Wednesday 22 January 2020 23:30
It’s been a rather full on day, and my brain is buzzing as it is all the time at the moment.
Early this morning, sitting up in bed with my tea and porridge, I found myself thinking more about the ethics – for me – of joining the monetised YouTube creators, and this led on to all sorts of other thoughts, not all of them good, about the relentless march of technology and the desire for profit.
Checking for any relevant news online – there’s a lot of interesting stuff at the moment about mental health in the workplace – I got sidetracked a little into reports about the cost of time taken off sick, or not taken off but spent working less productively, especially by younger adults. This led to articles about older people having to work longer, and even the probability of the complete demise of the state pension system in not too many years’ time! It was all interesting, and all relevant, and all food for thought.
One item led me to revisit information about the growing movement over here for “Men’s Sheds”, and this led me to finding out about a space in a nearby town where there might very well be a chance of setting up some publicly accessible creative space. It’s in a garden run by a charity and they even have a wooden building that they referred to as their Big Shed! I shall take that as a sign and get in touch with them to float my idea.
Late afternoon I opened an envelope the postman had pushed through my letterbox, and reeled in shock. In it was a letter from my electricity provider, with headings in large bright red type, informing me that they were “preparing debt recovery action”, were about to “obtain a Right of Entry Warrant” and “Start legal proceedings against [me] in the County Court or Sheriff Court as appropriate”! This because I had apparently not paid an energy bill dated a month ago; an energy bill that I knew nothing about.
Almost an hour was wasted on the phone trying to get the energy company to admit their mistake and elicit an apology – at the end of which, although they did admit to a whole list of errors, they didn’t even see fit to offer a token M&S voucher as recompense for threatening me with the debtors prison and scaring the bejeebers out of me! Grrr.
So not a lot of progress with plans today, although before the little debacle with the energy company, quite a bit of food for thought. And talking of food, to save the day, I had some of Michael Nobbs’ “Magic Bowtie Soup” to make for supper. It’s perfect austerity food, cheap to make, full of good things, sustaining and delicious, and will now see me through to the end of the week.
The sort of food that leaves you replete and murmuring, “Come what may, life is good.”. 🙂 (Click on the link below for my version of Michael’s recipe.)
Michael’s Magic Bowtie Soup (slightly tweaked)