Being wide awake far too early again I got up and consoled
myself by having a shave with a new razor blade, what with it being the first
of the month today. I'm very mean; I get myself a new razor blade on the first
of each month and make it last for a month. There's no denying things get a bit
scrapy towards the end of the month.
I made toast, watched an episode of "Shameless"
and rolled my eyes at one of the sci-fi related pages on Facebook today. Following a few posts about the show "Blake's
Seven" earlier in the week, some idiot had started watching the show.
Said idiot was quite enjoying it (it is rather entertaining as I remember)
but was furious when he'd read spoilers about how at the end they all die. Mind
you, I'm not sure if "spoilers" is the right word bearing in
mind the episode in which they all died was first aired nearly forty-two years
ago.
(If you didn't know that they all died, sorry!)
I set off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were
interviewing some chap who is one of the leading lights in the rail industry.
It would seem the train drivers are on strike again. This chap claimed that at
the moment the average train driver in the UK gets £65,000 basic pay for a four-day
week. But this was wrong. The figure is actually
£48,500. Mind you, that's not really much difference to worry about when
you think that the average UK household income is
only £34,000. If I ever need to travel anywhere by train again I shall
check the coaches first. And will seriously consider a taxi.
And with all the country's schools looking to start business
again over the next few days, the announcement was made that quite a lot of
them (about a hundred) are structurally unsound and
frankly dangerous. Quite a few schools are looking to have classes in village
halls or remotely via Teams video calling as they've already had bits fall
down. Apparently a lot of schools were built out of reinforced autoclaved
aerated concrete which was all very well when it was first made, but now the
stuff is crumbling and collapsing. There was an interview about this with some
Labour party rabble rouser who claimed that this isn't news; the government
knew about it at least five years ago, and it's not just schools but all sorts
of other public buildings too.
I got to work and glanced at the ceiling. Was that about to
come down on me? As I pondered I had something of a macrocytic sort of day. You
get those in my world.
As I peered down my microscope I had a phone call from
Mackenzie of Clear Compare. She wanted to know if I had life insurance. I told
her that I might have. She wasn't having any of my lip. She demanded to know if
I had life insurance. "Yes or no!" she rudely shouted. I told
her that if I had it with her company I would be closing the policy, and if I
didn't then I would get it from a competitor. I told her that whether I had
life insurance or not was none of her business and added her to my phone's
growing "blocked" list.
I also had an email from my
professional regulator telling me it was time to re-register for another
two years. It only took a couple of minutes to do, and I’m going to pay the two
hundred pounds by direct debit. I bet those striking train drivers don’t have
to pay a professional regulator to be allowed to do their job…
With work done I came home. “er indoors TM”
was just finishing so we all went down to Orlestone for a bit of a walk. Orlestone
is a very pretty place to walk. And photograph bees.
At one point as the dogs were charging round like things
possessed Treacle came back to us hobbling. She’d clearly hurt her leg. She hopped
round on three legs for a bit, then straggled really slowly looking very sorry
for herself. Then when Morgan and Bailey saw something to chase she also flew
off like a bullet from a gun. That leg got better quickly.
“er indoors TM” boiled up fish and
chips which we scoffed as we started watching the first episode of the latest season
of “SAS: Who Dares Wins” (which has been on the Sky Q box for ages).
As always there was a lot of hard-man-talk about being comrades in arms and all
for one and all for one… Am I being cynical in wondering what all the other
stars of the show kept on taking the money when the original leader Ant Middleton
got the push?
As I watched I pulled several thorns out of Bailey who had clearly
been running through too many bramble bushes.
I then spent a little while setting up “Hannah” (my
GPS unit) for tomorrow’s adventure. I’ve not set it up from my new lap-top
before; I hope I’ve done it right. We shall find out in the morning after Dog Club…
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