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2 March 2018 (Friday) - Rostered Day Off

I slept rather well; I was woken shortly after seven o’clock by Fudge’s whimpering. He’d got upstairs and wanted to be lifted onto the bed. I picked him up, but Treacle appeared and wanted to start a fight.

Over brekkie I had a look at Facebook as I do. There were a lot of these memes thanking NHS staff for their efforts in getting to work through the snow this week. A *lot* of us had done like me and stayed overnight. However I took exception to one post which said we should he grateful to the nurses. Whist the nurses do a good job, hospitals cannot run without the contributions of pharmacists, physiotherapists, cleaners, cooks, biomedical scientists, podiatrists, speech therapists, cardiographers, electricians, dieticians, porters, secretaries, med lab assistants, biochemists, plumbers… many of whom also work round the clock. There are *far* more people that doctors and nurses who work in hospitals.
I also saw that Facebook was no longer running an advert for a pornographic game entitled “C*nt Wars”. Last night I saw a featured advert on Facebook for a fun new game. I clicked on the link and was immediately presented with cartoon depictions of rather saucy naked young ladies engaged in rather serious filth. Yet another triumph for Facebook’s community standards?
I also had several emails for jobs in Essex. I’d never apply for them as they would be utterly impractical even though the hospital in which they are based is closer to home than where I am currently working. It is easy to forget that the Thames estuary is in the way. A thirty-mile distance involves a seventy-mile drive.

I put the coats and the leads on to the dogs. Fudge sulked, but I ignored him. He doesn’t like wearing a coat but with temperatures four degrees below zero, I wasn’t going to give him a choice today. We went for our standard circuit of the park. When we walked on Tuesday it was rather pretty with the fresh snow. Today there was just ice everywhere. It was rather dangerous.
As we walked we met OrangeHead who was again surrounded by a posse. As usual Fudge wanted to go off with them; as usual the only way to retrieve him was to put his lead on him and drag.
We came back across the co-op field for the first time this year. Up till now it has been waterlogged; today the mud was frozen so we could get through relatively easily. Fudge rolled in fox poo, but frozen fox poo is but a shadow of its defrosted counterpart.

Once home I hung out the laundry that I’d put on before we went out and put more in. I emptied the dishwasher and looked at my accounts.
Oh dear…
To be honest had I not spent nine hundred quid on new brakes for the car and a serious servicing I would be rather better off. But what is money for if not to squander foolishly?
I also made a start on emptying my letter rack. There was a letter from my dentist saying he was jacking it all in. He told me that in person a month or so ago. Why waste money on a letter? I wonder how many others he’s sent out.
There was the annual mortgage review. It has just over four years to run; there is a shade over five thousand pounds still to pay. We pay monthly (as everyone does) but one of these monthly payments isn’t enough to cover the annual interest. Borrowing money is expensive. I’ll feel a lot happier in four years’ time when it is all paid off.
I had a letter from my professional body. They’ve put their bill up. They sent a leaflet about all the money-off deals they offer. However it was all money off of stuff I’d never spend money on in the first place.
The warranty on the SkyPlus box had been renewed. It’s gone up by a quid a month, but they sent me a new bit without quibbling when it went west a few weeks ago.
There were two letters from the vets. Treacle was due booster injections. I phoned the vets and they seemed to have no record of the appointment she had with them in January. Our vets are really good with the dogs, but their record-keeping leaves much to be desired.
It was at this point that I put all the remaining letters back in the rack. I’ll look at the rest another time.

I then spent a couple of hours doing the ironing whilst watching episodes of “The Crown” on Netflix. It is a rather good series, but I can’t warm to the Princess Margaret character at all. With ironing done I wasted a little while doing some CPD whilst sorting my undercrackers.
It don’t do itself, you know.

I thought about taking the dogs out, but they were both snoring, and the snow was falling again. I asked if they wanted to go out; they both leapt up. We had a good little walk round the block in the snow and got home just as "er indoors TM" got home… What excellent timing…

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