After a good night’s sleep I turned on the telly and made some toast. If I turn the telly on before making toast then all is well with the world. If I make the toast first then sit down and turn the telly on then the Sky-Q box wants to do software updates and is utterly useless until my toast and coffee are both cold.
The thing knows.
As I scoffed warm toast and drank warm coffee I watched the second episode of “The Chair” which was entertaining enough, but for all that it is supposed to be a comedy-drama I’ve not seen a single funny bit yet.
With five minutes before the end of “The Chair” I sparked up my lap-top. If I turn it on and give it time to boot up (whilst I’m doing something else) then it is ready in seconds. If I turn it on wanting to use it then it takes about quarter of an hour to get going.
Facebook was a bit dull this morning. There were a couple of squabbles kicking off as there so often are. The Radio Four Facebook page was a classic example. No one was discussing the issues of the day; they were just making personal attacks on each other for want of anything better to do. But I did laugh when my cousin described her being woken at four o’clock by her neighbour having a physical fist-fight with his car.
I had a look at my emails. LinkedIn suggested that I become friends with Shadie McDuse. I had no idea who Shadie McDuse was (is); it would seem she is a lab assistant somewhere in London and we have one LinkedIn friend in common. The LinkedIn friend in common works for a recruitment agency specialising in filling vacancies in veterinary surgeries. I’ve mentioned before that LinkedIn leaves a lot to be desired.
As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about the shortage of blood sample bottles. If we run out, I'm out of a job, so this is a subject rather close to me. (We get through about two to three thousand of the things every day at work) There was talk about how there are issues getting the bottles moved about because of the shortage of lorry drivers and issues at ports, but there has been talk of blood sample bottle shortages on one or two of the international blood-testing groups I follow on-line so this *isn't* due to Brexit (much as some would like it to be). Possibly pandemic-related, but there are rumours flying around that it is all because of a shortage of plastic due to the Chinese not supplying the stuff. China does make a third of the world's plastic.
Are the Chinese playing silly beggars? Who knows?
There was also concern about how light pollution may be contributing to declines in insect populations. Artificial street lights have been found to disrupt the behaviour of nocturnal moths, reducing caterpillars numbers by half. Amazingly the modern LED streetlights appeared to have the biggest impact on insect numbers. These modern LED street lights wind me up. Back in the day when I was on the committee of the astro club we were in consultation with the local council about the introduction of these lights. Billed as the best thing since sliced bread, what was promised bears no relation whatsoever to what was delivered. Back in the day we had street lights that lit up the street. Now we have intense pools of light (which attract the insects to their doom) interspersed by humungous areas of darkness where you really can't see the black dog on the end of the lead you are holding. (don't believe me? - I've got a black dog or two you can borrow).
I've said before (many times) that the LED street light is an experiment that has been tried and has failed.
I went to the petrol station before work and got a car-full. As I went to pay I was glad to see that I got called to a different till to the one I paid at last week. Last week my credit card had got declined even though it works fine everywhere else. My card worked fine today. I remarked about it to the chap behind the till who laughed. Apparently the card reader at the other till only reads about one card in ten. They know the thing has issues, but their management refuses to do anything about it...
And then I popped into Aldi to cash in my winning Euro Millions ticket. The girl on the till called over her manager and after ten minutes the two of them figured out how to give me my four pounds and twenty pence. From the way they spoke I got the distinct impression that most people don't bother collecting such minor winnings. Does that make me a cheapskate? Possibly, but that four pounds and twenty pence has paid for three quarters of the first round of drinks for our next weekend walk. If any of my loyal readers have an unclaimed Euro Millions ticket for a trivially insignificant amount of money, don't throw it away. I'll have it and drink it for you (!)
After that, the rest of the day was rather dull…
No comments:
Post a Comment