This past week we’ve had snow and ice. The one day, we had almost 3 inches of snow fall, which then melted slightly, then froze. The council didn’t collect our rubbish on the designated day, stating icy and dangerous driving conditions on side roads as the cause. Now, who grits the roads? Oh yes, the local council. Oh, the irony… Priceless! Meanwhile, three of us in the street work in retail, and as far as I know, if the store is open, and we don’t attend, then we don’t get paid. The young man in the street walked to work. The older couple went by taxi, and I drove, very tentatively and carefully in the same icy and dangerous conditions that the council workers weren’t willing to drive in. But then, we live in the real world…

We’ve also had to contend with an absentee plumber. We reported a water leak at the property over 3 weeks ago. Now, I know we’ve had Christmas, and New Year, but 3 weeks? Ridiculous! I could care less, it’s not my property or kitchen cupboard that could be being ruined by leaking water, but I’ve done my part and I’m now bored with laying down newspapers to soak up the leak. I’m particularly p*ssed because the day he was due to arrive, I had to turn down overtime to be available when I said that I would be. He was a no-show, nor did he phone to say why he was a no-show. I hate workmen with a passion. Yes, we oftentimes need them, but mostly they treat customers with no consideration for changed plans and availability and show up late, or in my case, not at all.

Other than, we’re good lol. Rude customers aplenty the day after New Year’s Day. We were closed for one day, and you’d think the world had come to an end. The store was really busy, and due to the aforementioned icy and dangerous driving conditions, some deliveries were late. Talk about complain! And some were so rude too. I was glad to finish that day and wild horses wouldn’t have made me do any overtime. Sunday, on the other hand, was lovely. 3 hours with no customers. Yes, we need customers, however they need us too though you wouldn’t think so, the way some of them talk to us. We have a few regulars, and they’re so lovely that they do make up, in part, for some of the less than pleasant ones. Swings and roundabouts.

We’ve had some nice food recently, and my son and I spent some time in the kitchen together making 2 Chinese dishes. Delicious! My knife sharpening though has claimed its first victim; my son knew I’d sharpened all the knives, however he cut himself on the breadknife, thankfully not the very large, sharp knife that we have, just the breadknife. We also made chicken tikka, last night, and tonight we’re having home made pizza. I love that we both know how to cook, and we enjoy it too.

Well, despite much of the country being on a Tier 4 lockdown, there’s now talk of England, maybe the whole country (?) going onto a proper lockdown to get the number of infections down. The trouble is, I don’t think it will work. The first one didn’t work, the tier lockdowns aren’t working, and the people that are ignoring these restrictions, will continue to do so. Being an island, albeit quite a large one, we had the perfect opportunity to lock down the whole country when this first started. Did the government take it? Hell no! They let passenger planes in and out, and they continue to let in illegals that are crossing the channel and bringing in God only knows what when they should have been detained and locked up until proven to be virus-free. New Zealand went into a proper lockdown, nobody in or out, and they seem to have fared much better. I have a lot of respect for their leader, and absolutely zero for ours. I can only hope that they stop their dithering, blathering, and prevaricating, and get the vaccine rolled out to all that are willing to have it, in a timely fashion. I like what Spain is doing; they’re keeping a list of people that refuse the vaccine, presumably so that if they get infected, they can prove that they were offered it. All countries should be doing this.

I just heard; the plumber should be here on Friday. I won’t be holding my breath…

Have a good week, take care and be safe.

Update: I note this morning that we're on another national lockdown in England. Well, the first two worked so well didn't they, so why not have a third! No doubt passenger planes will still fly in and out, and we'll welcome illegals with open arms too. You couldn't make this **** up!