9.12.2025 You couldn't make it up!

 ~o~

  Tuesday 9th 47F/8.3C [8.45] Another dark, grey, misty day. With rain after lunch. Modestly windy from the SW going southerly mid morning.

 Up at 7am after a fairly quiet night. 

 I am still baffled by the huge bang outside last night. Just before 10pm. It was pitch black at the time of course. I walked around the house with a torch but could see nothing.

 It is still struggling to get light now at 8.50. I am waiting to go for my walk. My main concern is always the commuter traffic. Many drivers don't alter their course to avoid me until the very last moment. They are obviously not concentrating on the road ahead. Often they are driving insanely close to the car in front. Despite 5km of solid, double white lines. Which they must surely know about if they make the journey more than once. 

 So overtaking other vehicles is illegal. This rule does not apply to pedestrians, cyclists or slow moving vehicles. Though crossing the double white lines on every single corner is considered the done thing. The double white lines on bends literally wear out long before those on the straights. Are drivers simply too lazy to drive all the way around a corner? Why do they cut blind corners where many drivers overshoot the double white lines?

 Meanwhile I am always walking as close to the verge as possible. Often taking to the grass, or usually the weeds, to avoid literally being run down. I have no alternative but to walk along the side of the road for several hundred meters. Before I can escape to the quieter lanes or the single farm track to the woods.  

 Every few meters there are branches, brambles or wild roses arcing out of the roadside hedges. So escaping to the verges is not always easy. I am constantly monitoring for traffic from the rear. Because some drivers are afraid to pass me against oncoming traffic. While many drivers have never heard of the 1.5m rule anyway. Or are too sociopathic/drugged senile or drunk to care about taking a life?

 9.15. Almost light enough for my walk. Wish me luck.

 9.50 Back again. Traffic light. Slightly cold on my hands. No near misses today. The two, large brown birds of prey were back on the fields but left on my arrival. No sign of a possible cause for the loud bang.

 11.45 I have been looking at the TV problem again. The correct height, to match seated eye height, looks much too half mast.  When the TV was sitting on the small chest of drawers it was the same height. It looked fine. Now the lack of visual support, from below, makes it look distinctly undernourished. Like droopy, half mast trousers nailed to the wall. It needs to be at least 6"/15cm higher. For the TV to look as if some thought had gone into its installation. 

 I have temporarily moved the chest of drawers to the other end of the room. With an aspidistra on top to help it to look semi-domesticated. I really don't like it there. It is too deep. My wife kept a chest of drawers there for years. I shall have to look for more suitable furniture in the charity shops. 

 Ideally I need a low, shallow shelving unit with a backboard. To go under the TV. A few ornaments will make it look as if it was meant to be there. I may be able to use the large chest of drawers. To absorb the contents of the small chest. The drawers in the larger one are truly vast. Some plastic tubs or trays will help to tame it all. I already spend hours sorting through the clothing in there. So it is always a complete jumble.

 Back in the kitchen I am thinking of rotating the washing machine by 90º. To stand against the far wall. The plumbing will still reach. Nope. The door opened the wrong way. I settled on a more forward position. To bring it flush with the oven and its cupboard. It better looks the part now. Washing machines are heavy! The image at the top of the page nicely confirms hovel status. Daylight is actually kinder. 

 16.15 Back again from a tour of all six charity shops within about 35km radius from home. None of them had what I was looking for. Until the very last. Only about 7 miles away. Absolute perfection for £5 equivalent in ye olde monie. It even went in the back seat of the car. Though it was a hell of a struggle. Because cars had parked closely on either side while I was paying for my find.

 I'll have to find some ornaments. To make it look lived in. The new [recycled] shelving unit even makes the TV look the right height again. 

 Those of you who see this search and eventual purchase as small beer should consider the odds. Of finding exactly what I needed in such a small sample of charity shops within two hours. Yes, I could have gone to IKEA and spent a couple of hundred pounds equivalent. Or any other furniture retail store. 

 The same held true with the display cabinets. They were suddenly coming out of the woodwork. So to speak. Precisely when I felt I needed them. I saved in excess of a thousand pounds equivalent. Had I succumbed to retail purchasing of so many. 

 The period character of the cabinets added a certain mystique to their contents. They became museum like displays of my wife's, precious glass collection.  Safely and inexpensively protecting them from dust and trivial accidents. Without looking cheap and nasty. 

 Dinner was organic sausage, an organic egg and chips. I washed up while it cooked. Which explains why the sausage is slightly overdone.

  ~o~