I went to bed shortly before eleven o’clock last night
and made a point of turning off my phone’s connection to the Internet. But it
too must have been rather excited at the prospect of having broadband again,
and as I nodded off it told me of several trivial things that could have waited
until the morning. I got back to sleep only to have it continue. I wish it
wouldn’t. What with that nonsense and the usual insomnia that goes with having
an alarm set I had a rather restless night.
I got up early and in a novel break with tradition had
a bowl of granola for brekkie. Much as I like granola, at two pound fifty per
packet I’d expect more than three servings from a packet.
I watched an episode of “Victoria” because I
could. Today’s episode featured the cholera outbreak in Soho in 1854.
I consider myself something of an expert on the matter as there is a
virtual geocache which features the water pump
responsible for the outbreak.
I then had a look at the internet – because I could.
The Internet told me that two friends from way back were having a birthday
today. My old next door neighbour who I’ve not seen in person for over forty
years. And someone I knew from my religious days who (like me) went on
to see the darkness. I since met her again through the now defunct snake club,
and the last I heard she was running a petting zoo in Norfolk with her
girlfriend.
I munzed; our clan has got to Level One. I struggled
and gave up with Wordle, then got ready for work.
I went out to the car... and came straight back in
again. When I'd got up I'd looked out of the bedroom window and the car was
fine. In the meantime a heavy frost had formed on the car so I got a bottle of
cold water to shift the ice.
It took some shifting.
I drove to work through a very dark morning. As I
drove the pundits on the radio were talking about a police
investigation into the death rate at the Royal Sussex County
Hospital in Brighton.
This sort of thing pisses me off. The media are only
too quick to highlight any failing in healthcare. Have you ever noticed that
when reporting on medical mishaps, those reporting never use the term "honest
mistake"? Terms such as "incompetence" and "bungling"
are freely bandied about, and the implication is made that people actively go
to work in hospitals to deliberately harm the unwell. And having done their
level best to dissuade anyone from working in healthcare, the media is then
rubbing its hands in glee. It can then run stories about the growing waiting
lists which it is actively helping to grow.
There was then a lot of talk about the "McDonalds
Claim". Apparently quite a few
McDonalds employees have suffered sexual discrimination and harassment. Perhaps
they have. Perhaps they haven't. I don't know, but some bunch of lawyers are
organising those with a grievance into a body which can
sue the McDonalds corporation.
Is this *really* the right way to address this?
Personally if I had any evidence that I'd ever worked for McDonalds this is a
bandwagon I onto which would be jumping right away, as should anyone who has
ever worked for McDonalds. Just claim someone touched your arse and/or called
you a puff, and it is money for old rope. Isn't it?
Surely there is something wrong with a system in which
companies get others to make allegations which they then investigate for
financial gain? Surely a better system would be to have all such compensation
claims brought by an impartial ombudsman who gets the same rate of pay
regardless of the outcome? Or am I missing something?
I got to work for the early shift and cracked on. As I
worked so “er
indoors TM” sent a message. She’d
spotted a rat in the garden. I thought Bailey had been getting twitchy
recently.
So… a rat… I don’t want any lethal traps or poison in
the garden with the dogs about. After a lot of phoning around and being told no
one had anything, eventually the local branch of B&Q said they had a lot of
humane rat traps. So I called in on the way home from work. I couldn’t see any
humane rat traps so I asked at the counter. Again the staff were disinterested
in the extreme, but eventually I got someone to come and have a look. After a
few minutes the chap admitted he couldn’t see any either. He admitted that when
I’d phoned and been told they had lots, what they should actually have said was
that they didn’t have any.
And people whinge that Amazon is killing local shops…
Hopefully the humane rat trap arrives tomorrow. In the meantime I’ve set a
humane mouse trap.
“er indoors TM” boiled
up a very good chili which we scoffed whilst watching more of the current
season of “The Traitors” in which the really annoying one got chucked
out. I don’t think that’s giving away any spoilers; all the contestants get on
my tits really.
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