6 January 2021 (Wednesday) Bit Dull, Bit Tired

Some people argue about whether one has lunch or dinner at mid day. Does one eat tea or supper in the evening? Either way, you know what someone is talking about when any of those are mentioned. But what is the name of the meal scoffed at three o’clock in the morning? Whatever it was called, as I scoffed it I had a look at my phone’s Facebook app and saw that quite a few other people were awake, and were reporting snow in various parts of Kent. I then spent the rest of the night shift peering out of the windows but being unable to see anything.

I drove home through drizzle.

 

As I drove home the pundits on the radio were interviewing  Nadhim Zahawi who is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for COVID Vaccine Deployment). The bloke didn’t come over very well. He answered every single question put to him with the stock phrase “You are right to challenge me on this point” and um then um was um so um hesitant um that um he um didn’t um actually um say um anything.

There was also a lot of talk about how the BBC is to broadcast educational TV shows to help the efforts of parents home-schooling during lock-down. Great show was made of this, even though it is a very old idea – when I was a lad daytime TV consisted entirely of this sort of programming. One of the CBBC channel’s executives was interviewed, and she made great show of wanting to support the school curriculum. Or “criklum” as she insisted on calling it. I would have thought that the BBC would have supported the school curriculum better by having their efforts to do so led by someone who could actually pronounce the word, but what do I know?

 

I got home and walked the dogs round the block. We didn’t go far as it was a wet morning. As we went Pogo was crapping like a thing possessed; I have no idea what he’d been eating but I wish he’d eat less of it. We certainly were rushing the end of the walk in a desperate bid to get home having crapped our way through a pocketful of dung bags.

 

With walk walked I went to bed where I slept for three hours, then over a rather late brekkie I had my daily root around the Internet. I hear the “doorstep clapping” thing is to start again. If people want to stand on the doorstep clapping, then that is up to them. However I would ask that none of my loyal readers do so for me. At the time when the weekly clap was “a thing”, many of the intended recipients found it all rather insulting. You don’t clap a bus driver for not crashing, or a nuclear scientist for not blowing up the power station, do you?

 

I then spent the afternoon doing the ironing whilst watching several episodes of “Four in a Bed” in which the owners of four completely different Bed & Breakfasts tried to out-do each other. As always the cheaper establishments did the best as there is far more scope to underpay an expensive place.

 

I wrote up a little more CPD, and it will soon be dinner time. I hope.

The day after a night shift is usually dull, and today was no exception…

5 January 2021 (Tuesday) - Front Fastening Bras

What I intended to be a very quick pop to the loo at four o’clock this morning became quite an epic mission as Sid leapt up, scattered turds with gay abandon and then took an age bimbling round the garden in search of the best place to have a tiddle. Having finally found a suitable spot he spent another age emptying out what seemed to be several gallons of tiddle. By the time I’d got back to bed three other dogs had made themselves comfortable in what was once my spot.

Four hours later I then followed Fudge round the garden (in a monsoon) in an attempt to get a bottle full of his tiddle (for the vet). I succeeded, but got incredibly wet in the process (rain, not dog tiddle!)

 

As I scoffed brekkie I peered into the Internet as I do. There were various opinions being bandied about over last night’s announcement of a third lock-down. Those who have always followed the rules were going along with it, those who don’t realise just how stupid they are weren’t going to have anything to do with it. And everyone had their own interpretation of just what was and was not allowed. Take for instance the ancient and noble art of sticking film pots under rocks… The geo-feds have unilaterally decided not to allow any new geocaches to be created. However they have done nothing about disabling all existing ones .The government COVID-19 website clearly says “you can only leave your home to exercise, and not for the purpose of recreation or leisure”. The Angling Trust have taken this to mean that fishing is now banned. I thought about posting this question to the local geocaching Facebook page, but in the end I couldn’t be bothered.

I was more interested in the adverts for front fastening bras that Facebook was bombarding me with this morning. What do I want with a front fastening bra?

 

I drove over to Henwood to collect "er indoors ^TM"; she’d taken her car to be serviced. As we drove the roads were much quieter than usual. Perhaps people might just be taking this lockdown seriously?

Once home I went straight out again; today was Fudge’s six-monthly kidney check-up. He’s lost more weight, and (perhaps I was being paranoid?) the vet did seem to be a little reticent; not wanting to say very much until he’d got the result of blood and urine tests. The vet was probably quite right not to say anything without that information (I should know!) but I do worry about that silly dog.

 

With Fudge vetted we came home. I popped to the corner shop. They were open all through the last two lock-downs, and seem determined to stay open through this one. I got a sandwich for overnight and buns for the morning, and then settled down with my lap-top and my Fudge (and a cuppa and a bun) and wrote up a little more CPD. Some time ago I created an Atlas of Haematology; I’m giving the thing something of a facelift. Sometimes I worry that I do far too much CPD; I certainly seem to do more than many of my colleagues do, but better too much than too little…

 

After an hour or so the vet (Gareth) rang. Fudge’s kidneys are getting worse. SDMA, creatinine and urea levels were all raised on the last test result (which is only to be expected) but… The iffy blood test results *could* be related to the fact that he has a urinary infection. The vet has prescribed a two-week course of antibiotics then a repeat urine test and a check of his blood pressure.

 

I drove "er indoors ^TM" back to Henwood to get her car then went to bed for the afternoon.  I woke to find Fudge sitting at the foot of the bed. If I’d known he was there I would have helped him up.

I also woke to find I had an email. On Saturday morning I’d spoken with Limaksi  (from the power company). She was (is?) the tenth person with whom I’ve dealt about my ongoing smart meter issue. She confirmed what she had said in the Live Chat conversation, and said she was waiting for a reply from the smart metering team. She then rather let herself down by saying that she was aiming to have the matter resolved by January 24^th, but I suppose that is far more of a response than anyone else has come up with. I suppose most people do work in weeks rather than minutes…

 

I’m hoping "er indoors ^TM" will boil up some dinner, then I’m off to the night shift…

4 January 2021 (Monday) - Back Into Lockdown

It took a while to nod off last night as the latest new-next-door was doing noisy sex. I wish they hadn’t been.

Once I’d chased Sid round the garden this morning and done my COVID-19 test (negative) I watched another episode of “Motherland” as I scoffed brekkie, then peered into the gloom of the Internet to see if I’d missed much overnight.

 

Facebook was crawling with “I don’t want to go back to work” memes this morning. All posted by people who’ve often commented about how little time they think I spend working whilst they have just had a two-week holiday from work. I only had a three-day holiday from work for Christmas. Mind you I’ve just had another three-day break so I can’t complain. (Glossing over both of them just being three-day weekends)

I also saw that our old friend Science has found some more aliens. Apparently they flew past in their spaceship four years ago. I can remember Oumuamua being discovered – it was the first space-rock-thingy that could definitely be shown to have come from outside the solar system, and at the time expert opinion was that the thing wasn’t of alien origin. But Science would seem to have changed its mind. I suppose watching it speed up as it left the solar system (when it should have been slowing down) takes some explaining.

 

It had been raining when I chivvied Sid outside earlier. It was still raining when I set off to find my car. More and more I've been wanting to move house; if only to get somewhere with dedicated parking. More and more I find myself roaming the streets trying to remember where I'd managed to find a parking space when I'd last come home.

I eventually found my car (where I'd left it) and set off up the motorway. There was a lot of talk of Coronageddon this morning.  Despite another vaccine now being available the pandemic is running out of control. Looking back at my blogs from last year it would seem I was totally wrong about the virus. At the time COVID-19 was just the latest in a long line of scare stories following on from HIV, mad cow disease, SARS, bird flu, swine flu and zika. Surely the media must take some blame here?

The pundits on the radio were interviewing the shadow minister for something-or-other who said (quite rightly) that the government’s tier restrictions on movement would have been quite adequate to contain the virus... it is just a shame that no one was actually complying with them. How right she was. As I drove up the motorway the overhead signs were all showing messages about "Tier 4 - Stay At Home - Essential Travel Only" whilst the motorway itself was as busy as it as ever been over the last year.

 

There was also talk about how Donald Trump begged the officials in Georgia to lie to pretend he'd won the election in that state when he hadn't. It was rather embarrassing for him that the conversation had been recorded... I wonder if he will face charges for doing that? Somehow I doubt it. Sadly this is typical of the sort of thing that has become expected of Mr Trump and (following his example) pretty much all politicians everywhere.

There must be a better way to run society than by running what is effectively a popularity contest in which the most outrageous gets to win.

 

I got to work. Having dried out a little on the drive to Maidstone I again got soaked on the short hop from the car park to the hospital building.

Work was work; but a colleague was having a birthday today. Having sent him a birthday video (via Facebook) earlier I scoffed one of the doughnuts he'd brought in. I must admit I was rather puzzled why he was working today. I last worked a birthday on my nineteenth birthday (in 1983). Working on my birthday sucked, and I haven't worked on my birthday ever since.

 

I came home to a bumper crop of letters. The bill for the boiler servicing (which I think is always worth having done), a sulking letter from EE who had the arse that I’d left them and gone to Sky, a load of bank statements (even though the bank assures me they only send me electronic bank statements) and the Lego cowboys I bought with the money I got from my mum for Christmas. 

"er indoors ^TM" boiled up pie and chips, and we scoffed it whilst watching “The Great”; billed as a comedy-drama it was more “odd” than “funny”. And we also watched the Prime Minister’s broadcast. He’s announced another lock-down. I wonder if this will be enforced?