6 February 2022 (Sunday) - Rain Stopped Play

I was wide awake at silly o’clock this morning, and seemingly unable to get back to sleep I got up and watched a film on Netflix. I can vaguely remember being disappointed with ID2 in the past, but I quite liked the film this morning. As the film went on so the forecast rain started.

 

I then sparked up my lap-top and saw that four Facebook friends had birthdays today. I saw that one hadn’t done anything at all on Facebook since she got a load of birthday wishes last year, I didn’t really know who two of them were… but one got the birthday video.

I had a message (via Facebook Messenger) from Jhenny Cruz who had said “Hi”. Perhaps rather restrained when compared to what strange people usually say to me in their Facebook messages, but bearing in mind how little clothing he, she or it was wearing, he, she or it didn’t need to say anything else. I thought better of replying.

And the nice people at Credit Karma had sent me an email overnight. Yesterday I mentioned that they had suggested that I might ask the bank to increase the credit limit on my Gold Card. This morning they told me that my own bank had done a credit check on me. As I have said before, my bank has no idea about bank-customer confidentiality.

 

I then failed on “Lewdle”, but got “butt” on the third attempt on “Sweardle”, and then wrote my two thousandth professional blog post (which was incredibly dull). With the wind blowing the bins up the street and the rain being torrential we decided against taking the dogs out. The rain had really put the kibosh on today. Our planned weekend walk was (again) cancelled because of the weather forecast. We had considered braving the rain to visit brother-in-law who was at the car park of a nearby café this morning for a classic car meet (I was up for the brekkie!), but there is only so much rain that anyone can brave.

 I went upstairs and started sorting out the job lot of Lego I got yesterday. As I sorted the weather outside went from monsoon to glorious sunshine back to monsoon seemingly every fifteen minutes.

With Lego sorted I then had a little look-see at borrowing a squillion quid to pay for the new kitchen. Amazingly loans from the bank I have been with for thirty-four years are far more expensive than loans from pretty much everyone else.

 

With the dogs sleeping we popped round to see “My Boy ^TM”; Cheryl had boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed, then I promptly fell asleep in front of the winter Olympics on the telly. I’d found out that the winter Olympics was on when Untappd gave me a badge for it before lunch. It is amazing what you miss if you don’t pay attention.

I woke after a couple of hours and was rather disappointed to hear that Rupert Something who had been Team GB’s great hope in the bobsleigh-thingy-race had only managed twenty-third place.

We came home rather earlier than I might have liked, but this is one of the reasons that I never wanted dogs. I simply don’t like leaving them for any length of time. We came home… and woke them up. They were both fast asleep. Like I would like to be… having done pretty much nothing all day I’m feeling worn out. And my back is a bit iffy too…

5 February 2022 (Saturday) - Eagle-Horse-Thingies

I slept for over nine hours last night, which was a result. I finally emerged from my pit when my back was aching too much.

I made toast and peered into the Internet. There was a minor row kicking off on Facebook about the local hospital (the one I’ve been whinging about the last few days). A few weeks ago much of the car park was given up to build a huge “Nightingale” hospital, and it was only once central government had spent three million quid on building the thing did anyone realise that they haven’t got enough staff for the existing wards, clinics and departments, let alone for a whole new hospital. Apparently there are also issues with building regulations and I.T. It was claimed that at a Trust board meeting last Thursday the Trust's chairman said: "At the time of writing this report we are still considering whether and how the building could be used".

I’m reminded of a colleague (Julian) whose aunt once saw an amazing blood test machine on the telly (many years ago), and wouldn’t be dissuaded from fundraising a small fortune to buy one and present it to her local hospital (near Birmingham). But already having a device that did the same job, and with no money for consumables, reagents, training or service contract for the new machine, it went into a cupboard and stayed there.

The nice people at Credit Karma had sent me an email telling me of three things I could do to improve my credit score. They said I could get a cheaper car loan whilst telling me about more expensive ones. They said I could improve my credit factors, but when I clicked for more information there wasn’t any. And they suggested I corrected the incorrect personal data on my credit history… All that they showed me looked to be right.

I’ve asked the bank to double the credit limit on my credit card purely because the nice people at Credit Karma say it will improve my credit score… the bank gave me the thumbs-up, so let’s see what Credit Karma have to say about that.

 

I saw that a friend had started creating a Munzee garden nearby; I spent an age trying to contribute to it. Deploying from a sandbox is tricky.

I failed on today’s “Sweardle” but got “Lewdle” right on the second go, then we took the dogs out.

 

We went up the road and took a rather circuitous route to the park. As we walked so Pogo was playing “catch” rather than “fetch”. He likes “catch” and it distracts him from anything else around him (mostly). We got to the park to find it heaving; I’d forgotten that the “Harry Potter” event was on today. Kids were invited to turn up, walk round looking for posters of “Harry Potter” stuff and fill in their worksheets.

I had an entertaining few minutes with some little girl who was telling the world that what I thought was a hippogriff was actually an “eagle-horse-thingie”.

 

We came home, settled the dogs then pausing only briefly to collect Cheryl drove up to Maidstone. A couple of days ago I saw a super Lego bargain on Facebook marketplace and once I’d put in an offer was amazed to see it was being sold be a chap with whom I used to work yen years ago. He’d arranged to have it delivered to where I now work (or at least show up periodically) but bearing in mind I wouldn’t be showing up there for over a week I collected it today.

From work it was only a short hop to the kitchen shop where “er indoors ^TM” and Cheryl had arranged a three-hour appointment with the nice man and the 3-D kitchen simulator. We had a little look round the showroom and once we’d ruled out the obviously hideous I said I liked that which I was told to like. And then we sat in front of a rather humungous PC screen whilst the nice man simulated that which “er indoors ^TM” told him to. The chap came up with a design that looked not too shabby. “er indoors ^TM” will be tweaking it over the next few days and weeks, and in the meantime I’ve put down a deposit of a sizeable proportion of my spare akkers.

 

We came home and had a rather good kebab whilst watching the final of “Junior Bake Off”. I’m quite looking forward to the next series… and the new kitchen.

4 February 2022 (Friday) - Before Another Late Shift

I slept well despite a surprisingly scary nightmare in which I was somehow legally responsible for breaches of copyright caused when Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy came back from the dead and opened a rather successful off-licence selling stouts and porters in Appledore. It was with something of a sense of relief that I woke in desperate need of a tiddle.

I made toast and sparked up the lap-top and had quite the fight to get the thing to start peering into the Internet. More and more the lap-top seems to be doing all sorts of amazing “IT things” in the background whilst being utterly unable to do anything actually useful. Eventually it got going.

One of the local hunters of Tupperware had died recently and it had been her funeral yesterday. What with the hospital wasting our time yesterday I hadn’t been able to get along, but I was pleased to see that she’d had a good send-off.

There wasn’t much else happening on Facebook this morning so I sparked up the Munzee app (which was just as reluctant to start up), Munz-ed that which I could from the sofa and took the dogs out.

 

We took a different walk to our usual route going out to Frog’s Island and home via Newtown Munzing as we (I) went. Being near the start of Munzee clan wars I had hoped to get a Qrate; I got two.

As we walked we had a little “episode” with some silly woman with a poodle. She made a point of bringing her dog up to us even though we were trying to walk away from her, and then she acted surprised when Treacle snapped at her dog. I explained that when I’d said “don’t come any closer because my dog will snap at your dog” I’d meant that she shouldn’t come any closer because my dog would snap at her dog. This explanation came as something of a revelation to her… How is it that I always find these idiots?

As we walked the hospital phoned. Yesterday I’d complained about the lack of confidentiality in that place. Today some idiot wanted to know specific details of what confidences had been breached, and seemed utterly unable to understand the difference between a general observation and a specific complaint. I suggested that if you are weighing a patient then the scales shouldn’t be in a corridor with a dozen people standing watching. I suggested that a pre-MRI questionnaire be conducted in a secure room, not on the footpath leading out of the car park with everyone listening to what was being said. I suggested that people waiting for blood tests not do so where everyone can see their business.

Apparently a general complaint was no good to them as there was no specific manager to deal with it. I suggested the hospital’s chief executive, or failing that the Minister for Health might like to get involved. They said they’d get back to me.

 

We’d left early to avoid the rain; the rain started just as we came past the Outlet centre about ten minutes from home. We didn’t get *that* wet.

Taking care not to disturb “er indoors ^TM” (who was working from home this morning) I wrote up a little CPD, then got ready for work. The drive to work was odd. The weather alternated between blustery showers and bright blue skies seemingly every ten minutes.

 

I got to work where I did my bit on the late shift. I was rather glad to see that I didn't have to take the moral high ground today. Apparently today is National Work Naked Day in which everyone supposedly does their bit whilst running round in the nip. The official website was giving some old drivel about getting away with working naked when doing it at home, but I know a total collapse of public morality when I see one.. and was glad that I didn't today.

Mind you I wonder how many people did do their bit today in the all-together today. Not many, I hope...