I woke in the small hours like I so often do, but I got up,
had that tiddle, and went back to sleep for another three hours. I really
should do that more often rather than laying there, shifting about and trying
to pretend I don’t need the loo.
I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was much
the same as ever. People were complaining about yesterday’s budget, but what
could the Chancellor of the Exchequer do? If she don’t get enough money to run
the country, people won’t vote for her, and she can only get the money from
people who potentially might vote for her. If there was an easy fix to
financing the country it would have been done years ago, wouldn’t it? Half (ninety
per cent) of the trouble she faces is that most people don’t understand how
politics and government work. Rather than educating themselves and looking into
the various issues, people tend to pick a political party and stick with it
through thick and thin in much the same way that they would pick a football
team. There’s an old maxim which says that you can fool all of the people all
of the time as long as you talk loudly and confidently… which explains the
popularity of the likes of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.
And I had a flurry of emails. A new series of geocaches
overlooking the Channel Tunnel terminal. That will make for a walk at some
point.
“er indoors TM” did dog breakfast
whilst I got dressed, and I took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove the
pundits on the radio were talking about some AI invention that takes various
pop songs and gives them a new twist. There was a hard rock version of Kate
Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and reggae versions of this and that. The
inventors of this AI thing have got the hump because the people whose songs
their AI thingy is tweaking want royalties.
Surely this can’t be a surprise?
We got to the woods and within a hundred yards I skidded in
the mud and ricked my back. The woods were rather muddy today. We walked a
shorter walk today; only three and a half miles, and we’ll probably be doing
this walk for a few months now much of our usual walk is now a swamp.
We didn’t see any deer today; just as we approached the
area where we are most likely to see them so I heard a couple of women we see
from time to time… I usually hear them about five minutes before I see them.
Despite walking about two yards apart, everything they have to say is bellowed.
In the past they’ve mentioned to me that they’ve never seen deer in the woods.
I wonder why.
We came home for a bath, and I harvested an epic crop of
dog dung from the garden. I’d not been out there with a bucket since Monday… I
really shouldn’t leave it so long. Amazingly I’ve met several people who say
they’ve never been round their gardens harvesting. Either their dogs crap
elsewhere, or it don’t bear thinking about.
I then chopped a bit of chip-board into shape to act as a
dog gate, and then made us both a cuppa. I Munzed, unlocking a diamond qrate (as
one does) and then bearing in mind what I’d just been sawing I stuck “board”
into Wordle. From there I worked through “risky” and “runic” to
get “remit” on the fourth attempt. I wrote up some CPD, and got my
arse comprehensively handed to me on a plate by the bots at chess dot com.
Leaving the dogs settled in the kitchen (as a bit of an
experiment) we drove down to Hastings.
Many years ago I joined the Boys Brigade. One of my mates
from way back when lived next door to “er indoors TM”’s
family. He and I were half of a group of four who went on
to get the Boys Brigade’s top award. Over the years we’ve gone our separate
ways, but still managed to keep in touch; managing it more over the last few
years. His son died a month ago, and today
was the funeral.
It passed off as well as any funeral might. There was a
rather good turn-out, but it was a shame that others we knew from all those
years ago didn’t show, including some who’ve since taken holy orders.
We came home to find the dogs seemed OK. Bailey had escaped
the kitchen, and Morgan was incredibly over-excited to see us. We had a quick
tidy-up then “er indoors TM” went off to meet Karl,
Tracey Jess and Charlotte at the bowling alley. My back was still a tad twingy.
But it wasn’t long before everyone was back home and we had a few pizzas and a
few beers and a few goes on the Infinity table.
Today had been rather busy…

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