8 December 2020 (Tuesday) - Saving Money (?)

As I drove home the pundits on the radio were talking about how the Prime Minister is off to Brussels himself to sort out a post-Brexit deal. Let’s hope it’s a good one

With less than a minute on Google you can show that (so far) Brexit has cost more than the Apollo program. Britain could have stayed in the European Union, have put twelve British astronauts on the Moon, and still be financially better off than we are today. Did anyone know this at the time of the referendum? I suspect some did, but their opinion was given no more value than anyone else’s. A *lot* of people have since said they voted “out” because they thought Brexit was the cheap option. (Mind you a *lot* of people have since said they voted “out” because they thought Brexit was the right thing to do regardless of cost – was it? Who can tell?).

Much the same is probably true about today’s announcement of the start of the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. Those who actually know what they are talking about are finding that their opinion is worth no more than those who feel the whole thing is one big scam. We really do have the words of the Minister for Health being regarded as of no more value than anyone who fancies wearing a tin-foil helmet.

Was Brexit done as a cost-saving or a political move? Are vaccines life-saving or a form of governmental control?

Surely the time has come to do away with democracy until those doing the voting are given correct information and can understand what the consequences of their voting.

 

I took the dogs down to Orlestone Woods for a walk. The woods were rather busy today. Often we get there early enough so as to not meet anyone else. We met six other dog walkers today. We met the little old lady with the poodle and Jack Russell. We met the nice lady with (what I can only describe as) the floofy spacehopper. We met a young lad with three dogs (we’d not met him before – we had a good chat). We met the posh lady with the Labradors (Fudge tried to “do the dirty deed” with them), we met the nice man with the Red Setters (they told Fudge off when he tried to “do the dirty deed” with them) and we met the old dog in his all-terrain push chair. Pogo barked at all of them; not one took umbrage.

 

We came home; I opened my Advent Calendar then went to bed for a couple of hours and got up to a message from the power company. They had conceded defeat with the Smart Meter issue and gave me a number to ring so that the dedicated Smart Meter team could deal with it. After a while I got through to what I can only describe as an idiot who was barely capable of reading the script she’d been given. After a very frustrating twenty minutes during which I went through the same old spiel (that I have been through every day for the last week) she put me on hold whilst she phoned the dedicated Smart Meter team. After a further fifteen minutes she told me that “Andrea” from the dedicated Smart Meter team would be phoning me back.

 

I then ironed for a couple of hours whilst watching episodes of “People Just Do Nothing” then spent an hour or so on the phone. Consolidating the Sky TV, broadband, Netflix and my mobile into the one account has saved me fifty quid a month. Add that to the two hundred quid I saved on the year’s house buildings and contents insurance means I am quids in… The money I’ve saved can go toward the new bathroom roof.

I expect sorting out the new SIM card in my mobile will be a mission in itself. That should be happening this week. The broadband should be in place before Christmas, and the Sky-Q box gets installed in a month or so. I’m hoping for great things here – millions of other people change suppliers with no issues, so why am I so terrified of change?

 

"er indoors TM" boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching “Bake Off” and washed down with a bottle of red wine. Perhaps the starter of Bailey’s was a mistake, but the dogs certainly liked the stilton that came for afters…

 

Needless to say, “Andrea” has not phoned me back…

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