13 December 2023 (Wednesday) - Tree's Up

The plan for today was to get up promptly and take the dogs to the woods earlier than usual, but after a terrible night I was rather later getting up than I might have been.

I made toast and had my usual look at the internet. Not much had changed overnight, but there was some serious ranting on some of the atheist-related Facebook pages I follow. Here in the UK whether or not you believe in a god really isn’t that much of a thing. But it would certainly seem to be so in America where the righteous and the atheists squabble like cat and dog. But when you get beneath the initial name-calling it would seem that each side is akin to football supporters. Neither side really knows anything about the faiths they do or don’t support; they’ve just seemingly randomly picked a side and decided to hate the other purely because it is the other side.

That really is human nature in action, isn’t it? I’ve seen people meeting for the first time, and the first question asked is “which football team do you support?”. We’re in the third decade of the twenty-first century and still we cling to this sort of tribalism.

I sent out some birthday wishes; a friend was having a birthday today; it would have been good to have caught up. And my father-in-law had his eightieth birthday today.

 

I took the dogs for a little walk. Not having time to go to the woods we just walked round the block. But round the block was almost a mile (according to my watch), and the sore bit on my heel that developed yesterday is now a blister. I need to keep putting waxy stuff on those new boots.

With walk walked I made us both a cuppa, did some CPD,  posted up today’s Advent adventure (which got its first two “likes” in less than a minute), then got ready for work.

 

Needing petrol I went to Sainsbury's to get some. I joined the queue and my piss boiled as some old git (actually probably my age) was fannying around, and in between putting petrol in his car, he was in and out of the car like a thing possessed. Eventually a little girl got out of the car and together they went to the kiosk... and immediately I smiled and decided that the two of them could do no wrong.

I drove to the pump in front of his car, filled up, and when I went in to pay I saw the little girl was wanting to examine every single thing in the shop. I grinned at them both, thinking that is exactly what “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” will be doing in a year or so.

 

Today I was working at Pembury; I drove through the -hursts and the -dens. Today there was only one set of temporary traffic lights, but as always no one was working on the bit of road they were blocking off. However there was an utter shambles of traffic in Sissinghurst with lorries and workmen swarming all over the road. If ever anywhere needed traffic lights, they did.

 

I got to work; being (nearly) Christmas the boss had brought in mince pies. Sainsbury's "Taste the Difference" mince pies. All very nice, but about half the size of a mince pie. Each one was certainly less than a mouthful.

 

And with work done I came home to find “er indoors ^TM” has got a new Christmas tree…

12 December 2023 (Tuesday) - Rostered Day Off

I had hoped for something of a lie-in this morning but that wasn’t happening. “er indoors ^TM” got up shortly after seven o’clock. Morgan and Treacle crashed off the bed after her, and Bailey cried because she’s not big enough to jump off the bed on her own.

I came downstairs, had a shave, made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. This morning it was rather dull, and that which wasn’t dull was depressing. If people weren’t posting sad things about recently departed dogs they were posting memories of departed husbands and wives. I find that these days I’m getting more and more morose without needing any help.

 

We got the dogs onto their leads, I put on my new boots, and with “er indoors ^TM” going into the office today I took the dogs up to Kings Wood. We did one of our longer circuits of the wood; nearly four miles. As we walked we saw a couple of other dogs but not much else… apart from quite a bit of mud. Unless we walk the really long walk, the mud is unavoidable. But we avoided the rain. One weather forecast for today gave drizzle all morning. Another gave intermittent showers. The third said a lot without actually committing itself to anything. All were from the BBC.

 

With walk walked we came home for a warming shower. Even though it wasn’t particularly cold today, the dogs are small and when they get wet they get cold. With the mud washed off and them warmed up they soon settled and slept. I put a load of shirts in to wash, harvested dog dung from the garden, and set about a load of ironing whilst watching a film on Netflix. “Leave the World Behind” was… I hesitate to say “crap” but at two hours and twenty minutes it was probably about two hours too long. Seriously – pretty much nothing happened, and the film just ended in such a way that I really do think the people who made it had a mishap in the cutting room and forgot to add the last scenes.

Once my shirts were out of the washing machine I took the dog bedding out of the back of my car and put that through the washing machine. It was rather grubby and rather damp.

 

The needle and thread came out for replacing missing buttons, and as I stitched I watched “The Founder”; a film about the chap who saw the original McDonalds burger joint and turned it into a serious money-maker. That was rather good. But for every one person like Ray Krock who made it big, there are hundreds (thousands) who didn’t.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home and boiled up dinner as I sorted the tumble-tried undercrackers. The poor washing machine hasn’t stopped today.

Unlike me… These rostered days off of mine follow a pattern. A walk round the woods, ironing, sitting on my bum watching telly. So why do I feel so tired?

11 December 2023 (Monday) - This n That

I had something of a lie-in today, not getting up until six o'clock. Taking care to to wake anyone I crept downstairs, had a shave, made toast and watched another episode of "White Gold". Set in 1983 it is worth watching if only for the nostalgia. “er indoors ^TM” once had a perm like the leading lady's, I had a CB radio like the geek's one, and the soundtrack is rather good.

I then had a quick look at Facebook. The boyfriend of an ex-colleague (who hasn't communicated with me in seven years) was having a birthday today. And there was a squabble on one of the Garden Pond Facebook pages. It is worth following the garden Pond pages on Facebook if only for the way the opinionated blatantly contradict themselves. A few months ago everyone was demanding that everyone else install a drain at the bottom of their pond. Today the very same people were demanding that installing a drain at the bottom of your pond was an incredibly stupid thing to do. The reasons why it was a stupid thing to do were (through an amazing twist of logic) exactly the same reasons why it had been a good thing to do a few months ago.

They let these people vote, you know...

 

I walked several streets away to where I'd parked my car on Saturday, and then drove back home to get my works ID badge which I'd left at home.

I drove up the motorway listening to the radio as I do. For once Ukraine was back in the news. The UK is giving Ukraine two naval ships and President Biden is keen to keep throwing money at Ukraine even though the American Senate has said a resounding "No" to his plan to give them sixty billion dollars.

Whilst I am in no way advocating Armageddon, I can't help but wonder why the UK and the USA don't just bomb Russia themselves rather than egging on someone else to do so. I am reminded of being in the playground at primary school offering to hold the coat of the smallest child in the class if he would go give the class bully a slap.

 

Work was surprisingly busy; perhaps had I not spent quite so long swapping my shifts about I might have spent more time on what I was supposed to be doing. But having been given duties for the next few months I then needed to swap out of the Monday nights (when “er indoors ^TM” is bowling) and the Saturday mornings (Dog Club).

As I alternately swapped shifts and worked so “er indoors ^TM” sent a message. It would seem that during last week's roof maintenance  the nice builder dropped a tile into the garden of not-so-nice-next-door and poggered her window frame. Did he? I'm not for one minute saying that not-so-nice-next-door is claiming he did so as to get a previously damaged window fixed. However her long-gone husband would certainly have done that; I'm sure he did that during the loft conversion of twenty years ago.

 

With work worked I came home. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner and then set off bowling. I posted up today’s installment of the Advent Calendar. This year’s story seems to be a tad vague; but we are almost half-way through. Time flies, eh?

 I really should start putting waterproof dubbin on my new boots… but I’m on the sofa underneath a pile of dogs…

10 December 2023 (Sunday) - New Boots, Canterbury, Munzing

I went to bed last night with something of an iffy stomach. I blame the sweet chili wrap I had for lunch on Friday; I’ve been farting like a fruitbat ever since. Assuming of course that fruitbats fart a lot. Do they? – I’ve never got that close to one.

I had a really good night’s sleep. I was licked awake by all three dogs at what seemed like the middle of the night only to find it was five past nine.

 

I got up and farted quite a bit more. I made some toast in the hope of settling my innards, but as I scoffed it I came over rather light headed.

“er indoors ^TM” went off to the monthly brekkie meet-up. I didn’t go. Last time we went Treacle spent the entire time barking. I’m getting paranoid about the noise she might or might not make, so feeling a tad iffy anyway I wasn’t taking any chances.

I posted up today’s instalment of the Advent Calendar, did some CPD, and didn’t have any time to watch telly before “er indoors ^TM” returned.

 

The plan for today was to walk the dogs on a little Munzee session round Canterbury. Being on pavements we’d avoid the mud, and we’d get an hour’s walk in before the forecast rain hit. Sadly the forecast rain came early, but we got a mile or so’s walking in; Munzing loads of Munzees as we went.

Having had to cut the walk short we popped into “Go Outdoors”. Back in the day when I worked night shifts in Canterbury I used to go into that place before seemingly every night shift. But I’d not been in the place for years. As well as having a nosey around I needed new walking boots. I used to be very good at waxing and polishing my walking boots, but over the last few months I got a tad lax and the leather had actually split. So I got some new boots.

I also got some pickled onion flavoured peanuts too.

 

We came home where “er indoors ^TM” dropped me and the dogs off before going off shopping. We settled in front of the telly and I watched more “White Gold” as the dogs snored. They’d not had much of an outing, but they were worn out.

“er indoors ^TM” returned and we had the pickled onion flavoured peanuts. Sadly they were something of a disappointment. Another disappointment was the children’s service from Canterbury Cathedral that was happening this afternoon. We got to watch it via You-Tube and did so for the simple reason that one of the smaller members of our tribe was singing in the choir. After a while we eventually spotted Bella who (sadly) looked rather miserable. The vicar giving the verbals was something of a let-down too. He was trying to persuade the kids that some fat bishop was actually Santa, and was encouraging the kids to write to the Prime Minister about the recent COP28 climate talks.

It’s been a while since I last watched a church service, and it will be a while before I watch another.

 

As we watched we got the news that someone had driven a van through “My Boy ^TM”’s garden fence, demolished it and drove off.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a decent bit of scran which we washed down with a bottle of Malbec whilst watching “Taskmaster: New Zealand”. Whilst it passed an otherwise potentially dull half-hour, it isn’t a patch on the UK version.

 

I’m still not feeling on top form… but that might be the Malbec.

9 December 2023 (Saturday) - Another Late Shift

I woke feeling particularly morose this morning; I wish I knew why. I suppose these dark mornings and seemingly constant heavy rain don’t help.

I opened today’s window of the Advent Calendar, made toast, and had a look at the Internet. There’s a Facebook page I help moderate about a series of books. Rather good books. There was talk about having them made into a TV series, and the general consensus was that this would be a bad thing. Why do books have to be made into TV series and films? It rarely (if ever) works well. Most times it happens the TV series and film end up making an entirely different story (as happened with “Foundation” and “Game of Thrones” and pretty much every “James Bond” book). Or they try to follow the books but can’t condense what is in the book into such a short time-frame so just televise the most cinematic bits of the book. And so have just a disjointed series of scenes which mean nothing to anyone who hasn’t read the books. Like they did with “Harry Potter”.

 

I helped “er indoors ^TM” load up her car, and with her off on her mission I got the dogs into their coats and we drove round to Dog Club. With the awful rain there were only five dogs along (including our three), but with a smaller attendance Treacle had a go at playing with other dogs. Bailey kept instigating games of chase with a bigger dog, and then screaming in terror when she got chased.

We had a good time, but it was rather wet. After twenty minutes we reluctantly gave up.

 

We came home for hot showers and brekkie. And with the dogs washed and fed I took off wet clothes. I was soaked through to the skin. My pants couldn’t have been wetter had I tiddled them. I stuck the wet stuff into the washing machine and got the Mystery Year contest right on the radio. It was odd not listening to that on the car’s radio.

 

I slobbed on the sofa with dogs until “er indoors ^TM” returned from her mission and I then set off to work. It was still rather damp as I drove,  and I got progressively more wet as I drove. The driver's seat was still wet from our earlier return from Dog Club.

As I drove up the motorway I listened to my frankly wonderful choice of music, and the MP3 player in the car randomly selected the Electric Light Orchestra's "Concerto for a Rainy Day" as I drove past Lenham.

How apt.

Have you ever listened to the "Concerto for a Rainy Day"? It is the first side of the second LP in the double album "Out of the Blue" and was absolutely spot for my day today. Having started "Standing in the Rain" at Dog Club, I ended up looking out of the works window at a glorious afternoon (Mr Blue Sky!)

 

I hadn't really been supposed to be working today, but I volunteered to cover a minor disaster. When I've mentioned this before, most people make comments about ignoring the phone and pretending you've something else better to do that day... Most people are also begrudging the striking doctors too, but expect a hospital to be open all day every day. I can't say I dislike my job, but given my time again I would work somewhere that puts up a "Closed" sign from time to time.

 

Being on a late meant I was rather late home. Over a late dinner we watched today’s episode of Doctor Who in which the new chap took over. To be honest he should have taken over three episodes ago: I really can’t see what bringing David Tennant back was all about.

The new chap gets his first proper outing on Christmas Day…  

8 December 2023 (Friday) - Late Shift

Apparently during the night I asked which dog had jumped off the bed. I have no memory of this, but one of them must have done so as there was a turd by the back door when I came down this morning. I suppose they’d tried to get outside?

I made toast and had a look at Facebook as I do. A friend (from years ago) was again off on another holiday in the sun. I would post about how can they afford it, but as has been pointed out to me, it is probably cheaper to have a week in a Spanish hotel than it is to turn on the heating in the UK…

 

As I peered into the Internet I heard some noises outside. The scaffolders had arrived to take the scaffolding down. I was pleasantly surprised at how the dogs didn’t kick off; I’ve been rather paranoid about their barking just recently.

As I put my boots on so “er indoors ^TM” got the leads onto the dogs. The scaffolders held fire for a moment so we could get out. Almost directly outside our house was a car stupidly parked taking up two spaces which was clamped for not having paid road tax. That will be there for a week making parking more difficult…

 

We drove through the fog (and up out of the fog) to Kings Wood. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the poet Benjamin Zephaniah who had died. The chap had once been a guest editor on Radio Four and he’d run the show on that day only presenting good news. The chap was right to do so; I listen to the news most days and for all that wonderful stuff happens, it rarely gets reported.

We got to the woods and had a good walk. Twice we met forestry commission lorries driving in the woods, and both times the dogs came straight to me when called. We met other dogs and they were good.

The only fly in the ointment was I found myself comparing today’s trip with one we might do over the summer. Over the winter Orlestone Woods is a belly-deep swamp so we avoid it. But a trip to Orlestone, a walk, and the drive back takes just over an hour. Today’s round trip to Kings Wood was over an hour and a half, not including the time taken wash the mud off and then clean the bath out.

 

Bearing in mind I wouldn’t be home till quite late, I posted today’s instalment of the Advent Calendar story, and set off to the Repton centre to have a chat about Dog Club. A few months ago the chap who ran Dog Club couldn't make one session and wanted a volunteer to open up. I volunteered, and having given me the key the chap was in no hurry to take it back. And then he announced that his shifts had all changed and he couldn't make Dog Club any more. And somehow I now seem to be running the early sessions. Many years ago I found myself similarly embroiled in the snake club. A friend at the time made the observation "you can't just be a member, can you?"

He was right... then and now.

 

I drove on to work and did my bit. As I read my Kindle at tea break I saw a quote which made me smile. I do like my Kindle; I do read a lot. In the fifth book of the "Game of Thrones" series one of the characters says: "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads a book lives only one".

I like that.

7 December 2023 (Thursday) - Not On Leave

Usually when I need a tiddle in the night I just roll over and clench. I made the schoolboy error of getting up and going to a wazz at three o'clock last night, and came back to find the wolf pack all snoring in the warm spot I'd vacated. I eventually secured enough bed space in which to sleep, but sadly not enough in which to sleep comfortably.

I got up earlier than I might have done, and as I made toast so Morgan came down for a wazz. If only he'd come down when I'd come down a couple of hours earlier I might have managed to get a bit more of the bed.

 

I watched another episode of "White Gold". Being set in 1983 it brought back quite a few memories. All the girls had those perms, didn't they? And hooky videos. There were always market stalls and blokes on street corners selling incredibly badly copied VHS cassettes of whatever big movie was in the cinemas at the time. Funny how that never took off with DVDs to the same extent.

I then had a look at the Internet as I do. Quite a lot of the Lego Facebook pages were showing winter village scenes; perhaps I might turn my Lego town into a winter one? Perhaps I might do something with my Lego town - I've not done anything with it for ages.

 

I opened today’s window of the Advent Calendar and despite the torrential rain I set off to the car. It was where I'd left it three streets away. More and more I'm thinking I should spend a little more on house maintenance, sell the house and get one with off-street parking.

I had a quick Munz mission round Ashford; we achieved our first (of four) monthly goal today. And then I set off up the motorway. As I drove the pundits on the radio were all a-twitter about how the Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has resigned. Regular readers of this drivel may recall my rant of only two days ago about the farcical state of Britain's immigration policy. Perhaps the ex-minister read my rant?

And there was a lot of talk about Boris Johnson's giving evidence to the COVID inquiry. If ever there was an idiot, it is him. Given the state of the UK after Brexit, and then a pandemic, no one would have expected the impossible from any Prime Minister. But had he combed his hair, tidied himself up a bit, and given a couple of uplifting rousing speeches, Boris Johnson could have gone down in history with Churchill. Instead he looked like a mess, and mumbled his way through a shambles which was much of his own making. And now history is judging him as the shambling mess that he was.

If ever anyone blew a golden opportunity…

 

I went in to Sainsbury's before work to stock up on some Christmas supplies. They've got this thing now where certain items are cheaper if you brandish your Nectar card. Doing so got me seven quid off of a bottle of port and ten quid off of a bottle of Bailey's. The price I paid at the till (using the nectar card) was a quarter less than I would have paid had I not had the card.

Just goes to show, doesn't it?

 

And so to work. Originally today was to be a day's leave, but what with a dodgy weather forecast and one thing and another I cancelled the leave... and soon wished I hadn't. I won't go into petty trivial details, but today was a classic example of the two hundred and eighty-fifth Rule of Acquisition.  No good deed ever goes unpunished.