Sunday 30 July 2023

As Diana Was On Late Shift,

we decided on a fry up together in the morning,


and with a mug of tea, what a great start to the day!

Diana left before me as I was updating some of the forms we need in the shop and printing them off, a nice bright sunny day, as I walked to the number 54 bus stop, 

arriving at the shop I gave Graham the forms, 

this is one of the nine different forms Bromley council need to see made out every month, one form for each bank of aquariums, the title at the top is where the bank of aquariums are in the shop, the letters the rows showing each aquarium, each aquarium numbered, every aquarium in the shop has to be individually tested monthly for ph, No2, No3, Gh, as you might imagine to take a test of these 4 parameters is not cheap, both in the cost of the kits and reagents and more importantly the huge labour costs involved, it always amazes me when someone in government states that they are going to cut down on paperwork for small business, Kingfisheries started trading in 1953, I started there as a Saturday boy in 1963, all went well until 4 years ago when these forms were introduced, multiplying our work load 10 fold or more, and do you know what is worse? the council officer who calls in every 6 months to see the forms admitted in the shop the forms mean nothing to her! she just has to see them to make a click on her computer, what a complete and utter waste of time, money and resources, 56 years of operating a business without these forms, but if we do not comply we loose our pet trade licence, cut down on paperwork? go tell it to the marines!

I caught a 227 back to the church and walked through the green,

as I neared the snail mail box the skies starting to cloud over, 

arriving home it was remarkably late, changing the forms had taken me longer than I thought, so on to a sherry and a read,

for my meal tonight Diana had made me a lamb stew, which was delicious,

'Cheers!',

for the evening I had chosen 2 films, both of which I seen before, both of which I enjoyed watching a again, firstly The Statement, it is the tale of a former Nazi executioner who becomes a target of hit men and Police investigators, a few moral questions of course rear their heads, the central character during the war killed Innocent people, but is it right to in this day and age execute him with out a trial?

the next film another great favourite of mine, Rare Birds, Dave is down, his wife lives in Washington, D.C.; his restaurant, the Auk, in an out-of-the-way Newfoundland inlet is dying through lack of trade, an odd-duck of a neighbour, Phonce, contrives to keep Dave in town and his restaurant in business by faking and reporting the sighting of a rare bird, I really liked this conversation when a photo was published of the rare duck and Dave was worried some one might blow up the picture and find it was a fake,

Phonce: 'Dave who is going to blow up the picture? the International Bird Police? Interbird?' 

and of course Phonce 'always have a plan B Dave' is always there in a crisis, a great music soundtrack makes this feel good movie even better, during which Diana arrived home, so as she was on early shift tomorrow we were off to bed.


No comments: