|
1 August 2012
(Wednesday) - Cloth Eared
As I got out of my car at work this morning
I turned on all the geocaching stuff on my phone (packet data, GPS, app, etc) just out of a sense of curiosity. Sure enough,
there was a geocache within five minutes walk of where I'd parked my car. I
got to within a metre of where I was told it was, but I couldn't find it. I
shall have to go back when I have a little more time to look properly.
I looked this cache up on geocaching dot
com and the last chap to find it did mention that the registered location was
a bit out. I shall use that as my excuse for failure and try again tomorrow.
I suspect that this might be the case with
quite a few geocaches. The technology will get me to within a metre or so of
the thing, and then it will be down to how well I can search dependent on the
vagaries of how well the thing's location was logged in the first place. So
far I've found two out of the five that I've looked for.
Finding myself still amazed by the entire
concept of geocaching I called up geocaching dot com and found that there are
twenty four geocaches within a mile of my house. Widening the search radius
to two miles from my house brought that total up to seventy three geocaches.
There are five geocaches within two miles of the Bat-Farm and thirty within a
mile of my mother's house. There are a few in Folkestone Warren, and one or
two within striking distance of the tunnels I occasionally go exploring in.
I can see I have a little project for the
next few weeks.
Interestingly there are only seven of the
things within a mile of work, and only twenty six within two miles of the
place. I can only imagine that the denizens of Canterbury look down their
noses at the sort of puerile antics that are popular with the lower orders.
Meanwhile back on more mundane matters I
popped into the minor injuries unit this morning. Regular readers of this
drivel may recall a rant from a few weeks ago when I complained about my
being utterly unable to get an appointment with my G.P.
I've now gone completely deaf in my left ear, and it has a constant low dull
throbbing sensation. The nice doctor in the minor injuries unit seemed
completely unfazed by my inability to see my G.P. I
got the impression that he was used to people not being able get G.P. appointments. He peered into my lughole, and
announced that it was completely bunged up with earwax (yuk!) I rather
suspected that was the case, and he gave me a prescription for some jollop to pour into the lug. A shame there was nowhere on
the hospital site where I could get that prescription, but such is life...
|
|
2 August 2012
(Thursday) - Grrr...
My piss boiled this morning. Regular
readers of this drivel will know that go to Teston
kite festival whenever it is on. For the last few years I've helped the
organisers out by being the designated key holder at the event. For every day
of the long weekends at 8.30pm I locked the gate to the site. And then at 6am
(regardless of how much beer I'd guzzled) I would open the gate again.
And if any bona-fido person needed to come or go
overnight I would do the gate for them. I've done this for the last
half-dozen (or more) festivals. Locking the gate every night; unlocking it
every morning.
I am reliably informed that the County
Council have made it known that they have several problems with the kite
festival. One of their major gripes is that they are claiming that whoever
had been responsible for locking the gate for the last few years (me)
apparently never did so, but left it permanently unlocked.
And that's when my urine evaporated. This
is a blatant lie. I'd like to find out exactly who is making these malicious
and unfounded accusations. Probably someone who would never get out of their
pit at 5.45am to do someone else a favour, I expect.
Other county councils throw money at kite
festivals. Kent want to make money from the festival
at Teston. They want to charge the people who are
putting on the free show for the public. If they want to kill off the
festival, why don't they just announce that they won't allow the thing to go
ahead any more and be done with it? Why go through
this rigmarole of causing bad feeling and putting people's backs up?
For example they want (for no apparent
reason) a written list of everyone who will be present at the festival; which
would be nigh on impossible to produce. And they don't seem keen on having
people camping out there; they'd rather people paid a fortune in petrol to
put on a show for them every day.
If they want to take a mercenary line, then
I shall do so as well. I've told them that I shall be arriving to collect the
key next Thursday at 10am. I shall bill them for the time I expect to be kept
waiting for them. They've also asked me to be key holder. I won't be doing
that for free either. I think that if they waive my camping fees (and
those of my immediate party) then that might just about cover my fee.
Talking of kiting events I hear this
weekend is one of the kite world's high points. As I was giving credit card
details over the phone to the nice lady at Kites Up (they have made some
banners for the astro club) she mentioned about
the Jolly Up this weekend. I've been meaning to go to this for years; and i always hear about it after it's happened. This time I
heard about it with one day's notice. Oh well; such is life...
And so to work where I went back to find
the geocache I couldn't find yesterday. Sure enough the given co-ordinates
were slightly out when I compared them to the clue about being underneath
three cables. Mind you, I searched for quarter of an hour but couldn't find
it. Perhaps with all the greenery on the trees I've picked the wrong time of
year to make an easy find. I spent a little while talking geocaching at work
today - I seem to have made one or two converts to the hobby - one of whom went
out looking for the nearest geocache in her lunch break. Fortunately (for my
dignity) she couldn't find it either; so she went looking for it after work.
I've also found that there's a dozen
geocaches within half a mile of Teston Bridge
picnic site. And half a dozen near Hosey's house. I
shall see if I can get him geocaching at the weekend.
I've also decided to have a geocache of my
very own in the front garden. News on this will follow....
I spent much of the evening sulking. er indoors is having a birthday today and with the
vagaries of shifts and booked leave I found myself working on a super-late
finish which I couldn't easily swap, whilst over twenty of my family and
friends went out for curry...
|
|
3 August 2012
(Friday) - Brekkie, Geocaching...
Terry and Irene stayed in Ashford last
night as they were going on to friends today. So before they went we met up
and went round to the Foundry (where we met Steve) and had a spot of brekkie. You can't beat a Full English with good friends.
Once replete we went for a little stroll in the park. Victoria Park is
lovely; and we strolled in the sunshine; watching the fish in the river,
playing pooh-sticks, watching the fountain. A lazy morning that could have
gone on forever.
We made our way back to the car; failing to
find a geocache on the way. And once home we had a cuppa. Terry and Irene had
to go. We waved them off, rather sad that we don't see anywhere near enough
of them. But we shall meet up again next weekend.
The rain shower had passed and the postman
had been. The banners I'd ordered for the astro
club had arrived, so I got them out and put them up. The poles are far
superior to the poles that we have for our banners, but at thirty quid per
pole, replacing what we have would cost over three hundred pounds. I can live
with telescopic ones that keep collapsing.
And once we had established that we were
happy with the banner poles, we went for a little geo-stroll. Having
determined that there are nearly a hundred geocaches within three miles of my
house we went looking for some. The first was a small sandwich box only five minutes walk from my house. The second was within two
minutes of the International station. The third in a graveyard by the bowling
alley. We couldn't find the fourth which was in a solicitor's office in the
Bull Yard. The fifth was a tiny thing magnetised to a chair somewhere near
the town centre. And the sixth was the one I failed to find on Tuesday which
we did find today. It wasn't in the flower bed I thought it was in. Finding
five geochaches out of six is a far better average
that what I've achieved so far.
Home again to get the car, and on to
Staples for printer cartridges. The Internet told me there was a geocache not
a million miles away from there; and we found it after a bit of searching
round a bus stop. And once we'd taken the shopping home we went out
geocaching again. We found a really good one in a hollowed out branch in Cade
Road. And then....
If you've ever driven round Ashford you'll
have seen a concrete bridge on one of the roundabouts on one of the busier
bypasses round the town. There's a geocache on that roundabout. We risked
life and limb to get on to the roundabout, but despite a serious and
intensive search we couldn't find the cache. Next time...
|
|
4 August 2012
(Saturday) - Howletts, Anniversary
Up with the lark
for the weekly weigh-in. No weight loss this week, but no weight
gain either. I then spent a bit of time with the astro
club accounts over a spot of brekkie. The bank
statement had arrived, and it's always fun trying to make my guesstimates of
expenditure agree with what the bank reckons we have. It;'s
at times like that when I'm glad I count the club funds down to the penny on
a regular basis. And check it. Twice.
I then wrote myself
a cheque for several hundred quid of club funds to reimburse myself for the
banners (just need to cajole other signatories to sign their lives away),
and I helped myself to thirty quid (£28.99) for the ink cartridges.
Constellation games don't print themselves, you know.
Flushed with
success after yesterday's geocaching I then hid a geocache of my very own and
logged it with geocaching dot com. I'm reliably informed that it can take up
to a week before new caches get listed, so I have little option but to wait
patiently. There's no denying that I am rather impatient for it to go live;
I'm intrigued to see how many visits it will get.
We then drove round
to the Fudgery to collect the entourage, and we
went for a day trip to Howlett's zoo. Not cheap to
get into, but a free pass and season tickets made the day much more
affordable. I wound littlun up with takes of Woozles, Patagonian
ants and Australian chicken-eagles, and we had a great time. We even got to
see the Honey Badger; which is a beast we rarely get to see. A picnic in the
sunshine, a day with family. Can't be bad. And (as always) there's photos of the day out on
the Internet.
And so to
Folkestone for an anniversary party. I took along some Polish lager and
developed quite a taste for the stuff. The subject of my latest craze came
up; and (totally by chance) I'd seen there was a cache not far away,
so I took the Hose Beast and the Bat in search of it. And then in search of
four more. There was a minor incident when sliding down the hills (that
were too steep to walk down) when the Bat ripped the arse out of his
trousers. I did laugh.
And once cached out
we returned to base for more Polish lager, and chatting until the early
hours.....
|
|
5 August 2012
(Sunday) - Birthday, Trackable...
Yesterday I mentioned that I've hidden a
geocache of my own. It went live yesterday afternoon, and was found three
times yesterday whilst we were out. I'm quite impressed with that.
A quick bit of brekkie,
and we set off to Folkestone to see the birthday boy. We had a quick cuppa, then went into town for a spot of shopping. Shirts were
needed. Asda let us down, but Primark saw us right.
Pausing only briefly for out of date chocolate (20p per bar!) we then
had a stroll down through Folkestone warren. A very scenic and pretty place.
And one with the odd geocache or two. There was one that we've walked past so
many times in the past without knowing it was there. And quite a large chache it was too. I swapped a lego
geisha for a badge, and took out a Trackable. I was
*really* excited about that.
Trackables are little things
that travel the world. Geocachers put them in
caches; others find them and move them onto other geocaches. Each one has a
unique tracking number so that it's
progress can be logged. The
one I'm currently looking after started its travels in January of this year
from South Carolina in the USA. It's been to Rome and the Czech Republic
already before it arrived in Folkestone warren today; only hours before I
picked it up.
I shall look after it for a day of so before I release it back into the wild. I know just
the place to release it. (No - not in my own cache!)
To think it's only five days since I found
my first geocache....
|
|
6 August 2012
(Monday) - Rather Dull
I woke this morning to find myself
completely deaf in my left ear. This jollop that
the doctor prescribed hasn't done an awful lot of good really. Normally as I
watch the telly I have the volume set to about level twenty-two so as not to
disturb anyone. If I had it below level forty this morning I couldn't hear
it. I spent quite a bit of the day feeling light-headed. I expect that's all
ear-related. I shell see if I can't get it sorted in the next day or so...
As I drove to work today I was glad to hear
that there was quite a lot of news coverage for the "Curiosity"
robot which has been successfully
landed on Mars. It weighs about a ton and is the size of a small car. I'm
hoping for great things from it, for all that the public reaction was to ask
why NASA were sending robots and not astronauts (!)
I got to work ten minutes earlier than I
might normally have done; there's a geocache nearby that I failed to find a
couple of times last week. My geocaching colleagues also failed to find it
last week, and I couldn't find it this morning. I emailed the cache's owner
that we couldn't find it in the hope that they might give me a clue. They
replied to tell us (in general terms) that we were looking in the
right place. I suppose that means we need to look harder.
Yesterday I mentioned that I'd found a Trackable in one of the geocaches at Folkestone Warren. I
took it into work planning to show off to other geocachers
only to find that someone else had also found one over the weekend. We
swapped them (that's allowed) and I shall send my new one on it's way tomorrow. This one is
Germany-bound. I'd like to get a Trackable of my
own and send it off on its merry way with instructions to make it's way back to my own
geocache. If any of my loyal readers are going overseas in the next few
weeks, please let me know.
I then spent much of the day looking at the
torrential rain outside and tried to reconcile it to the weather forecast
which had predicted occasional light showers. It must be marvellous to be a
professional weather forecaster. You can be utterly rubbish at your job,
because everyone expects weather forecasts to be rubbish.
After work I stopped in Martyr's Field.
I've driven through here for the last year; driving past a geocache. I found
it tonight. I would have left the Trackable that
was in my pocket, but the cache was too small. I then went on to Morrissons to spend my voucher on port and deodorant
before filling up the car with sixty quid's worth of petrol. I can't see the
attraction in shopping....
|
|
|
|
7 August 2012
(Tuesday) - Rather Busy
I woke to find my ear was still bunged up.
What a way to start my rather extensive summer holiday (!) I also seem
to have developed a rash. I am told that a fellow geocacher
has a similar rash. I suspect we picked up some bugs when arsing down a slope
in Folkestone at the weekend.
I made a quick phone call to Kent County
Council to confirm the arrangements with the key for the kite festival this
weekend. The nice man on the phone couldn’t be more helpful. I mentioned
about their complaints that they thought the gate hadn’t been locked last
year; but the chap had no idea what I was talking about. To the best of his
knowledge whoever had been charged with looking after the key last time had
done a sterling job. I was pleased about that (!)
I got the laundry onto the washing line and
over a spot of brekkie I went through the contents
of my letter rack. It was rather full. There were the bank statements, so I
did the monthly accounts. There’s no denying that they look rather shabby
compared to this time last year, but they could be a whole lot worse.
There was the letter to confirm who should
be on the electoral register. And a reminder because I’d not filled out the
original letter. The letter said I could do the whole thing on-line, so I did
and saved a whole load of farting about.
There was an invitation to take up BT’s
hyper-fast broadband. For all that I was spitting bullets last week about the
broadband being down, it was only down for two days, and it’s rarely (if
ever) failed before. Bearing in mind BT will be twice the price of my
current provider, I shall stick with what I’ve got.
There was yet another bank statement for
the snake club which folded up some time in the late 1990s. I really should
see about closing that account down.
There was an apology from the bank about
their recent computer glitch which might just possibly (but didn’t)
have affected the astro club’s account.
There was an offer to get cheaper home
insurance from the people who do the car insurance. I shall save that letter
until January when the renewal is due; by which time I shall have lost it.
And those thoroughly useless people at the
union (which I left in February) were offering expensive insurance.
With post sorted I mowed the lawn. That
wasted half an hour. I then sorted undercrackers
whilst watching “Star Trek”. Putting socks into pairs takes an age.
And then I set off on my travels. I’d phoned my G.P.
surgery and told them I wasn’t asking for an appointment; I was telling them
I was having one. 2.20pm was good for them so I took the scenic route via a
couple of geocaches. There was an iffy five minutes when I nearly (but not
quite) picked up a discarded dog dung bag thinking it was a geocache, but
all turned out well in the end. I got to the doc’s where the nurse hosed out
my lug with an amazing gadget. I can now hear again.
Whilst out and about I went to town the
scenic route. I couldn’t find the geocache by St Simon’s Church. Passing muggles (non-geocachers are
called muggles, you know!) saw me and told me
where the cache was. Right in the middle of the bushes and not really
accessible in summer. But as I came through the park I found one that er indoors TM" couldn’t
find last night. I then went up to Wilko’s to get
the makings of Chip’s birthday ale. Whilst in there I got talking with the
normal people who (for some reason) thought I was a master brewer and
I found myself imparting all sorts of sage wisdom on the subject of making
home-brew.
I was planning to look for a fourth
geocache on the way home – a particularly elusive one. But a combination of
rain and texts made me abandon that idea. I hurried home to give Lisa her
gazebo. I shall be putting that gazebo up on Thursday, but I don’t have space
in the car for it.
After a quick bit of tea we set off to Chippy's. As we walked up Beaver Road I couldn't resist
looking for the geocache I'd missed three times already. I found it this
time. And once at Chippy's we all went en masse to
the Admiralty for the Tuesday meet-up. Exchanging insults, watching telly.
Can't be bad...
|
|
8 August 2012
(Wednesday) - Geocaching Again
Something was
different this morning. It took me a few moments to realise that I could
actually hear. Having an unblocked ear makes such a difference. I had a quick
bit of brekkie and then packed as much of teh camping as I needed into the car. On previous camping
trips I've taken far too much. THis time I have
been rather judicious with what I've packed. This time I've taken enough
chairs. Not "far too many" like I usually do; just "enough".
There's a minor mishap with the cooking gear in that I can't find it. I'm
hoping that it is at the farm with the gas. If not it'll be fish and chips
and sandwiches all weekend.
With the car loaded
I then mucked out the pond's fish poo filter. A smelly job, but one which
needed doing. And (this time) a job which took a lot longer than usual
as my mobile kept going off with messages. I was conducting text
conversations about buying tents, missing gas canisters and rubber boats
whilst up to my elbows in fish dung. Nice!
With fish filters
cleaned and me scrubbed I went on-line to find that "The Man with No
Alias (patent pending)" had been disrespecting my smalls. He will regret
that foolish bravado (!) Whilst on-line I submitted my entry to the
short story competition I mentioned a few weeks ago. I was pleasantly
surprised to see that you got a discount if you entered a second story. I'd
been toying with one the other day so I dusted it off, corrected a few
spelling mistakes and emailed both my stories off. Here's hoping.
The money I've
saved with the discount has been wasted on geocaching kit.
Talking of which I
then went for a quick geocache. Just as I found the second one of the day my
phone rang. Chippy was keen to see what was
involved in the latest waste of time. My phone beeped again. Matt also was
interested in having a go. We met up with the Bat as well, and four of us
spent a very pleasant couple of hours visiting eight of central Ashford's
hidden treasures. Some more hidden than others.
And so home again
where we watched the first Star Trek film over a rather nice bit of tea.
Regular readers of this drivel will be disappointed for the next few days as
I'm off on my holidays. But should anyone see that as a green light to come
house-breaking, please beware of "My Boy TM",
Fudge and the house-sitting posse.
|
|
9 August 2012
(Thursday) - Off to Teston
The plan was to get to Teston
Bridge Country Park by 10am, and we did just that. There was a minor disaster
when we realised that we'd left the key to the car's roof box at home, but
that was nothing that a quick phone call home wouldn't cure. Or nothing that a quick phone call home wouldn't cure if only people would
actually answer the phone...
We met up with the warden as planned to
collect the key, we met up with Dick, exchanged a few insults, and were
putting tents up by 10am. For some strange reason our communal mess tent
"Brown and Smelly" didn't go together as easily as it might
have. I've no idea what the problem was. As we worked, so more campers
arrived. Even more might have arrived earlier had the Rear Admiral not
forgotten his air beds.
I made a start putting up the banners. They
look good, but do take a little while to assemble. A dozen banners took over
an hour, and then it was lunch time. With lunch scoffed we had time for a
quick bit of geocaching; it transpired that there were three within two
minutes of where we'd set up camp. And within a few minutes not only had I
found three more geocaches but I'd made more converts to geocaching.
It was a hot afternoon,
so much of the afternoon was spent slobbing and
drinking lager. Not an unpleasant way to wait for tea time to come. Tea was
worth waiting for; chicken strips was very nice. As
was the home brew I'd knocked together for the holiday. And with tea eaten
and washing up washed up we relaxed and had a few beers. There was a minor
mishap when someone got themselves locked into the overflow car park. I didn't
have the keys to that. But I was reliably informed that this was a problem
which was soon cured. It must have been - within minutes of the problem
arising I was drinking port. I quite like a bottle of port in a tent after
dark...
|
|
10 August 2012
(Friday) - Sewing Knives and Cooking Hammers
Being the designated key holder to the park
I'd had a lot of requests from people (who had to work today) that I
might be sure to unlock the gates for them. I unlocked the gates at 4.55am
and went back to bed. I gave up trying to sleep at 7am having been constantly
woken by people asking me to unlock a gate which was already unlocked. But I
didn't mind. I was happy to have the chance to use being the key holder to
meet up with a lot of old friends.
Quite a few of our number also had places
to be and people to see (and mountains to ski) this morning, so brekkie was on the go at 8.15am, and was all eaten and
washed up by 9am. This is something that has never been done before at camp,
and was actually rather a good thing. It gave us the morning to do things. So
often we are still clearing up after brekkie at
11.30am. I used the morning to do some much-needed banner maintenance with my
sewing knife. I have a nice sewing knife and it attracted quite a bit of
interest. Whilst I sewed the Rear Admiral had his arse handed to him on a
plate whist playing football (sic), and Terry had to take a tablet (!)
We had a quick drop of lunch, and with no
wind for flying kites ten of us set off on a short stroll. Down the river to Wateringbury. We found a geocache on the way from which I
removed a Trackable. It was a very hot and still
afternoon, and we were all glad to find the pub in Wateringbury
where a pint slipped down quite nicely. Moving on we crossed the river and,
pausing only briefly to get my leg ripped open by barbed wire, we soon found
ourselves on the hills overlooking the camp site. A rather spectacular view.
There was a bit of a problem when we found a gaggle of horses blocking our
way along one of the footpaths, but I discovered that I had quite a talent as
a horse whisperer, and I got Neddy to follow me as
I led him and his herd of horses out of the way.
The plan was then to have a second pint at
the Tickled Trout before making our way back to camp. But the Tickled Trout
was closed. So we sat outside and sweated; it was a very hot day. Some of our
number then wandered back to camp; three of us had a crafty geocache;
realising that there were three more on our way back to camp.
We got back to camp to find everyone was suffering
from the heat. I then helped with the cooking. Irene needed someone to do the
garlic and carroway seeds. I cooked them quite
comprehensively with my cooking hammer; a very versatile tool. Tea tonight
was excellent; goulash. Very tasty. I had second helpings.
And then with still no wind we had a little
drinkie. I had to do gate duty at 10pm, and again
at midnight. Having let Simon in we then had a drop of port, photographed a
very picturesque moon in the mist, and had a farting contest which Simon lost
by first gassing himself and secondly by waking his family. Oh how I
laughed...
|
|
11 August 2012
(Saturday) - Teston Kite Festival
Another early brekkie.
Early brekkie is such a good idea: we get so much
more done with the day. In a novel break with tradition the wind was blowing,
so I got a kite out. The wind stopped. I put the kite away. The wind started
from a different direction. I tried a different kite. I mucked about trying
different kites for over an hour before giving up in disgust. In the end
young Morgan (who was visiting) did better with the kite than I did.
We had a rather good lump of melon with
lunch, and just as I was scoffing my bread and cheese we had a flying visit
from an ex-Teston warden to tell us that there was
a meeting at 5.30pm to discuss the future of the Teston
kite festivals. That was worrying. The new wardens came round collecting
camping fees; I asked them what the meeting was all about; they said that the
council would no longer run the event and that the council was looking for
someone else to take it on. The implication being that the kite club who were
currently seen to be running the event weren't actually running it at all and
wouldn't be running it in future.
As the afternoon wore on I was asked my
opinion on the matter from many different people. Would I take the event on?
I wasn't keen to do so, but if no-one else would do so, then
I would (with a little help from my friends). Fortunately for my
nerves we hosted Rhiannon's birthday tea during the afternoon. Chocolate cake
and party rings were shared by loads of friends. Good times
!
Finally 5.30pm arrived. Everyone convened
for the meeting and a disgruntled council ex-employee made an announcement
which turned out to be factually at odds with what the wardens had told me
during the afternoon. The chap who had been thought to be the event organiser
seemed to be rather miffed at the fact that the meeting had been called, and
he said that things would carry on regardless next year. He did seem rather
reticent about some of the details of some people's concerns and worries, but
the meeting ended amicably with the promise that next year we will have two
kite festivals at Teston. I've told the organiser
that I will do anything and everything I can to help; from here on in all we
can do is to await developments.
Whilst we had our meeting "Daddies Little Angel TM"
had been sailing downstream in a rubber dingy. We got a phone call from her
to say she and her crew (Sabrina and Sid the dog) had arrived on the
shores of Yalding (some ten miles downstream),
and would we drive out to fetch them?
Tea was nice - stir fry is always good. I
am reliably informed that it is better when all the ingredients are added,
but I scoffed it just the same. And with the tea stuff cleared away we drank
beer and port until the stars came out...
|
|
12 August 2012
(Sunday) - Teston Kite Festival
Again I heard someone's phone alarm going
off at 6.30am. Someone's phone has the same alarm tune as mine, and someone
has not turned the thing off. I got up and chatted with those who were
already awake, and as I abluted so everyone else
got up. Again we had an early brekkie. And with
little wind four of us went on a very quick geocache hunt. We found two, and
we found a couple of other geocachers too.
Back to camp where Sarah and Steve had
arrived to visit. We sat and chatted and dozed before playing with the solar
scope, and then having another go with the kites; the wind was beginning to
pick up. At mid-afternoon all the kiters gathered
for the traditional photograph of all the Testonians.
Eventually a photo was obtained, and we carried on with the kites. I had an
entertaining five minutes with some normal people who were quite taken with
my pyro-fish kite, and we played with Chinese dragons too.
And all too soon the afternoon was over,
and most people were going home. Not everyone stays overnight; most people go
home, and it was sad to say goodbye to so many friends. With everyone else
packing up I spent a couple of hours tidying away banners and things that
could easily be tidied away before we had a rather nice tea of fajitas and a
couple of rounds of Blokus.
"er
indoors TM" was expected back from the National
Convention of Candle-Floggers at about 10.30pm, so we sat and chatted about
crime, punishment and fidolatory until she finally
arrived shortly after midnight. By this point the port was all gone, so we
had some amaretto instead...
|
|
13 August 2012
(Monday) - Reflections on Teston
Up promptly, a swift full English
breakfast, tents down and away from the field by 11.30am. We've never got
packed away so early before. And we were home and unpacked before 2pm. A
wonderful weekend away with family and friends; and a dry camp. I can't
remember the last camp when we didn't have torrential rain at some point. There's photos of the event here
.
With the Teston kite festival done and dusted for another year I
find myself wondering about the event's future. A lot of us went this year
expecting it to be the last one. Will it be? There have been a lot of rumours
and third hand disinformation all to the effect that the council want the
festivals to stop. From what I think I gleaned this weekend the fact of the
matter is that the county council have made it clear that they will support
future kite festivals at Teston in every way except
financially. Someone else has got to stump up for the event.
What
financial outlay is there? The nice lady from the council says that the field
hire will be two hundred and fifty quid and that the liability insurance is (apparently)
about the order of fifty quid. Camping fees bring in three hundred quid. So
far the event is break-even. But I am reliably assured that any such event
must now have first aiders in attendance.
Is this
true? We've never had them at astro club events.
Personally
I have serious issues with the entire concept of "first aiders";
so much so that when my kids were smaller and went on various activities I
sent instructions that the do-gooding first aiders of my acquaintance were
not allowed near my offspring under any circumstances. I've personally
watched the blundering incompetence of so-called first aiders, and have read
that in serious emergences first aiders have historically killed more than
they have cured. But if it is true that first aiders
are needed for future kite festivals then I am told that the going rate for
first aiders is over two hundred pounds. It seems odd that first aiders are a
requirement for a kite festival which for twenty six years has never had any,
and has a district general hospital less than five minutes away but what do I
know....
So it would
seem that the kite festival is under funded to the
tune of a couple of hundred quid. How can the deficit be
addressed. We are told that there are legal reasons why a burger van can't be
brought along to rake in some cash to subsidise the festival. There's already
an ice cream van there who has dibs on non-cooked
food which might have given us an income. Kite traders don't come to the
event any more because it's not profitable, so we
can't sting them for a pitch fee.
But despite
what looks like a dire financial proposition the Kent Kite Fliers have taken
on the event, and seem confident that they can run the festival. Can they?
There are those who feel they don't understand what they have taken on. That
might be true. But I for one feel that I admire them for having a go. They
seem to be employing my personal outlook on life that idiot enthusiasm can
always triumph over common sense. It usually does. And if I can do anything
to help future festivals, I'm only too happy to help.
Meanwhile
back in reality once we were home and had the gear packed away, "My
Boy TM" came to visit. He had a confession to make.
During our absence Fudge had been swimming in the Koi pond. I'm told no harm
had been done. I hope not.
Regular
readers of this drivel may recall that the "My Boy TM"-
mobile blew up a week or so ago. He was planning to acquire its
replacement this afternoon, and with insurance details sorted we drove down
to Folkestone with him to collect the vehicle. It seems a good car, as cars
go. He's happy with it, and I suppose that's all that matters...
|
|
14 August
2012 (Tuesday) - At A Loose End...
After a
wonderful weekend away with family and friends I felt somewhat at a loose end
today. With "My Boy TM" expecting deliveries I
really needed to wait in for the postman. The firm bringing the parcel takes
undelivered stuff back to Maidstone. Driving there and back is a bit of a
pain so I waited about the house. I soon got bored with playing silly
Facebook games, so I tried to make progress with a talk I have planned for
the astro club. Tried and failed. It's a talk which
is a little "out of the box", and I couldn't get the
enthusiasm for it today.
Instead I
did a little research. Yesterday I ranted about the future of the kite
festival at Teston. Specifically the funding of
future events bearing in mind that they will effectively have to be private ventures.
The nice lady from Kent county council with whom I spoke at great length was
absolutely adamant that the cost of public liability insurance cover would be
fifty quid. She was crystal clear on the matter, and said that such insurance
was obtainable at that price from http://www.insuremyevent.co.uk She said
she'd looked it up herself several times. We discussed the matter in detail
and she was completely convinced of the price. I had a go on their website
and come up with a price of £279.19 (!) I wonder how much else I was
told that wasn't quite right.
With three
loads of washing on the line and drying in the sunshine I found myself
gripped with boredom. So I had a little tidy-up in the front garden.
Periodically I pull the weeds out from between the paving slabs and have a
sweep-up and the garden looks presentable for a week or so. Whilst pootling I
got into a conversation with a passing street sweeper who told me that my
road is one of the cleanest in Ashford. Apparently he gets far less litter
from my street than from any other. I was quite pleased to hear that.
I then
wandered along the road and (looking very nonchalant) hid another
geocache. I say "hid" - the thing is quite obvious really.
Or that is it's obvious when you know where it is. That's two geocaches I've hidden now. I've
plans for a third one. I'd like to have quite a big one; one large enough to
hold trackables and things; but that would need a
special location. I wonder if I might pop one in the church yard somewhere?
Being a
Tuesday the clans gathered. On the way to gathering we met up with Chip and
found a couple more geocaches. One of them was the little fellow pictured
above. What a wonderful idea for a cache. And I came home to find an email
that the cache I made today breached two of the rules of the game. I've put
it all right; let's hope that the nice people at geocaching dot com agree
with me...
|
|
15 August
2012 (Wednesday) - Stuff
Yesterday I
hid another geocache. It was made live by the nice people at geocaching dot
com at 7.25am this morning and was found for the first time less than half an
hour later. That's keen!
I then set
off out to deliver catalogues of bargains to the masses. And after I'd
delivered to forty houses I found an identical catalogue on someone's
doorstep marked for collection. Someone else had clearly done this road a few
days ago. But not just any old "someone else". This was the
person for who we act as agents. This isn't the first time we've found her
catalogues in areas where we had no idea she delivers.
I have all
but decided to give up with doing these catalogue drops. There is absolutely
no point in doing them when we are delivering to houses that have already had
a very recent delivery from the very person who wants us to do drops on her
behalf. We have asked her to let us know where she has delivered, and she
tells us where she's been in the past. But she never lets us know when she
branches out somewhere else. That most volatile of my bodily fluids is
rapidly evaporating....
I then
spent a little while re-vamping mankybadger dot com. I think it now looks nicer.
Just as I was putting the finishing touches to it I had a message. My
acquired daughter had found two geocaches already and was on her way to find
my two. Did I want to go out geocaching with her?
We had a
great time. In built up streets and in woodlands. Bridges and stiles. Nettles
and bus stops. Robin Hood and traffic islands. We were out for four hours. We
found eight caches, and gave up on three. Three of the caches were
multi-staged in that the initial clue didn't lead to the actual cache, but to
another clue to find the cache. We even found a trackable.
Home to
find my hereditary daughter in residence with Sid. We exchanged a few
insults, and then "er indoors TM"
came home. We had planned to go for a walk and we thought we'd take Fudge. We
arrived at the Fudgery to find no one home, so we
did a couple more geocaches. One had a trackable,
one eluded us.
We
collected Fudge and went to the warren for a walk. And guess what we did.
I'll give the thicker of my loyal readers a clue: it begins with "ge" and ends with "ocaching".
We found
one. And this was perhaps the most interesting one ever. I found one which
was just as per the description. "er
indoors TM" found one a few yards away matching the
description of what it was once like before it was reported as lost. She'd
obviously found the original one. Soaking wet, totally sodden. With two trackables in a very sorry state.
It was at
this point that my phone battery died, so I took this to be God's way of
telling me to get a life. We played briefly on a rope swing before taking Fudge
back home where the birthday girl was just about to start tea. Steak and
chips. It looked nice so we left them to it.
Shortly
after I got home I was told that "My Boy TM"
proposed. (I was told shortly before the official announcement was made on
Facebook). The birthday girl said "yes". I amazed myself
by not crying...
|
|
16 August 2012 (Thursday) - A Challenge
I had
something of a lie-in this morning; not emerging from my pit until gone 8am.
I spent a few minutes mucking out my inboxes of hundreds of spam emails, then set about mowing the lawn. That stuff grows too
quickly.
I then
spent a few hours looking for a pair of trousers. I have a pair I bought
recently. Quite light; ideal for a walk in the summer. Can I find them? I
eventually had to give up and rough it with another pair. I needed trousers.
I’ve got my legs so badly ripped and stung by geocaching in shorts recently.
A quick
bite of lunch, and Lisa soon arrived for an afternoon’s geocaching. We
started with one along Hornash Lane and then failed
to find the one at Orlestone Church before meeting
Steve in Hamstreet. Through woodlands and footpaths
in the sunshine; eventually finding eleven of our twelve targets for the
afternoon.
And so home
where I squeezed a few volts into my phone whilst waiting for "er indoors TM" to return.
Once she was home we popped to the Fudgery to
collect the problem pup, and we took him to the warren for a walk. It was
utter co-incidence that there was a geocache there that we didn't do last
night. This one was tricky. At the specified point (which was rather hard
to find) were directions to a bench half a mile away. Once there we got
instructions for finding the actual cache. Some might say it was a waste of
an hour. Me - I had a great time with great company.
On the way
home we stopped off to pose for photos with a piece of local artwork as part
of an on-line challenge. It was simple enough to do. I might accept more of
these on-line challenges...
|
|
17 August
2012 (Friday) - Guess What I Did
It turned
out that despite it being a week day there were a few of us available to get
into mischief today. Five of us gathered chez moi
at 9am and we set off on what was originally planned to be a geocaching
extravaganza. I'd planned a route which would take us three hours to cover
and would visit seventeen geocaching sites; as well as getting us a spot of McBreakfast into the bargain.
In the end
it turned out that I was being rather ambitious. We ended up taking two and a
half hours just to get to McBreakfast; so we
abandoned the entire Sevington and Hinxhill sections of the route. We can do them at any
time. But the day was still a good one. We visited ten cache sites, and only
failed on two of them. And we even found a red herring(!).
We got home an hour later than planned, and after a shower and a quick spot
of lunch I watched a film I'd recorded about the pirate Blackbeard. It was
quite good.
One of the
employment agencies phoned about a potential job. A few months ago I would be
rather enthusiastic about the prospect. Now, having been turned down so many
times, I'm rather resigned to the fact that nothing will come of it. But hope
springs eternal...
"My
Boy TM" then arrived with Fudge. He and his posse are of to foreign parts for the weekend and so we are looking
after "problem pup". He's apparently getting too excitable.
I say "probably"; there's no "probably"
about it. He can be excitable. I wonder if it's time to cut his goolies off. Or just walk him a lot more than he has been
walked.
As "My
Boy TM" set off I set off with Fudge. A good walk usually
works wonders with him. And this morning I'd been given a really good
present. A ready-made geocache. (Cheers Jose!) And on our mission this
morning I'd found just the place to hide it. So I went to that place, hid it,
took the GPS co-ordinates six times (to get an average), walked
another two miles to wear the pup out, and came home. As Fudge slept I then
logged my third geocache hide with the nice people at geocaching dot com.
"er indoors TM"
came home and we set off to Park Farm where we met Chris. A nice walk in the
evening with the dog, and we did three geocaches too...
|
|
18 August
2012 (Saturday) - I.G.D.
I had a
terrible night's sleep. Fudge woke me with his crying at 2am. He sounds so
heartbroken when he cries in the night. He wouldn't settle, so we broke all
the rules and allowed him upstairs where he was as good as gold. I nodded
back off (despite the heat) only to be woken a couple of hours later by some
feeble-minded simpleton outside shouting to the world about his passionate
love for some football team based over two hundred and fifty miles away.
I can’t
help but wonder how people choose their favourite football teams. I can
understand supporting the local team, or the team of their birthplace, or a
team from somewhere with which someone has a special connection. But how can
so many people who are Kentish born-and-bred be so
devoted to teams from Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds? What’s the attraction?
I really cannot fathom it.
I got up perhaps a little earlier than I might have done today. Having booked
leave for camping weekends and with the vagaries of my shifts I seem to be
off work for most of August but was rota-ed to be
working this weekend. Bearing in mind what Ive been
doing for the last week it seems somewhat ironic that today is National
Geocaching Day and I was due to be working. So I left home a little early
with a view to doing a cache on the way to work. I found it right away, and
then went to spend a little while looking for the geocache near work that I’d
failed to find half a dozen times. I knew it was in a hedge beneath some
power lines. Fortunately for me someone had trimmed the hedge a few days ago.
The cache was immediately obvious and it even contained a trackable.
This trackable was a little dragonfly which had
been originally been put into a cache a year ago by a six year old in
Colorado with instructions for the thing to find its way to France. From
Colorado it had gone to Tennessee then on to New York, Germany and Tunbridge
Wells before ending up in a hedge in Canterbury. I need to send it
France-wards. I might put it within walking distance of the Eurostar terminal
and see what happens.
I hadn’t
realised how out of touch with the world I have become lately. My drive to
and from work is when I listen to the news, and I hadn’t listened to the news
for some time. I’m not sure whether I’m glad or sorry to say that I haven’t
actually missed much. Science has found some new spiders in a cave in California, And NASA’s curiosity rover continues its
extra-terrestrial odyssey whilst being ignored by the world at large. In fact
the most riveting development was an admission from the top brass at the
Ministry of Defence that UFOs are more likely to be Russian than Martian…
|
|
19 August
2012 (Sunday) - Stuff
Another
restless night. I don't mind the hot days; it's the hot nights I don't like.
It's rather frustrating to have spent much of yesterday looking forward to
watching a film with friends only to sleep through the film, and then to go
home and lay awake restless for much of the night
And so to
work again. I didn't have the Sunday service on the radio this morning.
Instead there was a discussion about a party which had been held to celebrate
the four hundredth anniversary of the Pendle Witches Trial. I felt sorry for
the organisers of the event who had clearly done their best to put on a
family fun day, and to raise money for a good cause. On the one hand they
were under attack for making light of the deaths of ten innocent people, and
on the other hand they were accused of child abuse for making kiddies think
that dressing as a witch is harmless fun.
I must
admit that I got a bit cross with the do-gooder who accused the organisers of
child abuse. When I was younger I would have stood side by side with that
do-gooder waving my bible in the air. As I grew older (but not wiser) I had a
complete change of heart, and I would have (verbally) attacked the do-gooder
and asked if he had magical pixies in his garden as well as his imaginary
friends and the voices in his head. And now... I really don't know what I
believe. But I do believe that do-gooders who force their religious views on
to children do far more harm that anyone who invites them to dress up in a
silly costume for fun.
As a child
I was in the Boys Brigade. I *loved* it; lapped up all of what I was told,
and had no idea that I was being slowly and quietly brainwashed by religion
until some years after I'd taken the confirmation they'd led me to.
The radio
article ended just as I drove into Chilham. I went
to work via a slight detour this morning. With (seemingly) the rest of
the world at liberty to go geocaching today I didn't want to be left out, so
I did a quick "cache and grab".
I can't
believe how popular the entire geocaching thing has become just recently. A
very good friend of mine has been telling me about it for months and I wasn't
interested. After all, going looking for little plastic boxes sounds rather
lame. But when you find your first little plastic box hidden on the pavement
that you walk along every day, you start to wonder how many others there
might be. And you start looking. There's about one hundred and six (as of
this afternoon) of the things within three miles of my house. I think
it's fair to say that over the last couple of weeks I've converted over a
dozen people to the cause.
I didn't
sulk as much as I might have done today. Others had gone to the beach today
because I was working and I'm not keen on the beach anyway, and because the
weather had been forecast to be even hotter than yesterday and I don't really
like the heat. Hoever it didn't turn out to be as
hot as predicted.
Weather
forecasting is a joke really. The forecasters look at what happened the day
before and just predict a bit more of the same; throwing in a wet or a dry
spell for a bit of variety. And when they get it wrong, no one does anything
because they are expected to get it wrong anyway.
I did my
bit at work and then made my way home again. And I had the shock of my life.
Whilst
driving along a rather dark part of the A28 I suddenly spotted a cyclist who
came seemingly out of nowhere. It was after dark and this twit was dressed in
black and had no lights and no reflectors. With a lot of oncoming traffic I
could not swerve, but had to do an emergency stop. Fortunately there was no
one behind me or things would have been messy. Why do people cycle so
dangerously? Couldn't he have at least worn something light so he could have
been seen, rather than wearing something dark to act as camouflage?
|
|
20 August
2012 (Monday) - Goudhurst
I was
hoping to take Fudge for a walk today, but he just can't do polite company.
When it's just "er indoors TM"
and/or me, he's fine. Perfect behaviour; no problems. If anyone else is about
he become a sexually aroused whirlwind. Training is ongoing as is the campaign to have his knacks removed,
but it the meantime he can't be trusted when others are about.
Fortunately
"Daddies Little Angel TM"
was about today. She took charge of him to continue "Dog School".
I left them to it as Fudge tried to hump Sid for the umpteenth time.
I met up
with Steve and Maria and we set off to Goudhurst. there is a six mile walk round the countryside which
covers fifteen geocaches (and a bonus cache for anyone who finds all
fifteen). We had a really good walk in the country. There was a dodgy
five minutes when we found that (apparently) Goudhurst
is home to werewolves. And there was a frankly disappointing episode when we
stopped at the Globe and Rainbow in Kilndown for a
lunch stop. The beer was surprisingly good. Surprisingly in that I would have
though that the bar staff's attitude was enough to
sour anything. It's quite plain they don't want the custom; their attitude
was somewhere between rude and arrogant. I would not go back again, and would
not advise anyone else to do so.
But trivial
problems were soon overcome, and we had our picnic a little way further along
the track. There was a rope swing nearby, so we played silly beggars on it
for a little while and achieved a geocaching challenge into the bargain. As
the day went on so it got hotter and we did begin to wilt. The Goudhurst Millennium Walk is rather rubbish in that it
starts off clearly signposted, and as it goes on it becomes more and more
vague; eventually becoming just random unmarked footpaths. But
notwithstanding landowners who don't mark rights of way we found all fifteen
geocaches and even went on to find the bonus sixteenth as well. We did feel
rather pleased with ourselves.
Home, and
then on to astro club committee meeting (via two
more geocaches). A good meeting, a good chat with friends, and we all
went outside shortly after 9pm to watch the I.S.S.
pass overhead. I took the opportunity to test out my new Google Sky app. I
was rather disappointed to find that Google Sky didn't have the I.S.S. on it..
|
|
21 August
2012 (Tuesday) - Wye
I had a
minor panic this morning. My computer failed to load Windows. It then went
into a self-repair mode which it wouldn't exit. After half an hour I got a
message saying it had no idea what was wrong with itself, thank you and
goodnight. It then suggested unplugging any cameras and trying a reboot. It
turned out that if you're going to plug a phone into a USB port to charge it,
you should do so *after* the computer has booted up. It doesn't like
it if you plug the phone in before turning the computer on.
I then
walked Fudge round the block. He was fine. Training is working slowly. I then
left him "home alone" for a bit whilst I went out on a
mission with Lisa and Earle. We got the gas for the weekend, and then to Wye
for a walk in the sunshine. Up and down the Downs - my poor heart. It nearly
did for me. Whilst we were at it we followed a few geocaching trails. It's
now three weeks since I found my first geocache, and today I found my hundredth.
Whilst we were out I got a text from another geocaching mission; I'd
completely forgotten I had an invite to Sumner's Ponds this weekend.
Home, and I
took Fudge for another walk. He's getting better on the lead; a shame he
seems to need to pee every ten yards. I suspect it's a dog thing.
And then (being
Tuesday) the clans gathered at our place. Fudge found himself locked in
the kitchen, having attempted to express his affection in the physical way
that boy dogs do once too often.
His knacks
can't get cut off too soon...(!)
|
|
22 August
2012 (Wednesday) - Woodchurch
Up with the
lark, and after a very swift brekkie I was loading
gear into the car for the up-coming camping extravaganza. Loading the car for
kite festivals is easy. For some reason doing exactly the same for Bat-Camp
is a nightmare. I never remember half the stuff we need. It didn't help
having Fudge dancing underneath where I was trying to put down heavy tents
either.
Eventually
I got the car loaded; and then I mowed the lawn. I had been told that Fudge
didn't like lawnmowers. He didn't seem bothered by our one. But one the lawn
was mowed and lunch was scoffed he did seem bothered when I went out and left
him for a few hours. Oh well. He'll have to get used to that. I met up with
Lisa and Earle and we spent a pleasant few hours in the countryside near Woodchurch finding another fourteen geocaches and
completing three more geocaching challenges.
I would
love to have taken Fudge along, but he is currently lacking in the requisite
social graces, being seemingly unable to grasp the concept of celibacy. Mind
you the appointment for his knackersectomy has been
made. I'm not impressed though. As well as charging far too much for the
operation, the vet also wants sixty quid for two "health boosting"
injections during the month before the operation.
Talking of
which, Fudge's entourage came to visit. Specifically they came to visit
Fudge. And then we all walked round to Asda where
we got requisites for the weekend. I'm looking forward to going off on my
hols. As always, in my absence "My Boy TM" takes
command of the homestead. Any housebreakers who fancy their chances with him
are welcome to have a go...
|
|
23 August
2012 (Thursday) - Off to Bat-Camp
I was woken
at 5am by the sensation of having my face gently licked. I was hoping that
"er indoors TM"
wasn't getting any funny ideas, but it was Fudge being excitable. He does
that. Having been woken at 5am I should have stayed up, but I thought I'd
have a few more minutes kip, and that was fatal. I was then running late for
the rest of the morning.
Martin
arrived, and we set off to camp via Tesco for some supplies. No one told me
that a small bit of halloumi goes a long way; I
bought about four times too much. Notwithstanding surplus cheese we were soon
at camp and it didn't take long to load up trailers. We took a little while
to plan where to put our tents; there's no denying that there was an
abundance of dung. But once tents were up the halloumi
was put to good use and a rather enjoyable lunch was had by all.
The
afternoon was used for a spot of fishing, and mince and pasta washed down
with an abundance of beer made for a rather enjoyable tea. I put my cooking
hammer to good use and chopped some firewood with it, and as it got dark so
we sat round the camp fire. People slowly went to bed, and port and cheese
were opened. Oh yes (!)
Eventually
we staggered off to bed shortly after midnight; pausing only briefly for the
Rear Admiral to lose the impromptu farting contest.
|
|
24 August
2012 (Friday) - At Bat-Camp
I woke for
a tiddle at 3am; it was surprisingly cold. I had a
vague idea to be up with the lark for a spot of early morning fishing today.
By the time I'd overslept then had my morning ablution I eventually got to
the pond shortly after 8am. I caught a few tiddlers
and was contemplating making my way back to camp when Lisa and Earle wandered
up with a cuppa for me. There was apparently little life back at camp so we
carried on fishing until summoned for brekkie at
11am. Brekkie was rather good, and after washing up
we all slobbed about for an hour or so. You can't
beat slobbing about in a field.
After a
rather protracted slob we got up. Some had works socials to attend, others
had beloveds to collect. Lisa, Earle and I had seen Egerton
on a map and had planned a ramble round the area doing a spot of geocaching
on the way. We had a really good afternoon in the sunshine; marreed only by the total loss of phone and internet and
GPS signal (which did make geocaching a tad problematical). On the way
we met up with the Bat and the Hose-Beast, and only failing to find one of
the geocaches we moved into Pluckley. Finding the
cache at the church was relatively easy. We were then planning to walk on to
another cache a way away, but it started raining. The Hose-Beast had some
choice words to say on the matter, and we went into the Black Horse to
shelter from the torrent. By some amazing co-incidence the Black Horse was
staging a beer festival; so we felt it would be rude not to have a couple of
their offerings (including half a pint of the aptly-named "Thunderer").
Back to
camp where Steve had arrived. We pitched his tent and then did some Hosey-caching. Hosey-caching is
basically home-made geocaching, and the principle worked vary
well. An entertaining time was had by all until the light began to
fail, So we had tea - chicken casserole - and took the mickey out of "Worzel" until beer was abandoned in favour of
port.
We
staggered to our beds at 2am. Hic!
|
|
25 August
2012 (Saturday) - Rain
Within minutes
of climbing into my pit last night the rain started. It was heavy; bordering
on to torrential, and it went on all night long. The Rear Admiral texted me
at 6.10am to ask if I wanted to go fishing. I soon heard that my reply made
him giggle, I stayed in bed listening to the rain and sulking about the rain
until 8am when I got up, abluted in the rain, and
sulked about the rain in the mess tent.
We had a
leisurely breakfast in the rain, and washed up in the rain. And with no sign
of the rain abating I formally declared Emergency Plan B (beer) to be
in effect, and helped myself to the generous servings of the home brew. Which
wasn't really the best thing to do becase just as I
started the fourth pint so the weather cheered up and visitors arrived. It
wasn't fair that Sarah wasn't well, but Steve came out, as did the O'Latas. Whilst the (supposedly) grown ups sat and chatted and dyed their hair, the littluns played "Beer Can Pinyata"
and made their own home-made poo-sticks (from poo and sticks).
Tea was good
- sweet & sour and all sorts of goodies with it. It was a shame that I
dozed through much of the afternoon and evening, but I recovered enough to do
a rather amazing rendition of "Foo-Foo the Bunny Rabbit" at
the camp fire before we adjourned for port and cheese; finally crawling into
our pits at 1am.
|
|
26 August
2012 (Sunday) - Lazy Day
I *could*
have done a spot of early morning fishing, but I really couldn't be bothered
to get out of my pit. I finally emerged about 8am, and had a spot of fishing
then with Steve. Whilst I fished, the Hoseys
photographed. As an experiment I stopped using maggots as bait and tried some
old boilies I'd found in my tackle bag. They worked
to a degree. I caught fewer fish that i would have
with maggots, but they were bigger; including two huge ones that got away.
Brekkie was good as always. There was a problem in that
the milk had gone off in the heat. I was fine. I can drink black coffee. And
as everyone went off to collect others or to do shopping I went back to the pond
for some more fishing.
Steve was
soon back with Sarah, who was feeling better. Andy and Julie came out too, as
did Keith and Amy. And with the sun out we enjoyed a good afternoon.
Initially we had some excitement. One of the duck houses had slipped its
moorings and needed someone to swim out to retrieve duck house and moorings.
As always if swimming in duck ponds is required, I am the main man. Swimming
was quite refreshing on a hot day, as was the crafty pint I had afterwards.
More
fishing, more sitting about, we had a really good afternoon. Tea was none too
shabby either. Fajitas are always good, and tonight’s were especially good.
And with tea done and washed up we sat round the camp fire until late. All
too soon we had to wave farewell to our visitors, and as people slowly left
the fire and went to their beds I sat by the fire and dozed. I would rather
sit with people and doze than go to bed. But tonight I gave the port a miss;
I was feeling a tad under the weather.
I hope I'm
not sickening for something...
|
|
27 August
2012 (Monday) - Home Again
Last night
I wasn't the last one to go to bed. I had a bit of a sniffle, and was hoping
it wouldn't develop into something worse. So I took myself off to bed. I woke
feeling surprisingly chipper. I was pleased about that.
A spot of
early morning fishing, a bit of tent tidying, a Stilton omelette, and soon we
were all busy packing up the camp site. I was rather miffed as I took my tent
down. Again I found that the footprint groundsheet of our tent had done
precious little other than to have collected a small lake of water under our
tent; thereby delaying packing the tent away by at least half an hour whilst
we waited for the thing to dry. This isn't the first time that something like
this has happened. I am seriously considering abandoning the whole concept of
footprint groundsheets. And just as we were about to bring down our mess tent
the rain started. So the tent has been left up. We'll get it down in a few
days once it's dried.
And so with
much of the gear safely into storage, the camping season is over for another
year. There is talk of a week-long camp next year; depending on what happens
with the August Teston kite festival. But next
August is still a year away. There's lots of more immediate stuff to worry
about before next August's holiday. Geocaching outings to be planned for next
weekend; a cycle trip to be fitted in some time in the next month, and then I
really need to start getting organised for this year's bonfire season which
will be upon us all too soon; I have promised to supply five gallons of
banana ale for one of the events.
And another
possible outing was suggested as we watched an episode of "Time Team"
today which featured an excavation at Shorneclife
Redoubt. I didn't know that there was a redoubt at Shornecliffe.
I might just have to investigate that...
|
|
28 August
2012 (Tuesday) - This n That
I did the
monthly accounts this morning. They could have been a lot worse. I shouldn’t
grumble. There was a dodgy five minutes when I couldn’t find the astro club’s cheque book (the astro
club owes me a squillion quid for the new club banners), but it was
eventually found. It was in a very safe place. It was where I’d put it for
safe keeping.
I then went
up to town. Via a civic building to find a geocache concealed in it. The
phrase “civic building” is deliberately vague – I’m not giving away
any more than I need to (!) I then tried to pay the cheque from the astro club into the bank. The automated device wouldn’t
have any of it, so I resorted to using the counter like everyone else.
Interestingly the bank had a sign up saying that if you aren’t one of their
customers and you want to use the counter for anything between 11am and 2pm
they will charge you fifteen quid. I thought that was rather steep.
And so home
via Wilkos where I got the ingredients of a bonfire
beer. I know bonfire is still months away, but beer needs preparation. On the
way home I met up with Martin who was also having a day’s skive, and we
exchanged insults for a bit.
Once home I
spent the morning attacking the washing basket. After a long weekend camping
we had more washing than sense. Eventually I got the washing basket empty
enough to put the lid on; but it took some doing. Whilst I washed I got the
bonfire beer warmed up and into the mash tub. This brew is a best bitter with
(hopefully) a subtle hint of banana. Just how subtle it will be is
something that remains to be seen. I have a bit of a problem in that the DTP
package I used to make beer labels doesn’t work any more.
If any of my loyal readers might suggest a beer label designer, I am all
ears.
Round to
the Fudgery. With the “My Boy TM ” –
mobile in the garage I’d offered to drive for the mission to take the
pestilential pup for his pre-med shots prior to his knackersectomy.
It turns out the poor pooch is in a bad way. He is a unibollock;
only possessing one. There might be another which hasn’t dropped. The vet
will have a rummage during the surgery. Poor Fudge. He also has a growth on
his ear with is possibly cancerous, but is akin to a wart and is nothing to
worry about. It’s easy for the vet to say that.
To lighten
the mood I explained to Lacey about how you make
rabbits. I explained how you stretch a cat’s head and glue on long ears and
it turns into a rabbit. Lacey didn’t believe a word
of it. Which was probably for the best.
|
|
29 August
2012 (Wednesday) - Stuff
There was
an interesting article on the radio as I
drove to work this morning. Apparently there are moves afoot to change the
criteria for which honours, awards and decorations are presented. In a novel
break with established tradition it is being proposed that one will no longer
be given an OBE or a knighthood for merely doing the job for which one is (more
than) adequately paid. The idea being that recognition should be given to
those pillars of society who deserve it for a change. A novel concept. The
only surprising thing about this scheme is that it has taken so long for the
establishment to realise that such a change needs to be made. Regular readers
of this drivel may recall that I ranted on this very subject over five years
ago on January 4 2007.
Regular
readers of this drivel may also recall that I recently entered a short story
competition. It transpires that I didn't win. Realistically I never expected
to, but there's no denying that I (and my team of volunteer proof-readers)
put in quite a bit of effort into the contest. It would have been good to
have at least made the short list that was published this morning. I suppose
I shouldn't sulk; over one hundred other people have also failed to make the
grade. I shall console myself by throwing rocks at those who were good
enough. I wonder what I might do with the stories I came up with. How does
one go about getting a story published? I wonder if there might be any
interest in them?
Something
else that regular readers my remember was that an old mucker of mine has been
sentenced to five years imprisonment for defrauding his employer. I had plans
to write to him during his spell in the chokey;
maybe even visiting him. I sent an email off to the prison service a few
weeks ago to put the wheels in motion; I got a reply today. He has declined
to give permission to let me know which prison he is in. That is his right to
do so; I imagine that in his position I might have done the same. I am
reliably informed that a lot of people who "go inside" cut
themselves off in this way. But I would like to have sent him a line.
I arrived
at work to be greeted with amazement by one of my colleagues. Apparently
there is a post on Facebook tagging me as being at Chessington
World of Adventure this morning. It would seem there is an imposter
masquerading as me at a fun park. I wish it had been me. I enjoyed my day at
Thorpe Park a couple of months ago. A day at Chessington
would do me good.
Meanwhile
our old friend science has found that double stars can have planetary systems. One of the
standard astronomical talks I give is about why we haven't met any aliens (yet).
I might have to revisit some of the numbers I produce in that talk in light
of what science has found. Something else that might need revisiting is my
theories on the cost of space travel. With science now of the opinion that a
space elevator could actually be a practical proposition.
Getting
into space becomes (relatively) cheap. NASA should be pleased about
that.
And so home
again. I took a slight detour on the way home. It was only fifteen minutes
after sunset, so I did a quick geocache in Chartham...
|
|
30 August
2012 (Thursday) - Busy, Busy, Busy
I got up
promptly and after a quick bit of brekkie set off
to what I thought was a posh part of town to deliver catalogues to the nobs.
The area was nowhere near as posh as I thought. Posh houses have letterboxes
rather than holes in the door. One supercilious twonk
followed me down the street to return his catalogue. I didn't let him see
that his attitude boiled my piss; clearly no one has told him that (like
everyone else) his shit stinks.
I came home
and did two hours ironing. As I ironed I exchanged texts with Steve and Lisa
who were worrying about the torrential rain. I wasn't worried; it was a
glorious day. It was only when Steve texted to say he had abandoned his plans
and was sitting outside my house in his car that I properly looked outside.
the sky was clear, the sun was shining, the rain was like a biblical flood.
Steve came in, we had coffee, and as the rain slacked off to a medium monsoon
we texted Lisa. We were all in agreement. If we stayed home we'd all sulk. If
we went out, the worst that could happen would be that we'd get wet.
So four of
us went on an afternoon's drive round Mersham and
Aldington. We found fourteen geocaches in phone boxes and cherry trees; near
rivers and in tree stumps. We failed to find one. And we didn't get very wet
at all. In fact bearing in mind how bad the rain had been during the morning
the afternoon's weather was fine. We had a really good afternoon.
And so
home, and on to Folkestone for Chinese; which was very gratefully received.
As were three more geocaches that Jose had made up for me. Now to plant them
somewhere...
|
|
31 August
2012 (Friday) - Astro Club
Last night
Jose gave me the makings of a geocache. And then he made them into a
geocache. I had just the place in mind to hide it, and had all good
intentions of leaving for work early to get the thing in place this morning.
What with one thing and another I just couldn't get myself organised, and was
five minutes late leaving the house. Which was a pain. I shall have to hide
that one next week now.
And it was
cold this morning. It's still August, but I took a fleece as I left the
house. It was chilly. Chilly, but a very bright morning. Bearing in mind how
overcast yesterday was at times when I was out and about, I was rather
resentful about how bright the day was today when I couldn't be out doing my
own thing. Just lately I have developed a tendency to mope when I'm not doing
something good. I need to realise that my idea of "doing something
good" is most people's idea of "doing something frankly
marvellous". I do lead a busy and active life, and so (in
contrast) dull times seem oh-so-dull. Sometimes I really do need to take
the rough to realise how good the smooth is. I was reminded of this in
conversation with a colleague today. When chatting about plans for the
weekend I outlined what I had planned. Quite a bit, actually. He had
absolutely nothing on his agenda, other than "trying to find
something to do". I need to do something about this tendency for
moping that I've acquired. My life *is* something frankly marvellous
when compared to many people's lives.
As well as
moping, I sometimes find myself bedevilled by boiling piss. That most
volatile of fluids boiled again today when I heard that the fire at my place
of work wasn't the only hospital fire in the county this week. There have
been two hospital fires; both of which seem to have been set deliberately as
a cover for the perpetrators to then rob the cash from the tills in the staff
canteen.
And on
reflection I can't help but wonder what drives someone to set light to a
hospital in order to stage a heist?
And so,
after a day’s work, I skived off a little early to do something frankly
marvellous. The astro club’s summer social. We had
a great time; a really good meeting, a good talk, a good chat with all sorts
of people, and I even got to meet an old mate I’d not seen for a year. Good
times…
|
