28 March 2019 (Thursday) - Stuff

I woke feeling refreshed, full of energy and raring to go only to find that it was a quarter past one. I dozed on and off for the rest of the night, finally giving up trying to get to sleep at six o’clock.

Over a bowl of granola I watched a couple of episodes of “Love Death and Robots”. They were good; why hasn’t the general public latched on to this show? I then watched another lecture about plant memory before peering into the depths of Facebook. It told me that one of my nephews was having a birthday today. He’s twenty. Twenty!! – and he is one of the younger ones. Where does the time go?

I had a few emails this morning. Several comments on blog entries over the past year. All trying to sell stuff. I reported the lot to the feds at Blogger; I wonder if anything will come of it? And LinkedIn suggested I might like to chum up with Kate Heitzman who is the boss maths teacher at a school in Tonbridge. With that unusual name I suspect she may be in some way related to a chap with whom I was at primary school some fifty years ago. But that struck me as a rather tenuous reason for anyone to suggest a friendship; cyber- or otherwise.

I created the last three checkers I needed for my new geo-series, then got myself ready to brave the journey to work.

As I drove up the motorway (at fifty miles per hour) the pundits on the radio were talking about the latest Brexit debacle. Parliament had decided that they would come up with a Brexit deal, and yesterday's parliamentary time was dedicated to doing that. In a move which has amazed everyone the world over, Parliament has thrown out pretty much any conceivable Brexit deal, as well as having thrown out the possibility of no Brexit deal whatsoever or of no Brexit at all.

There are those of my loyal readers who say they don't understand politics... what has happened is akin to going to a car showroom and announcing that you won't leave until you've bought a car, but don't like any car on the market. Or akin to going to a restaurant, demanding dinner and refusing everything on the menu.

It is just like how my four-year-old grandson behaves when he is having a tantrum.

Realistically it is an utter failure of democracy. What do you do when there is no agreement whatsoever? Someone has to make a choice knowing full well that large swathes of the population won't like it. Interestingly the Prime Minister has offered to resign over it all. But what will that achieve? Whoever takes over will have the same problem. The country is in an impossible position. Have I ever mentioned that democracy is a silly idea?

At lunch time I slipped out and went over the road from work where there is a charity shop. I bought a fake apple which will come in useful with the geo-series I'm working on, and I then went on-line to Amazon to order some camouflage tape to disguise the film pots which I shall shove under rocks to create this new geo-series. I've arranged to have the tape delivered to the Amazon locker at work some time tomorrow. Every day I look at that Amazon locker, and for some odd reason I get really jealous of people who are collecting stuff from it. Hopefully my turn will come tomorrow.

As I then scoffed a sandwich I finished another e-book. “Immortal” by Nick M Lloyd was… well… I bought this book as it kept cropping up on my Facebook feed. I read it right the way through which (in all honesty) is more than I have done with some e-books I've bought recently.

But...

Goodies that turn out to be baddies and a rather one-dimensional villain are rather standard in many books. And although the ideas and concepts presented were rather thought-provoking, I originally encountered them in sci-fi over thirty years ago. Not a bad book really,,, but not great. Amazingly if you look at the book’s entry on Amazon ​it has nothing but five-star reviews. I couldn’t really score it more than three stars, but seeing how everyone else has raved over the book I didn’t leave a review.

With work done I came home (as most people do) and started putting camo tape on those film pots I intend to stick under rocks next week. I got twelve taped up; twenty more to do.

"er indoors ^TM" then boiled up a rather good bit of scoff which we polished off whilst watching “Young Sheldon” and “Derry Girls”, and then followed up wth port and stilton (the dogs like cheese!)

I then had a look at the household accounts. Not too shabby really… could be a *lot* worse.

I was supposed to have been on a night shift today. I swapped at the last minute… I’m sure I would have had a much duller day had I done the night shift.

27 March 2019 (Wednesday) - Late Shift

I slept rather well last night, but I had something of a rude awakening with a rather loud crash when Pogo fell off of the bed just before getting-up time.

I made some toast and scoffed it whilst Fudge sat with me on the sofa. As we scoffed I did another instalment of my Coursera course – short term memory of plants this time. I could have done more, but I heard movement upstairs (not just dogs falling off beds) so instead I did my usual trawl of the Internet. I saw that Stevie had been taken ill overnight and was broadcasting to Facebook from the local hospital. About the only thing I miss from that place is not being able to easily visit friends when they are poorly.

I did get cross with a certain family member who was spreading lies and misinformation about Brexit on Facebook. He wants out of the EU. That’s his opinion. However to support this position he is filling his Facebook page with stuff that he all but admits is lies; saying that he just wants people to talk about it. But what is there to talk about when any given item of (so-called) discussion is either factually wrong or is a thinly-veiled racist attack?

The dogs were keen to go for a walk this morning. I wasn’t. I’ve come to dread taking them out; it can be hard work. But despite Pogo tiddling on Fudge’s head, today’s walk went rather well. Pogo played nicely with other dogs and didn’t try to fight with anyone (on or off a lead). We met OrangeHead and her Chunky Little Friend and even that passed off without incident.

I got the eyelash-flutters from the Jehovah’s Witnesses again, but (to be honest) the appeal of that was as nothing to that of the bouncing chest of the lycra-clad joggers. I *think* the Rovers Witnesses have got to up their game a little to compete with that.

Once home I gave the pond fish some cornflakes. They seem to like cornflakes. I then tried to set the dishwasher going, but I found a vital component had fallen off. I fixed it and set it loose on the crockery, then created some more geo-checkers as one does (only five more to go) and learned some more about memory in plants (Coursera is great!).

I then set off in the general direction of work. I don’t like leaving the dogs, but all three were fast asleep.

As I drove there was an interesting article on the radio about the life and times of Queen Victoria as it appeared to her youngest daughter Princess Beatrice. It was fascinating... and then the person presenting this announced that she'd used this perspective as the basis of a ballet production.

Seriously?

The life and times of Queen Victoria in ballet?

I took a rather circuitous route to work this morning. About mid-way between home and work is Findings Wood. There are two geocaches in there that hadn't been found for over a year. Could I go for a double resuscitation? I went for it... The first one was a straightforward find. The second one not so. The hint said "under flint"; I arrived to find lumps of flint as far as the eye could see. But I had an idea of what to look for... I wasted twenty minutes rummaging about then found the cache in exactly the sort of place I thought I should have looked for in the first place.

As I hunted for Tupperware I was rather aware of something or someone nearby. I couldn't see anyone, but something big was moving about. Not in a frightening way, but certainly not in a stealthy way. Was it deer, perhaps?

Pausing only briefly to get petrol I drove in to work and had a rather good bit of dinner in the works canteen. Spicy chicken and chips; syrup sponge pudding with custard. Very tasty. Suitably replete I got on with a rather busy late shift. Mind you I was working with a weather eye on the travel news. There were several reports of the motorway home being impassable. For all that I am far happier working where I am now compared to where I used to be, there is no denying that the journey to and from work can be somewhat fraught at times.

The journey home wasn’t bad; but finding somewhere to park took some doing.

26 March 2019 (tuesday) - A Glass of Plonk

I woke in something of a cold sweat in the early hours following a nightmare in which I had been seconded to work for the Church of England as a bishop on the strength of having an “O” level in Latin.

I didn’t really get back to sleep after that.

Over brekkie I watched last night’s episode of “Alan Partridge”, then did the first of the video lectures on the next section of my Coursera botany course. For all that plants are absolutely everywhere, when you really look at them closely and see what they do, they are *really* strange things. Far more so than any fictional alien I’ve ever come across in any sci-fi tale.

I then sparked up my lap-top for my morning’s root around the Internet. This morning there was not a single thing on my Facebook feed other than people selling things. Perhaps I was up and on-line too early? Seeing I also had no emails worth the electricity used to create and send them I did a little more of the necessary admin on my latest geo-project before setting off for work.

I spent a couple of minutes scraping the ice from the car's windscreen. Yesterday I started up the garden pond's filter thinking that spring as on the way, and this morning we had a heavy frost. Reality has got it wrong; the BBC said we are in for a warm spell.

I laughed out loud as I drove. The pundits on the radio announced that the Mexican government is seeking a formal apology from the Spanish authorities and the Pope for the behaviour of the conquistadors some five hundred years ago. How ridiculous. How can anyone alive today apologise for anything from so long ago?

The sad thing is that today's politicians *do* make apologies for stuff over which they could never have had any responsibility whatsoever.

There was also an interview with one of the ministers who resigned yesterday so that they could vote with Parliament so that the MPs could take over Brexit negotiations. This chap claimed that there are a myriad of schemes that Parliament hasn't debated. Admittedly most of them are stupid ideas, and very few have much support any MPs, but the plan is to consider loads of plans and throw out the most unworkable. Then reconsider all the suggestions again, and throw out what was then the most unworkable. And so on, until they are left with the least impractical suggestion.

Personally I would have thought it better to come up with the best idea rather than the least crap idea, but what do I know?

Work was rather fraught today; I was glad to get home. I sorted out five more geo-checkers before dinner. We had a rather good bit of scoff. A bottle of plonk, some port and stilton. The dogs helped me with that.

Not a bad evening…