6 December 2019 (Friday) - This n That

Over brekkie I watched another episode of “Big School” in which David Walliams attempted and failed to pork Catherine Tate.

I then had my usual root around the Internet. I saw that the dates for next year’s Brighton Kite Festival have been confirmed. Bearing in mind that the festival of ten years ago was definitely going to be the last, the event is going well. I’d like to go, but all the setting up and taking down of the tents is just too much like hard work. Maybe I might go down for the day?

Not a lot else had happened on Facebook, and with no emails of note I opened my Advent calendar, got dressed and set off to work.

Yesterday morning the thermometer in my car said that the outside temperature was minus four degrees. It was nine degrees this morning. What a difference.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing the boss of Marston's brewery. They were trying to get him to comment on political stuff and say bad things about Brexit. They weren't impressed when he suggested they should have been interviewing a politician.

Mind you they later interviewed Michael Gove and some woman from the Labour party; both of whom blamed each other for everything, and neither of whom made anywhere near as much sense as the boss of the brewery. Perhaps he should be running the country. I'm sure he could stage a piss-up there whilst I doubt any of our politicians could.

The radio's "Thought for the Day" section today was seemingly written with me in mind. Yesterday I whinged about how jealous I was of a friend; this morning some Buddhist warned of the dangers of "comparison anxiety". This is apparently sweeping the nation. The speaker warned that we shouldn't worry about how well we are doing compared to everyone else, as no one is completely happy. We should just be content with our lot. Sound advice. I should take it.  I suppose I *am* happy with my lot - I just want a lot more...

I stopped off at Aldi (as I was at Maidstone today). I had a plan to get "er indoors ^TM" a Christmas pressie or two. They didn't have anything worth having as a Christmas pressie (I assumed she didn't want a three-feet tall Kevin the Carrot), so I went in to work, I did my bit, and came home.

"My Boy ^TM" boiled up dinner today. It was rather good… unlike the rest of the day which was rather dull.

5 December 2019 (Friday) - Cold and Icy

I slept right through until the alarm went off this morning. That rarely happens. I got up, made brekkie and watched another episode of “Big School” before sparking up my lap-top.

At the weekend I saw the Lego maxifigure family at a bargain price on eBay. It arrived yesterday… I say “arrived” – it wasn’t so much “delivered” as left laying in the front garden.

Last night I posted a picture of it on one of the Lego Facebook pages I follow. It had received a few comments. All complimentary, but one or two more interested in how I could sell the set at a profit rather than enjoying it for what it is. I suppose I did get a bargain, but I’m not overly keen on selling it just yet.

I also saw a friend was having her birthday today. I sent a little message and again had more than a pang of jealousy. This friend bought her first house in the mid 1980s like I did. And paid about the same price as I did. However her house was a stone’s throw (with a catapult) from London’s docklands area. Within a year the Docklands development took off and she sold her house for over ten times what she’d paid for it.

She bought something palatial in the country, gave up blood testing and re-trained as a primary school teacher. She soon become head teacher and retired to the most beautiful cottage a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile I’m still the wage slave in a terraced suburban house.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not unhappy with my lot. I just want more. And I’ve probably left it rather late in life to get it.

As I walked out to my car I nearly fell over (twice) on the ice on the pavement. It was cold, icy and foggy. But on the plus side it was that cold that the ice just scraped straight off the windscreen.

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were talking about Bob Willis. He was something big in cricket in the 1970s. This made me think - there was a *lot* of air time dedicated to him, and I'd never heard of the chap. How much else is there of national importance of which I am totally oblivious.

There was then an interview with the Home Secretary Sajid Javid in which he utterly ignored every question put to him. Instead he just parroted that the Conservatives are better than Labour because Labour are crap. Hardly sound impartial reasoning there?

It took an age to get to work today. I would have made far better time had someone living on a rather narrow road not had a major delivery from B&Q. You'd think sending a delivery on a lorry which was wider than the road (at rush hour) would be something they'd try to avoid, wouldn't you?

I got to work and downloaded an new e-book. I seem to get through a lot of these. Much as I like e-books as they take up no space at all, as a reader I have no idea just how much I'm getting for my money. Take this current e-book - it's the third in a series of three. Each costing over three quid. Together they probably don't make up what you'd get in a "regular" paperback book.

With "er indoors ^TM" out this evening I was left “Home Alone” so I watched a film on Netflix. I say “watched a film”; I turned “Dirty Grandpa” off half-way through. It was utter tripe.

4 December 2019 (Wednesday) - Bit Dull

I had intended to watch another episode of “Man Down” over brekkie, but it no longer seems to be on Netflix? Instead I watched the first episode of “Big School” in which David Walliams attempts (and fails) to “do the dirty deed” with Catherine Tate.

I then had a little look at the Internet as I do.

There was talk of my old French teacher on the Facebook page for old boys of my old school. One of my greatest regrets was how mean we all were to our French teacher. When I left school I became friends with him; Mervyn Clark was one of the kindest people I ever met, and thousands of schoolkids were merciless with him.

I had a few emails. One told me that someone had found one of my geocaches. Specifically the one I’d been told (only yesterday) was missing.

As I walked out to my car I saw not-so-nice next door scraping the ice from her car. I gave her a sickly smile (as I know it annoys her). She made a point of ignoring me. Her car was encrusted in ice. My car was twenty yards down the road and had no ice on it at all. The ice up our road can be very localized.

I drove to Sainsbury's to get petrol. Again the nice lady on the till didn't ask for my Nectar card, and seemed rather surprised when I brandished it at her.

As I drove to Tunbridge Wells the pundits on the radio were talking about today's meeting of the heads of the NATO member countries. All is not sweetness and light there; the French president would seem to have upset everyone else, and the Americans are fed up with paying for most of it. Apparently America pays one third of the cost of defending Europe (that's very generous of them!). I can't help but wonder why. Are the Russians planning to invade Europe? Would they want to? You'd think the Russians might have better things to do with their time. Like invading China?

The roads were rather busier today than they have been recently. My journey wasn't helped when I was nearly run off the road by a lorry delivering stuff to various branches of Morrisons. It never fails to amaze me how badly people drive when they have their company's name and phone numbers emblazoned all over what they are driving.

I got to work and did my bit. I was rather tired as I worked today. Was it a combination of a busy Sunday and two late shifts, was it yesterday's flu jab? Much as I like my job, sometimes it can be hard work. Retirement would be good.

I came home to find "er indoors ^TM" had fed the hounds, and was just off to a works jolly. I went up the kebab shop for my tea and scoffed it whilst watching more “Big School”.

I might eat that pot noodle and jelly in a minute…