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1 April 2023
(Saturday) - Family Day
Apart from nearly squishing Bailey when I rolled
over in the small hours, the dogs weren’t a problem last night. I got up, made toast and
had a look at the Internet. There was quite a bit of
April Fool’s nonsense this morning; more than I remember seeing last year.
And I had another dubious friend request on Facebook. This one claimed to be
in need of a serious relationship, and in her profile picture was taking her
trousers off to reveal rather girlie undercrackers. It has to be said that
undercrackers made of lace are rather more feminine than the leather and
latex things brandished by the average dubious friend request I seem to get…
but nice girls don’t show off their undercrackers. We got ourselves organized and drove round to Dog
Club. Despite the rain having stopped overnight, the field was like a swamp.
The usual area in which we congregate was thick with mud, so we all milled
around on higher ground… which was also thick with mud. As were many of the
dogs. Treacle had one or two grumps, but tolerated the
other dogs reasonably well, and even went and sniffed one or two bums. It was
a shame that Bailey and Morgan both escaped the field, but they were both
eventually captured and returned. We drove home listening to Steve on the radio and
tried to work out the mystery year competition. From all the clues I had it
narrowed down to either 1975 or 1976…It was 1979. With
mud washed from the dogs we settled them and headed off to Folkestone. “Daddy’s
Little Angel TM” was having a driving lesson and we had to
supervise the littluns. I sat with “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction TM”
who was showing me his pandemic simulator on the Play Station. He managed
to survive one pandemic, but the second one (a tad more virulent)
caused a total collapse of civilisation, which he considered to be “a pain
in the glass”. “er indoors TM” was charged with
supervising “Darcie Waa Waa TM”
who was surprisingly noisy for one so small. “Daddy’s Little Angel TM” returned
from her driving lesson, and I drove everyone round to McDonalds for McLunch. There had been talk of going to the Beefeater,
but the grandchildren get bored. With Maccy D
you’ve had your food, eaten it, and gone in less time than it takes for the
waitress in Beefeater to come and take the order. As it was almost next door we went to “Pets At
Home” as “Daddy’s Little Angel TM” wanted more tropical
fish… Here’s a thought. Is it my imagination or are there far fewer places
selling tropical fish than there ever used to be? When we lived in Folkestone (admittedly a lifetime ago) we kept
fish and there was no shortage of places to get fish within walking distance.
These days there’s “Pets at Home” and that’s it. We got dog food whilst we were there… Dropping “Daddy’s Little Angel TM”
and her tribe off we came home. I spent a few hours working on my next
Wherigo project: “Astronomy for Dogs”. After an age I’d created maybe
two minutes of game play. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a couple
of pizzas which we scoffed whilst watching the last
episode of “Outsiders”. I quite liked that show. I wonder what we’ll
watch next… It’s not like we’ve any shortage of stuff to watch. |
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2 April 2023 (Sunday)
- Before The Night Shift
I slept for over nine hours last night. That was
something of a result. I made toast and as I perused the Internet
I saw that the geo-Feds have given the thumbs-up to my next Wherigo project,
which was something of a result. There wasn’t much else happening on social media
really; had no one done anything yesterday? With nothing on the agenda for this morning I went
into the garden and started that ultimately futile pastime which is
gardening. First of all (despite having done so
yesterday) I harvested a bumper crop of dog turds, then mowed the lawn. A
mowed lawn makes spotting dog turds so much easier.
As I mowed I found half a dozen more dog turds that
had evaded me earlier. It is depressing thinking about what a large part of
my life is devoted to dog dung. I then got out the garden vacuum and sorted out the
yard, and then got on my hands and knees and weeded the yard and the gravelled
bits of the garden. Despite putting down the weed-resistant membranes,
weeds still grow through them. Next was the cordyline. Its leaves had all gone manky over the winter. Expert advice said to cut
the top off and that a new top would grow again. I can’t say I’m
convinced, but time will tell; it always does. Pausing only briefly to hang washing out, I then
turned on the pond pumps. There’s an issue with the pond filters in that one
run far better than the other. I can’t see any obvious issue, but the
slow-running one is the one with the piping from when we originally set the
pond up all those years ago. Perhaps the piping needs replacing? The palm tree looks dead. I shall give it until I’m
convinced which way the cordyline has gone. The monkey puzzle tree has got something of a
ladybird infestation. Is this good or bad? Expert opinion is
rather vague on the matter. After three hours the garden looked just the same as
when I’d started, but I was feeling rather knackered. I’ve got a list of all
sorts of things still to be done in the garden, but they will keep. I had a shower, and whilst “er indoors TM”
took the dogs to the park for whistle training I went to bed for the
afternoon and had a rather vivid nightmare (afternoon-mare?) in which
all the controls fell off of the car as I was
driving to work. Let’s hope that’s not prophetic. I spent an hour or so on my current Wherigo project,
then “er indoors TM” boiled up a bit of dinner. I’m off to the night shift in a bit. And again I’ve spent an entire day before a night shift with a
sense of just killing time until I have to go to work, fretting abut having to go to work, and am going to work with a
sense of having wasted a day. |
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3 April 2023 (Monday)
- Bit Tired
I wouldn’t say that last night’s night shift was busy,
but the work was constant. It was with something of a sense of relief that I
saw the early shift arrive. I drove home listening to the radio with sadness.
There was an article on the
radio about how some woman had lain dead in a flat for over two years,
and somehow or other the death had gone unnoticed. The saddest part of all this is that clearly the
dead woman had no friends or family who noticed she’d gone. I was reminded of one of my old school’s science
teachers who went home from school at the start of the school summer holiday
and dropped dead. It was only when he didn’t go back to school in September
that anyone missed the chap. How can there be so many lonely people? I had a shave and a shower, and
took myself off to bed. The puppies soon followed, and the three of us lay
there for an hour. We would doze off, and after a couple of minutes Treacle
would then have a barking fit for absolutely no reason whatsoever. After an
hour I tired of this, got up, and walked the dogs round the block. What with
today being the start of the Munzee Clan War I thought I might make a start.
I got a QrewZee and a Qrate
(which was a result). We came home where I made a start on laundry. In
between watching the last episode of “Downton Abbey” I loaded the
washing machine, hung laundry on the line and ironed shirts. Now I’ve watched all of “Downton Abbey” I
wonder what I will watch next? With the back door and all the windows wide open (to
try to air the house through) I watched some episodes of “Four In A
Bed” in which some restauranteur from the Peak District lambasted some
pub landlord from the midlands for having a cobweb on their ceiling when his
lavatory seat had bright yellow piss stains and his bog-brush had a turd on
it. If you want to see hypocrisy in action, this is the show to watch. During an advert break I had a message from my
grandson “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction TM” who (knowing
his granddad is a biomedical scientist) was wanting to know how to create
“friendly bioweapons”. I’m hoping this is connected
with his pandemic simulator PlayStation game and not an early attempt
at world domination. I then spent an hour or so on my next Wherigo
project. I’ve now got four out of six play zones completed. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a very
good bit of dinner (as she does) which we scoffed watching the final
of “Lego Masters: Australia”. That’s another show we’ve finished watching… I’m feeling worn out… |
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4 April 2023
(Tuesday) - Before the Late Shift
I woke feeling like death warmed up. I really ached;
what was that all about? Leaving “er indoors TM” and the
dogs fast asleep I got up, made toast and had my
usual rummage round the Internet. I had an email - my leccie
and gas bill was ready to view… so I viewed it. They told me I was on the cheapest tariff (well,
they would, wouldn’t they?), and they said that (based on current
usage), next year they reckon I’ll spend thirty quid less on leccie and seven quid more on gas. I suppose that thirty
quid a year less on leccie is a step in the right
direction, but realistically two pounds fifty off of
the monthly bill of two hundred quid is little more than pissing in the wind.
The trouble is that (apart from the fish pond)
we don’t really have very much which is leccie-intensive
so there’s not that much on which I can economise. I chivvied the dogs into the garden to do what dogs do, and had a look at the pond. The water level is pretty
much what it was when I turned it all on two days ago. Last year I thought I
had a leak, but I did wonder if the cascade arrangement (which has now
gone) was somehow losing water through leaks or splashes. I think it’s
safe to say that the water loss was because of that cascade I’ve now got rid
of. Not having a leak is something of a result. But there is clearly nowhere near enough water going
to the right-hand pump, and I don’t think the ultra-violet light in either
filter is working. Ho hum… I spent an hour or so on my current Wherigo project,
and then had a stroke of genius (modesty, eh?) about how to proceed
with the next bit. But bearing in mind how long that will take, I turned the
lap-top off. I’ll do that bit later. “er
indoors TM” and I loaded the
dogs into my car and I set off to Penenden Heath. “er indoors TM” followed in her car... or so
I thought. She overtook me on the motorway, but went
to the wrong place so I ended up waiting for her anyway. I did chuckle. As part of this month's Munzee Clan War our clan (between
us all) has to scan five hundred of a certain
sort of bar code stuck to a lamp post (it isn't
anywhere near as dull as it sounds!) Looking at the map it seemed that Penenden Heath would be a good place to do this; because
there were lots of bar codes to scan and because it was on my way to
work. With “er indoors TM” being between
jobs she was at something of a loose end, so she came along, and the
dogs needed a walk anyway. We had a good Munz
session. It would have been better had Morgan not been pulling like a train
the entire time. But we walked and Munzed for an
hour; Munzing over half our Clan contribution for
Greenies (as one does). As we walked and Munzed
we met an inflatable Easter Bunny sitting in someone's front garden.
We've had an Easter tree before (during lockdown), but never an
inflatable Easter Bunny. I'd quite like one.; they are only forty-five quid
on eBay. Surprisingly no dogs barked at it. We had a go at a geocache as we walked. It wasn't
there. With Munzing Munzed I helped “er indoors TM” load
the dogs into her car, and as they went home so I set off for the late shift.
The late shift was rather busier than I would have liked; the amount of work
outstanding half an hour before the core shift went home was about what a
day's work for the entire department was back when I first started this job.
And the department (in the now-demolished Royal East Sussex Hospital)
had about twice the staff too… |
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5 April 2023
(Wednesday) - A Glass of Hock
After one of the worst nights
I've had for a long time (and that's up against some pretty stiff
competition) I gave up trying to sleep. Over a brekkie of Slimfast choccie shake I
sparked up the telly and put something new on Netflix... I say
"new" - "Shameless"
is nearly twenty years old. It is one of those many shows I've been meaning
to watch for some time. The first episode was rather good. Here's hoping for
the rest being in the same vein. Pausing only briefly to scrape the ice from my car I
set off on a mini-Munzee mission. I capped fourteen points of interest and
then headed work-wards. As I drove there was loads of talk on the radio about
the upcoming local government elections. Apparently
the Green Party is looking set to do well across the country... presumably
because public confidence in the Conservatives is on the low side (to say
the least), the Labour Party has nothing to say
for itself other than that they (probably) aren't as bad as the
Conservatives, and the Dribbling Democraps had
their chance and blew it big-time. Will the Greens be any good? Who knows.
Locally they came in last place in the most
recent elections, but with only a twenty-eight per cent turn-out, it is
all to play for. Mind you, locally the Green Party isn't so much a political
movement as something of a clique which you are either "in" or you are not. But as I've said before, we get the
councilors we deserve. If I'm not standing for election, can I really
complain about that which is done (or not done)
by those who are making the effort to stand? As I drove in to the works
car park so some vicar was spouting utter crap on
the "Thought for the Day" bit. She started off laughing at
long-established science, and then tried to present her superstitious claptrap
as a self-evident truth. I was surprised that the BBC allowed her to present
laughable nonsense as being more plausible than proven fact. But that's what vicars
do, isn't it? It bothers me that today, in the third decade of the
twenty-first century, people still believe in religious mumbo-jumbo which
after only a moment's thought is immediately exposed as wrong in every
respect. How is this possible? I can't help but think that the righteous have
persisted by being just that; "righteous". In claiming the
moral high ground, the righteous have put their laughable fairy stories on a
par with doing the decent thing. In the public perception morality goes hand-in-hand with religion. It is such a shame that the general public don't seem to realise
that "doing the decent thing" is something which is proper
and correct in its own right. It doesn't need to be done because of fear of
retribution in a hypothetical afterlife, or out of a sense of sucking up to
the Almighty. Work was work. Something of a dull day I suppose. I
regaled the trainees with tales of the Forssman antigen; antibodies to which
are diagnostic of glandular fever . Both antigens
are present on the red blood cells of horse and sheep
but guinea pig kidney cells have only the Forssman antigen. Back in the day
we used to mix human blood with mashed guinea pig kidney and horses' blood if
we suspected glandular fever. How times have changed. I spent much of the afternoon wondering about how
the viewing of Dad's house was going. Two different people were going to have
a look at it today. Dad's house hasn't been on the market for two weeks; am I
being impatient in wondering why it hasn't sold yet? With this in mind I found myself laughing at Kent Online. They don't have much of a
reputation in the local Facebook newsgroups. They are now claiming that house
prices are rocketing in coastal towns in Kent. They certainly don't seem
to be doing that across the border in Sussex. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a rather
good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of Sainsbury’s Hock as
we watched a few episodes of “Richard Osman’s House of Games”. The bottle of Hock has compounded the poor night’s
sleep. I’m knackered… But not as knackered as the shedder which “er
indoors TM” has just poggered. The
poor thing was making some very odd noises… it’s not making any noise at all
now… |
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6 April 203
(Thursday) - A Rather Good Dinner
I slept better last night than I did the night
before. However I again had to contend with what I
can only describe as "The Treacle Issue". Treacle has
figured out there is more room at the bottom of the bed than at the top, so
she sleeps there. However where my feet warm the
bed, so she oh-so-slowly gently pushes my feet over so she can get to
the warm spot. And then as my feet warm up the next area of bed so she oh-so-slowly
moves over a bit more, pushing my feet again. Eventually I wake as my feet
fall off of the bed, when I shift her a yard or so
to the left, and we start again. I got up, had a shave and (armed with a Slimfast shake) sparked up the telly. Being
silly-early there was nothing but hour-long adverts on. I found myself
entranced by one such advert (I dare not
mention the brand name in case the manufacturer gets the arse
with me). Have you ever watched these "infomercials"? I
find the things captivating. This morning there was some very enthusiastic
bloke banging on about how good his food blender was; he was ably assisted by
a grinning bimbo (who used to advertise car finance). I was
fascinated... until the pair of them went into raptures about the health giving properties of kale (which they took pains
to point out was a cruciferous vegetable). I suddenly realised
(with something of a shock) that I'd been suckered in
to their world, and took that as my cue to put on something less dire. I turned to Netflix and watched an episode of "Shameless"
instead. It was rather good, but... the plot hinged on someone or other
getting from Manchester to Calais and back in one night. Thirty seconds on
Google Maps shows us that such a journey is just a tad ambitious. Driving through the rain I set off up the motorway
listening to the pundits on the radio. There was a lot of talk about threatened
shake-ups in the Metropolitan Police Force, and getting rid of coppers
who aren't quite up to the required standard. It would seem that as well as
loads of serving officers facing all sorts of allegations of sexism and
racism, hundreds of serving coppers have got criminal records (serious
driving offences and violent crimes were mentioned). No one (least of
all the new Police Commissioner for the Met) seems to be sure how anyone
with a criminal record got through the recruitment process, and thousands of
appointments are to be reviewed, with "bad apples" getting
the heave-ho. Mind you another report shows the Met is short of a thousand
coppers as it has something
of a recruitment crisis. It has been claimed that no one wants to be a rozzer, and (needs must) they appear to have been taking
what few applicants they get. Perhaps if the Met paid more, then there would
be more competition for jobs and there might be some decent candidates to
choose from. Isn't this exactly the issue currently facing teachers and the NHS
staff (all of whom are currently staging strike action for this reason!)? Meanwhile my opinion of Michael Gove MP has gone up
as he admitted to
having made mistakes in government over housing policies. The exact
details of what he got wrong are immaterial; we all make mistakes. As I tell
the trainees at work, this is how we learn. Hopefully Mr
Gove has learned something. Sadly almost no air-time at all was devoted to the
announcement that our old friend Science thinks it might have found
aliens again. With coherent radio signals being detected only twelve
light years away at planet YZ Ceti b, it is close
enough to go visit... It would probably take quite a bit of time and money,
but going to say "hello" isn't beyond the realms of
possibility (is it?). I got to work, and made myself comfortable at the
microscope and made a phone call. I've got this theory that I might take
semi-retirement. If I take my pension and continue to work two or three
days a week I would be on pretty much the same money
I am currently on for half the effort. But there are a couple of details on
which I want clarification so I phoned the pension
people. Have you ever phoned any office recently. They all
have the same answerphone message. Is there any telephone in the country that
isn't "experiencing high call volume at the moment"? I got through and asked my questions... I was
promised a reply by email within four working days. I wonder if I will get
the answer I want. With work worked I came home. I supervised dog
dinner, then “er indoors TM” and we drove round to the Swan
and Dog where we met up with Heather and Andy and had a rather good meal in celebration
of their wedding anniversary… Twenty-one years, eh? I remember that wedding
vividly… |
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7 April 2023 (Friday)
- Crap Friday
It was a shame that “er indoors TM” didn’t
turn her alarm off this morning. I don’t often get chance for a lie-in. She and the dogs went back to sleep,
but being wide awake I got up. I made toast and had a look at the
Internet. Facebook was crawling with all sorts of posters and photos and
memes about not giving dogs chocolate or hot cross buns this Easter, and the
religious and anti-religious were squabbling. But there wasn’t much else
going on. In a novel break with recent tradition a series of
geocaches had been published. Forty miles away, but sadly that’s seems to be
the best we can hope for these days. As “er indoors TM” sorted her brekkie
I put the finishing touches to my current Wherigo project. Most of my
previous ones have been linear in that you start at the beginning and work to
the end. This one has six zones which you can visit in any order. I’m quite
pleased with how this one works, but then I was
rather pleased with my “Crystal Maze” Wherigo which probably took more
effort than all the other Wherigos I’ve written
combined, and the public weren’t at all impressed… I set off to work with something of a sulk. I didn't
want to be working today. If I had my time again I would not work in a
hospital, or anywhere that never puts up a "closed" sign. I took a couple of diversions on the way. First of all to B&Q
which wasn't so much a DIY shop as a day-care centre for unruly brats. Don't
parents do *anything* to control their children these days? Kids were
sprinting wildly in all directions whilst shrieking like banshees. I
managed to thread my way through them to get some lawn food and a new yard
brush (the old one snapped when I was using it as a hammer), and I
then joined the queue for the till. That's "till" and not
"tills". Some woman member of their staff was trying to get
people to use the self-service check-outs, but every time she tried, some
chap in the queue for the one till with a human behind it replied (very
loudly) that none of us work in B&Q. The chap's got a point. If they
want me to do the job of the check-out girl they can
either pay me her wages, or give me a reduction on what I'm buying. From there I went to Biddenden
Vineyard to get some beers for tomorrow. I got what looks like an interesting
selection. Is it though? I will find out tomorrow (hopefully). As I was walking out I was
greeted with a cheery hello. A fellow hunter of Tupperware. I'd not seen
Becky for ages; it was good to catch up. She'd recently walked the geo-series
I'd hidden in Kings Wood recently and had quite a lot of good things to say
about it. I then stopped off at the shop in Sissinghurst for a
bit of lunch. They don't give the stuff away, but it is usually good stuff
that they are knocking out. And so to work. There was
so much else I could have been doing today. Especially as the Bank Holliday
on Monday has rain forecast, and the weather today was glorious. I know it
was - I could see it out of the window… With work done I came home. Having been working at
Pembury the journey home wasn’t the best. And sadly neither was tonight’s
episode of “Star Trek: Picard”… |
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8 April 2023
(Saturday) - Not Too Shabby Saturday
I woke feeling rather grim; I’ve been doing that
recently. I wonder why? I got up and did my usual morning farting about. The plughole
in the bathroom was running rather better than it was last night; I would ask
how does a bathroom plughole bung up so often, but
perhaps the copious amounts of mud being washed off of dogs isn’t helping. It
has been suggested that I hose them off in the garden, but that would just
involve chasing three of them all over the place. Having them in the bath
means they are captured for their scrub… even if the plughole is slowly
filling with mud. Dogs, eh? I made toast and had a look at the Internet. People
were quarreling about Lego, dogs, fishing, last night’s “Star Trek”
episode… But one thing boiled my piss. The pub run
by someone who was nice-next-door two neighbours
ago was having a fundraiser. One of their regular customers had croaked, and
they were trying to raise money for his funeral. Whilst I realise
that funerals aren’t cheap, neither is drinking in a pub so regularly that
the landlady feels obliged to fundraise your funeral. Perhaps I’m in the wrong here? Perhaps I shouldn’t
have bothered making provision for when I croak? After all I shall be dead
then. Perhaps I should spend it all in a pub as well? I chuckled as “er indoors TM” did
dog breakfast. Treacle is funny. She doesn’t eat hers. She stands by it in a
shallow attempt to convince us that she is eating, then when the puppies have
finished theirs she stands back. When they come over
to scoff a bit of hers so she moves forward and growls
at them. She really does use her brekkie as bait to have a go at the
littluns. We loaded the dogs and ourselves into my car and
drove round to Dog Club. The organisers were away
for Easter and so I’d volunteered to be on the gate. I’d been told that all I
needed to do was to unlock, but there’s been issues with dogs escaping before so I guarded the gate. I can’t help but think that
it needs someone on the gate; not only to stop escapees, but to welcome
people. Especially new people. There were quite a few people who turned up
today who’d heard there was a dog club but didn’t know much about it, and so
I was able to let them know what was going on. I didn’t scare anyone away,
and all the newbies said they would be back again. It was a shame that Treacle saw my being on the gate as a way to avoid all
the other dogs by being with me, but we got her to socialise
a bit. Bailey didn’t do her usual escape-artist trick, but
did find a dead mouse to eat. And Morgan was just in the thick of it all. As we drove home I had a
minor sulk. Steve announced on the radio that the answer to the mystery year
competition had been 1983. Had he run the competition early this week, or had
we been late out of Dog Club? We hadn’t heard any of the questions, and
driving home from Dog Club guessing the mystery year has become part of our
weekly routine. Thinking about it, we did stay and chat with quite a few
people as we came out of Dog Club today. We came home and had a cuppa.
As we cuppa-ed so we heard the sound of the letterbox. An invitation from the
local Baptist church to their Good Friday service that had happened
yesterday(!) Mind you the local Baptist church are an odd lot. When we
moved to Ashford (all those years ago) we went to it every Sunday for
six months. In that time not one other churchgoer so much as said hello to
us. We then got ourselves into the “er indoors TM”-
mobile and set off to Sittingbourne. Yesterday
I wrote “I went to Biddenden Vineyard to get
some beers for tomorrow. I got what looks like an interesting selection. Is
it though? I will find out tomorrow (hopefully)”. Well, the beers weren’t
too shabby at all. We all sat in Karl and Tracy’s back garden and put
the world to right for the afternoon. Then sent out for KFC, then watched a
few episodes of “Diddly
Squat”. I can’t pretend to be a fan of Jeremy Clarkson, but this show
was rather good. As was the bottle of port we saw off whilst watching
it. |
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9 April 2023 (Sunday)
- Brekkie, Art, Gardening
I had another of those dodgy
friend requests on Facebook this morning. I’m pretty sure that for all
that the one sending the request had an impressive set of jubblies,
it was actually a bloke. I can’t help but wonder why
these people send out these friend requests. Obviously they are fake pictures
, but someone somewhere is setting up fake accounts on Facebook… Why? What do
they hope to achieve? There were a few squabbles kicking off too. Once
billed as the most poignant scene ever seen on television, the closing of the
last episode of “Blackadder Goes Forth” was getting quite a bit of
stick this morning. Apparently it was offensive to people who want to find
things to be offended about. Sadly, some people are only happy when looking
for offence and insult which simply isn’t there. We settled the dogs and drove up to the town centre
where we met up for brekkie with Matt, Bernie and Martin. It was good to catch up, and once we’d
scoffed we went for a little walk round town following the Ashford
Art Trail. After seeing some of the sights we said our
goodbyes, then got petrol and came home. My plan for the day was dull
gardening (is there any other sort?) I strimmed the lawn edges
as Morgan tried to bite the strimmer. And then I mowed the lawn as Morgan
tried to bite the lawnmower. With lawn sorted fortunately Morgan seemed to
lose interest in what I was doing. My next chore was to look at the pond’s filtration
system. A week ago I wrote “There’s an issue with
the pond filters in that one runs far better than the other. I can’t see any
obvious issue”. I took the problematical filter’s pump apart and rodded
the hose through. After half an hour’s struggling I
stank of fish poo, but could see no obvious problem. I put it all back
together and it worked fine. Whatever the issue was, it is now fixed, and
that is really all that matters. I’m not convinced the ultra-violet lamps are
working, but that is a problem for another day. I then ran out the hose pipe and set up the pressure
washer to scrub up the patio. As aways I forgot just how much mess that
pressure washer stirs up. I then repaired a poggered
fence panel and the shed roof before deciding that I was worn out. Four hours spent working in the garden and it looks
just like it did before I started… We then sat in the garden, had a tin of
fizz and a bag of crisps, and I read my Kindle for a bit. As it was getting cold outside
I came in and spent an hour or so proof-reading my current Wherigo project,
then went for a shower… or tried to. Moving hurt. This gardening is all very
well, but it really makes me ache. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a very
good dinner which we scoffed whilst watching “Dogs
Behaving (Very) Badly” which gave me an idea about how we might stop Treacle
barking out of the window at passers-by. Will this plan work? Time will tell; it always does. |
|
10 April 2023
(Monday) - A Birthday
I slept well, and woke to the miserable
morning that had been forecast. With so much that I could have been doing on
Friday I’d had to be in at work. And with so much else I could be doing today, it was pouring hard outside. There were a few photos from people who were braving the weather.
Lydden Hill Race Circuit was going ahead with what they had planned, despite
the weather. As were the horse races at Aldington that had been our plan for
today. As “er indoors TM” sorted dog brekkie I drove round
to B&Q. I picked up what I wanted (plant food and a new hose pipe)
and walked to the tills. As I came to the till so a
po-faced member of their staff pulled a barrier across the one till which had
a person working on it, glared at me like I was the shit on
her shoe, then she and five other members of staff (I counted!)
sniggered with each other as they watched all the customers fighting with the
self-service tills. I (rather loudly) announced that if I was going to
have to operate the checkout myself, I would do it somewhere cheaper. I drove round to Wickes. B&Q had been selling twenty metres of
hose pipe for forty-eight quid. Wickes were selling thirty metres of the
stuff for fifteen quid. And (as a bonus) the girl on the checkout
smiled and was civil. It pays to shop around. I went on down to Folkestone where I
collected “Daddy’s Little Angel TM”, “Stormageddon –
Bringer of Destruction TM” and “Darcie Waa Waa TM”. As we drove home through thick
fog so “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction TM” told me
all about what fog is. He’s quite a bright lad. We came home and “Stormageddon – Bringer
of Destruction TM” put “Best Dubstep Mix 2020 [Brutal
Dubstep Drops]”. Have you ever heard that? If not, click here to see and
hear what you are missing. It is truly dreadful. After about thirty seconds
it was turned off to his dismay. He was instead allowed to watch videos of “Geo Dash”;
perhaps best described as a psychedelic version of Super Mario Brothers. We then drove round to the Bybrook Harvester where we met “My Boy TM”
and Cheryl. With pretty much everything possible for “Darcie Waa Waa TM”’s birthday being rained off, we’d booked a family dinner. The last time I went to the Harvester was in August
2017 for another family dinner when a very small “Stormageddon –
Bringer of Destruction TM” screamed pretty much the entire
time. Today both littluns were very good; I’d certainly take them both back
again. And bearing in mind how much food “Darcie Waa Waa
TM” dropped on the floor, I would try to smuggle in a small
dog to clear up after her. With dinner scoffed we walked over to the
garden centre. When “My Boy TM” and “Daddy’s Little
Angel TM” were small we would go there on a Sunday afternoon
armed with some bread to feed the fish in the outside pond. Everyone else
wanted to feed the ducks; we would feed the fish. The fish are still there; they are *huge*! Whilst we were there
we popped in to the shoe shop bit to say hello to Tracey. I got some new
shoes too. The ones I got a month or so ago never fitted right and really
hurt. Here’s hoping the new ones fit better. We drove “Daddy’s Little Angel TM” and littluns back
to Folkestone, then slobbed
in front of the telly for a bit watching “Dreamland”. According to
Wikipedia it is a comedy. Whilst it was entertaining, I didn’t laugh. For
me the attraction was that it was filmed in places that I recognize. We
watched a couple of episodes; it might improve. And in closing, as well as being “Darcie Waa Waa
TM”’s first birthday, today marks one year since we got the
pups. This time last year I wrote “The little boy seems quite amiable and
friendly. The little girl seems rather frightened of everyone and everything
and feels she needs her brother to protect her”. Morgan is still very amiable and friendly, but Bailey has got too
brave for her own good. |
|
11 April 2023
(Tuesday) - Level One (Again)
I woke in a cold sweat following a nightmare in which
I had tangled a power kite around pretty much everything it would be possible
to tangle a power kite around. I haven't flown one of those things in years;
what was that all about? I got up and had a shave, despite the plughole still
being bunged up. "Mr Muscle"
and the like don't seem to have been tested on mud washed off of dogs, do they?. I then cracked open a Slimfast
shake (I'm fast going off of those), watched
an episode of "Shameless" and set off on a pre-work Munzee
mission. I often have a pre-work Munzee mission; today's was frustrating. It is possible to deploy virtual Muzees from a distance. Physical Munzees
need bar codes to be actually stuck on to lamp posts
by hand, but virtual ones can be done from thousands of miles away. You just
call up the location on the app or website, press the "deploy"
button and that's it. Job done. However the actual Munzing bit on these involves getting reasonably close to
where the things have been deployed. In the case of the ones of the ones I
was trying to Munz this morning, that was getting
to within fifty yards of the location. This was rather tricky to do when the
things had been deployed by someone from hundreds of miles away who had no
idea that the locations they were deploying in weren't easily accessible to the general public. Very
easily accessible to the people in whose gardens they were, but a bit of a
mission for me. Oh, how I chuckled. Other people have sensible
hobbies... As I headed up the motorway
I listened to the drivel spouted on the radio. There was a lot of talk about
this week's strike by
junior doctors. The idea was that senior doctors would pick up the
slack... according to the pundits on the radio a lot of them (the figure of
twenty five per cent was quoted) are having
prolonged Easter holidays. Are they, or is this BBC propaganda (shit stirring)? There was a lot of talk about President Biden visiting
Ireland today for the celebrations of twenty-five years since the ending
of the troubles, but rather than covering anything of interest, the pundits
on the radio had a ten-minute retrospective about some comedy show that was
on Irish TV at the time. It was a shame that the accents in the clips played
from that show were so broad that I couldn't
understand a word that was being said. And there was talk about how police have seized
golliwogs from pubs in Essex. The Home
Secretary has said she's told the police not to waste their time on such
trivia. The police say she's said nothing. A "he-said-she-said"
squabble ensued. I got to work, and spent
much of the day looking out of the window. The forecast rain wasn't
happening. I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time sulking about the
weather these days. don't I? As the day went on I had a
message from the estate agent who is supposedly
selling Dad's house. It seems there's been several people viewing the
house... all of whom seem to think the house is a tad small for the asking
price. Is it? I have no idea, but that certainly seems to be the consensus
view. We've dropped the price. Will it sell? We'll find out... My phone beeped. We'd hit the first target in this
month's Munzee Clan War. Result(!) And then I went in the loo and hid for five minutes
as I had a total melt-down about my Fudge-dog who has been gone nearly two
years now. What was that all about? Being on an early I got home promptly and walked the
dogs round the block before the forecast rain started (a tad later than it
might have done), and then sat underneath a pile of sleeping dogs until “er
indoors TM” came home. Yesterday I mentioned that we started watching “Dreamland”;
this evening we binge-watched the last four episodes. Supposedly a comedy it wasn’t really funny,
but I like watching stuff filmed in places that I’ve been. If only so that I
can get cross when the panoramic shot of the ambulance rushing along the sea
front to the hospital is going the wrong way… |
|
12 April 2023
(Wednesday) - An Afternoon Off
I didn't really sleep last night. I woke at twenty past two, and then
found myself looking at the clock every fifteen minutes wondering what the
time was. I eventually gave up with this rather tedious pursuit and got up. As I shaved I filled the bath with water. I
had this idea about hydrostatic pressure (science!). The theory was
that if I filled the bath with water then gave the plughole a vigorous
plunging, the weight of water would wash away any blockage. After a bit of
farting around and backflow coming up the sink I
eventually got a rather good whirlpool going on out of the problematical
plughole. Has it done the trick? Here’s hoping. Not fancying a Slimfast shake I made toast
and watched another episode of “Shameless” which wasn’t too shabby, if
only because the leading ladies were “flopping them out”. Call me an old traditionalist if you will… I left for work a little earlier than I might have done,
and took the opportunity to cap twelve jewels in Coulter Road (it’s
a Munzee thing) before heading off up the motorway. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about President
Biden’s visit to Ireland. It would seem that most
people were waiting for him to say something utterly tasteless as he seems to
have a talent for doing that. Meanwhile ex-President Trump was telling anyone who would listen about
his arrest earlier this week, and claiming that all
the officials he dealt with were apologizing to him and crying because they
felt he was the innocent party. I’ve mentioned before that I know very little
first-hand about Donald Trump, but that which I do hear of him reminds me of
some of the younger cubs scouts who I used to herd
about. Between made-up boasts and tactless comments, doesn’t America have a
better choice for a leader? I got to work and (yet again) found myself watching the
weather. It was mostly glorious sunshine with blue skies, but every twenty
minutes or so this was interspersed with black skies and torrential rain. I’d booked the afternoon off as originally “er indoors TM”
wasn’t going to be in for the pups today, but her plans changed. So I came home early and walked the dogs round Singleton
Lake looking for locations for my latest geocaching Adventure Lab plan. I had planned to then take the dogs with me and go for a rather epic
walk whilst the car got serviced, but with the morning’s rain showers
forecast to get worse, I let them be content with the walk round the lake and
left them with “er indoors TM”. I drove round to the Skoda garage and had a really
good couple of hours. I just sat peacefully in the waiting area with
no one else around. I read my Kindle for a bit, I dozed. I enjoyed the quiet. And as I sat quietly I looked at the wind and
rain outside. I was right not to have had a long dog walk this afternoon. After a couple of hours my car was done, and I drove home through the
hail. There are those who say I pay over the odds by going to the main
dealer… it has been my experience that the main dealers charge no more than
the other garages, and on a couple of occasions the garages I’ve been to
haven’t been able to do whatever it is that the main dealers do. And the
smaller garages don’t seem to have the availability either. I came home, and spent an hour or so putting
together the words and pictures for my geocaching Adventure Lab project. “er indoors TM” sorted a rather good dinner and bearing in mind today was her first
day in her new job we cracked open a bottle of plonk… |
13 April
2023 (Thursday) - Feeling Grim
Yesterday I mentioned that I woke at twenty past two…
it was ten past one this morning that I woke. I then dozed fitfully on and
off for the rest of the night. I eventually got up feeling rather grim. So
grim that I did a ‘rona test. Fortunately
it was negative…. Mind you I say “fortunately”; whether
or not it was ‘rona made no difference to my
feeling grim. I made coffee and toast and watched an episode of “Shameless”
which kept me entertained, then (with a little time on my hands)
sparked up the lap-top. The internet was still there
and, apart from one
dubious friend request on Facebook, was a tad dull so early in the
morning. I set off to work on a rather bright morning. As I
drove the pundits on the radio were spouting their drivel as they do. Gossip
about Prince Harry and President Biden took up a lot of air
time; far too much really. Celebrity gossip overshadowed talk about a
vaccine against malaria. Bearing in mind how many people this
kills every year (over two hundred and forty million cases in 2021
with over half a million deaths). I'd have thought more would have been made from the
story. Am I being cynical in thinking that the BBC is playing to its target
audience; the average punter being rather more enamored with celebrities than
paupers? But what stuck in my mind was the revelation that
those who invest money in care homes made eleven per cent more profit from
them during the pandemic than they usually do... whilst staff were all
working loads of unpaid hours. I got to work and realised
I'd forgotten to bring anything for dinner... Just as well the works' branch
of Marks & Spencer do sandwiches, eh? I cracked on with work, feeling progressively more grim as the day went on. It was as well I was on an
early. I came home and fiddled about checking that work have got my leave
allowance for the next year right. I’ve emailed them a question. If leave
years went from April 1 to March 31 things would be much simpler. I then put the finishing touches to my Adventure Lab
project. The thing will go live a week this coming Saturday as a little
something for the punters (hopefully) coming to the geocaching meet
I’ve organized for that day. “er
indoors TM” boiled up pizza and
chips which we scoffed whilst watching Joe Lycett travelling to Iceland and
Split. I’ve not seen him in “Travel Man” before;
it was rather good. I’m going to bed in a minute; I don’t feel at all
well… |
|
14 April 2023 (Friday) - Rostered Day Off
I had a far better night
last night. With no alarm set and no need to be up early I slept right
through till seven o’clock. It was only a shame that I woke feeling almost as
grim as I felt last night. I made toast, put in the
washing that I’d forgotten about yesterday and sparked up the lap-top. It took some sparking. The Word file on which I
type this this drivel (before copy & pasting into the blog) flatly
refused to open, and when it finally did, was unresponsive for ten minutes.
As was the browser window too. I’m sure the lap-top
is doing all sorts of wonderful IT things in the background… but I’m reminded
of a PC I once used to interface one blood test device with another computer.
The chap who set it up was obsessed with antivirus software, and the PC was
running six different antivirus packages. All of its
resources went on running the six antiviruses, and it had no capacity
whatsoever to do the job for which it was actually intended. Is my lap-top doing much the same? Eventually the lap-top
got going. This morning my Facebook feed was full of tales of dying and dead
dogs. On the plus side were no scantily clad ladies pretending to want to be
my friend. I spent an hour or so sorting out the admin for my latest Wherigo
project then I had a message. “Daddy’s Little Angel TM”
fancied McBrekkie so I drove down and took her and
“Darcie Waa Waa TM” to McDonalds.
You really can’t beat a sausage and egg McMuffin, can you? “Daddy’s Little Angel TM” had an appointment in Aylesham so we drove there, and
while she did whatever it was that she was doing, I took “Darcie Waa Waa TM” geocaching. It has to be said that favourite youngest
granddaughter wasn’t overly enamoured with the ancient and honourable pastime
of rummaging for film pots under rocks. She whinged and whined for the first
few minutes, then fell asleep. I found one geocache, and on seeing that the
only other one within striking distance wasn’t buggy-accessible we went for a
little wander through the village instead until “Daddy’s Little Angel TM”
was done. I took them both back to Folkestone where “Stormageddon – Bringer of
Destruction TM” was soon to arrive, and
came home to find that “er indoors TM” had gone shopping.
Despite the drizzle I took the dogs up to Kings Wood. With my latest Wherigo
project ready to go we went and hid the six film pots under piles of sticks.
The dogs seemed glad for the outing, and came back
to the sound of the whistle whenever they wandered off too far. I would have liked to
have explored a particular path I’ve had my eye on for some time, but once
we’d hidden the last film pot under a rock we were
three quarters of a mile from where I wanted to go exploring, and the drizzle
had developed into light rain, so we saved that for another day and headed
home. I told the geo-feds
about the new Wherigo project, and “er indoors TM” boiled
up a very good load of fajitas which we scoffed whilst watching the latest
episode of “Star Trek: Picard”. This season has been streets ahead of
the last two, and this evening’s episode was particularly good… even if the
new USS Enterprise looks awful. I’ve had a rather busy
day today. Mind you I woke feeling grim, and I’m going to bed feeling
marginally less grim. That’s got to be a bonus. |
|
15 April 2023
(Saturday) - Winchelsea Beach
I woke up feeling rather grim, and wasn’t happy to
see the rain outside. I had plans for the morning. I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was
still there. Lots of geeks were getting incredibly excited about last night’s
episode of “Star Trek: Picard” (bless them); no one seemed to
realize that what happened in last night’s episode was utterly at odds with
what had happened in the last season of the show. I made the mistake of
pointing that out on one of the Trekkie-Geek Facebook pages. Several
Trekkie-Geeks had theories… it was clear from the theories that few had actually watched the show rather than having read about it
on Facebook. I then spent a little while struggling with a
geo-puzzle that I’ve been fighting with for nearly two years. Can you get a
longitude and latitude out of this?
I certainly couldn’t until “er indoors TM” showed me how, And then I had an email or two. The geo-feds had
approved my latest Wherigo project. “Astronomy
for (by) Dogs” was live. Bearing in mind the rain outside was torrential I
can’t say I was surprised the dogs didn’t want to go out. I can’t pretend
that I did, but I’d offered to open up at Dog Club
this morning. Bearing in mind the two hundred and eighty fifth Rule of
Acquisition (no good deed ever goes unpunished) I put on wellies and
set off to Repton where I expected to stand in the mud and rain. About
half-way along Brookfield Road the rain stopped. I can’t say it was a bright
morning but there certainly wasn’t any rain on the other side of town. Mind
you the rain had put people off – attendance was noticeably down. And within
five minutes the immaculately turned-out dogs were just sodden messes. As I drove home I was
rather disappointed that Steve wasn’t on the radio this morning. His stand-in
wasn’t of the same standard. I popped into the corner shop for croissants and
pains au choclat which we scoffed whilst I
struggled with more geo-puzzles. “er indoors TM”
scoffed hers whilst she plugged her phone into her lap-top and immediately
had a malfunction. Or so the technology told her. Oh
I did laugh. By late morning the weather had cleared up, so we
loaded the dogs into the “er indoors TM”-mobile and drove
down to Winchelsea Beach. As part of this month’s Munzee Clan War, between us
all our clan has to munz
five hundred of a certain sort of Munzee. A week or so “er indoors TM”
and I went on a little mission in Maidstone where
we got fifty between the two of us. We got another fifty between us today. We
had a rather good walk from the car park up to the nature reserve and back;
about three miles in total. It was a shame Morgan rather disgraced himself;
sometimes he can play too roughly with other dogs. We had an ice cream each from the ice cream van
before we started, and one each when we came back. Have you been to an ice
cream van recently? They ain’t cheap… Nearly three
quid for a Whippy… but (strangely) only twenty pence extra for a
choccy flake in it. We came back via… I won’t way where it was… we came
back via the top-secret location of the geo-puzzle “er indoors TM”
had solved earlier. Having spent nearly two years trying to find the thing’s
location, it was in my hand after maybe a five second search. We chuckled as we drove home. On the way out the
dogs were squeaking and whining and were really excitable.
On the way home they just slept. We came home and flushed with success of having
found one fiendishly difficult puzzle cache I wasted a couple of hours
getting absolutely nowhere with a few others, then
spent a few minutes (best part of an hour) telling so many people
about next Saturday’s geo-meet-up that I’m running. I somehow found myself watching a documentary about Westminster
Cathedral. It was rather interesting, but I found myself amazed at how
completely out of touch with reality the Cathedral staff seemed to be. “er
indoors TM” boiled up fish and
chips, and we scoffed it watching Joe Lycett travelling to Cyprus and Vilneus. It was rather good; I liked the way he told you
how much all the touristy bits cost. When you (I) go on holiday I know
how much the flight and hotel costs, but the rest is anyone’s guess. I’m still feeling grotty…
I’ve not had a cold for ages. This time last year I had Covid and didn’t feel
as yuk. |
|
16 April 2023
(Sunday) - Gardening, Tenyham
Again I woke feeling like death warmed up. I lay in bed for a while hoping
I might nod off, but didn’t, so I got up in the naive hope that I might perk
up. I made toast; I say “made”,
I actually burned the stuff. How did that happen? The toaster usually only
warms the bread at most. But the lap-top sprang into
action far faster today than it has done for some time. I had a little look at the Internet. It was still
there. This morning my Facebook feed was somewhat political. There was a lot
of stuff about the ongoing NHS strikes with some of the more vocal people
having no qualms at all about showing their ignorance. Extremely right-wing
minority parties aren’t going to support strike action. Do union activists *really*
not realise this? And there were a lot of posts about the local
elections. All from either the independent candidates (who have formed
their own party!) or from the Conservatives who now go under the name of
“local Conservatives” presumably to distance themselves from the
national party? There has obviously been some squabbling behind the scenes
though; my local independent candidate was the Conservative mayor the last
time I looked. And an independent in a neighboring ward used to be as thick
as thieves with the local Green gang. For some reason neither the dribbling democraps or the Labour party seem to be making much of an effort on
social media locally. Have they given up? Being up far too early I left “er indoors TM”
and the dogs sleeping and started farting about in
the garden. First of all I got the old fluorescent
tubes out of the two pond filters. That took some doing; the filters
instructions say the fluorescent tubes need changing every year (which
they do) but they give absolutely no guidance
or instruction about how you actually get the things
out. Getting the tubes out is easy; getting them out without destroying the
filter is entirely a different matter. I then took the old leaking poggered
hose pipe off of the reel and pulled off the bit
that connected it to the tap. Well… I tried to pull it off. It wasn’t going
anywhere. Eventually a Stanley knife showed it the error of its ways. I
attached it to the new hose pipe I got last weekend, run it out and set up my
pond filter cleaning arrangement in which I suspend a humungous flowerpot
over the drain and wash the fish poo out of the filters. A minute to type; two hours to do. By then “er indoors TM” was up and
about so we installed dog-proofing into her car. Yesterday when we went out (and
came back) we started with three boot dogs and ended up with only one as
the puppies jumped the back seats. Now (to their disgust) they stay
put. We drove up to Tenyham to
carry on the Munzee mission that we started yesterday, adding sixty to the
clan total, and getting myself a “Beginner Cubimal
Wrangler” badge whilst I was at it. With ten of us in the clan and five
hundred “Greenies” needed between us, in theory that is fifty each. In
practice our clan is world-wide
and some are currently in sub-zero temperatures and understandably aren’t
keen on scraping the ice off of lamp posts to find the bar codes to scan. Whilst we were at it we
found ourselves walking past two puzzle geocaches that I’d solved ages ago,
so we did the geo-thing with those. As we walked we saw an
aquatic shop so I got a couple of new fluorescent tubes. We came home. The dogs went to sleep, and I
installed the new tubes into the filters. Far easier to type than to do.
After an hour’s fighting I finally got the filters going. They are leaking a
bit, but the leaking water is dripping back into the pond. I then relocated our humungous “Neptune”
statue to behind the filters; I think he looks better there. And then it was
time to mow the lawn and pull weeds out of the gravel. After two hours this morning and another two hours
this afternoon the garden looks pretty much the same as it did when I
started. I hate gardening; such an
ultimately futile exercise. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a very
good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst Bailey snarled at the telly. She
really wasn’t impressed with “Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly”. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been quite so busy in the
garden earlier. I’ve caught the sun, I really ache, and the cold has moved on
to my chest. I’m fed up with feeling grotty… And today marks two years since my little Fudge
died… |
|
17 April 2023
(Monday) - A Pressure Filter ?
I had a better night's sleep last night. It would
have been far better had Bailey not been trampling all over me. For a very
small dog she is surprisingly heavy when she treads on your "flowers
and frolics" in the small hours. But for all that I slept reasonably
well, I was wide awake at five o'clock. I thought about phoning in sick, but
I just don't phone in sick unless I really have to.
I'm silly like that. I got up and made toast. Recently the toaster has
been incinerating the toast; today it came out floppy. Making a decent bit of
toast isn't easy. If I was brave enough I'd kick “er
indoors TM” out of bed to boil it up for me. But I'm not. This morning's episode of "Shameless"
was spoiled for me by the casting. The actor who plays "Spudgun" from "Bottom" was
playing a rather nasty debt-collector. Bearing in mind that "Spudgun" is an amiable idiot I really
couldn't relate to him playing a nasty character. I then had a quick look at the pond. The water level
seemed pretty much what it was yesterday afternoon, which was something of a
result. Mind you the pond didn't look very clear... I made my way to where I'd left the car; weaving my
way through the four epic holes in the pavement that had been dug a couple of
weeks ago and set off to work. As I drove to work the pundits on the
radio were interviewing some opinionated woman or other who was seriously
slagging off OFSTED. The body has no end of failings,
not least of which (she said) was a shortage of experienced
inspectors. As I drove up the motorway there was also talk of
the Prime Minister's scheme to ensure that everyone gets maths
lessons until they are eighteen years old... regardless of the fact that
there aren't
enough teachers. And the government was being criticized for the
shortage of doctors too. How do we address these shortages? Conscription? It
worked in the navy two hundred years ago. Should the current policy of
allowing people to choose their own jobs continue if people aren't choosing
to do the jobs that the country needs? (!) During a lull at work I
phoned Kent County Council's highways department to have a whinge about the
four epic holes in the pavement of our road that I'd walked past today. No
one can dig a hole in the road without the say-so of Kent County Council;
someone at the council had given Southern Gas Networks a permit to dig the
holes because of "an emergency". This permit lasts from the
thirtieth of last month until next Tuesday. I was also told that if someone says they are having
an emergency then the county council believes them and gives them carte
blanche to dig whatever holes they want wherever they want. There really
seems to be very little actual control of what is going on road-works-wise. If I wanted to know more about the specifics of the
holes in question, the nice lady suggested that I might contact Southern Gas
Networks directly. So I did. I sent them an email saying that I wouldn't mind so much if
they hadn't obliterated a quarter of the street's parking spaces, but digging
four holes in the road and leaving them unsupervised with no work being done
for over two weeks could hardly be construed as an emergency. I suspect that after a few days they will email me
to tell me to get stuffed. As I drove home I had a
stroke of genius (I have those from time to time). I need to re-think
the filtration system again; the two small filters that I installed last year
just aren't doing it. I remembered that the people who used to be nice-next-door
three neighbours ago once gave me a pond pressure
filter. After a bit of a rummage I found it in the
shed, and spent an hour looking it up on the internet and taking it apart and
generally finding that the thing is actually fit for the dustbin. But after
that hour I’d learned a lot. I asked opinion on the Ponds UK Facebook page,
and people seem to favour pressure filters over the
arrangement that I use. A pressure filter? Could be
the way forward with the pond? I bet they ain’t
cheap. |
|
18 April 2023
(Tuesday) - Out for Dinner I woke about half past three and found both puppies
snuggled up tightly against me. I moved them both back a couple of inches,
and in their sleep they just snuggled back again.
Bearing in mind there are far worse things in life than a sleeping puppy (or
two) I let them be. I dozed through till five o'clock when I got
up, had a serious coughing fit, made toast (cooked properly today!) and watched an episode of "Shameless"
which was rather good. How did I ever miss it first time round? I then had to make a decision.
Was I going to phone in sick? Perhaps I should have done, but I didn't. In
the past when I've phoned in sick I've moped and
sulked t home, whereas if I go in to work I just get on with it and feel...
if not better, perhaps not as grotty as if I'd
stayed at home. Fortunately I'd got a parking space right outside the house last night so I
didn't have far to go to find the car. I set off, rolling my eyes at the
morning news. Apparently power companies are going to face
restrictions about exactly on whom they can force pre-payment meters; the
implication being that you can't cut certain people off. Why not? Whilst I don't think for one minute anyone should be
cut off, *if* we are going to run what should be public services as
profit making businesses then people have to pay for
them. Why should one person be freely given that for which someone else (me!)
has to pay? Or maybe (in a better world) it is time to realise that selling off the nation's infrastructure for
a quick profit was a silly idea (like we all said it was) and look at
a better way of providing public services? And following hot on the heels of his predecessor
our Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing all sorts of
allegations that his wife is profiting out of government money being
given to childcare firms. Perhaps it is time to re-think the way childcare is
done in the country, and the money allocated to childcare is actually spent on childcare rather than on profits for the
ultra-rich? And then I rolled my eyes again as the pundits on
the radio talked about moves afoot in Parliament to give officialdom the ability to snoop
into private internet-based messages. There are all sorts of reasons why this might be a
good idea. Clamping down on criminals, stopping the sharing of paedophilic pictures... BUT (as the expert being
interviewed pointed out), messages are encrypted, or they are not. You
can't choose which ones are readable by MI5 and which aren't. The public
wants a message service that can be guaranteed to be only read by the sender
and the recipient. And the tech firms aren't keen on this idea either.
Will WhatsApp *really* pull out of the UK? And then I found myself having a little blub about
my Fudge-dog who died two years ago. What brought that on? I eventually got to work. Two more miles of the M20
had been reduced to two lanes overnight. There are *miles* of slow
lane cordoned off with absolutely no one at all working on it. If anyone
tells you that "Operation
Brock" isn't in use, tell them to go have a look. I got to work and sent the night shift home. He was
glad I'd soldiered in; he would have had to stay an extra hour had I not. As
I worked I got an email asking me to take part in a competition for NHS
staff and volunteers to share (through photos) their unique stories. It wasn't that long since even mentioning on social
media that you worked for the NHS was a disciplinary matter, as I have whinged many times before. I had a good day, but was
still glad when home time arrived. I drove home and dozed until “er
indoors TM” was ready. We then drove down to Folkestone. Leaving “Daddy’s
Little Angel TM” doing dull housework we took “Stormageddon
– Bringer of Destruction TM” and “Darcie Waa Waa TM” out for tea. First of all to McDonalds.
You can’t beat McDinner (as I have often said).
I’ve not been to the Folklestone town centre
McDonalds in the evenings before. It was surreal. There were several tables
of surly schoolgirls, the girls on each table all sharing one small bag of
fries (and making them last!). Have these kids nothing better to do? Rather than having McPudding
we then went on to the Wetherspoons and had dessert there. It filled a couple of hours and gave the most recent
fruit of my loins a little break. We shall do this again. Soon. |
|
19 April 2023
(Wednesday) - Rostered Day Off
I woke at six o’clock feeling far better than I have
recently. I went to the loo, went back to bed and
was gripped by a coughing fit that simply wouldn’t stop. After a while of
disturbing everyone I gave up on the idea of having a lie-in (which I
probably needed), got up, made toast and had a
look at the Internet. It was stil there; much the
same as ever. What with the union’s ballots about the latest NHS
pay offer having been announced (and the unions not being
in agreement) there was quite a bit of in-fighting going on on-line. I predict that within a few months the nurses
will have their own pay scale and will get better pay offers than the rest of
us. I got the dogs into the car
and we set off on a little mission. As we drove the pundits on the radio were
talking about sciency-stuff, and in a novel break
with tradition weren’t proudly showing their ignorance and taking the piss out of stuff they didn’t understand. They were
talking about Elon
Musk’s announcement that he too is trying to make an artificial
intelligence. Some expert or other was wheeled on who said that anyone who
fancies having a go at making an artificial intelligence really can just have
a go. There’s more regulation over making fish and chips than there is over
making something which could potentially wipe out humanity. Apparently it has been suggested that there needs to be
international regulation of artificial intelligence *before* it runs
amok and takes over the world. I’d be up for that. We got to Kings Wood, and
parked in the lower car park… just like we always used to in years gone by.
We went on a little walk exploring bits of the woods we’ve not explored
before. As we went some of our number rolled in horse poo, and some played
tug o’ war with the headless corpse of a dead squirrel. As we walked down a very clearly marked path we’d
not walked before we saw a sign nailed to a tree saying
“Private Woods”. I thought that Kings Wood was open to the public, but
not wanting to take any chances (especially with the dogs in tow) we retreated back the way we’d come. As we were on the way
back to the car we met the chap with the moustache
who walks half a dozen dogs. I mentioned about the “Private Woods”
sign. He said that if you go far enough there’s an area where Kings Wood
meets three or four other woods. Some are private, some aren’t. I suppose there’s quite enough space for us in Kings
Wood without needing to go further… We came home and I spent a little while thinking
about pond filtration. Despite cleaning out the filters at the weekend, the
pond is still rather murky. I’d asked for opinions on the Facebook Garden
Ponds UK page, and the general consensus was to get
a pressure filter, with a lot of people recommending a particular brand and
model. I phoned “World of Water” in Rolvenden to see if they had one. They didn’t, and they
said that they didn’t recommend pressure filters … presumably because they
didn’t have any. They asked what filtration set-up I had, and they told me
that what I had was woefully inadequate for the size of my pond. I thought
about telling them that the filtration system I’ve got was installed at their
recommendation, but sometimes it is better to just keep quiet. I went on to All Pond
Solutions website… The pressure filter arrives tomorrow. Hopefully. After “er indoors TM” had sorted a
bowl of soup for dinner I got out the ironing board and set about the laundry
whilst watching episodes of “Four in a Bed” featuring bed and
breakfasts run by British people in France. I do like this show, and this was
a particularly good set of episodes; the contestants *must* have been
actors; could they seriously have been real?. There
was some old biddy (with a partner young enough to be her son) who was
more French than France. There was a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative who had
gone to France to “find his own piece of England”. There was a little
Englander who had been running a B&B in France for over a year; proud of
his ignorance of the French and proud not to be able to speak the language.
And there was a particularly vindictive little fellow and his husband; the
husband (quite frankly) deserving far better in life. With telly watched I embarked on yet another Wherigo
project. As we’d walked this morning I’d found
potential final locations for five more geocaches. I’ve sent an email to the
geo-feds to see if the locations are OK. Let’s see what they say. “er indoors TM” boiled up a really good dinner, I cracked open a cheap bottle of
plonk, and we watched two episodes of “Celebrity
Hunted”. Have you ever watched that show? I find it amazing for two
reasons. Firstly because of all the surveillance that goes on with each of us
every day without any of us being aware. And secondly because you would have
thought people going on that show would have watched previous episodes and
might have some idea about all the surveillance that goes on with each of us
every day without any of us being aware. |
|
20 April 2023
(Thursday) - Another Early Shift
I woke about half past four following a relatively good night. Some
might think half past four is ridiculously early, but as Albert once
remarked, everything is relative. Name dropping here? Having had afternoon tea with someone who once accompanied
Einstein's violin by playing on the piano, I think I can claim first name
terms... I got up and was *so* relieved that the snotty nose had dried
up somewhat. Or not so much "dried up" as "turned
into an annoying cough". I made toast and coughed through another
episode of "Shameless", then got ready for work. I'd had a
message yesterday; could I do the early shift today? I get to work early
anyway to avoid the traffic, so doing an early shift means I'm not there *that*
much earlier, but what with the early finish and missing the traffic on the
way home, I get home nearly two hours earlier. Result. Having forgotten to sort lunch, I popped into the co-op to get a
sandwich. As I was there I asked the assistant if
they had any boot polish (as I'm getting low on the stuff). They
didn't sell boot polish, but as I wandered off in the general direction of
the sandwiches so some other random shopper kicked
off a row about why the co-op (of all places) didn't sell something as
vital as boot polish. Whilst I was there I got some cough sweets.
Hall's something-or-others. Back in the day I would have got a packet
of "Tunes". Nowadays you can only
get the cherry ones; and only from a pharmacy. Or that is only in the UK. They still sell them in shops in Europe. I
would suggest this was another triumph of Brexit, but in the interests of
fairness, it seems that Tunes disappeared from UK shelves years before Brexit
was even suggested. How have they been gone so long and me only just realising now? It's amazing what you miss if you don't
stay alert. As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were rabbiting on
about what is surely a sign of our times. It would seem
that complaints received
by universities from their student have hit a record high in England and
Wales for the fourth successive year. One of the things that many complain about is the poor grades they are
getting. Having stumped up the fat end of ten grand for tuition fees, the
thicker students feel they have paid for a better class of degree than the
ones they are getting. Back in the day the level of degree you got was
dependent on how well your scores were. The perception these days is that
because the students have to put their hands in
their pocket, a 2:1 is the least they should expect. Funny old world... There was then recordings played from
yesterday's "Prime Minister's Questions". Have you ever
listened to them? In theory "Prime Minister's Questions" is
an opportunity for Parliament to hold the Prime Minister to account for the
actions of himself and his government. In practice various members of the
opposition make up all sorts of rubbish (on the spur of the moment) in
a shallow attempt to embarrass the government and humiliate the Prime
Minister. And then the Prime Minister makes up all sorts of rubbish (on
the spur of the moment) in a shallow attempt to make the government look
good, and to humiliate the questioner. Sadly the bickering
rarely gets above the level of pettiness achieved by “My Boy TM”
and “Daddy’s Little Angel TM” in the early 1990s before
they started school. It would be rather amusing *if* Parliament wasn't
so important. There must be a better way to run the country. I got to work and cracked on. During tea break my phone beeped. The
geo-Feds are happy with the preliminary stages of my next Wherigo project.
That was something of a result; it will keep me quite for the next few weeks. And I had two friend requests on Facebook. One was from a "wipe-clean"
young lady in tight latex. The other was from someone who had its chest under very firm control, and
was trying to sell me “top quality” Koi. I suppose as marketing goes,
that is a step in the right direction. I'm more likely to succumb to the
wiles of someone flogging something for my pond than I am to the implied
promise of a nudey sauce romp. Not that I'm actually going to buy fish from
random women who accost me over the internet. Having been watching the glorious sunshine from the work’s window it
was something of a shame that the heavy rain started just as it was time for
me to go home. With the dogs not keen on getting wet I worked on my next Wherigo project
and got quite a bit done before “er indoors TM” boiled up
dinner. As we scoffed it we
watched two more episodes of “Celebrity Hunted” which has to be
scripted rather than a reality TV show. Are the celebrities *really*
that stupid? If I was being hunted on that show I would find somewhere in the
back of beyond (like the New Forest or Wye Downs)
and quietly hide. I *wouldn’t* go stomping through central London or
central Birmingham grinning at all the CCTV and using my phone and credit
card all the time. Yesterday I mentioned I’d ordered a fish pond
filter. I paid good money for it to be delivered today. It hasn’t arrived. |
|
21 April 2023
(Friday) - Eid
I went to the loo at three o’clock this morning, and
then came back to a pitched battle with a small dog (I think it was Morgan)
who had claimed the warm space I’d vacated and wasn’t keen on giving it up. I
managed to nod off again, but woke in something of a
panic after a rather vivid nightmare in which I’d been appointed the NHS’s
ambassador to the Open University with a remit from the Minister for Health
to “show those beardie weirdos who’s boss”. I made toast, watched another episode of “Shameless”
then decided against looking at the Internet too much. Spoilers for the last
episode of “Star Trek: Picard” abounded. I set off to work through the rain. As I drove the
pundits on the radio had absolutely nothing at all to say about Elon Musk’s
Starship; the biggest rocket ever made which blew up four
minutes after launch yesterday. Instead they were wittering
on about Elephant Seals which apparently dive three hundred metres down into
the ocean to have
a bit of a kip. Odd how a sleeping seal is more newsworthy than an
exploding space rocket. It was also claimed that the poor performance of
some part of the economy had been blamed on weather; persistent
rain in March had put people off of going to the shops. I go to the shops when I need something. Whether I
need something or not really has nothing at all to do with the weather (unless
it’s wet weather clothing!) When I got to work I
mentioned this. A colleague then piped up that he and his wife regularly go
to Ashford’s outlet centre at the weekends and spend hundreds of pounds on
stuff they don’t want. Apparently they find they
have nothing else to do at the weekends (!) I walked into the blood bank to find an envelope.
Labelled “FAO all blood bank staff and admin – find your name inside and
open” it contained a load of slips of paper. Each one was addressed to
one of us, and had a rather lovely few lines about
the person to whom it was addressed, all signed by “anonymous”. There was a lot of speculation about who “anonymous”
was, and what it was all about. The general opinion was that it was an “Eid
thing”; we had samosas and spring rolls brought in today in honour of Eid. “er
indoors TM” sorted a rather good
bit of dinner which we watched whilst watching the last episode of “Star
Trek: Picard”. I was glad I’d managed to avoid most of the spoilers. |
|
22 April 2023
(Saturday) - Dog Club, Geo Meet
I slept better last night. The snotty nose has gone,
and the coughing has pretty much subsided. Sadly, to counteract this all three dogs have taken to sleeping across the bed
(rather than down it) in order to maximise
space taken up. I got up, made toast, and had a little look at the
Internet. It was still there. There was some really bitter
quarrelling about last night’s episode of “Star Trek: Picard” in some
of the star Trek related Facebook groups. After nearly forty years
involvement in Star Trek fandom, it has always been one big argument; it
really does seem that every single person watching the show is watching
something very different to everyone else. But these days the most vocal are
those who play the video game “Star Trek On-Line” in which you make
your own little space ship, and more and more people
are getting angry that their little space ship isn’t the star of the show. I had an email from the pond filter people. Bearing
in mind the filter that arrived yesterday was a day late they refunded the
postage fees. And they gave me a five per cent refund too. As they should(!)
I felt their website was a bit cheeky in that when you logged in it gave you
a code to enter at checkout offering a five per cent reduction, but when I
came to use the code, it didn’t work. Being a Saturday we drove
the dogs round to Repton Manor. Normally we’d have listened to Steve on the
radio, but he was on holiday. Last week his stand-in wasn’t that good, so we
left the radio off and listened to my MP3 player instead. We were early to Dog Club today, and had a rather good time. I like Dog Club in that
the people who go know about dogs. Take a little incident today for example.
Suddenly everyone’s heads flew round as Bailey started screaming. She was
underneath two Great Danes who were bearing down on her. At first sight it
looked like there was a tiny dog being savagely attacked by two huge dogs. However in reality Bailey had been playing chase with the
two Great Danes, and the screaming on being captured was a total over-reaction. The big dogs then turned and ran off, and
Bailey charged after them in hot pursuit. If she was in any trouble or difficulty she wouldn’t have chased them, nor would she
have continued the game for the rest of Dog Club. I can’t help but wonder how many people (who
don’t know what dogs are like) see this sort of thing happening and
immediately assume the worst? As “er indoors TM” washed mud (and
other foul stuff) from the dogs I popped to the shop for croissants which
we scoffed with a cuppa, then I had a little
measure-up of various buckets to find one to put the new pond filter into. I then activated the Adventure lab series at
Singleton Lake, and we set off to Singleton Barn for the monthly geo-meet-up
which (for the sixth time) I was hosting. It is difficult for me to be impartial, but I think
we had a rather good meet-up. Despite there having
been only a dozen “will attend” logs, I’m told there were thirty-five
people along. It was really good to catch up with
old friends and talk geo-stuff with new friends. And I got a hint for a geo-puzzle with which I’ve been
struggling for nearly two years. After a quick bit of shopping
we came home, and despite the hint I was still unable to solve the puzzle… |
|
23 April 2023
(Sunday) - Early Shift
Usually I am the first one to bed in the evenings, and so can secure a decent
area of bed for myself before the onslaught. Last night I was last one up and
by the time I went to bed everyone else had got themselves a space of their
own. Still, “er indoors TM” and the dogs were
comfortable last night even if I wasn't. I made toast, watched an episode of "Shameless",
set the dishwasher going then set off through the drizzle to work. As I
started off there was "Farming Today" on the radio.
Sometimes it can be rather interesting. Today's show had been recorded at a
Jewish farm in Orpington and was sadly rather dull.
Apparently the farmers didn't approve of any kind of
labour-saving devices and made a point of doing
farming the hard way and pretending they enjoyed it. I listened for five minutes, and as the drizzle got
heavier and heavier I exchanged listening to
religious farmers for listening to Ivor Biggun.
I know which one is more fun. I got to work to find things weren't as peachy as
they might have been, but after a couple of hours, relative calm had been
re-established. So much so that I slipped out for a cuppa. I turned on Facebook and saw quite the argument
kicking off on one of the "Remembering the 1970s" Facebook
pages. I am fully aware that things in the 1970s were far more sexist and
racist that they are today. But those who go on to the various "Remembering
the 1970s" Facebook pages specifically to take offence aren't actually those who were in any way offended at the
time. I can't work out what their agenda is; they are all pretending to
be outraged at a society which is now long gone. One of them wound me up on the
subject of corporal punishment in schools. I've ranted about this
before. In my school if you got out of line the headmaster got out the cane
and gave you two of the best. (Not six; two!) One boy had a sore arse for a few hours; a thousand
boys behaved themselves for a year. Over the years it has been my experience
that those who disagree with this either have no children of their own, or have the most ill-behaved unruly brats. I also had a friend request from a rather
saucy-looking young lady who had photos of her various toys on her Facebook
page. Like mine, her toys were plastic. Hers, however...
let's just say they weren't Lego. As I cracked on with work
so my phone made a rather strange bleeping and gave me a message.
"This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a new UK government service that
will warn you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby". The
government were testing their nationwide
emergency alert system. I can't help but wonder what sort of
life-threatening emergency is going to sneak up on me unannounced. Crocodiles
or tigers perhaps? Personally my money's on aliens... With work worked I drove home through the rain. I
suggested the dogs might like to help me feed the fish. The girls came up to
the pond with me and had the occasional scrap of fish food; Morgan wasn’t
coming out in to the rain. I then settled in front of the telly, and as David
Attenborough harped on about the wonders of zoology so I snored for an hour
or so. I hate doing that… “er
indoors TM” boiled up some steak
and mushrooms which we scoffed whilst watching Richard Osman’s house of
games, and whilst the dogs watched us. I really should have an early night… |
|
24 April 2023
(Monday) - So Dull...
I woke feeling rather grotty.
Having shifted one cold I seem to have acquired
another. I made toast, watched an episode of "Shameless"
then thought about phoning in sick, but decided against it. Perhaps I should
have done so? I set off cross-country to Pembury; have you driven
along the A28 out of Ashford recently? You wouldn't believe the amount of new houses that have been built recently. Mind
you talking to young colleagues, they all want a new house. No one wants to
buy an old house these days. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking
about "Storm
Ulysses”; a storm from 1903. Researchers have taken meteorological
observations from that time , plugged them into the
computers, used this data to make weather forecasts of what might have
happened after Storm Ulysses nd compared it with
what actually happened. And (would you believe it?) found there is
stuff to be learned from looking at the historical record. Is this so amazing? If you are going to try to guess
the future based on the past, surely you need as much historical information
as you can possibly get? Ans trying to predict what actually
happened is probably a rather good way to test your theories. It
strikes me that the only question here is why has it taken so long for
weather forecasters to realise the patently
obvious? I would say "are they thick or what" but bearing in
mind their demonstrable failure to do their job... There was also a lot of talk about the political
situation in Sudan with about a thousand British citizens stuck in a war zone.
Mind you it would seem that Sudan has quite a history
of coups going on. I wouldn't want to go there. And it would seem that vaccination
uptake by UK teenagers is at a low with more and more people subscribing
to crackpot anti-vax theories rather than to proven fact. I got to Pembury and popped into Tesco for some odds
and ends. Tesco there has succumbed to the self-service checkout craze. It
was a shame that the machines simply didn't work. If I can find another
supermarket that is in a convenient location, I shall start taking my money
there... or my credit card as Tesco’s self-service checkouts don't seem to
like cash. Work was too much like hard work for my liking, but
an early start making for an early finish is rarely a bad thing. I drove home
through torrential rain. The dogs flatly refused to walk up the garden with
me to feed the pond fish, so I took tat as a walk
being out of the question. Instead I downloaded bank statements and had a look at the monthly accounts.
For some reason the payment for the puppies’ healthcare plan wasn’t taken out
last month. I chased that up with the vets; all seems to be in order at their
end. I wonder what’s going on there? “er
indoors TM” sorted dinner then
went bowling. I settled in front of the telly and tried not to fall asleep… Some days in my life are really
good (like Saturday two days ago), and some (like today)
are just dull. |
|
25 April
2023 (Tuesday) - Taking A Sickie
I woke feeling like death
warmed up, but I do that quite often. But by the time I’d coughed through an
episode of “Shameless” hawking up green muck I decided enough was
enough and phoned the person on at night to warn them that I was going to
take a sickie today. Whilst I waited for the
GP to open up I had a look at
the Internet. A couple of my genuine female friends had posted that they have
been receiving friend requests on Facebook. Their friend requests were all
from macho army-type blokes. I thought that rather ironic that the friend
requests
I received today were obviously blokes who had photo-shopped their heads
onto women’s bodies. I had a look at my GP’s
website. Seeing they opened at eight o’clock I thought I’d get there promptly
and form a queue; you hear these horror stories about trying to get an
appointment. I got there at half past seven and the receptionists told me
that they don’t actually do appointments any more.
It is all done by telephone consultation. I wasn’t sure how someone could
hold a stethoscope to my chest over the phone, but there wasn’t really very
much else I could do but go home and wait patiently for someone to phone me back.I came home via the bakery
where an ex-cub’s mum was behind the counter. She didn’t recognize me. Just as I got home my
phone beeped with a voicemail message. The doctor had phoned and gone straight
to answerphone. I phoned the surgery and on finding I was forty-ninth in the
queue I thought I’d pop round to tell them I was still up for a consultation.
However the surgery I walked to this morning doesn’t
see GP patients any more. I have to go half-way
across town for that. So I drove across town and
told them what had happened. The receptionist assured me I was still on the
list to be phoned and suggested I went home and waited.
I drove back to the
surgery and explained there was clearly an issue with my phone. Phoning me
simply wasn’t an option. They asked what I suggested. I suggested that as I
was there the GP might physically see me. They told me the GP worked
remotely. I suggested that the GP might phone me on a surgery phone. The
receptionist then told me they didn’t have any phones even though I could see
two. The receptionist asked if I might borrow a friend’s phone. I
pointed out that I was coughing up green gunge and that she was actively
stopping me getting medical attention. She said she’d ask her manager, and disappeared for about ten minutes. I was then invited in to a consulting room where a rather angry GP lambasted
me about how crap my phone was, brandished a stethoscope and asked to listen
to my chest. I was tempted to ask how she might have done that over the phone, but kept quiet. After a couple of minutes I walked out with the prescription for amoxycillin
that I knew I needed all along. I got home,
and feeling worn out after the episode with the GP (let along feeling ill enough to take a day off work sick)
I spent eight hours working on my current Wherigo project. “er
indoors TM” boiled up dinner which
we scoffed whilst watching episodes of “Richard Osman’s House of Games”;
a good show somewhat spoiled by the winning contestants clapping for
themselves like demented sealions. A pet hate of mine is
people clapping for themselves. I feel like death warmed
up… my stomach really hurts from the constant coughing. I’m going to bed. |
|
26 April 2023
(Wednesday) - A Day's Leave
I woke at one o’clock and had something of a
coughing fit, but after that I dozed on and off until “er indoors TM”’s
alarm went off at half past seven. I got up, blew my nose until it bled, then
made toast. As I scoffed I saw that there
was a photo on one of the Hastings-based Facebook groups that I follow
that made me think. When I first met “er indoors TM” her
mother and stepfather ran the Corner Café by the railway station in Hastings,
and there was a photo of the place. Quite a few people had posted memories of
that café; no one I’d ever heard of though. Someone had posted a photo of his ticket for a “Sparks”
concert on one of their many fan pages. The ticket specifically stated: “Not
suitable for under-5s”. You have to wonder what
sort of a society we have where the patently obvious has to be so blatantly
pointed out. Despite the coughing I loaded the dogs into the car and we set off to Kings Wood.
As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about instances in which
your life changes in a moment. They wheeled on some woman whose life had done
just that, but ironically after two miles of driving they were still droning
on such a long-winded introduction that I turned the radio off and sang along
to Ivor Biggun instead. Just as I got to the woods
I had a message. “Daddy’s Little Angel TM” was distraught
as “Darcie Waa Waa TM” had been shitting black and blue (quite literally) and she
was trying to get an urgent doctor’s appointment. Five minutes later she messaged asking if I thought
that the ten thousand blueberries my favourite
youngest granddaughter had eaten yesterday might have had some bearing on her
dung. We walked round the top of the woods today. I found
two more final locations for geocaches. Treacle found the mud. She really is
a swamp monster; if there is muddy water, she is in it. I blame the spaniel
part of her heritage (she’s half spaniel). We had a shorter walk than usual today;
as we came back to the car we met Sam and Lyn who were off Wherigo-ing. It was good to catch up. Once home I popped to the
corner shop for supplies. Specifically something to
blow my nose into. Having eco-friendly bogroll delivered once a month is all very well all the time I’m not blowing my nose through it like a thing
possessed. Bearing in mind what the stuff is used for
I got the Happy Shopper stuff at half the price of the posh brand. I would have got some boot polish if they had any,
but I was the first person to ask for it in the memory of anyone in the shop.
I got some pastries instead. Once we’d scoffed them with a cuppa I went and had a look at the pond. I felt grim, but I made a decision.
I could sulk, or I could crack on and see what happened. I heaved Neptune out
of the way, and raked up loads of shingle so’s I could get to ground level.
Taking great care not to slash myself I used a Stanley knife to cut the
weed-proof membrane then got digging. I excavated a
hole big enough for the large bucket in which the pressure filter would sit. My plan for the day involved me getting that far,
then wasting the afternoon watching episodes of “Four In
A Bed”, but finding that I had perked up somewhat I cracked on. In a
novel break with tradition I read the instructions
of the pressure filter and decided to see if I could get the thing in place.
First of all the old filter boxes came out, I
re-plumbed the hoses from the pond pumps so both would feed into the new
filter. I bodged the now redundant second in-pipe
to become an out-pipe, tightened up all the jubilee clips and turned it all
on. I’m reluctant to tempt fate here, but I will say
I’ve had far less successful turn-on of pond filters. There’s a minor issue
with the electrics, but that can keep till another
time. I then raked shingle back to from where I’d raked it
earlier, and then got out my spirit level (“My Boy TM” would
be so proud of me!). I organized a flat area and heaved Neptune back into
place. I then heaved the garden rocks about to make it all look rather
scenic. “My Boy TM” then arrived to help
me move my soil bin. This morning I had a dustbin half-filled with soil. The
soil from the hole I dug had gone into the bin and filled it, and I couldn’t
move it. Together we shifted it. Whilst I was in the garden
I started mowing the lawn… then stopped and frog-marched Morgan inside. He
simply would *not* stop attacking the lawnmower. I looked at the filters I’d taken out and decided
against cleaning them today. I wasn’t on top form
and I’d already spent five hours in the garden making it look substantially
the same as when I’d started. I shall clean the filters another day and then see
if I can sell them. They are only a year old and the
ultraviolet bulbs are only a couple of weeks old. Sell them… or swap them for
ornamental garden rocks. “er
indoors TM” sorted a rather good
bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Celebrity
Hunted” in which so-called celebrities really did seem to be trying their
hardest to make themselves obvious to those hunting them. Mind you, it is easy to be disparaging from the
comfort of my sofa. I wonder how I go about applying
to go on that show? |
|
27 April 2023
(Thursday) - Before The Late Shift
I felt rather better when I got up this morning,
which was something of a result. I went straight to the pond and was very
pleased to see the water level was where it was last night, and that the
water was noticeably clearer than it has been. I wasn’t pleased to see the amount of dog dung in
the garden though. Having cleared it all yesterday afternoon, how could three
small dogs have generated quite so much? I made toast, took another antibiotic, and had a
look at the Internet. There were squabbles on Facebook about dustbin
collection, hospital management, parking at the post office… Everyone is so
keen to rant on-line. So few want to stand for
election to do anything. I had two dubious
friend requests on Facebook. One seemed to be having difficulty keeping
its chest under control, and the other was called “John”. With a few minutes spare I took the dogs out. I
wondered if Orlestone Woods might have dried out a
bit; it is quite the swamp during the winter, so we went there to have a
look. Kings Wood is bigger and drier, but over twice the journey away. We got to Orlestone and
walked out usual route without seeing a single other person. It was a bit
boggy in places, but it could have been a whole lot worse. The dogs behaved
well; last year I rather went off
of the place as Morgan would run riot when we were there, but he was
as good as gold today. As we walked I was amazed
at just how many trees had been cut down. I realise
that the place is a working woodland and that the trees are cropped for wood, but it was rather sad
nonetheless. We came home and the dogs had a bath. Some needed it
more than others. I then set off in totally the wrong direction for work; I
needed petrol. I drove past the place in the town centre which prides itself
on having the cheapest petrol for miles around and drove to Sainsburys who
were knocking the stuff out at two pence per litre
cheaper. And then I headed for work. Having made careful note
of the time I'd left home and the time I got to the A28 I think it fair to
say that getting petrol added half an hour to my journey. Half an hour(!)
- I would have thought ten minutes at most. As I drove the pundits on the radio were presenting
an incredibly dull documentary about Frank Zappa so I
turned the radio off and sang along to Ivor Biggun
as I drove west through the -hursts and the -dens. Much as I grumble about
the journey to Pembury, when I get a clear run (like I did today) it
is a pretty drive, even if it takes (almost) twice as long as the run
to Maidstone. As I drove through Pembury
I saw the garage which usually sells petrol at ten pence more per litre than the garages in Ashford had changed its policy.
Today they were knocking it out at a penny less than the price charged by the
supposedly cheap place in Ashford. It pays to shop around. I got to the work's car park, ate my lunch as I read
more of my Kindle, then got on with that which I couldn't avoid. And as is so
often the way on a late shift, the day was effectively over by the early
afternoon. |
|
28 April 2023
(Friday) - Before Another Late Shift
With the coughing and the snotting
finally receding to manageable proportions I was sleeping better than I had
done for a long time when the bin men woke me at silly o’clock. The bin men
won’t collect bins that aren’t put onto the pavements for them, and on bin
day they send an advance party to move each bin about a yard or so seemingly
just to make a noise at five o’clock. I wish they wouldn’t, but what can anyone do?
Complaints about the bin men won’t be acted on. As the chap at the council
said, we must all “appease the contractor”. I made toast and sent out four birthday wishes. One
to a munzing friend. One to a cousin. One to a real
friend. And one which had me pondering. There was a chap who was such a large
part of my life for many years. We would go on cycle rides and camping trips
and pub crawls. Some rather decent Christmases… and about this time last year
we heard (third hand) that he’d sold his house and moved to Scotland and no one has heard anything from him since. I wonder how he’s doing. As I perused Facebook this morning there was a post
about a “Gofundme” campaign on one of the
pages I follow. Someone who also follows the page needed money. Being
American she had no access to any NHS-type freely available healthcare and
had chosen to pay for cancer treatment rather than paying the electricity bill, but ended up not having enough money for either and
found herself owing tens of thousands of dollars. Bear that in mind when you (I) whinge about
the NHS. Despite the mud yesterday and the overnight rain we
went back to Orlestone for a walk today. When time
is at a premium it has the advantage over Kings Wood of a twenty-minute
shorter driving time. Morgan seemed reluctant to go, but he seemed to enjoy
himself even though the mud was as bad (if not worse) than I feared. As we walked there was an odd incident… at just over
the half-way point I could clearly hear someone whistling a cheery tune. I
looked around wanting to nip any potential “dog episode” in the bud.
But no matter in which direction I looked I couldn’t see anyone. Even though
I could clearly hear the whistling. And then at the end of our walk (was it
connected?) not fifty yards from the car park we met two police officers
tiptoeing through the mud. Morgan and Bailey ran up to them to say hello. The
policewoman asked if we’d seen anything suspicious in the woods. I mentioned
the strange whistling sound, and the two coppers exchanged glances. The
policeman asked exactly where I’d heard the whistle, and his face was a
picture when I said about half a mile away. He looked at me, looked at the
policewoman, looked at the mud and repeated “half a mile?” in a rather
disbelieving tone. He had no idea how big Orlestone
Woods are. Our standard walk is just under two
miles, and we don’t go anywhere near the southern or eastern parts of the
wood except in the height of summer. I would have thought that police would have been
issued with wellies if they were going to be sent on missions into woodlands… We came home and the dogs had a serious scrub. They
were filthy. Especially Treacle; she really is a
swamp monster. I then had a little look at the pond. The new filter
has certainly been doing good; I can clearly see the pumps on the bottom of
the pond which I couldn’t two days ago. All I need now is to think about
filter cleaning. That will involve a pipe long enough to go from the filter
to the drain. I got out a tape measure and even using the hose I salvaged on
Wednesday I’m still going to need twenty metres of the stuff. Good old Amazon!! I hope the stuff comes on some sort of reel. We'd
had a good walk earlier, and I'd had a few minutes in the garden. As I headed
off to work so the rain started. With little more than tripe on the radio I
turned to Ivor Biggun songs and set off to work
thinking about something that “er indoors TM” had
mentioned. Six years ago (27
April 2017) “My Boy TM” and I had emptied her
mate's pond and shifted a *lot* of small fish into our pond (forty-six).
Bearing in mind there were quite a few fish already in the pond when those
forty-six went in, there is nowhere near that amount
of fish in the pond now. Where have they all gone? The drive to work today was rather slow. As I
crawled at a snail's pace behind a huge lorry I saw
that the pub in Biddenden was up for sale. Another
pub gone; I can't imagine that one re-opening. And then there was quite the hold-up in Bethersden as three huge lorries tried to negotiate the
chicane for which they were clearly far too large. I got to work and as I sat in the car park scoffing
a sandwich my phone rang. It was the estate agent who had just turned down an
offer on Dad's house as they thought it was too low. I can't help but think
that by this stage of the game, any offer is worth
having. With every single viewer saying they can get bigger houses cheaper in
the area, I was giving up any hope of selling it. A little while later she phoned back to say the
buyer had upped his offer, and we've accepted it.
Perhaps not as much money in my back bin as I would have liked, but (in
all honesty) far more than if we'd held on for a price we'd never have
got. Now we've got all the arse ache of solicitors... |
|
29 April 2023
(Saturday) - And Another Late Shift
I slept reasonably well I suppose,
but was awake earlier than I might have liked. I made toast, and as always
looked at a rather dull Internet. Pretty much nothing at all had happened
overnight, which was a shame. No squabbles or petty backbiting… all rather
dull. However I had an email to say that the twenty metres of hose for cleaning out
the new pond filter had been dispatched. I must admit I wasn’t happy. I
ordered through Amazon because Amazon will deliver it to my door. However the seller (that *wasn’t* actually Amazon)
had posted it using Royal Mail, and from bitter experience I know that Royal
Mail aren’t averse to driving past the house, claiming I wasn’t in, and
expecting me to go to some obscure depot miles away. But in readiness for
when the hose arrives, I watched some You-Tube videos about cleaning the
filter. It looks straightforward enough… here’s hoping. Being a Saturday morning we
took the dogs round to Dog Club. There was a rather
good turn-out, but everyone stayed at the top of the field; no one ventured
down into the swamp. I took
a few photos as I do. We came home, had a cold cross bun and a cuppa, and then I set off to work a little earlier than I
might have done. As I'd scoffed my cold cross bun
I'd seen a photo on the Facebook Garden Ponds (UK) group which had
given me an idea. I was planning to do a bit of landscaping round the pond
tomorrow anyway, and having seen this piccie I needed (wanted) some flattish rocks. I thought I'd have time to pop to Bybrook Barn to get some. The roads were heaving and what I thought would be a
five minute drive took me half an hour. I got to Bybrook Barn and ended up asking the staff to make an
announcement over the loudspeakers. In all honesty there couldn't have been
more than three or four people in the place who actually realised that they weren't the only customers in
the place. People were blundering about, randomly stopping for no reason
whatsoever, and crashing head-on into other shoppers as though they were
invisible. The chap on the counter agreed with me; they really did need to be
told to open their eyes and look at the world around them. But (he
admitted) he wasn't brave enough to tell them. And then when I got to the tills there was some chap
who was trying to push in at every till despite his wife telling him he had
to join the queues like everyone else had done. There's no denying that my piss
was boiling as I drove out of the car park; it cooled as I sang along (very
loudly) to Ivor Biggun songs. Pausing only briefly in Sissinghurst for a steak and
stilton pasty I was soon at work. There’s no denying that I sulked as I worked today.
I had planned to go to the Kent Lego Show in
Medway today. And failing that I could have rallied the troops to
go to the London Calling
geocaching event. I could have spent time swimming with the
grandchildren. Instead I was working. |
|
30 April 2023
(Sunday) - Badlesmere, Pond
I woke to find “er indoors TM” sleeping
at the bottom of the bed. Apparently she too had had
problems claiming bed space from sleeping dogs. It’s unlike her to take any
lip from the pups, though. I got up, put a load of washing on, made toast and
had a look at the Internet. I had two
more friend requests from rather dubious young ladies. The first one
didn’t say anything at all about herself on her profile. I expect she was
letting her chest do the taking. From a purely objective point of view, she
had a rather impressive chest, If I had one like that
I too would brandish it with similar wanton abandon. From a chest perspective the second one didn’t come
close, and (to be fair to her) she wasn’t trying to compete. However she had a whip so she meant business. She was also
wearing waders. My father had a pair that he used when he went shrimping. I sent out some birthday wishes, and then sighed.
Someone had posted a photo from a bookshop in Hastings. A book I once had (in
the mid 1970s) was up for sale for a hundred
and fifty quid. There were quite a few people posting “how much!!!”
but I had a look on eBay and on collector’s sites. It is ironic to think that
something
I once had and chucked out is now worth a small fortune. Also in Hastings (well, a Hastings-related Facebook group) were
photos of the Memorial. If you’ve ever driven through Hastings “the
Memorial” is the pedestrian area with all the traffic lights where up until 1970 there was a memorial to Prince
Albert. It was demolished in 1970 after a fire. One or two locals were
demanding the demolition of the pedestrian area and the re-building of the
Memorial. Hastings-based Facebook groups are full of spur of the moment
complaints about the local council coming from people who wouldn’t dream of
getting off their arse to
do anything themselves. We got ourselves and the dogs organized and drove
out to Badlesmere where we met Karl and Tracey, and wandered round “er indoors TM”
series of geocaches. She sorted out any issues; I took
a few photos. And with walk walked we had a rather good pub dinner and I slept all the way home. Bearing in mind the weather forecast for tomorrow
wasn’t overly good, I got busy in the garden. First of all
I ran out the hose pipe, set up the fish pond filter cleaning arrangement and
scrubbed out the two filters that I took out on Wednesday. I then buried the cable for the new filter under a
paving slab, and landscaped a rockery behind the pond’s splash pool.. And then I dismantled the cascade I built last
August Bank Holiday. With jobs done I looked at
the pond and had a little think and reviewed the situation with the pond. A
year ago I had a rather huge filter box that wasn’t
really cleaning the water, looked awful and was far too heavy for me to clean
out without knacking my back. So
over last summer I replaced it with two smaller filter boxes. That was
over three hundred quid on something which bunged up with fish poo really quickly. looked even worse than that which it had replaced, and didn’t clean the water either. So I got a load of paving slabs and landscaping to hide
the new boxes and built a cascade. Four hundred quid on something which
looked frankly dreadful and leaked. The filter I installed last Wednesday (together
with the cleaning hoses) was the two hundred quid I should have spent in
the first place. I’ve now got the pond clear, which was the object of
the exercise. The area above the splash pool is far from perfect,
but is a vast improvement on what it was. I can tinker with that over
the next few weeks. It needs more big rocks, but at a fiver a throw I might
wait for a while. Especially as I have effectively wasted seven hundred quid
on that pond over the last year. Now that the old filters are scrubbed out I really need to look at selling them (if I can). If an of my loyal readers have got any rocks they don’t want… I really ache now… rather than taking my time, this
afternoon I did everything on my list for tomorrow. I really should slow down
when it comes to shifting heavy rocks about. |
