27 June 2023 (Tuesday) - Before Another Late Shift

Yesterday as I perused the Internet over brekkie seemingly everyone was raving about how good Elton John had been at Glastonbury. This morning Glastonbury was all the talk again, but this time Sparks were being accused of lip-syncing rather than singing live. Some people who claimed to have seen it were adamant that you could clearly see the lip-syncing, and others were adamant that you could not. It soon became clear that whether or not the song was live or a pre-recorded tape was irrelevant to those who just wanted to argue.

I also saw a friend’s son had had a grading at karate and had received a green belt. I did karate for a few months back in the early 90s. I can remember it being fun, if hard physical work, but looking back other than the two workmates with whom I went, I don’t think that any of the thirty other attendees spoke to me, or anyone else come to that.

 

I took the dogs to the woods. As we drove down the pundits on the radio were talking about the recent failed coup in Russia. The consensus of opinion was that the coup failed because the one leading it was seen as a worse option than the chap he was trying to depose. And so Putin stays in power.

I once read a biography of Hitler which made the assertion that Hitler rose to power because he was the least worst of several bad choices of leader. All the time decent people can’t be arsed to stand for office, so history repeats itself.

 

We got to the woods and had an “episode”. The dogs ran up to some weirdo who was lurking in a thicket brandishing a camera. I have no idea what he was trying to photograph, but from his reaction I can only suppose their excited woofing scared it off. I tried to apologize, but the chap had a face like a smacked arse. His attitude was such that we had a little bout of whistle training as we walked away. If anyone had asked I could have explained (quite plausibly) that we were working on our recall…

Is it so unreasonable to feel that if a weirdo is lurking in a thicket for photographic purposes then that weirdo might put up a sign so that passing dog-herds don’t balls up what he is doing?

As we walked so “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” sent a message. Bearing in mind the awful reception in the woods I was amazed it got through. Was I still OK to look after “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” tomorrow while she takes “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction ^TM” to the dentist? I was glad she’d sent the message; I’d been wondering why I’d booked tomorrow off work. 

 

We came home. I hung out the washing, popped to the corner shop for a sandwich for later and pastries for now, and did a little CPD whilst the dogs snored next to me on the sofa.

I had to wake Morgan at one point as he was getting rather agitated in his dreaming. And then a few minutes later he was wagging his tail so much in his sleep he woke himself up.

 

And so to work… and as is so often the way when on the late shift the best bit of the day was all done by noon…

26 June 2023 (Monday) - Before the Late Shift

I slept reasonably well I suppose. It was a tad hot at night though. I got up, had brekkie and had my usual root around the Internet. In amongst the petty bickering and name calling several people seemed to be rather impressed with Elton John’s appearance at Glastonbury last night, and I read the rave reviews with something of a sense of jealousy. Not jealous that I’d missed it, but jealous that I had (and realistically still have) absolutely no interest in wanting to see it.

Live music, football, Love Island… there is so much that so many other people find so amazingly wonderful that are of the utmost indifference to me.

Sometimes I get fed up being in the minority.

 

I got the leads onto the dogs and we set off to the woods. As we drove there was a lot of talk on the radio about the ongoing war in Ukraine. It would seem that the Russians are beginning to rebel against their leader who has got them into a war that no one wants.

We got to the woods and walked our latest “usual walk” round. I would say it passed off without episode but when we got back to the car Morgan was covered in some strange sticky yukky substance. When we got home he got a bath and the water ran brown.

Dogs is foul creatures.

 

I phoned Saga to cancel the house insurance on Dad’s house; that was painless. I then phoned Hastings council to tell them of the sale of the house. The automated system told me there was a waiting time of over an hour and that I should set up an on-line account to do it all quicker. Setting up an on-line account took some doing, and I couldn’t find any way of telling them we’d sold a house. Fortunately I’d kept the phone ringing and eventually someone answered, took all the details and said they’d send me the refund…

Refund? When I asked last year I was told there wasn’t any refund due.

 

I set off to work earlier than I might have done... but I was on a mission.

As I drove up the motorway I had a phone call claiming to be from the "3" mobile phone company. Did I want a new mobile phone? Bearing in mind that the scammers have been active recently I thought I'd have a laugh. I asked what were they offering. They asked what phone I currently had. I answered honestly - a very basic phone which was two and a half years old for which I pay twenty quid a month. The bloke made a great show of fussing about and eventually offered me a state-of-the-art top-model Samsung phone with unlimited calls and data for only fifteen quid a month. Fifteen quid for what I'd expect to pay fifty? That sounded like a very good deal... too good to be true.  So I asked him just how silly did he think I was. Clearly not speaking English very well he offered to throw in a free tablet too. I laughed and said that no matter what he offered, he wouldn't get access to my bank account. He offered it cheaper. I told him that by wasting fifteen minutes of his time I thought that I had done a public service by stopping him from scamming other people, and I hung up.

These scammers boil my piss. They sound so plausible and decent people lose a lot of money to them. These scammers are thieves; there's no other word for it. Clearly the police aren't doing anything to stop them so (yet again) I'm finding myself not being at all surprised that vigilante groups start up, and wanting to join them.

 

Rather than going straight to work I came in to Maidstone from the south. I parked up on an obscure little lane and went for a stroll here and there along the course of which I found two geocaches. Yesterday afternoon as it became too hot to sit in the garden I'd gone indoors and puzzled. I solved two geo-puzzles and this morning I went to get them. One was a straightforward find, the other not quite so easy but it was in the general area of where I thought it might be, and a helpful hint meant I soon found what I was looking for.

Go me!

 

And then on with the main business of the day. I'd come into Maidstone from the south to go to Morrisons as they sell good pants. Or... they always used to. I got lunch and some T shirts... but no pants. They had sold out. Regular readers of this drivel may recall I drew a blank with pants in Matalan last week, and I can't pretend to be over-impressed with what Sainsbury's had to offer. All else has failed. I shall have to check Amazon.

Mind you shopping on-line must be a step up from Morrisons. Hundreds of people blundering about the place; not one in fifty actually aware there was anyone else in the shop, let alone looking where they were going.

 

And so to work for the late shift, which was rather hard work.

25 June 2023 (Sunday) - Brekkie, Family, Garden

I slept through till half past six this morning, which was something of a result. As I lay awake I had a stroke of genius (I have those from time to time). With another hot day forecast I thought I might get the garden chores done before it got too warm. So I ran out the hose to top up the pond, put a load of washing in, ran out the waste hose for the pond filter and cleaned that out. I spent a few minutes harvesting dog dung, pulled weeds out of the gravel and thought better of getting the lawn mower out. At half past seven I decided to stop as I was dripping sweat.

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Facebook took an absolute age to load again. It starts up, and then hangs on a “Facebook from Meta” page; “Meta” being the parent company as if anyone cares at all about that. These companies have a vastly over-inflated opinion of themselves, don’t they? Look at the start of any film you might watch on the telly or at the cinema. “A Bizz Tiddly production in co operation with Wazzo films made by a grant from the arsebiscuits corporation… “

No one cares.

Eventually the Internet got working and I saw that I had another dodgy friend request this morning. Every few days I get a friend request featuring either aggressive -looking women or effeminate-looking men all of whom are peddling porn. Today’s one claimed to be “your abuser or your saver” and had written “Address me as Mistress Super Villainess, elegant bully & Financial sadist”. I suppose they somehow make money out of it. They won’t from me though.

Interestingly this one’s left foot appeared to be on its right leg and appeared to be missing a toe. I expect that could be a conversation starter at those socially awkward moments.

I then hung out washing, rolled in the hose pipes and cleared more dog poo… as I was hanging out the washing three small dogs had seen that the garden was devoid of dung and had rectified the situation.

 

We settled the dogs and went out for a little mission. Bearing in mind the epic adventure they had had yesterday and how hot the forecast for today was, a quiet day would do them good.

 

We drove up to the town centre and met old friends for what is becoming a regular catch-up over brekkie. We scoffed and chatted and put the world to rights for an hour, then went on a little shopping spree. To “The Works” to get jigsaw puzzles. Personally I can’t stand jigsaw puzzles, but mother-in-law is rather keen on them.

And having got a couple of jigsaw puzzles we set off to visit mother-in-law; today was her eighty-first birthday. She seemed well.

As we chatted I noticed my Dad’s sister walking past the window, so I ran outside and bellowed “HELLO AUNTIE LINDA” up the street, Some of my earliest memories are Auntie Linda saying how she hates being called “Auntie” so I never turn down a chance to do so.

 

Having caught up with family members I see far too infrequently we set off homewards. We’d taken a rather circuitous route to Hastings because of the road closures, but it turned out that there hadn’t been any road closures. Oh, how we laughed when we found out.

We took the direct route home, pausing only briefly at the farm shop. Once home we woke the dogs, and alternated between sitting under the parasol in the garden and telling Treacle off for randomly barking for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

I wish Morgan (and all of them) would drink the clean fresh water we put down for them, and not drink from the pond…

 

Soon be dinner time… some rather good scoff from the farm shop and cherry cider from the farm shop too.