Friday 3rd March 2017

Home at the start of the weekend, or Friday as you might know it. It had been raining, but was easing off now. I was tempted to say yes when Jools asked if i wanted the car. Take the afternoon off and go snapping churches or orchids or something similar. But, I know there was much to do, so I decline.

We make coffee, feed the cats and then check up on what madness the world has been up to when we were asleep. What new words can the orange-faced shitgibbon's administration thought of now? Oh, so you did speak to Russia during the election campaign? But its not unconstitutional, but you will step down from the inquiry into Russian links? You really could not make this shot up, and to think that all we were worried about with a HRC win was e mail servers. What wonderful days they were.

Jools is ready for work, and what with me not being too active in work on Thursday afternoon, I start work just before seven to make sure I hadn't missed any issues. I hadn't, but best to be ahead of the curve.

The main aim of the day is to book my working hours. IT can be a nightmare, and with three different issues this year, and now an admin thing, I had not booked hours since January. Word was the CEO was on our tails. So, I try. And try. And try.

After two phone calls, I am walked through the simple process, and it was as simple as that. Wow. So, in half an hour I book my hours, and get all the end of week and end of month admin done. All in time for an early lunch. I had a bowl of cold mash, and my thought was a fry up, but that would be greedy. So I cook that up, the frying in a dry pan meant that it shrunk to half its size. I add two slices of fried bread, just because I needed something to go with the mash. Round off with a huge brew, and there was lunch at ten.

And then there is the department meeting to look forward to, but that was in the afternoon, and before then there was the joy of the delivery of another ton of topsoil for the other raised bed. The truck arrives, and the bloke with a remote atlas arm makes light work of getting the soil down, sadly the arm only reaches a yard onto the drive. This would be spade and wheelbarrow work! Once work quietened down, I went out for 45 minutes, loading soil into the new barrow, and making short work of it to be honest. I sex loads down before I go back inside at quarter past twelve. There is more work to be done, then the meeting.

Meaning I can out back outside and finish off topping up the bed. My back is screaming, but I get it done. And all with Molly watching what I was doing, she seems happy. But then spots a mouse and goes bounding after it. When I look up, she is sat looking at the tiny mouse, as the mouse sits on its back legs, looking like it is trying to punch Molly. She seems unsure what to do. I think the mouse deserves another chance, so grab it by the tail and drop it in the hedge. Molly is mortified, but I think the mouse has shown spirit and should live, at least a few minutes longer.

Phew.

On the radio, 6 Music are playing tracks from 1994, back when I was posted in Germany, wallowing in a sea of Europop and No Limits. However, I do remember some of the tunes played, and when I heard Kurt Cobain killed himself. In some ways those were salad days, getting paid a good wage for living in Germany, but then my marriage was falling apart, as we had everything we thought would make us happy, and realising that what made us unhappy was each other. We would battle on for another year before I move out.

Anyway, Jools calls to say the car had had its service, and she would call into the chippy on the way home. So, I butter some bread, make sure the kettle is boiled, so to make brews when she returns with hot fish and chips. Not sure what they were doing at the chippy, but the batter was very crispy, shattering as you cut into it, but then underneath there is the fresh white flakes of cod. All giving of that wonderful aroima of salt and vinegar that had been fermenting under the newspaper.

It is Friday, the final of Mastermind and then Only Connect. I sit on the sofa with the cats ignoring me. Still a pleasant enough evening, and tomorrow, a whole day to fill with stuff.