With no alarm set I slept for over eight hours. I was eventually woken by Treacle who had decided it was time for me to get up. When stomping all over me failed she stared chewing on my arm, and eventually resorted to clouting me on the head until I gave up and got up.
I made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. There was a lot of consternation being expressed about the latest change of rules regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst there are no plans to bring in lockdowns and cancel Christmas plans (yet), working from home is now being encouraged. And the government is being rightly criticised for the mixed messages they are putting out. Perhaps the time has come for a strong Prime Minister to announce compulsory vaccinations for all? Not that our one would dare do something like that. How about something slightly less radical and charge the unvaccinated for the hospital bills they run up when they get COVID? At the risk of causing offence, the last fifty-odd years are testament to the success of vaccinations. And I have yet to hear any argument against vaccination (COVID or otherwise) that isn’t either factually wrong or laughable (sorry).
On one of the work-related Facebook groups I follow someone from America was saying that their hospital has sent out bills of over three million dollars for stays in hospital because of COVID. Makes you think…
I took the dogs out to the car and sighed. Some idiot had parked up behind my car last night. There was less than an inch between his car and mine. I couldn’t even open the boot hatch, let alone get the dogs in.
Once we’d sorted that I drove up to Challock. The dogs fancied a walk, and so did I. We parked in the top car park at Kings Wood today and had a little wander following some of the paths we walk less often. The dogs were funny – they charged about and played happily all the time we were on the paths we regularly walk, but when on less familiar territory they stayed really close to me.
As we walked we met four other dogs and we didn’t have any “episodes”. Mind you I didn’t like the look of one woman with her dog on an extremely short lead (about a mile from the nearest road) so as they came close I walked a little way into the wood, gave three blasts on the whistle and attracted my two out of the way with the promise of a treat. And (like any idiot would) the woman saw what I was doing and started bringing her dog over for a treat. She seemed rather crestfallen when I explained (from twenty yards away) that I had taken my dogs away from her dog as there were clearly issues as it was on a lead a mile into the woods.
Also as we walked I had a go at Munzee-ing. There is quite a lot of virtual Munzees at the top end of Kings Wood; of many different types. I thought I might judiciously pick off one or two of the specific types I need for this month’s clan war. However for all that there are a lot of munzees, there is precious little phone signal, and I got into a bit of a pickle with my off-line queue as my phone couldn’t decide whether to do them later on wi-fi or have a go with patchy signal anyway.
As we came back to the car we saw a young family. Mother and father all but ran screaming in terror, and were horrified when the toddler announced “doggies!” and pointed at my two. They then jumped into the car’s boot, and the toddler thought this was the best thing he’s ever seen.
As I put their leads on them and gave them a treat (they get one every time they do “boot dogs”) I couldn’t help but notice that rubber strip I had fitted across the lip of the back bumper only three weeks ago. The thing is there to protect the car’s paintwork; it was filthy and has clearly earned its keep.
I got some dinner from over the road and scoffed it whilst watching episodes of “Four in a Bed” in which there were quite a few pots calling the kettle black. Much like life in general, really. Once I’d scoffed dinner I did a little ironing, and as telly finished I had a fight with the lap-top and an MP3 memory stick.
As I drive to and from work I either listen to Radio Four, or to whatever music I have put on my MP3 stick. I *think* I’ve figured out how to convert CDs to MP3 that the stick can play (it takes a while to do!), but I’ve bought a few albums on Amazon which seem to be somewhere in cyber-space, undownloadable and only playable through some strange Amazon app. If I could get those into MP3 format I would be a happy bunny, but the nice people at Amazon don’t seem to want to let me do that.
As I fought with downloads and ripped CDs so the doorbell rang. My latest eBay bargain had arrived. All I wanted was the large wheels and I got them a lot cheaper than I had been expecting to pay, and got load more Lego too. Not bad at all and change out of eight quid (including postage).
“er indoors TM” announced that there was nothing in the larder so she phoned out for a kebab which we scoffed whilst watching the second episode of “The Great Australian Bake Off”. I’ve not had a kebab for ages – I had a large one so’s I could share with the dogs. They like kebab too…
I had planned to work in the garden today. I had hoped to finish the remaining bits of my current two Wherigo projects. And I had hoped to get some CPD done and watch some episodes of “Lost in Space” For a rostered day off I’ve been rather busy.
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