Or rather, he doesn’t. Usually Henry follows me around like a dog, sucking up all the Ship’s Dog hair and generally keeping the Ship tidy and clean. Lately he’s been listless, gets overheated quickly, and basically, isn’t doing his job properly. This has been going on since I vacuumed the Deckhand’s room and I suspected a blockage. I dismantled the pipes, could see through them, so no blockage. The hose seemed okay if a little less power and I was starting to wonder if Henry needed to walk the plank if the motor was failing. I’ve had Henry for a few years now, he’s worked hard, and he wasn’t from new. The scurvy dog that is my ex gave him to me before he left for Oz. After our son, Henry is the best thing he ever gave me. Sad, or what? LMAO. Looking online I could see that to replace like for like would cost me over £200, or I could pay half that amount for a Henry with half the power. Another option was to buy a new pipe and hope it wasn’t money wasted. I then had a brainwave! I uncoiled a curtain wire that’s been languishing in my bedroom and poked it into Henry’s pipe. Brings tears to the eyes! After a short distance, the wire came across a blockage. I managed to loosen the blocked material which turned out to be the usual fluff, dust, and a piece of plastic from something the Deckhand owns. A quick clean up, and Henry is as good as new again and saved from the plank and a watery grave. My Grandad would have been proud! He was a man fully versed in the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – and was well before his time as far as recycling was concerned. Anyway, money saved, and Henry is back to his old self.

We’ve had some ‘interesting’ calls lately, supposedly from our provider informing us that someone locally is using our IP address. These are recorded messages with an option to Press 1 to talk to the provider. Suspecting this to be a spam call that could potentially cost me money, I hung up immediately. A call Tuesday informed us that due to a person in the area using our IP address for spurious purposes, we would be cut off on Wednesday and to Press 1 to talk to them. I again hung up, and then dialled our provider with the information. They’ve confirmed this is a spam call and that if there were a genuine issue, they would talk to us, not use an automated service. They’ve now blocked this caller but have stated as soon as they block them, another number is set up. I now have Caller ID (free) and can screen my calls. This piece is by way of letting others in the UK know that this is going on. If you did Press 1, like as not you would then incur a large phone bill, so be warned.

I had another call, this time from the hospital ophthalmic clinic about my ‘complaint.’ I stated it wasn’t a complaint as such, merely requesting an explanation re being given an earlier appointment only for it to be cancelled 3 days later and now I’m even further back in the queue. She was very polite, and apologetic, and stated a doctor had left at short notice and the lists had to be reorganised. She further said that someone would phone me in the next few days to bring my appointment forward again. Whilst that would be nice, frankly, I won’t hold my breath.

I had the most bizarre dream the other night: I dreamt that something had happened to the waters around Wales and it wasn’t safe. In order to keep the people of Wales safe, they were going to use lasers in outer space to cut through the bedrock all around Wales and separate it. They would then transport the whole landmass of Wales to the top part of Canada which isn’t so heavily populated. People in Wales had the option to be transported too, or to move into England. The Deckhand and I were seriously considering moving back to Wales just so we could be transported to Canada for free. I haven’t been dreaming much, since starting the meds, and I assume this is because I’m sleeping more deeply, though this dream stuck in my mind. I surmise that I’ve been watching too much Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis – both Sci-Fi, the latter of which, as part of the plot, they’re able to move and relocate a whole city that floats on water. Now if I could only dream of, respectively, Richard Dean Anderson or Joe Flanigan (main characters) I’d be a happy bunny ;)

Enjoy the rest of your week.