Unexpected Pet In The Working Area

Two days in to working from home (again) and I’m already losing the will to live. As I’ve changed to a compressed week it means an earlier start for me; so, it is probably a good thing that I’m working from home until I acclimatise to having to be working at a time when I’m usually only just getting out of bed. No one needs me having to drive to Portslade whilst still trying to wake up – it’s bad enough when I’m wide awake.

And as we are in lockdown three, I had an idea about naming lockdown three in the style of paraphrasing film titles of films from a series, whether they be a trilogy or longer. It was something to do whilst on boring calls, and I came up with the following list.

The Lord of the Lockdowns – The Return of the Restrictions

Lockdown with a Vengeance

The Lockdown and Furious: Wuhan Drift

Indiana Jones & The Last Lockdown

Star Wars: The Return of the Lockdown

Harry Lockdown and the Prisoner of Covid

Batman: The R Rate Rises

Back to the Lockdown III

Pirates of the Covid: At Lockdown’s End

Mad Max Beyond Lockdown

Beverly Hills Lockdown III

Lockdown 3: Europe’s Most Infected

The Bourne Lockdown

There is a drip in the kitchen somewhere. I suspect it is from the plughole in the sink down into the waste pipe, but in the silence of the kitchen it didn’t take long to drive me insane. I usually have my iPod plugged into a Bluetooth speaker on the kitchen table with me, but it was too close to drown the sound of the drip out, so I’ve had to resort to having the radio on at a louder volume than usual, as it’s near the sink and wipes the dripping sound out.

Anyway, I packed my work IT equipment away Thursday evening and retired to the living room. Only to get up Friday morning to find that my usual working space on the kitchen table had a large wooden box with a snake in its place. Plus, all my IT lit had been unplugged so they could plug in light and heat for the effing snake. I can’t see the snake because the glass side of the tank has an apron and tea towel draped over it. It belongs to Nathan’s girlfriend, so hopefully it will only be today that it is in my way, and that when I get around to returning to work on Tuesday it will have f#@&ed off.

Is it a coincidence that I’ve not seen Sniffles since the snake turned up? At least the snake isn’t in a cardboard box, as that would have been certain of investigation by the idiot cat. As it turned out the snake went, even before I got to the end of the working day. Back off to Portsmouth before it had the chance to eat any household members.

Sitting at the kitchen table as a desk in yet another lockdown does mean the mind wanders. Especially to the hope of being able to go out and do something or go somewhere. This impulse isn’t helped every time I look up and see the side of the fridge and all the magnets stuck to the side of it from out travels. It is somewhat distracting. Especially with it making me think of how many nice days out we’ve had.

Despite a big clear out before Christmas I can’t stop buying books. Another big box arrived on Thursday. Granted, this consignment did contain some future birthday / Christmas presents (how far ahead of the game?), and a couple that would be used for new items for Flanagan’s Running Club this year, but there are space considerations not that there is reduced shelving space available. It means I’ll have to pull my finger out and get through reading more of them so there is another consignment for the charity shop soon.

Helen got me a new proper fatbit for Christmas, to replace my cheapo version. I still haven’t got my head around everything it does, but it does buzz on my arm at regular intervals to try and get me to move; its own version of ‘move you fat b@st@rd’. it had a vibration celebration when I was putting the Christmas decorations away at the first time I’d climbed ten flights of stairs in a day. On our walk on Saturday

it went vibrating crazy. Going off and sending me e-mails as I broke ten thousand and fifteen thousand steps for the first time, and again as it reckoned I had done more than twenty-five flights of stairs. I’m not convinced my arm can survive this kind of thing for too long.

On the walk as we passed the Half Moon pub, I had a thought of how would you do a half moon? Would you pull your trousers down so only half of your backside would be showing; or would it require the use of stripper style velcro’d trousers, where you just ripped the one side open to show one ass cheek?

There was some looking at that you can do under lockdown on the government website, and apparently ‘for the purpose of picketing’ is a legal reason for leaving the house, as is ‘reasonably necessary to vote’. No woolly language there at all. But the best thing, is the fact that the government recognise we are a nation of alcoholics as they classify off licenses as being essential shops that need to be open.

It was a late night Sunday as it’s NFL playoff season and the last of six games over the weekend finished not long before some people would be getting up for work Monday morning. Not me anymore, Mondays are now a day off. I had a little trip out, nowhere exciting mind you, just a trip to the vet with Sniffles as he had a lot of bumps on his lower back. He had been snoozing on a bed all day, but it’s amazing how quickly he turned into a star shaped cat when faced with being put in the cat carrier. He escaped on the second attempt, only to get distracted by food in his bowl, and at the third attempt he was squeezed into the carrier. There’s nothing seriously wrong with him, just an allergy to flea bites, though where he’s getting fleas from in this weather without any other pets in the house is anyone’s guess.

This new working pattern is going well, it’s amazing how quickly the working week seems to go now. Wednesday night is here already, only two days to go before a three day weekend.

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