Two rather expensive days, emotionally and financially:
£130 - Loki cat to vet:
Suspected congestive heart failure
£ 30 - Loki cat followup:
Heart problem confirmed, not acute
£612 - 4 new tyres + tracking:
Highlighted by just-about reaching the vet
£327 - Ruby overnight vet visit:
Who ate 1/4 pack of Smarties and the chocolate off a Crunchie bar? (Chocolate: poisonous to dogs.)
I've just partially recovered after watching probably the most harrowing documentary in…
I don't…
Volunteers.
"THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE IN THE WORLD
When the bombs rain down, the Syrian Civil Defence rushes in. In a place where public services no longer function these unarmed volunteers risk their lives to help anyone in need – regardless of their religion or politics. Known as the White Helmets these volunteer rescue workers operate in the most dangerous place on earth."
Yeah, ok, at this time of year, at any time of year, it's easy to spread oneself too thinly, to try to think about supporting every worthy cause. It's easier to pick none in the vain hope something great will present itself. Paralysis.
It's easier still to say we shouldn't bother, we should look after our own first. That's true, of course it is. One day, far in the future, we'll have a government who distributes our world's-6th-richest-nation's wealth in an equitable manner. Until then, cue more bitterness and division.
I worked with someone for more years than I care to remember. Nice guy, always had time for me. It turns out that, at least on social sites, he's racist, xenophobic and a bigot, without a shred of understanding of the realities of modern world; a man who purports to care about 'people' yet simultaneously wants to see us spend more money travelling around the world and killing people who aren't 'us'.
Sweeping aside the 'on social media' thing, the man's simply a racist, xenophobic bigot. Politicians pandering to people like him simply to get more votes are why barrel bombs continue to be dropped on families in Syria.
Don't be like him; don't be a twat.
See this?
See this?
https://peoplesmillion.whitehelmets.org/donate/peoples-million
Read the small print.
In about a month's time, Dick…
"He's behind youuu…!"
We attended the church Remembrance Day service earlier then walked along to the War Memorial where the village congregated for the open-air service.
In church, the Last Post was followed by 'Jerusalem' and the hymns were rounded out by 'Abide With Me'.
The last time I heard the Last Post was, well, the previous years' services and at a great Uncle's funeral service. He'd fought in Burma during WWII, was a member of the Burma Star organisation, had a significant number of compatriots along in his last day.
So yeah, I LOL'd this time as well as that.
No, wait, no; the thing with tears and a swelling of the breast. Yeah, that thing.
Online feedback I provided to the UK Liberal Democrat party after being asked why I've not renewed my membership:
"During the General Election and Brexit campaigns the party failed to detail the compromises you found necessary to remain a partner in government with the Tories. When presented with in-your-face opportunities to spell out the goals junked by the LibDems to allow moderation of socially egregious Tory policies, every one of your representatives rolled over and failed to spell it out for the benefit of the casual voter. The public in general are sheep, have binary choices – Labour or Tories – their impression is the LibDems are Tory-lite; you'll have a long, long time in the wilderness being nice to the nasty party."
I'm old enough to remember the day sweaters (jumpers if you like) were designed to keep one warm, and not a paper-thin, size-too-large fashion statement.
Most people faced with a day off, and family away during a school holiday week would, I'd guess, go insane and do all kinds of exciting things.
Today I ran out of Earl Grey tea and burnt last night's pizza instead of gently reheating it in the oven.
The highlight of my day then has been the successful, if well overdue, defrosting of the freezer. During the mammoth session I discovered that the ice above the top serpentine had built to such a thickness and expanded to such a degree that it'd pulled out one of its supporting bracket screws. The left front one! Danger, mild peril! And the thermocouple is a bit floppy now but seems to work; no signs of an impending ice age yet.
Incidentally, IKEA-Whirlpool didn't make frost-free fridge-freezers when we put the kitchen in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We needed a new dishwasher. We have a new dishwasher, bought from a well-known Scandinavian flat-pack furniture and accessories retailer. But this morning I got a call from the well-known UK white goods retailer mentioned in my previous related post.
"Hello Mr Turner, this is Jimbobflibblywibpants [not his real name] calling from GrueGoods.com [not the site] about your delivery today."
Fuck!
He was ringing about the order the retailer and I jointly cancelled a few days ago because they couldn't fit the dishwasher today.
Muppets. (Would do better.)
We need a new dishwasher. The old one is at the side of the house awaiting collection by one of the rag-tag bunch of folks who collect scrap metal with no fees, no questions asked.
For fuck's sake, it's the 21st arsing century, how difficulty can it be to organise delivery efficiently? To spell things out before the customer presses the poxy button to commit to spending hundreds of pounds on…
Twats.
17 minutes ago I cancelled. 15 minutes ago I received notice of cancellation and refund. Just now, just fucking NOW, a text pops up to confirm I'd be getting a dishwasher installed a week on Monday!
It's late, the weekend is almost completed, and I ache from the successes during it.
We recently found out the dining room carpet was damp. Chastising our lovely female cat is out of the question so last weekend I sliced most of the floorcovering into conveniently-sized rolls and took them to the tip.
Meanwhile my wife had priced up a very fancy lino to replace the previous luxurious pile. Saturday was fitting day, so Friday after work was me shifting 2 bookcases, 2 CD/DVD shelving units and their contents, an overladen sideboard, and the stuff that builds up as one's loved ones live, all out of the room.
The herringbone-pattern wood block-effect lino is lovely, we won't have the peeing issue again, and most of the furniture and books and stuff is back where it came from. Did it fit right back again without much effort? No; the back of each of the CD shelving units and one bookcase required inexpertly hacking at to accommodate the change in height between the previous and required notches to clear the skirting board.
Yes, of course I've been asked to move one bookcase to replace the living room electric fireplace now donated to charity. No more convenient mug rest for me. (sighs)
I've participated in a small way during the pnut.io Hackathon Weekend. But I'm tired, I've already written too many words, so I'll blog about the wiki next time.
Zzzz…