26 July 2023 (Wednesday) - Intimations of Mortality

 

I had a rather bad night's sleep. When everyone else is restless, so am I. And when I finally nodded off I was gripped by an incredibly vivid dream in which the NHS had embraced a new cost-saving measure in which no printed information would use the letter characters on a keyboard. Words would be spelled out by seemingly random sequences of numbers and punctuation marks, and consequently my letter of complaint about this stupid idea was problematical to write (to say the least).
 
I got up earlier than I might have done, watched an episode of "Shameless" and then set off to work. As I drove up the road far too much air-time was devoted to Nigel Farage's banking difficulties. It turns out that his bank account really was closed for political reasons and not because he wasn't rich enough for Coutts.
The head honcho of the Nat West who'd led the BBC to believe it was purely because of financial issues has since resigned. She really should have kept her trap shut, if for no other reason than to keep Mr Farage out of the news. Freedom of speech is one thing... but I can't stand the chap. I saw him once, and he oozed arrogance and contempt.
 
There was also a lot of talk about green issues. The Prime Minster is signaling that he is prepared to take a softer stance on environmental concerns. The ULEZ around London is seen as a vote-loser. And Lord Frost has announced that rising temperatures are good for the UK.
As always, those advocating "f... the planet" are those who look to make short term profit. However when they raise the point that no matter what the UK does is merely pissing in the wind compared to the amount of carbon chucked out by the newly built Chinese power stations it is difficult to argue, isn't it? Perhaps the "Just Stop Oil" protestors might go glue themselves to a road in central Beijing and see how they get on over there?
 
I stopped off at Sainsbury's as I had to get one or two bits and bobs. I'd forgotten just how rubbish the Aylesford branch of Sainsbury's can be. Once I'd got what I needed I went to the tills only to find no one manning them. There were four members of staff standing round the self-service tills watching the public in much the same way that I might watch something entertaining on the telly. When there were no self-serving customers to laugh at, they just chatted about what had been on telly last night, and showed one another stuff on their mobiles phones. They really don't care.
In the past I've suggested they might open a till themselves, but this morning I really couldn't be arsed.
 
Part of my shopping was a BBQ chicken sandwich for lunch. It gave me quite the gutsache. Having spent much of the morning peering down a microscope I spent much of the afternoon closeted in the work's "trap one" with a dose of fizzy gravy (to coin a phrase).
Perhaps I should have gone home sick? I didn't want to take the risk of being more than a few seconds from a functional chodbin though.
 
As I drove home “er indoors TM sent instructions for me to go to Asda. So I did. As I walked round there were two teenaged girls shrieking at each other and not looking where they were going. One crashed into me; the other fell about laughing “you bumped into that old man!
Whilst factually correct, this has bothered me far more than it should. I’m not old… I don’t retire properly for another seven and a half years…
And Asda also had four members of staff watching the self-service tills whilst the manned tills stood closed.

No comments:

Post a Comment