4 April 2023 (Tuesday) - Before the Late Shift

 

I woke feeling like death warmed up. I really ached; what was that all about? Leaving “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs fast asleep I got up, made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. I had an email - my leccie and gas bill was ready to view… so I viewed it.
My leccie and gas bill works in a strange way. Each month I pay a couple of hundred quid to the power company, but that isn’t “my payment”. This money goes into some holding account (on which I guess someone somewhere gets interest), and twice a year the power company take enough money out of this holding account to pay off what I owe them. So when I have a look and see that I am five hundred pounds in credit with them, I’m not. This means they’ve got five hundred quid of my money in an account which they will have when they are good and ready.

They told me I was on the cheapest tariff (well, they would, wouldn’t they?), and they said that (based on current usage), next year they reckon I’ll spend thirty quid less on leccie and seven quid more on gas. I suppose that thirty quid a year less on leccie is a step in the right direction, but realistically two pounds fifty off of the monthly bill of two hundred quid is little more than pissing in the wind. The trouble is that (apart from the fish pond) we don’t really have very much which is leccie-intensive so there’s not that much on which I can economise.

 

I chivvied the dogs into the garden to do what dogs do, and had a look at the pond. The water level is pretty much what it was when I turned it all on two days ago. Last year I thought I had a leak, but I did wonder if the cascade arrangement (which has now gone) was somehow losing water through leaks or splashes. I think it’s safe to say that the water loss was because of that cascade I’ve now got rid of. Not having a leak is something of a result.

But there is clearly nowhere near enough water going to the right-hand pump, and I don’t think the ultra-violet light in either filter is working.

Ho hum…

 

I spent an hour or so on my current Wherigo project, and then had a stroke of genius (modesty, eh?) about how to proceed with the next bit. But bearing in mind how long that will take, I turned the lap-top off. I’ll do that bit later.

“er indoors ^TM” and I loaded the dogs into my car and I set off to Penenden Heath. “er indoors ^TM” followed in her car... or so I thought. She overtook me on the motorway, but went to the wrong place so I ended up waiting for her anyway. I did chuckle.

As part of this month's Munzee Clan War our clan (between us all) has to scan five hundred of a certain sort of bar code stuck to a lamp post (it isn't anywhere near as dull as it sounds!) Looking at the map it seemed that Penenden Heath would be a good place to do this; because there were lots of bar codes to scan and because it was on my way to work.  With “er indoors ^TM” being between jobs she was at something of a loose end, so she came along, and the dogs needed a walk anyway.

We had a good Munz session. It would have been better had Morgan not been pulling like a train the entire time. But we walked and Munzed for an hour; Munzing over half our Clan contribution for Greenies (as one does). As we walked and Munzed we met an inflatable Easter Bunny sitting in someone's front garden.  We've had an Easter tree before (during lockdown), but never an inflatable Easter Bunny. I'd quite like one.; they are only forty-five quid on eBay. 

Surprisingly no dogs barked at it.

We had a go at a geocache as we walked. It wasn't there.

 

With Munzing Munzed I helped “er indoors ^TM” load the dogs into her car, and as they went home so I set off for the late shift. The late shift was rather busier than I would have liked; the amount of work outstanding half an hour before the core shift went home was about what a day's work for the entire department was back when I first started this job. And the department (in the now-demolished Royal East Sussex Hospital) had about twice the staff too…