28 January 2021 (Thursday) - Late Shift

With no alarm set I woke about three hours later than I did yesterday; but fortunately I was still up before Sid, who hadn’t yet done his signature move on the kitchen lino. With no turds to gather I chivvied him into the garden.

I made myself some toast and scoffed it with Treacle watching me like a hawk. Periodically she would have a little tantrum because I wasn’t sharing it. Treacle really does have little tantrums much like a toddler does.

 

I sparked up the lap-top and had my morning rummage round Facebook. Apparently sexy Asian women in Ashford are looking for men over thirty-five. No specific reason was given but the implication was for a nudey-sauce-romp. They needn’t look at me. Other than that, Facebook was fairly peaceful this morning.

And with no emails at all, I got the dogs onto their leads and took them out.

 

We had a little walk up to what used to be B&Q, and followed the river round and back home. What used to be B&Q has now been entirely demolished to make space for more houses. I rather expected that it might have been demolished over twenty years ago when the international railway station was built, but for twenty years the place has effectively been wasteland. As we walked I got a photo of the dogs. I try for one of those most times when we go out. It has to be said that it was far easier to stop them wandering off today when they were on their leads. I got a photo in less than a minute – a fraction of the time it usually takes.

 

I came home to find “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” in residence. She made a cuppa, ran round the house shrieking, then went off to visit her mate. I wrote up some more CPD, then set off in the general (ish) direction of work.

 

I went via Sainsburys. I had orders to get some Katsu curry sause. Have you ever had it? It’s good stuff!! Mind you, Sainsburys was hard work. The normal people were out in force. One chap was intently staring at his phone whilst listening to God-knows-what on his headphones as he blundered round the store, crashing into all the other people who weren’t looking where they were going. Others were randomly jabbering away to the voices in their heads, but the one who wound me up was the one in front of me in the queue for the checkout. As the nice lady on the till scanned each of her items, this one reacted in total surprise as though she had never seen that item before. With the entire lot eventually scanned, she then told whoever was listening (no-one actually was) about how much she loves her shopping, and then spent five minutes searching in her purse to find the scrap on paper on which she had written the PIN for her credit card.

I suppose she could have gone slower if she’d tried.

 

As I drove to work there was a minor bit of excitement as the traffic was held up by a lorry which had spilled its load; its load being a caravan.

After this, the rest of the day was rather dull… but still streets ahead of being locked down.

27 January 2021 (Wednesday) - Back to Work

I slept well, but with an alarm set I did wake about three hours earlier than I did yesterday when no alarm was set. One advantage of getting up early is that Sid hasn’t had time to crap.

I sparked up Netflix and watched an episode of “Superstore”; an American version of “Trollied”, then sparked up the Internet. There was a lot of talk on the Facebook page dedicated to the old boys of my old secondary school. Today they were talking about the old senior PE teacher “Killer” Smith. He seemed to be coming in for a lot of hatred and vituperation this morning, but as I remember he was “just another teacher”, neither good nor bad. Reading that page always makes me think… I would say “brings back memories” but I clearly remember the place very differently to how everyone else does. The teachers who are viewed with love and affection are ones I remember with indifference at best, and the ones who are generally hated are (for me) just names from forty years ago.

There was also a row kicking off on one of the local geocaching Facebook pages. Despite everyone supposed to be staying at home except for certain prescribed exceptions, someone in Sussex has driven twenty miles to go find a geocache to keep a daily streak of finds going. The implication is that since a streak (find one every day without a break) was involved, driving twenty miles would be a daily event for this person.

Obviously this is against all the lockdown rules, and a squabble kicked off about what if they had a valid reason to be out. This person didn’t, but what bothers me is  that people are playing a GPS location-based game in which they leave a permanent record of their (frankly illegal) movements. These people are allowed to vote, you know.

 

I got myself ready for work. In the time it had taken me to get dressed, Sid had got up, crapped all over the kitchen floor, and gone back to bed. He was unceremoniously frogmarched into the garden (much to his disgust) where he tiddled. He's house-trained for tiddle... just not for poop - he can't help it, bless him.

 

I set off to work on a rather foggy morning. As I drove I listened to the radio. Not having heard any news since Friday I was wondering what I'd missed. It would seem I'd missed nothing. The pundits on the radio had nothing to say but utterly unfounded speculation on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. When will lock-down be relaxed? Who knows? The Poet Laureate was wheeled on; he dribbled a rather pretentious poem about trees and birds which was supposed (in some way) to commemorate everyone who has died in the pandemic.

 

I got to work, and made a point of blanking the security guard at the door. I suppose I am being unfair to the chap, but surely it is a sad state of affairs when a hospital has someone hired to guard the place?

And my piss boiled even further when I looked up the word "mesothelioma". "Mesothelioma is a malignant tumor that is caused by inhaled asbestos fibres and forms in the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart. Symptoms can include shortness of breath and chest pain." You can read about it on Wikipedia. I couldn't remember much about it so I typed it in to Google. Go on - type "mesothelioma" into Google. The first term I got was from an ambulance-chasing website offering "Specialist Legal Service Team Available. Contact Our Legal Experts For Free Advice. Experts For Over 85 Years. Legal Representation From No Win No Fee Solicitors. Personal Injury Experts. Enquire Online. No Win No Fee. 85+ Years Experience. Free To Call." I hate these ambulance-chasers. Ow would they like it if their loved ones were left to die because no was was brave enough to treat them for fear of litigation?

 

I did my bit at work, and being at work meant the time didn’t drag like it has done at home recently. As I left work to come home there was some strange chap in a hi-vis jacket standing in one of the hospital corridors telling everyone that it was foggy outside and kept repeating “be seen!”

I wonder what that was all about? 

I think my car headlights did the job as I drove home…

26 January 2021 (Tuesday) - Another Locked Down Day Off

I slept well; another nine hours of kip. It was only a shame that I came downstairs to a sea of dog turds. Nice one Sid!

I made toast, and it got cold whilst I tried to quieten the dogs. One would bark for absolutely no reason whatsoever which would set the others off who join in for the simple reason that another dog is barking. And once all dogs are barking it is very difficult to break the barking cycle. As soon as one dog shuts up it instantly starts barking again because all the others are making a racket. And when quiet is finally re-established they are on tenterhooks for the next fifteen minutes poised to start yapping at the slightest provocation.  I love each dog dearly… but together we have too many dogs.

 

I set off on my morning mission. A woman just round the road was selling a bargain load of Lego so I picked it up on the way to Tesco. Tesco was much the same as ever; I didn’t actually point and laugh, but it never fails to amaze me that the hired thugs who now guard the entrances to supermarkets have more personal protective equipment than those working where they actually need to wear the stuff. As I shopped I met someone with whom I used to work four years ago. Looking back I was never overly happy where I used to work and it would seem the place has gone from bad to worse. A new manager had driven several staff to extended periods of sick leave (with workplace induced extreme depression) and following a formal investigation the manager has been reinstated. Much the same happened when I used to work there. Because the place has a zero tolerance for bullying of staff, no allegations of bullying will be considered by senior management because they feel that simply having a no bullying policy means it can’t possibly happen.

I’m so glad to be out of that place.

 

I then drove down to Hastings to see mum and dad. Today was dad’s birthday; I took him a card and some special biscuits and gave him instructions to let me know if he wants anything in particular. I could have wasted  money on something he would have put in the bin, but thought I’d rather get him something he wants.

Mum was as well as can be expected; she was out of bed and sitting up. But she was very drowsy. Morphine does that.

I stayed with them for an hour or so before coming home.

 

Once home I walked the dogs round the block. Pogo pulled and Fudge straggled. It comes to something when Treacle (the pain in the glass) is the best behaved dog. I then unpacked my Lego bargain. There were a couple of blue angled tiles which were just what I wanted to complete my Lego Renault, and there were a couple of police maxifigures. These alone warranted the cost of what I paid… and all else was a bonus.

 

My phone beeped – I had an email. “Sandra” wanted to be my chum on LinkedIn and was offering me a twenty quid bung for accepting her. I’ll be anyone’s mate for a cake. She’ll earn my undying devotion for twenty quid. On Facebook they beg friendship by offering pornography… does this mean you get a better class of spammer on LinkedIn? I was wondering if she would ever stump it up when she said she would have to give me an eligibility check, and then said she would pass me on to her project manager Ashley. Ashley then phoned me and gave me an eligibly check… I wasn’t eligible.

Oh well. I would only have squandered the money on Lego anyway…

 

Limakshi from the power company emailed me back. It turns out that the inability to read my smart meter was a known problem and asked me to submit my own readings. Unfortunately the power company’s website wanted readings for both electricity and gas… which rather defeats the object of having a smart meter, doesn’t it?

I’m going back to work tomorrow… these locked-down days aren’t good. I managed four days. How have people managed nearly a year of it?