31 December 2024 (Tuesday) - New Year's Eve

I did my usual trick last night of having an alarm set last night and consequently waking far too early. I was watching an episode of “Victoria” at half past five, and with that watched I had a quick look at the Internet. There are quite a few people who are suspicious of technology watching what we do. Personally I’m not that fussed about being watched, but I must admit I’m becoming more and more of the opinion that the technology is watching us in more ways than we realise. I’ve not actively gone hunting for anyone to sort our leccie issue, but this morning my Facebook feed had several adverts for Checkatrade and electricians.

 

Taking care not to wake anyone I got ready for work and set off. I drove to the Co op to get myself a sandwich. Going for the meal deal option saved me over two quid, and using the self-service till gave me the opportunity to empty a pocketful of loose change. From there I came straight back home to pick up my staff pass card which I'd left behind.

 

As I drove up the motorway there was talk of the New Year Honours List. Stephen Fry is now a "Sir", and loads of other people have got gongs. I don't doubt they've done all sorts of stuff to earn their awards but there was an interview with some bloke who had been inducted into the Order of the Garter who said that a good Honours system brings the country together. I'd make the observation that any honours system honours those getting an honour and excludes the thousands who've also done good stuff but never got any recognition. Like those who run every scout group in the country for a start. But that's a rant I've done to death.

There was also a lot of talk about physical education in schools and its importance in the curriculum. Or "criklum" as everyone on Radio Four likes to call it. Those few who were sporty were banging on about what a good thing it was. As one who was just there to make up the numbers and was always last to be picked for any teams, I can't help but think that physical education in schools is something of a minefield.

 

I got to work; there was a new POI there (it's a Munzee thing). I cracked on with work which was surprisingly busy bearing in mind pretty much everyone seems to be gloating on Facebook about how much time off work they are having at the moment. I had far too much to do with the Kidd blood group system for my liking today, to say nothing of weak D and partial D.

 

I came home to find Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” in residence. She’d come up for a sleepover. We played cars and Lego castles and on seeing me brush my teeth she brushed hers too. We also found something she liked to eat – watermelon. It was a shame she fell asleep in a bowl of the stuff but there it is.

 

In the past on New Year’s Eve we used to go en masse to Jose and Maria, but since COVID that’s rather lapsed. Instead we’ve taken to having Zoom meet-ups on New Year’s Eve. I shall be tuning in to one in an hour or so…

 

And so, time to look back maybe?

It’s not been a bad old year really, has it? I had my sixtieth birthday; I am officially old. I took some of my pension and halved my working hours. And now being semi-retired, work is seriously getting in my way.

Being off work half the time has given me a lot of time to do stuff. I’ve been taking the dogs up to Kings Wood several times a week. I’ve got the garden far tidier than it has ever been (admittedly being winter it is a bit of a mess right now). The pond’s pressure filter and bog filter have got the pond clearer than it has ever been, and I’ve built a bigger bog filter and a smaller second pond too.

I’ve hosted two geocaching meet-ups.

We’ve taken to having monthly games nights on the Infinity Table. I quite like those.

We’ve had two holidays – a very good (if rather wet) week in Cambridge, and a very good (if full-on) expedition round Uzbekistan.

I’ve had COVID for the third time, and I’ve had my nose surgically re-bored for the fourth time; this time involving having had a hole drilled through my skull.

We had the roof done.

 

So, looking forward, what’s on the itinerary for this year? Certainly in the first instance getting the electrical issue sorted must take priority.

The front windows are being replaced in a couple of weeks’ time.

Dog Club will hopefully continue… even though all I actually do is unlock the gate and admin the Facebook group, I’m definitely seen as joint leader. I don’t mind – it is something I can do, and (so far) there’s a lot less squabbling that many other voluntary positions I’ve held have held.

I’m down to continue to be a Munzee Clan Leader – a simple enough task. 

I’m hosting a geocaching Community Celebration Event in a month or so – an afternoon of board games in the scout hut.

I’ve plans to replace all of my geocaches in Kings Wood with new ones.

We’re off to the New Forest in the early summer.

I want to get the back garden back under control and do something with the front garden.

And apparently aliens are really going to show up…

Roll on 2025…

30 December 2024 (Tuesday) - Keep Smiling...

I didn’t sleep much last night. When I wasn’t listening to snoring I was worrying about having the house re-wired.

I eventually got up and once I’d had a shave I unplugged the fridge so I could make toast. I rang the insurance company and after twenty minutes a courtesy call came in from the people who’d come out yesterday. She wasted five minutes checking who I was (as though some random passer-by would answer my phone) and then told me all that had happened yesterday as though that was news to me. In the meantime the insurance company had answered and hung up.

I phoned them back and waited. I eventually got through to Gillilan who said that that I was covered for home emergency but was utterly disinterested in doing anything, and suggested I might phone someone else and suggested I might look on my policy to guess who that might be. She didn’t actually say “F… off you fat bald b…” but she might as well have done so just so I was in no doubt.

 

We went out to calm my nerves. First of all to Wye for geocachical reasons. If you log a find on a geocache in the last week of the year you get a souvenir. We got a souvenir.

From there we went up to Kings Wood where “er indoors ^TM” discovered something of archeological note. Just off of a path where I walk the dogs about three times every week is a raised circular area joining on to a raised area leading up to a hillock. I wonder what that was all about?  

 

We came home, and once the dogs had been bathed I tried phoning the insurance people again. I got through to a Sheryl who was obviously working from a script and flatly refused to deviate from it. She gave me the number I should have called yesterday and repeatedly insisted that I phoned that number. She eventually conceded that there were several numbers on their website but felt that I should have known which one was the right one and which one was the wrong one.

 

So on her instruction I phoned the actual home cover people and spoke to Yvette who was very helpful. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing she agreed to send someone out and gave me the reference number I needed. She told me the electrician would come out and either fix it all or come up with a report that we needed to give to the insurer.

I spent the afternoon gripped by panic waiting for the chap to arrive.

He turned up at half past five. I told him all that the previous chap had said. He had a look and didn’t find fault with anything that the previous bloke felt was oh-so-terrible. After a bit of messing about he announced that there was a broken wire somewhere in the kitchen area and that could be fixed by running a cable up from the good cable up to the back bedroom and under the floor there to come back down again. It would take a load of farting around and upheaval, but supposedly relatively straightforward.

And the fusebox needs replacing. But to be honest I’ve known that for some time.

He said he’d send a report in to the insurance people, and left his card with us.

That’s all a lot better than the chap had claimed yesterday.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza for tea which we scoffed whilst watching the first Christmas episode of “Lego Masters: Australia”. It’s a really good show which I watched with a sense of relief that I could watch telly.

 

Meanwhile on the Folkestone residents Facebook group it would seem that someone has found a key in Radnor Park … someone else hasn’t followed the instructions.

29 December 2024 (Sunday) - Nakkers!!!!

I turned on the bathroom heater as I shaved this morning. After a few minutes it stopped working. So once scraped I took the heater apart, dusted it out and it still didn’t work. Neither did most of the power sockets in the kitchen. We tested all the main fuses. All were fine, but still the power wasn’t working. But nil desperandum – that’s what we have home emergency insurance for.

I phoned Sainsbury’s insurance who were closed. Their emergency number said we had a policy with Sainsburys but that we weren’t covered for emergencies. They could send an electrician, but that wouldn’t be cheap.

With no alternative I gave them a hundred and fifty quid and hoped for the best. At eleven o’clock we had a text saying that an electrician would be along between ten and twelve o’clock.

I munzed and wordled and waited patiently for the electrician.

At half past twelve we had a phone call saying he was running late and should be with us by six o’clock.

 

We then had an idea that we wanted to keep all the stuff in the fridge and freezer cold. So we ran out a cable from a working plug socket to the freezer. There was minor consternation when it didn’t work, but actually plugging it in worked wonders.

And then…

I pulled the fridge out and unplugged it and both the dishwasher and the washing machine started making beeping noises. “er indoors ^TM”’s smelly electric candle thing started flickering too. We then spent an entertaining few minutes turning electrical things off and on and watching the reaction of other electrical things. If it was a plumbing issue I would have said there was low water pressure. There was enough leccie getting through to make things beep and make the dials flash, but not enough for them to actually do anything properly.

 

The electrician showed up shortly after one o’clock. The poor bloke had started his day making an hour’s journey to Bexhill only to find the customer had gone out. From there he’d gone to a customer in Tonbridge (one hour – thirty miles) before coming to us (another hour – thirty-five miles), and as he arrived his boss rang to say the customer in Bexhill had come home again and would he go back to Bexhill after seeing us (An hour and a quarter – forty miles)

The nice man fiddled about and farted about and brandished a circuit tester. After a while he announced that we’ve got loads of positive but precious little neutral, and what little we have is a fire hazard. He didn’t actually say that the bloke who did the kitchen a couple of years ago was a cowboy, but he pointed out several areas where he would have done things differently, if not better. Effectively the entire downstairs needs rewiring and a new fusebox fitting.

The nice man pulled the plug on the iffy bit and set off to Bexhill.

 

After a lot more farting about and a trip to the shop for extension reels we’ve spread the load and for the foreseeable future we have to decide what will be in use. Washing machine or freezer. We won’t both have lap-tops on at the same time, and from here on in I am the dishwasher.

I’d like to think that at the moment all is safe, and I’m taking the line that what with the entire universe being shut down for Christmas we can’t get anything done immediately and so we’re forced into taking our time to think about where we go from here.

 

Where I’m going from here in the first instance is outside a rather expensive bottle of port and a lump of blue cheese…

28 December 2024 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Games Night

I woke feeling refreshed, full of energy and raring to go only to find it was only ten past one. I then dozed on and off for the rest of the night eventually giving up and getting up to watch another episode of “Victoria” in the small hours. Was Prince Albert actually illegitimate? Probably not.

 

I had a little look at the Internet as I do most mornings. It was much the same as ever with the truly stupid again queuing up to proudly show off their ignorance. I’ve taken to following an early retirement Facebook page which regularly has people in their early fifties posting to it. Having made no pension provision whatsoever these people are all asking what is the secret to taking an early retirement, and are all getting quite aggressive when they realise they’ve left pension provision about thirty years too late.

Mind you there has been a minor disaster at the goat sanctuary. Having had an influx of over twenty new goats just before Christmas, they’ve had an outbreak of Orf and so have had to close to any visitors until that passes. That will leave them rather short for the next few weeks so if anyone has any spare bunce, you can send them a donation by clicking here.

I munzed, got Wordle on the fourth attempt, then we all got ready for Dog Club.

 

We drove round to Repton – the dogs started squealing when they realised where we were going. Being the Saturday between Christmas and New Year I wondered if we’d have much of a turn-out; I counted sixteen dogs at one point. A good time was had by all; even if some of our number were rather “frisky”.

 

We came home. “er indoors ^TM” went shopping; I watched more “Victoria” and then my cousin sent a message. Her father had had a stroke overnight. These things always happen at Christmas.

We watched the Christmas “Gavin and Stacey” which was rather good, and then twenty minutes of “Carry on Camping” which was frankly dreadful fifty years ago and has just got worse with time.

 

Chris arrived with the Infinity Table, and just as it was set up so Steve and Sarah arrived. We had a rather good games night. “Game of Life”,  “Sorry”, “Ticket to Ride” and scoff as well. Chicken doughnuts were rather good.

I do like our games nights.

 

Today would have been my mum’s birthday…

27 December 2024 (Friday) - A Birthday

Another good night, but I did make the schoolboy error of going to the loo at three o’clock and coming back to find the dogs had bagged the warm spot. An hour later “er indoors ^TM” went to the loo. No one attempted to move into her spot.

 

I had my usual rummage round the Internet as I scoffed toast. Facebook told me that I’ve earned a Top Fan badge for WTVideo. I wonder who or what they are. And Facebook also told me that (in a novel break with tradition) a porno advert I’d reported *did* go against their Community Standards and they’d removed it. And flushed with success at having removed gratuitous photos of “ladybits”, the Facebook Feds went on to tell me that they had also removed all the unsolicited religious spamming that I’d reported on a Facebook page about Hagar the Horrible.

This morning’s Facebook squabbling was unbelievable. Some sad acts had spotted issues with the railway signalling in the Christmas “Wallace and Gromit” and were quarrelling about how attention to detail is everything. And another chap was whinging that he was having to do a speed awareness course having been caught driving at twenty-two miles an hour in a twenty miles an hour zone where he’d been overtaken by some chap on a pedal-bike.

I munzed, I wordled… I looked outside. I had a vague plan to take the dogs out before work but it had been raining heavily overnight and what with the excitement of the last few days I think we all needed a bit of a rest.

Instead I wrote up some CPD – I haven’t done that for a while. And then I had a little fight with my laptop. Whenever I want to highlight anything in bold text I’ve always typed it out then highlighted it and pressed the CTRL and B keys. Somehow or other that had stopped working. I eventually sorted it, but it took some sorting.

 

And then there was a tap on the door. It was the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I gave them the standard spiel about their letting children die for want of a blood transfusion. They said that wasn’t the case any more as hospitals now declare children wards of court and allow the transfusions, but they didn’t deny that blood transfusions were prohibited by the Bible. Or so they claimed. They weren’t happy when I told them that the proscription was actually against eating uncooked pig’s blood (Genesis 9:4 and Leviticus 17: 10-12).  I then asked what their clothes were made from – they were unaware that the bible says you mustn’t wear clothing made from mixed fabrics (Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11). They claimed they’d studied the Bible and hadn’t heard of those. I replied that I used to run Bible study classes (I did!) and perhaps if they studied it some more they would see it was riddled with contradictions, and all that Bible Study does is try to justify those contradictions.

They changed tack at that point and asked (with a smug smile) if I really thought the entire world came into being without a creator. I replied that I didn’t know, but if it did, I wondered what had made that creator. I then pointed out that a garden can be pretty without having magical pixies at the bottom.

They claimed they didn’t have all the answers but felt their religion gave them some sense of certainty. I told them I used to feel that way (I once did), but two minutes of honest thought shows that their religion is demonstrably wrong.

They were in such a hurry to get away they didn’t even attempt to sell me a copy of The Watchtower.

I was quite pleased with how I dealt with them. They’d obviously done their homework; I was just working off the cuff…

 

I got dressed and set off to work wondering if I might need to avoid a thunderbolt on the way. As I drove I found myself thinking about the Jehovah's Witnesses who used to run a stall at the park gates. There were two little old ladies with a bookstall who I used to avoid until one day when Fudge charged up to them for a fuss. They smiled at me and said not to worry. They told me that if I wanted to talk religion they were happy to, and if I didn't they were happy to just fuss my dog. We often passed them for a little fuss and to say hello.

Sadly after a while the two little old ladies were replaced with a pair of younger ladies with epic chests and legs that went all the way up to their bums. They would smile in a saucy way at the kind of sad acts that were taken in by that sort of thing, and once I'd started sniffing round them they would play the god card at me.

I always felt that was rather unfair.

 

I got to work where I had a surprisingly busy day. Many years ago the days between Christmas and New Year used to be very quiet. Not any more. I was glad to see the night shift turn up.

And having had a misty drive to work, there was thick fog on the way home.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up the leftover vegetables into a particularly good soup for supper. She does make a good soup.

 

And in closing, today is the third birthday of the pups… For all that they are small, they aren’t pups any more.

26 December 2024 (Boxing Day) - Rather Good

I slept rather well last night, and slept for over six hours. Not too shabby really. Over toast I wrote yesterday’s diary. What with all the excitement I didn’t get chance yesterday. And I made the most of sitting on the sofa. My usual spot had been commandeered by Darcie who formally ordered me off the sofa yesterday, sat there herself and glared at me.

As I sat on the sofa I peered into the Internet. Like quite a few people I got Lego for Christmas. There were so many people this morning advocating leaving the Lego in the unopened box and selling it later for a great profit; all wishing they’d done that with their Lego. I must admit much as I don’t like the idea of doing that, the gingerbread house set that I could have bought new for about a hundred quid a few years ago is now selling for between three and four hundred pounds on eBay.

 

The dogs came down and I chivvied them outside. Then everyone else came down, and we had a rather good morning. Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” opened more presents amongst which were some little animal toys which me and her played with for quite some time. I would lay on the kitchen floor playing kiss chase with the lizard and the tiger, and she would announce “sharing is caring” and take them away from me.

 

It wasn’t long before “My Boy ^TM” and ”Auntie Chel ^TM” arrived. We did more Christmas pressies; I got a rather good garden clock. Despite all still being stuffed from yesterday we had a rather good dinner of cold meats and pickles. “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” boiled up a huge plate of cauliflower cheese and we again scoffed ourselves silly and then had an afternoon of games. As you do on Boxing Day.

 

All too soon it was time for everyone to go home. “er indoors ^TM” drove the Folkestonians home and I had a little tidy-up.

Once she returned we sparked up the telly and watched the latest “Wallace and Gromit” film. It was rather good. I can remember seeing the very first one at a friend’s house one Christmas Eve… thirty-four years ago.

 

We’ve found the magnetic pieces of the magnet game, but the banana from the kiss chase game and one of the Lego flowers are still missing.

This has been a rather good Christmas…

25 December 2024 (Christmas Day) - Weetabix

Just after I eventually nodded off last night I was woken by the sound of Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” crashing up the stairs loudly telling the world to be quiet as Granddad was asleep. I lay awake for an hour after which my phone loudly announced I had a message even though all its connections to the internet were switched off.  And when I eventually dozed off again so “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs quietly came to bed.

 

I lay awake for another hour or so then gave up and watched an episode of “Victoria” before having my usual rummage on-line. Not much was going on, so I had a quick munz, then had a go at Wordle. Having got four letters spot-on on my second attempt I then made four more wrong guesses and didn’t get it at all. SHA-E has got quite a few possibilities.

 

The roads were rather busier than I thought they might be as I drove to work this morning. Whenever I drive on a Christmas morning I remember driving to my Mum's house on a Christmas morning after a Christmas Eve night shift in the late 1980s. On that morning on the thirty-mile journey from Ashford to Hastings I saw a total of six other cars driving about. I'd seen more than that before I'd covered half a mile this morning.

As I drove I thought I might listen to the carol service on the radio as it might be nice and Christmassy.

It wasn't.

Rather than traditional Christmas carols and readings there were happy-clappy modern songs and operatic howling dirges interspersed by sad tales of woe. I turned the radio off and sung along to what was on my MP3 stick instead.

 

Work was rather busy bearing in mind it was Christmas Day.  Back in the day hospitals used to empty out all but the most dire cases for Christmas... seemingly not any more.

I had a look back through my diaries and saw that today was the seventh Christmas Day that I was working out of the last ten. On one of the others (2018) I had a full-on-till 9pm Christmas Eve session, and on another (2019) I had Boxing Day. But I did have all of Christmas off in 2016.

I’m not complaining; working at Christmas goes with working in a hospital. 

 

But home time soon came. The roads home were far busier than Christmas Day had any right to be. I got home and had a rather good day. Games, pressies, sweeties, beer, wine, firty year old Martini and another bottle of Advocaat… littlun demanding Weetabix rather than Christmas dinner. We watched The Grinch and Muana…

We went to bed (worn out) shortly after midnight. A rather good Christmas really…

24 December 2024 (Tuesday) - All A Bit Vague

The plan for this morning was to nip over to Asda to get gateau. But I went late last night instead and slept right through until “er indoors ^TM” alarm went off.

I get up, made toast and saw a new geocache had gone live at the Maidstone services. Had I been going to work today I might have had a First to Find. But I wasn’t. So I didn’t. There wasn’t much happening on-line so I took the dogs out as I do.

As we drove up (literally up – it is high there) Kings Wood we drove into the mist. Seeing the mist I had nigh hopes of seeing deer. Sadly I was disappointed; the woods were quite busy. We met all sorts of normal people including one bunch of thirty to forty mothers and toddlers who told me that going to the woods mob-handed was something of a tradition. Apparently I was unusual in saying that it looked like they were having fun; they told me that most people just glared at them.

 

We came home for a bath; all three had rolled in that which they shouldn’t have. And with “er indoors ^TM” off for the afternoon to see “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” I set about the monthly accounts. They aren’t bad at all. It would be nice to have far more money in there, but they have been a whole lot worse. I watched an episode of “Victoria”, then had a little sleep.

 

All the girls returned, and “er indoors ^TM” set off to see her sister. “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and I opened the Advocaat whilst Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” slept.

That Advocaat was supposed to last till Boxing Day…

23 December 2024 (Monday) - Dog Tablets

I woke with what felt like the world’s worst hangover this morning. Even though I’ve not had a drink for ages. What was that all about?

I opened today’s window on the Advent Calendar, then made toast and watched another episode of “Victoria” in which His Serene Highness didn’t do the dirty deed on Harriet, to the obvious relief of Albert. I do like “Victoria”; it is just a shame that whoever made the show didn’t know that Parliament meets in the Houses of Parliament and not St Paul’s Cathedral.

 

I then had my usual rummage round the Internet. Last week I mentioned that I was considering a combi boiler. Since then my Facebook feed had featured a lot of adverts for new gas boilers. Today I had several adverts for back boilers. I had no idea they were still a thing. I thought they’d died out forty years ago. My mum and dad had one of those in their house which supplied all their hot water. It worked on a simple enough principle – there was a tank of water behind a coal fire which was heated by that coal fire. Which is all very well all the time you’ve got a coal fire going, but if you haven’t got a coal fire going you’ve no hot water. Consequently no matter what time of the year or how hot it was outside, there was always a coal fire going at full whack in their living room.

I’m not playing that game again.

 

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio had the knives out for the Archbishop of York. Some vicar or other had been accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl who was a pupil at a school where he was chaplain. And despite the scandal the Archbishop twice appointed this vicar to positions of responsibility in the church.

Part of me wonders if the Archbishop thought he was following his conscience - after all his religion preaches forgiveness.

Part of me wonders just how thick you have to be to get to be an Archbishop - appoint a paedo and then do so again - seriously?

The Church of England has issued a press release on the matter saying how safeguarding decisions and all appointments today are subject to very clear guidance issued by the House of Bishops, which was not in place at the time of the scandal.

I would have thought that God would have got involved and negated the need for safeguarding, but what do I know?

 

I got to work and did my bit. As I worked a few of the young mothers at work thanked me for doing my Advent story. Apparently it has become the bedtime story for their children; I wouldn't have though that the adventures of an alcoholic and a rabbit bent on global domination were really good bedtime stories for kids...  Perhaps they are. Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” is staying over Christmas. Perhaps I might try it out on her?

 

At lunch time the woman from the bank phoned. She took an age to go through the security questions then said she'd put me through to the credit card department. I was on hold for an hour after which we went through the same security questions again. Eventually the chap claimed he'd stopped any future payments, but says it is up to me to get my money back.

If anyone could recommend a bank; I'm looking to change...

 

I came home to find the dog dung stuff had arrived. Whilst “er indoors ^TM” went shopping I tried the tablets on the dogs. They all scoffed them without any problems. Whether these things will work and stop Bailey eating turds, or just give the dogs the squits remains to be seen, but it will be difficult to be sure… in the meantime the dogs between them have eaten a roll of sellotape, several yards of fishing line and an emery board.

“er indoors ^TM” returned from shopping only to announce she’d forgotten to get any gateau. She also announced that Asda opens at five o’clock tomorrow morning. That will be an adventure for me, won’t it?

22 December 2024 (Sunday) - Still Feeling Tired

“er indoors ^TM” went up to the attic room with littlun last night and Morgan and Treacle went with her. Bailey figured out there was more space with me, and so spent the night on my bed.

We both slept well.

 

I got up and raced Bailey round the garden harvesting all the dog turds I could find before she could eat them. When she was small she used to eat the other dogs’ turds, and periodically she still does; the foul creature. I made toast and had a little look on-line and found something on Amazon which might help. Once it arrives, all three dogs will get a Peking Duck llavoured chew every day and this has vitamins and minerals and pro-biotics which is good for them, and will also make their poop taste bitter so that Bailey won’t eat it. In theory.

We’ll give it a go.

Facebook was dull this morning – the highlight was it suggesting I might like to join a group about Panasonic bread-making machines (!) and an invite to a jazz concert in Hugh Wycombe (!)

Then all the dogs came down and filled the garden with dung again.

 

Littlun got up and grizzled for absolutely no reason whatsoever for half an hour, then we popped over to the Eureka park for a little geo-meet. It was a tad cold, but a dozen of us met up and chatted for half an hour or so.

 

We came home and whilst littlun wreaked havoc I argued with the bank. Having cancelled my subscription to Fabio.com, the cheeky people have taken over twenty quid. The bank said that the department that deals with that sort of thing is closed at the weekend, but the nice lady took all the details and said she’d phone me back tomorrow. Or that’s what I thought she said. What with all the noise that littlun was making I could hardly hear a thing, and the nice lady at the bank’s spoken English was so poor I couldn’t understand most of what she was saying anyway.

Perhaps she will phone me back tomorrow? Here’s hoping.

 

The plan was that we would all take littlun home, but “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” phoned with plans to go shopping. I left them to it and stayed home with the dogs. I had a minor tidy-up as best I could and put some washing on whilst the Alexa played frankly dreadful dirges which it felt was “Christmas music”.

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned. As she boiled up dinner I cracked open a box of sweeties and watched telly. “Downton Abbey”, then the “Bullseye”  Christmas special. It was always a favourite proramme forty years ago mainly because of how dreadful it was, and tonight’s special was so bad it was brilliant.

And then the final of this year’s series of “Lego Masters: Australia” as we scoffed dinner.

 

Bearing in mind I’ve done pretty much nothing today, I’m feeling exhausted. I’m blaming Friday’s night shift followed by an intense session of granddaughter. I’m going to work tomorrow for a rest.

21 December 2024 (Saturday) - Rather Tired

The night shift was one of the better ones really.... when compared to the sort of night shifts we have these days. Back in the day I used to take in a portable DVD player and we had a room in the hospital accommodation where we would go sleep. On an average night shift I would watch six episodes of "Star Trek", and it was unusual to get called out of bed more than twice. These days we are rather busier and with a constant workflow. I probably had blood samples from fifty patients overnight.

I was pleased to see the early shift arrive.

 

Ideally I wouldn't have done a Friday night, but such is life. With time pushing I went straight from work to Dog Club; it seemed daft to drive past the paddock we use, go home and immediately turn round and drive two  miles back again. When I left Maidstone this morning it had been hossing down, but the rain had slackened off to drizzle when I got to Repton.

I opened up the field, hung up poo bag and money pot, and dogs (and people) soon arrived. As did “er indoors ^TM” and our three dogs. And our little house guest - Darcie WaaWaa ^TM”. Littlun was made up with all the dogs. As was I to be honest.  So many dogs had their nice Christmas coats on, and in minutes were all covered in mud. As was I.

 

After Dog Club “er indoors ^TM” took Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” home with her via Asda to pick up shopping. I took the dogs home for a warming shower. We’d all got rather cold and wet and muddy. As I drove home I listened to Steve on the radio and stopped off to send in a message – my answer to the Mystery Year competition. The year in which the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first broadcast and the country’s first nudie beach was opened. I remember both. I was there in 1978 when it was declared that you could walk round in the nip on Fairlight beach. It wasn’t the most accessible of places; it was a pig to get to. But me and my mates went there many times in the desperate hope of seeing a nudie lady without any clothes on. All we ever saw was fat old men in the altogether.

 

With dogs washed and shopping brought home we put the kettle on, and it wasn’t long before “My Boy ^TM” and ”Auntie Chel ^TM” arrived. Yesterday before I'd left for work we had the family bingo and I won the hamper. This morning the hamper was delivered. Loads of sweeties and biccies.

 

“er indoors ^TM” and littlun went off to visit great grandparents. I decided that it was too late to go to bed, so I settled in front of the telly with the dogs and woke four hours later with neckache. And panic. I hadn’t opened today’s window of my Advent Calendar. Normally the voices in my head have all day to think about what we get each day. Today was something of a rush job.

 

“er indoors ^TM” and littlun returned and we had a rather hectic evening chucking toy cars about whilst shouting “Watch Out” and watching “Sunny Bunnies” and singing songs.

I’m worn out with it all.

 

And today was the solstice. I left work this morning before sunrise, and I woke up mid-afternoon after sunset. From here on in the days get longer…

20 December 2024 (Friday) - Pink Mouse

I slept right through till half past seven this morning I woke with a bit of a cold. That was a pain in the glass,

I opened today’s window of the Advent Calendar then made toast. I scoffed it whilst having my usual root around the Internet. It was still there. This morning there were rants about genetics and socialism in which people were queueing up to proudly show off their ignorance and loudly proclaim their opinions which were factually wrong. It never fails to amaze me just how so many stupid people are so fast to show off how stupid they are.

 

Once I’d scraped the ice off of the car I took the dogs out. As I drove Cher was on the radio on “Desert Island Discs”. She sounded rather interesting.

We got to the woods where there were far more people than usual. Sadly we arrived at the same time as a pair we’ve met before. They are pleasant enough, but their volume setting has nothing less than “bellow”. Walking a couple of yards from each other they were shouting everything they had to say to each other. And they walked fast too; no matter what diversions we took to get away from them, they kept turning up in front of us.

Then we met some immaculately turned-out woman in the depths of the woods who got the right hump when muddy Morgan and muddy Bailey jumped up at her.

And we met the yummy mummies (and dogs) running group. We see them from time to time. They are aways friendly. Today some chap had joined in with them.

The beast. Mind you they were quite happily trotting along and he looked knackered.

 

Just as I got home the car’s low petrol alarm went off. So I bathed the dogs and then drove down to Tesco to refuel. After five minutes struggling with a non-functioning petrol pump the woman in the kiosk announced over the tannoy that the pump was broken, and that was why everyone else was using the other pumps. I shouted back that in that case I would take my money to Sainsburys and did so. Eventually. The roads were rather busy this morning. I had to emergency stop twice to avoid crashing into people randomly cutting me up. And when I got to Sainsburys the queues to get into the car park stretched about a hundred yards in each direction.

It was such a relief to get home.

 

I took myself off to bed for the afternoon where I dozed fitfully. I got up after a couple of hours and set about my lap-top’s settings. I’ve struggled to see the mouse pointer for some time. It’s now pink.

Now to get dressed, scoff dinner and kick some ass at family bingo before going off to the night shift.

 

19 December 2024 (Thursday) - Walk, Ironing...

Yesterday I won third prize in the works Christmas raffle, and I posted a photo of the box of choccies I won on Facebook. By this morning over fifty people had pressed the “like” button. However only sixteen people had reacted to yesterday’s instalment of my Christmas story. I found that rather odd…

There wasn’t a lot else happening on Facebook this morning which was probably for the best. I did have an email form the credit karma people. Last month my credit rating went down by eleven points. Today it has gone up by eleven points. I’ve done nothing different this month to what I did last month – what’s that all about?

 

With the rain having stopped I took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the scandal facing the sport of rugby. Apparently the rugby football union is losing money hand over fist, they’ve just announced operating losses of nearly thirty-eight million quid, they’ve laid off forty employees in the latest load of redundancies, and they are paying their head honcho over five times what the Prime Minister gets.

And there was talk about water bills. Apparently my personal water bill is set to go through the roof as after years of giving all their money to shareholders, water companies have finally realised they are supposed to be providing fresh water and taking away used water.

Water, rugby… I blame Margaret Thatcher. I really do. She came to power over forty years ago with the mind-set that absolutely anything and everything could turn a profit. And this is our society now, isn’t it?

 

We got to the woods and had a good walk. About a third of the way round there was a minor commotion as Morgan woofed at a bush. Some joggers emerged hoiking up their drawers. They were all very nice about it; giggling that they would tiddle elsewhere, and ran off. Presumably to have that tiddle.

About three quarters of the way round my watch wobbled, and I pondered. My watch has unilaterally decided I should walk six thousand steps every day, and it tells me off if I don’t. Our standard walk round the woods comes in at about eight and a half to nine thousand steps. For some time when walking this route my watch would make the six thousand steps announcement at pretty much the same point (by one of the smaller sink holes). But over the last few weeks the announcement has been coming later in our walk. Today it was a good half mile further on, even though our total step count was a shade over eight and a half thousand steps (what it has always been). What’s that all about?

 

We came home and tested out the new shower attachment on its first dog bath. It worked very well. That was something of a result. I messed about doing some CPD, harvested a bumper crop of dog turds from the garden and put some washing in to scrub.

I then cracked on with the ironing whilst watching episodes of “Four in a Bed”. I like that show as usually people squabble and fall out. Sadly today’s episodes were a disappointment. Everyone loved everyone else, everyone said they would go back to everyone else’s place, and with people making overpayments, the one in last place had full payments from everyone else.

 

I put up today’s instalment of the Advent Calendar. Frosty the Snowman has arrived in our world. Usually Frosty arrives earlier.

“er indoors ^TM” went shopping, and I settled in front of the telly underneath a pile of dogs and watched today’s episode of “Downton Abbey”. I say “today’s episode” – it was first aired over ten years ago. Atticus Aldridge appeared today. Spoiler alert – he tries to do the dirty deed with Lady Rose…

And I did some dog photography too…

18 December 2024 (Wednesday) - Early Shift

As is so often the case, with an alarm set I was awake far too early. At half past four I was watching another episode of “Victoria” and wondering. Just how accurate was this TV show? I’m rather vague about history. Like the episodes of “The Empress” I was watching last week I was wondering just how much had been made up for the telly. I found myself thinking back to dull afternoons in room K at the Hastings Academy for Budding Geniuses where our history teacher showed us how to kill a subject stone dead. The history teacher’s idea of teaching was to give us a text book and over the course of a year have us copy it out in the hope that we might remember something.

I certainly didn’t.

 

I then had my usual root about on-line. Not much was happening so I set off to work on a very dark and rainy morning. As I drove I listened to the pundits on the radio spouting their drivel as I do. Apparently the storms last week did damage to the port at Hollyhead which is now closed for at least a month. This is causing major issues for the transport industry. Apparently. Exactly what those issues are is anyone's guess though. Out of the three experts wheeled on to discuss the matter, only one spoke passable English. The other two were speaking in accents so thick I couldn't make out a word they were saying.

There was also a lot of talk about the WASPI women. When the government brought in changes to pension provision some years ago a lot of people felt the government failed to provide adequate notice about the changes to pension provision.  They probably didn't. It turns out here was a two-year delay in sending out letters to those affected.

Ironically the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall apologised for the balls-up, but said there was no compensation forthcoming even though she'd previously implied she would sort it all out.

I suspect Ms. Kendall has found that being in charge is much more difficult than standing on the sidelines throwing rocks at those in charge.

 

Work was work. But being on an early shift I got out early. I didn’t get home early though. It took three quarters of an hour to get to the motorway. Having spent most of the year rebuilding the Coldharbour roundabout, after a couple of weeks whoever it is that does the roads had coned half of it off… then gone home leaving chaos. And then having got through that I then had to face “Operation Brock”; ten miles of motorway cordoned off for absolutely no reason whatsoever with absolutely no vehicles using it.

 

As I watched today’s instalment of Downton Abbey “er indoors ^TM” went off to Aldi. I did volunteer, but being worse than useless there was no telling what I might have brought home. Being worse than useless has its advantages – you don’t get sent shopping.

We scoffed pizzas whilst watching “Mary Does Christmas” not out of any desire to watch Mary Berry, but because I’d had the heads-up that an old friend would be appearing in the show. If you are going to watch it, fast forward to about five minutes from the end. The Town Crier – I went to school with him fifty years ago.

17 December 2024 (Tuesday) - New Taps, Ice Cream

There was talk yesterday of someone in the family moving house. And also of a combi boiler. This morning as I scoffed my toast my Facebook feed was filled with adverts for heating systems and removal companies. We are definitely being watched, aren’t we?

There was also a really nasty argument on one of the local Facebook pages. People were finding fault with the local council, and a local Green activist (who I once knew reasonably well) was doing her party no favours in the way she was carrying on.

Local politics is probably a thankless task, but in my experience the last MP (who I would never have voted for) actually replied to emails on their first sending, and replied promptly too.

Our current MP replied to me on my fourth attempt.

Independent and Green councillors still haven’t replied to emails sent a month or more ago.

The trouble with politics is that people choose a political party in much the same random way they would choose a football team and then stick with that party through thick and thin cheering everything they do and belittling everything any other party does regardless of what any of their policies are, and of what actually is going on.

 

I had an email telling me of a new puzzle geocache. I solved the puzzle in a couple of minutes and saw the thing was on the way to Pembury. I also saw from the answer-checker that a fellow hunter of Tupperware had already solved the puzzle an hour previously. I suspected that he was already flying off west-wards, and didn’t bother charging off out myself. I was right not to have done so – he’d logged First to Find before I finished my toast.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off to the office at quarter to nine, and the builders arrived minutes afterwards At half past ten they finally got the old tap off and announced they needed some part or other and set off to wherever you get plumbing parts from. I sat with the dogs desperately hoping they would come back. They were only gone forty minutes, but I did worry. It has to be said that the new taps went in much easier than the old ones came out, and once all was done and dusted they spent a few minutes talking about the cowboy who’d fitted the bath. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that when (thirty years ago) we wanted a new bathroom my old Dad wouldn’t hear of us spending out on a professional and he did it for us. The builders showed me several place where it was obvious he’d bodged it. But we now have a non-dripping tap, which is a result.

 

With the builders finished and off to wherever it is that builders go, I settled in front of the tell and watched a couple of episodes of “Victoria” on Netflix. I can remember liking that series, so I thought I’d give it another go.

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned from the office, and I set off to Folkestone. I was on babysitting duty, so I took favourite smallest granddaughter to the park. Having been chattering all the way to the park about going on the red slide, she had one go on it before losing interest.

We then wandered round the back streets looking at people’s Christmas decorations. Back in the day every house was blinged up at this time of year; it doesn’t seem to happen quite so much these days. We walked on to the town centre where we stopped in Will Brown’s Ice cream parlour. Littlun made great fuss of wanting pink ice cream; she had three mouthfuls before announcing that she wanted to go home.

 

With littlun deposited back with her mother I came home and tried out the new taps in the bath as I had a shower. They worked. Part of me had spent much of the day wondering if they would ever work again.

And then I watched another episode of “Downton Abbey” in which having lambasted Lady Mary for her dirty weekend in Liverpool, Grannie turned out to be in no position to claim the moral high ground having porked Prince Kuragin in years gone by.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up omelettes for dinner. I’m thinking of an early night – I’ve not really done much today, but I’m worn out.

16 December 2024 (Monday) - New Door, Plumbing Issues

Last night we watched the Royal Variety Performance on telly. Leaving aside just how crap the show was (it was crap with a capital turd), I found myself fascinated with the woman presenting it. Although she denies having had plastic surgery done, her head looked about thirty years younger than the body to which it was attached. With a pure smooth unsullied face and a neck with more wrinkles than a wrinkled thing she really did look as though someone had pulled her head off of a teenager and stuck it on that teenager’s gran’s body. I commented on Facebook about it last night, and this morning it seemed I wasn’t alone if wondering what was going on there.

And talking of Facebook there was a very impressive squabble this morning about illegal building techniques in Lego models. Grown adults were getting *really* angry, upset and annoyed. Apparently you aren’t allowed to join thin bricks to standard bricks by shoving an edge of the thin brick between the studs of the thicker one. You'd think they'd have better things to worry about, but I suppose for them the long winter evenings must just fly by...

 

The plan for today was to have the living room door and bath taps replaced. The taps have been dripping for quite some time now, and the living room door needed to be replaced with a thick fire-resistant one when we had the loft conversion done twenty years ago, but we never got round to it. I must admit to a degree of scepticism about the door. It’s all very well having a fire resistant door, but the walls either side of it are of the same construction as the door that was coming out. However as I’ve said before there’s no point looking for sense in the law, is there?

The chap was due to start at half past nine… He arrived shortly after eight o’clock.

He spent an age measuring the old living room door then went off to cut the new one to shape. I had a plan that I might take the dogs out so as not to get in his way, so we went out shortly after nine o’clock. Bearing in mind that the bath might not be accessible on our return we didn’t go to the woods. Instead we walked one of the walks I used to walk with Fudge many years ago. Through the park out to the Godinton estate (where we failed to find two geocaches), then down to Great Chart and home past the Environment Centre and South Ashford. About six miles… I thought we would have stayed out of the nice builder’s way. We got home at half past eleven only to find he hadn’t started.

 

I made us both a cuppa and wrote up some CPD until the builders arrived with the new door at half past twelve.

After a lot of bashing and thumping the door was in place by two o’clock. And then we had quite the performance. Turning off all the water was hard work. We found several taps which turned off this and that, but nothing that seemed to turn off the hot water. The builder chap was reluctant to drain the entire system so he’s coming back tomorrow with a bit of kit which will freeze it all, and he says he will do the taps then.

Realistically all the plumbing needs stripping out and starting again. The builder chap suggested we got shot of our boiler and replaced it with a combi. I nodded sagely at this; pretending I knew what he was talking about. Once he’d gone I looked up what a combi was. Apparently a combi is some device which does both the central heating and the hot water at the same time. It would sit where the current boiler is and would do away with the need for the water tank and immersion heater.

According to the Internet a boiler is good for ten to fifteen years. Bearing in mind our current boiler is fourteen years old (we got it on 8 September 2010) perhaps getting a combi might be something for the new year? Sadly at the time of getting the boiler I wrote “if I bung ten quid aside each month, when its time comes the cost of replacement shouldn’t be anywhere near the shock I had this time”. Had I bunged ten quid aside each month like I said I should, I would now have one thousand seven hundred quid which is about the cost of a combi boiler, and all I’d have to find would be the cost of paying someone to install it.

Sadly I didn’t bung anything aside for a new boiler.

 

With the builder gone I sorted us a cuppa and also sorted out today’s Advent story. I had this vague idea when I started this year’s story (only two weeks ago) about a carol-singing robot, but today we’ve got the Easter Bunny taking over Christmas. I can only assume that the voices in my head know where this story is going: I certainly don’t.

 

“er indoors ^TM” then went bowling as she does on a Monday. I settled down with the dogs and sparked up the telly. I started off with “Dad’s Army”. I’ve seen those episodes so many times that I know them pretty much off by heart, but they are rather good nonetheless. I followed this with an episode of “Downton Abbey” in which Lady Mary was off on a dirty weekend, then slept through another episode of “The Silo”. I can’t remember what happened in the first season. I shall have to start again frorn the beginning with that one. And then an episode of “You Rang M’Lord” in which Henry had forgotten to put methylated spirit in the hotplate.

Perhaps that’s where my plumbing has gone wrong?