3 September 2022 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Geo-Meet, Pond Work...

Not being at work today I stayed in bed until half past seven. That is quite the lie-in for me. I made toast, and got ready for the off. With “er indoors ^TM” off out with her mates at some rock gig or other (?) me and the dogs had been left “home alone”, and I had plans…

 

We wandered up the road to the car and drove off to Whetsted. As we drove in a novel break with tradition I didn’t have Radio 4 on. Instead I tuned to Radio Ashford and listened to Steve. Or that is I listened to Steve in between the music and the adverts. There was a *lot* more music and adverts on the local radio than there ever is on Radio 4. Steve was running a contest in which various records were being played and he was listing various things that happened. Unfortunately the reception gave out when I got to Leeds castle so I never did find out what the right year was… I *think* it was 2008.

We got to where we were going -  Whetsted and Ted’s Field where there was a meet-up of the “Kent Dachshund” Group. I’ve been keen to get the puppies (and Treacle) meeting other dogs, and I thought (hoped) this might be a good opportunity.

It was.

It was really good. Everyone was so welcoming, and it was such fun with dachshunds everywhere. It was fairly obvious which one was Bailey (as she was the only white one there),  but Morgan just melted into the swarm of dachshunds, and the two of them charged around with their new friends non-stop. I didn’t count, but there must have been over twenty dachshunds and daxie-crosses of all shapes and sizes and colours.

Treacle stayed with me for much of the time; she’s generally terrified of other dogs. But she was fine all the time the others didn’t get in her face. Sniffing her bum is fine with her; but not her face (bit like me, really). But she wandered off with the other dogs from time to time.

The meet was scheduled to run for an hour; and after an hour everyone went their different ways. It was a dedicated dog-training field and someone else had booked it for twelve o’clock. We’d each paid two quid per dog for the field hire. I thought that was rather good value…

 

From Whetsted we braved the traffic and made our way to Tunbridge Wells to show our faces at the geo-meet. It was only just down the road from “dog club” so it would have been rude not to have turned up.

I only stayed for a few minutes, but it was good to catch up with those people I knew. The meet was a picnic by the cricket green, and it was hard to tell who was geo-meet and who was “normal people”.

 

From the meet we came home. I wanted to get the pond sorted… I turned off the filters and cleaned them out, disassembled the old cascade (built last week) and moved it out of the way. I then heaved the new one into place, then got the filters where they should be and buried the electricals and plumbing, and had a bit of a go at landscaping. Thirty seconds to type; over two hours to do. And I’m still not sure I like the finished thing… not that it’s finished. One of the filters has only a fraction of the flow of the other. I think I might need to rod it out or get some new tubing. But I decided that could wait till another day.

 

I did the dogs’ dinner, and then foraged for mine (in the direction of KFC) then spent the evening ironing two weeks’ worth of shirts. What with one thing and another I didn’t get round to ironing them last week. Can’t think why (!)

As I ironed I watched more episodes of “Shadow and Bone” as the dogs snored. Dog club certainly wore them out. Much like the afternoon’s pond work wore me out.

I think a restful day might be a plan for tomorrow…

2 September 2022 (Friday) - Wasted Journey (?)

With the puppies safely on the bed (and Treacle appeased) I made toast and watched another episode of "Shadow and Bone" which is getting rather good. This is yet another of those shows which passed me by when it was first released.

I had a quick look at Facebook and chuckled at a meme I read. Based on the "Charley Says" cat that was popular in safety films of the 1970s, "Charley" said that back in the 1970s we didn't have people going to food banks because we didn't squander our money on mobile phone contracts, nail bars or designer label sportswear. Am I being harsh in wondering if "Charley" isn't entirely wrong? Certainly in my experience those people that I've seen talking about having to use food banks have been doing so via the Internet connections of their mobile phones.

And there were quite a few "back to school" photos as well this morning. I quite like seeing them. This year there didn't seem to be quite so many people (always those without children) being rude about these photos, which was probably for the best.

 

Taking care not to disturb anyone I got ready for work, and rolled my eyes as I realised it was dustbin day... I realise that the dustmen have a job to do, but the really do make maximum inconvenience as they do it. Usually they make a point of blockading the pavements with the recycling bins, but on seeing me walking out of the house, one of the bin men (with a cheeky smile) literally hurled our bin at me. I managed to dodge it, but it hit the fence with a crash. I then spent five minutes waiting for the dustbin lorry to get out of the way before I could set off.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about today being the last day of the Conservative Party's leadership contest. Several so-called experts were wheeled on, all of whom agreed that the public are sick of hearing about it. I must admit that after two months speculation over what certainly seems to be a foregone conclusion, it has got rather tedious. However what seemed to go over the heads of those presenting the news was that it was them themselves who have been bombarding up with this endless drivel.

 

I got to work and cracked on with the early shift. As I worked I got a message from “er indoors ^TM”. What was the orange thing that Morgan had been chewing? It was the connector that joined the power cable from the plug to the cable to the pump that powers one of the water features. The thing is repairable (I hope), but I wish he hadn't chewed it. It was just as well that I only switch it on when I am there, isn't it?

And I got a message from the repair people who had a look at the scrape on my car yesterday. They'd priced up the cost of repairs... over a thousand quid. Not overly keen on driving round in a scraped car until I get a new one I thought I might try talking to the insurance people. It took a while to get through. After being told I needed to speak to someone else and being put back on hold for the third time I gave up.

 

When the boss wasn't looking I spent a few minutes poring over the map. After Tuesday's debacle I didn't fancy taking any country lanes on the trip to Eastbourne.  I plotted a route along A-roads and slipped off at the earliest opportunity… and fell at the first hurdle. The A road was closed at Wateringbury, and signposts to Eastbourne just stopped once I’d got into Tunbridge Wells.

 

After two and a half hours I finally got to Eastbourne Hospital. I went to the ward to see Dad. He was fast asleep, so I let him sleep. And after ten minutes I was (rather curtly) told he was being taken for an X-ray and he was taken off (still n his bed and fast asleep). I tried to talk to the nurse about why he was going for an X-ray and about one or two other things, but the nurse clearly didn’t want to talk to me. She didn’t actually say “f… off baldy” but that was definitely her unspoken implication.

So I came home… I got home nearly five hours after I’d started driving. I’d made a round trip of a hundred miles to watch Dad sleeping for ten minutes and to be fobbed off. Perhaps the nurse was having a bad day. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt for now…

 

1 September 2022 (Thursday) - This n That

I had another restless night but this one might have been better had Treacle's stomach not been rumbling and gurgling quite so much. I did my usual morning routine and slipped off to work leaving everyone snoring at home, and soon was on my way to work.

 

As I drove there was a lot of talk on the radio about the ongoing cost of energy crisis. The head honcho at Ovo (the third biggest energy provider in the UK) was being interviewed. He suggested a scheme whereby the basic cost of energy is cheaper, but gets more expensive as you use more. Sounds strange to me... no matter how you fiddle it about, if people can't afford the energy bill they won't use the stuff. Leccie and gas has got to be a lot cheaper overall. There's no point in  halving the bill for the first week of the month if you double the bill for the last week, is there?

And the international inspection team are on their way to give the Ukraininan Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant a once-over. There's a lot of concern about the place... With Europe's biggest nuclear power station in a war zone, quite rightly so

Meanwhile Ravil Maganov  (The chairman of Russia's oil giant Lukoil) has died after "falling out of a hospital window". Apparently shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine he publicly called for the war to end. Perhaps if he'd kept his trap shut no one would have pushed him out, would they?

 

I got to work where it was raining, and whereas yesterday had been a MGUS sort of day, today's theme was "target cells" which are *not* called “codocytes” by anyone except Wikipedia. But again being on an early shift meant I got away promptly.

I drove to the Skoda dealer; the nice man said he’d have a look at the damage to my car (from when it got scraped two days ago). I had considered just leaving it and driving round in a scratched car, but the passenger door was making a rather nasty crunching noise every time I opened it.

The nice man said they didn’t do bodywork, but he told me of a garage that did. So I drove for two minutes to Alpha Rapid Repairs where the nice man gave the front panel a clout and sorted out the nasty crunching noise. He took a few photos of the damaged bits, including the door handle and wheel that I didn’t know had been scraped, and said he’d email me a quote for the cost of repairs in the morning.

 

I was only twenty minutes late getting home, and so still having time I took the dogs to the woods where we had a rather good walk.

“er indoors ^TM”  boiled up dinner, and with it scoffed I wondered if I should have an early night as I’ve been feeling progressively more and more grim as the day had gone past. Instead I just played on-line bubble-pop games.