5 August 2017 (Saturday) - Working

I had one of those “On This Day” reminders from Facebook this morning; two years ago EE were giving out free battery packs for mobile phones, and two years ago today there was a recall issued as some of them were prone to blowing up. I took mine back, was assured a replacement, and promptly forgot all about it. It turns out they gave up on the whole idea. Such a shame; bearing in mind how much I pay them each month something for nothing would have been rather nice.
Whilst on Facebook I realised that a friend’s ex-girlfriend had de-friended me. What it the etiquette on social media when you have a bust-up? Do you automatically remove all connection with your ex-s’ friends?

I spent a little while in the garden. I cleared up all the dog turds then hung out the washing. I then cleared more dog turds that I’d missed the first time. I got out the strimmer then cleared even more dog turds that I’d missed on the second clear up. I strimmed the lawn’s edges, then went round clearing dog turds for a fourth time. How can two small dogs generate so much poo?
I got the lawn mowed, then cut back the jungle hanging over the fence from next-door. If and when I next see her I’m going to say something to her about her mess. I shall have to figure out how to get her to acknowledge my existence first, but I’ll sort it somehow.

We then took the dogs for a little walk. "er indoors TM" had left her car at the Conningbrook hotel last night; a three-mile walk to go fetch it would be just right. As we walked along past the Riverside pub I looked into the river. There was a pike swimming along. It was huge; probably nearly as long as my arm. Me and "My Boy TM" have been looking for somewhere to go pike fishing. Now we know.
We made relatively good time to the Conningbrook and were soon home again. I got in the dry laundry, scoffed an egg sandwich, had a quick shower, and set off for the late shift.

I left home just as the drizzle was starting and drove to work through heavy rain. It looked as though we had the best of the weather this morning and, as I've said before, I don't mind the weekend work when it is raining.
As I drove to work the radio was broadcasting "Any Questions" from Northern Ireland. As is so often the case with this show (and life in general), what started as a reasoned argument soon descended to a bitter squabble. 
The people being interviewed were talking about Britain's relationship with the European Union after the Brexit deal is finalised. One of the panel suggested that Britain might try for a deal similar to the deals arranged by the Icelandic and the Norwegians. Another of the panel pointed out that in order for these specific deals to have been accepted by the EU, Norway and Iceland had to accept compliance with more EU regulations than most EU member states have to accept.  Now this may be true, or this may be a blatant lie but no one on the radio's panel disputed it.
Didn't we vote to leave the EU because we don't want Johnny Foreigner telling us what to do? I sighed, and drove in to work.

As I worked the rain lifted. During a break my phone pinged. A message (via Facebook) from an old colleague. I'd not heard from her in years. She's doing fine; having left blood-testing she went into teaching. Within two years she had become Head of Science at a secondary school, and was still loving her job. For all that I am quite settled now, sometimes I wonder "what if". You certainly don't see many school teachers working on Saturdays in August.
But I doubt if being a secondary school teacher would have worked for me; I would probably have strangled one or two of them by now.
I did my bit; the relief soon arrived and I came home again. I should have had an early night really…



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