31 August 2020 (Monday) - Bank Holiday

Despite having downed copious amounts of European lager yesterday I didn’t sleep well. A combination of belly ache and backache meant that I saw every hour of the night. But having changed my CPAP’s nose fitting for a full face cover I didn’t wake up with a sore nose today, which was something of a result.

Seeing a space outside the house I moved my car so that it was right next to the van that "er indoors ^TM" had hired. The van has to go back today, and still being full of tat we could unload it into my car that bit quicker.

I made myself some toast, and settled myself of the sofa. Fudge helped me eat my toast as I peered into the Internet. It was much the same as how I’d left it really. I then had a look at that Lego set I’d bought yesterday. Some of the individual bricks were fake Lego. I shall have to take the thing apart and find out just how much of a swizz this set was.

"er indoors ^TM" emerged from her pit, and we emptied that van into my car. It took some emptying. And with tat transferred we took the dogs out. Effectively being without transport we walked round the park, and reminded ourselves why we like going to the woods.

Keeping the dogs out from under the wheels of passing cyclists was a mission in itself. I suppose that we didn’t pick *that* many fights really, but one silly woman boiled my piss. She walked past as we were playing at the dog beach. Pogo saw her and wandered in her general direction. Said woman went hysterical, shrieking that the small dog with her had been attacked by some other mutt and could not be in the same universe as any other dog. It was a shame as her little dog clearly wanted to play, but she marched on, and we carried on spuddling in the river.

We came home and "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" came on a flying visit. She then departed (taking Sid to the vet). "er indoors ^TM" and Cheryl set off to return the van to the car hire, and I carried on painting fence panels. I got half of one done before deciding that my back really did hurt too much to continue. 

I came in, and alternately read my Kindle and dozed in between hanging out laundry and fetching in laundry until five o’clock. We then collected "My Boy ^TM" and Cheryl and drove to Hythe. There was a minor family gathering at “Sunshine” – a rather good Turkish restaurant. I had a particularly good mixed grill. I stuffed myself silly and what with the government’s “eat out to help out” scheme it only cost us a tenner each.

We skipped puddings; we were all stuffed, and "er indoors ^TM" had boiled up an apple crumble. That went down rather well…

30 August 2020 (Sunday) - Ashford Lok N Store

 

I heaved myself out of bed this morning – oh, how I ached. I made toast and peered into the Internet. A friend I’ve known for over forty years was posting on Facebook expressing his amazement about the recent conspiracy-theory anti-lockdown, anti-masks protest in Trafalgar Square. And in doing so he opened quite the can of worms.

This got me thinking.

His post has started an epic thread of (frankly) ill-informed posts which showed how everyone is an expert based on what they have read on social media. And unfortunately the mere appearance of a statement on social media is enough to make it true for many. “Fact-checking” is so easy to do, but no one bothers. Take one of the so-called experts cited by one of the keyboard warriors to support this particular conspiracy theory. The chap in question has been exposed as a quack, but still the conspiracy theorists lap up his nonsense. People want to believe conspiracy theories. Take a very close family member for example. A highly intelligent and educated man who is absolutely convinced that 5G is radiation beamed straight out of Satan’s arse.

As a state-registered scientist myself I find it amazing that friends I’ve known for years have far more faith in what “Karen from Facebook” posts to the Internet that anything I have to say.

I find it easier to just put on the tin-foil helmet and hope for the best, all the time reminding myself that these people are allowed to vote….

 

Having filled my car with a whole load of tat that "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" wanted storing last night, I drove round to Ashford Lok N Store and put it into storage. Have you ever been to Ashford Lok N Store? It is a place that begs so many questions. There are no end of rooms in the place; you hire one, stick whatever you want in there, and lock it. And when you want your stuff you just go and get it (provided the front door is unlocked). No one asks any questions. You can’t help but wonder about just what is hidden behind the padlocks. Probably a load of old tat like I was putting in there…

As I loaded so another family was putting furniture into storage. Or some of them were. Two chaps were lugging stuff about with a shrieking harridan barking orders at them whilst generally getting in their (and my) way. After a few minutes the younger chap told her (rather abruptly) to shut her mouth (he then told her to actually close it so that she could no longer speak) and gave her the option to either help them, or to piss off. I didn’t actually clap, but it came close.

Once we’d unloaded my car and the van that "er indoors ^TM" had obtained we drove out to Margate to get even more to put into storage.

How easy it is to type that; how hard to actually do.

 

With my car full I then left "er indoors ^TM" loading her van and I took a little diversion into Ramsgate. As I was scoffing brekkie earlier Jose had sent me a message. Someone was selling a Lego cinema. It wasn’t a set I recognised, but it looked to be a bargain. I eventually found the seller’s address where a young lady (wearing little more than a skimpy dressing gown and a smile) sold me probably fifty to a hundred quid’s worth of Lego for twenty pounds. She explained that her children had grown out of it, and asked if it was for my grandchildren. I paused, and said that I supposed that they could play with it if they wanted to. She smiled at me in the way that you smile at weirdoes, and I drove back to Ashford’s Lock N Store to unload.

 

I got home just as "er indoors ^TM" got home; she hadn’t been in time to unload as Ashford Lock N Store closed at one o’clock.

The plan for the morning had been to cook up all sorts of goodies, but instead I popped over the road and got far too many crisps, and we drove down to Dymchurch where a family barby was taking place. Far too much European lager eventually numbed the pain in my back…

29 August 2020 (Saturday) - Painting the Fence

The night shift went well; even allowing for a minor contretemps involving the Kidd blood group system.

As I drove home the pundits on the radio were talking about the government’s latest plans for the re-opening of schools next week. Teachers are rather miffed that the edicts were only issued yesterday, and seem to have been made up as the government has gone along. They wheeled on one of the government’s advisors who all but admitted that they were making things up as they went along. I suppose that the government and all the advisors are doing their best; we’ve never had a pandemic quite like this one before. Interestingly not one of the people criticising the government’s plans actually had a plan of their own.

 

I came home and went to bed where I dozed fitfully until mid day. I made myself a cuppa, scoffed the pains au choclat I’d got for my brekkie, set the washing machine going and headed off into the garden. Pausing only briefly to hang washing out I got on with that fence. I got seven panels done by the time "er indoors ^TM" returned from helping "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" in Margate. Just as she got home so "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" sent the message that she’d left her keys in Margate.

 

Oh how we laughed.

 

By the time we’d got to Margate, collected the keys, loaded up the car with her luggage, delivered her keys to her in Folkestone and got home again it was gone nine o’clock.

 

I really ache now. How can painting seven fence panels hurt so much?

28 August 2020 (Friday) - Before the Night Shift

I woke to the sound of Fudge squeaking; he needed a tiddle. He’s a good boy and won’t just “go” inside. I let him out only to find torrential rain. That was a pain in the glass.

I made toast, and peered into the internet. Not a lot had happened overnight really. A cousin was singing the praises of the “Lord of the Rings” book(s). I wish I could see the attraction. So many people rave about Tolkein and I just find him tedious. For me the books just drag on with the author never using one word when twenty would do. Viz magazine once described "Lord of the Rings" as “ninety-five per cent adjectives, four per cent silly names and one per cent plot”, and that is a pretty accurate summary.

I want to like the books.

 

Pretty much nothing else had happened overnight at all. I had a look at my emails – my combined leccie and gas bill has gone up by twelve more quid each month, even though the people at the power company admitted that they couldn’t read my SmartMeter and asked if I could read it for them.

And someone had been out looking for the geocaches I hid a few weeks ago, and on having found them all had said nice things about them.

 

I got the dogs on to their leads and seeing a glorious blue sky (despite the BBC forecasting ninety-nine per cent chance of rain) I took them down to Orlestone Woods where we had a rather good walk. Pogo and Treacle charged about like mad things, and Fudge joined in the game from time to time. When he joins in the game, Treacle and Pogo automatically slow down so that he can keep up.

 

We came home, and I finished painting the gnomes. I think they look rather good. I scrubbed a couple more gnomes in preparation for more painting and looked at the garden. I had planned to paint the fence, but it was soaked from the overnight rain. It needed to dry out a bit before painting and more rain was on the way. So I popped to the corner shop for a croissant, and wrote up some CPD. Have you looked at my CPD diary? I wouldn’t bother. It is dull in the extreme and makes this drivel look interesting. But the thing gets no end of visits. There’s about twenty or thirty people who follow it. I can only (rather cynically) wonder if they are copying it rather than producing their own CPD?

 

During a lull in the rain I popped into the garden and spent a few minutes hacking back the overgrowth from “not-so-nice-next-door”; I filled a dustbin with the rose branches and clematis and other climbing plants that she insists on growing, then made myself some dinner (toast) and went to bed for the afternoon.

What with needing a tiddle, thunder, hail, and the nice man from DHL I didn’t sleep that well.

 

I made a start on baiting my second consignment of gnomes… I say “gnomes”; I think these two are elves. No beards and pointy ears – is that the difference? I’m no expert on gnomes but I can see that changing.

I’m hoping "er indoors ^TM" will boil up some dinner, then I’m off to the night shift.