4 October 2017 (Wednesday) - Before The Night Shift

I slept reasonably well, finally waking just before 7am. Over brekkie I had a look at Facebook and in one of the Ashford groups I read a thread about a local driving instructor who seemingly deliberately reversed a car at someone’s dog, and then shouted at the dog’s owner telling her she was scum because she lived in a housing estate. From the physical description that followed I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the same driving instructor who slagged me off to (at least) three of his pupils earlier in the year following a rather trivial squabble.

I got the leads onto the dogs and we went for a little walk round the park. The squirrels were out in force gathering the fallen acorns. Both dogs seemed oblivious to the squirrels, which was just as well.

As we walked we met OrangeHead who was clearly in a rush to get to the park. I’ve often wondered about her and her posse. Do they have a formal meet-up time and venue, or does she just go to the park and rally whatever followers she can muster?

We came home, and I spent a couple of hours doing dull housework. Firstly the harvest of dog turds in the garden needed to be gathered in. And with that lot shifted I mowed a rather wet lawn. There are those who say you shouldn’t mow a wet lawn. These same people never have any suggestions as to how you can dry the thing, and waiting for it to dry just means it gets longer and longer and consequently has less chance to dry out.

I hung out washing, then cleared up all the fragments of dog toys which were littering the living room. With them out of the way I then hoovered (with the Dyson), and then spent fifteen minutes clearing all of the crap out of the Dyson’s works.

I then prepared some pocket queries (it’s a geo-thing) and tried to print out the booking stuff for our upcoming weekend break. I do struggle with the Internet connection to the PC in the back bedroom. There are too many brick walls for the signal to go through. It really needs a physical cable to work properly. And I struggle with the printer too – it just doesn’t actually print. I gave up in the end; I’m not sure I need any hard copy.

I also backed up the last month’s worth of blog entries. I don’t know if anyone ever looks at the backup site, but it is there if anyone wants it.

Over a spot of lunch I watched the latest episode of the Channel 4 program “Electric Dreams” which starred Timothy Spall. He’s lost a lot of weight. I then went to bed for the afternoon and slept for a few hours until the puppy wanted to play.

An episode of “Gotham” on Netflix (which is getting *really* good) and hopefully "er indoors ^TM" will be home soon to make my dinner before the night shift.

It’s a shame I’m working on my wedding anniversary, but it could be a whole lot worse…

3 October 2017 (Tuesday) - NCC 1031

I slept like a log last night and woke feeling refreshed and raring to go. I looked at the clock to see it was only half past midnight. I then saw every hour of the rest of the night and finally got up (feeling like death warmed up) at 6am.

Over brekkie I watched the most recent episode of “The Last Ship”. The first couple of seasons of this show were rather good, the third was OK… this fourth season is rather two-dimensional and rather poorly thought out. It is far more of a wartime propaganda film than entertaining viewing. I suspect it probably works better if you are American as it portrays all Americans as super-good heroes and everyone else as untrustworthy scumbag villains.

I’m rather tempted to give up with the show now I’ve got a ton of stuff I could watch on Netflilx.

I tried not to disturb "er indoors ^TM" as I left for work. She was having a day off work today to fix the leaking toilet. I wouldn’t have a clue what to do and she’s fixed it before.

It was cold as I set off to work this morning. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had made the news on the radio. He had been banging on about how wonderful unfettered capitalism was. I wonder how much comfort that had given to those who’ve lost their livelihood following yesterday’s collapse of Monarch airline. Similarly talking out of his arse was one of the officials of America’s National Rifle Association. With gun crime in the USA being worse than pretty much all of the rest of the world put together, the NRA were trying to claim that the mass shooting that happened yesterday was nothing to do with the ready availability of guns.

Once in the works car park I phoned the bank. Last week I sent them a formal complaint about the timing of my statements and how they didn’t honour my credit card. I came home yesterday to find they thought I was complaining about a “Verified by Visa” password.

I finally got through to someone who agreed that the letter I’d received in no way answered the complaint I’d made, and I was assured that my concerns would be dealt with. Hopefully this time by someone who speaks English.

I had a busy day at work, and came home to find the chod-bin wasn’t quite as fixed as it might have been. Mind you I wasn’t going to complain. Whilst "er indoors ^TM" boiled up dinner I spent a little while chatting to various people on Facebook messenger.

Dinner was rather good; as we scoffed it we watched the third episode of “Star Trek: Discovery”. On the one hand there are several links to what has gone before (Star Trek; Enterprise). On the other hand there seems to be no understanding of what hasn’t yet happened in the timeline (Star Trek: Everything Else).

Mind you it’s not a bad show… even if NCC 1031 is the ugliest starship I’ve ever seen…

2 October 2017 (Monday) - A Third Birthday

I had a better night's sleep than the previous night; not good, but better. Over brekkie I watched an especially lame episode of "Dad's Army" then checked the Euromillions ticket I bought on Friday. Gordon had told me the jackpot was over a hundred and fifty million quid. I can't pretend to be poor, but more money would be good. Money might not buy happiness, but it does allow you to be miserable in extreme comfort. Am I being greedy in wanting that much money?

Needless to say I didn't win anything, but I might have done. I'd certainly made plans as to what I would do with that amount of money. The first thing I would do (if I won millions) would be to smile.

I set off to work on a rather overcast and depressing morning. Bearing in mind that two weeks ago we were all in Greece I was rather concerned to hear the news on the radio that the nation's fifth-biggest airline had just gone tits up. Over a hundred thousand people have woken up in holiday resorts up and down the Mediterranean only to find that Monarch Air is no more. It turns out that the biggest repatriation of UK citizens in peace-time is now under way as all these people need to be brought home. I couldn't help but wonder what I would have done if I'd been told that our airline had gone bust whilst we were away. Probably panic, I expect.

It turns out that one of my colleagues had booked a holiday to Grand Canaria with Monarch. She was wondering where she stood.

I got to work, and had a message from Cheryl. There had been talk of going to Jamaica for next year's holiday. That was out the window as Jamaica ain't as cheap as we had been led to believe. Despite airlines going west I still fancy more foreign holidays. There is now talk of Turkey.

It's daft, but it looks as though a foreign holiday is cheaper than one in the UK...

I did my bit at work, and on the way home I popped in to see "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM"; today is his third birthday. He’d got a decent haul of pressies, and was playing very nicely with a racing car track.

We spent a little while there, and as time was pressing "er indoors ^TM" got us KFC for tea. When she’d gone bowling (Monday is bowling league night) the puppy dared to scrounge for left-overs and before I could stop her she scoffed a sachet of salt.

She’s been at her water bowl on and off most of the evening…

1 October 2017 (Sunday) - Early Shift

The puppy was restless last night. A combination of being unable to breathe (because of the cold) and being stamped over by a small dog meant I didn’t sleep much at all last night.

I got up at 5.30am because I simply couldn’t breathe laying down, and over toast and coffee I watched the third ever episode of “Red Dwarf” on Netflix.

I set off to work shortly after 6.30am, and as I drove the radio was playing some wildlife documentary presented by the late David Bellamy. It turned out that show was first aired in 1971. You’d think the BBC would have had something more up-to-date to present, wouldn’t you?

Having had a grim night and having to work today meant I felt I deserved a McTreat. McBreakfast is always good. I ordered my sausage and egg McMuffin meal from a spotty oik who warned me that it might take a while to prepare as he was on his own. No one else had turned up to work and everyone had phoned in sick. Or so he claimed. I counted five other people working in the place. I wonder what he was gibbering on about.

With McBrekkie scoffed I went in to work. As I walked past the Costa I noticed that one of their coffees cost more than my entire McBreakfast (which included coffee).

There’s no denying that I’d not been looking forward to working today; Sunday early shift can be *busy!*. But today’s shift was one of the quietest I’ve known. I even managed to find time for dull paperwork.

With work done I came home, and wasted ten minutes trying to find somewhere to park. Parking is getting tight round our way.

We took the dogs round the park. I didn’t realise that "er indoors ^TM" had already taken them out, and didn’t find out until I’d got their collars and leads on. It was a shame it started raining after five minutes, but such is life.

With dogs walked I had a cuppa, and "er indoors ^TM" asked me to finish off one of her uneaten Easter eggs. Easter eggs are wasted on her; I’d scoffed mine by mid-day on Easter Sunday; she’s still got hers now. She’s gone bowling…Netflix time…