Last night’s night shift was rather hard work; I was very pleased when the early person arrived so that I could go home.
As I drove home the pundits on the radio were interviewing the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace about the UK’s continuing involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. Mr Wallace was saying how the western allies of Ukraine have to walk a tightrope in that they want to support the Ukrainians without overtly antagonising the Russians. Mr Wallace wasn’t at all happy with the suggestion that what with the ongoing cost of living crisis (with inflation looking set to hit eighteen per cent and the Russians putting the price of gas through the roof) more and more people feel the UK can’t afford to get involved in other people’s wars. He wasn’t happy… but didn’t really have a plausible reply. A bit like the wannabe Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who was interviewed for twenty minutes and said so much without actually saying anything.
I got home, had a quick wash and brush-up and headed down the road to the dentist. As I’d driven past there on my way home there had been some teenage girl sitting on a push-along scooter outside the dentist. She was still there as I went in.
I saw the hygienist first. This one was amazed at how good my gob was. The last time I saw her (26 February 2021) she’d given my cake-muncher the serious thumbs down and was particularly rude about it. I’ve not done anything different in the meantime and I’ve since seen two different hygienists who were happy with my trap… what was that all about.
I then went in to the dentist for a check-up. I was in and out in less than a minute before making appointments for next February.
The girl on the scooter was still sitting outside as I left.
I drove into town (to get that pond filter that Royal Mail hadn’t delivered yesterday) and parked in a half-empty Vicarage Lane car park. That place is usually heaving; where were all the cars? I wasted ten minutes fighting with the ticket machine. I don’t begrudge the sixty pence parking fee but I do begrudge the waste of time to get the machine to actually sell me a ticket. Once I’d finally got the ticket I walked over to the sorting office, got my parcel and was back to the car in seven minutes. I thought about haranguing the sorting office staff about their (frankly crap) delivery staff, but there were enough other people giving them a hard time already.
I came home, got the dogs and (driving past the girl on the scooter who was still sitting outside the dentist) we went down to Orlestone Woods. There were a few cars in the car park, and as we walked into the woods so several people (and their dogs) were walking out. We saw more people in the first fifty yards than we usually see on the entire walk. In fact other than the groups on their way home we only saw one other bunch; a young couple with *loads* of dogs. Presumably that had been their van in the car park with the dog-walking company logos all over it?
And with walk walked we again drove past the girl on the scooter who was still sitting outside the dentist as we came home.
I managed a little sleep, but not much. There was a knock on the door. A few days ago “er indoors TM” had stuck a whole load of crockery in the front garden. There was no room in our cupboards for it, but it was too good for the bin, so if anyone wanted it, they could help themselves. A passing young mother’s daughter wanted one of the cups. Were they *really* going free?
Finding myself awake I spent a few minutes looking at my new pond filter and determined that the ultra-violet light worked. I could sort the rest another time. I then downloaded the bank statements and went through them. Bearing in mind that over the last few weeks I’ve had two major holidays and a catastrophic failure of the pond’s filter system, I could be a whole lot worse off…
I feel absolutely worn out… a night shift will do that. I need an early night. I often say that but oh-so-rarely actually do it.
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