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A Chill Day

I’m not one for lying in bed all day, even on a day off. I feel that’s wasting precious time off! I got up around 8.45, although I had been awake for a while before that.

I finished the coffee and made another pot

Coffee from Pact

This coffee from Pact is rather good. We’ve been having deliveries from them now for a few years and they never disappoint. It’s great that we can regulate the deliveries to suit our needs.

I got on with responding to some emails and then ended up having a few, sometimes heated, discussions on social media about the coronavirus situation which is worrying most people to some degree in one way or another.

During the morning I got a bit peckish. I’m never one for wanting to eat breakfast as soon as I am awake but by eleven I was ready. I made some bacon sandwiches. They filled the gap!

More reading and writing in the early afternoon and then I got dinner ready. I made a chicken casserole with some thighs and added onions, garlic and tomatoes. Served up when Kathy got home and had with some left over rice

Watched some programmes on Sky Arts in the evening. Joni Mitchell’s 75th birthday concert from 2018; The story of Fairport Convention and then ‘I’ll Be Me’ about Glen Campbell’s right with Alzheimer’s. That was a rather sad end to the evening. After that, just before 11pm, we went to bed.

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Friday The 13th

I’m not superstitious. No really, I’m not. I truly believe that some people allow their stress and anxiety levels to rise quite unnecessarily over such things. The same as with astrology; I don’t believe in that stuff either!

Today turned out to be a quiet day on a personal basis. Got into the office around eight am. Although I’m getting told there is less traffic on the roads and less people in the shops and less folks moving around outside generally, the bus was certainly busy in the rush hour with commuters and school kids.

There was little going on with stuff at work. I was hoping for a meeting with the General Manager but he wasn’t around so that didn’t happen. I emailed him anyway. I always email because then I have an auditable trail I can follow.

In the office.

I didn’t stay at work late as I was not in demand and I had done several extra hours on Wednesday in any case.

On the way home I stopped by the Queen’s Head for a couple of pints and a chicken tikka baguette. I didn’t stay too long; about an hour and a half. I walked home and got some dinner ready. I found some wiser pounder burgers in the freezer and they went nicely with some sauerkraut and salad.

After dinner we watched some programmes on BBC2 and retired to bed around 9.30pm.

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Thursday Stuff

Got to the office quite smart as I had meetings starting at nine a.m. and I wanted to be prepared. Actually, I was the first there, and I had to wait for everyone else!

After our monthly JCC meeting between Union and Management, we followed this with our Health & Safety meeting. Much of the meeting was taken up with Coronavirus of course.

Is the company doing enough? It’s felt by many that they don’t really care too much. I tried to point out that it wasn’t only the welfare of employees at stake here, but the stability of the business itself if this pandemic truly takes a hold and we end up on some kind of national lockdown.

Ian in the office
Getting Stuff Done…

After the meetings I got some admin work done. Then I headed home. I made burgers and sauerkraut and salad for dinner. Watched a little TV and then headed off to bed around 8.30pm.

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Ballot & Phone

I was up earlier this morning, around 5.45am

Got to work before seven. Today was the day for the pay ballot. It was a long day. Got wrapped up and left around 5.45pm.

The result locally and also across the company was an overwhelming rejection so the talks go on.

Met Kathy from work at Cranford Supermarket and got my new phone to replace Monday’s unfortunate incident.

Picked up some fried chicken at Munchiez and went home.

Started with the phone exiting but it wasn’t going to be that simple as I was running a beta on the XS Max so I couldn’t simply install an iCloud backup. I had to set the 11 Pro Max up manually and then install the beta profile, download the beta and install it. Then I had to back up the XS Max to iCloud and then restore that to the 11. It took a few hours but I got there in the end.

And so to bed!

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Tuesday Not Monday

The alarm went off at 6.45am. I was still feeling a bit sleepy but I got up and got ready for work. Made sure I had everything with me as it’s my first day back after a long weekend, so it’s getting everything together in pockets and bags. Everything has its place so I don’t forget stuff.

I grabbed a hefty swig of apple juice from the bottle in the refrigerator and headed out the door around 7.25. I got to work and had quite a busy couple of hours with some LTS interviews to do.

I’ve got a risk of redundancy interview to do on Monday at Hounslow Heath, and I’ve been in contact with the person concerned to deal with that and arrange to meet them there.

This afternoon, I’ve been dealing with the phone damage from yesterday. I have contacted my bank to raise a claim via my phone insurance pack that I pay for each month. They need a ‘proof of usage’ form from my provider so another call had to be made, this time to Three. I need this sent to me by email, and then I need to send that to the claim people along with £75 for the deductible. Then I have to send the phone to them for repair or replacement.

Left work around 3.40pm and got home just after 4pm. I went straight home and got sorted out, changed and dinner cooking. Decided that a small ham joint with sauerkraut would be the order of the day.

Baked ham with sauerkraut and salad

After dinner, a beer to wash it down; a little work on the the computer, then a wander off to bed for a fairly early night. 8.30pm found me climbing into bed for a quiet read.

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Hospital Appointment

I was awake this morning around 7.20. I toyed with the idea of trying to go back to sleep but by the time I had made the obligatory bathroom visit I was too alert.

Time to go to the kitchen and make a pot of coffee. That done, I went back to bed for another hour, sipped my coffee and read the morning’s news on my iPad. News has changed over the past few days; Brexit has given way to coronavirus or Covid-19 to give it its official title. We’ve had four deaths so far in the UK. All four were reported to have established underlying health issues before their demise. It’s still a bit concerning of course, as I’m in one of the higher risk groups myself, being in my sixties.

Had a quiet morning and a bacon sandwich for lunch before heading out to go to the hospital for an appointment regarding my hernia. We got there in good time and waited quite a while as they were running about 45 minutes late.

I’ve got to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy to check everything is OK before they do anything else, so I just have to wait for an appointment for those to come through.

As we left the consultant’s office disaster struck. As I put my shoulder bag back on, my mobile phone fell out and hit the floor. It broke the screen protector and also the screen itself. Now the selfie camera doesn’t work so I have no Face ID. Everything else seems to be working though.

Cracked iPhone XS Max Screen

We decided to get a new phone so we’ve ordered an iPhone 11 Pro Max from Apple and it should be here in about 4-5 days.

Kathy is making dinner right now. We had some rather tasty fried rice and left over ham, along with some steamed cauliflower and runner beans.

Sat and watched three episodes of The Coastal Path with Paul Rose on BBC2, followed by University Challenge and Miriam Margoyle’s Fat Adventure.

Went to bed around 10pm.

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Sunday Morning

I was awake at around 6.30am. It’s getting light earlier in the mornings and initially I thought it was a bit later.

I laid there for a while and then got up to make some coffee.

I returned to bed and drank my coffee whilst reading the news on my phone. Kathy woke up and we got up. I made sausage and egg for breakfast along with some more coffee.

Then we walked up to Cranford Park for the first opening of the Secret Garden this year. The river Crane was in full flow after the recent rains.

Plenty of volunteers were working on the Ha Ha , removing the ivy and other weeds from the brickwork. There were also a number of folk in the Secret Garden itself.

After a while along came the rain showers. E we decided to head for Starbucks on Bath Road for refreshments but it started raining again as we crossed the meadow. We got a bit damp but nothing too bad really.

The coffee was most welcome though.

Back home from a wet walk and it’s time to get dinner sorted. Roasted chicken thighs, roast potatoes, mashed swede and boiled carrots was the order of the day.

Watched Countryfile on BBC1; fairly regular Sunday evening viewing. Headed off to bed around nine as I was feeling quite tired after waking up early in the morning.

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Hello folks!

Welcome to my personal blog. Just general chatter and thoughts that enter my head and work their way down to my fingertips and then to the keyboard.