No work today

I haven’t done any work today. Actually, that’s a lie, I’ve poked around in Bugzilla a bit, reviewed some check-ins and discussed a few issues by IM. That probably adds up to a total of 15 minutes though, which is as near to no work as I’m ever likely to get. So, ignoring those 15 minutes, something interesting must have happened, let’s see…

Just Daddy & Mia today, as Nibby is off doing some horsey thing all week. The day started with me trying to feed 1 toddler, 8 ducklings, 8 chicks, 3 hens, 1 cockerel, 1 cat and 1 dog, put the child seat in the Merc and get going in time to get to Wetherby for 9:30, all in most awful torrential rain. By some miracle, we pulled out of the drive at twenty past, which is more than enough time for the short journey. Unfortunately, we’d only got round the first bend when progress was obstructed by a selection of fire engines and ambulances, seemingly due to the fact that one of the many morons who drive down this road had finally achieved their intention of hitting another vehicle head on.

Due to an unfortunate quirk of geography, in the form of the River Wharfe, the shortest alternative route is a good 10 miles (I’d guess) which in this morning’s weather conditions took half an hour. Along the way, several other morons* attempted to hit us head-on, and we negotiated various flooded sections of road.

Anyway, we made it into town eventually – late, but not too late, for my first experience of Jo Jingles. It was pretty much as expected really, with me literally breaking into a sweat trying to keep the wilful and rambunctious Mia under control while everybody else’s toddlers appeared totally compliant. Mia’s primary point of interest was attempting to take over the CD player, and when repeatedly thwarted, switching it off at the plug. “Don’t worry, you’re not doing any worse than your wife does” I was told ‘encouragingly’. Still, it was good fun all in all.

This afternoon, a trip to Sainsbury’s, which involved driving though several rivers and lakes which had appeared where the road was supposed to be. The highlight for me was buying a litre bottle of own-brand shampoo for 29p, and noting that the ingredients were the same as all the expensive crap in our bathroom. Also a 29p bottle of shower-gel, which has the same ingredients as the shampoo. If my hair falls out as a result, I will post pictures here.

Talking of ducklings (I did mention ducklings several paragraphs ago, try and pay attention) I’m sorry to report that the imprinting thing doesn’t work quite the way it does in the cartoons, and I’m not mummy duck after all. I didn’t spend enough time with them in the first few days, and they’re totally wild and petrified of me, which made cleaning their pen out last night a traumatic experience for them, and indirectly me. In the end, rather than try and get them out I had to ‘build’ and new floor and slide the walls from the old one to the new with the ducklings in between.

Right, that’s more than enough typing for a day when I’m not working. The original question of whether anything interesting happened is totally subjective of course, but I suspect the answer is no for the majority of people.

*The morons along this road come in two categories, dopey housewife and be-suited sociopath in BMW. They’re only distinguishable close up though, since the driving is the same. Too fast, not in control of the car, and frequently not even looking where they’re going.