3 March 2023 (Friday) - Rostered Day Off

Having had no dubious friend requests on Facebook for a while, I found myself faced with two this morning as I scoffed my toast. There was one with a frankly epic chest who claimed to be  a “Mrs” and despite the demure expression claimed to be a “Professional Dominatix and a shrink BDSM influencer, into different kinds of festish”. Her profile picture featured a rather impressive array of artificial pork swords,

The other one said she was a “digital creator” which is far more of a refined career, but her profile did feature some rather raunchy undercrackers.

I’ve reported both to the Facebook Feds… If I don’t take a moral stance, who will?

I had more adverts about cruises though. Now I’m old, Saga Holidays are sending me quite a bit of stuff. Today’s advert was for a two-week cruise up the Danube for only three thousand quid. I suspect that Saga Holidays have no idea that I’ve already had a holiday with them… it was a week in Jersey in 1986 (!) when “er indoors ^TM” worked for them.

 

I got the leads onto the dogs and took them up to Kings Wood for a little explore. Again we took the paths we rarely take, and had a rather good walk. Mind you we did meet an idiot… an idiot on a horse. The dogs ran to the horse. I blew the whistle and then started coming back. The idiot on the horse then called out what good dogs they were and they ran back to her. I blew the whistle and they turned and came to me. She then loudly announced “Forward, Dobbin” (or something along those lines) and of course the dogs were attracted again. After five minutes of this sort of thing I told her I was giving up as she was determined to be unhelpful. She asked what she could do to stop the dogs bothering her horse. I told her to stand where she was in silence whilst they came all the way up to me at which point I could get them on the leads. Grudgingly she did as I asked, and with them on the lead she eventually came past. I gave her a sarcastic “thank you” as she came past, but I think the sarcasm was wasted.

A little while later we met a nice man with four dogs who had also had a run-in with a horse. I wonder if it was the same one? I rarely (if ever) see horses in Kings Wood; we met three loads today.

When we got back to the car I realised I’d lost Bailey’s lead somewhere.

 

We came home. “er indoors ^TM” was off today, so we thought we might have lunch out somewhere. The Harvester was full as was the Pheasant. One of the legacies of the COVID pandemic is that fewer and fewer places allow you to just turn up for dinner; more and more places expect you to book in advance.

We drove out to Westwell to the Wheel. The place wasn’t only closed; it was being rebuilt.

We went to the Beefeater in the end. We’d had a good dinner there a couple of weeks ago. They had tables free. We had a rather good scoff.

 

And with scoff scoffed we went on a little shopping spree. To Bybrook Barn to get a new lead for Bailey. And a new collar too. Pets at Home would have been more convenient, but for the price of collar or lead at Pets at Home we got both at Bybrook Barn.

We then went to Pets at Home anyway… or to the vets in there. Last weekend Bailey had the trots. Rather impressively. Morgan has them now. I asked for a dose of the medicine that Bailey had had. We’ve got some – let’s hope it does the trick.

 

Being a Friday we watched the new episode of “Star Trek: Picard” which would have been far better had the main characters behaved in the way that was established over thirty years ago.

 

Today was a rostered day off – it’s been a rather busy one.

2 March 2023 (Thursday) - A Day's Holiday

With no alarm set I slept through until half past seven. I got up, made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. Today’s Facebook feed featured loads of pictures of children dressed for “World Book Day”. You’d think that on World Book Day” children would read books, wouldn’t you? You would be wrong. Apparently World Book Day” is a chance for parents to get incredibly competitive as they send their children to school dressed as their favourite literary character… and if the parents or the children don’t realise that “Emmett” from “the Lego Movie” or “Elsa” from “Frozen” are from books, then that don’t matter.

There’s a very good rant on the matter here.

I’ll just make the observation that had “My Boy ^TM” or “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” ever had this nonsense they would have been sent to school in their usual school uniforms, and if anyone asked they would had said that they were “The Children Whose Daddy Couldn’t Be Arsed”.

 

I took the dogs out… Bearing in mind it is still too muddy for Orlestone we went to Kings Wood and explored some parts of the wood we’ve not been in before. As we walked we met a nice Canadian lady and her dog. The dogs all played nicely, and got given dried liver treats too. That was something of a result.

As we walked back to the car we saw some familiar faces. Some hunters of Tupperware were in search of the caches I’d put in the woods last weekend. It was good to catch up.

With dogs in the boot I gave them their usual treat, and then saw Morgan’s neck… It wasn’t as bad as I thought. When I got him into the bath it was clear that what I’d thought was fox poo was actually mud, but he got a good scrubbing nonetheless.

 

I settled the pups and drove down to Folkestone. “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” was having a driving lesson and I got to look after “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM”. I was reliably informed that she likes “Princess Power”, but she didn’t seem that impressed to me. We put on episodes of “Bebefin” until she fell asleep. I fell asleep too.

We were woken by the doorbell. Someone claiming to be a health visitor… Bearing in mind “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” was out I sent this woman packing assuming she was some sort of fake. Two minutes later she returned with “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM”; it turned out she was genuine. But she seemed impressed that I’d not let her in; that showed I was looking out for WaaWaa… as if I wouldn’t look out for her?

 

Leaving “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” with her visitor I came home and rang British Gas. Earlier in the week some third party had wanted me to pay them for the outstanding gas bill at Dad’s house. A month ago I’d set up a direct debit with British Gas, so I phoned them to see what was going on. “Queen” told me that apparently that direct debit failed (?) I suggested  that maybe they might have let me know; “Queen” said she was surprised that they hadn’t. But the bill is paid for now.

I then spent a couple of hours ironing whilst watching episodes of “Downton Abbey” in which Lady Sybil croaked, which cast rather a pall on the goings-on.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home with a new haircut (apparently) and as she got busy in the kitchen I watched an episode of “Ancient Aliens” in which it was claimed that in World War Two the German Reich had access to alien technology… Didn’t help them much, did it?

As we scoffed dinner we watched something new (to us). “Stath Lets Flats” was first aired in 2018 and is rather good.

 

I’ve has a very busy day off… I’m worn out.

1 March 2023 (Wednesday) - A Glass of Plonk

Finding myself awake far too early I got up and came downstairs. As I opened the door to the living room I jumped as something shot past my feet at lightning speed. Two somethings. “er indoors ^TM” couldn't have secured the puppies' crate last night and they had been waiting (poised like coiled springs) for me to open the door this morning so they could get to the big bed. They'd clearly spent the night out of the crate... as evidenced by the tiddle on the carpet and the poop on the lino.

Oh well... who'd have dogs?

 

I made toast and watched more Downton Abbey in which the chauffeur would seem to have abandoned Lady Sybil (men are all beasts) and Ethel's morality was found to be wanting (by those who were no paragons of virtue themselves).

I then had a look at the internet and sent out a birthday wish with something of a sense of guilt...

Yesterday I mentioned someone with whom I went to primary school. Today was the birthday of another friend I've known since 1969. This chap was a very good friend all those years ago; we went to primary school together, I walked three miles to secondary school (and back) with him every day for many years. But I can never forgive myself for introducing him to the Boys Brigade. The whole idea of Boys Brigade is to brainwash boys into religion. It caught me, but eventually I realised what was going on and saw sense. However my old mucker fell for it, hook, line and sinker. He became a lay-preacher (effectively a voluntary vicar), and eventually he gave up a very well paid job as a bank manager to become a full-time pastor in the Baptist church (which he still is). When the chap who ran our old Boys Brigade died, my old friend gave a sermon at the funeral. I have never heard such a disjointed illogical load of non-sequitur nonsense. My old mate admired the chap who'd died for his "faith". "Faith" was (to him) a wonderful thing – to me it is the ability to hold an unshaking belief in the patently absurd despite overwhelming evidence that your belief is clearly wrong. But my old friend believes every word of the nonsense he now spouts and consequently leads his life in cloud cuckoo land... and it is my fault for taking him there.

 

As I drove to work I listened to the radio with something of a sense of confusion. There was talk about the uncertainty as to how much the government is going to subsidise our energy bills this year.

I really don't understand what is going on with energy bills.

Years ago the government sold off the country's power generating ability to people who would run it at a profit. The people who bought the country's power generating ability did so in good faith; they knew a good thing when they saw it. But now we are hearing mutually contradictory news. On the one hand the pundits on the radio are claiming that the power generating companies are being told to sell the electricity and gas cheaper than they can make the stuff. On the other hand it is claimed that the power generating companies are supposedly making record profits selling it at this loss.

How does that work? What's going on there?

 

Work was work...  we had a phone call. The nice people from the Care Quality Commission were on the way and would be with us in twenty minutes' time. I suggested to the boss that I might threaten them with a fight to scare them off but as the boss said, that wouldn't look good in the newspapers, would it?

Having had the heads-up that they were coming at twenty to nine I was on my best behaviour all day… But they hadn’t shown by the time I went home. I saw that as a result.

 

Being on an early shift I got home earlier than usual. We had a quick walk round the block, then I settled myself in front of the telly. With dogs piled on top of me I watched “Ancient Aliens” on the History channel. Have you ever watched that show? It has to be seen to be believed; the logic employed on that show wouldn’t be out of place in a church (!) It was stated as a categorical fact that aliens exist for the simple reason that the late Prince Philip was interested in UFOs.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of Pinot Noir from Lidl. With change out of four quid, it was a very good drop… Hic !