30 September 2016 (Friday) - Astro Club

I did my bit on the night shift; I was glad when the relief arrived at 8am. However I was rather dismayed as I drove home. For some years there has been two scarecrows in a field near the A28 in Chilham. These two regularly change their clothes. Once they were done up as a bride and groom; sometimes they are in in hunting garb. At Christmas they are Santa and an elf.

This morning they were gone. I hope they are coming back.

Once home I took "Furry Face ^TM" round the park. He was a good dog; only trying to hump one other dog as we walked. It was only a shame that it was OrangeHead’s dog that he tried to hump.

We came home and I then went to bed for a few hours. I would have slept longer but for someone from Mumbai phoning claiming to want to claim PPI refunds on my behalf. I swore at him quite vigorously but he didn’t take the hint, so I explained in works of one syllable exactly what “F- you and F- the horse you rode in on” meant until he took the hint and hung up.

I have always maintained that when insulting someone if you insult their horse then they know you mean business.

Over a late brekkie I watched the most recent episode of “Game of Thrones” that my SkyPlus box had recorded. I think the machine made some sort of mistake; there was no jugs or willies to be seen.

I looked at the housekeeping bank account. Not only has Fudge’s medical policy monthly payments doubled, but the insurance people still haven’t paid up for his recent illness. I phoned the insurance people. Apparently they sometimes take two months’ money in one go (!), and they are still waiting to hear back from the vet about why the policy documents show a recent change of address. I explained (again) that the dog’s change of address was three years ago and it has taken the vets three years to finally update the records, but they wanted to hear this from the vets. They’ve only been waiting for a reply for three weeks…

In the meantime I’m still six hundred pounds out of pocket.

And so to McDonalds where I met up with Stevey. Steve, Sarah and "er indoors ^TM" soon joined us, and we had a rather good McDinner. And with that scoffed we went on to Woodchurch for Astro club. With our speaker stuck on a Eurostar somewhere near Lille the evening could have been somewhat disastrous, but Ibouight along a backup lecture just in case he couldn’t make it. In the end the chap did arrive. We had a very good meeting. One or two I.T. hiccups, but to my mind that was all part of the fun.

The club has had its ups and downs but with over sixty people along tonight I think it might be back on track. It’s now moving away from being an austere polished professional business and back towards being a fun club to which all are welcome. A move for the better.

Now to watch bake-off… once "er indoors ^TM" comes home with the shopping.

29 September 2016 (Thursday) - A Day Asleep

Last night’s shift was surprisingly quiet. Odd that I should have been more tired than usual after a night shift. I came home just as "er indoors ^TM" was going out, and I put on my new shoes and took my dog for a walk. I got some new shoes from Go Outdoors last night. They are summery walking shoes. Perhaps this might not be the right season for them, but they were half price. I took a photo of the shoes on the table and posted it to Facebook. "er indoors ^TM" has this idea that shoes on the table is unlucky, so I often put shoes on the table to wind her up.

As we set off on our walk so the rain started. I think everyone else must have seen the weather forecast; other than Orangehead and her Chunky Little Friend, we didn’t see anyone as we walked.

Once home I poured dangerous chemicals down the bath’s plug hole. I’m pretty sure I flushed out all the gunge from the pond’s filter, but it never hurts to pour dangerous chemicals down the plug hole just to be sure.

And I put a different load of dangerous chemicals into the dishwasher to give that a good scrubbing out; I thought it was a bit whiffy yesterday.

I then went to bed. Six hours later I got up and watched an episode of “Game of Thrones”; and now I’m off to work again…

28 September 2016 (Wednesday) - Before the Night Shift

I wouldn’t say I slept well last night. I slept for quite some time, but was plagued with rather vivid and troublesome dreams. So much so that I was quite unsettled for most of the day.

Over brekkie I had a look-see on line. Not much had really changed overnight. In the news politicians continued doing what they do, on social media various pots continued to accuse kettles of being black. In my inbox was an email from LinkedIn suggesting I might apply for various jobs in Manchester and there was an email from Amazon suggesting I buy that which I’ve already bought from them. Some things never change.

I did see that someone had posted (on Facebook) that old chestnut about not responding to letters through the door about parcel deliveries and 0906 phone numbers. Whilst it was once an active scam, it was shut down eleven years ago. I thought about pointing this out but thought better of doing so; I’m sure that someone along the line would make a point of taking offence if I did so.

Bearing in mind that Wednesday is Brat Club (or “Mother & Toddlers” in the more select circles) we didn’t go out with "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" for our walk today. Instead me and "Furry Face ^TM" made a quick circuit of the park. As we walked my dog tried to hump another dog. Unfortunately it was the dog of the silly old bat who thinks that neutered dogs have a happy chubby smile. She started shrieking before Fudge had got within ten yards of her dog. I felt rather sorry for her dog; he was straining at the lead and obviously wanted to play. I suggested the dog be allowed off the lead; she looked at me as though that was the weirdest thing she’d ever heard.

After that even exchanging pleasantries with OrangeHead paled into insignificance.

We came home. I hung the washing out, mowed the lawn, had a rake-up, and cleaned out the fish pond filter. How easy it is to type that out… it took two hours to do and left me smelling of fish poo.

I then slobbed in front of the telly watching stuff from the SkyPlus box. I do this – it has the advantage of being able to fast-forward through the adverts. Does anyone actually watch adverts any more?

I then spent the afternoon in bed.

I would have liked to have slept longer, but that wasn’t happening so instead I watched more telly.  And now I’m off to the night shift… still bothered by the nightmares *and* smelling of fish poo…