I slept rather well; even if my night was plagued by nightmares in which Pogo wouldn't stop stealing bacon. For some inexplicable reason pretty much everyone in the world was eating a cooked breakfast with their plates on the pavements and Pogo was the only dog in the world doing that which you would expect from pretty much every dog in the world.
I woke with something of a sense of relief.
I made toast, and as another COVID test incubated I scoffed the toast and watched another episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" which Amazon Prime had warned me contained nudity. Nudey cartoons - what is the world coming to?
I looked at my COVID test and was pleased to see it was negative. I thought it would be as I had the booster jab last week, but there is quite the upsurge in infections going on at the moment. Seeing not much was happening on-line (again) I got dressed and set off for work.
As I drove through the rain the pundits on the radio were talking about how so many companies are making all sorts of claims about how environmentally friendly they are, but it transpires that talk is cheap, and (as yet) there is no reliable way to monitor these claims. So some group is being set up to verify the claims of companies to prove if they are as green as they say they are. For some inexplicable reason this regulatory body is being headed up by the pension department of the Church of England.
My eyes rolled as it was then announced that it was time for the sports news. That is usually incredibly dull. But rather than a continual droning of "blah blah sport" there was a dull crashing sound, and a muffled "oh shit" followed by a rather embarrassed silence. I did chuckle.
There was then talk about gas boilers being phased out over the next few years, and talk of government subsidies to help us all buy heat pumps. I say "help us all" - for all that there was talk of a five thousand pounds subsidy being promised, the total amount of money earmarked is but a drop in the ocean of what is required for everyone to get one. So do I jump in early and got one cheap, or wait a few years and spend more to get one that works better?
I popped to the Sainsbury's petrol station in Aylesford before work. With the national petrol stupidity having ended I'd let my tank get rather low before re-fuelling. But add an empty tank to the increased petrol costs (following all the panic-buying stupidity) I spent more on petrol this morning than I had ever spent in one go before. Seventy quid (!)
I did have this naive idea to get myself a sandwich form the petrol station as well, but they didn't have any. The chap behind the counter suggested (in a rather patronising way) that I should have made my own one at home. I told him I thought I didn't need to as I thought that I was going to somewhere that sold them. He (rather sarcastically) suggested that I might go over to the main Sainsbury's store to get one. I thanked him for that suggestion and made the observation that whilst I was over there I might find the store manager and complain about the piss-poor attitude of some of their staff.
That made him sit up and take notice.
I went over to the main store. I didn't complain, but did chuckle at the three or four of the Sainsbury's staff who were all standing at the newspaper section loudly "WTF-ing" at the fact that Sainsburys now sells the New York Times.
Work was work… I failed to get a photo of the goldfinches having a bath in the puddles on the flat roof, and apart from a passing strange person having a conversation with the tree outside our window, the day was rather dull.
Together with “er indoors TM” and the dogs I went down to the woods for a little walk. We didn’t see anyone else which is always for the best. And with walk walked we came home where “er indoors TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching Joe Lycett (the Esther Rantzen of the twenty-first century) and this week’s episode of “Bake Off”.
Some of us had wine and cheese too. The dogs didn’t. they had biscuit, but seemed happy to be included…
I realise I am hardly impartial, but Pogo is a seriously handsome dog.
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