Up Early And Out,

I had a appointment at the doctors surgery, 

a little warmer than yesterday as I made my way out of the park,

the road crew had been busy overnight, the mini roundabout and road markings all replaced,

as well as both Zebra crossings, 

it almost seemed that the council wanted this finished ASAP so as not to show Bromley rate payers, what a waste of money the first 12 weeks of installation was,

anyway all done now, 

I walked into town and passed the green, 

in the graveyard, 

the cyclamen looking good, into the surgery, no queue I am happy to say, a roll up of my sleeve ready for this years flu jab, which took no time at all and I was back out and on my way,

past the Travelodge, 

which seems to be taking an age to complete,

I made my way to Boots which was being worked on, to pick up my prescription, 

next stop M & S for a couple of cartons of milk, 

the newly tarmacked road looking clean, 

with all of its lines, 

and Zebra crossings, 

and then the afternoon begun, with me emptying the aquarium, getting it ready for our return from our holiday, also a change of the UV light, 

the blackened part of the tube showing it was due for replacement, 

all cleaned out, the gravel washed, as it happens it took way longer than I thought it would, but there it is, 

next time for a read and a sherry, 

for my meal tonight liver and bacon with mashed potatoes, 'Cheers!'. in the evening a couple of films, firstly,

 Robin Hood, great fun to watch again, which I followed with,

Never Say Never Again, thank goodness for Bond, another world saving event by the master spy, at the end of this Diana arrived home, so time for a coffee and a chat as we watched the last part of three of a Prime Suspect before we were off to bed.

When We First Returned To The UK

we needed to buy a car, I was against EVs for so many reasons, 

so we went for a diesel Jaguar, looking at the economy, speed, comfort is was a no brainer, well it looks like many members of the public agree with my choice of diesel according to this headline: 

'Demand for diesel cars grows faster than for EVs'

well who would have thought that? it is a fact that take away the business buyers for EVs where companies get tax relief on the cars, demand from the general public is weak, the bosses of 12 of the UK’s biggest car brands wrote to the government about it’s Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, stating it will fail without incentives for private electric car buyers, from the article:

‘The letter, written under the auspices of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, also points to a lack of confidence in the UK’s charging infrastructure as another major barrier. As a result, consumers are holding off new car purchases altogether, they maintain that when the ZEV Mandate was conceived, there was an expectation of steady market growth, ever-cheaper batteries, plentiful materials, cheap energy, low interest rates and growing demand – assumptions that have proven to be flawed’ 

no kidding, as I said who would have thought that? for the full article have a look here.

It Is That Time Of The Year Again,

Fat Bear Week, 

above Bear 747 in the Fat Bear Week contest in Alaska's Katmai National Park, Naomi Boak/Courtesy of NPS Photos, towards winter bears pile on the pounds, to build up for the winter, we have featured the contest before, the contest is light-hearted in spirit, it often spawns memes and celebrates the bears’ impressive ability to transform so rapidly, but this year’s contest has gone a bit mustang, bear No. 469, I guess thought that bear No. 402, look tasty and killed it last Monday morning! worse still it all happened live on webcams at Katmai National Park, park spokesperson Matt Johnson said in a statement, “National parks like Katmai protect not only the wonders of nature, but also the harsh realities,”  also Mike Fitz, explore.org’s resident naturalist commented, “The risks that they face are real. Their lives can be hard, and their deaths can be painful, each bear seen on the webcams is competing with others to survive, we love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat, but the ferocity of bears is real,” the contest has been delayed, but after the delay the brackets were revealed Tuesday afternoon, voting opened Wednesday on explore.org. More than 1.3 million votes were cast last year, for the full article have a look here.

Yet Another Day Of Only One Post,

as again for myself I was out early,

out into a cold day, a bus into town,

alighting at the Odeon,

by the war memorial, in the distance what was Barclays Bank being built on to increase the buildings height by a few stories, I had a meeting with our accountants, after which on to the bus,

and back home walking into the park, 

it was still a tad cold, but I was soon indoors, Diana was on late shift today, so a breakfast for two,

and what better than a English fry up?

'Cheers!' during the day after Diana had left for work, I started striping down the aquarium, as we will be going on holiday soon and I did not want to have to ask someone to feed the fish every day, so off to the shop with them, tomorrow I will take out and clean the gravel as well as the Eheim filter, so when we return all will be ready to refill and start again, 

in the evening a read, 

we had such a big breakfast I was not really hungry, so just a sandwich, 'Cheers!',

then out into the night, 

I am meeting Steve in the club, the tennis courts still being put to good use, 

we chatted the night away and we were joined by Frank, after saying our farewells we made a move for our homes, and now for something completely different, 

you may remember this, the two sets of Zebra crossings and mini roundabout at the entrance to the park, 

that took 12 weeks to install, well, as we walked away from the club pretty much all of that work was being destroyed,

the entire road was being dug up!

the lorry is where the centre of the mini round about was, now scraped off and dumped!

all of the work of 12 weeks in materials and labour, just thrown away, 

worse still as a rate payed it is our money that someone has thrown away, 

the Zebra crossing gone, it all lasted I am guessing about 4 weeks from being completed to being destroyed, what a waste, chatting to one of the workers I was told that the roundabout and Zebra crossings would be reinstalled by day break, pity it was not as quick as that when they were installed! arriving home I watched a Ain't Half Hot mum with Diana before we were off to bed.

Another Day Of Only One Post,

it was Diana's day off, 

and first thing we were out, so wrap up warm, 

Steve and Kai very kindly picked us up, and we drove here, to Costco, as they are members and can take a guest along, 

we spent so long looking around, and eventually ended up with huge trolleys full of household essentials, 

Steve's car big though it is was literally packed to the roof!

the girls were squeezed in the back, 

Kai on the other side of the car, 

and Diana's view to the front, Steve and Kai dropped us off at home and called in for a coffee and a chat, after thanking them for taking us today they left to unload their shopping at home, as we did, or I should say Diana did, I just seemed to get in the way, so I kept the coffee supply going, on another subject, the one and only thing that I find annoying about our car, is that every month or so it gives a warning that I should check the tyres, which is a bit of a faff, going to the garage paying £1 to use the air pump and dragging a dirty hose around the car only to find that nothing is wrong, well having seen this, 

at £12.59 I bought it and it arrived a couple of days ago, I charged the unit up and finally today as it was not raining I tried it, to say I was pleased with its performance is a understatement with instructions even I could follow, 

1 switch it on, 

2 chose pounds per square inch or kilograms per Kit-Kat or another scale that I had no idea about, 

3 press the 'up-down' button to the desired pressure,

4 attach the nozzle and pull the trigger, 

5 leave it alone until it stops at the pressure you decided on and go to the next tyre, if only everything that was electrical in my life was this simple and good! by the way the advertisement might say 'UK Stock' but we all know where it was made and comes from, on yet another note, my camera kept refusing to recognize the SD card, I thought it was the camera, but for some reason I decided to change the card, so far the new card has been accepted every time I take it out to upload the photographs, which is a relief with our holiday just a few weeks away, in the evening after our meal and a BattleBots we settle down to a couple of Antiques Road Trips, before starting a new Prime Suspect, each story takes 3 episodes, so we will continue the next time we are both at home, after that we were off to bed.