Taking a leaf out of Diamond Geezer‘s book, I’ve decided to write a post each month of strange, interesting, unusual, or just tedious things that happened each day, but which I didn’t write about at the time.
So here are 31 things I didn’t blog about in July.
| Thu 1 | I bid for 2 paintings live, online at our local auction house. Didn’t get them; wasn’t prepared to pay more than £50 and they sold for £75. |
| Fri 2 | Waitrose new Fulfilment Centre near home made rather a mess of this week’s grocery order. Lots of items unavailable and an unusual number of errors. Unavailability of items possibly down to the shortfall of lorry drivers? |
| Sat 3 | Picked a good handful of chard & radish leaves for salad. Having removed everything slug eaten, I was left with enough for half a sandwich. But supplemented with some coriander, and a big bunch of mint and basil, it made a nice quantity of baby leaves. |
| Sun 4 | Having lost the last of our koi a couple of years ago, we still have at least 4 goldfish in the pond: one large pale one, and at least 3 orange/red ones of various sizes (one of which must be home grown). |
| Mon 5 | We’ve a couple of bags of date expired cashew nuts and have been feeding them to the birds in a wire peanut feeder. And are they appreciated! This evening for an hour, while eating dinner, there was a procession of great tits and blue tits (at least 5 birds altogether) feasting on the nuts; one, often two, on the feeder at all times in a perpetual relay. |
| Tue 6 | Trip to the optician to collect new glasses; will have to finish adjusting them myself. Then I filled in & filed both our tax returns. And all before lunch. |
| Wed 7 | Why is it that without an alarm set I seem unable to surface before 10am? |
| Thu 8 | Glad to be side-tracked this afternoon into doing maintenence on N’s PC, thus avoiding tedious work for the PPG. |
| Fri 9 | Had to do the work I avoided yesterday. One piece I can’t complete yet as I need input from others. The second, some data analysis, proved too much for today’s addled brain. |
| Sat 10 | Awoke to find a wondrously clean white plate in the garden. N had put out some lamb chop bones, fat topping from some paté, and a cracked egg. Mr Reynard clearly had a tasty buffet. Must see if they like banana. |
| Sun 11 | 40 years ago today we moved into this house. Saturday 11 July 1981 was hot & sunny. With the help of a colleague and a van we moved from our dingy rented flat into this house. I lost half a stone in the process. This latter needs to be repeated, many times over. |
| Mon 12 | Today’s thunderstorm was the nearest we’ve had to a decent one for some years. We used to have lots, but they seem to have dwindled in the last 10 years or so. |
| Tue 13 | Selection workshop for a local council community review panel. Don’t expect to get through as they’ve probably got too many white middle-class men of a certain age. |
| Wed 14 | One of those tedious days where nothing much happens and you don’t have much to show for it either. Although I did finish a couple of short articles for AP Soc Newsletter. |
| Thu 15 | Had to email friends and decline a dinner date. After much discussion we both still feel much too vulnerable in current Covid situation – much though we want to go back to socialising and these friends are the very top of the list. Hope they’re not too pissed off with us. |
| Fri 16 | Up early (for me) to a lovely sunny morning, and the squawks of next door’s African Grey parrot out on their veranda. |
| Sat 17 | Hottest day of the year so far. And far too hot and uncomfortable to do anything; so I didn’t. |
| Sun 18 | Waitrose new Fulfilment Centre near us is still not at the top of its game, and I’m fed up with talking to Customer Services about it; now in conversation with the John Lewis’s executive office. |
| Mon 19 | Freedom Day for some. But not for us. We’re still feeling just as vulnerable as ever thanks to our short-sighted government. |
| Tue 20 | I’m retired. So why did I spend almost the whole day working? |
| Wed 21 | Chaired the early morning meeting of GP’s patient group on Zoom. Poorly attended. At times you wonder why you bother! |
| Thu 22 | Contrary to expectations the local council have appointed me to their community review panel. They’ve clearly not twigged that I belong to The Awkward Squad. |
| Fri 23 | Extra meat rations today! As we were about to receive the supermarket delivery, Tilly the Cat presented us with a small freshly dead rat. |
| Sat 24 | Thunderstorms? What thunderstorms? It was touted to be heavy thundery rain all day today, but not a rumble of thunder, nor a single drop of rain – although it was dark like November. |
| Sun 25 | Well, after complaining yesterday, the fairies were moving the furniture around upstairs this afternoon, and finally after days of waiting, at teatime we got some good thundery rain. |
| Mon 26 | Mid-afternoon there’s a sudden, hard smack on the study window. Obviously a bird strike. Very dead wood pigeon later found on the patio below the window. |
| Tue 27 | N had moved yesterday’s dead pigeon onto the lawn. This morning it had disappeared, one suspects with an assist from Mr Reynard – later confirmed by the trail camera. |
| Wed 28 | Awake just before 0500hrs, I was alerted by a nearby security light. After a minute or so, a fox trotting briskly and purposefully up the road carrying something which in the half-light looked like it could be dead rat. |
| Thu 29 | I’m taking part in the Big Wasp Survey again this year (the 5th year), and today I set the first two wasp traps. BWS are doing two survey sessions this year, now and in late August. I’m not hopeful of this session as the weather looks rather iffy for flying. |
| Fri 30 | Not having got everything we wanted on today’s supermarket order, we tried a small delivery from Amazon Fresh. Although maybe not up to Waitrose quality, and one doesn’t like giving Amazon even more money, it certainly worked well as a stop-gap. |
| Sat 31 | It’s one thing being depressed, but it’s a bit much when you spend the night dreaming about being depressed. Especially as it leaves you even less inclined to do anything than before. |
So what will next month bring, I wonder?