3 February 2023 (Friday) - Rostered Day Off

As I peered into Facebook this morning I saw I had yet another friend request from another rather dubious young lady. I’ve now created an album on Facebook into which I am going to put pictures of these people, and a description of their antics. I won’t put up any links they send me. One thing I have established is that it is quite acceptable for them to advertise their filth, but my posting their link when flagging it to the Facebook Feds contravenes Facebook’s so-called “community standards”.

 

I walked the dogs round the block, then settled in front of the telly and watched “Star Trek: Discovery”. As we watched so there was a knock at the door. The bits for my CPAP machine had arrived. But they had taken longer to arrive from Canterbury than Lego had taken to get from Chicago earlier in the week.

With the puppies settled I took Treacle to the vet for her annual check-up and vaccinations. She wasn’t at all keen on it.

The vet took an age going at her chest with his stethoscope, and eventually concluded that he wasn’t sure that she didn’t have a chest murmur, but said it was nothing to worry about. He also said she needs proper teeth brushing and should see the nutritionist for “weight control dog food”, but other than that she was in good shape for a dog of her age.

 

I dropped Treacle back at home then drove down to Folkestone where I spent five minutes Munzing. What with today being the start of the Clan War I really wanted to get a Qrate. I got two. And then I supervised “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” whilst “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” had a driving lesson. Mind you when I say “supervised” I really mean “got slept on”. She was asleep the entire time.

 

There was talk of McDonalds after “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction ^TM” got home from school, but I gave that a miss, headed home, collected the pups and took them up to Kings Wood where we walked our usual circuit. We had a good walk; Bailey disappeared at one point, but I gave three quick blasts on the whistle and she came running.

There was an odd incident just after the half-way point. Morgan started barking; there was a chap and his dog about fifty yards behind us. With a long straight path we would have seen them coming from quite a way away. They weren’t walking very fast, and there were no other footpaths from which they might have appeared. So how did they creep up on us so fast? After a couple of minutes I turned round expecting to see them about to overtake us, and they weren’t there any more. There were no footpaths off of the track we were on. Had they decided to stomp through the woods we would have heard them. Where had they gone?

What was that all about? Had we seen a pair of ghosts?

Equally odd was something we saw when we were just about three-quarters of the way round. About half a mile from the two car parks was a rather large pile of rubbish which had been fly-tipped. Bearing in mind the vehicular access to the place is only open to those with keys, someone had presumably carried all the rubbish about a mile into the wood.

Why would anyone do that ?

 

We came home and settled in front of the telly. With the puppies somewhat subdued I took a photo to send to the nice lady from whom we got them. I send her little “pupdates” from time to time. As the dogs settled and snored I made myself comfortable watching drivel on UK Gold… “er indoors ^TM” woke us up when she came home.

She then boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Junior Bake Off”; a good show, but (just occasionally) you can see it gets a little too much for the contestants. They are only little kids…

Today was a day off – I’m worn out.

2 February 2023 (Thursday) - A Friend Request

Treacle was again brought to bed last night under strict supervision and again I wasn’t woken ridiculously early. I was eventually woken about six o’clock by an odd sound which was either Treacle growling or “er indoors ^TM” snoring. I poked both to be sure and went back to sleep.

 

I had my usual mooch round the Internet as I scoffed toast, and was rather surprised to see a woman with whom I used to work had announced on Facebook that she was retiring. She claimed to be retiring after thirty-one years of work having started at age eighteen. Leaving aside the fact that I always suspected she was the same age as me (if not older!), how can anyone in an NHS job afford to retire aged less than fifty? Presumably she made sound investments over the years? Something I might have done?

I had two friend requests on Facebook this morning. Both from young ladies, but one had substantially more clothes on that the other. The clothed one made me wonder why she was sending a friend request. Two of the people on her friends list had one mutual friend with me; someone with whom I used to work twelve years ago; a rather tenuous connection? The more “natural” one (pictured above; claiming to be called “Joe”) should have known better.

 

I took the dogs round the block for a quick walk. We didn’t go far. In a few months we’ll be going back to Orlestone before the late shifts, but right now the place is just a swamp.

As we walked I continued something I started yesterday. Every time we cross the road Treacle knows to sit before we step off the kerb. I had hoped the puppies would have started to copy her, but they hadn’t, so yesterday I was making them sit before we crossed any road. There is still a long way to go, but Morgan is beginning to get the hang of it.

With walk walked we came home and did “sit” to have our leads taken off, then I set the washing machine going as I watched more “Star Trek: Discovery”, then wrote up a little CPD.

 

With the dogs settled I set off on a little mission before work. The parcel that I collected from the post office's collection depot yesterday contained the latest bits I need for my Lego pirate ship project, but I also needed some black yard/thread/string stuff for the rigging over the sails. I knew of a haberdashery shop in Willesborough (just up the road from where the snake shop used to be), so I went there only to find it had closed down years ago. Ho hum...

As I was in the area I went to the Willesborough co-op. Am I being over-sensitive in thinking that when serving a customer (i.e. taking my money) the old bat behind the till shouldn't carry on squawking at her cronies as though I wasn't there? Needless to say I won't be going back there in a hurry.

 

I drove round to Hobbycraft hoping they might have some black yard/thread/string stuff. The first assistant I asked wasn't already squawking with cronies, but she was equally disinterested. She told me they might have some up the back of the shop, and (rather rudely) carried on with what she was doing.

With time running out I went up toward the back of the shop and found another assistant who was incredibly helpful. After ten minutes we got some stuff that should do the trick.

 

And then I headed off to Pembury singing along to "Ivor Biggun". Even though it wasn't quite mid-day, as is so often the way on a late shift, the best bit of the day was done by mid day.

All the rest of today was rather dull…

 

1 February 2023 (Wednesday) - A Poggered Cordyline

Last night I am reliably informed that “er indoors ^TM” made a point of making sure that Treacle got onto the bed as quietly as a quiet thing, and of ensuring she didn’t stomp all round the bed. Consequently I stayed asleep until after five o’clock this morning when the backache finally woke me. I then dozed on and off until a cold wet Bailey-sized nose shoved itself into my armpit at seven o’clock.

 

I got up, and being the first of the month I had a shave with a new razor blade, then made toast and had a look at the Internet. There was quite the squabble kicking off locally. Someone locally had run over a dog and was trying to get the dog’s owners to pay for the damage done to the car. Opinion was divided into two schools of thought; there were those who felt sorry for the dog and its owners, and there were those who I don’t think I like very much.

I then sent out birthday wishes to those having a birthday today, leaded up the dogs and we went for a walk.

 

We didn’t go far today, really. Yesterday I’d come home to find one of those “we tried to deliver” slips left on the doormat by the postman. In the past I’ve found that they aren’t so much “we tried to deliver” as “we couldn’t be arsed to knock on the door” but to be fair we had been out when postie called yesterday. So today we walked up to the collection office to get the parcel. The walk there was relatively uneventful; mind you a lot of people did cross the road or back up against the walls in terror as we passed. Are the dogs *that* scary? They aren’t the biggest or scariest, are they? Or is it me?

We got to the collection office and got the parcel and headed home. As we came home the puppies had woofing fits at two other dogs. I blame the leads. When all the dogs are all off of the leads they greet other and have a little game. When all the dogs are all on the leads it is one big shouting match.

We came home past Brian’s house… I say “Brian’s house”, “where Brian used to live” is a more accurate description. But bearing in mind he did a runner last June I was rather amazed to see the disabled parking signs still up.

Once home I harvested a crop of dog dung from the garden. As I pootled I saw that my cordyline was in a rather sorry state. I had a look on-line and found as many opinions as there were people to give them. I asked on Facebook and found that maybe I should have covered the thing up in the autumn. Mind you “My Boy ^TM” says his has gone the same way. And he is the family font of knowledge on all things horticultural now Dad’s gone.
I shall leave it until the weather chirps up in the spring and hope for the best. If all else fails I will give it a serious pruning; that has worked wonder with other ailing plants.

I spent a few minutes doing some of my current Coursera course, emptied the dishwasher, then watched some telly before settling the dogs and setting off in the general direction of work.

I stopped off at the co-op to get a sandwich. Every time there I end up wishing I hadn't. The parking is an absolute nightmare, and the place is full of normal people swarming. That isn't normal people "shopping", or "wandering about" or "blindly blundering". People in that shop really do swarm.

I tried the radio; there wasn't much on which was worth listening so I sang along to "Ivor Biggun" as I drove west-wards, making far better time that I did yesterday. I'm not sure about the first part of my journey, but the bit from the Lamberhurst roundabout which took me twenty-five minutes yesterday only took nine minutes today. That's the advantage of going to work later.

Having done that which I couldn't avoid I made better time coming home as well, but with the best will in the world, after a late shift at Pembury I'm not going to get home before ten o'clock at the earliest.