Despite a rather early
night last night I was still wide awake this morning at 4am. I woke
to find myself cuddling my dog as though he was a teddy bear. Mind
you he didn't seem overly bothered by the arrangement.
I lay awake for an hour,
then got up and watched last night's episode of "South Park"
in which Tweek and Craig were outed as being gay. Apparently this was
a decision made by the Japanese. One learns so much from that
program.
And then with a little
time before I had to go to work I watched more "Toddlers and
Tiaras". In today's show one mother was ranting at the
camera about how much her child likes doing the pageants whilst the
child was ranting that she didn't want to be there. This mother went
on to extol the virtues of home schooling as it fits in with the
pageants whilst her daughter complained that she missed her
schoolfriends. Another mother likened the entire thing to a dog show
and one of the judges then said how it is good (and rare) to
see a genuine smile on any of the children.
I *love* that
show; the whole thing is so fake.
As I watched the
thwarting of the overpowering mothers I had a quick look-see on line.
Preparations are going well for the New Years Day event. The actual
event itself has been published
and already has a dozen people signed up for it. And the first draft
of the walk I have planned has got the thumbs-up as well. I just need
to get new (non-leaking) wellies and go out and have another
recce.
My car was parked right
outside the house this morning. As I started the engine I saw a
movement out of the corner of my eye. What looked like a very large
cat was walking past. I looked again; it was a fox. Bold as brass
marching up the pavement.
And so to work. Yesterday
the pundits on the radio were talking about how the thick fog had
settled in for the week. This morning as I drove off to work I
noticed that the fog had gone.
Much of the talk on the
radio this morning was about the broadcaster Peter Donaldson who
had recently died. Whilst any death is sad, I can't help but feel
that there was rather too much air time spent on the matter. Perhaps
I'm just a miserable old git, but I listen to Radio Four because it
is about the news and not about the celebrity presenters.
There was also
consternation about the house-building crisis. It turns out that
nowhere near
enough houses are being built in the UK.
There was an interview on
the radio on this subject with one of the country's leading builders.
The show's presenters tried to make big issue of the fact that the
government has been hoping for tens of thousands of houses to have
been built near Ebbsfleet. Actually there have only been about six
hundred built. The builder being interviewed took no responsibility
for the housing crisis. He said that if the government wants tens of
thousands of houses he will build them. At a price. He made the
observation that as a private company they were out to make money,
not to provide a service at a loss. And (at the moment) there
is not much money to be made from building houses.
He rather implied that
this is (yet another) failing of running a country by market
forces rather than by social decency. I might have remarked on this
occasionally in the past.
I got to work for the
early shift, and did my bit. And then came home again. Even on an
early shift it is now dark when I get home. I took "Furry
Face TM" round the block, and quite
enjoyed nosing through the windows of all the people who haven't
realised it gets dark earlier now and had left their curtains open.
Once walked "Furry
Face TM" had his dinner, and (under
instruction from "er indoors TM")
I put our dinner on to boil. It didn't turn out too badly. And with
dinner scoffed we set off to Somerset Road where we watched budgies
squabbling and had some rather good cheese crisps. Whilst we were
there the landlady from the Queens Head in Kingsnorth phoned me. On
Saturday when I called in they grudgingly took my phone number and
said they might get back to me (for which I was clearly supposed
to be grateful). They got back to me this evening and were rather
vague as to whether they would even be open on New Year's Day. But
still seemed shocked that I had already booked with another pub that
wasn't openly dismissive of me.
Oh - and here's another
date for your diaries...
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