3 March 2022 (Thursday) - Munz-ing Before Work

I think I slept well; I have a vague recollection of having had a fight with Pogo in the small hours, but it may well have been a dream. When I got up at half past five this morning Pogo was at the foot of the bed seemingly sleeping the sleep of the just. His sister was snoring like a thing possessed too.

 

I watched a rather good episode of "Trailer Park Boys" as I scoffed toast but rather than sparking up my lap-top after telly, I set off on a little mission. With today being the start of the Munzee Clan War I had a couple of things to do. First of all I drove down to Wooton Road in the search for a couple of Qrates. I found a gold one and a diamond encrusted one as well (which was nothing like the result you might think it would be; in fact this was something of "a pain in the glass" as “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction ^TM”  would say), and deployed some evos at the same time (as one does).

From there I went up to the town centre to cap some Points of Interest. For all that they are called "Points of Interest", they are not at all interesting; in fact they were rather dull. From there I drove up to Repton Park where I deployed cards and barns and treasure chests (and even a Skyland) like a thing possessed. After an hour's concerted Munz-ing I'd got a serious amount of this month's requirements done, had accrued far more points than sense, and then headed off up the M20 dual carriageway (it *isn't* a motorway any more!) to work.

 

As I drove the pundits on  the radio were talking about the ongoing war in Ukraine. There was an interview with one of the head honchos of the European Union who was talking about how the EU is trying to decrease Europe's dependence on Russian gas. I must admit I was wrong in one of my rants of last week: the UK only gets five per cent of its gas from Russia. I thought it was far more than that. However Germany gets over half its gas from Russia and (obviously) doesn't want to piss on its own chips with any sanctions it imposes on Russia by having Mr Putin turn off their gas supply. The chap being interviewed made the observation that in buying Russian gas, the EU are actually financing the invasion of Ukraine that they are protesting about.

There was a lot of talk about how Europe is going to massively increase its use of renewable energy, import more gas from the USA, and possibly ramp up the use of nuclear and coal powered power stations. It was suggested (and not denied) that the COP-26 agreements of last year are out the window because of this. So much for stopping global warming...

 

I got to work, had a cuppa, and then got on with that which I could not avoid. At tea break I finally got round to having a look at the Internet. It would seem that today was “World Book Day” in which children across the country pretend to have some degree of literacy by dressing up as their favourite film or TV character in the forlorn hope that it was originally based on something out of a book. It is just as well this is a relatively recent development; had it been something that was done in the 1990s “My Boy ^TM” and “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” would have been sent to school in their usual attire with instructions to tell the teacher they were the little boy and little girl whose daddy couldn’t be bothered.

Three years ago I came up with a list of my top ten books for World Book Day; I think it probably fair to say that the list is probably still good.

And I saw that Facebook have had an about turn in their Community Standards. Last night I squealed up some epically-titted bimbo who had sent me a message offering me a free nudey sauce romp. The Facebook Feds agreed with me that peddling filth did breach their Community Standards and they had censored the smut on her profile picture.

I’m seeing that as a victory for puritans everywhere!! 

As I type this Pogo is going absolutely ham (to coin a phrase!) – he seems to have developed an irrational fear of the dishwasher…

2 March 2022 (Wednesday) - Before the Late Shift

I slept for over nine hours last night; finally waking with backache. I came down to be mobbed by dogs. Pogo seemed in fine form bearing in mind one of his dew claws came off last night. “er indoors ^TM” said he’d been worrying it, and when she looked it came off in her hand.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do every morning. A friend had said yesterday that he was giving up social media for Lent as he found it depressing. Is it? To paraphrase my old music teacher, social media is like a dustbin; you only get out of it that which you put in to it. Too many people use social media as a platform on which to moan; it can be so much more than that.

For example an old friend I’ve known since the late 1970s posted on Facebook this morning. Last night was his daughter’s last night at Air Cadets, and he’d posted several photos of her time in the cadets. It looked like she’d done so much in a few short years. It is a shame that people don’t realise just how much the cadets do, and at so little cost to the parents since much of what they do is subsidised by the Ministry of Defence. I can remember talking to a cadet leader when I was a leader in the Boys Brigade many years ago. His cadets had been offered a week-long summer camp on a military base featuring flying in planes, shooting on rifle ranges, going on military assault and obstacle courses. Our week-long summer camp featured whatever we could improvise in a farmer’s field in Smarden, and both cost the same price.

My old friend (with the daughter) is now employed by the Ministry of Defence to oversee the activities of the cadets. He’s a Wing Commander…

And here’s something of interest that I found from what a friend had posted. My local MP has claimed for his electricity bill, gas bill, water bill, telephone and broadband, and council taxes on his parliamentary expenses. I don’t doubt that doing so is totally legal… but I’ll just make the observation that I can’t claim for mine.

 

I bought three timeshares and another Skyland, redeployed and unleashed four of my five Rovers in readiness for the Munzee Clan War which starts tomorrow.

Seeing the rain had eased off I took the dogs out. A month or so ago Pogo seemed to be going off of the idea of walks, but that silliness has passed, and he now loves going out. Even if we do have to stop for a pee every few steps. He never used to do that. When he was younger he would pee like a fire hose (once!) and that would be it for an hour or so. Nowadays it is a couple of drops every few paces. He learned that from Fudge.

We got to the park, we played ball for a bit, but the recent rains had turned the park into a swamp, and soon both balls were filthy and both dogs were more interested in whichever ball had least mud on it.

 

We headed home sniggering at the young mother and child twenty yards in front of us. Mother was shrieking profanities into her phone, and the child was following behind on a bike. I say “following behind”; “wobbling precariously” would be a better description. He wasn’t the world’s best cyclist, and it didn’t help that his attention was very much on the dogs and not on his bike. Every time he crashed into a parked car, mother went ballistic. However it never once occurred to her to put the phone away and supervise her child.

 

We came home, cleared dog turds from the back garden, loaded up the dishwasher and watched episodes of “Trailer Park Boys” whilst sorting undercrackers until it was time to go to the late shift.

 

I drove up to the co-op to get some lunch. Have you ever been to the co-op in Brookfield Road? Despite the car park *never* having more than two empty spaces, the place rarely has more than two or three people in there. What's that all about?

With utter drivel on the radio I sang along to my frankly amazing choice of music as I crawled up the motorway; you really would think that whoever it is that organises the motorways would have sorted out "Operation Brock" by now, wouldn't you? You never hear about the utterly poggered M20 on the news do you?  And it is worse the further down you go - the A-road it leads to has (literally) miles of lorries queuing to get into Dover and has had for years, but that never gets into the news, does it?

 

I got to the works car park and eventually found somewhere to park; the place was amazingly full today. I phoned my dad (he seems OK)... and that was the day's excitement (such as it was) all over and done with.  I had a busy late shift, there was no cake, I came home... all rather dull really.

1 March 2022 (Tuesday) - Bit Tired

When I first started doing night shifts, the shift went from five o’clock in the afternoon round till nine o’clock the next morning, and (on average) I would have done far less work in any of those sixteen hours than I did in the first hour of last night’s shift. It was with something of a sense of relief that I greeted the early shift as he came in.

The radio was talking about nothing but the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine this morning; the general consensus is that the Russians are finding the Ukraine a far tougher nut to crack than they had expected it to be. I rolled my eyes when there was talk about the refugees – the British Government is supposedly putting obstacles in the way of those wanting to flee to the UK to escape the war, and the general consensus of the British public is that the British Government is not doing anywhere near enough to help. What is it about this conflict that makes the average Brit want to help those in need? Only three months ago a crowd of people stopped the launch of Hastings lifeboat for fear that it might help refugees.

 

Mind you the average Brit isn’t always the sharpest nail in the box. I came off of the motorway to find gridlock. Have you ever driven round Ashford’ Cows Roundabout at rush hour? I wouldn’t if I were you. With traffic coming from five directions, everyone is pressing for advantage and no one is prepared to give any space. So everyone facing a green traffic light can’t go anywhere as their way is blocked by someone who jumped a red light. Each cycle of the lights was allowing (at most) only one car through, with many cycles allowing no one. I drove the twenty-something miles from Maidstone to the Cows Roundabout in less time than it took me to drive the couple of hundred yards across it.

The annoying thing with this roundabout is how quickly it fills up; had I not chatted for ten minutes before leaving work I would probably have missed the queues.

 

I got home and went to bed for a couple of hours; despite the dogs having two separate “Red Alerts” in that time. I’d decided to walk the dogs after I’d had a little sleep as the weather forecast had been better for later in the day. I think it fair to say that it wasn’t. But we didn’t get *that* wet as we went round the block.

 

Over a late brekkie I prepared the Munzee clan for the forthcoming Munzee Clan War (which starts on Thursday), and recalled all my Rovers. Regular readers of this drivel may recall that last month I bought a pack of virtual dogs to use in the Munzee game, and so far they haven’t done very much. When the Clan War starts on Thursday I shall try again with them. Perhaps they need to start further from home?

I also acquired two sham rocks as I Munzee-ed. I wonder what they are all about?

 

Usually after a night shift I do the ironing whilst watching two and a half hours of episodes of “Four In A Bed”. Whilst I do like that show, at least one hour of that two and a half hours is adverts, and usually these adverts are for suffering animals and children. This afternoon as I ironed I watched more “Trailer Park Boys” as the dishwasher and washing machine both did their things.

Until they stopped.

I thought that both machines were quiet; the power had failed on both. I pulled the plugs out, plugged them both back in, and both were working again. What was that all about? 

As today is pancake day “er indoors ^TM” sorted some out for dinner. I think I had eleven… I’ve got a stomach ache now…