For about the fourth time we have had an unwanted letter from the cut-price opticians Specsaver. It’s addressed to someone with the same surname as ours, the same house number and road name but - the important bit - a different postcode!! This latest one has had Denshaw crossed out and Delph? added to the envelope. I have put a note about postcodes on the envelope and will repost it when I go out again later. Mind you, on another occasion when I did that, the same letter, complete with corrections, arrived back through our door a few days later. I hope Miss C Adams isn’t too disappointed not to hear from them. Someone at the sorting office should have gone to Specsavers!
We’ve been trying to organise Covid booster injections before we head off for a week and a bit in Portugal at the end of October. Online booking is fine but it gets complicated when two of you want to arrange transport together and the system offers you appointments at different times in different centres! Anyway, serendipitously, this morning I was talking to some friends in a chemist’s shop in Uppermill. They were there for booster injections. I described our difficulties. The young chemist, overhearing our conversation, offered to fit me in there and then or both Phil and me later this afternoon. So much for ‘you must book online’! I opted for both of this afternoon. Now I need to see if I can get Phil organised for that appointment - he’s a busy man! Or so he tells me.
Fierce dogs have been in the news rather too frequently later, in particular the American Bully XL, which is apparently to be banned from this country. No doubt someone will work at smuggling them in but whenever I hear of a case of one of these attacking someone, often a child and quite often fatally, I wonder why anyone wants a dog so big and strong and bred for ferocity that it’s hard to control! And one that you cannot safely leave in the company of a smallish child. And then the other day I read this report:
“Joe Biden’s dog Commander has bitten another US Secret Service employee, the agency said.
A uniformed division officer was bitten by the president’s German shepherd at about 8pm on Monday at the White House, and was treated on-site by medical personnel, said the Secret Service’s chief of communications, Anthony Guglielmi.
Elizabeth Alexander, the communications director for the first lady, Jill Biden, said: “The White House can be a stressful environment for family pets, and the first family continues to work on ways to help Commander handle the often unpredictable nature of the White House grounds.”
She said the Bidens were “incredibly grateful to the Secret Service and executive residence staff for all they do to keep them, their family, and the country safe”.”
It’s all very well posting videos of Joe Biden playing ball with the dog but is the White House really the place for such an animal. If he’s having to leave it with the security service while he does his presidential stuff, then there’s something wrong. His dog is not a Bully XL but it’s still a big, energetic animal. Granddaughter Number One’s dog gets stressed if she is left alone for more than half an hour and she’s just a smallish border collie who won’t bite you but might try to herd you. Fortunately Granddaughter Number One is able to work from home with only an occasional obligatory trip to the office.
She hopes to be able to continue to do this, but according to this article more and more managers are now insisting that they want their workers in the office more frequently again. For a large number of people the possibility of working from home has been a godsend. The benefits - less time commuting, money saved by not paying transport costs, less wear and tear of smart clothing - outweigh the joy of meeting to chat and gossip over the watercooler. And for working parents, going back into the office can incur astounding increases in childcare costs. It’s all got a lot more costly since the days when I was putting children into after-school care.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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