14 November 2023 (Tuesday) - A Day Off

I slept like a log last night; eight hours asleep. Originally I had an ENT appointment booked for today, but what with having had COVID the hospital wanted to postpone the appointment. I decided to keep the day as a day off though. And having no need to be up early I slept like a log.

 

Over brekkie I had my usual rummage round the Internet. It was still there. The frankly wrong messages about Facebook stealing all your personal data and about how speed cameras going live on the M25 were still doing their rounds even though they’ve long been proved to be frankly wrong.

There were also reports about the possibility of Paul McCann appearing in a new spin-off Doctor Who series. Everyone with a stake in the franchise seems keen on the idea… and there’s the problem. It’s now a franchise, isn’t it? And a franchise owned by Disney. Not that I’m in any way knocking the Disney corporation, but back in the day I got to see Doctor Who because it was on the BBC. Paying for the BBC is compulsory (by law you have to have a TV license). On top of that I also pay out on Sky, Netflix, Apple TV and Paramount Plus. A subscription to Disney is perhaps one too many.

 

With rain forecast for later I got the dogs onto their leads and we went up to Kings Wood. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the ongoing situation in Gaza. It sounds horrific. If what was happening there was happening anywhere else in the thirty-one other conflicts which are currently going on in the world, the international community would be up in arms. But it strikes me that no one dares say anything for fear of being branded antisemitic.

 

We got to the woods and had a good (if muddy) walk. We’d had reports that a geocache we’d hidden there last February had gone walkabout, and the whole idea of having all of my geocaches in Kings Wood was so that I could combine maintenance with a dog walk. The missing one was one of those furthest from the car park, but bearing in mind we were having a dog walk, this wasn’t that much of an issue. Mind you it was a shame that this wasn’t one of the ones on the hard tracks but was along a grassy (mud!) path.

We got to where the cache was supposed to be, and found it wasn’t. I popped a new one out. It was a shame that the people logging “did not find” chose not to do put one out. As I’ve said before they could have popped out a new pot in a fraction of the time it took them to complain that they didn’t find it.

As we walked we met several other dogs, and played nicely with all of them. One of them was on an epically long lead, and he wrapped his lead tightly round his human. Six times. It was only a shame that Treacle had to wade in every single puddle and swamp we found. Every single one.

 

We came home and had a bath. Just a little hosing-down of tummies and paws. For once no one rolled in anything (for which I was grateful). The plan was to then spend a little while tidying up in the garden, but by then the rain had started. Very heavy rain. It has to be said I’m getting fed up with the rain. It’s been hossing down on and off for weeks now.

So I spent an hour or so looking at renewing the house’s buildings and contents insurance. At the weekend everyone claimed they could do it cheaper than the quote I’d had from the existing insurer. When I looked into it today no one could, with all the quotes coming in hundreds of pounds more expensive than what we are currently paying. We’re staying with who we are with (for another year).

 

Yesterday I mentioned that I wasn’t feeling on top form. I was still rather iffy today. I spent the afternoon watching more episode of “Silo”. A show which started well has sadly become just another “police show with a difference”; the difference being it is just the same as all the others.

“er indoors ^TM” is currently Zoom-ing with her mates. I’m going to watch more telly. If today hadn’t been a day’s leave I would probably have come home on sick leave.

13 November 2023 (Monday) - Feeling Rather Tired

I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go only to find it was twenty past two. I then dozed on and off not getting more than ten minutes continuous sleep for the rest of the night. I gave up, got up, made toast and watched something Matt had recommended to me. "Silo" isn't a new concept. A gaggle of people find themselves in an underground bunker; terrified of what might be outside. Eventually someone wants to go have a look. The first episode seemed watchable.

 

Taking care not to wake anyone I set off through a damp morning to find my car. Eventually I found it two streets away. I had a quick Munzee session round the town centre, then set off up the motorway to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the violence in central London at the cenotaph on Saturday. It was claimed that the (ex) Home Secretary egged on the far right wing groups responsible. Did she? Possibly. She's got the sack for it anyway, and it the ensuing cabinet reshuffle ex Prime Minister David Cameron has returned to the front bench as Foreign Secretary. He was one of the better Prime Ministers of recent years; mind you it has to be said he hasn't had much competition. To be honest I thought he'd jacked politics in after the Brexit debacle. It turns out I was right. He had. He's not a Member of Parliament at all; he's been given a life peerage so's he can return to government.

To my mind this opens a can of worms. Aren't there any Members of Parliament who can do the job? Not one out of over three hundred Conservative MPs? This is setting something of a precedent isn't it - appointing someone to do a job because all the elected candidates aren't up to it?

Apparently this happened all the time two centuries ago…

 

Needing petrol I popped to the Aylesford filling station where there was mayhem. Some huge lorry was at the front pump taking an age to fill up. The woman who had been in the car behind was marching round formally ordering people to back up so she could get her car out. When she bellowed to me to move I pointed out I couldn't reverse because there was a car tight behind my car, and asked if she couldn't wait a couple of minutes. She indignantly replied that she could not wait (clearly far too important a person to do that), and assured me she would move the car behind me.

Some people. eh?

Matters weren't helped by having half the petrol pumps cordoned off. It turned out that one of the tills was broken, and with only one till the cashier couldn't keep up with demand. Yesterday (apparently) traffic was queuing a hundred yards down the road as the poor till operative wasn't up to the job and the police had closed the place down.

 

Work was work; as the day went on I rather wilted. No sleep last night whilst still recovering form Friday’s night shift…

I came home. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up fish and chips which we scoffed whilst watching “Richard Osman’s House of Games”. I do like that show, but it is spoiled by the contestants clapping themselves whenever they win a round. People clapping themselves is a pet hate of mine. I’m sure it is rarely (if ever) from conceit; people just join in the clapping. I wish they wouldn’t. It is such a silly trivial thing that boils my piss so much.

 

“er indoors ^TM” has gone bowling. I shall watch more “silo”.

12 November 2023 (Sunday) - Brekkie, Dymchurch

I slept for nine hours last night; the last few hours were spent dozing whilst fighting a battle trying to retain some of the duvet. A battle I eventually lost.

I got up, made a cuppa and had a look at the Internet to see if I’d missed anything overnight. I hadn’t really. There was a minor argument on one of the Radio Four Facebook pages. Someone hadn’t liked a program explaining how evolution worked, and people who didn’t understand evolution were making a pretty poor show of explaining it. There was a talk of an argument on one of the Facebook pages which features old photographs of Hastings… I say “talk of argument”; the chap who runs the group is often complaining about people causing upset on that group. I’ve never seen any myself (which is rare for a Facebook group); I offered to help moderate the group if that would help, and my offer was accepted. Perhaps I might see some of the squabbles now?

I had an email that one of my geocaches in Kings Wood had gone missing. As is always the case with missing geocaches it was one of those furthest from the car park but replacing it will make for a good dog walk in the week.

I had an email from Sainsburys home insurance saying the household insurance was up for renewal… at over double what I paid last year. I phoned through to them but the people I needed to speak with didn’t work on Sundays. Insurance companies are a pain in the glass (to coin a phrase). They always do this – they send through a renewal at a ridiculous price, and when you phone them to whinge they reduce the quote; often to lower than what it was last year.

 

We popped into town for our monthly brekkie catch-up with friends. You can’t beat a bit of brekkie. And with brekkie scoffed we came home and I spent a few minutes with moneysupermarket dot com looking at household building and contents insurance. Within ten minutes I had thirty-seven quotes that were cheaper than what Sainsbury’s were offering. Cheaper by hundreds of pounds.

 

With nothing else on the agenda and rain forecast for later we thought we’d take the dogs out. We drove down to Dymchurch and did the geocaching adventure lab caches down there. They took us on a simple but good little guided walk, and despite the colour of the sky, the rain held off.

We came home, and I spent the rest of the afternoon on the sofa underneath a pile of dogs watching more episodes of “Four In A Bed” in which (again) those with the crappiest Bed & Breakfasts felt they had so much to teach to people who were doing a far better job than them.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching last week’s episode of “Bake Off”; we’ve now caught up. Mind you, this year I’ve not heard any spoilers about the show. In previous years there’s been loads.

Is it losing its popularity?

 

I feel knackered – I really should have gone to bed yesterday…

11 November 2023 (Saturday) - Bit Tired

As night shifts go, last night’s was one of the better ones, but I was still glad to see the day shift arrive. As I drove home the pundits on the radio were talking about today’s planned marches in London. Following all the commotion in the week with the police saying they were legally unable to ban the protest marches, marches had been planned in support of both sides of the conflict in Gaza. I can’t help but wonder why anyone would march in London in protest about something happening in the Middle East; who are they protesting at? Is anyone who can do anything about it going to be listening? Somehow I doubt it. I could be wrong but I suspect many of those going have been attracted by all the hype.

 

As I got to the motorway I turned the radio from Radio Four to Radio Ashford and listened to the fizzing and crackling. After a mile or so I could hear Steve in the background, and as we drove past Lenham so I could hear him more clearly.

I drove straight to the Dog Club field. Had I come home for the dogs I would have been a tad late, and seeing I had the key to the place I felt I shouldn’t be keeping people waiting. I opened up, and within minutes Ralph (and his human) arrived. Soon there were dogs all over the place, and “er indoors ^TM” soon arrived with a car full of dogs and “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction ^TM” who’d stayed overnight with his mother and sister. “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” gave Dog Club a miss as “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” was taking a while to get going this morning.

Dog Club went rather well with a dozen dogs along. Lots of chasing and playing. Pogo seemed to get on rather well. It’s daft… standing in a muddy field watching a load of dogs charging about and then driving home trying to work out the mystery year on the radio has become one of the highlights of my week. And talking of the mystery year, I had it figured out today. I heard the clues, I listened to the music. I was confident that it was 1983. I was rather shocked when Steve said 1979.

 

We got home and rather than going to bed (as I would usually do after a night shift) I made toast and bandied insults with “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” for the morning. 

Eventually “er indoors ^TM” took “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” and the littluns off shopping, and I settled down in front of the telly underneath a pile of dogs and dozed until “er indoors ^TM” returned. I had a cuppa and checked my emails. I’ve signed up for “Beat the Peak”; some scheme by which if we don’t use leccie at peak hours we’ll get money off our bill. And I had a notification that “LexisNexis” carried out an insurance risk assessment search on me. I wonder why. And the Friends of Kings Wood were asking for volunteers to help with pond surveys. I might be up for that.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner then went off to Folkestone to watch some Queen tribute band. I settled on the sofa with the dogs and watched the last episode of “Osmosis”. The show started badly, and in all honesty went downhill from there. I must admit I had no idea what was going on for much of it.

And then I watched a film. I’d heard good things about “Ad Astra”. , but I’d been lied to. It started off with the planet Earth getting attacked by power surges from the planet Neptune. So our hero was sent to Mars (which was where the closest space telephone was located) to ask them to stop. On the way he was attacked by space pirates and space baboons, but on getting to Mars he was declared psychologically round the twist. To prove his detractors wrong he then hijacked a spaceship (accidentally killing all the crew) and sailed all the way to Neptune where he found his Dad who was even further round the twist than he was.

As crap films go, it was on the crap side.

 

As I watched telly so “er indoors ^TM” said hello through the dog-cam. That made the dogs sit up and take notice.

10 November 2023 (Friday) - Before the Night Shift

I slept like a log and slept through till half past seven. Seeing a decent morning outside but with rain forecast later I got the dogs organised and we set off fort Kings Wood.

As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the Home Secretary who has written a letter to The Times in which she accuses the Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley of anti-Israeli bias, and whilst she was at it accused him of bias involving Northern Ireland politics, football thuggery and anti-lockdown protesters. Is he biased? Is she just attention seeking (as has been alleged). Either way this need a formal and impartial investigation to find out which one of them needs sacking.

 

We got to the woods and had a far better walk that we did yesterday in that we didn’t get soaking wet. We did one of our standard walks (of three and a half miles) and found the woods rather busy. We met six other dog walkers; usually three is a lot. But all encounters passed off with out any episodes. Treacle kept herself to herself and the puppies said hello nicely and then walked on past.

We started our walk in glorious sunshine, but just as we came back to the car park so the sky clouded over, and there was heavy rain before we were half way home. We certainly timed today’s walk better than we did yesterday’s.

As we were half way home so I had a complete melt-down about missing my Fudge-dog. It’s now two and a half years since he went.

 

We got home and all dogs went into the bath. Morgan and Treacle had the mud washed from their pays and bellies. Bailey had a serious scrub; she’d been rolling in all sorts of stuff including fox poo and dead birds.

I made a cuppa for “er indoors ^TM” and me, and then wrote up some CPD before going to bed for the afternoon.

 

I slept for four hours; finally waking when all the dogs came and jumped on me. A spot of dinner, then I’m off to the night shift.

Like all days before the night shift I spent much of today moping about having to go to work later. Days before the night shift are so often nothing but dull.

9 November 2023 (Thursday) - Rostered Day Off

I slept through till quarter to eight this morning when I prodded “er indoors ^TM” awake. She was supposed to be up early to be going in to the office today. Woops.

I made toast and had a little look at the Internet and saw that my Baptist Minster friend was spouting utter drivel on his “Prayers at Ten” podcast. He sounded rather croaky this morning. Apparently his doctor has told him to keep quiet or he risks damaging his voice more. However you can’t keep quiet and praise the lord at the same time, and he was earnestly thanking his god for making him ill (for no reason that made any sense to me).

I’ve mentioned before that I feel very guilty about this chap. His father died when he was a toddler; we met when we were five years old and he was so obviously latching on to any man he saw as a father figure. He idolised one of our primary school teachers, but the damage was done at Boys Brigade where he seemingly adopted the (very religious) leader as a surrogate father. I can hear our old Boys Brigade leader’s platitudes in what my old mate drivels on his podcasts.

Mind you his church seems to be quite successful; if it turns out that I am completely wrong and there is a god, I shall claim some of the credit for my old mate’s results.

 

With the weather forecast giving the weather getting worse as the day went on, and seeing a bright morning I took the dogs up to Kings Wood. As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing Nadine Dorres. Once Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, she resigned with a rather nasty letter telling the Prime Minster what she thought of him. Then (so it was claimed) she made things difficult for the government because she didn’t get a peerage, and has now written a book claiming that some secret cabal is actually running the country and that this group are responsible for the downfall of the last five Prime Ministers.

You’d think that if there really was some secret illuminati behind the scenes they’d stop her book being published, wouldn’t you?

 

We got to the woods; we had a good walk. At one point I found myself with four dogs; we acquired one. His mummy soon appeared and said that this little dog (a whippet about the size of Morgan) had recently captured a squirrel. I was impressed.

Our walk went very well… right up to the point where we were about a mile from the car when the heavens opened. I was wet through to my pants by the time we got back to the car.

 

Once home the dogs had hot showers to warm them up, and they were soon snoring whilst I carried on putting stuff back on to the bookcases, and putting it all in some semblance of order. Somehow I’ve lost some DVDs; Auf Wiedersehn Pet seasons three and four, Blake’s Seven seasons one and two have gone as has the second season of The Young Ones and two seasons of Game On., and some films seem to be missing too. I’ve found a load of Star Trek hardback books that I really don’t want. I wonder if anyone wants them?  And “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” says she don’t want her old Boyzone CDs if anyone wants them...

I loaded up all the packaging from the bookcases and some bags of rubbish and took them up to the tip. The tip was surprisingly quiet at half past mid-day. I wonder if that is always a quiet time?

 

No day off work is complete without ironing, and I ironed for two episodes of “Osmosis” in which it turns out that the mad scientist’s girlfriend did love him all along, she just didn’t like his invention and wanted to be his soul mate without a computer having to tell him. And there was consternation when one of the project’s beta-testers found out that his soul mate and perfect match was a bit of a slapper and was only happy when doing the dirty deed with anyone else and everyone else.

Our mad scientist was consequently having trouble getting people to financially back his computer-controlled device for finding true love. Strange, that. Mind you, “Osmosis” was originally made in French. I can’t help but feel that (like the last Netflix thing I watched – the Japanese “Alice in Borderland”) it lost an awful lot in translation.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home. Today was her day in the office and she came home loaded up with shopping. She boiled up pizza which we scoffed whilst watching more “Bake Off”.

I’m thinking about an early(ish) night; for a rostered day off I’ve not stopped. I feel all-in. I’ve finally done over six thousand steps today; the first time since going down with COVID… and when we were out earlier I got a blister which has now burst.

Yuk.

 

8 November 2023 (Wednesday) - Pink Cake, Jubblies

I had an early(ish) night last night, slept like a log and woke at four o'clock. Much as I wasn't pleased, that was better than I often manage . I dozed fitfully for a while before giving up, getting up and starting with the day. Yesterday I mentioned that I'd started watching "Osmosis" on Netflix; a series in which a mad scientist developed a computer-controlled chip thingy which people swallowed and it went to their brain, logged on to the Internet and found their perfect partner. Or that was the idea. In yesterday's episode our mad scientist tested it on himself and found his perfect partner. They set up home together, but by this morning she'd had enough of him, told him to get knotted and did a runner. That rather put the kibosh on his amazing scientific discovery, which was something of a shame for his company's shareholders, if not for him.

Meanwhile one of the other test subjects flopped her jubblies out. Whether or not this was because of the computer chip in her brain or a shallow attempt to boost the ratings wasn't made clear. But for all that I am a fan of the things (jubblies, not ratings) it's usually the case that getting the jubblies out is the last resort of a bad scriptwriter. Look at the jubblies in "Game of Thrones"; they came out and got put away in direct relationship to the show's ratings.

 

I got dressed as best I could in the dark. There was a minor hiccup when I lost a pair of socks. I got some more from the sock drawer; I expect Treacle has now eaten the pair I lost.

I drove round to B&Q. I suspect our new bookcases haven't got enough shelves, so I got the ingredients for an extra shelf for each of them. And with shopping shopped I voomed round town capping Points of Interest, weapons and evos (as one does in Munzee-World) before heading up the motorway to work.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the ongoing situation in Gaza. The Labour Party's Shadow Minister for New Deal has resigned because the Leader of the Labour Party won't call for a cease-fire in Gaza. It was claimed that Sir Kier sees himself as a Prime Minister in waiting and so consequently feels obliged to copy absolutely everything that the American President does. And if President Biden won't call for a cease-fire, than neither will Sir Kier. The point was made that it is incredibly doubtful if anyone in Gaza has ever heard of Sir Kier, let alone takes any notice of him, but why should that get in the way of political posturing or matters of principle (depending on your personal perspective).

And thousands of people are getting ready to march round London this Saturday) in solidarity with the Palestinians. Despite it being Remembrance Day, the police say they are legally powerless to stop the protests. Perhaps they are, perhaps it is just the latest of their feeble excuses. But again I doubt if anyone in Gaza will take any notice of a load of shouting in London...

 

The motorway was surprisingly busy this morning. Again the breakdown of one lorry caused gridlock. I found myself stuck behind a Romanian lorry  displaying a very large notice saying "We Don't Go To the UK" which it then repeated in French. All very good political posturing for driving round Europe, but something of an own goal when driving in Kent.

 

Work was work. There was cake. There was also an inordinate amount of time spent in Trap One; something had upset my innards and I spent much of the day wishing that my rectum could be rectified. Perhaps I'm intolerant of pink fairy cakes?

 

I came home through some rather nasty rain. “er indoors ^TM” had already gone off out on her evening’s mission so I had a little scoff then cracked on with the bookcases. I sawed the two shelves to size; sadly only one of them got sawed to the correct size. I shall take the wreckage of the mis-sawn shelf to the tip tomorrow. I then moved the new bookcases and the old existing one about a few times until there was some space in the back room. Surprisingly that took nearly two hours. I shall put stuff on the shelves tomorrow. And see if I actually need that second extra shelf…