I had a
rather restless night. It started with a nightmare in which I was both in an
unrehearsed theatrical review starring whoever it was who voiced the Tetley tea
folk and also in a pitchfork-wielding mob who had sprung up to close down that
theatrical review. It was with something of a sense of relief when I woke. I
went to the loo, I came back to bed, tripping over Fudge on the way. I got back
to bed and had to fight Pogo and Treacle to get any space on the bed.
I didn’t really get back to sleep after that.
Despite "er indoors TM" having
turned off her alarms, one still went off at half past seven. I got up and made
some toast, and scoffed it whilst looking at the Internet. Not a lot had really happened overnight. There
were still arguments on the geocaching Facebook pages, but that seems to be par
for the course. There seems to be a self-appointed “in-crowd” on that
group who decide what the accepted etiquette is for any given situation and
then judge those who go against their opinion. Even though there isn’t any “official”
position on whatever bit of pettiness on which they are pontificating this time.
I took the dogs round the park. Today’s walk was hard work.
The lock-down has brought out all the dogs who never get walked from one month
to the next. All named “Zeus” or “Maximus” or “Tyson” or “F…ing-Huge-Death-Hound”
or something else equally double-hard, they are all walked by the same sort of
person. I don’t want to appear judgemental, but who takes a dog for a walk when
wearing fluffy slippers or flip-flops with make-up that has been applied by a
trowel? We met a thug and his painted barbie-doll associate who were not at all
happy when their humungous Staffie rolled over in terror and submission when
Pogo ran up to it.
With walk walked I spent an hour or so preparing for
Friday’s Zoom quiz. I mentioned about doing one a couple of weeks ago on
Facebook and sent out invites to anyone who showed any interest. We had quite
the fun evening but looking back the questions were too hard.
I’m going to have another go later in the week. I’ve come
up with some easier questions, and I’m going to test the software to its limits
by including a picture round. If any of my loyal readers fancy joining in, just
drop me a line and I’ll send details.
The roads were a lot quieter than usual
as I drove cross-country to Pembury. Was it my imagination, or was there really
a lot more dead animals on the road as I drove. Is the reduced traffic causing
the wildlife to venture onto the dangerous roads more these days? Mind you, in
the same way that all the never-before-walked dogs were in Viccie Park, all the
never-before-ridden bikes were along the A28, A262 and A21. Wobbling (quite
literally) from one side of the road to the other, fat lycra-clad forty-and
fifty-somethings were taking their lives in their hands as they sent traffic
scattering in all directions in their wake.
But (notwithstanding road-kill and
cyclists) it was a rather beautiful day to be driving cross-country.
As I drove I had a phone call. It was
Cheryl. What did my daughter-in-law want? Gripped by panic over all sorts of
imaginary catastrophes I pulled over. I breathed a sigh of relief when she just
wanted me to settle an argument. When a plane takes off, does it leave the
Earth? She said yes, the first fruit of my loin said no. They were having quite
the squabble. I didn't help matters by not committing to either side, but
instead suggested that it all depended on what you actually consider "Earth"
to be. Does "Earth" include the atmosphere? I wasn't touching
that one with a barge pole.
Half an hour later "er indoors TM"
sent a message wanting me to tell her what the expected answer should be.
I got to work and mentioned the "is the plane still
on Earth" dilemma to a colleague... he asked if I'd considered
boats...
I spent a little while thinking about “Gordon Tracey”
today. We first met Hurksy about eight years ago; he had got into hunting
Tupperware about six months before we did. Over the space of three of four
years we had quite a few outings together; out most weekends, some weekends
away in Sussex, a rather good stomp around London and a particularly memorable
weekend in Cornwall. Eventually we sort of drifted apart; we were more
interested in going for a walk. He was into tree climbing.
He developed cancer some time ago, and this afternoon was
his funeral. Ideally I would have gone along, but what with the pandemic, space
at the funeral was severely restricted.
I’m told there will be a memorial service once lock-down is
over…
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