7 August 2024 (Wednesday) - Another Busy Day

I ached when I woke this morning; probably the result of having walked over eighteen thousand steps yesterday.
I got up, made toast and sparked up my lap-top. As I peered into the internet I was bombarded with adverts for camper van hire and dog friendly cottages. Clearly the Internet had been paying attention to what I’d been looking at yesterday. Mind you I suppose it was having a go at being helpful. I also had adverts for a dog show taking place thirty miles away, a Nepalese football tournament and the suggestion that I might like to follow the Royal Mail stamps and collectables page(!)
I saw a colleague had a birthday today. I’ve known her for years; like me she left the rather nasty atmosphere of the local hospital for somewhere much better. I thought she was in her early thirties; she was forty-seven today. Where does the time go?
 
And I had an email from the power company about my energy usage. I looked at their “energy hub” then sent an email back to them about my energy usage last month.
Did I really spend six times more money watching telly that using the washing machine and dishwasher?
It claims I used eighteen quid’s worth of electricity on hot water. My water is heated by gas.
In any case, how can they tell what device in my house is using power?
I suspect this whole thing is just some random guess, If it is correct I would seem to be paying about fifty pounds per month on the direct debit more than I should be. I’ve asked them to look into it.
 
I took the dogs up to the woods. We walked for four miles and once we were out of the car park we only saw two other people. One older lady with a spaniel who we often see, and who has only recently started replying when I say hello to her. And one young lad scooting about on an off-road moped which he really shouldn’t have in those woods. Mind you he stopped when he saw the dogs and waited for us to come past, so he’s not as bad as some.
 
We came home, had a cuppa, then once I’d hung out the washing I painted those sleepers. I say “painted”; “ronsealed” is a more accurate description of what I did. Having ronsealed I looked the stuff up on-line. Apparently it’s toxic to fish… Ho hum… All I can say is that I’ve been using it on the sleepers round the pond for as long as I’ve had a pond, and even dropped the stuff in the water before, and had no adverse effects that I know of.
Talking of the pond, I found our little disabled fish had died.
I had a little tidy-up in the front garden, bionically burned the weeds, then got out the hand-held pressure washer and had a go with that. I got a third of the front garden done before the battery packed up. It’s nowhere near as powerful as the mains powered pressure washer, but it is far less arse-ache to set up, use, and put away. I then pootled and fiddled and realized that the Ronseal on the sleepers was dry so I gave them another coating.
By the time I’d watered the plants and fed the fish I was knackered.
 
I had a shower, settled in front of the telly and woke in time for dinner. “er indoors TM made a very good bit of scoff which we washed down with a rather good bottle of cheap Malbec whilst watching an episode of Celebrity Bake-Off. And then an episode of Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over in which Stacey was staying with a Mormon family in which there was a chap with two wives. Have you ever watched the show? It’s rather good. Stacey goes and stays with people whose lives aren’t what many people consider normal. And as the show goes on you slowly realise that these supposedly strange people aren’t that different to everyone else.
As I once said to a colleague (who was once feeling rather self-conscious about her hijab) everyone is pretty much the same. Everyone is an idiot, and everyone likes cake.

No comments:

Post a Comment