Yesterday had been the hottest day of the year, and so the
night was rather warm. I didn’t sleep very well, and was in the garden looking
at the pond shortly after five o’clock. With the bog filter bypassed the water
level didn’t look as though it had dropped much overnight (if at all)
which was something of a result.
However as I walked up the garden so a seagull flew away
from the side of the pond – what was that one up to?
I made toast and watched an episode of “Orange is the
New Black”. As I watched I did my blood pressure, and then had a little
look at the Internet. Today’s petty squabble was about which company to use to
get your take-away delivered. As if a take-away isn’t expensive enough already,
there’s now a range of companies you can pay to go get it for you. It would
seem that many are getting the order wrong, and on delivering the wrong stuff
the delivery chap then pretends not to speak English and it can take up to
three days for the company to process the complaint.
I had some emails… Some people went looking for some of my
geocaches in Kings Wood earlier in the week. I walked within a few yards of
where there was a possible issue yesterday and the day before. Such a shame
they couldn’t have told me about the problem right away…
I set off to work... and then spent a few minutes
picking up the rubbish strewn across the pavement outside the house. The bin
men had been out today, and if someone's black bin bursts open then the rubbish
goes everywhere except with the bin men. It didn't take that long to clear up
that for which I pay close on two hundred quid a month in council tax for
someone else to shift. Perhaps I'm being a tad unfair to the bin men... Perhaps
it's not up to them to clear up the bags that they burst open? It's just that I
think it is...
I drove off to work listening to the pundits on the
radio who were talking about how the Assisted Dying Bill is reaching a tricky
stage in Parliament today. Apparently this afternoon's vote would make or break
the chances of me being able to have my plug pulled when I become totally
knackered. It seemed as though it was going to be passed into law when it was
first proposed but things looked far from certain this morning...
In the end the vote was in favour of allowing people
to choose when they'd had enough, but the vote was close. A *lot* of MPs
who were originally all for it voted against it today
The Assisted Dying Bill illustrates exactly how our
political system works... Something was suggested that the majority thought was
a good idea and that the majority wanted (in this case being able to decide
when to end your own life when you become very ill). A small minority
disliked the idea and knew exactly which MPs to canvass and where to bring
pressure to bear, and the minority viewpoint very nearly won the day because
the minority is vocal and organised whereas the majority is rather
apathetic.
I'm reminded of the woman who was the landlady of our
little flat in Folkestone forty years ago. She ran one of the first vegan
restaurants in the UK, she was very pro-animal rights, she was very
anti-Greenham Common, she wanted to save the whales. In 1984 she was seen as a
joke. She knew she was laughed at from all sides, but her and her mates were
passionate about what everyone else thought was silly and they persevered...
and today what was once seen as crackpot and laughable opinions are now
mainstream.
I went to work via Sainsburys where I got a sandwich
and a few tins of beer for the weekend. The weather forecast looks as though it
will be too hot to do much other than sit in the garden and drink beer this
weekend so (like all scouts everywhere) I thought I might be prepared.
I went in to work; there was cake.
I was glad of the air conditioning. I was glad of
sitting at a microscope. Yesterday I commented that I was going to work today
for a rest; compared to the effort of the last couple of days I certainly did.
Today’s step count didn’t get over six thousand…
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