28 December 2020 (Monday) - Another Day Off

Again I slept well – over eight hours in the land of nod… can’t be bad. I got up and my piss boiled… What is it with weather forecasts? Why do we take any notice of them? Why don’t Tomasz Schafernaker, Carol Kirkwood, Michael Fish and the like just be honest and admit that they haven’t got a clue what the weather is going to do? With overnight snow and ice and constant rain forecast for today I woke to a glorious morning. I wish I could be as incompetent in my job as weather forecasters are. “Oh – was it cancer? I thought it was a cold!” and then we all have a good laugh….

I came downstairs, gathered up Sid’s turds and then chivvied him outside where he had a tiddle. I suppose turd is easier to clear up than tiddle. Did I ever mention that I never wanted dogs? I made toast and scoffed it whilst watching the last of Netflix’s “Alien Worlds” series in which a fictitious intelligent alien civilisation was moving house (planet). There was quite a bit of speculation in this episode, but it made for good viewing whilst I waited for "er indoors ^TM" to emerge from her pit.

I sparked up my lap-top. I had yet another friend request from a young lady of (possibly) dubious morals. I considered telling the Facebook Feds about her but decided against doing so – it has been well established over the years that it is quite acceptable for others to try to peddle filth at me on Facebook, but I am not allowed to mention that they have done so.

 

Seeing a bright morning we took the dogs to the park. As we walked there was a a minor ruckus on a doorstep in Christchurch Road. Some chap with a “Deliveroo” bag was delivering McBreakfast to a house… or was trying to. A hysterical voice inside the house was repeatedly screeching “who the f… is it?” Who the f… did she think it was going to be?

We got to the park; we had a good walk; but not the best. Pogo was a tad shouty and Fudge was a tad wilful. But with the woods being a swamp after the recent heavy rains, the park was probably the best bet for today.

And with walk walked we settled the hounds and drove down to Hastings to spend a bit of time with Mum on her birthday. Probably not Tier 4 compliant, but Mum’s not as well as she has been, and (in all honesty) just how many people *are* following the rules? (I say “rules” – the so-called COVID rules are vague suggestions at best!)

 

We came home, and we spent the afternoon on the sofa watching episodes of “Four in a Bed”. I did think about doing more Lego, but a lazy afternoon was a good plan.

"er indoors ^TM" sorted out cold meat and pickle (it is the week after Christmas, after all!) and we scoffed it whilst watching the most recent episode of “Star Trek: Discovery”. It wasn’t a bad episode… I suppose. It would have been better had I cared about any of the main characters. The minor characters in the show are quite likeable, but the lead characters are (for me) like bread and butter pudding with legs.

Such a shame.

27 December 2020 (Sunday) - Floods

 

I slept for eight hours lat night – not as much as the night before, but still something of a result. I woke to the forecast torrential rain which put Sid off of going out to “do things”. Once my back were turned he “did things” on the lino. Ho hum…

With the rain having put the kibosh on pretty much anything outside today I set the washing machine loose on some shirts, then thought about brekkie. I made some toast and scoffed it whilst watching the third episode of “Alien Worlds” in which we visited the fictional planet of “Eden” which was orbiting a binary star.

I then sparked up the lap-top to peer into the Internet. There wasn’t much going on today compared to some argumentative days. There were some ungrateful people selling off unwanted Christmas pressies… but I suppose if you’ve been given something you don’t want why not try and make something out of it?

I sent out birthday wishes and seeing that the washing machine had stopped I ironed five shirts whilst watching an old episode of “Hornblower” – is that show *really* twenty years old?

 

Three hours after I’d first got up "er indoors ^TM" surfaced along with the dogs. Whilst they did their morning farting about I drove round to Matalan as I’d had an email telling me my trousers were ready to be collected.

I arrived to an empty car park and was about to go home when I saw lights on inside the place. As I walked to the door a woman came out and shrieked about it being “click and collect only”. She didn’t actually say “f… off fatso” but that was clearly her intent. She wasn’t impressed when I gave her my click and collect number, and she grudgingly went and got my parcel. As she handed it to me so a delivery driver rolled up. She glared at him and went and got a colleague, and the two of them told the delivery driver they weren’t accepting deliveries. They were giving deliveries out (to the likes of me) but not taking them in. I couldn’t help but wonder where my parcel had come from… but “not my circus, not my monkeys”. I left them arguing.

 

I came home, gathered a rather epic crop of dog turds from the back garden and then my phone beeped. The Met Office had cancelled their Yellow Alert of wind and rain and had issued a Yellow Alert of snow and ice instead. Seeing no wind, rain, snow or ice at that moment we thought we might get a quick dog walk in before the weather did turn.

We went round the park only to find floods everywhere – not so much a park as a swamp. But the dogs enjoyed spuddling in the water.

 

We came home, had cake and I fell asleep in front of the telly whilst “A Shark’s Tale” played. Once I’d woken I built some of the Lego I’d got for Christmas, then watched a few episodes of “Four in a Bed” in which the proprietor of the crappiest little B&B found fault with establishments streets ahead of his own (as always happens on this show).

 

I think an evening on the beer is in order… the plan for today was to have friends round for dinner… Once this Tier 4 malarkey is over we will do…

 

26 December 2020 (Saturday) - Lazy Boxing Day

A combination of a week of rather long days (what with the motorway closure), disturbed nights and having eaten and drunk far too much yesterday had taken their toll. I slept for ten hours last night. "er indoors ^TM" is *never* up before me.

Over some toast I peered into the Internet. A couple of days ago I posted up the last instalment of this year’s Advent calendar and there were a lot of kind comments about it. Over the years the thing seems to have developed a life of its own. I do enjoy doing it, but it can be daunting when I open a window and see a boat or a car of some obscure could-be-anything and I wonder just how I can make a story out of it. Fortunately the voices in my head seem to come up trumps for me.

Yesterday I mentioned that ‘d posted a selfie from work. The posting to the official works page had been “liked” over eighty times (including “likes” from senior managers). The posting to my personal page had got over a hundred and thirty reactions.

Quite a few people were already selling unwanted Christmas presents through the Facebook selling pages, and those with political axes to grind were already singing the praises of (or finding fault with) the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal. Bearing in mind that the thing was only announced two days ago (and we had Christmas yesterday) and also bearing in mind the treaty is twice the length of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, has anyone read it in full and understood it?

Having seen postings from both sides of the argument it would seem that the deal is the best that could be expected but is (by its very nature) a worse deal than the UK had as a member of the European Union. It bothered me that some people from the “leave” side were surprised to realise this.

 

We got the dogs onto their new leads and collars and went for a little walk round the park. For all that we are supposedly in Tier 4 there were *loads* of people out walking. We met lots of other dogs, and only had one “episode” and that was when Pogo ran in terror from a bigger dog. One chap walking past with his dog stopped to fuss our dogs and made some comment about how good it was to see all these dogs in the park, as though seeing dogs in the park was some sort of novelty. I formed the distinct impression that he (like so many other dog owners) only took his dog out on holidays and high days.

As we walked round Singleton Lake so Pogo and Treacle chased ducks. Treacle came back dripping wet; I think she fell in the lake. And then we had a moment of sheer panic. Pogo started screaming, and his back leg was sticking out at a very odd angle. At first glance it looked to be broken. I sprinted through the swamp to get to him; he was quite happy to be picked up and didn’t seem bothered when we examined his leg. I carried him for a little, and then we tried him walking. He hobbled for a bit, but soon seemed to forget whatever it was that had given him gyp. Had he twisted his leg chasing a duck? Trodden on a sharp stone? I spent the rest of the walk watching him “like a pork” (to coin a phrase).

 

We came home for coffee and Christmas cake. I’d got us a good (expensive) cake from Marks and Spencer as a treat.. it was something of a disappointment.

Usually we would be off visiting or having visitors on Boxing Day. But Tier 4 restrictions had put a stop to that. So "er indoors ^TM" did a Christmas jigsaw whilst I spent the afternoon laying on the sofa watching “Carry On” films that hadn’t stood the test of time. Laying on the sofa was probably a good idea - I wasn’t feeling on top form today. My stomach’s not been right since I scoffed a bag of peanuts from the shop over the road last Sunday.

I watched Carry On until I could stand no more, then had a little look-see at the monthly accounts. I could be a whole lot worse off really…

 

"er indoors ^TM" boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a film. I’d thought that “A Street Cat Named Bob” was going to be a lot more Christmassy that it was, but I’m glad we watched it.

 

I’ve still got iffy innards – despite ten hours sleep last night and an afternoon with my feet up, I’m still thinking of an early night…