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7 December 2020 (Monday) - Before the Night Shift

Had I been allowed a fair share of the duvet I might have had a better night. I made the most of what I could get though.
I got up shortly after seven o’clock, chivvied Sid into the garden and cleared that which he’d left on the lino overnight before making myself some toast and having my morning look at the Internet. A family member was again posting very misleading and factually inaccurate rubbish about 5G technology. One of the articles he was posting was using reasoning along the lines of “staring into the sun makes you blind therefore 60-watt light bulbs should be banned”. So many people do this sort of thing. Why do so many people re-post scurrilous lies without fact-checking anything first?
 

 

"er indoors TM" came downstairs with the dogs. Fudge seemed particularly under the weather. He was very subdued and was trembling. He sat with me for a few minutes before going back to bed. But the moment he realised I was planning on going for a little work he suddenly perked up.

I drove the dogs out to Great Chart. As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing the new head honcho at the Natural History Museum. The fellow sounded very interesting. He was passionate about his new role. But… His last job was being the boss of Amazon in the UK and the chairman of the British Heart Foundation. He has previously held senior roles in Government, worked as a partner at consultancy firm McKinsey, was Board Director at Asda-Walmart and was founder of internet start-up Blueheath (the first ever Internet-enabled grocery wholesaler). This chap seems to typify those who are running the country these days – he is a professional manager. Gone are the days when you start at the bottom of whatever it is you do and work up. These days you get a qualification in management and go straight in calling the shots. Perhaps that is somewhere else where I went wrong?

 

We got to Great Chart (it didn’t take long) and pausing only briefly to replace a missing geocache we walked along the Greensand Way. We walked this stretch a week or so ago and found we couldn’t get as far as the river since it was flooded. It was still flooded today, but we got enough of a walk today. It was rather pretty in the thick fog.

 

Once home I popped up to the corner shop to get pastries for our morning coffee, then did my COVID-19 testing. There has been a lot of doubt cast on these self-testing kits, mainly because people doing the tests don’t ram the swabs quite far enough up their noses. I can understand why – it isn’t nice.

I then sat down with my laptop and looked at my accounts. Just a quick look today… not *too* shabby at the moment but once the bill for the roof comes in, and when the power company finally sort themselves out I’m sure things will be different.

I wrote up a little CPD, then took myself off to bed for the afternoon.

 

When I woke I found I had another message from the power company. Swati (this time) asked the same old questions that I have been asked every day for the last week. I spent quarter of an hour shivering outside with the gas meter scrolling through the current time, the current date and the number that they rejected. Eventually I told Swati (politely but firmly) that the gas meter readings since February have been estimated and that the whole idea of a Smart Meter is that there should be no guesswork. I also told her that we had established via the Live Chat on October 24th (some six weeks ago) that the meter needed repair and that someone was supposed to be coming out to fix it.

I expect someone else will be in touch again tomorrow and we will go thought the whole process again.

I told the world about what I got in my Lego Advent Calendar today, then smiled at "er indoors TM" in the hope of getting some dinner.

I’m off to the night shift in a bit. This one is an extra – I volunteered for it…

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