Many years ago (forty-six
to be precise) my best mate of the time learned a new word. For a few
months absolutely everything in his world was described as "monotonous".
Regular readers of this drivel will know that this best describes my mornings.
I lay awake for far too long, take puppies into a cold dark morning then take
them upstairs where they snore on top of “er indoors TM” as I scoff toast whilst watching whatever
drivel that Netflix has to offer.
On
some mornings the monotony is broken by my forgetting where I'd parked the car
and spending twenty minutes roaming the streets trying to find it, but there
was no such excitement this morning.
As
I drove to work the pundits of the radio
were banging on about how long ambulances wait
outside hospitals before they can unload their patients and about various
enquiries into quite tragic NHS failings. There has been a very noticeable
change in the BBC's attitude toward the
NHS over the last few weeks. The BBC clearly doesn't like the idea of strikes
in the NHS, and is sticking in the knife. What the BBC tends to ignore is that
the NHS is massively overworked, and who on Earth is going to choose a career
in the NHS when you can get far more money for far less training and far less
responsibility by doing no end of other jobs. For example standing on a train
platform swearing at the passengers (as I have experienced) pays ten
grand a year more than the average nurse gets.
And
then there was the
sad tale of Ngozi Fulani (chief executive of Sistah Space) and Lady Susan Hussey (who has resigned as an
honorary Lady of the Household, at Buckingham Palace). Ms Fulani was
attending some reception at Buckingham Palace where Lady Hussey made the
mistake of asking Ms Fulani "Where are you from" even though
Ms Fulani is as British as Lady Hussey. But having declared that she found the encounter as a “violation” and
said the experience will “never leave me”, Ms Fulani then went on the
radio this morning and said that "in her culture" people had
respect for the elderly (like Lady Hussey)... Am I being an old
reactionary in wondering exactly what Ms Fulani meant by "in her
culture"?
In
the meantime after sixty years of (unpaid) service to the Royal Family,
Lady Hussey has been thrown under the bus.
I
went to Sainsburys this morning as I needed some biccie bars for lunch. I got a
few bottles of plonk and Baileys and amaretto too. Here's a tip - amaretto is
cheaper in Lidl than in Sainsburys. I know that as the nice lady filling the
shelves in Sainsbury told me so.
And
then when I went to pay... there was no one on the tills so I had to use the
self-service checkouts. Because I was scanning bottles of wine they had to be
approved. As I scanned the first bottle so the red light above the checkout lit
up. At that point the sour-faced old bat (in Sainsburys uniform) who had
been watching my every move (like a hawk) made a point of walking away
and turning her back so she could pretend she hadn't seen the red light.
Eventually
she did what she had to, but it was clearly very much under protest. I
suggested that if they had staff operating the proper tills she wouldn't have
had to put herself out. She didn't actually say "F*** you, you big fat
f***er", but she did sarcastically ask me which of the staff I thought
might have gone to the till to open it up. She looked like she was going to
explode when I suggested any one of the four people that she'd just been
gossiping with.
As I was peering down
my microscope so my phone rang. It was the nice lady at Sky TV. Did I have five
minutes to spend with her looking at my account to see if there were any savings
to be had? We spent five minutes, and she offered to cut my monthly payment by
a fiver. That was kind of her. She then said that as I'd been with them for
twenty-two years (!) they had a deal with the Sky Cinema package that I
might like. I must admit that I wasn't overly keen on the movies, but “er
indoors TM” likes them, and the Paramount Plus channel comes
free with the Sky Cinema package. And in this brave new world you need the
Paramount Plus channel to be able to watch Star Trek. So after the fiver she'd
taken off and my loyalty bonus I ended up getting eighteen quid a month's stuff
for only four quid extra. I saw that as something of a result.
But
I found myself wondering... Twenty-two years? Is it really that long since we
got Sky TV? I can remember the first time I ever saw Sky TV. It was at Chris's
house and I was absolutely amazed that it had the same adverts as ITV and
Channel Four.
With
work done I came home and refereed the dogs. With Treacle on one side of me and
the puppies on the other I formally declared myself to be a demilitarized zone,
but they weren’t having it and insisted on fighting a pitched battle in my lap.
I
wish they wouldn’t do that.
Meanwhile
the Lego
Advent Calendar has kicked off… I’m toying with the idea of having a plot
this year. I just need to get one.
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