I woke at ten past two feeling full of energy and
raring to go. I then lay dozing before finally getting up at five o’clock. I
made toast, watched an episode of “Stranger Things” then had my usual
look at the Internet as I do. It was still there, and rather dull at six
o’clock. No one was kicking off about anything, so I sorted the undercrackers
that I’d washed last night, put some of them on, and got ready for work.
A couple of months ago I saw the boss had made a minor
boo-boo and had put me on leave this week. As I got ready for work part of me
wished I’d kept quiet and just taken the week off.
I had something of a "drive from hell"
getting to work this morning. As I approached the turn-off to the A262 I saw
the road was closed. There was a diversion sign pointing west-wards, but as I
went west-wards there were no other diversion signs. That was helpful (!) I
followed the back roads that I knew would take me to Sissinghurst and hoped
that would bring me out past whatever had closed the road. It did, but it
wasn't long before I joined a two-mile tailback on the A21. After forty minutes
I got to the traffic lights which were causing the hold-up. You'd think road
works which were clearly so disruptive would have people actually working on
them, wouldn't you?
And then there was another major tailback caused by
people struggling to get past a three car smack-up which had happened at one of
the busier junctions.
As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about
the company Johnson
and Johnson who were facing legal battles about their talcum
powder. It was alleged that the stuff caused cancer. Does it? I don't know. But
it turns out that if a court declares that it is carcinogenic, then it is only
carcinogenic where that court has jurisdiction. The stuff might cause cancer in
America, but until such time as a UK court gets involved, the stuff is heigh,
ho pip and dandy over here.
One lives and learns.
And there was a lot of talk about ex-servicemen who
had been involved in atomic bomb testing in the1950s and 1960s.
They were after compensation because the atomic bomb testing had given them
cancer. Bearing in mind that anyone who was in the armed forces during that
time would now be well into their seventies I must be missing something here.
Pausing only briefly to get lunch from Tesco I went
into work. A colleague was just back from a safari holiday in Africa.
Travelling all over the place in Tanzania and Mozambique... seven flights in
twelve days. I'd like to do that... if it wasn't in a malarious area.
And there was talk of voluntary redundancies. Well,
not actual redundancies, a voluntary "Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme".
I thought about it, but I'd only get a year's money which wouldn't last long,
and I quite like going in to work on a part-time basis.
As I did my bit we had a phone call from one of the
places to which we refer some specialist testing. The person on the other end
of the phone was someone with whom I worked years ago. The last time I saw her was in a pub in
Lyminge when I was part of a "rent a mob" supporting a
friend's band and she was part of a hen party. I got her and the hen party to
heckle the singer which was rather entertaining.
Bearing in mind the debacle I had this morning I
checked Google Maps before heading home. I came home via Matfield, Brenchley
and "Earl's shortcut". "Earl's shortcut"
involves taking the back lanes between Biddenden and Bethersden and for all
that it is half a mile shorter, it actually takes longer as the roads are so
narrow. I'm not keen on taking it as the first fruit of my loins once went that
way and ended up in a ditch, but with the main road closed I didn't have much
choice. Ironically the bit where “My Boy TM” had
ended up in a ditch was closed because of an accident so I had even more of a
diversion to get round that bit.
Once home I found that the duck's feet had been
delivered. Some time ago the doggy dentist lady had recommended that crunching
chicken's feet was good for the dogs' teeth so we've been getting bags of those
from Amazon. But Bailey had gone off of those. Bearing in mind she'd had the
thumbs-down from the doggy dentist lady last week (and brushing her teeth
takes some doing) we needed to sort something. Last week the doggy dentist
lady mentioned duck's feet. All three seem to like those (for now).
You really can get a bag of duck's feet from Amazon. It’s a
shame we forgot to cancel the standing order for chicken’s feet…
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