I
was again plagued with nightmares about the where I used to work ten years ago.
What’s that all about? I’m well out of that place.
I
made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. The New Year Honours List
had been published in which seemingly random people are chosen and given a
medal, whilst others who’ve done exactly the same thing (often for longer)
got nothing. Take the England Women’s
football team
that did very well earlier in the year for example. Four of the team got
medals. There were over twenty in the team – what about the others?
Various
celebrities got awards ostensibly for their charity work… it’s rather easier to
do charity stuff when you have the time and money to do so…
Quite
a few civil servants and NHS managers also got singled out too, and got public
recognition for doing the job for which they are paid. Meanwhile voluntary
leaders of scout groups and all sorts of clubs and societies go unrecognised.
It’s
high time the UK’s honours system was revisited and made fit for purpose
It’s
a rant I’ve ranted before, but one which needs to be ranted. Why should I put
myself out for a place of work, missing endless children’s birthday parties and
family events and having nightmares about it years later, when the manager (who
was part of a management board under which the hospital got the lowest possible
rating from the government inspector and consequently put into special measures)
gets given an MBE?
Leaving “er indoors TM”
and Treacle in bed, I took the puppies out to Dog Club. As we drove so the rain
hossed down, but it stopped as we got to the car park, so I decided to
persevere; if the heavy rain came back we could easily run back to the car and
come home. Over a dozen people had thought the same, and despite the field
being a quagmire, we had an excellent Dog Club meeting. Especially Morgan who
managed to find and roll in a quite impressive range of poo. As something of a
first today he was sporting a six-inch-wide smear of bird poo on his right
shoulder. Have I ever mentioned that dogs are feral creatures?
Morgan
was covered in poo; many of the other dogs were caked in mud. Very impressively
caked.
After forty minutes our
session was up and the bigger dogs arrived. Morgan wanted to play with them
too, and had to be dragged away. I felt rather sorry for the two groups
following us. The field was muddy enough when we were there; after our dogs and
the medium dogs had been at the field I dread to think what state the ground
would have been in for the biggest dogs who come in for the last session.
As we drove home so I
phoned “er indoors TM” and gave instructions to prepare the
bath, a scrubbing brush and industrial quantities of dog shampoo.
She
scrubbed the dogs as I changed into clean (and dry) trousers, and with
dogs scrubbed we had a cuppa and a Belgian bun. Today’s came from Lidl and was
rather good. Over the years we’ve become connoisseurs of the Belgian bun. The best
come from the co-op, and the poorest (amazingly) come from our local family
baker’s shop which is just down the road.
With the rain showing
no sign of letting up we loaded ourselves and the dogs into the “er indoors TM”-mobile
and went round to Singleton Barn where the Hunters of Tupperware were gathering
for the New Year’s Eve meet-up. A couple of dozen of us had a very good
meet-up. There was a minor disaster when we were asked to move to make space
for a group that had pre-booked only to find (fifteen minutes later)
that the pre-booked group was us.
We had a good bit of
dinner, and then came home where “er indoors TM” got on with
her jigsaw and I and the dogs snored for an hour or so.
“er
indoors TM” sorted dinner, and we spent a rather dull evening watching
(appropriately) episodes of “Not Going Out” and
scoffing choccies until it was time to tune in to the New Year Zoom meet-up. In
the past we’ve always had New Year parties, but with COVID we moved to on-line
meet-ups, and I wasn’t keen to leave the dogs so late at night.
A
dozen of us chatted until the fireworks went off at midnight… well a dozen
chatted. I sat quietly as my stomach rumbled as I’d eaten far too many
choccies.
I suppose it is time for something of a retrospective. It has been a rather
eventful year.
- I
had my nose surgically re-bored (for the third time)
- I
got COVID and missed a holiday
- We
got the puppies
- I
got a new granddaughter
- We
had a week in Gran Canaria
- I
buried two family rats
- We
had a week in the New Forest
- My
Dad had major stroke and died
- I
pranged my car
- I
joined dog club and Lego club
- We
had an excellent family pub crawl round Rye
- To
say nothing of the country having had three Prime Minister, the Queen dying and
our getting a new King
Happy
New Year one and all… I wonder what we’ll get in 2023?
