3 June 2023 (Saturday) - Busy, Busy

I was fast asleep when I my phone beeped at five o’clock this morning with a message about an Evri delivery. What was that all about? I don’t have an Evri account; I didn’t even know what one was until this message woke me. Apparently Evri is the new name for Hermes? The number the message came from is (apparently) a known source of scam phone calls.

Being wide awake I put some washing in to scrub, made toast and watched an episode of “Shameless” before kicking everyone else out of their pits.

 

With a bumper crop of dog dung harvested I had a look at the Internet. I had two friend requests on Facebook this morning. Both reminded me of a comment made by an eight-year-old cub scout who on seeing a pantomime dame for the first time described it as “a woman gone wrong”. I think I’ve got two of those here… The one on the right is having a serious chest malfunction.

There wasn’t a lot else happening on the internet this morning, which in some ways was a shame, and in others was something of a result.

 

Being Saturday we drove round to the Repton estate and Dog Club. As we turned into the estate so the dogs went frantic – they knew where they were going. Dog Club was good fun today. Morgan and Bailey had a whale of a time, Treacle allowed other dogs near to me and “er indoors ^TM”, and she even sniffed a few bums (Treacle, not “er indoors ^TM”).

As we drove home we listened to Steve on the radio doing the Mystery Year competition. Usually I have some idea (quite often a good idea) but today I didn’t have a clue. 2005 perhaps?

 

We got home, settled the dogs and zoomed out to Bybrook Barn garden centre. As we drove Steve was still on the radio talking about the latest Sparks album. He seemed quite keen on it; I’m still not sure.

Yesterday I mentioned needing a rock for something I had in mind. At the garden centre I got two, some pond plants (and containers for them) and cake. Billed as “Cherry Cake Seconds”, it was the edge parts of cherry cake at a fraction of the price of the normal cherry cake.

Mind you my piss boiled somewhat as I went round Bybrook Barn; I think it fair to say that I was the *only* person there with a trolley who was aware that there were other people shopping. Not one of the other trolley pilots were paying any attention to where they were going, or what (or who) they were crashing into.

 

We came home and I got on with today’s project. For some time we’ve had a little splash pool above the pond into which the filter empties. The water then goes over a little waterfall into the main pond which gets oxygen into the water. But the splash pool just breeds algae. So the plan was to turn this splash pool into a bog filter. I trimmed up the pond plant containers so they would be beneath the splash pool’s water level, got them all in place, then arranged stones over them to keep the plants sunk.

The plan is that all the nutrients in the water which feed algae will go into the plants, leaving none for the algae. Will this work? Time will tell; it always does.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted out coffee and cake for lunch. For all that the cake was “seconds”, it was rather good.

With a little time on my hands I made a start sawing up wood in preparation for tomorrow’s project (more of that tomorrow).

As I sawed “er indoors ^TM” took Treacle to the vets. Her belly was (and is) very red and had a nasty lump. The vet had a poke and a prod and announced it was a very nasty bruise. I can’t think of any accidents Treacle has had recently to get a bruise. The vet said to keep an eye on it; we will.

 

We then drove down to Folkstone to see the birthday girl. “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” was going out for her birthday, and we had been charged with the supervision of “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM”.

Leaving the most recent fruit of my loin heading off to the fun fair for the afternoon and evening we brought “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” home, and had a rather full-on afternoon and evening. When she wasn’t terrorising the dogs (and snogging them) she was either playing bubbles or watching songs on You-Tube. We had a few tears as time wore on, but she perked up a bit for KFC for tea. Eventually she collapsed; she was so tired.

As was I.

I had the offer to go to Singleton barn this evening to see Jimbo’s band with friends, but I was worn out from the day’s exertions… and that was before granddaughter arrived on the scene.

I’m told the band is playing in Mersham in a few weeks’ time; we can see them then.

2 June 2023 (Friday) - Cake and Chicken

“er indoors ^TM” went to the loo in the small hours. In itself that wouldn't have been an issue. I would have slept through that. But she was followed by a procession of dogs. And then the smallest one (who is too small to get off of the bed on her own) whinged because she thought she was missing out by not going with the others. Once she'd eventually settled, the toilet procession came back to bed quietly (!) There was then quite a bit of grumbling and growling as we all jostled for position. I say "we all jostled for position"; I just desperately tried to cling on to that small area of bed which I already had. And failed.

I got up, made toast and watched more "Shameless" in which the piss-sodden tramp was again the object of several ladies' attentions. Surely this isn't realistic? Do my lady readers seriously find piss-sodden tramps attractive?

 

I went out to the garden to see how the pond was doing. The filter's input was beginning to clag up again. Being made from clear plastic I can see when it clags. I unclagged it, and within seconds it clagged again. A second unclagging seemed to do the trick.

As I unclagged I had a stroke of genius involving what I might do with a rock. But rather than doing anything with a rock I decided to give the matter a little thought.  I have plans for making a bog filter this weekend - that rock idea might be part of that.

 

I set off to work listening to the pundits on the radio interviewing some ex-civil servant about the latest ridiculous position the government has got itself into. The government has set up a public enquiry into its handling of the COVID pandemic and has given those conducting the enquiry full authority to investigate anything they consider relevant to the matter. But the government is refusing to hand over all sorts of documents that the enquiry wants to see; saying that those documents are none of the enquiry's business. How does that work? Why set up a public enquiry if you are then not going to let it enquire?

There was also talk about Slow Ways; a website of a national network of long distance footpaths. That looks like being something with which I might get involved. Possibly. I wonder how long it will be before it becomes one big argument?

 

I got to work and had an email from the dentist who wanted to tell me all about his "fair and ethical pricing policy". I would have thought that charging as much as the market could stand would have been the order of the day, but the link he sent went to a document which went on for many pages but without actually saying the price of anything. Someone's taken an age to produce this document. Isn't this just a sign of our times: endless meaningless paperwork.

Mind you at work I also had cake and barbeque chicken too, so the day wasn’t a bad one really.

 

I’ve now got a two-day weekend. I’ve not had many of those lately…

1 June 2023 (Thursday) - Pond and Stuff

I slept rather well again last night, which was something of a result. But I was still up early enough to watch an episode of “Shameless”. It’s a good program, but much of it being based on the amorous adventures of a piss-stained tramp does stretch credulity somewhat.

 

With a few minutes to spare I had a look at the internet. Last night I finally got round to updating the album of photos of my pond, and it had got quite a few comments.

I had two friend requests on Facebook this morning. You can see them here. Interestingly the profiles of these two contained identical photos. What’s that all about?

There was an interesting posting on one of the pond-related Facebook pages this morning. Interesting in two ways. Firstly because it sparked a polite conversation and not a bitter squabble. And secondly because of what it was about. Some chap had recently bought a house with a rather good pond in the garden. Or (to be precise) with what had once been a rather good pond in the garden. The thing had fallen into disrepair and this chap had posted some photos of the work he’d done transforming it from a silted-up mess back to a rather good pond. In the comments someone had asked how much people would be prepared to spend to pay a professional to sort the pond for them. The general consensus was “not very much”. The one who had asked the question then announced he ran a garden pond building/renovation business and had outgoings of seventy quid a day. He then asked if, considering those outgoings, would people be prepared to pay more for his services. Most people (politely) said “no”. The general consensus was why should we subsidise his expenses by paying for that which we would do ourselves for free.

My pond is my ongoing hobby/project. I don’t doubt I could make the thing perfect in a day if I paid someone to make it perfect. But where’s the fun in that?

 

As I drove to work I listened to the pundits on the radio talking about how the American senate has voted to increase their "debt ceiling". I'm no economist, but from what I can work out this means that although the American government already owes an absolute fortune,  rather than paying back what is owed, they are just going to carry on borrowing more and more to keep going.

How does that work?

After ten seconds on Google I came up with this web site which told me that the American government started off in debt (back when it borrowed fifty million dollars from the French to finance the war of independence) and it has carried on borrowing more and more ever since. Now its debts have grown to over thirty trillion dollars... you'd think people would stop lending them money, wouldn't you?

I seriously worry about paying off my credit card each month. Perhaps I shouldn't bother?

 

And then I had a phone call from the most recent fruit of my loin who had found (well, Pogo had found) a dead seagull in her garden. What did I think she should do with it? My gut reaction was to ding it in the nearest public waste bin. She wasn't keen on doing that. She wasn't keen on doing anything which involved going anywhere near the dead seagull, but (as I pointed out) what other options did she have? Pogo wasn't going to leave the thing alone, was he?

I am reliably informed she stuffed it in the bin by Sainsbury's. It turns out that stuffing it in the bin by Sainsbury's is exactly in line with the government's formal advice on dealing with dead birds.

Can you believe it - my plan was right. Go me!!

 

I got to work and did my bit. And wasn't at all impressed when the early shift went home two hours earlier than I did. I like being on the early shift so I can go home early. I get to work far too early to avoid being stuck in traffic on the motorway so early shifts suit me. Yesterday I'd got home, walked the dogs round the woods, got home again and bathed Treacle before the time at which I drove out of the works car park this evening.

 

I came home to find my pond testing kit had arrived. I’d ordered one from Amazon yesterday; I had a theory that high nitrate levels (or something) were encouraging the green algae growth. But I was wrong.

Nitrate, nitrite and chlorine levels were fine. However pH was to the top end of what was good… Mind you the test kit gave the top end of pH as being 8.0, but expert opinion has it quite a bit higher. Carbonate levels and water hardness were a tad high too… but what can you expect living in Kent?

I suppose that not finding anything seriously amiss is a good thing, but (for some daft reason) I feel that a negative result was something of a waste of money.