Misfits Mid-Life Crisis Adventures in East London and Essex.

Week 398, Saturday 29^th January until Friday 5^th February 2022..

First off this week, a Chewie the Hamster Update.  

If you haven’t read the last couple of weeks ramble Chewie the adopted Hamster was not well with an abscess on/in his left cheek.  Pleased to say the vet has discharged him and commented what a great patient he was.  The twice a day meds ended this week, our little boy is back to normal.

And Now This……

This week I tried to book a Doctors Appointment and was told there is nothing until Feb 28th.  The receptionists said to either go to A&E or call the NHS non-emergency contact number 111.  I certainly will not go and clog up A&E sitting in the waiting room for 4 to 5 hrs before being seen about a non-serious matter.  The NHS 111 service is a call centre run by non-medically trained operators who use screen prompts to assist them, though I believe they have access to medical professionals if needed.  It’s not an option I want to use, I am not saying it’s not good, the people do excellent work but they are not General Practitioners.

I just want an appointment with a local Dr my practice is still only doing phone appt as a rule, only inviting people into the surgery if they have to.  The local NHS service was critically Ill before Covid, it couldn’t cope due to underfunding.  But Covid really has brought the whole service to its knees even a defibrillator wouldn’t help.  I live in East London not in the middle of nowhere the service should be given the last rights.

And Now For Something Completely Different……

For the last few months I have been doing what is described as a “Mystery Shopper” project with the organisation I have worked for over the last 4 years.  My manager gave me a long list of telephone numbers within the company all I do is ring them up randomly noting the time they took to answer and many others details.  If the call is answered all I need to say is “wrong number”, then moving on the next.  It’s so much less stressful than what I was doing, plus I get to watch stuff or listen to pods while working which also makes it very appealing.

I mentioned it was less stressful than what I had been doing, that changed a little this week when a couple of people started to ring me back.  My face would have looked horrified if you could have seen it as the phone rang, even I don’t know the number of the work phone I have used for 23 months.  Of course I didn’t answer it, I frozen sitting completely still as if that would help until the ringing to stop.  Since then as soon as I have made a call I ensure that the line is busy so no one can ring me.  The stress level went up another notch a couple of days ago when someone called me by my name, I panicked said sorry and ended the call very quickly.  When I started this in November I asked if my contact info will appear on the screen of the person or dept I am ringing, of course I was assured they wouldn’t know as this is an anonymous project.  Obviously my info is being seen, this has been mentioned but I suspect nothing can be done.

I am not sure how much longer this project will last, as long as they pay me I am happy to ring up and say “wrong number” all day.  It’s not a challenging position but after the last few years it is wat I needed.  Thinking about the project, my managers really should have sent something around the organisation to inform other departments about what we are doing and why.  The people I ring must get real wrong number calls every day, but if they knew of the project and keep hearing my voice they wouldn’t wonder what is happening.  Will I still be ringing people up and ending the call by the end of the month, time will tell.

And Finally……

Two friends were chatting when the smart speaker in the corner of the room piped up it could make fart noise, the friends had not been talk g about bodily functions.  One of my friends couldn’t resist and took the machine up on its request (it’s always listening).

I got very excited one morning this week, when I saw the blue eyed cat walking through the garden.  My friend stopped work, walked across the room to have a look.  The cat stopped looked at us and started to do a big dump in my friend’s garden.  Oops.

Last week this blog had a lot of views from Ireland.  I have never been there, but would love to.  Hello to anyone and everyone on the beautiful Island of Ireland.

My Mid Life Crisis Conts……

This week I have watched:

“A Tale Dark & Grimm”, (S1, ep 1 to 3).  “Alias”, (S1, ep 22).  “All Of Us Are Dead”, (S1, ep 1).  “Archive 81”, (S1, ep 3 & ep 4).  “BBC Archive: 1984: Think Of A Number”, (Facebook)(TX: 2/02/22).  “Babylon 5”, (S1, ep 16).  “Big Jet TV – A321 TOGO And Tail Strike! – Live At Heathrow Airport”, (Facebook/Big Jet TV)(TX: 31/01/22).  “Blake’s 7”, (SD, ep 3).  “Business Insider: Why Spacesuits Are So Expensive”, (Facebook)(TX: 20/04/20).  “Click”, (TX: 29/01/22).  “Dads Army”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 6)(S2, ep 1 & 2, ep 4, DVD extra, “We Are The Boys – Arnold Ridley)(S3, ep 1 to ep 14).  “Death In Paradise”, (S11, ep 5, TX: 04/02/22).  “Entertainment Insider: Mirror Shots”, (Facebook)(TX: 26/01/22).  “Into The Night”, (S2, ep 4 to ep 6).  “Lazy Susan”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 4).  “Lexx”, (S2, ep 17 & ep 18).  “Love Thy Neighbour”, (S8, ep 1 to ep 6).  “Love Thy Neighbour”, (Movie, 1973).  “Murderville”, (S1, ep 1).  “Physics Girl: Faster Than Light?”, (Facebook)(TX: 01/12/21).  “Primal Space: How Far Can Voyager 1 Go Before We Lose Contact?”, (Facebook)(TX: 20/11/21).  “Robinson Crusoe Suite (1964 TV Series Theme by Robert Mellin And Gian-Piero Reverberi)”, (YouTube)(TX: 09/10/12).  “Sisyphus: The Myth”, (S1, ep 1 & ep 2).  “Snowpiercier”, (S3, ep 2).  “Spies In Disguise”, (2019).  “Star Trek (Animated)”, (S1, ep 5).  “Star Trek Picard”, (S1, ep 6 to ep 10).  “Sue Perkins’ Big American Road Trip”, (S1, ep 1, TX: 16/01/22(ep 2, TX: 23/01/22).  “The Apprentice”, (S16, ep 5, TX: 03/02/22).  “The Apprentice You’re Fired”, (S16, ep 5, TX: 03/02/22).  “The Expanse”, (S6, ep 5 & ep 6).  “The Graham Norton Show”, (S29, ep 16, TX: 28/01/22)(ep 17, 04/02/22).  “The Last Leg”, (S24, ep 1, TX: 28/01/22)(ep2, TX: 04/02/22).  “The Mind Of Herbert Clunkerdunk”, (S2, ep 4 & ep 5).  “The Protector”, (S1, ep 2 & ep 3).  “The Secrets Of The Universe: Is This The End Of The Voyager Spacecraft?”, (Facebook)(TX: 31/10/21).  “The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In Window”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 2).  “Westworld”, (1973).  “Winterwatch 2022”, (ep 8, TX: 28/01/22).  “You”, (S2, 8 to ep 10)(S3, ep 1 to ep 4).  

“Doctor Who Watched This Week”……

“The Space Museum”, (S2, Prod Code Q).  Ep 1, “The Space Museum”, (TX: 24/04/6).  Ep 2, “The Dimensions Of Time”, (TX: 01/05/65).  Ep 3,“The Search”, (TX: 08/05/65).  Ep 4, “The Final Phase”, (TX: 15/05/65).

“The Chase”, (S2, Prod Code R).  Ep 1, “The Executioners”, (TX: 22/05/65).  Ep 2, “The Time Of Death”, (TX: 29/05/65).  Ep 3, “Flight Through Eternity”, (TX: 05/06/65).  Ep 4, “Journey Into Terror”, (TX:12/06/65).  

This week I have listening to:

“A Legitimate Salvage”, (The Incomparable)(ep 38, 29/12/20)(ep 39, 06/01/22)(ep 40, 14/01/22).  “Box Of Delights”, (S3, ep 14, 18/03/20).  “Clinton Baptiste’s All-New Paranormal Podcast”, (Trailer, 04/02/22).  “Coronavirus Global Update”, (BBC World Service/Sounds)(29/01/22)(30/01/22) (31/01/22) (01/02/22) (02/02/22) (03/02/22) (04/02/22).  “Doctor Who – Toby Hadoke’s Time Travels – Happy Times And Places”, (30.3, “The Seeds Of Death”, 31/01/22)(30.4, 04/02/22).  “Mystery Hour”, (LBC) (03/02/22). “NASA Gravity Assist”, (28/01/22).  “NASA Houston We Have A Podcast”, (ep 230, 04/02/22).  “Nick Abbot Whole Show”, (LBC) (29/01/22) (30/01/22) (04/02/22).  “Not Before Coffee! A Bookish Podcast”, (S2, ep 17, 17/06/21).  “Radio Astronomy (The Sky At Night Magazine)”, (25/03/21)(29/01/22).  “Rob Beckett And Josh Widdecombe Parenting Hell”, (S4, ep 4, 01/02/22).  “Screw It We’re Just Gonna Talk About The Beatles”, (ep 9, 09/03/17).  “Smersh Pod – Christsmersh Special 3: Jaws The Revenge”, (24/14/17).  “Smersh Pod – Side Special – Spiceworld The Movie”, (19/01/18).  “Space And Things”, (STP41, 10/06/21)(STP75, 03/02/22).  “Star Trek Universe”, (17/01/19).  “The All New Angelos And Barry Podcast”, (03/02/22).  “The Audio Guide To Babylon 5”, (The Incomparable)(ep 63, 02/10/16).  “The Friendship Onion”, (S1, ep 38, 01/02/22).  “The Nick Abbot Habit”, (31/01/22).  “The Old Doctor Who Show”, (ep 124, 02/02/22).  “The Writers Life”, (#27, 08/01/19)(#150, 11/06/21).  “Tom Swarbrick, (Midnight To 1am Segment)“, (LBC)(03/02/22).  “WTB”, (S4, ep 1 (ep 61), 04/02/22).  “What’s Your Problem With Nick Abbot And Carol Mcgiffin”, (ep 102, 31/01/22).  “Wolf And Owl”, (ep 58, 02/02/22).

Songs I Enjoyed This Week, Were By:

“Morrissey”,  “ABC”,  “Blink – 182”,  “David Gray”,  “Electronic”,  “Florence And The Machine”,  “KLF ft Tammy Wynette”,  “Kasabian”,  “Kiaser Chiefs”,  “Pet Shop Boys”, “REM”,  “Razorlight”,  “Reverend And The Makers”,  “SIA”,  “Simple Minds”, “Supergrass”,  “Tori Amos”,  “U2″,  “Zoe”.