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1 April 2025
(Tuesday) - Before the Late Shift
After
a night filled with vivid dreams of being neck deep in private ponds attempting
to harvest water lilies I woke with a rather bad backache. Being the first of
the month I shaved with a new razor blade (I’m mean – I make them last)
then had my usual look on-line. Yesterday I’d asked on one of the pond-related
Facebook pages if anyone knew anywhere selling cheap lilies. Amazingly there
weren’t that many smartarse replies. It seems that there are water lilies for
sale for a tenner – in places like Liverpool and Manchester. For some reason today’s Facebook feed was filled
with adverts for matresses. I did a
sleep test – my sleep
chronotype is “dolphin” . Apparently “dolphins” are
ten per cent of people, and they sleep like I do. My sleep
score is sixty-six not that this means anything to me. I munzed, wordled (piece – meter – level – jewel).
I saw that the geocache I’d chased after yesterday had been replaced. I
couldn’t be arsed to go chasing it again. Instead I took the dogs to
Orlestone Woods. It can be muddy there, but it is a shorter walk and closer
to home. We went there, had a good walk round the woods and were home about
two hours earlier than when we come home from Kings Wood. As we drove home the pundits on the radio were
discussing meetings in the workplace. It was claimed that the average person
spends over twenty hours a week in meetings and is still expected to do a
full time job, and that many people are doing the actual work in their own
time in evenings and weekends. I can remember when I was a manager telling my boss
that I didn’t want to go to any more meetings. He knew what he wanted to
happen and we could all save time by his simply giving out orders. He replied
that I wasn’t a team player. I also once put in a formal suggestion that a random
time of day be picked, and anyone found in a meeting anywhere in the hospital
at that time be summarily sacked as they clearly weren’t doing any work. That
didn’t go down well. I was once ordered to a meeting to discuss our
workplace’s approach to another upcoming meeting, the outcome of which had
already been decided (but we still went through both meetings). Meetings are an utter waste of time… why do so many
people love them. I uploaded last month’s diaries to the backup, put my
winter shirts away and got out the summer ones (I change shirts at
daylight saving time) and got ready for the off. I went to Sainsburys to get some petrol. I got lunch
whilst I was at it, and then set off up the motorway singing along to Ivor
Biggun songs. With a little time on my hands I took a small (forty miles)
diversion up to Sheerness and Whelans to get some more garden odds and ends.
With most places selling garden gnomes at about ten to fifteen quid, Whelans
knock them out (unpainted) for a fiver. I got gnome paint and gnome
varnish as well. And an unpainted Rupert Bear statue whilst I was at it.
Hopefully gnome paint will do for Rupert; if it does, that will give me
something to do on my next day off. As
I drove back down Detling hill I saw that petrol there was seven pence a
litre more expensive than what I'd just paid in Ashford. I smiled a smug
smile. The smug smile lasted until I got to the Aylesford Sainsburys where
their petrol was five pence a litre cheaper than what I'd paid. That's a
variation of twelve pence per litre in twenty-five miles. It pays to shop
about. I
bought a box of half a dozen beers for the weekend and some tennis balls for
dog club, then went on to work. I parked up... and fell asleep. Fortunately
I woke in time for the late shift and as is so often the case all the
good bits of the day were over and done with by the early afternoon. I don't
dislike my job like I used to... but sometimes I do find that work is hard
work... |
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2 April 2025
(Tuesday) - Dead Butt Syndrome
A
few weeks ago we had a run-in with a rather over-excitable horse which I
reported to the public rights of way people at Kent County Council. Overnight
I received an email from someone called Denis saying that “Dangerous animals and livestock incidents are enforced by the HSE
(Health and Safety Executive)”. I told
Denis that a month had passed and it was all rather late. It must be wonderful to work in a job that has
absolutely no urgency. Once I’d scoffed toast and watched another episode
of “Orange is the New Black” I got ready for work. I went to my car
which was absolutely miles away, brought it to the now vacant parking space
outside the house and unloaded all the stuff I got in Whelan’s yesterday. One
of the biggest problems with the late shifts is my being unable to park
anywhere remotely near the house when I get home. Last night I drove past the
house and then circled the local streets for twenty minutes trying to find a
parking space. As did at least six other cars that I saw driving round also
all trying to park. The trouble is that people don’t park sensibly. Bays that
could hold seven cars have five as no one gives a thought as to how they are
going to abandon their car. I
went round to the co-op to get dinner. Once I'd fed my loose change into the
self-service machine I saw Martin getting his shopping. We chatted for a bit,
then I set off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were playing
recordings of yesterday's parliamentary debates. I say "debates";
"petty bickering" would be closer to the truth. Those
elected to run the show were squabbling like ill-behaved brats. I was reminded
of the fruits of my loin quarrelling when they were small and very tired.
Perhaps if someone were to send the MPs to bed with slapped arses the country
might be in a better state. This
was followed by an interview with the head honcho of the British
Butterfly Brigade who said that butterfly numbers have been on the decrease for fifty
years. He also said that buddleias are good for butterflies, so I'm doing my
bit. Even if unintentionally. I
got to work and did my bit. As I skived so a contingent of senior managers
from other local hospitals came through. As they wandered past one of then
cheerfully said "hello Dave". I wonder who he was?
Something similar happened yesterday as well. As I was putting petrol into my
car the woman at the next pump said hello and started chatting. She clearly
knew me even though I had no idea who she was. And
then a colleague was complaining that she was in pain after running on
account of her having "lazy glutes", or "dead butt syndrome" to use the
technical term. Apparently
people who run or walk a lot get this if they stop running or walking for any
length of time... which is probably why a long dog walk is hard work if I've
not taken them out for a while. It turns out that one of the recognised
treatments for this condition (in sports clinics) is infusions of the
injured person's own platelets. Platelet transfusions are something I oversee
every day... but autologous (your own platelets) transfusions can be
given for a range of conditions including
sports injury and hair loss. I
might just over-over from NHSBT and rub a couple of doses on my head. I
was glad when home time came – I think I might have over-done the lifting
what I emptied my car earlier. My back was rather tender. As “er indoors TM” boiled
up dinner I spotted she’d had a haircut. Go me. We had a rather good bit of
dinner which we washed down with a bottle of chianti. Bearing in mind my
being up at silly o’clock this morning I’m hoping this will have me fast
asleep before too much longer. |
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3 April 2025
(Thursday) - Painting Gnomes
Last
night I made a start on painting my new garden ornaments. Finding myself
awake earlier than I might have been this morning I cracked on and got the
Rupert statue painted. He looked a bit boss-eyed if you look closely… and
rather scary too. I shall stick that statue somewhere in the garden where
people won’t look that closely. I made toast and had my usual rummage round the
Internet. It was still there. Not much was happening on social media, but
there was a post on the “Blood Bank Professionals” group. I follow
several work-related groups on Facebook; partly out of a desire to learn
something, and partly out of a sense of utter amazement at what goes on in
America. In the UK we have strict national standards to which we must adhere,
and everyone does just that. In the USA there’s either no standards at all,
or if there are they are treated as guidelines that you might wish to follow
if you could be bothered. Time and again people are posting “what would
you do if…” to Facebook and then describe a scenario for which I’ve had
written instructions for as long as I can remember. Bear this in mind when you want to vote for someone
who advocates an American-style form of healthcare in which your treatment is
that advocated by the first person to post to a random Facebook group. I had an email too. Some time ago (16th January)
I wrote to my county councilor and my MP about the flooding at the underpass
by Asda. Both replied promising to look into the matter. Overnight the MP
replied. He’d been on to the county council and been told that “it
is not viable to provide remedy of flooding at this location. Even if the
wall was extended, the area forms a low point so rainwater and surface water
from higher ground would continue to collect with no means of escape. The
council has no control of the source of flooding in this instance so there
will be some instances where the route will unfortunately be unavailable for
use until the river levels recede”. The obvious answer would be to find
the source of the flooding and consequently who does have control of it but,
as I replied to my MP, he’s actually taken time to look into the issue. I suppose that if nothing else I now have the name
of someone at Kent County Council who knows something about the matter. I’ll
get onto him and ask him what is the actual source of the flooding. Bearing in mind my county councilor is up for
re-election I’d have thought he might have taken the time to reply. Having
said that, my MP has paid staff to reply for him. Do county councilors have
paid staff to do their bidding? I also had an email telling me about a geo-event in
Viccie park later in the month, and I saw that someone had found that
geocache I didn’t find on Monday. I tried to Munz, but the Munzee website was
poggered. So instead I Wordled. Starting with “plate” I worked through
“dream” to get “shear” on the third go. I put a load of washing in to scrub then took the
dogs to the woods where we had a rather uneventful walk right up till when we
got back to the car park where we met two women who had at least ten dogs
between them. They recognized me, and commented how I never wanted Fudge and
now I’ve got three dogs. I wonder who they were. We came home. I made a cuppa then cracked on in the
garden. I hung out the washing, mowed the lawn, cleaned both pond filters,
topped up the water filters, got out the garden table and then feeling that I
needed a rest spent the afternoon painting gnomes. Those things are
surprisingly heavy, and I felt my back twinging as I moved them about. Painting
four gnomes took over four hours, but it kept me out of mischief. My dad used to make garden gnomes. His were really good,
but people kept stealing them. I wonder if I might make some – but by the
time I’ve got moulds and mixed the cement it’s a lot of farting about.
Especially when Whelans are knocking them out for a fiver. “er indoors TM” boiled up bangers and mash which we scoffed whilst watching that new
thing on UK Gold featuring Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey on a
little holiday going round France. It was claimed that Neil Morrissey now
lives there. His
page on Wikipedia doesn’t mention it. My face is glowing – I think I caught the sun today.
And my back hurts again. |
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4 April 2025 (Friday)
- Two Hundred Calories
I
had another of those nights where I woke feeling full of energy and raring to
go only to find it wasn’t even one o’clock. I then dozed on and off until
finally giving up and getting up at five o’clock. I made toast and watched an episode of “Orange is
the New Black” then had my usual peer in to the Internet. It was
relatively dull today, but a few people were talking about the start of the
holiday. It took me a little while to realise that they meant Easter. Quite a
few people are now on a two-week holiday. I can’t complain – these days my
life is much more holiday than it ever used to be. I
went round to the co-op to get dinner which was easier said than done. The
self-service machines were both poggered and the woman in front of me in the
queue... oh dear. When she came to pay she just waved her bank card in the
air in much the same way that Harry Potter might wave a magic wand. The woman
behind the till had to take the card off of her and show her how to use it. I
got to the motorway and was rather dismayed to see that some genius had
re-installed the stupidity that is Operation Brock. Again there were cars
mixed in with the lorries in the coast-bound carriageway, and again there was
too much traffic going far too fast in the London-bound carriageway. But the
those at Kent County Council know best... As
I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the world's reaction to the tariffs President Trump
has put on them. Interestingly some American spokesman was on saying that the
UK government should shut its rattle and be grateful that the tariffs on the
UK are less than half of that on the EU. No
one wanted to address why Russia doesn't face any tariffs. And
there was talk about the disaster relief operations in Myanmar. The general
consensus was that it is now too late to expect to find anyone else still
alive, and pointed comments were made about the lack of American response to the
earthquake. Not
that I'm in any way defending them, but I can see the American point of view.
For years the USA has been there in the forefront of international
disaster relief. But now that the orange idiot has done his level best to
trash the American economy they've got to make savings. I
got to work, and as I had a cuppa before I started I had a little phone call.
One of the journalists at Radio Kent has recently discovered geocaching and
they were doing a feature on it this morning. Would I talk to her about it? I
did. I’m told that the interview I gave was broadcast at about half past ten. And
I had an email at work. There's a new position being advertised. They want
someone to oversee training in pathology labs across the county. Back in the
day I'd have jumped for a job like this. Nowadays I just want a quiet life. Tea
time was good - there were doughnuts. Mind you at two hundred calories a go,
that was over one tenth of my daily calorie allowance on one bun. I
came home where “Daddies’ Little
Angel TM” and “Darcie
WaaWaa TM” have come to stay for the weekend. I’m
worn out already. |
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5 April 2025
(Saturday) - In The Garden
I
had a much better night’s sleep last night. It was a shame that “er
indoors TM” had to have a fight with Treacle at
three o’clock, but there it is. I made toast and peered into the Internet. It was
still there. Again people were ranting about President Trump. His imposition
of tariffs across the world seems to have poggered international trade, but
no one appears to be in a position to stop him. When Liz Truss did for the
British economy a couple of years ago she was soon out on her arse, but no
one in America seems to be doing likewise. Is there no provision to oust an
incompetent president in the American constitution, or is everyone scared of
him? People were talking about four more years of this… people are assuming
he’s going to allow elections when the time comes. No one has stood up to him
so far; what’s to stop him staying in office for life? Absolutely nothing
that I can see. I Munzed, and after yesterday’s debacle when I
completely failed at Wordle I started off with “price” and found I
didn’t have a single letter at all. “Found” then gave me the first two
letters. “Folly” then gave me the last letter, and I was then rather
stumped until in desperation I tried “foamy”. What a stupid word, but it
worked. With the girls wanting a lazy morning Pogo came down
and we took him to Dog Club. With about twenty dogs along we had a rather
good session. Pogo did his usual trick. Being new to Dog Club he was rather
defending what he saw as “his pack” until he eventually realized that
his pack didn’t need defending. He stopped defending and then behaved in a
rather unmoral way with Smudge and Kai, neither of whom were ever confused. As we came home so Steve was doing the mystery year
competition on the radio. When did the UK government agree with the French to
dig the channel tunnel? Unusually I was quite a long way out for once. I
thought it was some time in the early eighties – 1981? It was 1987. We got home where Alexa was finally able to stream
Radio Ashford; the streaming wotsit at the radio station had been poggered
earlier. And after a dose of Junior Choice – “My Brother” and “I
Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat” I had a little tidy-up in the garden in readiness
for the afternoon. It wasn’t long before Steve and Sarah joined us, and
Chris was hot on their heels. Despite the sunshine it wasn’t the warmest of
afternoons, but we had a rather good little session in the afternoon. It was
rather good to catch up. And as the evening wore on, “er
indoors TM” went up to the KFC for a bit of dinner.
The dogs are worn out, “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and “Darcie
WaaWaa TM” are all in. The washing machine is having a go at my
undercrackers, and we’re doing something we rarely, if ever, do. We are
currently watching “Britain’s Got Talent”. Britain might have, but
this bunch haven’t. |
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6 April 2025 (Sunday)
- Tidying The Shed
I
had another restless night. I blame the KFC we had last night – I’m always
incredibly thirsty for a day or so after having any of that stuff. I gave up
trying to sleep and got up. Bailey soon followed me and wanted to go out. She
went and started eating grass, then as I scoffed toast she sat on the sofa
farting and periodically whimpering. She’s only herself to blame; she will
eat crap (figuratively and literally) but you can’t explain that to a
small dog. I put a load of washing in to scrub, and as I
scoffed toast I saw some Facebook friends had birthdays today. A distant
relative in Canada, a fellow hunter of Tupperware, and two colleagues. One of
those colleagues was doing a sponsored run today to raise money for stroke
charities; another colleague had a massive stroke a few months ago. Only
thirty years old and in good health, one day this lady didn’t show up for
work and wasn’t answering her phone. Colleagues popped round to her house and
found her in bed unable to move. Strokes can happen to anyone; not just the
old and infirm. I saw there was a new geocache about twenty minutes’
drive away. A follow hunter of Tupperware had already found it. From what I
could see on-line he’d had the same notification that I’d had, run out of the
door and driven like a thing possessed, managed to park and find the thing
all in less than half an hour. I munzed and started off on Wordle with “spicy”
to find that only the middle letter was correct, but that was in the wrong
place. “Field” gave me two correct letters, and both in the right
place. And then I was stuck. Eventually I hit on “villa” - go me. I went into the garden and got busy. I hung the
washing out, then painted up the cover I’d built for the little pond. Then
emptied out the garden lock-up, and re-packed it. I painted the stand from
which the bird feeder hangs. I emptied the shed and tidied up, I had this
idea to make some order out of the place. I found so many identical drill
bits. Having used one I’d put it in some random place in the shed, lost it
and then bought another. I found about a dozen new and unused paint brushes.
And jubilee clips – I found half a dozen packets of the things. I loaded a bootful of rubbish into the back of
the car, and booked a tip slot for the morning, We then took littlun to the park. Whilst her and her
mother made new friends at the play park, “er indoors TM” and
I sparked up our Munzee apps and went on a virtual shooting star hunt. We came home for a cuppa, and I saw something sad on
Facebook. A chap I’ve known for ten years has quite serious cancer. He’d like
to go panning for gold to get enough to make wedding rings for his daughters
before he dies… there’s a fundraiser to try to help him do this. You
can donate
by clicking here. “er indoors TM” boiled us up some pork chops with all the rest of a roast
dinner. Littlun ate most of hers apart from that which she declared was “gross”. My face is glowing; I caught the sun today. And I’ve
got backache. Again. |
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7 April 2025 (Monday)
- Painting More Gnomes
Another
restless night; is a night asleep so much to ask? Littlun whimpered in her
sleep at about half past six and all the dogs ran upstairs with “er
indoors TM” to check on her. I got up and made
toast. The Internet was much the same as ever. There’s
an American
author I follow on Facebook who was banning people from her Facebook
page if they so much as hinted that there won’t be any more presidential
elections in America. Another author I follow once said in an interview that
social media can be tricky for authors as you can lose a lot of your audience
every time you express an opinion, and this particular woman I follow isn’t
at all slow to express an opinion. Another friend was posting twee motivational memes
on her twee motivational Facebook page. Have you ever noticed that those
advocating that when life give you lemons you should make lemonade are those
who have rarely (if ever) neem given a lemon by life. Not that I’m
bitter… I munzed and captured a pouch creature; earning
myself five zeds, then had a look at Wordle. I started with “spice”
which only gave me one letter, and that was in the wrong place. “Treat”
gave me two letters; both in the wrong place. “Fable” brought me a tad
closer, and “navel” closer still. I eventually got there with “hazel”. I drove round to the tip. As I drove the pundits on
the radio were talking about the increasingly dire global financial
situation. It is quite clear that President Trump really has no
conception of the damage his half-baked ideas have done. I’ve tried to give
the chap the benefit of the doubt, but it has to be asked how someone who
demonstrably can’t string words into a coherent sentence has been allowed to
do quite so much damage. Friends of mine who live in various parts of America
tell me there’s widespread demonstrations against him, but the news agencies
are too scared to give them any air-time. I got to the tip and joined the queue. I’ve never
seen it so busy; presumably people load their cars with rubbish over the
weekend and drop it off on their way to work? Having said that, the roads were incredibly quiet at
eight o’clock. With rubbish unloaded I came home and collected the
dogs. Pogo had his breakfast with the rest of the dogs, but as I took three
of them out, Pogey preferred to go back to bed to watch over “Darcie
WaaWaa TM”. I took my three to Kings Wood. We made rather good
time getting there; where we’d normally be stuck in traffic at half past
eight we just drove straight through the town. We got to the woods and walked
one of our longer walks. Once away from the car park we didn’t see anyone
else, but we heard a particularly noisy pair bellowing their conversation at
each other from about four hundred yards away. We came home, and after a cuppa and a tad more
laundry I had a stroke of genius. Having forgotten to take the old knackered
gnomes to the tip earlier I thought I might see if I could perk them up with
a lick of paint. Four hours later I’d given myself yet another
backache, but the gnomes were good
for another year. I quite like painting the gnomes, but the garden was
odd today. When I could sit in the sunshine it was very warm. Out of the
sunshine was freezing. I sat in the sunshine by the pond… and fell asleep.
I woke an hour later with Bailey snuggled up to me. As I’d slept I’d caught
the sun. From years of sitting by water when fishing I know that sitting by
water gives you a double dose of sunshine. Sunshine itself and the
reflection. My face was glowing when I woke, and my back was incredibly achy. I came in and wrote up a little CPD as
littlun watched Oko-Lele. I’ve not done *that* much today – a few bits
to the tip, once round the woods, and painted some gnomes. And my back has
had it. I’m getting fed up with my back… |
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8 April 2025
(Tuesday) - A Bad Day
I
woke in a cold sweat following a nightmare in which I was somehow responsible
for having turned the local hospital into a cheap hotel as there’s more money
in the hotel trade than in the medical business. I found myself wide awake at
five to one. I dozed on and off for the rest of the night, finally giving up
and getting up at about half past five. I watched an episode of “Orange is the New Black”
and had a little look at Facebook. It was still there, and much the same as
ever. I munzed, and got ready for the day. I’ll draw a veil over today. Suffice to say it
wasn’t one of the better ones. Between constant backache and being constantly
tired I really could have done with a better day. As Bob Ross once said, you
need the blacker days to appreciate the better ones. But I had a sour apple Minecraft McFlurry with my
favourite lady so the day wasn’t entirely wasted. |
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9 April 2025
(Wednesday) - A Little Digression
I’m feeling a tad down today and I really can’t be
arsed… but here’s something to ponder. As I scoffed toast this morning I read
something on Facebook from some American activist or other who pointed
out that it’s harder for the right wingers to discredit the left wingers
as the left is almost always telling the truth. This sparked quite the argument. Is the statement actually true? Does the truth actually need to be told? What is “truth” – a provable fact or the interpretation
one puts on that fact? I don’t know. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible –
and as soon as my back stops hurting. (This is actually the sort of profound crap that
I intended to spout when I first started blogging all those years ago) |
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10 April 2025
(Thursday) - One Per Cent Club
I’m not the most patient of people;
particularly when it comes to death. Someone I know’s father died a month
ago, and they were still ranting about it on-line this morning. I don’t want
to appear heartless, but everyone dies. And the older someone is the more
likely it is. Is it *really* that much of a surprise when someone in
their eighties (who was never a health freak anyway) passes? Or am I
just being uncharitable (again)? And my piss boiled rather spectacularly when I saw that my
professional institute had sent me the shortlist of this year’s annual
awards. The trouble with singling out an individual and praising them for
what a wonderful job they have done is that it automatically belittles
everyone else doing exactly the same job. Someone with whom I once worked
received praise and accolade for providing blood in an emergency situation.
Nothing that everyone else doesn’t do on a regular basis, but one was singled
out for praise and an award. I emailed the awarding committee pointing out
how many family events and parties I and others had missed to keep the
service going… I never even got a reply. Not that I’m bitter, but I get the distinct impression that these sort
of awards don’t so much go to those who do the best job; they go to those on
good terms with those who love the paperwork that goes with these awards.
Take our local vets surgery for example. There are annual national awards for
people in the veterinary field, and our local surgery always has people
nominated and shortlisted in every category. How likely is it that they have
quite so many national champions working in one small place? I try to be positive, but sometimes the Internet does wind me up. I munzed, and then had a minor fight with Wordle. Starting with smile
gave me absolutely nothing. Frown gave me two letters in the wrong place.
Roach was no further help. So I gave up, got dressed and had a little look in
the garden. Disaster. When I’d put the cover on the small pond last night the water nozzle
must have been lying against it. This morning about a third of the water had
drained away. I ran out the hose and topped it up, and had a little squirt
round the plants whilst I was at it. And then I came in and sat down. My back was hurting. It does that a
lot these days. I carried little Darcie for quite a bit yesterday afternoon.
And for all that my back hurts, I’d do it again right now if I could. We had a cuppa and I had another look at Wordle. From Roach I went to
burro, and then finally got success with turbo. Once we were all ready we went up to the woods for a walk. We took a
shorter route than usual, but still three and a half miles. I need to watch
Treacle more as we walk; she is definitely finding it more and more hard
going. She needs lifting into the car at the end of the walk these days, and
jumping in at the start is clearly becoming a struggle. We came home. I had a scrub at Bailey (with soap!). She will
roll in fox poo. I wish she wouldn’t. I did the ironing, then “er indoors TM” boiled
up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching episodes
of the 1% Club.
Have you ever seen it – I found myself judging people for being so stupid for
being unable to answer the silly-easy questions… right up to the point where
I couldn’t answer them. |
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11 April 2025
(Friday) - White Twix
I
slept though till about four o’clock this morning, which wasn’t bad I
suppose. I then dozed on and off before finally getting up at half past
seven. I looked at the washing basket, couldn’t be arsed to load it into the
washing machine, made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. There was a lot of hype on one of the sci-fi pages I
follow about how one of the best sci-fi movies of the century is airing for
the first time this weekend. Thinking I might have missed something I clicked
the link only to find that the Star Trek film made sixteen years ago was
being shown on the Film4 channel for the first time. Something of a
disappointment, but this sort of thing happens all the time. So many channels
get access to something that has been out for years and then bill it as a
premiere showing. I wish they wouldn’t. Whilst I’m having a whinge I had an email
about a geo-meet-up in
Essex. The rules
say that geo-meets cannot be held in or near train stations… the
meet was called “Theydon Bois Tube meet” and will be at Theydon Bois
tube station. I sighed. If ever there was an activity which picks
and chooses when to apply the rules, it is geocaching. I Munzed as I do every morning, and Wordled as well.
Sadly I again started off with utterly the wrong word. “Spice” didn’t
have any correct letters at all. “Round” gave me an R and an O but in
the wrong places. I got a tad closer with “Bravo”, but only a tad. “Armor”
told me there were two Rs, and so it could only be “arrow”. For all
that I struggle with Wordle, there’s a sense of achievement when I finally
get it right. As “er indoors TM” set
about a spring clean I cracked on in the garden. The lawn needed mowing and
the yard needed a good sweeping. Despite having tidied the shed at the
weekend it needed another tidying, and then I had a look at the garden fence.
On one side we’ve a decent fence that I had professionally installed in
the summer
of 2020. On the other we’ve a fence which is on the poggered side. Were
it my fence I would have replaced it years ago, but it isn’t. I’ve tried
offering to pay for a new fence to be installed, but I just get a load of
abuse and ranting that the fence is four inches too far on her side.
Admittedly the three panels closest to the house probably are four inches too
far on her side, but you can see where the fence straightens itself. Years
ago when the strange chap lived there he was quite happy for me to put gravel
boards on the bottom where the fence was rotting through. And so I tightened
the screws holding the gravel boards in place which straightened the fence a
bit. We had a ham roll, then went out for a little
adventure. We went through Lydd where we stopped off to do the secret rituals
that go with finding a particularly fiendish geo-puzzle. And for those that
would mock, could you solve the
puzzle? From there we went on to Broomhill
Sands. A mile east of Camber Sands, it’s a rather good dog-friendly
beach. The pups got to run about. The girl pups chased stones thrown in the
water; Morgan wouldn’t even get his paws wet. All three got plastered in a
rather clay-y mud. The only fly in the ointment was one idiot who, on seeing
Morgan coming up to say hello, picked his dog up and waved it round as though
it was some sort of toy. He was totally oblivious to the fact that Morgan
thought this was some sort of game. I think we’ve met this twit before in
Orlestone doing exactly the same thing. We came home where the dogs all had a wash. Sand,
salt and mud had to be hosed off in varying amounts. And then we had a cuppa
– with a white twix. Have you ever had a white twix? – who would have thought
such wonders were possible? And only two hundred and thirty calories too? I sat by the pond and scoffed my twixt, then came in
and watched drivel on UK Gold whilst “er indoors TM” carried
on tidying up and creating an ever-growing pile of rubbish for a tip run. I’m
not complaining – we do have far too much stuff about the house. If we are
ever going to downsize to the one-floor bungalow I’d rather have, we
realistically need to lose about ninety per cent of the stuff in the house. “er indoors TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching
an episode of “McDonald and Dodds”;
a detective drama which is different to other detective dramas in that I
rather like it. We followed this with something I’d not seen before. “Tempting Fortune”
features a gaggle of contestants who’ve got to trek through the jungle
equipped with only the basic kit. They can then get all sorts of extras that
they haven’t already been given but it will cost them… and be paid for out of
the show’s prize money. So the more they rough it, the more bung they get at
the end. Needless to say there’s some contestants prepared to rough it, and
others who expect to be paid for simply getting off their arse. There seems to be a growth industry in TV shows
based on getting people to argue with each other. |
|
12 April 2025
(Saturday) - Dog Club, Gardening
As I perused Facebook this morning I saw there was a model railway exhibition just
up the road happening today. Not that I’m a fan of model railways… but it
would have cost twenty-five quid for the two of us to have gone and had a
look round. There was also a beer festival going on as part of the railway
festival… that had been kept quiet. But I suppose that for all that beer
festivals were fun in the past, in the cold light of day they are just about
spending a lot of money to get a headache. There was also a lot of anti-Donald Trump propaganda on Facebook…
again from non-Americans. I Munzed, and got rather stuck on Wordle again. That either used up
half an hour, or wasted it, depending on your perspective. I turned off the
lap-top and got ready for the off. As we drove to Repton we turned on the radio. I got Steve’s “Guess
the Lyrics” competition – “I’m a professional cynic but my heart’s not
in in”? No - Blur – Country House. Dog Club was rather busy today. At one point I think counted
twenty-four dogs, but it was difficult to be sure – they all kept charging
about. Dog Club rather over-ran and we missed the Mystery Year competition on
the radio. If only it went from ten o’clock till half past… We came home and had a cuppa with “My Boy TM” who
popped in, then I started on yet another garden project. The gravel around
our big water-gusher lays on metal chicken wire grids, Over the years where
people and dogs have walked across it, the chicken wire has bent and stuck up
out of the gravel. It looked awful and could give a scratch. So I hoiked up
all the gravel, put some weed-proofing membranes over the chicken wire grids
to keep it down, and re-laid the gravel. Sadly whilst scooping up the gravel
a lot had fallen into the water reservoir… We loaded the dogs into the car and popped to Bybrook Barn to get some
more. Eventually (over four hours later) I got the gravelled area
finished… it looked just the same as when I started with one major
difference. When we turn the gusher on the water doesn’t drain away. The
weedproof membrane is also waterproof. Ho hum. I’ll think about that one… Chris and Sue popped round for an hour or so, and brought their pups. We
had a good afternoon… the only fly in the ointment was that Treacle got
rather possessive over the dog toys. She was sitting under the table with an
assortment of balls and bones and toys and was guarding the lot. The new season of “Doctor Who” started this evening. Before
watching that we thought we’d better catch up with – we’d not seen the
Christmas episode so we watched that. I fell asleep half way through. I want to like “Doctor Who”. It always used to be a fun
adventure starring a hero character. What I saw of the Christmas episode was
a frankly over-convoluted plot starring a bit of an idiot. Such a shame. |
|
13 April 2025
(Sunday) - Painting, Beach
With
nothing on the agenda for today my plan had been to have something of a lie
in. Sadly I woke before four o’clock, and by the time I’d been lying in my
pit bored senseless for three hours I’d had enough. I got up and had my usual morning brekkie ritual. The plan had been to watch last night’s episode of “Doctor
Who” this evening, but with the amount of spoilers all over the internet
this morning I found myself if I needed to see the show. There wasn’t much
else going on really. I munzed, Wordled, and went into the garden to have a
look at fixing that flooding gusher. I had a stroke of genius – water needed to go
through the weed proof membrane… so the weed proof membrane needed a couple
of holes. All I needed to do was to scrape the shingle off of the two lowest
points, cut an inch square hole in the weed proof membranes, put it all back
together and all would be sorted. Scraping back the shingle was easy enough, but
cutting the membrane took some doing. My Stanley knife was slightly more
blunt than my bum. I really would have had more luck rubbing my backside
against the membrane than using that Stanley knife. But then I
remembered. Last weekend when I tidied the shed I labelled one of the drawers
“Sharp Things”. And I stuck a packet of new Stanley knife blades in
that drawer. There are those who feel that sharp things are best left in a
drawer labelled “Sharp Things”, but I managed to fit the new blade
without severe laceration. And equipped with a sharp blade I soon cut the
holes I needed. And then… more painting of garden ornaments.
Rabbits, otters, frogs, crocodiles, lions. All came out rather well except
the lions. Do you remember that episode of “Only Fools and Horses” in
which Del Boy paints Mr. Chin’s Chinese restaurant with bright yellow
luminous paint? The lions came out rather reminiscent of that. We took the dogs out. We went to Broomhill Sands
again. Being the weekend we thought the place might be busy so we left it
till later in the day. There weren’t that many normal people abut, but there
were a *lot* of kite-surfers. I counted fifty at one point. As they
surfed and flew into the air, Treacle got incredibly over-excited as I threw
pebbles into the water for her, and Bailey got incredibly over-excited as she
found a week-dead dogfish. All three joined in with the dogfish which we
eventually got from them, but Bailey then found something else equally foul.
I have no idea what it was – she ate it before I could get it from her. We came home and I had a look on Amazon. Pausing
only briefly to cancel the internal paint I bought by mistake I ordered a job
lot of garden ornament paints which should be here tomorrow. Hopefully in
time for me to tone those lion statues down a tad. “er indoors TM” sorted a rather good pasta bake which we scoffed whilst watching last
night’s episode of “Doctor Who” despite having seen all the
spoilers earlier. It was far better than the Christmas episode we
watched last night, but I found myself asking what the writers were up to.
One minute the show was a serious hard-hitting drama; the next a frankly
ridiculous farce. Let’s hope the show improves… I want to like it. |
|
14 April 2025
(Monday) - Deer and Lions
Much
as I like Facebook, it is boiling my piss at the moment. It’s not so much the
adverts and the irrelevant drivel, it’s how out of date it is. This morning I
saw all sorts of posts about what friends had been doing over the last two
weeks. An old mate came back from ten days’ holiday this morning – the photos
of him at the airport leaving appeared today. There were photos of another
old mucker who had been mountain-climbing… in late March. And I saw an advert
for the beer festival which happened on Saturday. A week or so ago “er indoors TM” posted
up asking if anyone fancied an afternoon in the garden. So many people posted
that the posting came up on their feed days after it had all taken place. I took the dogs up to the woods. The car park was
busy, but once away from the car park we managed to avoid most of the normal
people. We had a little explore today; there’s one path at the end of the
wood which heads east. I wondered if it went on to loop round with another
path I’ve wondered about. It didn’t. It just went to a dead end, which was odd as there
were horse hoof prints on the path. As we walked back we saw the bluebells beginning to
come out, and we saw a herd of deer; we’ve not seen deer for a few weeks. And
I saw Treacle was carrying a stick. And then I looked closer. It wasn’t a
stick. It was half a deer’s leg, and she wasn’t going to give that up without
a fight. I took the line of least resistance and let her carry it. Usually we walk just over four miles; we covered
five and a half today. We came home, and I had a look on-line. I had hoped to
do a tip run, but there weren’t any spaces available today. That’s unusual…
but I did find the tip was rather busy when I went last Monday. So rather
than a tip run I dug a small net out of the shed and spent half an hour
trying to scrape the stones off of the bottom of the big pond. I then ran out the hose and cleaned out the
pressure-filter. A smelly job which used to take over an hour with the old
box filters now takes less than fifteen minutes, and all the muck goes
straight onto the monkey-puzzle tree. And then “er indoors TM” told
me my Amazon parcel had arrived. Yesterday I bought some more paints for the
garden ornaments. I got out the burnt sienna and dulled down the lions which
looked not unlike sherbet lemons yesterday. It was late afternoon before I got round to Munzing
today. I sparked up my app to find that our clan has reached our first of
three goals for this month. And then I made rather hard work of Wordle,
finally getting it on the fifth attempt. With my back twinging I set about the bots on chess
dot com… I like chess dot com. I don’t like back twinging. |
|
15 April 2025
(Tuesday) - A Day At Work
I
didn’t really sleep very well last night. I gave up trying to sleep shortly
before six o’clock, gave up and got up. I didn’t fancy watching the telly today; I made
toast and had a look at a rather dull internet. Very little had happened
overnight really. There were also rants about water bills and how unfair it
is that what we pay goes into some holding account which then pays our water
bills later, and in the meantime the water company makes profit on the
interest. My water bill has gone up by almost forty per cent, and my leccie
and gas bill has gone up by ten percent as well. They run a similar payment
plan. Maybe I should see if I’m in that sort of scheme and cut back on what
I’m paying? I Munzed, checked Google maps for my journey to
work, and taking care not to wake anyone I got ready for the off. It was
raining as I left for work. Oh well - the car needed a wash. Pausing only
briefly to get some petrol I set off west-wards through the -hursts and the
-dens and the traffic lights to Tunbridge Wells. As
I drove the pundits on the radio were talking
about an interview with American vice-president Vance who sees the
chances of a UK-US trade deal as being rather good. I don't doubt he does;
most commentators seem to think that US fiscal policy has blown up in their
faces as they simply don't understand how finance works. I can't pretend to
be an expert on the subject, but I'm willing to learn. Take for example
something President Trump has been very vocal about recently - the US's balance of trade with
many smaller countries. If
you sell your toaster to your next door neighbour for a tenner and then buy
his car for a thousand pounds, there's a trade imbalance in theory. However
in practice if both sides are happy with the deal, what's the issue. Where's
the sense in forcing unwanted transactions just so the amount of money going
each way stays the same? If
I can understand that and explain it in less than a minute, it is rather
worrying that the leader of the free world can't seem to. I
eventually got to work. I always say that I quite like working at Pembury but
I hate going there. Some see that as a contradiction in terms, but it is
spot-on. I like working there, but the journey leaves a lot to be desired.
There weren't that many sets of temporary traffic lights this morning
compared to what I usually face, but as always there wasn't anyone actually
working where the traffic was being held up. And again no one had any
patience at the traffic bottlenecks at Sissinghurst and Goudhurst church. What
Google told me would take fifty minutes was well over an hour. But
I got to work and did my bit, and for all that the rain had stopped the
journey home again took a lot longer than Google would have me believe. Once home we did the “Feed The Fish” ritual –
my water irises are flowering… if water irises is what they are. If not,
something else is flowering. I can’t say that I worked especially hard today, but
the novelty of working has definitely worn off. |
|
16 April 2025
(Wednesday) - Another Day At Work
After a reasonable night’s sleep I started watching “Back” on
Netflix. It is amusing enough and has the advantage that the episodes are
short. Why does so much on Netflix these days have to be an hour long? I then had a little look at the Internet as I do. Someone was selling a Zeroid. Back in the day (over fifty years ago)
there was a range of robot
toys called “Zeroids”. There’s a Facebook page about them that I started
following a little while ago with a vague plan to see if I might get a Zeroid
or two of my own. After all, I’ve sneaked Lego into the living room – how
hard could it be to get a couple of small robots? And then I had a look at
the prices of the things on eBay. Broken ones are changing hands for about a
hundred quid. One in decent condition sold last night for three hundred
dollars. As I drove to work I found myself becoming rather sick of hearing
about the antics of American politics from the pundits on the radio. When the
UK found itself saddled with a Prime Minister who had clearly and
demonstrably ballsed it all up there were processes in place to get shot of
her. Doesn't the American constitution have such safeguards? Mind you for all that Liz Truss was gone in a
month, it did take a while to hoik that idiot Boris Johnson out. I suppose in
many ways he was like Donald Trump in that many people will overlook what
he's doing as he's rather entertaining to watch. There was probably a lot more on the radio,
but my attention drifted when the sports news came on. So often rather
than reporting any actual news, the pundits just wheel on someone who was
something or other to do with a recent sporting event with no regard to how
eloquent they may be. And so rather than giving a good interview, the
so-called expert just mumbles and continually repeats "um - yeah -
you know". This has been going on for years; you'd think that
peak-time national radio would have higher standards, wouldn't you? I stopped off at the little shop in
Sissinghurst to get a sandwich and to get some supplies for the weekend. Once
I'd bought my stuff, just as I got back to my car some idiot woman driving
the other way down the road pulled across the road and stopped her car
blocking me in. She had a full-blown battle with the child in the passenger
seat then forcibly dragged the child out and marched into the shop... leaving
my car stuck. I managed to reverse and get past her car, and I drove
off - leaving her car in the middle of the road pointing the wrong way and
effectively blocking the traffic. I could have said something; I couldn't be
arsed. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Work was work. I did my bit, and came home
again. I really shouldn’t complain about my job, but it is seriously getting
in the way of my doing whatever I would rather be doing. Pausing only briefly for geocachical
reasons “er indoors TM” boiled up fish
and chips which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of Martin Clunes
and Neil Morrissey’s trip
across France. That was rather good. We followed it with some utter tripe
in which Bradley Walsh tried to pretend that the pyramids were built
by aliens. I never had him down as being so thick as to assign
everything he doesn’t understand to aliens. |
|
17 April 2025
(Thursday) - Not At Work
I slept reasonably well, and over some toast I
watched another episode of “Back” on
Netflix. In many ways it is very like “Peep Show” by the same people. I then had a look at the Internet. One of today’s
arguments on Facebook was on a pension-related group about National Insurance
contributions. Do payments made before your eighteenth birthday count. I
don’t see why they wouldn’t, but there were those that seemed to think there
was an issue. I should really check that the government has made a note of my
payments over the years really, shouldn’t I? The other argument was about how you keep rainwater
out of garden ponds as rainwater is supposedly dangerously acidic.
Supposedly. You would think that it rained neat sulphuric acid from what some
people were posting. I munzed, and went to wake the dogs. Rather than
going to the woods, we had a dull walk today. We drove over to the Skoda
garage, left the car for its service and walked home. Usually when in the
woods the dogs get to run about as much as they like. On the way home from
the garage there wasn’t much scope for running riot. As we walked we came past the bit near Asda which
often floods. It wasn’t flooded today. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing I’ve
eventually been told by the county council’s corporate director for growth,
environment and transport that the river floods at the Asda underpass as that
is the footpath’s lowest point (as if that wasn’t glaringly obvious)
and it floods because of blockages downstream (as if that wasn’t glaringly
obvious either). I’ve also been told that all the county councilors have
jacked it all in pending the upcoming elections. I shall see who gets elected in a couple of weeks’
time and see whose arse we kick to get some dredging done. Once home I gathered dog dung and then mowed the
lawn. And with lawn mowed I got out my paints and painted up more garden
statues. A duck, a frog, a couple of badgers and three birds. I then pulled
weeds, and had a look at the little pond. We’ve a second baby fish in there.
A couple of weeks ago I saw a goldfish less than an inch long; there’s
another one of about the same size but dark in colour. We had a spot of lunch and then the phone rang. My
car was nearly ready. I finished painting, tidied up, and went to get it. In the past I’ve dropped the car off and had this
silly idea of walking the dogs until the car is ready. But there is only so
much of an on-lead dog walk that you can do. Today there was a delay of over
four hours between dropping the car off and being told it was ready. I took the dogs over to get the car. A service,
change of brake fluid, air-con re-gassing and a fancy video cost me the thick
end of five hundred quid. To say nothing of three hundred quid’s worth of
advisories that we’ll worry about next week. Who’d have a car? We came home where I made a cuppa, and put a load of
shirts in to scrub. And then once they’d been scrubbed I ironed them whilst
they were still damp – that’s the best way to iron shirts. “er indoors TM” boiled up sausages and we scoffed them whilst watching more “McDonald
& Dodds” in which Uncle Bryn did it. I really hurt right now – I wish I knew why. I’ve
walked less than I walk on an average walk round the woods, mowed the lawn,
painted some garden ornaments and done some ironing. I really should program “Hannah” for
tomorrow… |
|
18 April 2025
(Friday) - Romney Marsh
The dogs were rather restless last night, and
when they are restless so is everyone. They eventually settled, but I didn’t
really. I got up at half past six, made toast and had my usual rummage round
the Internet as I do every day. I suppose back in the day I used to read the
newspaper which was equally drivel-esque. There was a photo of the old Sainsburys supermarket in Hastings on one
of the old photo memory pages. I remember that place – I always used to work
the night before Christmas eve so that I would follow the family to Hastings
on the train on Christmas Eve morning. My brother would meet the train and we
would have a pint or two then go to that Sainsburys where mayhem ensued. As
the shop was going to be closed for a day, the panic-buying was ridiculous.
Some bargain would be announced on the Tannoy and there would be a stampede
for that which you’d never normally buy in a million years. People would whip
things from your trolley in desperation and so my brother would sit in the
trolley, guarding the stuff we would buy and we’d take home to mum a whole
load of stuff she neither needed nor wanted, and would throw out in the New
Year. Happy days. I also had a look at the “Hematology”
Facebook page. Some work-related Facebook pages are good. Some are
interesting. Some are quite educational and I learn a lot. This “Hematology”
one is worrying in that someone will post a photo of something or other and
ask what it is, and no matter what it is the answers will range through every
medical condition from “perfectly healthy” to “three weeks dead”.
And the more obviously wrong any given person is, the more aggressively
arrogant they are that they are correct. I Munzed and Wordled, and got ready for the day. We drove down to Old
Romney where we met Karl and Tracey, and we then went on a little wander
across the marsh. It was a shame Morgan had to roll in fox muck quite so
early in the day, and Treacle didn’t help by paddling in the stagnant
puddles. In a novel break with tradition it was Bailey who ended up the
cleanest. Our walk was on flat ground which was just as well. Usually when up
the woods we cover just over four miles; we walked over nine today. As is so often the way our route was mapped out for us by a series of
geocaches; thirty-seven of them along lanes and tracks and up trees. Most of
them were found relatively easily; one was missing so we replaced it. From
the hint and previous descriptions it would seem that if it was there it
would have been an easy find. There are those who demand that replacing
missing ones is up to the chap who hid it; personally if one of mine has gone
I’d rather someone replaced it for me. I can pop out a new pot in less time
than it takes me to whinge that it needs to be sorted. After nine (and a bit) miles and five and a half hours we were
back at the cars. We took a short drive home and had pizza and crisps in the
garden. And beer. I opened a bottle of port to find it had gone off. Rather
than being a ruby-red colour it had gone brown and lumpy. I didn’t know it did that. I
took a few photos today. As I do. It’s been a while since we went on
a decent day’s walk. We used to do it all the time – must get back in the
habit of doing so again. |
|
19 April 2025
(Saturday) - Dog Club and Rolvenden
I
can remember saying goodbye to Karl and Tracey yesterday evening, but from
then on it was all something of a blur. I woke with a rotten headache at
about four o'clock this morning and lay awake suffering for an hour or so
before giving up and getting up. I made toast and peered into a very dull Internet.
You would have thought that what with yesterday being a Bank Holiday people would
have been out and about and doing things. People probably were, but just
didn’t do what I do and post it all over Facebook. I wish people would; I’m
very nosey and like seeing what people are getting up to. Mind you I had over
a hundred and fifty emails about people having found some of my geocaches in
Kings Wood. Apparently a group of four went out yesterday to see if they
could find over a hundred in a day. I’ve done that eight times in the past –
it takes some doing. Thirty-seven yesterday was hard going. Being Saturday we drove round to Repton and Dog
Club. As we drove Steve wasn’t on the radio. His stand-in was better than the
previous one, but it wasn’t the same. Dog Club was fun. Attendance seemed to be noticeably
down, but we still counted (about) eighteen dogs. Mayhem ensued, as it
does. From Dog Club we popped to the garden centre. During
the week I’d been given a packet of random seeds, and so we got a planter and
some compost and some buns. We came home for a cuppa and those buns, and I then
spent a few minutes putting the compost into the planter and toshing out the
seeds. “er indoors TM” boiled up the pizza slices that were left over from yesterday. That made
for a quick lunch, then we took the dogs to Rolvenden. Many years ago (five)
“er indoors TM” hid a series of geocaches in the
area. They’ve run their course, and a route of eight miles was a tad long
anyway. So we went on a little recce to see if we (she) couldn’t
come up with a shorter route. We (she) now have a
provisional route of three and a half miles planned out. After a couple of hours we were back at the car. We
came home and had a cuppa, and the dogs were soon snoring. “er indoors TM” sorted chicken wings for dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a
film. “Yesterday” was
rather good. And then we watched some documentary about a chap living in a
canal boat. Looks a bit like needless hard work and farting about to me. Oh – I took a few
photos of today. Yesterday I walked more than twenty-one thousand steps.
Today was only half that amount. |
|
20 April 2025
(Sunday) - Morning Shift, Badlesmere
I
slept well for a change, but was still awake earlier than I might have been. As
always I made toast and watched a little Netflix then had a quick look at the
Internet. It was still there, and rather dull. I sent out birthday wishes,
Munzed and got ready for work. I wasn’t originally planning on working today,
but someone had been taken poorly… If I had my time again I wouldn’t work in
a hospital. I’d work somewhere that puts up a “closed” sign from time
to time. As
I drove to work it was raining. I don't mind working at weekends and Bank
Holidays quite so much when the weather is iffy. As I drove the radio was
thinking about religious things. There was an article about the old Channel 4
Program "Father Ted", and everyone was having a good old
laugh at the way that Catholic bishops were portrayed. This was followed by a
live interview from a church in the war zone in Gaza... One minute we were
laughing, the next crying. Was this deliberate, or just incredibly bad and
thoughtless planning by the producers? I
got to work and did that which I couldn't avoid. As I looked out of the
window at a cold wet Easter Sunday I found myself thinking back over forty
years to my religious days when our church used to organise a sunrise service
at the highest point in Hastings every Easter Sunday. We'd all be up at North
Seat at six o'clock in the morning singing hymns. We used to invite all the
other churches along too. The Baptists and the CofE would join in with us.
The Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses would send a delegation who would
stand and watch with suspicion from a safe distance of fifty yards or
more. And when the service was done we'd all go back to our church hall for a
bit of brekkie. The Baptists and the CofE would come along too, but the
Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses never did. I
wonder if those services still happen? Our old church was sold to the
happy-clappy brigade years ago, but the congregation still meet in the local
community centre. During
a tea break I scoffed a mini Malteser Easter bunny (fifty calories) and saw
on Facebook that friends were off to the 02 Arena to see the War of the
Worlds show. Part of me was rather jealous. I wouldn't mind seeing that show.
But all I would want would be to see the show. Getting there, putting up with
all the normal people swarming about, and coming home again would try my
patience. I can remember taking a gaggle of cubs to the 02 arena years ago
and it being serious arse-ache. Mind you that was probably ninety per cent
the cubs making it arse-ache. Fortunately I was only asked to cover the morning
and so was soon back home. The weather had chirped up a bit, so we loaded the
dogs into the car and drove up to Badlesmere. “er indoors TM” had
reports of some issues on some of her geocaches in the area, so we took a
little walk round and sorted the issues as we went. Finding ourselves walking past the Red Lion it would
have been rude not to have popped in. A half of cider, a pint of Sussex Pale
and some pork scratchings covered all the bases. I
took a few photos while we were out. “er indoors TM” went off to feed her mate’s cat. He’s having a little holiday and
the cat is having a little peace and quiet. Whilst she was out I wrote up some CPD. She came home, boiled up some taod in the hole, and
we watched last night’s episode of “Doctor Who”. Last week I was
rather disparaging about the show – this one was the best episode for years.
Let’s hope this continues. |
|
21 April 2025 (Easter
Monday) - Early Shift
I
was out like a light when “er indoors TM” and
the dogs bounded through the bedroom door at ten to two. That certainly woke me
up. I then dozed fitfully, finally giving up trying to sleep at half past
five. I had a go on the bathroom scales; another three
pounds lighter than last week. That’s a result. I made toast and watched an episode of Netflix then
had a look at the Internet as I do every morning. It was rather dull today,
but I suppose that at six o’clock on a Bank Holiday morning it wasn’t going
to be much. As
I drove to work it was rather foggy. As I do I Iistened to the morning news.
This morning there was all sorts of talk about the war in Ukraine which has
recently had some sort of a cease-fire. Apparently it was
called by the Russians who then didn't actually cease their firing. Or so the
Ukrainians claimed. President
Trump was on the radio saying both sides should jack in the war and go into
business with him; claiming that everyone would make a fortune. Love
him or loathe him, the fellow never fails to amaze. There
was also talk about a government initiative to get children to go out and
play. Apparently kids hardly ever leave the house these days. When I
was a lad, me and my mates would roam for miles. Quite literally miles. We'd
be all over the local woods, and over the Firehills having a great time
climbing the cliffs at the beach and the sand quarry, and playing on the
railway tracks. We were never quite brave enough to walk the three quarters
of a mile length of the railway tunnel from Coghurst Woods to Broomgrove, but
we knew of those (some now on my Facebook friends list) who claimed they had.
Me - I once got fifty yards into the tunnel before chickening out.
The trick was to be prepared and bring a torch with you. It was (and
still is) a long tunnel. There
was some government type who was wheeled on to the radio saying that part of
the trouble is that a lot of playground stuff is permanently broken. We
rarely played on playgrounds. When we did it was to see who could jump the
furthest from the swings. Admittedly Paul Phillips did break his arm falling
off the slide, but he was the exception that proved the rule. He wasn't in
our gang anyway, so he didn't count. But
the biggest part of the problem would seem to be that parents are scared of
what might happen to their children if they are left to their own devices.
And quite rightly so if what I got up to was anything to go by. Still, as I
once told my mother, what she never knew never hurt her. And
being a religious holiday, the Pope had died. He was
eighty-eight. President Trump is only ten years younger. Why
do these people never take it easy in old age. I
did my bit at work. As I never tire of saying, I don't mind working at
weekends and Bank Holidays if the weather is grotty. Sadly the early fog soon
lifted and I spent much of the time looking out of the blood bank window and
sulking at a bright day. It was still bright when I got home, so we took the
dogs out. Some of “er indoors TM” geocaches
near Kingsnorth had wet log sheets in them and needed sorting. Personally
when we go geocaching we message the hider of the caches before we go out
asking if they would want any wet log sheets replacing as we go. You can get
ten log sheets from a sheet of A4 paper, and you can get the stuff from
Amazon for less than a penny a sheet. However most people seem to prefer to
whinge that log sheets are wet. By no means everyone, but enough. And the
less that anyone has contributed to the hobby, the more they whinge. Ho hum… Whilst we were in the area we went and found a cache
which was sort-of fairly close to where we were. And when I came to log it I
was awarded a Treasure – a noise maker. That was a result… I suppose. We came home. I put a load of washing in. When “er
indoors TM” returned from Aldi she boiled up some
rather good wagyu burgers which we scoffed whilst watching “Celebrity Bake
Off”. I’m worn out – this Easter weekend has been rather
full-on. |
|
22 April 2025 (Tuesday)
- A Day Off (?)
I had a restless night. Better than some I
suppose, but could have been better. Part of the trouble is waking at three
o’clock desperate for the loo and knowing full well that if I get up I will
have a full-blown battle to reclaim any bed space when I come back. I should
take the line that it would hurt less if I went for a tiddle, but I rarely
do. I eventually got up at half past seven and made toast. That’s not so
easy at the moment. A week or so ago I bought butter rather than margarine.
It’s not at all easy to spread when cold (i.e. impossible) so we put
it on a butter dish. Have you ever tried to use one of those things? They are
crap. The knife just chases the butter all over the dish without actually
taking anything prisoner. I eventually settled down for my morning’s rummage round the Internet.
This morning’s petty squabble on Facebook was on one of the pond groups. You
can chuck a bag of salad watercress in your pond and it will grow
impressively. I’ve done that. Someone was advocating against it because you
don’t know what dangerous chemicals might be in the watercress… this coming
from a Facebook page advocating chucking every chemical known to science into
your pond in order to correct the levels of chemicals that you don’t
understand. I got the dogs onto their leads and took four of them (Pogo had
been for a sleepover) to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio
were talking about how lots of people are now putting what might have been TV
shows onto YouTube. Apparently production costs are far cheaper and there’s
no farting about with scheduling; the punters just watch it when they like. That’s where you’ll find the latest episodes of “Time Team”. We got to the woods and walked what is becoming our new standard walk
of four and a quarter miles. In the week since we were last there the
bluebells have blossomed and the leaves have all appeared on the trees.
Spring has definitely sprung. We walked for over an hour and as usual hardly saw anyone. We had a
minor episode when Morgan sniffed another dog’s bum, and the woman with the
dog had a full-blown panic attack. What was that all about? We came home. I hung out the washing I’d put in earlier, then loaded
the car with a job lot of rubbish for the tip, then harvested dog dung. Then
I went round with the strimmer and lawn mower, before bionically burning the
weeds on the patio. “er indoors TM” went off for lunch with her mates. I got out the garden scissors
and trimmed round the stepping stones. How I never took Pogo’s nose off is a mystery;
he wouldn’t leave me alone and wanted to know what I was doing with every
chop I took. “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” arrived to collect Pogo. She needed a lift home, but wasn’t happy
about going via the tip. Eventually I told her that the car was going to the
tip, and if she wasn’t in it, she could walk to Folkestone. She came to the
tip. As we drove down the motorway she was interested in a track on my MP3
player. “Thank
God Its Not Christmas” by Sergent Thunderhoof is a rather good cover
of an old Sparks song. I was rather amazed she liked it. Once I’d dropped her off the plan was to get a replacement light bulb
for the one in the lobby that popped, and to get a couple of small planters
and some more alpine plants to put in them. I completely forgot about that,
and only remembered as I scoffed my lunch of a lemon curd bun (two hundred
and fifty calories) and a cuppa before spending a couple of hours sorting
out the ironing. The undercrackers have all been washed and are currently in the
tumble-drier. I’m going to work tomorrow for a rest… |
|
23 April 2025
(Wednesday) - Geo-Meet
Yet
another restless night. I actually had a bit of an early night last night bit
was awake at two o’clock. I dozed and fidgeted before finally giving up and
getting up at five o’clock. I made toast and then watched a bit of Netflix as
I sorted undercrackers, then had my usual morning’s rummage round the
Internet. I was immediately faced with an advert for a roofing
company in Texas. These people have paid good money for me to see that
advert… personally if that were me paying the money I wouldn’t be impressed. I munzed, and got ready for work. Rain
was hossing down as I left home - I was rather glad I'd been able to park
outside the house yesterday. I drove round to the co-op to get lunch where I
met with disaster. They had no coronation chicken sandwiches, and the nice
co-op lady said they'd been discontinued. That was a pain in the glass - I
like a coronation chicken sandwich. I made do with a mango chicken tikka one
instead, and in a fit of pique filled their self-service machine with all the
small change in my pocket. I
set off to work up the motorway. I was rather pleased to see that the
Operation Brock stupidity had been taken away. I've heard it said that the only
reason that the barrier is ever brought into play is to try to justify the
massive waste of money spent on it in the first place. Does the thing
actually ease congestion at the ports? Bearing in mind there's rarely
anything held in the Operation Brock bit, I somehow doubt it. As
I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the latest peace talks about the
situation in Ukraine. This lot of talks seem to be doomed to failure as
the American's head negotiator hasn't shown up. Apparently they have
something else in mind; allegedly a peace deal in which the Russians get
given Crimea and quite a bit of the territory they've now captured, and the
Ukrainians get squat. Understandably the Ukrainians aren't at all keen on
this idea... perhaps they should have told Mr. Trump what a big man he was
when they had the chance? As Russell (from Sparks) once sang "Might
makes right when you are wrong". Apparently
the side coming out on top will be those prepared to make the best trade deal
with the USA. Or so it was claimed. And
there was also a lot of talk about Elon Musk stepping back from his
involvement with the US government. He wants to concentrate on his car
business which is going down the pan. You'd think it rather obvious that if
you go round pissing people off, they aren't going to buy your cars any more,
wouldn't you? Being
on an early start meant for an early finish. I’d deliberately swapped into
the early shift today as there was a met-up of hunters of Tupperware in
Viccie Park. The rain had stopped so “er indoors TM” and I took the dogs along, and we met up with old friends and
stood about chatting. Some visiting geocachers showed up – it was a shame
that they were terrified of the dogs. An
added bonus was that when I came to log my attendance on-line I was awarded
with a virtual cake and a virtual souvenir. We
came home to a rather good curry and a bottle of Liebfraumilch which we
devoured whilst watching the Christmas episode of “Bake Off”. Sadly
all the contestants were soap stars, and consequently I had no idea who
anyone was. And
in closing, today isn't St George's day. It turns out that
church law says that you can't have any saint's days in the week after
Easter. One lives and learns. Waving
the flags and shouting "Ing-Ur-Lund!" has been postponed
until next Monday. Or so I’m told. |
|
24 April 2025
(Thursday) - Another Day Off (!)
There
was quite the argument about the use of solar power for running garden pond pumps
on the Facebook garden pond pages this morning. There were those who blithely
announced that solar power was crap, and there were those who felt it was
wonderful. Those who felt it was crap had bought the biggest pumps and the
smallest panels. Those who thought it wonderful had relatively small ponds
and big panels. The argument was akin to asking how long is a piece of
string. I can remember back in the kite festival days when
friends used to run fridges from solar panels. I’d like to set up a solar
power arrangement for a pond in my front garden, but the things aren’t cheap
and would probably get nicked. I spent a little while pondering an upcoming
mega-geo-event. “London Calling
2025” ‘s website says a lot without saying very much. What
actually is happening there? There’s a GPS Maze there which is only the
second time one will happen in the UK, but when you look closely it’s eight
miles from the event and getting from one to the other involves trains and
buses. I’ve been to seven of these mega-geo-events in the
past. They seem to be the culmination of a weekend or week of geo-events. The
first ones we went to were rather fun, but if you’ve not been for all the
events leading up to it, then they can seem to fall a bit flat. The last one
we went to (last
August) was a round trip of a hundred miles. Admittedly we did get to
say hello to quite a few friends, but pretty much the entire time was spent
sitting in a barn with over a hundred other people all fiddling with their
phones playing rather tedious adventure labs. One or two ad-labs are fun;
over fifty got rather monotonous. The dogs had their brekkie and I got them onto their
leads… eventually. Bailey is always keen for a morning walk, but Morgan
doesn’t do mornings. He’d always rather go back to bed. He loves it when we
get going, but he takes a while to get going. As we drove the pundits on the radio were doing the
“Thought for the Day” in which some religious woman was saying how it
is fine to have religious doubts, and that her god seems to spend an awful
lot of time deliberately hiding away. Somehow a complete absence of any form
of proof in her god was clinching proof for its existence. I’ve always maintained that everyone switches off
when religious types start spouting, and so they can present any old nonsense
secure in the knowledge that pretty much no one will actually listen to what
they are saying. We drove over to the Skoda garage. The car has been
making knocking sounds whenever I go over the speed bumps at work. There was
an issue with the suspension and we left the car to get sorted. The nice man
asked if we wanted to wait. I asked how long we’d have to wait for; he said
about three hours. We walked home. Once home I made us both a cuppa, then had a look at
the monthly accounts. They weren’t as bad as they have been in the past, but
they’ve been better. And then I wrote up some CPD. Dull, but
I have to do CPD. It doesn’t take long to do it as I go along. I’d rather
take a few minutes a few times a week rather than take the chance that I
won’t be randomly selected for a CPD audit and then panic. And then the phone rang. The car was ready for
collection. So I got the dog leads out. Being a couple of hours later in the
day Morgan was up for it, so we walked the two miles back across to the Skoda
garage. The car was sitting outside waiting for us, and the nice man charged
over a hundred quid less than what he said it would cost when we had the
service last week. I’m not complaining. After I’d scoffed a hot cross bun for lunch I went
into the front garden. All sorts of things had been growing through the
weed-proof membranes under the gravel so I scraped up all the gravel. Knowing
that I’d probably need more I drove to the garden centre to get more, and I
got a few more alpines whilst I was at it. I came home, laid a triple thickness of weed-proof
membrane on top of the old, and toshed the old gravel back. I had plenty; I
didn’t need the new stuff. Oh well, it will keep for the next project. I sat by the pond for a few minutes… until the dogs
came up. Treacle started whinging and was so obviously the spokesman (spokesdog?)
for them all. She was demanding that I fed the fish because she always gets
some fish food. And the other two were along for whatever pickings were to be
had. And once she’d had her share of fish food Treacle tried to whip the
fish’s food too. And then I slobbed about some more playing various
bots at chess. I might have overdone the gravelling earlier, and I clouted my
leg on a table edge yesterday and the four miles from the garage and back
earlier didn’t help that very much. “er indoors TM” boiled up tacos which we scoffed whilst watching another episode
of “McDonald
and Dobbs”. The fast-forward button is wonderful. Something
which played for over two hours took less than an hour and a half to watch
when you fast-forward through the adverts. Another day off and I’m worn out. I’m going to work
for a rest tomorrow. |
|
25 April 2025 (Friday)
- This n That
I
slept through till five o’clock this morning which was something of a result,
but I was aching when I woke. My leg was rather tender from where I’d bashed
it on Wednesday, and I ached from the gravelling I’d done yesterday. I watched an episode of “Back” on
Netflix, then had my usual look at the Internet. This morning it was
especially dull; pretty much nothing at all had happened overnight. But when
I sparked up my Munzee app I had a message. I’d been asked to beta-test their
new blast facility. That was nice. As I walked out to my car I was rather surprised to
see signs up saying that the road was closed. What was that all about? There
was some cones up by the dentist, but the road was passable. I took a circuitous route to work via the Ashford
Sainsburys. Partly to see what their petrol prices were, and partly to set
off my Munzee blast. And once blasted I drove up the motorway to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking
about the
Pope's funeral which is happening tomorrow. I must admit to being a
tad miffed. When both my parents died there was a delay of a month before a
funeral could be arranged. But when Muslims and Catholics die the funeral is
almost immediate. What's that all about? And there was an interview with one of the head
honchos in the water industry who was talking about how bosses of water
companies now face up to two
years in prison if their companies are found to be polluting. Part of me thinks this is right and proper; part of
me thinks this total about-face will be tricky for them. For years they've
been charged with making a profit above all else. Suddenly they are supposed
to be providing a public service. Mind you I suppose it is no different to
civil servants whose instructions change completely every so often depending
on the whim of which politician is calling the shots at any given time. I got to Aylesford and went to the Sainsbury's
there. Their petrol is usually cheaper than the stuff in Ashford and by
filling up there (rather than in Ashford) I saved one pound and four pence.
It pays to shop about (if you are mean). Mind you the filling station in
Aylesford never has sandwiches before mid-morning so I drove over to their
main supermarket to get lunch. Unlike the co-op they had coronation chicken
sandwiches. But their meal deal was twenty-five pence more expensive
than the co-op. So in future I shall get lunch at the co-op and
petrol at Aylesford Sainsburys thereby saving one pound twenty-nine pence
each time, and will forego coronation chicken. As I drove into work I suddenly realised that the
car wasn't making bashing noises every time I drove over a speed bump. That
three hundred quid I blew on the suspension yesterday was money well spent.
The car has sounded as though its bottom was about to drop off for months;
the quiet was unnerving. In retrospect I think the suspension must have been
damaged when I hit a pot-hole last September. It seems odd that nothing was picked up when the
tyre was replaced
that day or at
the MOT even though I mentioned the noise both times. I went into work and had a cuppa and had a go at
Wordle before I started. My first three attempts drew total blanks. And then
I cracked on with my day. For all that I grumble about the place, I am happy
in my work. I work with a decent bunch of people and very good bosses and am
trusted to do the job. Having spent several years where I could only claim
one of those three, I really can't complain. And that coronation chicken sandwich was rather good
too. Eventually my time was up, and as I went homewards I
really noticed the car's having been fixed. There's a *lot* more speed
bumps on the way out of the car park compared to the way in. “er indoors TM” boiled up cheeseburgers and chips and we scoffed them whilst watching
the first episode of the new season of “Race Across the World” in
which five teams made varying successes and stuff-ups of getting from Beijing
to Shanghai. It looks so easy when you are watching from the
comfort of your own sofa. |
|
26 April 2025
(Saturday) - Dog Club and Rolvenden
Facebook
was rather quiet this morning as I scoffed my morning toast, but I saw I had
a message via geocaching dot com. Someone had been out hunting for my
geocaches in Kings Wood, found some issues and put them right. Was that OK? I
wish more people would do that; trouble is a strict interpretation of the
rules means that it isn’t really, and there are those who loudly advocate a
blind adherence to the rules. I wish they wouldn’t. I munzed and wordled, and wrote up some CPD, put a
load of washing in to scrub, then got ready for Dog Club. As we drove to Dog Club so Steve wasn’t on the
radio. Perhaps I’m being a tad unfair, his stand-in wasn’t quite up to the
job. Dog Club was fun; probably about twenty dogs along
and all had a great time. Mind you there was a fair bit of dog un-morality
going on today. I wish the boy dogs wouldn’t all try to hump each other.
Sadly there was one minor hiccup. Not only had no one cleared the dog dung
bag from last week, people had stuck their coffee cups and water bottles into
the bag as well. We have an issue with the later groups in that few of the
people there are prepared to put themselves out. This morning at our early
group two people brought along large amounts of water for the dogs without
being prompted. At the later groups there is one person who is prepared to
chip in. And if she can’t make it, no one sorts out the dog poo bag. The reason that I bring home the money after the
first of three sessions is that no one at a later session is prepared to sort
it. Sorting it takes maybe five minutes once every two weeks. “er indoors TM” went to craft club. I brought the dogs home, hung out the washing,
ironed the shirts, made myself a cuppa and spent just over three
minutes (I timed it) counting the Dog Club money and paying
it into the bank. I wasted a little time playing chess against on-line
bots, then went into the garden and started painting the fence. It’s a
tedious job which takes an age, but is probably worthwhile. After an hour or
so I had two smaller panels painted. I sat in the sunshine and read my Kindle
until “er indoors TM” returned. After a quick ham roll we drove round to the Repton
estate to make sure the dog dung bad had gone. It had. We then drove on to Rolvenden. Last week we had a
rather good little walk around there; we had another one this week. It was a
shame we lost the smaller dogs in a thicket, but that’s the sort of dogs they
are. After ten thousand steps we were back at the car. We
came home, Treacle had a bath, and once we’d done the “Feed The Fish”
ceremony it was time for Doctor Who with pie and chips. Doctor Who was rather good… better than it has been
recently. I think where the show is going wrong is having complete stories in
one hour-long episodes. Back in the day there were shorter episodes with
cliff-hanger endings. I think that format worked better… We’re now watching “Scooby
Doo - The Sword and the Scoob”. So far it’s on the crap side…
I’m also pulling small thorns out of Bailey. I suspect Morgan will need a
going-over too. They will run into the bramble thickets… |
|
27 April 2025
(Sunday) - Kingsdown
As I scoffed toast I saw a new puzzle cache had gone live on
the Romney Marsh. I had a look at it… I could solve that I thought. Once I’d
worked out what an exonym was (!) and realized that nine minus six
wasn’t six I had the location of the thing. It was at that point that Gordon
messaged me about the cache. I had a look on the map… it wasn’t very close to the
road, but I had a little time spare so I thought I might chase after the FTF. Leaving “er indoors TM” with
instructions to get herself and the dogs ready I drove off to the marsh. I
parked up and looked at the geo-app. I was right. The geocache I was hunting
was half a mile from the closest parking point, but it was a rather good
morning for a walk. Joggers and cyclists abounded, and there were a few
people wanting me to tell them who had the rights to fish the nearby canal.
They weren’t at all happy that I had no idea. I came home to find “er indoors TM” and
the dogs raring to go. Pausing only briefly to deliver a birthday card we
made our way to Kingsdown where the April geo-meet was taking place. This
month we had a litter picking session on the beach. It was rather good
walking along the beach chatting with friends. We gathered loads of rubbish.
Treacle gathered a dead dogfish and carried it for over a mile up and down
the beach. We were quite happy for her to carry the thing, but I drew the
line when she started chewing on it and tried to eat it. After an hour we went back to the meeting point
which (as luck would have it) was at a pub. A pint of Whitstable Bay pale
ale slipped down very nicely on a warm day. And after a while it was either
time to make a move, or to settle in to the pub for the afternoon. We made a move; I’ve settled in to pubs for the
afternoon before. It can get messy. As we’d been gathering rubbish on the beach we’d
found two stages of a series of Adventure Lab caches. We took a little walk
to find the last three stages, and whilst we were at it we got a couple of
nearby geocaches too. I
took a few photos as we walked. I do that. We came home, and had a late lunch of a ham roll,
some crisps and another pint, then I nodded off in the sun for an hour or so.
I woke with a rather bad neckache. I munzed and wordled much later than I usually
do. “er indoors TM” boiled up a rater good
roast dinner which we scoffed whilst watching episodes of “Dogs Behaving
Very Badly”. I can thoroughly recommend that show – after an episode of
that anyone would think my little wolf-pack are angels. I might have had too much sun this weekend – I’m not
feeling on top form. |
|
28 April 2025
(Monday) - Bluebells
I
stayed in bed until half past seven this morning. Maybe not as asleep as I
might have been, but in bed. I stepped on the scales this morning and saw I’d
lost two more pounds over the last week. That’s two stone shifted since I
started this current diet in January. The trouble is that losing weight is
easy. Keeping it off – that’s the tricky bit. I had a look at Facebook. Someone with whom I worked
for many years had run the London Marathon yesterday. He’s got into running
over the last few years and that has made him lose a lot of weight. Arguably
too much. These days he looks gaunt, if not actually ill. I sent out birthday wishes as well. Four people on
my Facebook friends list had birthdays today. A fellow munzer, a cousin,
someone to whom we dropped off a card yesterday, and someone who was a major
part of my life for many years. We’d fly kites together and go on pub crawls
and weekend camping trips… then one day about five years ago there was a post
on Facebook from him saying how pretty the Highlands were. Without telling
anyone he’d just upped sticks and moved to Scotland. I munzed, got wordle on the fifth attempt (“dummy”),
and took the dogs out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking
about how dogs are still used in testing pharmaceuticals and drugs. About
forty years ago I did a rather epic project on the ethics and science of
animal experiments. Back then most of the animal experiments were being
performed as a legal requirement. Sadly the laws that had to be obeyed had
little (if any) basis in science. Take
LD50 levels for example. An LD50 level is the amount of a given
chemical that will kill half of a given population of animals. Who cares how
much of a given medication will kill half of the cats that mistakenly eat it?
But for years knowing that amount was a legal requirement. We got to the woods and had a good walk. We started
off by looking at a couple of my geocaches which had been reported as broken.
They were; I replaced them. We then walked into the depths of the woods and
back again. As we went I took a few photos of the bluebells which were rather
impressive. The woods have passed deer season and are now into bluebell
season. And the woods were heaving with loads of people; all taking photos of
the bluebells. We came home; I made us both a cuppa with a couple
of biccies each. At a hundred and forty calories those biccies constituted
eight per cent of my daily calorie allowance. It was just as well that our
walk had given me an extra seven hundred calories. Mind you that seven
hundred calories is less than three pints of beer. Calorie counting – that’s
the trick to weight loss. And then… gardening. I strimmed the lawn edges,
mowed the lawn, cleaned the pond filters and painted two fence panels. And
then I stopped and came inside. I think I got too much sun yesterday and
didn’t want the same again today. I spent a little while re-writing Wherigos. I’d been
asked if I could provide something for the “London Calling” geo-event.
Bearing in mind that’s happening this Saturday, it’s all been left a little
late but if I can help I’m only too happy to chip in. I’ve emailed them two Wherigos; I wonder if that’s
the sort of thing they are after. I wrote
up some CPD, then went and watered those plants that didn’t get the
outpourings of the fish pond filter. On reflection I might have missed a
trick. Rather than sticking the hose from the pond filter at the base of the
Monkey Puzzle tree, I wonder if I might empty the water into a watering can
and share out the fishy goodness. Similarly the filter medium from the little
pond – next time I might wring that out over some of the plants before I
rinse it out. “er indoors TM” went off bowling and I watched a film.
“Atlas” was a rather good sci-fi film in which a household robot goes
totally psycho. I rather liked it despite it having rather bad reviews. Today’s been rather busy… |
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29 April 2025
(Tuesday) - At Work
I
was awake far too early again. I get rather fed up with falling asleep at the
most stupid times and being wide awake at four o’clock in the morning. I stayed in bed until six o'clock, then got up. Once
I’d watched an episode of “Back” I had a look at the Internet to see
what was going on. Our Munzee clan had finally reached our monthly
target with one day to go. For us all to get our rewards we all have to
achieve certain things. I’d done my requirements two weeks ago; some people
seem to drag it out. But we got there in the end, which was the main thing. And I had a couple of emails; the Philippine goat farm I
sponsored would seem to be in profit. And the hospice where my mother died
sent an email asking for donations. This is entirely what is wrong with the
entire hospice system. All the time people are fundraising for them, no
government of any political party will ever fund them properly. As I walked out to my car I was rather miffed to see
loads of parking outside the house. So often I can never park anywhere
near home when I come home, but by the time I'm about to shove off out so
everyone else has driven away. I
went round to the co-op for a chicken salad sandwich, carrots & houmous
dip and a bottle of water, then set off up the motorway to work. As I drove,
the pundits on the radio were broadcasting from a beauty parlour in Ukraine.
Apparently only a couple of miles from the front line, this place is doing a
roaring trade in haircuts and botox injections. Apparently even though
there's a war raging, people still want to look their best, or so it was
claimed. And
there was an interview with Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal
Democrats. It would seem that they are looking set to get annihilated
in Thursday's elections. With only two days to go we've only had any election
stuff through the door from the Greens and Reform UK. Sir Ed was blaming it
all on Brexit. Part of me thought that it's too late to whinge, Brexit
happened, suck it up. And part of me thought he had a point. As I drove up
the motorway there were far more European cars and lorries on the road than
British ones, and as Sir Ed said, Brexit wasn't thought out at all, and we
are still making it up as we go along. I
got to the works car park, and with a little time to spare I went on a little
mission to find a place to hide a little geocache. As I wandered about the
local streets so some chap in a wheelchair trundled up and asked if he could
help me. I told him I was fine. He didn't believe me, and started
following me. All the way into work and up to the swipe-card controlled door.
I went in, and this chap peered in through the glass panel for a few minutes
before finally clearing off. Work
was work; it usually is. As I worked a colleague was having a grumble about
her neighbours. Where she lives has a communal grassed area. Like all
communal grassed areas the place was a tad bare and neglected, and one of her
neighbours has taken to planting flowers and making a feature of the place.
She's got her solicitor to write to him to tell him to remove the flowers. I
couldn't work out why. The
roads how were rather busy this evening; I was rather late getting
home. “er indoors TM” boiled
up a rather good dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the second episode
of “Tempting
Fortune” in which the decent people got shafted by the self-centred. As
Oliver hardy once remarked, “twas ever thus”. Today
was a tad dull. And being at work I walked about ten thousand steps less than
I did yesterday when not at work. |
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30 April 2025
(Wednesday) - More Bluebells
I made toast and watched another episode of “Back”
as I scoffed it before tuning in to the Internet. It was rather dull this
morning, but one thing caught my eye. Hastings council were selling (leasing)
some beach huts. Have you seen these beach huts? Many years ago we got to
borrow one on Mersea Island. They are just little sheds on the beach. No
running water, no electricity. Nothing but a shed. The ones in Hastings are
up for sale at forty thousand pounds each… and that’s rather cheap as beach
huts go. I won’t be buying one, but there are plenty of
people who will be keen. I
set off to find my car. Last night when I came home I drove round and
round before finally finding a parking space three streets away. I
drove round to the co-op to get a sandwich, then headed off up the
motorway to work on a rather foggy morning. As I drove the pundits on
the radio were talking about how President Trump had staged a rally for
himself last night in which he told anyone who would listen
what a big man he was. When I listen to him speak, he really does sound just
like the more simple-minded cub scouts used to sound. Utterly self-centred
and with no understanding or awareness of the world around him. You'd think
he'd take some lessons and coaching in the art of public speaking, wouldn't
you? Unless what he is spouting (and how he spouts it) is intended to
impress the sort of person who would be impressed by the boasting of a more
simple-minded eight year old. Either
way is rather worrying. Mind
you he did talk some sense when he said that America needs to stop sending
its troops to sort out everyone else's troubles, and how American troops need
to stop dying for things that are nothing to do with them. He's got a point
there. This
was followed by the sports news and my attention wavered. The commentators
really might as well have just said "blah-blah-sport" for
ten minutes for all that it interested me. I
got to work and did my bit on a surprisingly busy day. As I worked I had
an email. The Tree-Huggers (aka "The Friends of Kings Wood")
had been told by Forestry England that the main car park at Kings Wood will
be closed all day tomorrow. That will be a pain in the glass. I shall have to
organise another place to walk the dogs (and myself) for tomorrow. Co-incidentally
as I drove home so “er indoors TM” sent
a message. Did I want to meet her and the dog in Kings Wood for an evening
walk? I’ve
never seen the car park at Kings Wood so busy, or the woods so full of
people. We walked for two miles and met so many people. So unlike when we go
in the weekday mornings and have the woods pretty much to ourselves. But we
had a good walk. We
came home and over a bit of dinner we watched more “Tempting Fortune”
in which the most shallow and weak-willed are given temptations they won’t be
able to resist, and are then given guilt-trips by the more macho contestants. Sadly
whoever made the show has rather badly miscalculated. The idea is that the
contestants all start off with a massive prize fund, and the cost of each
temptation is deducted from that total. However we’re now half-way through
and the total cost of the temptations is only about three per cent of the
prize fund. At that rate I’d go for all the temptations… especially when you
consider that someone else is paying for it. |
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