Just when sin is quite the thing, here’s one who holds quite tight to what has worked before... Beer (brewing and drinking), holidays, diets, dogs, fishing, ironing, hiking, geocaching, Munzees, Lego, wherigoing, painting (oils, emulsion and gloss), ranting, recording history as I see it. Days with family, days with friends. Always an opinion (always wrong); rarely a dull moment. Welcome to my world. Remember history is written by those who make the effort to write it.
31 July 2023 (Monday) - So Tired
30 July 2023 (Sunday) - Before the Night Shift
29 July 2023 (Saturday) - Garden Party
28 July 2023 (Friday) - Another Early Shift
27 July 2023 (Thursday) - Early Shift
26 July 2023 (Wednesday) - Intimations of Mortality
25 July 2023 (Tuesday) - This n That
24 July 2023 (Monday) - Back To Work
23 July 2023 (Sunday) - Last Day Off
As the rain continued I had my usual look at the Internet. It was still there. Today’s argument on Facebook was about the White Rock Theatre in Hastings which faces closure next year as the current lease comes to an end. And it was the old, old story in that no one wanted the place to close… even though no one had been there for years. I must admit I’d rather the place stayed open… even if the last time I went there was taking “My Boy TM” and “Daddy’s Little Angel TM” to see Geoffrey, Bungle, George and Zippy in “Rainbow” some time in the early 1990s. It’s the same with pubs closing down all over the place. No one is happy about it but no one uses the pubs. Mind you with beer at a fiver in the pub, and a theatre ticket over thirty quid (for next weekend’s show) is it surprising these places are shutting down?
I then had a look at my photo archive. I’ve got nearly two hundred gigabytes of photos – as time has gone on so photo size (in bytes) has got bigger and bigger. In the past I’ve just saved everything I ever photographed. I need to be a tad more judicious in deleting crap photos. Some of the earlier photos were in .cam format. Bitberry file opener was recommended to open these but failed. As did Irfanview. Eventually XN view came up trumps and I was able to look at photos I’ve not seen in years. Including some photos of a baby born in November 2001. I wonder who that was? I’ve no idea.
We settled the dogs and with “er indoors TM”
foot still playing up we drove up to the town centre where we met up with friends
for our monthly brekkie and catch-up. It was good to catch up. It was good to
scoff brekkie too.
We came home, and I spent a couple of hours pootling in the
garden, weeding and trimming and Bionic Burning. Two hours effort just to have
it look just like it always used to.
We spent the afternoon slobbing by the pond reading more of
the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.
“er indoors TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the latest episode of “Star Trek”. A crossover episode between the live-action “Strange New Worlds” and the cartoon-animation “Lower Decks” set over a hundred years later. I thought it would be awful; it was one of the best “Star Trek” episodes ever (and that’s up against some pretty stiff competition).
I’ve had a good couple of weeks off work, but tomorrow I’m
back to the grind. And (to be honest) I’m quite looking forward to it.
For many years I would feel physically sick at the prospect of going to work…
not any more.
22 July 2023 (Saturday) - A Lazy Day
21 July 2023 (Friday) - Posing For The Camera
20 July 2023 (Thursday) - Feeling Worn Out
19 July 2023 (Wednesday) - More Holiday
18 July 2023 (Tuesday) - Tidying the Shed
17 July 2023 (Monday) - New Lap-top
16 July 2023 (Sunday) - Not So Busy
I gave up thumping “er indoors TM” in a
futile attempt to stop her snoring and got up. With a load of washing in to
scrub I made brekkie, watched an episode of “Shameless” then cracked on
in the garden. I vacuumed the shingle, strimmed the lawn edges, mowed, then got
out the Bionic Burner and burned away the weeds on the patio. This Bionic
Burner is a load of rubbish. Admittedly it burned the weeds, but just left
burned weeds which then needed pulling out. Pulling the weeds out by hand gets
rid of them without the need to incinerate them first. I tidied up, and with
power tools away the dogs were allowed into the garden; Morgan does attack
them. I wish he wouldn’t.
“er indoors TM” went shopping; I
pulled more ivy off of the fence. I hate gardening; it is a never-ending and
ultimately futile pastime.
I then assembled the garden patio heater which has been sitting in its box in the shed for months. Billed as a portable heater it came with screws to bolt it into the ground so that it would be fixed in place. What was that all about? After fifteen minutes it was ready for a trial. It worked. It is now in the shed; I suspect I shall fail to sell it on Facebook marketplace and take it up to the tip in a few months.
I sat down by the pond which had cleared nicely after
yesterday’s mishap with the pond filter. I had a look at the Internet and saw
an invite to a birthday bash. A good friend I don’t see anywhere near often
enough will be sixty in a few months’ time. Rumours of a camping weekend turned
out to be just rumours. Sadly the plan now is a trip to a local pub to listen
to some band or other. But when I say “local pub” I mean local to him,
not me. I quite fancied a weekend’s camping trip; I seriously don’t fancy
travelling for two hours just to get a headache.
“er indoors TM” came home from
shopping. We settled the dogs and walked up to the park. We’d seen adverts for
a “World in a Tent” festival which was happening this afternoon and we
went along with high hopes. But all we found was half a dozen stalls selling
food (all with massive queues), half a dozen stalls selling overpriced
hand-made tat, and a stall offering help with addiction issues. According to the
timetable we arrived as the Nepalese Dance Group were doing their
thing. Sadly we couldn’t see any dancing going on, but there was a deafening
caterwauling being blared out of the PA system. We’d gone along expecting to
spend most of the afternoon there soaking up the ambience; we’d seen the lot
and were on our way home within ten minutes.
We sat in the garden and read books for the afternoon
instead whilst scoffing mushroom crisps and guacamole dip.
“er indoors TM” boiled up a very good
bit of dinner which we scoffed watching episodes of the prequel to Star Trek
and the sequel to Quantum Leap.
Both were rather good…