|
1 April 2021
(Thursday) - Early Shift
Fudge was originally “My Boy TM”’s
dog, but he was already a year old when the first fruit of my loin took him on.
We don’t really know much about Fudge’s first year, and sometimes I wonder if
he was mistreated in that time. Sometimes he appeared to be pathologically
terrified for no reason at all. Take this morning for example - as I got up so Fudge came downstairs with me. We found Sid had crapped on the lino overnight. On seeing the turds,
Fudge’s demeanour changed entirely; his ears went back
and he crept outside looking incredibly frightened. Did he think he would get
the blame for Sid’s turds? I cleared the turds,
and over toast watched an episode of “Superstore” whilst Fudge and Sid
slept. Fudge wouldn’t come close for the crusts; he watched me from his
basket (whilst pretending to be asleep). I then sparked up the lap-top and did the
monthly clan admin for our Munzee team. Again I’ve been asked to be the clan leader (which is
something of a result), and with admin-ing
done. I had an email from the power company detailing my use of gas and
electricity over the last year. That was kind of them – that information will
be really useful for when I pack up with them and
move to Scottish Power once the ombudsman stops farting about. And with
nothing much happening on Facebook I got dressed, and
set off work-wards. As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the
radio were talking about heated conversations which had been taking place at the World Trade
Organisation. Many of the world's poorer nations feel that pharmaceutical
firms manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine should either make enough for
everyone in the world or voluntarily hand their technology to developing
countries. However pharmaceutical firms manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine
feel they aren't operating a charity. It is the old story. Is access to healthcare
a right (like it is here in the UK) or something you buy like any
other commodity (like it is in the US)? Personally
I'm of the opinion that free healthcare for all is a good thing, and
shouldn't only be for the rich. But I am reminded of the American (so-called)
Christians I met when I took scouts to America. They felt that the UK's NHS
and free healthcare for all was a "commie-pinko"
idea and they claimed they would rather sell their houses and live on the streets rather than be provided with free
healthcare. I popped into Sainsburys in Aylesford for
petrol and was amazed by the contrast between that filling station and
Sainsbury’s one in Ashford. At Aylesford the assistants behind the till
assist you and do their job. In the Ashford one the (so-called)
assistants instruct you on how to scan in your purchases and your nectar
card, point at the card reader with which you pay, and then nod at the
receipt dispenser so that you can tear off your own receipt. I prefer the
assisted service at Aylesford rather than the self-service at Ashford. I got to work - there was cake today, and
Easter eggs too. During a quiet moment I thought I might chivvy up the
pet insurance people. What with Easter coming up I could see there being yet
more delay. Eventually I got through to someone who said they'd received
nothing from me. When I told her that on Monday I
was told they had received the email she then changed her mind and said they
had received it. She wasn't happy when I asked which it was - had they got it
or not? She assured me she had the email and said it would be dealt with
within ten working days. She *really* wasn't happy when I said that
eighteen working days have already passed. I'm told I should phone back at the end of
next week if I've heard nothing in the meantime. An early start made for an early finish. I
did have plans to come home via B&Q for more bits for the garden, but
realistically I’ve got to stop spending money until such time as when (or
if) the vet insurance stumps up. I’ve got quite a bit of ronseal in the shed; I shall paint fence panels for a
bit. Instead of going to B&Q I took the dogs
round the co-op field where we didn’t meet anyone at all, and so had a rather
good walk. I ironed shirts, and then fell asleep in
front of the telly… |
||
|
2 April 2021 - Crap
Friday
Having finally got a good night’s sleep it
was a shame that er indoors TM”’s totally unnecessary alarm
woke me quite so early. And then work decided to send me an automated text to
remind me to do a COVID test. I gave up trying to sleep, got up, cleared
Sid’s turds and over brekkie had a look at the
Internet. I had quite a few emails today. Some people
have had problems finding geocaches that I have hidden. Usually
the caches are there all along. I wish people would just replace them when
they realise the things are missing; it saves me a lot of arse-ache giving up
a morning to sort out what they could have sorted in seconds. But one chap’s
“did not find” log made me roll my eyes. When I go hunting for Tupperware I use the lap-top to stick all of the geocaches
in a given area onto my GPS unit. But before I do that, the lap-top clears out all the old geocaches that were on the
GPS unit. That is rather crucial, but not everyone does that… This morning I
got a “did not find” log which read “Clear hint but couldn't see it
despite long search. It certainly doesn't seem to be where the last photo
shows it. Will watch and see if just me.” I know for a fact that the
cache in question isn’t there. I archived it last July. Ironically
I’ve met several experienced hunters of Tupperware who don’t clear out their
GPS units and so regularly waste time looking for things that haven’t been
there for months (if not years). Two friends had birthdays today. One was
quite a bit older than I thought he was; one quite a
bit younger. I sent them both the obligatory birthday video. As I waited for er indoors TM”
to scoff her brekkie I went into the garden and got busy painting fence
panels. I got two done, then we took the dogs to the co-op field for a quick
run, and then came home again. Walking the dogs is much easier when I have
help, and our walk passed off without episode (for which I was grateful). I then quickly repaired four broken panels on
not-so-nice-next-door's fence (which I shall paint at some point),
then set off to work. As I drove there was an alternative comedian
on the radio. Not so much an "alternative comedian" as
"an alternative to a comedian"; the chap simply wasn't
funny. I turned the radio off and sang along to the album "Plagiarism"
by Sparks. I popped in to get a sandwich from Sainsburys
(less than half the price of Marks and Spencer for something far better).
When I came back to my car, it told me to top up the oil, so I sent a message
to er indoors TM” to get some. Hoping that the oil
would wait until I got home, I was soon at work and ensconced in a rather
busy late shift. Back in the day Good Friday would be an epic booze-up at the
Chambers bar beer festival. And in the years before that, Good Friday was
always the day on which I actually started working
in the garden each year. But today I found myself non-stop at work. Interestingly when I got into my car to come
home, the car told me the oil level was OK. I wonder if it is… |
||
|
3 April 2021
(Saturday) - Bit Dull
Sid was barking at six o’clock
so I came downstairs and let him out. Fudge went out too,
and started barking once he was outside. Once I’d got him quiet I went back to bed, and came downstairs two hours
later to find Sid had crapped. I had my morning’s rummage round Facebook. It
was much the same as ever. There was the potential for a squabble kicking off
on one of the groups I follow based around Hastings. Should people feed
squirrels? One chap was banging on about how grey squirrels are a non-native
invasive species and were vermin. Others were also getting rather excited on
the matter, as people do. How do people get so worked up over trivia which (in
all likelihood) they have never even considered until two minutes
before getting so worked up about it? Dog breakfast was hard work today. Fudge
refused three decent brekkies before finally settling for two Rich Tea
biscuits. We settled the dogs and drove down to
Hastings to see Dad. Was this allowed in the new-look lockdown rules? There
are those who told me it was, those who told me it wasn’t, and those who told
me it was a grey area. I’ve seen Dad quite a bit over the most recent
lockdown what with mum’s illness, and what with mum’s recent passing I wanted
to be sure he was OK. He was (mostly). He’s got new neighbours who’ve told him that
their house used to be a stable belonging to a local stagecoach company which
was used before Hastings had “proper” buses. I found one
reference to this on-line – I had no idea, and I lived next door to that
ex-stable for six years. We came home; I would have liked to have
spent time in our garden today, but it was rather cold. I gathered turds, had a quick look about, and came back inside. The
cordyline I potted last weekend is looking decidedly iffy; the leaves are
snapping off. I had a look for advice on the Internet, and there were as many
opinions as there were people to give them. I shall water it (with a bit
of Baby Bio) from time to time and hope for the best. Once Geocaching dot com started working (it
had crashed – again) I programmed “Hannah” for tomorrow. I thought
about updating the firmware, but some time ago there was talk of Garmin’s
firmware updater having been hacked and there were issues about we shouldn’t
update the firmware on our GPS units for fear of the Russians and the Chinese
getting access all our data (or something). I wonder if this is still
the case? Is updating the Garmin firmware still a
no-no? I shall let someone else find out for me. I then wasted far too long on a geo-puzzle. “E” is the Red
Sea, and if any of my loyal readers have a set of outline maps of the world,
please feel free to share. I wonder what’s for dinner… |
||
|
4 April 2021 (Sunday)
- Sutton Valance to Kingswood (and back)
Fudge had something of a restless night, and
consequently so did we all. Treacle was a funny thing though. When she is restless she stomps about all night long. When she is not
restless, she growls and grumbles at anyone who dares make a sound. I made toast (by running it through the
toaster twice) then peered into the Internet. It was much the same as
ever. I had hoped to see lots of children preparing to make themselves sick
with far too many Easter eggs, but there wasn’t very much of that today. Instead the same picture of Lego Jesus appeared on several
Lego Facebook pages. The same Sparks song had been posted to several Sparks
Facebook pages. A couple of students had pasted their homework assignment to
multiple work-based Facebook pages. I wandered down the road to get my car. It
was where I’d left it, and it assured me its oil level was fine. We loaded up
dogs and luggage and set off, and within minutes Pogo as whinging for a
tiddle. We stopped, he had a tiddle, and then the car suggested I might like
to top up its oil level. We drove up the A20 since the A20 is now a
far faster moving road than the motorway, and were
soon at the car park in Sutton Valance where we met Karl, Tracey and
Charlotte. What with lockdown rules we’ve not walked together for months; it
was so good to be able to meet up today. Since lockdown was lifted on Monday several
geocaches had gone live south of Maidstone, and we sort-of cobbled together a
decent route from what had appeared. We had a very good walk; I did wonder what
the ground would be like. Would I need my wellies? I was fine in my walking
boots. What with lockdowns and Tier Three this was only the fourth time I’ve
worn them on a decent long walk in the six months that I’ve had them. I spend
longer polishing them than I do wearing them. As we walked we met
other friends also walking the new series of geocaches. It was so good to be
able to catch up. Treacle found several huge branches to carry
around. She does love carrying a huge stick. Fudge did very well today. He’s been very ill
recently, but we couldn’t leave him at home; he would have been heartbroken.
He came along and I was fully expecting to be carrying him for much of the
way. But he walked ninety-nine per cent of the route. He did get Charlotte to
carry him for a bit, but I could tell from his expression he was just being
lazy. He does that; he knows how to get his way. Geocache -wise it was OK. I don’t want to be
discouraging as someone has taken the trouble to put out loads of geocaches
in the area, but many of the ones we hunted out were in small loops. There
are those who want smaller loops of caches; for the littluns these would be
ideal, but we like a much longer mission. Cobbling the small loops together
into longer route for a a day’s walk took a little
doing, and consequently we had possibly a little more road-walking than we
might have liked. But then, that wasn’t how the series were designed. Mind you I would have a little whinge about
the size of the hides. The unwritten etiquette is that ideally you should
hide the biggest cache you can at the given location. We were finding
thimble-sized caches where bucket-sized things could have been stashed. And the difficulty setting – all geocaches
have a “D”-rating. That’s how you can tell how hard they are to find.
Some of today’s were fiendish; some easy. But all had the same “D”-rating. But we had a good outing because someone had
put in the effort to hide the caches for us. And that is the main thing. Any
gripes I might have is just me being picky. I
took a few photos as we walked today. Today was something of a test for
my new phone’s camera. I thought it did OK. Sometimes I wonder if I should
learn more about photography, but “point and press” seems to do OK for
the computer, lap-top, tablet and phone screens on which they are viewed. With walk walked we said our goodbyes and
came home. The dogs had their tea and were all soon snoring. They hadn’t been
that quiet for ages. Perhaps I should walk them for nine miles more often? er indoors TM” sorted our tea; chicken, parsnips and stuffing. All the best bits of
a roast dinner with none of the carrot and pea nonsense. I was soon snoring too… |
||
|
5 April 2021 (Monday)
- It Snowed
Yesterday’s walk had taken its toll. We all
slept well last night… except for Sid who had a barking fit shortly after one
o’clock. Having eventually settled him I then slept through until after
eight. I made toast and coffee – the coffee being in
my new mug which was a pressie from Wayne and Lyn. A Wherei-Mug.
I took a photo of it and posted it to the Geocaching in Kent Facebook page,
sent out a birthday wish, then had a little look-see to find out what I’d
missed overnight. The squabble about who gets to be First to
Find on new geocaches was still going on. I say “squabble”; those who
go out hoping to be first and being continually thwarted had got the hump.
Those who are constantly getting to be first are seemingly quite content to
be first. It is an argument that has been going on for years,
and shows no sign of stopping any time soon. Much like all arguments,
really. There was also a post on one of the local
Facebook groups about
a stolen dog. The dog had been stolen three days ago,
the police have been told the registration number of the car that had stolen
the dog… and clearly had done nothing. In order to
get the dog back, the owners were posting to Facebook even though the police
were (supposedly) involved. I wish I knew why we have a police force. Last night I’d made a start on a new Wherigo
project. It only took a couple of hours to blag the pictures I needed. I
spent an hour carrying on with it this morning; getting the pictures into a
format that the Wherigo-creating software would recognise. Creating the play
zones, a guiding character and the final information took another hour. It
kept me occupied whilst er indoors TM” and the dogs all
snored. Once er indoors TM” and the
dogs got up, mayhem ensued. I went out into the garden to hide,
and got two fence panels painted before the sleet stopped me. I came
in and did more Wherigo work. After a couple of hours
the thing was ready for field trials so I emailed it to those who (hopefully)
were in the right field, and seeing that the snow and hail had stopped (!),
I got back on with painting the fence. After four hours concerted effort I’ve now got all of the fence between our garden and not-so-nice-next-door
painted. It was cold though. Bitterly cold. I came in to get warm, and couldn’t help but wonder why a black dog (Treacle)
had a white nose. Dust? Talcum powder? I wrote up a little CPD, then er
indoors TM” sorted out some dinner which we scoffed whilst watching
an episode of “Richard
Osman’s House of Games”; a good show, but I spend a lot of time
wondering just who the so-called celebrities on the show actually are. But
then, this has always been the way with TV quiz shows, hasn’t it? People on
TV quizzes are famous for being the sort of people who are on a TV quiz show. I could be on TV quiz shows… |
||
|
6 April 2021
(Tuesday) - Before the Late Shift
Despite sleeping well
I woke feeling rather grim. I made toast, and
scoffed it as I peered into the Internet. Fudge had some of the crusts as he
needs feeding up. Pogo stared hungrily. I saw that a new series of geocaches had gone
live sort-of on the way to work (when at Pembury). These might make up
half of a weekend walk at some point over the next few weeks. I also saw that
another geocache of an ongoing series had gone live as well. Putting out a
whole series of geocaches is a nice present for the first-to-find brigade.
Deliberately putting a series out one at a time is also a nice present
for the first-to-find brigade but it wastes their petrol as they make pretty
much the same journey every day for twenty days. It’s all a bit silly, and a bit sad really… I took the dogs out for a walk where my idiot
magnet was clearly running at full power. Just as we approached the corner of
William Road and Christchurch Road so some woman
walked round the corner with her dog. My hounds started barking (as did
hers) so I made my wolf pack sit until the other dog had passed. Only it
didn’t come past. The idiot woman stood there grinning at us (like an
idiot) as he dog barked. As my dogs snarled and grumbled from a sitting
position so this woman just stood there. I treated the whole thing as an
exercise in self-control (for both my dogs and me), and we waited for
her to clear off. After a couple of minutes this woman spoke. “Are they
barking at me?” she asked. I told her they weren’t, which seemed to
please her, but I rather took the wind out of her sails when I told her the
dogs were barking at her dog. I had to actually tell
her to go away before she realised what was going on with my dogs and her
dog. We had a little wander round the co-op field,
then came home where I spent a few minutes mowing the lawn. Whilst far from
perfect, the lawn is looking far better than it has for some time. Perhaps
the lawn fertiliser has done some good? I also saw that three or four of the Koi are
looking pregnant. There are spawning brushes in the pond; will we get babies? With a little time before the late shift I then drove up to Aylesford where I Qrewzee-ed and renovated a destination (it’s a Munzee thing) before going to Timpson’s. On Friday
I’d got some spare front door keys cut there. They didn’t unlock the door so I took them back. The nice man trimmed them and
fiddled about with them and said if they stil
didn’t work I was to take them back to him. I shall be going back to Timpson’s again
tomorrow… |
||
|
7 April 2021
(Wednesday) - Cheeky FTF
I slept well, which was a result. Equipped
with toast I peered into the Internet to see what had happened overnight. Not
a lot really. There were quite a few people posting photos from fifty years
ago onto one of the Hastings-related Facebook pages I follow, as well as
talking about the possibility of some of the big outdoor events re-starting
in the town. I seem to be following quite a few Hastings-related Facebook
pages these days… More and more I find myself wondering if I did the right
thing moving away from there all those years ago. Admittedly lockdown has
thrown a spanner in the works, but what with pram races, Jack in the Green,
bonfire parades, carnivals, pirate day, Hastings is a place where things
happen. Pretty much nothing happens in Ashford apart from two music days
where amateur musicians try to make up for quality with volume whilst hired
thugs masquerade as security and menace the public. Do I want to move back to Hastings? Not right
now, but when I retire? Possibly. I had an email from the British Blood
Transfusion Society (Some of the letters after my name have been awarded
to me by them!). They wanted me to fill in a “diversity and inclusion
survey”. Really? I told them I was a Martian and
my sexual preference was “go on then”. I realise that I am
probably an old reactionary dinosaur, but how on Earth does my gender,
nationality, and preferred thing with which to do the dirty deed in any way
affect my contribution to someone else’s blood transfusion? I took the dogs for a quick walk which passed
off utterly uneventful. We could have nipped down to the marsh to chase First
to Find on a new series of geocaches, but the weather wasn’t up for stomping
round the marsh. It can be windy down there, and for all that it was a bright
morning, it was bitterly cold when you got out of the sunshine. With walk walked we came home (as you do).
I emptied the dishwasher, put in laundry, harvested a bumper crop of dog dung
from the garden, and looked at writing
up some CPD. I made a cuppa for myself and er indoors TM”,
and as I clicked the kettle on so Fudge appeared. When we have a cuppa he gets Rich Tea biscuits. He is such a fussy eater
it is good to see him eating something. He had his Rich Tea, and as I fiddled
about with the blood compatibility
simulator so Fudge went to the dog toy box and picked up something on
which to chew. He’d not carried it more than a yard before Treacle pounced on
him and snatched it away. She can be quite horrible; she doesn’t want any of
the dog toys; she just doesn’t want any other dog to play with them. She got told off, and Fudge got his toy back. I popped up the road to Key Store to get some
lunch. As I'd walked past my car (with the dogs) earlier I'd seen it
was covered in ice. The ice had melted, for which I was grateful. I pulled out
my phone, called up the geo-app and made a decision.
A new geocache had gone live this morning which wasn't
*that* far off of my route to Maidstone. It went live shortly after
nine o'clock. No one had logged a "First to Find". On the
one hand there were a load of new geocaches on the Romney Marsh which had
probably attracted the FTF brigade. On the other hand
several cachers lived in the vague area of that new
cache. Should I go for the FTF? Would I be wasting my time? As I drove up the A20 there was some utter
drivel on the radio about someone of whom I had never heard. This person is
spending much of his life hiding from other people of whom I have never heard
either. I switched the radio off. If nothing else it
meant I could hear the sat-nav slightly better as it directed me along miles
of pot-hole-ridden narrow country lanes to where this new geocache was. I got
to where the sat-nav said to go, pulled up in a convenient lay-by, and was
almost immediately accosted by a passing hiker who seemed desperate for
having got someone to talk to (at). He eventually bumbled off; I rummaged in a
thicket, and soon had the new geocache in hand. And I was the first one to
find it too. That was something of a bonus. The thing had been live for two
and a half hours when I found it. That is an eternity in
first-to-find-circles. I then drove on to Timpsons
in Aylesford where the chap behind the counter smiled at me in a rather
embarrassed way. He looked at the keys he'd cut for me on Friday and then
tweaked yesterday, threw them in the bin, and cut some more. I came home from work to find that they don’t
work either… |
||
|
8 April 2021
(Thursday) - Stuff
Being up far earlier than I needed to be I
set the washing machine loose on a job lot of white stuff, then sorted myself
a bowl of granola which I scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Superstore”
before sparking up the lap-top. As it sparked up I recognised the photo on the Windows start-up screen –
it was the Radcliffe
Camera in Oxford. I’ve been there. With Windows showing me various scenes
from around the world, in the five years that I’ve had the lap-top, this is
the second time it has shown me a picture of somewhere that I’ve been. The
other place was Buchart Gardens on Vancouver
Island. Pretty much nothing at all had happened
overnight, and with no emails at all I deployed a Munzee,
hung out the washing and got ready for work. I was rather glad to see that (unlike
yesterday morning) there was no ice on my car as I set off to work. As I
drove the pundits on the radio were talking with one of the head honchos of
an initiative which aims to clean up a million miles of coastline.
This is an admirable project in which members of the public remove plastic
waste from beaches. However the chap being
interviewed was a bit vague about what we do with the plastic once we've got
it off of the beach. Shove it in a hedge or chuck it over next-door's fence,
perhaps? But what boiled my piss was when he said
that we should all go out and clean up the mess because this would make the
Government sit up and take notice and force them to do something themselves.
Will it? Really? I was reminded of a public meeting I went to in Ashford a
few years ago when a local councillor was talking about how the council
didn't need to clean up my road as it was always litter free. I agreed with
the chap, but a very angry beetroot-red-faced chap went hysterical and
screamed and ranted that our road was only litter-free because he went out every
morning at five o'clock and gathered all the litter. He went apoplectic when
it was pointed out that there was absolutely no need for the council to spend
money on street cleaning as he was doing the job already. Mind you when I say "a few years ago";
my diary shows me that this meeting was on 13 February 2008 - thirteen years
ago back when I used to blog on Yahoo 360. Looking back, I enjoyed that
meeting. In between stirring up the local racists and xenophobes, the
beetroot-red-faced chap nearly had a stroke, and one of the local Police
Community Support Officers started crying. Funnily enough there's never been
a public meeting in our ward ever since. I got to work and did my bit. And with bit
done I came home. er indoors TM” was out with “Daddy’s
Little Angel TM” and “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction
TM”, so I walked the dogs, fed the pond fish, cleared the
garden of dog dung, put on washing, fed the dogs, fed the tank fish, and took
over an hour before I could slob about in front of the telly. I worked harder in that hour than I did all
day long at work… |
||
|
9 April 2021 (Friday)
- More Stuff
I’m not sure which was noisiest at five o’clock
this morning; the seagulls squawking or the bin-men clattering the bins. But
a combination of the two had me wide awake over an hour before I needed to
be. I used the time putting a load of stuff through the washing machine. As stuff scrubbed I
scoffed toast whilst watching another episode of “Superstore”, then
had a little look at the Internet as I do most mornings. Three friends had
birthdays today so I sent the obligatory birthday
video. There was a minor squabble on one of the work-related Facebook pages.
Someone had posted their homework on-line trying to pretend it was a genuine
medical case for which they were asking advice, and
weren’t happy at being told to do their own homework themselves. This happens
quite a bit – so many people post up the same (quite frankly basic-level)
questions and are surprised to find that they aren’t the first person to have
posted that very same bit of homework. How do these people think they will
cope if and when they ever qualify? Are they really
going to go onto Facebook Live with every patient they encounter and ask the
opinion of anyone who cares to have an opinion to offer? I hung out the washing, checked Sid for turds
(he sometimes craps in his sleep!) and set off wondering where I’d left my car. Once I’d found it I
took a two-minute detour into Stanhope to cap some greeting cards (it's a Munzee thing) then headed off up the motorway. As I
drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the latest civil unrest
in Ireland. The official line is that the unionists are unhappy that the
Brexit arrangements undermine their position and are favouring the
republicans. Well, that's true. Did no one but me
see this coming? But are people *really* upset about esoteric
political considerations? The word is that organised crime gangs are winding
up teenagers so with the police quelling riots, criminals can get on with
crime. There was also talk about how foreign
holidays may well be
on the cards for this summer... *if* you pay for a PCR COVID test
both before you go and when you come back as well. But with each test costing
over a hundred quid, me and er indoors TM” are looking at
shelling out an extra five hundred quid to take the holiday that we've
already paid for. We paid for our holiday last year, but that
got cancelled (what with COVID). It got re-scheduled for this coming
June but we each had to pay two hundred quid more this year (so the
holiday company can recoup some of their losses?)... I think I'm at the
point of wanting my money back. I got to work, and during a lull in
proceedings I phoned the pet insurance people. After being kept on hold for
ten minutes I was told that they were behind with their workload, and
that I should try again in a couple of weeks’ time.
I intimated that we are all busy, but the woman on the phone wasn't having
any of it. Oh well... it's only a thousand quid... I'm
in no rush... am I? I also phoned the ENT people (not in the
hospital where I work!) to chase up the ENT appointment that I was
supposed to have had in January. I got through to the same recorded message
that I always get through to, and left a message for
them. To my amazement they phoned my back within the hour and booked an
appointment for me in a month's time. I had a mildly neutropenic sort of day (as
you sometimes do). At lunchtime we got the news that Prince Philip had
died. That was a shame - he was quite a character and gave a human face to
what can sometimes be a rather stuffy, dull and out
of touch Royal family. er indoors TM” boiled up a very
good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s Celebrity
Bake-Off which featured Anneka Rice doing a “Treasure
Hunt” style entrance to the Bake-Off tent. “Treasure
Hunt” was a favourite show of ours thirty-odd years ago. And being
long before the Internet we used to try to solve the clues using a copy of
the AA Guide to Britain which we’d bought just for that purpose. I’m rather amazed that no one has tried to
bring the show back – after all pretty much every other TV show has been
resurrected… |
||
|
10 April 2021 (Saturday)
- Raising the Roof
I was woken just before eight o’clock by the
sound of people outside who were raising the roof. Quite literally raising
the roof. We’ve had the bathroom roof replaced today; those doing the
replacing wanted an early start and were happy to get going before we woke
up. Despite the noise of the roof being taken off, all four dogs slept
blissfully, and were still fast asleep an hour later despite the ongoing
racket. If the shop up the road gets a customer, they
all go berserk, but people can come into the garden, set up ladders, and take
the roof off of the house and they don’t care… I made toast and peered into the Internet.
There was a row kicking off on Facebook about dogs on leads. Someone who
won’t let his dog off of a lead felt that his dog couldn’t be trusted off of
a lead, and didn’t want any other dogs to come
anywhere hear his dog. Apparently he’d got into
arguments with walkers of non-leaded dogs. Probably not me (this time),
but I wondered why he didn’t give his dog a chance
off of the lead. Ten minutes of whistle training will install a recall
ability, and there are plenty of places to go where the dog can run with no
other dogs about. Or why not have the dog wear something yellow? I thought
about commenting, but decided against it. There was also an argument about cosplay.
Someone who had dressed up as a villain from “Scooby Doo” was being
accused of racism. Scooby Doo”? – some people just want to argue. I turned off the lap-top and made the
builders a cuppa, then drove down to Hastings for a morning checking in with
Dad. He seemed OK – he’s got a bit chattier since Mum’s gone, but I suppose
he’s had to. He was talking about replacing fence panels. Fences seem to be a
“thing” in our family. Talking of which I came home via AVS fencing. My Ham Street Lover has
started working there, and the place has all sorts of fence paints and post toppers
and can get me shingle and patio slabs. I took out a few catalogues,
and came home to find the bathroom roof looking good. er indoors TM” and I took the dogs
round the co-op field. It was cold and drizzly. And with dogs walked I took
myself off to bed for the afternoon. I didn’t think I slept well, but I
wasn’t woken by the sound of Dad ringing me. I eventually got up to find the roof had been
finished a couple of hours before. I don’t know the first thing about roofs,
but it looks a lot better than it was. The rough wood edge has been replaced
with a much tidier plastic edge, and there is no gaping hole in the felt any
more. I’m hoping that er indoors TM”
will come up with some dinner in a bit, then I’m off to the night shift… |
||
|
11 April 2021 (Sunday)
- Poorly Pup
During a five-minute
lull in proceedings on the night shift last night I finally got round to
doing something I've been meaning to do for a little while. I found out who
the Roman Catholic bishop who oversees the catholic churches in Hastings is,
and I sent him an email. Over the last few years I
have been to family funerals (father-in-law and brother-in-law) which
were run by priests in the Hastings area. It was rather upsetting to find
that the priests giving the funerals clearly had no idea who they were
burying and had got basic family details wrong. However
at my mum's funeral (a couple of weeks ago) the chap conducting it
took the trouble to contact family members before the funeral to find out as
much as he could, and so could be sure of basic details such as how many
children and siblings the deceased had. A rather simple thing to do, but
something that the priests might be well advised to start doing. I politely
suggested that the bishop might have his minions sort this out before
another catholic in the family croaks. If the priest gets it wrong again I *will*
point out his mistake. Loudly and publicly. I wonder if the
bishop will reply. I got four bouncers
out of the work-based Skyland (it's a Munzee
thing) then set off homewards, listening to the radio as I went. There
was yet more talk of the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh. I must admit I
always quite liked the chap, but since he died on Friday there has been
nothing but "Philip-mania" on the radio and TV. There is
only so much heartfelt sorrow that the BBC can trot out before the public get
rather fed up with hearing it. And (apparently) that point has long
been passed with the BBC having received record numbers of complaints
about their non-stop coverage of the matter to the exclusion of all else. Being a Sunday I was
expecting there to be a church service being broadcast after the eight
o’clock news his morning. Sometimes they are rather uplifting, sometimes they
are dull. Today there was a rather dreary service of thanksgiving for the
life of the recently deceased Duke of Edinburgh. I only listened for a few
moments before switching over to my own choice of music. Once home there was
mild consternation as Fudge clearly wasn’t well. He was laying on his back
with his stomach rigid; I wondered if he pulled something in all the
excitement as all the dogs went mad as I came home. We settled him in a
little bed on the sofa, and he was still there looking pitiful once I’d spent
the morning asleep. Mind you I shared the
crusts of a late brekkie with him, and he ate the crusts off
of my toast while his stomach gurgled very noisily. Had he hurt his
back? Had he got stomach ache? Was he playing for
sympathy? He has always been such a consummate actor; always being so able to
look so sorry for himself, it is difficult to tell when he is genuinely ill
and when he is playing to the audience. We went for a little
walk up to the co-op field where it became apparent that Fudge was rather
struggling to keep up… until we met a red setter and Fudge charged up to
play. He spent five minutes with his new friend, and that was probably five
minutes too much. We came home and as I
spent nearly three hours doing the ironing so he
slept intermittently. He would sleep with either er indoors TM”
or me (once I’d got the ironing done) but if there was no one to sit
with him he would wander restlessly not settling anywhere. er indoors TM” boiled up a very
good bit of dinner. Little Fudge wasn’t that ill that he didn’t want any
scraps. He ate quite a bit of swede, which I saw as something of a result. He’s now laying on
the sofa… quivering a little. I’m feeling all in and I’m going to bed. I
doubt I will sleep though. Did I ever mention
that I never wanted a dog? |
||
|
12 April 2021
(Monday) - Pup Still Poorly
I got a couple of hours sleep until er
indoors TM” and the dogs came to bed. The priority for
everyone was making Fudge comfortable (Treacle and Pogo both understood he
was ill) so once he’d settled, everyone else fitted in around him. That
made for a rather awkward night, but there it was. Eventually my phone told me to “get my arse out of its pit” (in those words), and I
watched an episode of “Superstore” as I scoffed toast. As I scoffed so
Sid sat with me. Poor little Sid seems rather oblivious to everything else
but eating and sleeping these days. With telly watched and toast scoffed I had my
obligatory peer into the Internet. I got just a little annoyed as I read
several twee self-motivational memes (posted on Facebook) banging on
about how what life is what you make it. Have you ever noticed that it is
always the people who have never been handed a lemon by life who advocate
making lemonade? There wasn’t much else happening on-line, so
I got myself ready for work, fussed my little sleeping dog, and set off. After a few minutes spent scraping ice from
my car I set off west-wards towards Pembury. As I drove the Archbishop of
York was talking utter twaddle (as most religious-types
do). He was blathering about the recently deceased Duke of Edinburgh and
was saying how having Sunday lunch with the Duke was rather daunting as the
Duke would actually pay attention to the sermon that
the Archbishop had just drivelled out and would point out all the errors in
it. I’ve often made lists of the fallacies in sermons, but never had the
chance to present them to the clergyman who drivelled them out. The Archbishop then shot himself in the foot
somewhat by saying how the death of the Duke of Edinburgh has shown everyone
that the Royal Family is just like the rest of us in that they too have to face the spectre of death, and how his death has
brought the royals closer to the average bloke in the street. Speaking as an average bloke in the street
who has recently faced the spectre of death, I would disagree. It took five
weeks for my mother to get a funeral. I see the Duke of Edinburgh has got the
same done in eight days. There was also an interview with ex-Prime
Minister Gordon Brown who was talking about the ongoing scandal in which
ex-Prime Minister David Cameron has tried to tap up his old mates to see if
he couldn’t get some government
money for his employer. Is this really news? Plenty of politicians have
given lucrative
contracts to their mates, and is tapping up your mates such a bad thing?
Surely that’s the entire point of LinkedIn? I suppose realistically
the sensible thing to do would be for a Prime Minister to retire when they
leave office and not take up any commercial interests, but when has “sensible”
ever had any place in reality? As I drove to wok so there were snow
flurries, and the snow was quite heavy by the time I arrived. I had a rather
busy day, and was glad when it was finally home
time. The snow had gone by the time I set off
homewards; pausing only briefly to get sugar (er indoors TM”
had sent orders) I was soon heading east. As I drove “Just A Minute”
was on the radio. Julian Clary was the presenter on tonight’s episode; he had
a fair go, but was no replacement for the late
Nicholas Parsons. Once home I took Fudge up to the pond for
fish feeding. I had to carry him; he didn’t seem up to bothering the fish but
when I “accidentally” dropped some fish food on the sleeper in front
of him he soon yummed it up. I had to carry him back inside though. He had
some of the pasta from our dinner, and is fast
asleep now. I’m thinking that some enforced rest might help him… |
||
|
13 April 2021
(Tuesday) - Rostered Day Off
I slept like a log,
and as an added bonus Sid hadn’t done a single turd
overnight. Seeing that as something of a result I made toast,
and had a little look at the Internet. I rather thought there would
have been all sorts of things posted on-line overnight seeing how the
lockdown restrictions had a serious easing yesterday, but there wasn’t.
B&Q had sent me an email telling me that their stores were open, but the
local branch of B&Q has been open all through the latest lockdown. (Why
bother sending that email?) In fact pretty much the most interesting
thing I read this morning on the Internet was the fact that today was the one hundredth
birthday of the actor who provided the voice of Jeff Tracy (from
“Thunderbirds”) and that the chap had been born in the same town that I
was born in. It was then that er
indoors TM” discovered the turds that
Sid had actually done. I then spent a
morning farting around in the garden. In readiness for the first phase of
decorating (planned for this weekend) I needed to get the lock-ups moved out of the back yard so that we can put up
ladders. I got all the stuff out of one, shoved it up onto the patio area by
the shed, filled it again, and then did the same with the other. That was
hard work. And then since I had the area clear I got the pressure washer out
and scrubbed the yard. That too was hard work, but it looks better for the
scrub. And then I thought I
might put the sleepers into place. Regular readers of this drivel may recall
when I sawed two sleepers to size on March 30th. Today I
found that I was a tad awry with my measurements. Oh, how I chuckled as I
sawed another half-inch off of each sleeper. Oh
well… it only took twenty minutes. For each sleeper. As I fiddled about so
Fudge was laying in the sunshine but was very restless. He couldn’t get comfortable, and had been sick (again). At
mid-day he had an appointment with the vet. We were a little late
getting in; they were busy. He’s lost another half a kilogram, and the vet
said he was dehydrated and that he needed a day or two in dog hospital on
fluids. He looked rather miserable as I left him. As I was in the area
I popped over to B&Q to get gravel boards that can be used for walking
about on the new roof this weekend before being used for fixing knackered
fences. Having walked the length of the place from garden section to building
yard and back again I eventually found what I thought was the right thing. It
was only as I was putting them into my car that I saw that rather than having
a pack of four decent boards I had a pack of eight triangular flimsy things. I took them back, and
as I was standing in the returns queue so some chap in a wheelchair started
having a go at me for absolutely no reason that I could fathom. Some people
just go through life looking for arguments. Having returned the
wrong boards I drove round to AVS fencing (who I
discovered on Saturday) who came up trumps. I then pootled in the
garden for an hour or so to try to take my mind off of
my dog, and then spent a little while putting a few bells and whistles into
my latest Wherigo project before going to the vet to collect Fudge. The vet was really patient with us, She showed us the results of his
blood tests which show he’s dehydrated, he’s got pancreatitis and his kidneys
aren’t coping at all. He’s got to go back to dog
hospital tomorrow (and possibly Thursday) for another day on fluids
which will hopefully shift the waste products that his kidneys aren’t
shifting at the moment, and with some semblance of normality resumed he’ll be
back to what passes for normal for him in a few days. Trouble is normal for
him is chronic kidney failure for which there is no cure. Just postponing the
inevitable. The fluids he’s on is effectively doing pretty much the same job
as a dialysis machine (i.e. doing the job
of a kidney), and it’s not really a long-term practicality. Being on
fluids is quite an undertaking, it is traumatic for him and has to be done in dog hospital and he needs to be
tranquilized for the day – he’s currently sitting next to me absolutely zoned
out. He’s sick most mornings. He’s losing weight
at quite a rate. We’ll get him through this current acute bout
but I don’t want him to suffer…and he has been suffering these last few days. This is why I never wanted a dog. |
||
|
14 April
2021 (Wednesday) - Pup Still Poorly
Fudge didn’t move about in the night; he stayed
where he was settled. When I got up he was quivering.
Not shivering, but quivering. I fussed him for a bit, and once he was fast asleep I left him there and went about my morning. Bearing in mind my failure with Sid yesterday I
had a concerted check for turds this morning but
found none. Mind you I found none yesterday either. Using the last of the jam
I made some toast and scoffed it whilst watching an episode of “Superstore”
then peered into the depths of the Internet. Three friends had birthdays
today; I sent out birthday wishes as I do. Mind you I was rather disappointed
to see that none were work colleagues – no excuse for cake. But other than
birthday notifications, there was absolutely nothing else at all happening on
Facebook. And with no emails at all (not even spam) I quietly got
ready for work. As I wandered up the road to my car I saw that what was once an ironmongery shop is to
re-open as a barber's shop. That will make three hairdressers within two
hundred yards of home. It would seem that getting a haircut is something of a
growth industry? I wouldn't know - I've got a pair
of shears and have been doing my own haircuts for years. I scraped the ice from the car's windscreen and
set off to work listening to someone or other from the Scottish Green Party
banging on about the importance
of Scottish independence. Really? How is it that the same people who
advocate independence from the United Kingdom also want to re-join the
European Union. Is there some contradiction here, or is this just the Scots
natural hatred of the English at play? I can't help but feel that the time
for petty nationalism is long past, and the sooner we have one world
government with everyone pulling together, the better. But what do I know? There was also an interview with Lord Sebastian
Coe about the Olympic
Games supposedly taking place in Japan in a few months' time. Even though
Japan is in the grip of a fourth wave of the COVID pandemic and less than one
per cent of the Japanese population have been vaccinated. Lord Coe seemed
confident the games would go ahead. Apparently
people watching on the telly wouldn't notice any difference as the
COVID precautions wouldn't affect the competition. I got to work; I did my bit. During breaks I was
reading an old favourite book (e-book) “Brideshead Revisited”
in which someone looks back on part of their life. Was it this that made me
think about my days in the Harbour Restaurant in Hastings.
Nowadays it is the “Old Town Frier” fish and chip shop. Apparently it was a pub
until 1913. I could only find one entry about the Harbour Restaurant
itself on-line
though, and that didn’t say much. I worked there during the summers of
1980 and 1981, and was wondering whatever happened
to the people with whom I worked. The wife of the owner (an incredibly fat
lady known to all and sundry as “Misses”) would seem to have died
three years ago. The (so-called) head chef would seem to have been
buried by Hastings council two years ago. But whatever happened to my mate
Kev who got me the job there in the first place. Or Lisa who was dating the
school hard man? Or Carol (who terrified me)? Or Joyce (who won the
Sun bingo)? Or “Dustman’s Daughter” whose father emptied the
restaurant’s dustbins? Or Anita? Or Willy? Or Mr Gustav? Or “Boss”?
There were so many people who worked there – and so many memories. With work done I drove to the vet to collect
Fudge (who had had another day in dog hospital). I saw one of the vets
that I usually see. He was rather dubious about what progress my dog might
have made today; the trouble being that Fudge makes no secret that he doesn’t
like to be at the vets and he sulks. We are to keep
an eye on his general demeanour overnight and go back for blood tests in the
morning. Fudge did his business when we got home, then I
cuddled him up on the sofa next to me where he stayed for the entire evening.
What I find most upsetting is how Treacle keeps licking his nose and looking
at me as though she expects me to fix him. |
||
|
15 April 2021
(Thursday) - Haunted Tesco
I had something of a restless night plagued
by dreams in which I was constantly justifying why I didn’t want to run a
marathon. What was that all about? I woke to find Fudge at the bottom of the bed
wrapped in his blanket. He hates being hot, but if he’s not wrapped up he shivers because he has lost so much weight. I left
him sleeping, made toast and watched an episode of “Superstore” before
peering into the Internet. I sent out some birthday wishes, and on seeing
pretty much nothing at all had happened overnight, taking care to let
sleeping dogs lie, I got ready for the off. It was really cold as
I walked to my car; a lot colder than it had been when I took Sid out (for
a tiddle) half an hour before. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were talking about the lateral flow tests for COVID-19 that so many of us are
doing every day. Every positive result is confirmed by a proper test, and the
lateral flow tests are eighty-five per cent accurate. Personally
I would laugh out loud at any test which is less than ninety-nine point nine
per cent accurate, but what do I know about laboratory diagnostics? Pausing only briefly in High Halden for Munzee reasons I was soon at Tesco in Pembury where I saw
a ghost… I say “I saw a ghost” – there was definitely
something odd going on. As I was perusing the beer aisle there was
suddenly a loud smashing noise behind be and I was sprayed with some liquid.
I turned to see a smashed champagne bottle, and a woman who was adamant that
she hadn’t dropped the bottle. She was insistent that the bottle fell of its
own accord. Thinking “yeah, whatever” and mentally composing a rather
disparaging description of the incident for this very blog I wandered round
to the jam department. As I reached for a jar of marmalade
so another jar actually jumped of the shelf in front of me (and smashed).
It really did jump on its own. Spooky, eh? Work was work. I did that which I couldn’t
avoid. I left a little early to collect Fudge from the vet. After three days
on fluids his blood urea is still off of the scale.
The fluids have done very little, and even if they had, his kidney function
is nowhere near enough. He’s still got no appetite, and
is still clearly in pain. The vet wasn’t at all hopeful. She said to
take him home and take him back for the last time in the morning. We had an incredibly tearful evening as both
“My Boy TM” and Cheryl, and “Daddy’s Little Angel TM”
came to say goodbye. |
||
|
16 April 2021
(Friday) - Goodbye My Best Boy
I first met Fudge on 3 Sept 2011 when “My
Boy TM” took him on. At the time I wrote “…Now I have a
grand-dog. Fudge seems rather like hard work…” At the time when he was
with “My Boy TM” and Cheryl, “My Boy TM”
would cycle round to visit us and Fudge would run along next to him. When
they got to our house the first fruit of my loin would be a mass of sweat and
gasping for air; Fudge would still be raring to go. There’s no denying that I wasn’t on top form
back then, and Fudge was excellent company. We would walk for miles round
Ashford exploring the paths out the back of Park Fark, exploring the woods
out beyond Great Chart, even following the fields out to Wye. I once managed
to lose him for a very worrying hour in Kings Wood. No matter how cold it was, he refused to wear
a coat (like other small dogs would). He loved rolling in fox poo.
Despite having been “done” in 2012, he was always very keen to play dog-piggy-back
whenever the opportunity arose (especially with boy dogs). He was very
keen to chase anything he could (he hated squirrels with a passion),
and over the years he caught a pheasant and (with Pogo’s
help) a rabbit and on both occasions he proved
he was still a little wolf. He could swim – and loved water. He would shout
at people to throw stones into rivers and ponds for him to chase, and he
would spend hours following the Koi in our garden pond. Over the years he had
many toys, none of which lasted. For him a toy was something to be destroyed.
He would have the stuffing out of any toy within minutes (if not seconds).
And (so-called) indestructible Kong toys didn’t last long with
him. He was incredibly well-known on the local
geocaching scene. All of the children wanted to hold
his lead when we went on walks, and quite a few of the local hunters of
Tupperware openly said that they only knew me as “that bloke with
Fudge-dog”. We created a trackable dog tag which we registered with
geocaching dot com so that we could record his geocaching adventures with us.
Over nine years Fudge called in at over ten thousand geocaches and whilst
doing so he covered a distance of over twenty-six
thousand miles (slightly more than the circumference of the Earth). But he wasn’t the healthiest of dogs. In
October 2014 he somehow slipped a disc in his back and was referred to “Supervet” (from the telly). I was in
Birmingham at the time and “My Boy TM” drove him and er
indoors TM” on a round trip of many hours to be given a
diagnosis of a grade two spinal injury and a prescription of six weeks
enforced cage rest (which he didn’t like at all). That spinal injury
would play up from time to time, and it was rather worrying to see an
incredibly active dog suddenly laid low. It was when he inexplicably started losing
weight two years ago that we became concerned. Slowly and surely
he was getting thinner and thinner. Blood and urine tests showed… well, I
won’t go into endless detail, but (bearing in mind what I do most days)
it was clear that his kidneys were struggling. The waste product stuff that
should have been peed out was staying in his blood, and the good stuff that
should have been kept in his blood was getting peed out. There was (and is) no cure for chronic
kidney failure. The treatment was to help his kidneys by giving him food that
would be easier for his kidneys to cope with. We spent a small fortune trying
pretty much every specialist food on the market only to find he didn’t like
any of them. He was never a greedy dog, and was
always a very fussy eater. Over these last two years he has had a slow
but steady decline. He would still want to walk for miles at the weekend but
would recover slower. He would sleep longer in the morning; not getting up
with me at silly o’clock. We monitored how he was doing: he was as good as
gold when blood had to be taken, and he would look at me in frank
bewilderment when I would catch some of his pee in a bottle. But as time went
on he slowly got worse and worse. A week after my
mum died (in February) he rapidly underwent a very serious
deterioration and had a few days in dog hospital with pancreatitis. On reflection he never really recovered from
that. After a few days he came home, but he wasn’t himself. We would still go
for our walks, but he would straggle more and more. He was sick most days.
Things came to a head last Tuesday. As I pootled in the garden
I was watching him. At the time I wrote “…Fudge was laying in the sunshine
but was very restless. He couldn’t get comfortable..
“ We went to the vet, and blood tests showed that his kidneys had all but
given up following a resurgence of the pancreas problem. Three days in dog hospital on fluids didn’t
improve his condition at all. He came home last night and was very dull and
listless. I sat with him for much of the night; he was miserable. We went
back to the vet this morning where the vet took his pain away. I miss my dog so much…. |
||
|
17 April 2021
(Saturday) - Early Shift
Yesterday had been rather traumatic and I had
an early night. I slept for eight hours, waking a few minutes before the
alarm went off. I made toast, watched an episode of “Superstore” then
had a look at the Internet. So many people had sent me kind wishes about
Fudge’s passing yesterday. I had a friend request on Facebook from
Hillary Sparks; she seemed to be incredibly friendly and very keen to waggle
her jugs about. I reported her to the Facebook feds for having done so –
someone has to take a moral stance. I doubt the
Facebook Feds will do anything about her; they rarely do anything about
anyone. It was rather cold as I walked to my car, but
the windscreen just had condensation on it; not ice. I turned on the wipers to clear the
condensation, and it froze. So I spent a couple of
minutes scraping the ice anyway. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were broadcasting something which I can only describe as pure unadulterated crap. There was a feature on folk songs about convicts who
had been deported (to various prison colonies) a few hundred years
ago. It truly was that bad that I found myself listening to it in utter
disbelief. Not only have some people kept these frankly f...-awful dirges
going, someone else feels they warrant half an hour
on national radio. I really was tempted to put my foot through the radio and
send the bill to the BBC. This was followed by the farming half-hour in
which various farmers were brought on to which about what an utter
train-wreck Brexit had proved to be for them personally, and had they known
what would happen then they wouldn't have voted for it in the first place.
Now I can hardly claim to be impartial on the matter, but there must be *some*
good that has come out of Brexit. There must be something positive about it?
But there is never anything mentioned on the radio. I turned the radio off, and
sang along to my (some say bizarre) choice of music as I drove through
a rather bright morning. I got to work rather earlier than I would
have liked. I was on time, but an early start in Tunbridge Wells means an
early start (full stop!) I had hoped that the trainee would have done
all the work today, and then I could have spent the shift sitting in a corner
crying pathetically. But my plan fell at the first hurdle when the trainee
told me that (being a trainee) he was still in training and I had to
do the work. That was probably for the best; a busy shift kept me distracted,
but I was still thinking of my dog at least once every ten minutes. I came home to find “Daddy’s Little Angel TM”
and “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction TM” in
residence. Having raided the KFC they were watching
“Apple and Onion” on the Cartoon Network. They then went off to a
mate’s garden where there was a marshmallow toasting going on. er indoors TM” then tuned in to
her family’s Zoom reunion. Aunts and cousins from round the world were pontificating about the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral
and COVID regulations in their neck of the woods. For me the highlight of the
meeting was finding out that Maureen has had an operation and had all the
lymph nodes in her armpit removed, and that some other (anonymous)
relative has grown a tomato plant. |
||
|
18 April 2021 (Sunday)
- Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep
I didn’t sleep at all well. Yesterday I
probably went no more than ten minutes at any one time without getting all
choked up about Fudge, and last night felt as though it was much the same. I
gave up trying to sleep, made myself some toast and scoffed it whist trying
to watch an episode of “Superstore” whilst the washing machine
attacked assorted laundry. I did another COVID test (negative),
peered into a rather dull Internet, and on seeing pretty much nothing of note
I got dressed. The plan for today had originally been a rather good walk, but
I wasn’t up for a long walk today (mentally, rather than physically).
Pogo and Treacle need long walks, and they will get them soon. But not today.
I went into the front garden. I say “garden”;
it is really a rather scratty yard. I spent a few
minutes pulling weeds out of the cracks in the concrete. As I took the skin
off of my knuckles for seemingly the millionth time
so my brother arrived. With the bathroom roof having been fixed last weekend
he had been charged with painting the back of the house. He’d made a very
good start yesterday in getting all the preparation done and was looking to
get the soffits and facias painted today. Whatever they are. I left him to it, and
carried on in the front yard. I got the weeds out, swept it all down, and
gave it a once-over with the pressure washer. That only took two hours. As I
pootled, someone had been visiting the shop over the road and had left their
car parked outside with the windows open, and “Chirpy Chirpy
Cheep Cheep” playing on a continuous loop
(for the entire two hours that I was in the front yard). Oh,
that made my day… I actually cheered when they
finally shoved off. er indoors TM” made us all a
cuppa, then once I’d cleared away my mess we left my
brother to the soffits and facias and went shopping. First of all to the
vets to settle up for the costs of Friday. Putting my little one to sleep,
having him cremated individually (and not chucked
in with a load of other animals) and getting him a good casket cost the
thick end of two hundred and fifty quid. This last week’s vet bill has set me
back over one thousand two hundred quid, and I’ve still got a claim for nine
hundred quid waiting to be paid by the insurance people. I shall phone the
insurance people tomorrow and find out *exactly* how they want me to
make the claim for these final expenses. We then went to B&Q for exterior
expanding filler (No – I have no idea either) and
a length of drain pipe. Whilst I was in the queue to pay, my phone buzzed. I
had an email for which I had been waiting. An outstanding debt had been
settled. I have a website - http://www.mankybadger.co.uk/
for which I pay so much every three months. Last month I changed the way in
which I pay, and set up a direct debit. Late last
week the nice people who provide the web space sent me a message saying that
the payment was overdue. After a little mucking about it turned out that the
money left my bank account on April 8th and arrived where it was
supposed to be this morning. So where has that money been for the last ten
days? With shopping shopped I came home. Soffits
and facias hadn’t taken long, and my brother was well into getting a coat of
paint onto the back of the house. It was at this point that I noticed that
Treacle was the odd dog out; Sid and Pogo both had substantial amounts of
blue paint on them. She didn’t. I made my brother and me a cuppa (er
indoors TM” had gone to Asda), and then got on with mowing the
lawn. As I mowed, not-so-nice-next-door came out and had a rant. When
they put up the fence between their garden and ours (over fifteen years
ago) the thing didn’t follow the boundary line. It is about four inches
to their side. My brother had painted up to the boundary between the houses
down as far as the fence, then painted up to the fence. That way he made sure
that the part of her wall that she couldn’t possibly reach was protected and
maintained. I told her we thought we were doing her a favour. She wasn’t
happy, but she rarely seems to be anyway. With the first coat of paint done, my brother
set off homewards. We had a spot of lunch sitting in the garden, and I
watched Sid sitting with us. Usually he sleeps on
his own for much of the day, but today he was making a point of being with
us. Am I being overly sentimental in wondering if he too was missing Fudge? We took the dogs up to the co-op field, saw
some girls having a picnic and came straight back home again. Dogs and
picnics don’t mix. Once home we sat in the garden for a little
more until it got too cold, then I sat on the sofa and dozed until er
indoors TM” sorted some dinner. As we scoffed it we watched an episode of “Guessable”, and like
pretty much all TV quiz shows it features the same contestants that all TV
quiz shows have on them. Mind you it is quite an entertaining show. I’m not feeling on top form this evening; did
I catch the sun whilst cleaning the front yard earlier? Possibly. I’m thinking early night… I wonder if I actually
will… |
||
|
19 April 2021
(Monday) - Extended Lunch Break
I had something of a restless night but woke
feeling marginally better than I did last night. I made toast and scoffed it
whilst watching an episode of “Superstore” in which the sensitive
subject of gender inequality was addressed. The men in that show had a point
– why are the floors in women’s toilets *never* awash with piss? I sparked up my lap-top, and as it struggled
into action I loaded no end of odds and sods into
the dishwasher. My poor lap-top takes so long to get going I really need to
do something whilst I wait for it. When it had finally got itself going I realised I might as well not turned it on. Very
little had happened overnight that anyone felt they needed to tell the world
about. I only had two emails of note… the first was an odd one. Six years ago someone found a geocache that I had hidden (and
long since archived). Overnight that someone had logged in to their
geo-account and changed the wording of what they had written. But not really
changed it very much. I can’t help but wonder why. And someone else couldn’t
find a geocache I’d hidden (in Fudge’s name). I bought some RUM (it’s
a Munzee thing) and set off for work. As I left the house
I couldn't help but stop and admire how clean the front yard looked after I'd
scrubbed it yesterday. I then went round to Banks Road. That supposedly
missing geocache was exactly where it was supposed to be; I could see it from
several yards away. As I drove up the motorway I listened to the
pundits on the radio who were talking about the proposed
European Super-League that several football teams are threatening to set
up. Opinion would seem to be divided on the matter. Some people feel this is
a wonderful development; others think it is the worst thing to have ever
happened to "The Beautiful Game". To me, one football game
really is much the same as another. I can distinctly remember saying this at
a residential management course many years ago. A few of us felt that way,
many others disagreed. That evening there were several football matches on
the telly. As all the football fans watched telly, some chap kicked over a
dustbin outside, and as everyone looked to see what had happened, someone
else flipped the channel. No one of the football fans realised they were
suddenly watching a completely different football match. But it would seem that a
couple of dozen football teams going rogue in this way is big news. I suppose
if it were hunters of Tupperware or builders of Lego going rogue, I too might
be incensed. There was also an interview with the leader
of the Conservative party in Scotland who was making claims that the SNP's
threatened or promised (depending on your viewpoint) second
independence referendum is actually illegal. Is
it? I don't know, but I will say that the chap
making this claim didn't actually answer a single question that was put to
him this morning. I got to work, and when no one was looking I
phoned the pet insurance people. They told me the existing claim (nine
hundred quid) was going through and gave me instructions for how I should
claim for the next lot (one thousand two hundred quid). I was
incredibly impressed at how helpful the nice lady had been, but when I put
the phone down so my mobile beeped to tell me that their claims
department had just received my first claim and I should expect to hear more
from them in ten days’ time. I took an extended lunch break (cheeky!)
and drove out to Sheerness. Whelans only had one
painted sausage-dog statue left, and I'd asked them to save it for me (for
obvious reasons). The drive to Sheerness from work took less than half an
hour, but when you add on shopping time, walking to and from the car, and
looking for a parking spot I was gone for an hour and a half. Still, no one said anything, which was a
result. I might just try extending lunchbreaks more often… |
||
|
20 April 2021
(Tuesday) - Before the Night Shift
I woke up far earlier than I needed to have
done, so once I’d scoffed toast and watched an episode of “Superstore”
I got dressed and shouted “Who wants to come for
a walk?” There’s no denying that I’d not been looking forward to the
first half-way decent walk without Fudge, but it went well. And much as I
miss my dog, there’s also no denying we got round far faster without him
slowing us down. It was never that his legs were too short
and he couldn’t keep up. He could if he wanted to; he just never wanted to.
There were always far more interesting things to sniff at under bushes, holes
to dig, squirrels to chase. Much as Treacle and Pogo sniff, dig and chase,
they are far more people-centred. They can’t bear to
be away from us whereas Fudge was *incredibly* independent and wilful.
We went up to Kings Wood… or what is left of
it. Since we were last at the lower part there has been a tremendous amount
of forestry work and tree felling going on. We met a couple of other dog
walkers. One chap had his dog still on the lead a mile into the woods. Why
take the dog to the woods if you won’t let them run. (Pogo learned to come
back to the sound of the whistle in minutes). Meeting the other chap was
something of an embarrassment. From some distance he called to ask if my dogs
were friendly. Of course they are friendly… and then
I looked at them. As they were running so Treacle had Pogo’s
leg in her mouth in a grip of iron and was snarling. Well – I know that they
are always doing this, but I suppose it might look off-putting to the normal
people. As we walked we saw
a pile of horse poo. Pogo and Treacle sprinted to it and ate as much as they
could, all the time staring at me as I ran straight at them. When I got close
enough to them to grab them, so they ran away from the horse poo. Foul
creatures. My Fudge would *never* have eaten horse poo. To be fair he
would most definitely have rolled in it, but eaten it? Never. We’d gone to Kings Wood to replace a missing
geocache. I’d had reports that a few of the geocaches I’d hidden there had
gone missing; yesterday someone walked the entire series and found all but
one of them. I replaced that one today. Replacing missing geocaches can be something
of a sore point. The rules say that replacing them is the responsibility of
the person who hid it in the first place. Which it is. However
when we are going out hunting Tupperware it takes two seconds to glance at
GSAK (it’s a geo-thing) to see if there are any potentially missing
caches where we are going walking. It then takes about twenty seconds to send
a message to the person who hid the thing to ask if they would like us to
replace the missing cache. And then when we are at where the thing is
supposed to be, if we can’t find it after a concerted search, it takes about
ten seconds to pop out a replacement. So – for me to help someone else takes
less than a minute. But when I am replacing my own missing ones
it can take anything up to half a day depending on exactly where I have to go
to sort the problem. Fortunately I have dogs to walk,
so I’ve hidden caches along routes which make for good dog walks, but what
with one thing and another, getting out to do cache maintenance has been
rather difficult lately. With walk walked we came home
and I tried out the instructions the nice lady had given me for making the
final insurance claim for the bill we ran up with Fudge last week. It wasn’t easy… Having started logging in to the insurance
portal the thing then emailed me a six-digit code to prove to the portal that
it really was me. The portal didn’t accept the first two codes. Then the
lap-top asked if I wanted to accept cookies on pretty much every key stroke
that I made. What could have been a two-minutes job seemed to take an age. With that (finally) done I set about
my CPD folder and wrote up that which was worth writing up. You can see what I wrote here. I’m amazed
at how many people do look at that. I took myself off to bed for the afternoon
where I slept for a couple of hours and lay awake restless for another.
Hopefully er indoors TM” will boil up some dinner, and then
I’m off to a night shift that (quite frankly) I don’t want to do… |
||
|
21 April 2021
(Wednesday) - After the Night Shift
I had been trying to get out of last night’s
night shift for some time; I *really* didn’t want to work the night shift
last night. But it wasn’t that bad really. Mind you, on Monday I was half an
hour late back from lunch. This morning (what with traffic jams delaying
the early shift) I was half an hour late getting out of work. Oh well…
what goes around comes around. As I headed home through a foggy morning the
pundits on the radio were trying to embarrass the Prime Minister about the emerging
ventilator scandal in which the Dyson corporation provided the nation
with loads of medical ventilators at cost, provided the company didn’t have
to pay various taxes as well as providing with loads of medical ventilators
at cost… Scandal?… I think I’m missing something here. I went to bed for the morning; Pogo came up
with me. I slept for a couple of hours and got up to find the postman had
been. There was a card of condolence from the vet’s, and they had also sent a
little packet of forget-me-not seeds. We both blubbed for a bit over that,
then took the dogs round the co-op field for a walk. As we wandered round the field
I found a golf ball which I threw for the dogs. On the first two throws Pogo
got it first, fetched it back and dropped it at my feet for me to throw
again. On the third throw Treacle got it and kept it for herself. She didn’t
want the ball; she just didn’t want Pogo to have it. Fortunately
I had another ball in my pocket which I threw. They both chased it. Pogo got
that ball a couple of times and we played nicely. However
when Treacle got to the ball first she rapidly alternated between the ball
she had in her mouth and the one I’d just thrown; determined that she would
keep both and let Pogo have neither. She *really* can’t play nicely. Once home I set about the ironing whilst
watching “Four in a Bed” in which the proprietors of four bed and
breakfasts all visit each other to see whose is the best.
I do like that show – it never fails to amaze me that those expecting the
highest standards from others have such low standards themselves. I finally sparked up my lap-top in the late
afternoon. I had message (via Facebook messenger) from Audre Nketia
who claims to be “United Kingdom”. He, she or it asked
“How are you handsome and rich man?”, claimed to be single and
eighteen only, (I did wonder if that was years or stones) and offered
me “hypersex” and “orgasm mouse”. I’m
not keen, but if any of my loyal readers would like “hypersex” and/or “orgasm mouse”, let me
know and I’ll forward the details. I’ve long since lost count of the amount of messages like this that I get. I report all of
them to the Facebook feds, and every time I get a message back assuring me
that they don’t breach Facebook’s community standards. I then spent a few minutes trying to blag
geo-puzzles, and amazed myself by staying awake… er
indoors TM” is boiling up scran. We will devour it whilst
watching last night’s episode of “Lego Masters” and I might crack open
a bottle of red wine. That *will* make me sleep… |
||
|
22 April 2021
(Thursday) - Diversions
There has been a water leak over the road
from our house. For the last year water has been dripping
out of one of those little covers on the pavement. As we went to bed last night so a gang of workmen rolled up, closed the road and
started drilling and digging. It wasn’t so much them
that I found disturbing as new-next-door’s girlfriend shrieking about when
would they shut up. I’m not sure when they did
finally shut up, but they were done by the time that Treacle trod on my
goolies at five o’clock. I didn’t get back
off to sleep after that. Once I’d scoffed toast (and watched an
episode of “Superstore”) I kicked er indoors TM” out of
her pit and we took the dogs for a little walk. Last year Orlestone
Woods was always a good place to walk, but over the winter it got really muddy. We went back today
and the mud had pretty much dried up. We had a rather good walk; we did our
usual circuit (but in reverse). And our usual circuit which used to
take fifty minutes only took thirty-five minutes without having to be waiting
for Fudge to keep up. I shall look at the map and see it we can’t extend our walk somewhat. We came home; I popped to the corner shop to
get lunch and some pastries for second brekkie, then (as my COVID test incubated
and my phone updated) I peered at the Internet. Facebook was dull, which,
although a shame, was probably for the best. My email in-box had some messages in it: The nice people at Credit Karma thought I
might like to know that having run up such a massive vet bill had reduced my
credit score by fifteen points. I wonder what will happen to that score when
I pay off that bill next week. The nice people at B&Q thanked me for
buying various oddments from them a month ago, and
wondered if I might like to write a review of them for their website. I didn’t like. I wrote up some CPD, played some Candy
Crush Saga until I got bored, then set off in the general direction of work. I stopped off in Hemsted
Forest – having had reports that a geocache of mine hidden there had gone
missing I thought I’d better have a look-see. Being
on a late shift in Tunbridge Wells meant it wouldn’t
take too much of my time to sort it out. I got to the car park, walked for a few
hundred yards, and found the cache exactly where it was supposed to be…
As I went on to work I found myself in a queue
of very slow-moving traffic. There were traffic lights on the A21 for
absolutely no reason whatsoever. There was a hundred yard
stretch of the road which was coned off for some inexplicable reason. I went on to work, had a rather busy shift,
and came home… or tried to. Twice I found myself suddenly confronted with “Road
Closed” signs with no diversions signposted. You would think that the
council would have sorted something out, wouldn’t you? Blindly blundering
round dark country lanes in Biddenden didn’t do much for my nerves. And the other road closure
is the bit right outside my house. I wonder what that is all about? Unlike
last night there is absolutely nothing happening there at
the moment… |
||
|
23 April 2021
(Friday) - Two Victories
Having trodden in one of Sid's turds yesterday I was pleased to find the house was a dung-free
zone when I got up this morning. I made brekkie and scoffed it whilst
watching an episode of "Superstore" which didn't
really work. The show is set in a supermarket with a cast of characters who
have developed over time - taking all the characters into a different
environment and having them behave utterly unlike how they usually do wasn't a good move by the writers. I had a quick look at the Internet. Facebook
was dull, but I had a couple of emails. The ombudsman have
formally reviewed the aggro I had with the power company over the last few
months. They said that whilst the smart meter wasn’t
sending results to the power company, this isn’t uncommon, and they (amazingly)
felt that it was quite acceptable for the thing not to be fit for purpose. But
they did say that the power company had taken far too long to sort themselves
out, and they agreed I could get cheaper leccie and
gas elsewhere. They’ve told the power company to
write me a letter saying how sorry they are and to give me a fifty quid bung.
That’ll cover the exit fee so I can go to another
supplier. And the pet insurance has stumped up for
Fudge’s first bout of pancreatitis that he had in February. Claiming to
settle all claims within ten working days it only took them seven weeks to do
this, but that is eight hundred and fifty quid for which I am very grateful. Let’s just
hope they stump up for the one thousand two hundred quid bill we ran up last
week. Feeling rather chuffed at two (not so
minor) victories I set off for work far earlier than I usually do.
Overnight the bit of road outside my house had re-opened, but my car was
still parked four streets away. As I walked to it I
deployed resellers (it's a Munzee thing),
and it wasn't *that* long before I was on my way. The traffic lights
were still in place in High Halden, but I sailed through those. The road that
was closed at Biddenden last night had re-opened,
but on seeing the amount of traffic infesting the A21 at the Lamberhurst roundabout, I took a little diversion through
Matfield and Colts Hill to get to work. As I drove I
listened to the radio as I do. There was brief mention about a vaccine against malaria,
but only a very brief mention. When you think that malaria has killed more
people than anything else in the history of humanity (it really has - look
it up!) you might think that this would be headline news. Am I being
cynical in thinking that this isn't more newsworthy
because it is the poorest people who suffer from malaria, and those of us
with money have other things to worry about? I found myself thinking about the
announcement that the Royal Family have now finished their official two
weeks of mourning following the death of Prince Philip. I'm still missing my mum two months after she went, and
does this mean I only have a week left in which to cry for my dog? (I
think I might need a little longer for both). I'd left home early
expecting the roads to be bad; I got to work in better time than I had
expected, so I popped to the works canteen to get the brekkie. It wasn't bad
I suppose, but it gave me a stomach ache which
lasted much of the day. Work was work; I came home and spent much of
the evening fast asleep in front of the telly. I get so cross when I do that… |
||
|
24 April 2021
(Saturday) - Late Shift
I came downstairs to find no turds, but as Sid saw me so he got up. As he waddled to
the door so the turds dropped out. I sighed… He don’t poop deliberately. He really can’t
help it. But it is a pain. I cleared up, made brekkie
and had a look-see at the internet. It was much the same as ever; petty squabbles over trivia. I was rather amused to
see I have been thrown out of a Sparks-based Facebook group. Yesterday
someone was posting how they have got the all-clear from cancer. Someone else
posted thanks to God for the news. I asked how that worked – couldn’t God
have had them avoid all the heartache in the first place? I’m
reminded of my old mucker (from my days when I was religious) who
found fifty pence in the street and gave a prayer of thanks, and then shortly
after trod in a dog turd which was just “one of those things”. I *really*
don’t understand how the righteous can thank their
God for every good thing that happens whilst making excuses for their God for
everything else. I had an interesting email. The nice people
at Credit Karma told me that Marshmallow Financial Services have carried out
an insurance risk assessment search on me. I wonder who Marshmallow Financial
Services are, and why they are interested in me? I then set about the monthly accounts. They
were pretty much as I expected they would be; not
too bad if you gloss over a two thousand pounds vet bill that needs settling.
It was a shame that I seem to have paid for my web space twice… I shall have
to chase that up. My brother arrived to finish off painting the
back of the house. He made a start, and within minutes Pogo was walking round
with blue elbows having rubbed up against wet paint, and Treacle had a blue
tail. He got done far faster than he had expected.
I helped him load up his bits and bobs, then got myself a sandwich from the
corner shop and set off to work. Bearing in mind I'd seen endless notices
about the motorway being closed for the removal of the "Operation
Brock" barriers, I'd left home early and I
drove up the A20. As I crossed the bridge over the motorway
I wasn't impressed to see loads of traffic going in both directions. I got to work a little early,
and scoffed a sandwich whilst reading my Kindle app before tackling
the late shift. For some reason I wasn't feeling it
today. I had swapped in to this shift, and I was
wondering if I'd done the right thing. But helping people out is always a
good thing, if only to make others more inclined to help me back in return
when I want to swap. With work done I headed home. I got as far as
junction seven of the motorway where there were signs saying the motorway was
closed, and cones leading all the traffic up the slip road. Fortunately I know the way home from junction seven, but
anyone who didn’t would have been stuffed. Just like on Thursday night I
found a road closure with no signposted diversion. This seems to be a “thing”
with Kent Highways at the moment… |
||
|
25 April 2021
(Sunday) - Rolvenden to Benenden (and back)
I’ve been sleeping better
this last week. Fudge used to sleep at my feet and Pogo and Treacle would
sleep near (or on) him. Whilst there wasn’t
much of Fudge, Pogo and Treacle are lumps. Now my Fudge has gone, Treacle and
Pogo sleep on top of er indoors TM” instead, and I have
some space in the bed. Though I’d rather have my dog
back and the restless nights that went with it. I made some brekkie and had my usual peer
into the Internet. It was still there. There was an interesting post on
Facebook from the Royal Voluntary Service asking for donations to fund a free
cup of coffee for NHS workers. That had generated quite a bit of comment. As
a tight-arse I’m up for any freebie which is going,
but as an NHS worker I’ve had quite a few freebies over the last year. However I’ve seen photos of *far* more freebies
going to the same old departments. Those parts of the hospital which are in
the public’s imagination have done far better than blood testing over the
last year, and the freebies haven’t been equally
divvied out (not that I’m in any way complaining). Mind you there are
massive parts of society which have kept the nation going during lock-down who’ve not had a sniff of any thanks. When did those
keeping the trains and lorries going, or those keeping the supermarkets going
get anything? And does a donation to cover the cost of a
cup of coffee *really* have to be pounds and
not pennies? This morning’s cup of “Happy Shopper” coffee (we’d run out and it was all the corner shop had)
was just as good as anything that Costa serves up. Starbucks and the like are
on to quite a money-spinner. There was also some article singing the
praises of Charlie Chaplin, saying how he had grown up in poverty, got rich
and “was against the exploitation and abuse of the poor, vulnerable and
the marginalised”. Some people were singing his praises, others were not.
I must admit I’ve got something of a bee in my
bonnet over Charlie Chaplin. As a young man he was best of friends with my
grand-mother’s uncle, and I am told that my relatives helped him a lot during
those years. I’m also told that they heard
absolutely nothing from him when he was in a position to return the favour. We missed little Fudge again this morning as er
indoors TM” made sandwiches for today’s walk. In the past we couldn’t do anything at all to give the slightest hint
that we were going on an adventure as Fudge would get incredibly over-excited
and not eat his brekkie. Pogo and Treacle have never made the connection. And so avoiding the
usual commotion we got ourselves organised and set off towards Rolvenden. As we drove we
struggled to avoid the myriad of cyclists (and their support checkpoints)
who were infesting the A28. They were staging a cycle race: I though those
were illegal? We soon met up with Tracey, Karl and Charlotte and set off on a little
walk. Up hills, down dales, through fields and woods. We saw sheep and goats,
and some rather over-familiar cattle. The bluebells and buttercups were out
in full bloom As we walked we met a rather odd chap
out in the middle of nowhere dressed as a cowboy. We smiled sweetly, but what
was that all about? As always our route
was set for us by a trail of geocaches, Today’s trail was one that er indoors
TM” had put out last summer. Following a flurry of “Needs
Maintenance” emails yesterday, er indoors TM”
couldn’t help but wonder what had gone wrong on her “Den 2 Den” series
of geocaches, so a maintenance run was the plan for today. With fully a
quarter of the geocaches marked as needing attention we went along expecting
the worst… Four caches really were missing – this was clear from new fences
having been put out but anyone passing could have sorted that for her.
Two had wet paper logs and again anyone passing could have sorted that for
her. (Admittedly the formal rules of geocaching say that those who
hide the specific caches have to deal with any
issues. But is that realistic? Bearing in mind that for every
one person who takes the trouble to go hide caches, probably fifty (at
least) don’t contribute anything to the hobby… I’ve
whinged this before – so many times) And (quite frankly) I struggled to see
the reason why many of the other caches were flagged as needing maintenance. As always I took a
photo or two of our adventure. Once home as I was posting photos to
Facebook and doing all the on-line stuff that goes with rummaging for film
pots under rocks I realised that (without trying)
we’d got three quarters of the latest load of geo-souvenirs. I
also realised that I had caught the sun today. er indoors TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching
various quiz shows on the telly which the Sky-Q box had recorded for us. All
very entertaining even if I had no idea who most of the so-called celebrities
on the shows were. I’m really feeling the
after-effects of today’s walk. I’m really thinking
of an early night. Mind you I say that a lot… |
||
|
26 April
2021 (Monday) - Early Shift
I woke rather earlier than I might have done, got
up and made some brekkie. Just as I was about to scoff it
so Sid asked to go out. I took him out where he slowly bumbled round the garden
before taking an age to do a gallon of tiddle. We came in; Sid tried to climb
the dog ladder onto the sofa, and the physical exertion was too much and he sharted all over the carpet. Oh
how I chuckled as I cleared up. Having obtained another negative COVID test I then
had a look at the Internet as I do most mornings. You would think that
instantaneous communication would be such a boon to humanity, but all it does
is allow us to squabble with people that not only have we never met, but also
never will meet. No matter what the subject – Hastings Old Town, building
daleks, collecting Lego… there is always an argument to be had. As I got dressed so I fussed the sleeping dogs.
And as I fussed sleeping Pogo I felt something odd.
He didn't complain as I pulled a thorn out of his
shoulder. It must have been there since yesterday's walk (if not before).
Treacle has had thorns before - the dogs don't seem
to notice them. I set off work-wards up a now open motorway. It
made such a difference not to be crawling at a snail's pace. As I drove the
pundits on the radio were broadcasting from the aircraft carrier HMS Queen
Elizabeth. Have you ever seen that ship? - It is *huge*! Apparently
the ship is being deployed to
the South China Sea to put the wind up some Johnny Foreigner or other. I got to work, found I'd
left my wallet at home and spent much of the day feeling rather concerned
that I didn't have it with me. But on the flip side there was cake at
tea-time. An early start made for an early finish. I came
home down an open motorway, and once home leaded up the dogs and took them
down to Orlestone Woods. We arrived to see a dozen
cars in the car park, but we walked our usual circuit of the woods and didn’t see a soul. Orelstone
Woods are lovely – the bluebells are in full flower, the mud has dried up,
the normal people (usually) don’t lurk there. er indoors TM” boiled up
a very good bit of dinner, and with it scoffed both
Treacle and Pogo snuggled up to me on the sofa, and we all slept the evening
away. Fast asleep when I’d rather be awake, and I
expect I will be awake far too early tomorrow morning – I wish I didn’t
do that… |
||
|
27 April 2021
(Tuesday) - Exploring
I came downstairs this morning to find that er
indoors TM” had had a midnight feast of fried egg on toast, but hadn’t cleared away the evidence. As I made toast and scoffed it I spent much of the time watching Sid like a hawk after
yesterday’s debacle. For a dog which does very little
but eat, crap and sleep he was incredibly restless this morning. I took him
out twice to no avail. I then had my usual morning’s trawl of the
Internet. With not too many arguments abounding I saw that there were those
deliberately trying to provoke squabbles on some of the Lego Facebook
pages, and someone else was trying to
sell paving slabs which were billed as “clearance – end of line” but
were still more expensive than B&Q. I had an email from the power company. Having
spent six months arguing with them and having won my case with the ombudsman,
they have now sent a circular saying that their smart meters don’t work. If only they could have said that last
October… I also had an email to tell me that the Apple
ID account (that I don’t have) had been
hacked, and requests to add people that I don’t know to my LinkedIn account. There was quite a bit of condensation on my
car's windscreen this morning. I activated the wipers to shift it, and the
action of wiping made it all freeze. That was handy - it didn't
take *that* long to scrape off. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were talking about the ongoing row over the refurbishment of the Prime Minister's
flat. I couldn't
understand what all the row was about. Surely as the official home of the
country's leader the nation should pay for it? But
after a couple of minutes on the internet it seems that the country pays
thirty thousand pounds every year for refurbishing the Prime Minister's flat.
Thirty thousand pounds per year!!! - That would be the budget for my house's
refurbishing for its entire life. The Prime Minister however would seem to
have run up a bill of two hundred thousand pounds and got someone else to
foot the bill. It was alleged that the Prime Minister lied
about the affair yesterday. That winds me up too. With the Prime Minister's lies being
accepted and expected, and his
ministers openly giving government contracts to their mates, the Conservative
party is *still* streets ahead in the polls for next week's elections.
Are the opposition parties *really* that crap? I got to work and did my bit, even though I
spent quite some time staring out the window watching three ladies videoing something
lurking at the base of a tree. I have no idea what it was, but it certainly
fascinated them. Another early start made for another early
finish, and once home I took the dogs down to Orlestone
Woods. Last Thursday I said of the
place “I shall look at the map and see it we can’t extend
our walk somewhat”. This evening I
took my say-nav “Hannah” along and in a triumph of pot
luck I came up with a longer circular walk than the one we usually do.
On the track in the piccie above where the
track heads up (in the middle) is the most
westerly part of our old walk. As you cn see we’ve added a whole new loop almost doubling the distance…
or so it looks on the map. “Hannah” would have me believe that the
distance isn’t *that* much more than the
original loop. Mind you if you look at the middle piccie
above you’ll see a screenshot I took at the end of
the walk. “Hannah” thinks I reached a maximum speed of one hundred and
thirteen miles per hour at some point on this evening’s walk. I had planned to make a start tidying up the back yard this evening… I’ll do it tomorrow… |
||
|
28 April 2021
(Wednesday) - Late Shift
er indoors TM” had a restless
night, and consequently so did I. Just as I got up
so Sid started shouting. He doesn’t like being
confined to where there is no carpet overnight. He had a choice of two baskets and he could have been very comfortable, but he is
just awkward. I made toast and peered into Facebook. The
local Labour party candidate had paid for a “vote for me” advert in
which he claimed that under his regime all would be better. “Better”
is such a vague phrase, isn’t it? It sounds impressive whilst promising
nothing tangible. But the chap’s post had got quite a lot of rather abusive
comments which spoke volumes about the state of our country. Are Labour, the
Lib Dems and all the others *really* so bad that we'd
rather vote in a party lead by a Prime Minister who openly lies so much that
the public expect nothing else of him, and with ministers brazenly awarding
public contracts to their mates. Obviously they
would seem to be... My cousin had posted something interesting.
The pub just down the road from my dad’s house is up for sale. It is closed
now, but when open it was never anything special; very much a “local pub
for local people”. Being a (ex) local I could go in with impunity,
but it was the sort of place where strangers probably would have got eaten
had they ventured inside. It had the lame to fame that during the 1970s the
landlord was in the Guinness Book of Records for holding the world record for
flipping the greatest number of ten-pence pieces from the back of his forearm
into his palm. My cousin had posted the details
of the place on-line. If I had a spare half a million pounds… I probably wouldn’t buy it. I suspect it will be knocked down and
redeveloped as a block of flats. It would be a great shame – there’s only one other pub within a mile of the place, but
(as I’ve ranted before) I can’t help but wonder if pubs have had their
day. We got the dogs leaded up and went for a
quick walk round Orlestone Woods. It’s a lovely place to walk; just a shame that someone (wish
I knew who!!) makes a point of getting McDonalds, drives at least five
miles to those woods, and just dumps their rubbish in the car park. McDonalds
really should print the number plate of all cars which use the drive-through
onto the packaging of their take-away. We cleared the mess once we’d finished our walk. Once home I spent a little while in the
garden. Having dragged loads of stuff out of the way for the roof repairs and
house painting, I dragged it all back, and then mowed the lawn. And this is
exactly what I “bl**dy hate about gardening”
(as I say from time to time). Having spent an hour’s really hard work,
the garden now looks exactly the same as it always
has done. I came in to find that Pogo had eaten his
brekkie. Being a greedy dog he never turns his nose
up at food, and last night he didn’t eat his dinner. Instead
he moped about with his stomach rumbling. Having lost one dog recently I was
worrying myself sick about the silly pup. It would seem
that whatever had upset him yesterday had now passed. I popped round to B&Q to get some decking
boards, decorative stones, screws a saw and drill bits for a little garden
project I have in mind for the coming weekend. They didn't
have the fancy decking I wanted, but plain decking planks will do just as
well. Though I had something of a shock at the till. What I thought might
cost forty quid set me back nearly eighty quid, but that's
the cost of pretty much everything these days. With utter drivel on the radio
I turned it off and sang along to my odd choice in music as I drove up the
motorway. I needed both lunch and petrol so I thought I might get them all at
the Aylesford filling station. I got there so see that the door to the kiosk
was closed and there was a queue of people waiting to pay at the window. When
I paid for my petrol I asked if I might have a
sandwich. The chap behind the counter said that they were only selling
petrol, and flatly denied that the woman in front of me had bought a
sandwich, even though I watched her do so, and we could both see her carrying
it to her car. I asked why they weren't selling
anything other than petrol. He said it was because his colleagues were
filling the shelves with more stock. In retrospect I should have smiled and
said nothing, but I didn't. I made
the observation that his colleagues weren't filling the shelves with
more stock. (They weren't). They were
standing around gossiping and neither had moved in the five minutes that I'd been waiting in the queue. That didn't
go down well and provoked a torrent of bluster from the chap behind the
counter, but I regained the upper hand by pointing out his name was on his
badge and demanding the name of his supervisor's boss. The chap behind the
counter didn't actually crap himself, but he went
from aggressive to smarmy at the drop of a hat. I'm not going to write
to the director-general of Sainsbury's (I can't be bothered) but he
doesn't know that. I then went into the main branch of
Sainsbury's to get lunch there, and consequently rather than being fifteen
minutes early for work I was five minutes late. Not that anyone noticed. Work was work... and after the morning I'd had it was something of an anticlimax.
it was only a shame that I spent the afternoon with backache having overdone
the gardening. Having managed to get a parking spot outside the house when I
got home this evening I unloaded all the stuff I’d
got from B&Q. My back really aches now… |
||
|
29 April 2021
(Thursday) - Backache
I woke with backache at half past four, and couldn’t settle. After an hour or so I gave up
trying to sleep, made brekkie and watched an episode of “Superstore”. I did consider making a start on my planned
garden project by getting a coat of ronseal onto the
planks I bought yesterday, but my back was still playing up
so I sparked up my lap-top instead. The internet was much the same as ever. Some
chap had posted to may of the local Facebook groups
plugging his political party who seem to be promising to make the Romney
Marsh a growth area. Others were slagging the chap off purely because he was
supporting a different political party to their favourite one. No one was
disagreeing with policy, everyone was disagreeing
with the colour of the rosette being worn by the candidate. More and more it seems that people are
choosing political allegiances in much the same way that people pick football
teams. With a football team you decide to follow them, and support them
through thick and thin, and hate anyone who supports a different team for the
simple reason that they are supporting a different team. But political parties are different (aren’t
they?) Political parties change their policies and their stances all the
time. And what political parties stand for affects all of
our day-to-day lives. It is a shame that people don’t
seem to realise this. I am reminded of an old workmate who wouldn’t hear a word against the Conservative party ever
since her father once told her she was a “true blue”. I often cite her
as a total failure of the democratic process. She didn’t
agree with a single policy of the Conservative party, she regularly got *very*
angry and insulted when she was told that what she thought were good ideas
were actually Labour party policy (it was!), and she spent years
bitterly complaining about the very government she voted in. I also saw that I had an email to tell me
that someone had edited what they’d written on a “Found
it” log on a geocache of mine. Their original comment was written on
Wednesday, 30 October 2019. They’d edited what
they’d said overnight, but I’d archived the cache last June. What they’d written was rather noncommittal, and with the cache
now archived no one will ever read it, so why did they bother? As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were talking about some chap who has spent six years achieving his ambition
of parking in each of the two hundred and eleven
spaces of the car park at his local branch of Sainsbury's. Those long
winter evenings must just fly by for that fellow. Needless to say
today was a rather quiet day on the news front…. Or I am assuming it was.
After the news of the cark park chap was the sports news. I really did hear a
repetitive drone of “blah blah sport, blah blah sport” and I didn’t pay any more attention to the radio for the rest of
the drive. Work was work; I came home and whilst er
indoors TM” took Pogo and Treacle for a walk, I led Sid on a bimble round the block. We didn’t
go far, and it tired him out. So much so that when we came home
he went straight to his basket and flatly refused to come into the garden
with me. I spent a few minutes getting that first coat of ronseal
onto the planks I bought yesterday and gave myself another backache. And then
my piss boiled when I came inside and saw that Sid
had crapped all over the lino. Next time he is
coming out with me whether he likes it or not. er indoors TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a
massively overpriced bottle of plonk whilst we watched the latest episode of
Lego Masters USA. Not a bad way to spend the evening… |
||
|
30 April 2021
(Friday) - Two Weeks Later
I finally got fed up with shivering at four
o’clock, got up , and heaved the duvet back in my direction. Pogo gave a
rather unimpressed grunt, but Treacle and er indoors TM”
slept through it. I then got a couple of hours of non-shivering sleep until
the bin men woke me as they crashed the bins about just before six o’clock. I made toast, watched another episode of “Superstore”,
and then had my little look at the Internet. I hadn’t
missed much. I had a message that there has been some ground
work done along the Greensand way, and so some of my geocaches there
have probably been destroyed. I shall have to fix those. And with no emails worth the electricity to
send them, I got ready for work. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were interviewing some sports personality or other who was banging on about
all the hatred she'd had through social media, and was singing the praises of
this weekend's planned boycott
of social media by the sporting world. Listening to her was quite strange. Her
feelings had been hurt by posts on social media and she wouldn't
shut up about how she was a real person. However she
was equally insistent that those posting the hurtful stuff *weren't*
real people. I'm sure she made sense to herself. There was also a lot of talk about ex Auf Wiedersehn Pet and Doctor Who actor
Noel Clarke who has been accused of groping, harassing and bullying
women. Is he guilty? I don't know. With twenty women
making these allegations it seems likely, but again we have someone who has
been found guilty by the media before any formal trial (with evidence)
is conducted. Mind you, I suppose that this case is different from many that
have gone before in that seeing how Mr Clarke is still alive
he can at least defend himself. I got to work and did my bit. As I worked so
my phone rang. It was the vet's. My Fudge's ashes
were ready for collection, and that did for me. It is now two weeks since my
dog passed away. I've deliberately not mentioned him
as it has been a tad upsetting; After two weeks I can now go about half an
hour without crying for him. I don’t think anyone
at work realised I was struggling today. I was fine collecting his remains at
the vets until the receptionist said “I’ll go get
Fudge”. Had she said “I’ll get his casket” or “I’ll get his
ashes” I would have been fine… |
