3 August 2022 (Wednesday) - Found a Qrate

Once the puppies had tiddled they went upstairs as they usually do. Within minutes they came trotting back downstairs with “er indoors ^TM” who was not happy that Treacle had just been sick on the landing. She’d thrown up seemingly endless fragments of tennis ball; I wish the dogs wouldn’t swallow that which they shouldn’t be chewing. “er indoors ^TM” busied about whilst I scoffed toast, did another COVID test and then sorted undercrackers. The whole point of sorting undercrackers at six o’clock in the morning was that the puppies would be upstairs asleep; it was a shame that Morgan kept trying to run off with them.

 

I left home a few minutes early. With today being the start of Munzee Clan War I went to Singleton Lake and munzed half a dozen greenies in the hope of getting a Qrate (as you do). I got two (including a diamond one) which was something of a result.

As I munzed round the lake I saw a couple of chaps fishing. Despite all the signs saying "No Night Fishing" they had obviously been there all night. Cheeky(!)

 

And then I set off west-wards to work. As I listened to the radio as I drove through the -hursts and the -dens there was some economist being interviewed on the radio about Liz Truss's claims  about what she will do if she gets to be Prime Minister. This chap may well have been a leading light in David Cameron's government but he certainly was rubbish at being on the radio. He would utter a few disjointed words (none of which ever made a coherent sentence) and then laugh out loud at something that only he thought was funny. And in between gibbering he would hesitantly and nervously offer "yeah... erm... you know..."

I've said it before, but some people really shouldn't be on the radio. Why can't these interviews be pre-recorded, and not broadcast if they turn out to be unintelligible?

And then there was an interview with some Chinese diplomat who was up in arms about Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Ms Pelosi is Speaker of America's House of Representatives (apparently that is quite important!) and despite the advice of pretty much everyone she'd gone to Taiwan to annoy the Chinese.

Though if the Chinese diplomat being interviewed was in any way typical of his countrymen they seem rather easy to annoy. Apparently what Ms Pelosi has done has aggravated some squabble dating back from 1959. If we are going to dwell on trivia from five years before I was born we'll never get anywhere, will we?

 

Work was work... busier than yesterday but despite an altercation with the Duffy blood group system it wasn't as bad as it might have been.

And I came home to find Treacle very much under the weather with what looks like a rather bloated tummy. She’s going to the vet tomorrow…
 

2 August 2022 (Tuesday) - A Birthday

Once I’d taken the puppies outside to do that which puppies do outside I opened the door to upstairs so they could have their hour or so in the morning upstairs. Within two seconds Morgan and Bailey came back downstairs and looked at me with rather pathetic expressions. Treacle was guarding the top of the stairs and wouldn’t let them pass.

With dogs sorted I made toast and watched an episode of “Another Life” in which our heroes had found an alien planet. In an attempt to make the place look alien the set-makers had spray-painted a part of a woodland with blue paint… But they’d done a rush job. If you looked closely (or even just taken a cursory glance) you could see where they’d not really taken much time with the spray paint and you could see the green underneath all over the place.

 

I spent a few minutes of Facebook sending out birthday wishes, then rolled my eyes at one of the UK Weather Forecasting pages. The chap who runs it was ranting about how he is fed up with the negativity he is reading in people posting about his (continually crap) weather forecasts. You would think that he might compare his forecasts with what actually happens, look back at his forecasts, and then try to come up with a better way of forecasting. Demonstrably what he is doing doesn’t work.

 

I woke “er indoors ^TM”, wished her a happy birthday and set off to work. I went via the petrol station where petrol was ten pence per litre cheaper than it had been last week. I also got a sandwich which the woman on the till scanned without comment. In the past they have flatly refused to scan any shopping; presumably someone has had a word with them?

 

As I drove west-wards the pundits on the radio were talking about energy prices. With BP and other energy companies reporting record profits, my monthly leccie and gas bill looks to be topping three hundred quid a month before too much longer. Can't say I'm keen on that.

There was also talk about how prospective Prime Minister Liz Truss has described the leader of the Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon as annoying and best ignored. That bodes well for the future of the (so-called) United Kingdom, doesn't it?

 

I got to work to find that there was a load of free croissants going begging. Apparently a colleague lives next door to someone who runs a company which specialises in making sure that food isn't wasted, and periodically he brings in a load of bread products which are past their best. I had a couple of stale croissants with coffee. I would be so easy to kill... just put a pile of poison on the table, put a sign on it saying "free food" and I would yum it up.

 

With work worked we went round to visit the first fruit of my loins. Being “er indoors ^TM” s birthday Cheryl had boiled up a rather good bit of dinner. And with dinner scoffed I fell asleep whilst the girls did the hot tub.

I suspect the hot tub will be one of the first economies once the gas and leccie bills top three hundred quid…

1 August 2022 (Monday) - Before the Late Shift

Treacle had a serious sulk this morning. A tad overdue, but we did the dogs’ flea treatments before brekkie and Treacle doesn’t like it at all. Morgan and Bailey came when called and had theirs done; Treacle ran away and hid.

 

I made toast and scoffed it as I peered into the Internet. “We” won last night… “we” being the England ladies football team. It would seem I was the only person not watching the match. I wish I understood the attraction of football. So many other people obviously love it. I don’t dislike it; I just find it utterly tedious. Whenever I’ve watched a match (and I’ve tried so many times) I lose interest after five minutes.

And there was a lot of sympathy being expressed over the death of Nichelle Nicholls (who played “Uhura” in “Star Trek”) who died over the weekend. For all that so many people who had never met her were seemingly distraught, very few people seemed to realise she’d been ill and was eighty-nine.

But both the death of Ms Nicholls and the football win were being touted for all sorts of political reasons this morning. 

I also saw that today was “Yorkshire Day”. On more than a few occasions I’ve been told (at great length) just how wonderful Yorkshire is by people who’ve moved out of the place. I’ve had the same from Scots too. If Kent is so awful, why live here?

 

With a little time to spare we drove down to the woods for a little walk. We did our usual circuit of the woods, but as we turned a corner so we saw a woman about fifty yards ahead of us. On her own with no dog. Morgan woofed at her and she turned, saw us, and then stomped through chest height brambles and hid behind a tree until we’d gone past. What was that all about?

As we walked we practiced whistle training with varying degrees of success.

 

With walk walked I loaded up the car with rubbish, and had a look at the pond filter. The overflow guttering seemed to be doing the job; in a day or so I will take out the foam until I can get another box in place and running.

I then sat on the sofa with sleeping dogs watching “Another Life” until it was time to set off.

 

Leaving the dogs snoring I set off to the tip. It was as entertaining as ever; as I'd emptied the last of my rubbish and was going back to my car some strange woman shouted "don't just stand there" at me and gave me a glare as I drove off.

I then drove down to Rolvenden and World of Water to get another filter box just like the one I got yesterday. They didn't have any, but the nice man said he'd get one in for me. I got chatting with the nice man and told him my theory about having two smaller filters rather than one huge one.  He agreed entirely, but I suppose he would. I got the extra tubing I will need, and the nice man suggested I might have a Y-junction rather than a T-junction as this avoids back pressure.  Not wanting any back pressure I readily agreed. The nice man said he would ring me when the new filter box arrives, and I drove off with a Y-junction and six metres of tubing. That only cost forty quid...

 

I took a rather scenic route on to Pembury. As I waited at the traffic lights in Hawkhurst there was an entertaining five minutes. Rather than queuing by the pelican crossing, a swarm of normal people were standing ten yards to the right of it. Having been blocking the drive to a hotel, they were then having quite a squabble with the driver of a car who wanted to go in there.

They were getting rather nasty with each other...

 

I stopped off at Tesco (for a sandwich) where the woman on the tip remarked on how old my Tesco Clubcard is. Apparently I'm the only person with one that old; it is a museum piece. She *always* goes on about how old the card is. I once asked if she could replace it with a new one... and ended up wishing I hadn’t. I just smiled today (like I usually do).

And then into work. And again the best bit of the day was all over by one o'clock.