sat together and watched the last episodes of “Cleaning
Up” which was rather good.
Today has been rather relaxing compared to the last few
days.
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