16 December 2020 (Wednesday) - Cleaning The Car Out

I slept like a log. Being post-night shift and a bottle of red wine do that for me. Pausing only briefly to chivvy Sid round the garden I made myself some toast then had my morning peer into the Internet. (Regular readers of this drivel will know that I am a creature of habit).

There wasn’t much happening on Facebook at all today. I sent out a couple of birthday wishes and scrolled through the adverts looking for anything of note. Mind you the adverts were quite interesting. I believe that social media somehow tailors its advertising to its specific readers. I seem to get a *lot* of adverts for women’s underwear. Whilst I’m not averse to seeing pictures on saucy ladies wearing little more than a smile, I’m not going to pay over a hundred quid for a bra (I clicked the link – seriously – a hundred quid for a bra!!!). Bearing in mind how quick Facebook are to have me up for breaches of their community standards I have to wonder how the undercrackers merchants get away with it?

I checked my emails. I had an email (timed shortly after midnight) telling me that "My Boy TM"’s Christmas pressie had been delivered. It had actually been delivered about fourteen hours previously. I did a quick You-Gov survey, and then took the dogs out for a walk. The nice man was coming to service the boiler this morning and the last thing he needed would have been a sea of dogs getting in the way. 

We went down to Orlestone. Just lately we’ve walked round Hothfield Common, but the place isn’t that big. I had a look-see on-line last night. The “Bogs & Giants” walk we did yesterday at Hothfield was billed as one of the longer trails, and it was only a mile or so. Down at Orlestone our standard walk is twice that, and we miss out a *lot* of the woods. And Hothfield Common does seem to be swarming with the normal people. There are far fewer people at Orlestone, but it is muddier.

We had a good walk round Orlestone woods, even if the dogs did get filthy (and roll in fox poo). It was a shame that I twisted my knee, but there it is. As we walked we saw only one other group, and they were two hundred yards in the distance and walking away from us.

Going to Orlestone also meant I could test my phone. The old network struggled to get coverage there. The new one isn’t perfect but was far better. I managed to post the obligatory dog photo in seconds rather than in minutes, and I could send instant messages to "er indoors TM" where previously the thing has struggled.

 

We came home to find the boiler all serviced, and once I’d got the dogs bathed I settled down with a cuppa. Then the dogs went mad – postie had arrived. Every year at the Christmas geo-meet those of us who’ve found squillions of geocaches get certificates of achievement. I got one through the post today… It made me realise just how much I miss the geo-meets. Over the last year geo-meets have stopped because of coronageddon, and the geocaching Facebook pages have filled with the keyboard warriors who would run a mile rather than say hello to anyone in person. The sooner we can all meet up again the better.

I told the world about my Advent Calendar, and seeing how the time was flying I got changed and set off.

 

I drove round to B&Q. The back seat of my car has become something of a disaster zone so I had this plan to get a plastic box into which to put the wellington boots and coats and extending dog leads and shopping bags and all the general clutter. As I walked in to B&Q I was rather dismayed to see that they had the very boxes I wanted at about twenty quid each. I wasn't going to shell out twenty quid for a plastic box. I walked into the shop and round to the plastic box department where they had pretty much the same boxes (but without lids) for three quid. It pays to shop around.

I got one of those and set off to work.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how at the last election the Labour party were held up to ridicule because of their spending promises, and that there was no such thing as a "magic money tree". What with the pandemic, the Labour party's promises were but a drop in the ocean compared to what the government has now actually spent. An attempt was made to explain where all the borrowed money came from. Keeping businesses afloat, furlough payments - it runs to billions of pounds. But from what was being said all the money really would seem to have come from a "magic money tree". Whilst there was talk of paying back all the borrowing, there was no mention at all made of to who, what or where this money needs to be paid.

I got the impression the so-called debt could be magic-ed away in much the same way that the money had been magic-ed into existence in the first place.

 

I got to the works car park, and with a few minutes spare I brushed and scrubbed my car out. It is far from pristine, but looks a whole lot better than it was. So much so that non-canine passengers might now consent to get into the thing. (We had a near-refusal a couple of weeks ago...!)

 

As I worked my phone rang. According to whoever is on the other end of 020 8044 3842 a warrant has been issued for my arrest due to some tax evasion scam of which I am a part. I told them to get knackered.

If there is no update tomorrow, you'll know I'll be in the chokey...

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