As I drove home after a
rather busy night shift I listened to the radio with something of a sense of
disbelief. The pundits on the radio were interviewing the new Brexit secretary
about today’s publishing of the government’s formal Brexit strategy. When you
bear in mind that the Brexit referendum took place on 23 June 2016, it has
taken the Government over two years to devise this plan.
This morning on the
radio it was suggested that those who are for Brexit don’t like the
government’s White Paper since it doesn’t actually get rid of all the European
laws and oversight that doing Brexit was all about. It was also suggested that
those who are against Brexit don’t like the government’s White Paper since it will
cost the country a fortune. And it was also suggested that the thing was
already dead in the water as it contains many concepts and ideas that the EU
negotiators have already thrown out. During the interview, the new Brexit
secretary blathered a lot but didn’t actually deny any of this.
It seems to me that when
the vote was taken, the UK had three years to come up with plans. It has taken
over two years to come up with a suggestion that is already (seemingly) dying on its arse before it
has even started …
Once home I took the
dogs round the park. As we walked Fudge made off with another dog’s tennis
ball. I got it back before he destroyed it, but there were one or two bald bits
where he’s chomped it. The nice people whose ball it was were very good about
it; I suppose it’s a dog thing. You either get it or you don’t.
As we came through the
co-op field we had an “episode”;
Treacle ran into a hedge, and two seconds later I heard a sploshing sound. Two
more seconds later she emerged from the hedge seemingly unscathed.
Then I looked closer.
The trouble with having
black dogs is that the dirt doesn’t show.
As I looked so I could see foul black ichor dripping from her belly. As
I got closer I could smell what she’d fallen in. It might once have been a deep
puddle, but now it was a stagnant hell-hole that had been left to rot. The only
thing I have ever encountered that smelled worse was a months-dead fox that
Fudge once rolled in on a hot day.
Treacle stank to high
heaven.
We came home and had a
bath. I say “we”; Fudge stayed well
clear; Treacle was actually in the bath, but I got just as wet as I scrubbed.
I settled her in her
house and popped into town. I had to go to the bank to get some Euros for the
weekend’s planned road trip.
Oh dear…
I rarely travel abroad.
Over the last several years I have tried to get Euros from the bank on three
separate occasions. I can never remember it being easy. In the past they have
sold out, the person who does international stuff wasn’t available… today my
local branch had lost all the Euro-passwords and were waiting for Head Office
to email them new passwords. I suggested I might come back in fifteen minutes;
I could see from the expression of the woman behind the counter that fifteen
minutes or fifteen years were all the same to her. There was no way that she
was up to selling Euros.
I went up the road to a
little kiosk in what was once the Tufton Centre where I got Euros (with no quibbling) at a better exchange
rate than the bank was offering.
I also saw Matt in
town. I’d not seen him for ages; we had a good gossip. And as I was in the area
I went to the Chili-Time milk shake bar (they
were open for once) where they made me a custom milk shake. Milk, ice
cream, two large slices of Battenberg cake all got blended together. Very nice.
I came home and as I
opened the door I was faced with the stink of stagnant pond water. Poor Treacle
still reeked of whatever it was she’d fallen in. She got a second bath, then I
took myself off to bed for a few hours.
I woke feeling like
death warmed up and did the ironing whilst watching a film. “The
Perks of Being a Wallflower” was a rather formulaic American teens-at-school film – the sort which if
you’ve seen one of the genre, you’ve seen the lot. But it was watchable.
However I did spend much of the time trying to work out who one of the
actresses was. It turned out that one of the leading actresses was Emma Watson –
“Hermione” from Harry Potter.
"er indoors TM" came home with a
pressie for me – a rather meaty power pack for my phone and “Hannah” for when we are away on holiday.
Talking of which I then
completed my epic GPX file of the Dunkirk-Lille area of France and Belgium in
readiness for the weekend. I shall watch some “Trailer Park Boys” then I really should have an early night. I’ve
got a busy day tomorrow…
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