DVT DAYS 230 & 231

Saturday and a day of technological challenge. My partner and I visited her mother to install a new cordless phone. This particular model has a shielding facility, which of course got labeled a “fuck off button” in my mind. But it was what this person was looking for as she wanted to be able to avoid repeated nuisance calls from cold callers and other such unwanted folk. Of course such advances in technology demand greater set up skills not to mention the reentry of all the stored telephone numbers in the directory. I discovered just how many people a 92 year old can know and how wide a support network of services can be. In some senses the mechanical re entry of numbers was easy, it was the setting up of the “fuck off button” that took the time. The other impediment was sorting out the spaghetti junction of wires that fed the phone, printer, home alarm, personal alarm and other bits and pieces behind the computer desk that housed the extension sockets that everything was plugged into. I had to label the plugs to make sure everything was plugged in and that the extraneous wires and plugs I removed really were redundant. In the end I was ringing the number from my mobile and going through the vetted call procedure. Then it was a case of putting together an impromptu seminar on the usage of the new system. So there we were ringing the number on my mobile with the speaker on so that she could hear what people ring her would hear and then listening to what her phone was saying to the caller. We ran through it a couple of times and hopefully she got the hang of it.

Home to watch the rugby and the days football, my team losing. During this we discovered that our planned break in December had been cancelled due to COVID restrictions. We immediately looked for a replacement and found one close by, which has alpacas on site, who could ask for anything better. So between going to Longleat and some night illuminated gardens we can spend some birthday time feeding the alpacas.

Sunday, clocks gone back, so this is winter. A late breakfast and a general organisation of the place and it is soon time for me to be worked over by my weightlifting, personal trainer daughter. We meet in the garage gym and she puts me through some test exercises as she assesses my flexibility, strength and general ability. I end up doing lots of things I would not normally do and feel the stretches and the twinges in bits of my body I do not usually use much. By the time we finish I know I have been well worked an also know that the final programme is going to push me. I retreat to the lounge and indulge in a toasted tea cake as I unwind and relax as the Scottish women draw with France at rugby. Hamilton of course wins another grand prix as I update the Tesco order and catch up with the blog.

I was thinking this morning about the COVID child hunger that is going on and wondering what the Labour party that my parents subscribed to would have done in response to hungry children. The Labour party of old, along with the trade unions, would have been active in their communities organising food for the children and the poorer families. The party of old would have looked after their own, the working classes that were bearing the brunt of a society that view them as profit making units. Where is that “on the street”, response, the practical communal help to support comrades in the struggle. All I hear is fine words and political posturing by the politicians, how do they think they are going to win back the trust of the working class if they do not get off their arses and do something that their people would understand and know they were being heard and responded to. Who knows they may get there at some point.

STOP PRESS: Official Weigh In: 94.4 kilos, officially out of Obese and into Over Weight again. Progress!