31 January 2019 (Thursday) - Cold


I went to bed a little earlier than usual last night and slept like a log. I woke full of energy and raring to go at quarter past two. I then lay awake for the rest of the night whilst Treacle and Pogo played this game where they would sleep for five minutes, then fidget and knock one or the other off of the bottom of the bed. Whichever had been knocked off would then jump back on the bed and walk all over me to get comfortable only to knock the other off the bed five minutes later. And so it went on. I finally got more than five minutes sleep shortly after five o’clock, not long before getting-up time.

Over muesli (I prefer granola) I watched an episode of “The Young Offenders” then had a quick look at the Internet to see if I had missed much overnight. I hadn’t. There wasn’t anything happening on Facebook. LinkedIn was pleased to have found me a connection. Would I like to chum up with Emma Ardley-Batt? Ms Ardley-Batt is a cross-functional marketing professional. Or so I am told. One can’t help but wonder what a “cross-functional marketing professional” is. The longer I live, the more convinced I am that I haven’t the faintest idea what is going on in the world around me.
It turns out that LinkedIn suggested that I might like to befriend Ms Ardley-Batt because she has some connection with Noel McGrath. I have no idea who he is either, but he is something to do with one of the people with whom "er indoors TM" goes bowling.

Once I'd scraped the ice off my car I headed off to work. The thermometer said that the outside temperature was minus seven; it fell to minus eight by the time I' d left Ashford.
As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing one of the big-wigs at the distillery where they make Johnny Walker whisky. They aren't afraid of a no-deal Brexit or of export tariffs of forty per cent; any extra costs incurred by taxes and tariffs will just be passed on to the customers. Selling seven bottles of whisky every second means they feel that they can do so.
Personally I can't stand whiskey, but I wonder how many other firms will pass their increased costs on to the general public?

They then wheeled on some Rabbi who blathered platitudes on the "Thought for the Day" section. This chap had come up with what he thought was an amazing idea. Why doesn't everyone try being nice to everyone else for a change?
It's a good idea; you would think someone might have tried it before, wouldn't you?

And then there was an interview with the Foreign Secretary. He didn't inspire much confidence when he was Health Secretary, and as Foreign Secretary he is exceeding the expectations of even his staunchest critics. This morning he was banging on about how some technological gadgets may well make a soft border in Ireland possible (and so save Brexit). The devices he was talking about were purely in the realms of science-fiction and fantasy; it is well established that what he was talking about simply doesn't exist. But to him that was just a piddling detail. In his mind the fact that something doesn't actually exist is no reason not to use it...
I think I would be very good at being Foreign Secretary.

Work was work; I did my bit. As I walked to the car park this evening I saw that it wasn't quite dark. The evenings are getting lighter. You know that you are old when you notice the lighter evenings.

I came home, as did "er indoors TM" who then boiled up a rather good pasta bake which we washed down with a bottle of red wine (and some amaretto) whilst watching the Shaun the Sheep movie. Have you ever seen it? It alone is worth this month’s Netflix subscription.

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