12 February 2024 (Monday) - An Afternoon Off

I had an early night last night, but woke at two o'clock and spent the rest of the night listening to snoring. I gave up with sleep, got up and made toast and scoffed it whilst watching an episode of "Peep Show". I do like that show but one of the main characters winds me up. A sponging freeloader who goes through life with his hand out shamelessly expecting everyone else to pay his way for him... Having met one or two of that ilk I can't help but wonder who the daft one is. Perhaps I should try it?
 
Bearing in mind that major road works were due to start today I set off for work early. And was immediately thwarted by my car which was covered in ice. A frost hadn't been forecast last night. After five minutes I'd scraped most of it away and was driving up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio.
There was talk of the war in Ukraine this morning. It would seem the Ukrainian army is running short of volunteers. Bearing in mind how their President has been shamelessly demanding international aid to finance his war, I can see him demanding troops next.
And there was talk from the war in Gaza where it would seem that Israeli soldiers are torturing and humiliating their Palestinian captives and then being stupid enough to put their war crimes onto TikTok. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to remember that the Israelis went into the current bout of this decades-long war as the victims, isn't it?
Closer to home it was suggested that bosses of water companies spilling raw sewage into rivers and seas might not get performance bonuses in their pay packet... There's a novel suggestion, eh?
 
As I got close to work it was apparent that the major road works that we'd all been warned about hadn't started, and I drove straight through where there were supposed to be serious delays. Not that I'm complaining.
 
Work was work; I didn't do much today. With annual leave to use up and being on an early shift I was on my way home by half past eleven. Sadly there was little other than drivel on the radio so I drove home singing along to Ivor Biggun songs. I took a little diversion on my way to find one or two specific features of geological interest that I could include in my Earthcache write-up. I found something that should do the trick; but for the most part rocks are on the dull side.
 
I collected the dogs, and took them up to the woods for a walk. Usually we walk round Kings Wood fairly early in the day, and there is a reason for that. Generally speaking, the later in the day we go, the more “normal people” we meet.
Within yards of starting our walk today we met a group of “special people” and their carers. Some of them were making strange howling noises which fortunately the dogs ignored. But Morgan made the mistake of looking at one of them and this one went absolutely mental; constantly shrieking “it’s looking at me, it’s looking at me”. One of the carers looked at me in a pointed sort of way. I looked back, asked “seriously?” and we kept walking. I didn’t want to hang around, bearing in mind that one of these carer-types once attacked Pogo with a length of bramble and then reported us to the police because his “special one” was frightened.
We had a good walk round the woods; we met other dog walkers; some chatted, others blanked us. And as we came back to the car park so we had another “episode”. The one who had supposedly been so scared of Morgan erlier came running out of the car park at us making strange howling noises. When he got to within five yards of us he loudly announced “oh my God oh my God” and ran back to the car park. He then turned, and ran at us again making strange noises until he got close enough for the “oh my God oh my God” to start again. And so this continued until I got the dogs into the car boot. As I tried to give them a treat so this one was alternately sticking his head into the car’s boot making odd noises and then running away.
Bearing in mind the last time I had any dealings like this I ended up with a load of paperwork from the police I thought it best to just ignore what was going on, and hope it would all soon go away.
It did.
As the “special one” was driven away by the carer so I saw another dog walker coming out of the woods. “Thank f… they’ve gone” the chap exclaimed. Apparently they’d had an episode as well.
 
We came home where I re-wrote the verbals for my pending Earthcache, put the finishing touches to my plans for my geo-meet planned for March, and dozed underneath a pile of dogs until “er indoors TM went bowling.
I cracked on with ironing shirts until she came home twenty minutes later having totally forgotten that this week is half-term and they don’t do bowling at half-term.
Once the washing machine finishes I’ll hang the laundry round the radiators and have an early night.

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