22 December 2022 (Thursday) - Rostered Day Off

I had something of a lie-in last night, sleeping through until “er indoors TM’s alarm went off at seven o’clock. I let her see to the puppies, then hobbled downstairs. I made toast and scoffed it with some ibuprofen. Whenever I  hear mention of ibuprofen I think of my old mucker Dave who died nearly fourteen years ago. His wife used to work in the factory where the stuff was made which (in his mind) made him a leading authority on the stuff… even though he knew pretty much nothing at all about it and couldn’t even pronounce the word “ibuprofen” (he always called it ibuferan).
 
As I scoffed brekkie I peered into the Internet and saw consternation on the Lego pages. It generally abounds there. But here’s a word of warning… the latest scam to hit is people making fake old Lego kits. Mind you when I say “scam”. the adverts being touted were quite clear on what they were selling.
Someone or other had looked up an old Lego set from the 1970s, found exactly what bricks came in the kit, got them all from one of many sellers, printed off a copy of the original box and of the original instructions, and sold it all as a reproduction. Other sellers were flogging just the newly-printed boxes (quite openly advertised as reproductions). Bearing in mind that the boxes on 1970s Lego sets are fifty years old and consequently pretty knackered, people are printing new boxes and selling them. Also bearing in mind mint condition original boxes of kits from fifty years ago sell for over two thousand quid (for just a box!!!) there’s clearly a market.
Several people who hadn’t read the descriptions of the adverts then had the arse.
I was reminded of an incident from over fifty years ago when my aunt got a new food processor. As she opened it all so my mother passed over the instructions. My aunt sneered, said that instructions were for people who didn’t know what they were doing, and promptly sprayed cake mix all over the ceiling. If all else fails, read the instructions, eh?
 
I loaded the dogs into the car and we drove over to Henwood. “er indoors TM had taken her car there to get the mirror sorted so we picked her up and drove her to her work. Three dogs who are always silent when it is just me and them in the car went absolutely mental at the sound of her voice.
We drove through a foggy morning to drop her off, and then drove up to Kings Wood. Having told “er indoors TM that it is rarely foggy at Kings Wood (because it is so high) it was rather embarrassing to see thick fog. But, reasoning that fog is just low clouds, rain drops out of clouds and it never rains when it is foggy we went off for our walk… and got quite seriously rained on.
We met one or two other dog-walkers as we walked… and one idiot. Said idiot had two huge dogs yanking about on leads he could barely hold. On seeing him approaching we diverted into the woods and stood and waited (a hundred yards away) for him to pass. He just stood at the end of the path. After a few minutes I called out and asked if he was going to move, or if he was just guarding the path. Without any comment he just shoved off. A passing dog-walker coming up behind said she’d encountered him before, and said he was weird.
I seem to attract them.
With only a hundred yards to go before we got to the car park Bailey excelled herself by rolling in fox poo, eating fox poo, and getting peed all over by a big dog…
We walked a much shorter walk than usual today, and I took a walking stick too. Perhaps I should have rested my back, but the dogs haven’t had a decent outing for some time, and I had a plan that after a decent walk they might sleep.
 
We came home for a bath. The trouble with bath time is that no matter how tired the dogs, bath time always sets them into a frenzy, and they come out of the bath charging about like lunatics for fifteen minutes before they eventually settle.
They all got a wash. Bailey had two quite vigorous scrubs, and after fifteen minutes of absolute mayhem they all three eventually settled. Bailey still had a fishy whiff of fox poo about her though…
 
As the dogs slept I cracked on with the ironing; what else does anyone do on a day off? As I ironed I watched more “Star Trek: Prodigy”. For all that this is clearly a children’s show (made by the Nickelodeon  channel) it has clearly been made by people who have actually watched Star Trek, which (sadly) is  more than can be said for those who have made many of the other new Treks.
 
With ironing ironed I went off to collect “er indoors TM. I left a few minutes early to indulge in a spot of geocaching before picking her up. Regular readers of this drivel may recall how that used to be such a major part of my life; it has been two months since I last found a film pot under a rock. But I found another one today.
I collected “er indoors TM, left her at the garage and got home about half past four. In the dark. Mind you with yesterday being the solstice the evenings should start getting lighter soon.
“er indoors TM got home a few minutes later. Her car wasn’t ready so the garage have lent her a courtesy car. She seems quite impressed with it.
 
“er indoors TMcarried on working from home and I had a look at the Advent Calendar. And with that looked at (and working from home worked) we watched more Netflix whilst getting stomach ache from scoffing too much dinner.
For a supposed day off, it has been non-stop today. I’m going to work tomorrow for a rest… *if* my back is any better.

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