I slept well. As I scoffed toast my Facebook feed had
a few mentions of The Peacock; the pub I mentioned the other day. It has now closed. I drove past it on the way
home last night and saw no lights on. I also drove past the Bull in Bethersden last night and saw
that was in darkness too. It closed at the end of last month. Both pubs had
been going for (literally) hundreds of years but both have closed for
want of anyone who feels they can make a living from running the place. As I’ve
said so many times, sadly the day of the pub is over…
I got the dogs onto their leads and we went out with
this plan to beat the heat. As we drove the pundits on the radio were
interviewing a couple of people about the junior doctors ongoing pay strikes.
One of them had me confused… she was incensed that there are more applicants
for junior doctor posts then there are actual posts, and so not every junior
doctor gets a job.
But isn’t this how the job market works? There’s more
applicants than posts so that the ones who aren’t any good at the job don’t get
appointed and so have to try a different line of work to which they might be
more suited? Not everyone qualifying as a doctor is going to necessarily be any
good at it, are they? I can remember helping with a bone marrow aspiration in
one of the wards at the (now bulldozed) St Helen’s hospital in Hastings
when another patient died (nothing to do with what I was doing!). The
junior doctor looking after the patient (who’d been in post only a few days)
went hysterical, said she couldn’t cope with that sort of thing, and resigned
on the spot. A chap with whom I went to school qualified as a doctor… and went
straight into medical sales. And what about Harry Hill and Graeme Garden?
The other chap being interviewed shouldn’t have even
been on the radio. He would say half a sentence and then stop and start again,
and then stop and start again. He never actually said anything. As I’ve said
before, the producers of Radio Four need to vet their interviewees a bit more
closely.
We go to the woods and parked in the shade. As we
walked we met some woman with a couple of dogs on epically long leads. She said
she was a dog walker and didn’t trust the dogs to come back when called. Her
dogs joined in with Morgan and Bailey playing a lovely game of chase… oh,
you’ve never seen a tangle like it.
We walked mostly our usual route, but took a bit of a
diversion at the end so we could stay in the shade; it was warm and Treacle seemed
to be struggling with the heat. A couple of times I wondered if we should have
stayed at home, and then Treacle was off at top speed chasing squirrels.
We came home for a cuppa and a bit of Swiss roll. I
Munzed and opened a qrate. I Wordled from “slept” to “divot” in
four goes, then went up to town. I’d had an email from the bank saying they’d
sent me a message. I eventually found a pdf file about their having archived a
bank account of mine, and said I could go into the branch to talk to them about
it…
I went into the bank, and the nice man was very
helpful. He’s suggested I might talk to a financial advisor. I might just do
that.
Being under orders to bring some lunch home I had a
look at the artisanal bakery stall in the town centre. And then I had a look in
Tesco. Tesco had stuff a third bigger and a third cheaper, and which hadn’t
been out in the sunshine for several hours. I got a pecan plait and a croissant
from Tesco and saved myself a quid or so.
I came home having had a little look round the town as
I walked. I rarely go into town these days, and when I do so much has changed.
And there’s a definite theme to the change. The sort of shops that sell stuff
that which you can buy on-line are going. Stuff which sells perishables (like
little groceries do), hairdressers, and nail bars seem to be a growth
industry. I must have seen a dozen new nail bars today; all of which were full.
I’m told that getting your nails done costs the thick end of thirty quid.
We had our pastries with a cuppa, then I spent a
little while tidying up in the garden. Pulling the green weed out of the little
pond, kicking the shingle back into place, gathering dog dung, trimming back
the dead leaves… an hour’s fiddling about at the end of which the garden looked
just the same as it had when I started and I was a bit hot.
We came in and I marked more trainee’s work, and wrote
up some CPD, and watched another episode of “The Handmaid’s
Tale”.
Seeing how by then it had cooled down a little I did “FEED
THE FISH”, then fiddled about with the aerator pump to get the water coming
out of fish thingy to come with a bit more wallop, then watered all round. I
had a look down the drain… it’s running better than it has been, but not as
well as it might. Ideally I’d get the nice water board man out, but we don’t
need the smell of turds stirring up in this heat.
I then got the shears out to give myself a haircut…
and saw the cable of the trimmer had broken. I got this one four and a half years ago… I rather thought it
might have lasted longer. I’ve ordered another one from Amazon which should
arrive tomorrow. Bearing in mind how much the local barber charges for a short
back and slap, after the second time I use it I will be in profit. And whilst I
was at it, I got a pair of slippers too…
The postie arrived with some solar powered phone
chargers that “er indoors TM” had
ordered. In a novel break with tradition I read the instructions and was rather
amazed to see that I should ideally charge the thing from the mains as much as
possible; despite the name, the solar panel is just an emergency back-up. And I
shouldn’t charge it anywhere near anything flammable in case it blows up.
Oh well… I expect it will go the way of every other
phone charger in that I will lose it within a week.
“er indoors TM” boiled
up chicken and chips which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of “The
Orville”. Both were rather good. And then there was a bowl of strawberries
and cream for afters…
Yesterday was dull. Today was seemingly non-stop (I
walked three times more steps than I did yesterday).
I’m going to work for another rest tomorrow.
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