28 May 2023 (Sunday) - Pond Plants Before the Night Shift

With no need to be up for anything this morning I slept well. Eventually I got up, set the washing machine going on a load of grubby clothes, made toast and settled down to read this morning’s spate of bitter arguments over utter trivia on the Internet.

People were getting *very* nasty with their opinions on music by Sparks from forty years ago. And other people were being incredibly critical of photos of other people’s garden ponds (whilst being sure not to post any photos of their own).

Mind you the was some rare agreement on the Kent Carp Facebook page where people were talking of setting up vigilante groups who would go round checking for fishing licenses. Pretty much everyone felt this was a good idea… provided that vague groups of “other people” might set up vigilante groups who would go round checking for fishing licenses. Absolutely no way would anyone actually do anything themselves.

 

As I rolled my eyes at the antics of humanity so the dogs grumbled at the window. Nothing at all was happening outside, but that didn’t stop Treacle growling. And the more she growled at nothing so the more the puppies joined in.

I wish they wouldn’t.

 

I hung the washing out (never a dull moment, eh?) and we drove to the garden centre for pond plants. As we drove we had a pitched battle with my car’s music player thingy. Sometimes it recognizes the USB stick, and sometimes it doesn’t. As we drove to the garden centre it didn’t.

Navigating round the people playing “silly buggers” in the car park we were soon parked and inside. There were quite a selection of pond plants, but (like everything) they weren’t giving them away.

The car’s music player thingy did recognize the USB stick on the way home.

 

The lily went into the pond easily enough; I just dumped it in. The marginating plants were a different matter. I’ve got this idea to make the splash pool into a bog garden, but the pots are taller than the splash pool is deep. I shall get some shorter pots, or just new pots and cut them down, and in the meantime if anyone asks why the current pot is so tall, I shall say that the plants are acclimatizing. No one would know what that means, and everyone would just nod in agreement.

We also dumped a small bale of barley into the pond to help with getting rid of the green. Treacle had it out. Twice. She’s taken over guarding the pond from where Fudge left off. But (it has to be said) she guards it a lot quieter than my Fudge ever used to.

 

I took myself off to bed for the afternoon and slept well… right up to the point at which “er indoors ^TM” went shopping. Then the barking started. I shouted at the dogs to shut up; they ignored me. After ten minutes I came downstairs to find Treacle walking in a circle barking. She saw me and shut up instantly. If ever a dog had an “oh shit!” expression it was Treacle.

I marched all three upstairs and closed the door. All three then slept quietly for two hours.

 

“er indoors ^TM” is boiling up dinner and once that’s scoffed I’m off to the night shift. This one wasn’t my idea…

27 May 2023 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Wherigo, Garden... Busy

This morning the Internet was heaving with reviews about the latest Sparks album which was released yesterday. I’ve not listened to it yet. I’m in no rush to do so.

I blame the internet.

In the Internet’s early days I learned of the release date of their seventeenth album. I can remember taking a day off work in 1997 and going to London to get the CD (long before streaming and having stuff delivered). I enjoyed that album. Since then every Sparks album has come with months of on-line build up and hype and (to quote Sparks themselves) “nothing is as good as they say it is”. Be it Sparks albums, new episodes of Star Trek, the Harry Potter films… nothing lives up to the hype.

 

As I finished toast so Morgan came down and asked to go outside. I had a sudden realization that he’s now toilet trained. To be fair he has been for some months, but the moment he walks in the general direction of the back door I sprint to it just in case he won’t wait. And I check the back bedroom for turds every day – even though he’s not done any there for months.

 

We got ready for the day. I did have the offer to walk with family from Hastings to Rye today. I considered going. Back in the day I would have been up for that, but these days twelve miles is perhaps a tad ambitious.

Instead we started off with our usual Saturday morning at Dog Club. We had a good session; as it is getting warmer so more and more people are coming along. Bailey and Morgan had a great time; Treacle tolerated the other dogs; far more than she would have done in the past.

 

With Dog Club done we set off toward Kings Wood. As we drove we listened to Steve on the radio. The mystery year was *definitely* 1989… right up to the last clue. The great storm was 1987… ten days after “My Boy ^TM” was born.

We got to Kings Wood where we met Karl, Tracey and Charlotte. The plan for today was a rather sedate walk playing some Wherigos as we went. I’ve put so much effort into making the things it was good to see them in use.

The Crystal Maze played as it should. Where (do) I Go worked well… even if I did find a load of spelling mistakes in it. And the Canine Conundrum is always fun. It’s the old fox – chicken – corn puzzle but with a twist.

And with the Wherigo bits of our day done we had a gentle walk through the woods spotting woodpeckers and lizards. At the furthest point from the car we had a rather good picnic in the sun.

I took a few photos (and screenshots of the Wherigos) as we went.

I’ve missed our weekend outings…

 

We came home rather earlier than I had expected. Rather than sitting on my bum and wasting the afternoon I got on with some of the chores I had planned for tomorrow morning. I strimmed the lawn’s edges and mowed the rest of it. I ran out the hose to top up the pond and cleaned the filter (such an easy job these days). I sorted the shingle around one of the potted shrubs, then watered the potted plants.

And even gave myself a haircut.

 

“er indoors ^TM” set off to babysit “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction ^TM” and “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” whilst “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” went off to some comedy show. I wanted to see the littluns, but I don’t like leaving the dogs.

I should have gone to see the littluns. The dogs usually sleep very well after Dog Club. After Dog Club followed by a four-mile trip round the woods they were asleep from the moment we came home. They got up for a tiddle and dinner at half past eight, and all three went straight back to sleep.

 

As they slept and “er indoors ^TM” babysat I set about ironing whilst watching more episodes of “Shameless”.

The shirts, trousers and bandannas have come out OK… but in retrospect sticking my best tie through the washing machine was something of a mistake. The poor thing is poggered beyond redemption.

I wonder if I can get a new one from Amazon?

26 May 2023 (Friday) - This n That

 

When everyone else sleeps well, so do I. With no one snoring or restlessly stomping all over the bed I had a better night's kip, for which I was grateful.

Or so I thought. I later found out that “er indoors ^TM” had been downstairs for much of the night with Treacle who had been sick and had been wanting to do little else but eat grass pretty much all night.

 

I had a minor episode making brekkie; you'd think that the manufacturers of bread and the manufacturers of toasters might speak to each other and come up with compatible products, wouldn't you?

Once I'd rammed and forced the bread into the toaster, and then eventually prised the toast out I scoffed brekkie whilst watching an episode of "Shameless". Today everyone was spending money at a phenomenal rate because a permanently pissed alcoholic had claimed to have won the lottery. Who would be stupid enough to believe his claim?

 

I had a look at the pond; not as green as it once was, still greener than I would like. I need to seriously think about pond plants.

And then off to work... taking a minor diversion to avoid the traffic jam caused by the dustbin lorry. Sadly I just drove into the traffic jam caused by all the cars trying to avoid the traffic jam caused by the dustbin lorry.

 

As I drove I listened to the radio as I do. Some of the articles were interesting, some were dull. Most were incomprehensible because the interviewees were unintelligible. Radio Four seems to make no effort at all to wheel on people who can speak English in a way that can be understood. And those few people who aren't constantly stammering and repeating "erm, yeah, you know, like..." can't be heard because of the piss-poor quality of the broadcasting equipment used by the outside broadcast teams.

There was one bit that made me think though.

Apparently our local hospital's maternity unit was nearly closed by the Care Quality Commission in their recent inspection... Are they saying that they thought the place wasn't fit for purpose and in not closing it deliberately endangered the lives of my daughter and granddaughter?

There is something very strange about East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, isn’t there? A few short years ago it was Doctor Foster's number one hospital in the country; now it seems to be failing at every opportunity. What's going on? The last time I checked they were in seventy-second place in the country. This morning they are in ninetieth position.

I’ll just point out that where I currently work is rated fourth…

 

I got to work; I Munzed a Tree House and got a Horse Power badge. Go me! There's never a dull moment in Munzee.

At tea break I had a message. “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” had been mugged by a seagull; it snatched food out of her hand. This isn’t the first time this has happened.

 

Being on an early I got to get out early. I took the dogs to Orlestone; Treacle seemed to have recovered from whatever laid her low overnight. We had a good walk; we didn’t see anyone else. The walk which used to take well over an hour with my best boy Fudge took just over half an hour today. He *really* did straggle.

 

We then spent a while fighting with “er indoors ^TM”’s phone to get it to load Wherigos for tomorrow, then scoffed fish and chips whilst watching more of the latest season of “Taskmaster”. I can remember the show being good in the past, but this time there’s some real “laugh out loud” bits. If you’ve not seen it, give it a go…