Somebody Bought It (Corona #19)

The flat I wanted to see, that is. They called me 30 minutes before the viewing to say that they expected the other party's offer would be accepted. On the one hand I think it's silly not to show me the flat, for all they know I might have offered the full price... but on the other hand, it wasn't the flat for me and it saved everyone wasting their time.

The "both of us having a day off" didn't happen either as J was called into work. Quelle surprise. This week, though, I took myself off to the beach for an hour. It was bliss. I almost couldn't be bothered, but eventually made myself, and I'm so glad I got myself out of the house. It's easy to forget how important it is to recharge the batteries and reset your outlook now and then.

Pictured: how deep I went into the water. (Not very.)

Tonight the lockdown has been eased and people will be allowed to meet in groups of six, providing they stay 2m apart at all times. People have been ignoring it for several weeks anyway so this will just grant a green light for people to do anything they want... I mean, you don't buy a dozen burger patties and £100 of alcohol when there's only your own family hanging out in the backyard, everyone knows what you're up to (yes, that was a purchase made this week).

Among my freebies lately were a dented trifle, three bags of mini cheeses, some fancy soups, flatbreads, mac & cheese, chocolate muffins, fabric softener and tons of bread as always. I've given up adding it up, suffice to say I rarely need spend more than £30 on my monthly groceries and I eat like a king. J, on the other hand, is living off meal deals and spending an absolute fortune, and we're going to have to have that showdown after payday this week because he could & should be saving up the pennies for an unemployed future.

New Blog Address

Well, if you found your way here then I guess you know!

I had some issues with privacy, so I have moved the blog to a new address.

There will be a bunch of broken links for quite a while, which will take me some time to correct. I can only aplogise in the meantime.

Otherwise, life is the same, I've been chatting to friends online and working (not much more to be done really). Hoping to go to see a lovely local park with J tomorrow since we're both (gasp!) off work on the same day. If we manage to go then a report will follow!

#18 Coronavirus: Refrigerator Tetris

It looks like this outside.
A lot.

That's basically the most exciting part of my existence right now (and also the most frustrating one). I am now jettisoning "less awesome" food from the freezer to make room for more valuable stuff. I spend my days indoors, standing within view of glorious sunshine. I bet you wish you were living my exciting life.

Yet again I've turned down working seven days this week. Six is enough, thank you. Seven is fine for a while, but you eventually deplete your stored-up mojo, let alone your basket of fucks, and mine have long since run out. This week I am supergluing my fingers, and it is not even an accident, I am literally gluing the cracks closed to give my poor over-hand-gel'd and over-washed skin a chance to heal. A customer took me to task yesterday for wearing gloves and I peeled one back to show her the red-raw skin, at which point she thankfully decided to stfu. I have never wanted to punch a stranger in my life but at that point I kinda understood why some people feel that way 👊

I caved in and ordered a bigger wetsuit. Even this one won't fit. I blame this on my ability to put away copious amounts of free brioche and crisps, and my disinclination towards protein+vegetables as a main meal. I am tired. I work a lot, sure, but it is very likely tied in with all the carbs and the lack of exercise.

Related to the whole "no room in my freezer" thing, I cooked half a kilo of brussels sprouts this evening, and have eaten seven of them. They tasted like soap. For the moment I'm drinking cranberry, peach spritz and rum, which also counts as a serving of my five a day.

Properties are creeping onto the market - slowly. I am yet to see any super-bargains appear. I'm off to view a property on Friday. The guide price is unrealistic, but I'm going anyway, clad in gloves and mask. It's 55k and needs completely gutting, so realistically 70k all-in, and listings for these 1br properties are only 85k right now - which is not enough of a safe space considering the market is very likely to fall. I think it's more curiosity than anything else, I really want to see who's dumb enough to take that risk. The news believes that three-quarters of Brits are worse off as a result of Coronavirus, so a lotta first-time-buyers and investors won't be in a position to pay what they might have wanted to spend, so it would be a brave punter willing to bet that the market won't crash.

Staying Home, Corona #17

So yesterday I started noticing that my throat felt a bit odd, and I was getting shooting pains in my ear, followed by a swollen gland. Not my favourite combination. Anyway, I stayed off work today just in case, but they've all disappeared. I can only conclude that my salivary gland was playing up but decided to unblock again (as it has done for 15 years - this is not new).

Anyway, it's actually my day off tomorrow, meaning two days off together, which hasn't happened in months on end. If I'm honest with myself I needed it, I am exhausted, and my patience with customers is wearing to the point I struggle to be my usual cheery self. One, whom I had had the audacity to politely invite to use the self-scan till, even ranted at me that if this is how customers are treated, then he would leave - to which I replied, "Ok, bye." And I have to say it was very restrained of me, but also not the most polite reply I could have given. Even though customers around us rallied to take my side, telling him that he was behaving like a child, in a perfect world (and in a less stressful time) I'd have tried to calm him down and keep him as a customer. But on Tuesday, 5th May 2020, I didn't give a shit if he buggered off forever.

Still no word on whether work will keep me beyond July, but at least for now I still have plenty of work. It's thought that Boris Johnson will lift the lockdown on Monday (or at least loosen it) and I although I think it's too soon, I also hope like hell that he does. It was warm and fine today and all I wanted to do was be out on the water. I'm also champing at the bit to buy a property and until people regain confidence in the safety of moving house, sellers aren't listing their properties.

I'd also love to get back to the gym. The sheer amount of eating that I do is insane. And I'm bored, and tired of doing nothing but work and sit at home. My wetsuit is going to forever stay a size A for Aspirational. Waaaaah, etc :D

Today's soundtrack: Sweet Disposition, The Temper Trap. No reason, I just like it.

I got two bunches of flowers free from work - a sad hunk of tulips which amazingly rallied, and a miserable bunch of roses and lillies (the roses didn't do great but the lillies are just starting to open). Cheery. :)

Pay Day Spend: £40 on fuel (whole tank - last filled on pay day week - so now I know how much fuel I use each week). Also £23 in Poundland that I'm disgusted at, which only contained a few necessities.

The April Roundup

Well, I've barely had any time for myself and it shows! I think I only had two days off work this month so very little in surveys and a big fat zero in competition entries.

Free food, yellow stickers and staff discount - about £150.00, plus around £50 worth given to my neighbours
Prolific Academic £19.19
Qmee £1.90
Book Royalties £0.53
Quidco £1.29 (as Tesco voucher)

It's pay day today and I had a moment of thinking that I should go to the Big Shop to do my stock up while I have the 15% discount, and then I looked in my cupboard and No Way Am I Going Shopping. The cupboard is still full to the brim, the fridge and freezer are both full (as always) and I have stacks of food around my kitchen, bags of crisps, and Easter chocolate still sitting about.

J is coming for dinner so I will no doubt get my arse handed to me in whatever game we decide to play.

#16 The Coronavirus Saga

I'm losing track of all the free food because it is so constant. I left bread loaves, tiger loaves, baguettes, croissants, apples and limes downstairs for all my neighbours. I brought home mangoes, strawberries and a rump steak! I wasn't sure it would work without a frypan but I broiled it and it was absolutely amazing. I haven't had steak in years and it was such a lovely treat.

Almost by accident I have finally managed to get J a mini fridge. It's almost new and was really cheap, the lady selling it had coronavirus two weeks ago, so I collected from the kerb. She cleaned it with anti-bac and J is cleaning it again with bleach spray (I had sanitiser gel up to my armpits before and after loading it into the car!). He's over the moon at being able to store the milk for his coffee and to eat food that hasn't come out of tins or been bought the same day.

Nothing else of note except that I work non-stop and look out on a flat, empty sea every day, wishing I could be out there in the glorious weather, paddleboarding.

Good Mood. Corona #15

Lovely sunny day, good music on the radio, and looking forward to having dinner with J, of cold chicken, coleslaw and salad. I went in for my last shift today and with half an hour to go, my manager T said "See you tomorrow" - I said, "Will you?" and she winked. Big boss has extended my contract by three more months, so I am over the moon 😊

The "deniers" are out in force at work now. Also the liars (yes I put hand gel on when I came in, yes I read the screen which said 'card only' before I hammered the button to continue). Duh.

My new board game, Hive, is brilliant and another firm favourite to play against J. He will no doubt become much better at it than I will as he had the tactics in play almost immediately.

It's almost Stocktake Time at work and we've begun a deep reorganisation of the entire shop, unearthing about 50 packets of crisps which are all past their "best before" date. J asked to take them home and was told yes - we now each have a stash, and he really made me proud when he chimed "free meal deals!" as he bagged them all up. He had realised that he could fake those £3 meal deals for 30p when he goes to work, by having a free coffee, making toast, and just buying crisps or chocolate in a multipack. And now his lunches will be free for the next month.

Free crisps and bagels: £9.80
Yellow stickers, multi deals, discounts: £7.66

Coronavirus #14: The Big Blah

Feeling pretty blah. I was fairly confident that work would keep me, so I kept asking about that contract... but wish granted, they gave me a new one and it's only for a whopping 6 extra days, meaning it looks like I'll be unemployed in a weeks' time. I knew my job was temporary when I started but I must admit I am pretty down about the fact that the five emergency newbie staff have all had theirs extended for another two months 😢

So, blechhhhh. I don't even have a day to mope about it since I've worked the past eleven thousand days in a row and won't have a day off until the contract is out. This would be my own fault, but I can hardly not take every extra shift available when I half expect to be out of work so soon.

Sigh.

The deliveries are out-of-whack right now with tons of winter soup veg arriving alongside disposable barbecues and grilling kits. The torrent of unsold vegetables is insane. So much of it was given away to staff that I brought a stack home, bagged it all up in small portions and left it in my parlour downstairs with a note for people to help themselves. Most of it was taken within a few hours. It feels nice to save it from going in the bin.

Free food £28.38, not including today's haul.

Self-Solving Problems - Corona #13

MMM said once that if left alone, problems will eventually solve themselves. I've been thinking about that lately and some of them really are horrible self-solving solutions. Like the lack of care places in nursing homes, for frail and elderly people, which will become less of an issue as undertakers work around the clock 😥

Fashion retailers are being hit hard. Debenhams is finally looking at the last nail in the coffin. It was hanging on by a thread when the virus hit, and now its sales will no longer keep it from bankruptcy. Tons of other fashion retailers are biting the dust too, and garment factories are in dire straits with orders being cancelled. People started off shopping online but are quickly running out of money and deciding there is no need to look good when you're not leaving the house.

This is good news, overall, for fast fashion and waste, but having it happen so abruptly is devastating for businesses.

I am hoping, selfishly, that property has been on a bubble which will shortly burst, as it would let me get back into the market. I have the funds ready to go but can't yet do anything about it as there's nothing much for sale. I think about the people who have been close to buying, but have now found themselves with no income and are eating through their carefully-saved deposit money. For me to be fortunate requires others to lose out.

I am hoping that the pressure the NHS is under means that it gets an increase in funding once we get through all this. I hope that politicians remember the fear and worry for their loved ones, and give our medical care the support it needs.

I hope that benefit money will be raised now that more people are discovering how inadequate it really is.

So many hopes.

The Big Shop, Corona #12

So I went out to the Big Shop yesterday after work to take advantage of my discount. And, whoa. People were queued out the door and around the corner and I waited a good 20 minutes even to get in. It was all quite orderly and people kept their distance and I decided people aren't so stupid after all.

Unfortunately I then got inside.

Big blue arrows on the floor are too difficult a concept and people wandered around like idiots in any direction they pleased, into each others' personal space and wherever they fancied. I felt like my little trolley was a shield, as over and over again I had to reposition it to force myself some space from some fool.

And what did I buy? Well I did get the things on my list and I also got a lot that wasn't. But the total went from £40 down to £34 which was really gratifying to see at the till.

I've told myself that this is all I need for the month and I shouldn't need to spend apart from milk. Fruit, veg and bread comes up free at work, my cupboard has plenty of tins and packets, I have a huge pack of loo roll, and my freezer is absolutely chockers with meat and butter. The car is full of fuel.

I don't need to spend. Touch wood.

I'm working for all three public holidays this weekend (penalty rates! £££) and with a spectacular weather forecast we expect the idiots to be out in force and flouting the lockdown...

Coronavirus #11, Fatigue

It is mental fatigue too, and despite a good 12-hour sleep, my patience with idiots wears thin. It's hard not to be on edge at work now as our daily deaths are at the 1,000-mark and people still struggle with the concept of waiting their turn and keeping their distance. I think some of them need to take a bit of a tour through an aircraft hangar filled with coffins.

I need to set aside time to meditate and to recharge my brain.

I've ordered another game from eBay, this one is called Hive and has pretty good reviews. I paid for it with Nectar points since they were lying around unused and might as well be spent. I should also get some points back for it and some cashback.

They're teaching me new things at work, like the setups for systems, the opening and close down procedures, and how to handle price reductions and waste food. It's good to have new responsibilities. I'm still #1 Door Bitch too. Tall Coworker has been promoted to shift leader and is doing an amazing job so there are plenty of things to take on and help out with now that he's busy with new responsibilities.

Assistant boss lady #2 was wondering aloud this morning how on earth she'll ever cover the rota when the newbie contracts all end in ten days' time, so I mentioned the end of mine next week. I'm not one of the true newbies, I was employed as a temporary staffer to cover someone on sick leave unrelated to Coronavirus - but they're immune-compromised so they can't return to work anyway. I've mentioned my contract end date over and over around both bosses but somehow the immininence of it hadn't sunk in until today. I thought she would have kittens. After a while she laughed and said, do you really think we're going to let you go? And I said, well, I don't know if I'll even pass my probation... which was met with another laugh, so I think I'm safe. There is no way they're going to let me go, but I fully expect that fixing a new contract will be a complete pain in the arse. Watch this space.

My loan repayments are deferred by three months, which wasn't strictly necessary but will help with saving a bit more in case I have a chance to pounce on anything. I'm still waiting for the mega-bargain flat to come up for sale...

What To Buy?

So I told myself that when I got my staff card I would make a trip out to the Big Shop to take advantage of the extra discount in the first week of the month. Only I don't actually know what to buy. Thanks to an unbelievable haul today I have no fridge or freezer room (£33.00 worth plus a HUGE bunch of cheerful flowers which is now in two vases). As expected, customers have run out of money & space and abruptly stopped spending, and the amount of waste at work is just criminal 😢

It all means I don't quite know what to get in order to take advantage of the discount. I'll have to remind myself that I do not NEED to spend at all. So I suppose we will just get what J needs and that will be enough.

And maybe also some jam.

March Challenge: Too Tired, Too Lazy

Like the title says, I lost a lot of my enthusiasm this month due to that horrible virus going around and all the extra hours of work I've been doing. I can only make my best guess on the free food and yellow stickers and say that it's probably been around £130.00.
Testable Minds £16.92
Prolific Academic £27.87
HuYu £5.00
Shoppix £5.00
Swagbucks £3.00

Total is £187.79 which is well over target - in fact it's over £5 a day. There are some programmes that are still pending too, so it would have been higher.

While it's been sort of interesting to see if I could achieve it, I'm not sure it is affecting my spending habits anymore, so I won't be continuing with the monthly challenges from here - just the yearly one. I also now have my work discount card which adds even more of a discount - not bad :)

Corona #10, it goes on

I no longer check the weather forecast because it is completely irrelevant. I won't be going anywhere except work anyway.

A customer had a go at me today, twice, and I lost my cool a bit and told him that it won't help being rude to me. I'm not pleased with myself and wish I'd been more patient. People are scared and it's making them snappy and it's making them do stupid things.

Our plastic screen is in place and while it's a good thing, it also makes life difficult as people can't hear well through it and can't easily stack their baskets, pack their groceries or collect their bags through the hatch.

35,000 people have now died.

My co-worker R is self-isolating for at least a week, leaving us scrambling to rearrange staff hours for cover. I start at 6am tomorrow and since J & I were both originally supposed to begin at 8, I'll collect him on the way - he can sit in the kitchen and eat cereal and my bet is that they just tell him to log in and work.

On the plus side there's plenty of work for us. And I did get a free ham & cheese sandwich today, some yoghurt, a chocolate sundae, jam on toast for breakfast and a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes for my lunch (£2.20).

I'm making chicken burgers for dinner with potato toaster waffles.

I Am Tired. Coronavirus #9

It doesn't make for a very interesting post, but this is where we are.

Today was my 11th day working in a row and I have three more to go before I get a day off (one day off only).

At this point I remind myself that I am very grateful to have work at the supermarket. They are also paying me a bonus pay rate which was unexpected. The hotel will be officially furloughing me which is very much appreciated as I'll get a part payment while they are closed.

Today a customer kept trying to stand too close to others, who eventually shouted at him to get back after he ignored them twice. He then complained that I was "standing around chatting to customers" and that four staff inside were "messing about with boxes" and why didn't we open another queue since everyone had to wait? Unfortunately this idiot didn't seem to have any understanding of why he had waited in a queue outside, why people were keeping 2m apart, why I was dressed in hi-vis and marshalling the queue to enforce spacing and control how many people entered the store, and nor did he have any concept that the staff were unloading a delivery onto shelves as fast as they could so he could actually buy something, nor did he realise we couldn't open the extra till as it was too close to the tills beside it.

He got a polite mouthful off me which resulted in applause from people patiently waiting in the queue. As he stormed off I thanked him for coming.

There's always one...

I have ordered UNO from eBay for son and I to play and to stave off boredom for another hour. (£2.60)

They're supplying us with breakfast cereal and bread for toast, and drinks, and we are all making each other endless cups of coffee. As they say, we are all in this together, and every little helps ♥

Corona #8, Queue Time

"X" marks the spot. We now limit customer numbers in the shop at any one time. They park themselves on crosses outside and mostly are content to chat as they wait. It helps that it wasn't raining today. We also need to police their distancing inside the shop, as despite all the signs and all the squares marked out on the floor, they still wander into each others' very close personal space.

Idiot #1: I must confess I got really annoyed at a whole family of five today, the little girl was COUGHING and for some unfathomable reason the idiot parents brought her into the store. I lost patience and asked them all to step back away from me - the mother says, "Oh, she's only five and doesn't understand." I said, "Yes, but she's coughing and I need you all to step back. It would be better not to bring her in here, one parent really should stay outside with the children - just to keep everyone safe." She was nice about it and agreed, but I was fuming. What an irresponsible thing to do. If it had been me on the door I would have told them the kids couldn't come in, but it was too late by the time they got to the tills...

Idiot #2: On my remarking about the lovely sunshine, one customer said we should all be out enjoying the sunshine. I say, no actually, everyone should be staying home. And he says, "Why?"

As the manager said, there's always one. Our area apparently has several.

My hands are red raw from the hand washing. My feet are killing me. I've lost count of the hours I have worked.

Nothing going free again today, and I haven't done raffle entries in well over a week.

Small Things. Coronavirus #7

Some changes are big, some are small. I can't wear my mala beads anymore because of the gloves I now need for work - the bracelet has fallen off twice and I worry that next time I won't find it again.

Customers are now standing behind the floor lines of their own volition. It's only taken them three days to learn. Asking them to step back has taught them that this disease is serious.  It has all moved them up a level in their internal "taking things more seriously" meters. We now have a "cleaning station" for their shopping baskets and their hands. Almost nobody is using it. But that will change in a day or so, I am sure.

We are getting perspex screens around the tills at work any moment now. This move is so in-your-face that I expect it to prompt people to ratchet up another level, ie, they'll start wearing masks and wiping their basket handles down with anti-bac.

Major supermarkets have reduced their opening hours. We expect ours to follow suit shortly.

Son and four other new staff started today, I spent the whole day training them on the tills. Trying to listen to three tills at once, my brain is now leaking out the side of my head. I'm mentally shattered. Still, it is nice to be useful.

More and more it is sinking in that we are key workers. The bakery has closed, the takeaways are all on the brink. But people need supermarkets. We need to keep our work ID with us in case we're stopped by the police - who are now cruising the main street and dispersing anyone out without a valid reason.

The footpaths are basically empty save for an occasional dog walker. The lack of people outdoors is eerie.

I think that fines and a tougher lockdown are coming this week. And possibly no more cash transactions.

Stop Press: we now require every person to use the sanitiser gel on their hands as they enter. Very few of them even hesitate. I have been referred to as "the hand gel police", and by one amused customer as "a bully that he wouldn't dare argue with" 😅

Surrealism, or Coronavirus #6

It is becoming more eerie. Whereas last week, a fair few customers argued that it's just a virus, or made fun of people in gloves, or behaved as if they didn't care, we now have almost 100% compliance in the supermarket. Not a single argument over the restrictions, not a single complaint about missing items. We now ask people to place their groceries on the counter and then step backwards from us, behind the line on the floor. I had at first thought that people would find it very rude - so at first I was apologising - but to my surprise, it's making people see that this is serious. And to my absolute astonishment it is EMPOWERING people. They now have something concrete that they can do, something constructive, where before they had been on tenterhooks of anticipation, tense with expectation but feeling utterly powerless. So now, they feel like they are "doing their bit", just by looking at a bit of tape on the floor and moving their feet to the other side of it.

The manager of my hotel job called me from her personal mobile tonight, they've been ordered to close completely, effective immediately. I am absolutely gutted for her and gutted for the ladies I worked with. Their hearts and souls are in that place and now they are also unsure about paying bills. I feel fortunate and also guilty that I will still have work elsewhere, for at least a few weeks.

Speaking of which, son has gotten a temporary job at the supermarket, which is good news. It is a day of mixed emotions.

We have also been ordered this evening to stop socialising outside our homes for any reason. But son and I each live alone. For the moment we agreed that we'll still eat dinner together every few nights. We already work in the same place so I can't see that it adds anything to each others' exposure.

Good: New board game arrived, Santorini, which is so great that we played four games in a row today, straight after unpacking it. I am going to write a review. Well worth the £16 purchase price.

Meh: Since shelves still get stripped bare, almost nothing actually goes out of date at work, meaning there's almost no free food on offer. I did manage to get some packaged apple slices, some lettuce and a few smoothees (which go in the weird soda water).

Corona #5, Life Twists

Humans are an adaptable species but you wouldn't know it. You would think that someone had ripped up the rule book, with the way people are acting. Item restrictions are now in place on every product line, to stop individual lunatics emptying the shelves on their own. Today's "comment of the day" was a woman who moaned that she has a family of five so what's she supposed to do if she can't buy five items all the same to give everyone the same dinner? The best reply was basically, shut it love, we're in a global crisis right now. I mean, this is where we are at, a parent seriously thinks that it's more important that she buys five matching instant meals than to bloody well explain to her kids that the supermarket has a limit and that one of them might need to eat instant lasagne instead of instant spag bol.

Hotel job has switched to cleaning everything with bleach. I spend most of my time trying not to get it all over myself and not breathe it in. Amazingly, people are still holidaying. I don't know whether to be glad or horrified.

Pubs, clubs and restaurants have now been ordered to close, and not before time. The number of businesses (and patrons) who insisted on partying on as normal was just disgusting. I get that venues have bills to pay but apparently that matters more than the escalating deaths. And the patrons have no excuse, Auntie Jo will survive without her birthday meal for 20 people which you tried to rebook during the week after your original restaurant closed. And you'll just have to cope without going dancing every Friday night or buying your weekend latte. Get a takeaway or better yet just stay the hell home.

It's getting real, hospitals are now turning Coronavirus sufferers away, and still there are people who are refusing to get the memo. Maybe they'll take it seriously when they see the army deployed to control the supermarket queues (watch this space). Or maybe once people they know have lost a loved one.

I bought more staples today because son has struggled to buy any decent food and is sick of meal deals and tins with rice. I ended up buying more tins and rice... and hated myself for it. But at least we did share a "proper" cooked meal of mince on a nuked spud with an expired taco spice sachet plus cheese and sour cream. Also chocolate eclairs. And also a can of that weird soda water that was free.

Also I bought two lots of pasta sauce that worked out as 5p each after cashback, so that's something.

Mood: too much food in my house now.

Stepping Up A Gear - Coronavirus #4

Board gaming group is cancelled. Most of the group seems fairly young, but I've no idea whether some of them live with elderly or vulnerable people, and they all seemed reluctant to take the risk. Board gaming has a lot of handling of things. It makes me think about the fact that I am handling other peoples' money and groceries all day at work...

Other groups are setting up online gaming sessions with video sharing of the game board, and I am hoping someone will volunteer to do this. I'd do it myself if I had a proper table to do it and more than one game. The game I do have unfortunately relies on cards staying secret to the players, so it won't work for streaming anyway.

Son and I will get together and play our card game. I think I'll order a few more two-player games for us to play, since I can't see the group reconnecting in the near future.

Work is eerie. They've now closed the schools. It's all escalating faster than I expected. We sell out of the most random items now, for example I just do not understand how or why people are bulk-buying eggs, a perishable product that can't be frozen in any practical way. Or fresh fruit. It's quite silly, we still get deliveries, and the supermarkets will still be open next week...

By the time this publishes I am sure that some new strange thing will have happened.