Not The Pod Files

 

Tuesday September 20th, 2022 -

Home at 8:10am. Asleep soon after until, erm, 1pm. Hopefully that will keep me sufficiently alert for today as opposed to my nodding off constantly. 

Holy moly, my finger is killing after trapping it in a gate last night at work! 

Checked out on MLB how the Mets, Orioles, and Yankees had done in their most recent games. I’m so far behind on this year’s baseball games. 

Wednesday September 21st,  2022 - 

I forgot what we did during the Wednesday. It’s a week later, and I have no idea what we did in detail… Let’s see…

Shopping in town for Louise’s bits and bobs, food shop at Aldi where the homeless guy was there again. 

Thursday September 22nd, 2022 - 

She Hulk episode six was fun, but where is it leading? Is it actually going anywhere? Fight at a wedding in the episode, and other stuff. Some nefarious people not shown now have a vial of She Hulk blood. 

Left my car at the garage in Newark for the MOT, as well as to replace the BCM, and I already ordered a tyre through them online to coincide with the MOT, as I knew it needed changing. 

Work and car stuff -

I got in from work at about 9am on the Friday, thanks to work letting me use a spare van to get home with, as well as go back to work with. 

I got to sleep around 10am, and got up at 2pm.

A little after 3pm I answered a phone call from the garage.  The car had failed the MOT due to electrical issues (caused by the original BCM) and the tyre.  These things should be covered by what I had put in place.

However, the replacement BCM wouldn’t work with the car’s immobiliser, so even though it stopped the electrical problems, the car can’t be started. They would see what they can do.

On Monday I missed a call from the garage at 10am (I was in bed after getting in late from work at 8am), so rang them after I woke up at 3pm.

The replacement BCM hadn’t been decoded, so couldn’t be used with my car. An alternative needed to be looked into.

Paul at the garage said there were three options - another replacement from someone he knows at around £40, but that would take around 4 weeks to ship from Europe. Re-soldering a dry connection on the existing original BCM could fail or work, because it’s a tricky space to work in. The third option is a brand new one from Renault at £240, which would also take around a month to come from the continent, and they had none available at present.

As the customer I said “how about we try repairing the existing BCM, and if that doesn’t work then order the used replacement that is decoded?”

That is what’s happening.  It’s now Wednesday and I don’t know what’s happening. I do however have a work van, which is lucky.  

I couldn’t go to work without transport, because I can’t possibly do over two hours each way on a two buses for a thirteen hour driving job. That would be more than 17 hours per day out. 

Work wise it was a busy weekend with alarm calls, stuff going on at sites to report, and boy did it drag for the most part. 

Some things from the  time that
this post covers.

Tuesday September 27 2022 -

Luckily Wayne at the office let me take the spare van home with me, after I paid £45 for fuel from my own pocket, as I should - it was what four days of driving home and back had cost, so that’s what I put in. 

I got in from work at ten past nine in the morning. Got into bed for about half past nine, which was pointless, as Louise just wanted to talk.

I got fed up and got out of bed at around 11:15 after probably half an hour to three quarters of an hour of sleep.

We finished watching one episode of Gogglebox that we had started the previous week, and watched the entirety of the following episode. 

After that I put a bag of washing together to take to the laundrette. I’ll take two bags next week to hopefully catch up, because there is so much that needs doing. 

Eventually we’ll be able to afford a new washing machine, so we don’t have to keep using a laundrette. 

I fell asleep early, meaning that we watched nothing in the evening.  Louise kept nudging me.  To be brutally honest, I had been awake since the previous afternoon, other than the sad excuse for 30 to 45 minutes of sleep in the morning, so she should just accept that I’m going to nod off. I hate that this happens, because it means that we don’t spend much time together on days off or when I’m at work all of the time as well. 

International Podcast Day group chat 

Wednesday September 28 2022 - 

The alarm clock went off at 7:30am. What seemed like seconds later to my mind, Louise said “it’s ten to eight.” 

I got up, had a bowl of cereal and made us both drinks - Louise a cup to Assam tea, and me a mug of very strong coffee. It didn’t work - I’m still tired as hell at 9:54am. 

Now we’re disagreeing about the garden - I want to clear the garden in February of 2023, and level the ground out as it has more bumps in it than the A1 road. After that I want to have a strip either side for planting, stepping stones from front to back down the middle, and the rest reseeded with grass seed. That’s a discussion going on as I’m writing this bit in real time - Louise is getting ready in the bathroom, and I’m lying on the bed typing this into my phone when I should be writing notes for a group show recording that’s happening late tonight. 

I dropped Louise off at her mum and dad’s for 12:20, and then carried on to Newark to get some bits from storage, and first to find out how the car is getting on - I found out nothing. No mechanics were around to talk with me. 

I finished with the storage unit for half past one. 

I then went into Newark to get snackage and a haircut at last! They also trimmed my beard while I was there and tidied it up. 

I got back to Louise’s mum and dads at 2:50. The cake that Louise had made for her dad’s birthday was so delicious - a coffee cake without walnuts. We would have walnuts on them ourselves, but not for Louise’s mum or dad. 

On the way home we did our weekly shop. Quite a bit more than I would have liked, but everything is going up in cost al of the time. We got some great stuff though, and I love that a lot of the time we eat food that is made properly as opposed to ping ping microwave meals. 

We got home from all of this for 7:30pm.

We watched the great film Marathon Man while eating dinner, watching on the portable DVD player.

At 11pm a group chat episode was supposed to start, with the subject being mainly International Podcast Day on September 30th.  Typically my broadband was giving me trouble connecting, so didn’t connect until around twenty past.

First off I was joined by Ken from The Comfortable Spot, and Kim from Twisted Teachers. Around half an hour later Dave Lee, one of the organisers of the celebration, joined us, and a great show was recorded.

After the show ended, Ken asked Dave about the event and got a fabulous answer, so I was incredibly happy that Zoom was still recording, so that I could edit it into the main show itself - a reason why I have set it up that way on my Zoom settings.

The bedroom light went out for 4am. I think that I had already nodded off at around 3am. Actually, that’s when I got up to brush my teeth and then get settled. Louise was already asleep when I got back from recording the show in the back room/office/studio. 

“Is it safe?”

Thursday September 29 2022 -

Awake at 9am.

She Hulk episode 7. 

Recorded a reading for the podcast The Short Shorts, which they have been waiting for since April! 

Finished the episode of Gogglebox, and we are now up to date. 

Pieced together last night’s group chat for release on Friday (tomorrow). 

I helped Louise with getting the house straight, by doing some vacuuming, and actually tidied the office studio earlier in the day to make room for more bits and pieces.

Started watching an episode of Best In Dough on Disney+. 

Once more I didn’t get a nap in the afternoon, because we had to prepare for a last minute message to tell us that a gas engineer is coming on Friday to service the boiler.  The trials of renting.