Finding myself wide awake far too early (again) I got up, started another negative COVID test going, and set about my morning scrape. I don't really like shaving, but I like having a beard even less, so a morning scrape is the lesser of the two evils.
I made toast and watched an episode of "Trailer Park Boys" in which Bubbles introduced his old friend Shitty, so named after a childhood accident. I did chuckle about that; over forty years ago we had a lad in our class with a not dissimilar nickname following an unpleasant incident in the school shower after a games afternoon. That chap went on to the police force - I last saw him in 1982 in uniform in Brighton. I wonder where he is now. His father was a policeman too and was something of a local hero having once jumped off of Hastings pier and saved a drowning child one cold November day.
Taking care not to disturb the sleeping dogs (or “er indoors TM”) I got dressed and had another pre-work Munz-ing session capping nine "Points of Dullness" and deploying ten weapons (maces, longswords and broadswords!) around the Orchard Heights estate before heading to work.
As I drove there was a little talk on the radio about the by-election in Birmingham in which the Labour party held the seat and increased its majority to slightly more than half of the votes cast... but with twelve candidates standing and a turnout of only twenty seven per cent (as opposed to fifty per cent at the general election three years ago) I think it fair to say that the real winner was apathy. Those numbers really need looking at, though. The MP for Birmingham Erdington has been elected by (and so represents) less than fourteen per cent of the electorate. Eighty-six per cent of the electorate either wanted someone else or couldn't be arsed to vote. This is not unlike many other parliamentary constituencies - the voting figures are freely available.
And people bang on about what a good thing democracy is. The will of the people, eh?
But the main focus of the news was the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine in which Russian forces have made a bit of a faux pas by shelling a nuclear power station. I think it's fair to say that if there is one thing that shouldn't be targeted in a war, it is a nuclear power station. Most of the so-called experts wheeled on to the radio seemed to agree with this... The power station is now under Russian control; I wonder if there will be any attempts to recapture it? One of the pundits being interviewed seemed to think that if it went up it would be ten times worse than the explosion at Chernobyl all those years ago... And at the time the radiation from Chernobyl was measurable in Kent. I measured it!!! It caused quite a scare at the time.
I got to work and cracked on with the early shift in the desperate hope there would be cake at tea-time. There was, so the day wasn't a bad one really. And (as I have said many times before) an early start made for an early finish.
My plan was to come home and walk the dogs round the park. I left a dry Maidstone, and as I drove down the motorway so the drizzle got heavier. I wouldn’t say the rain in Ashford was torrential, but it was certainly raining hard. I crept in, woke the dogs, and it was clear they wanted to go out. So we did…
We walked up the road, then we came to cross at the road junction I told the dogs to sit. Pogo sat, but Treacle wouldn’t. She was growling at another dog walking away from us on the other side of the road. Pogo then realised that Treacle wasn’t happy and started barking too. I got them to stop the excessive noise, but they were both snarling and growling at the dog on the other side of the road who had now stopped and was also making a fuss. At the other end of this other dog’s lead was what I can only describe as an idiot child who was staring at my dogs as though they were some sort of entertainment, seemingly oblivious that her dog was also kicking off. After a few minutes I asked this idiot child if she wanted something or was just trying to provoke all three dogs. At this she seemed to wake up and realise she was supposed to be taking a dog for a walk, and then hurried off away from us.
Why do I attract these nutters?
We only went round the block, but it was enough of a walk for us to come home soaked.
Once home we towelled off, then I capped the Tree House and in doing so unlocked the Gold QRate I’d acquired yesterday (and apparently spelled wrongly in yesterday’s blog!) and released a Maintenance Bot Cubimal (there’s never a dull moment in the world of Munzee!)
“er indoors TM” boiled up some fish and chips which we scoffed whilst watching a couple of episodes of “Yonderland”.
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