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1 August 2021
(Sunday) - Hollingbourne and Penenden
Heath
I went to bed (slightly the worse for wear)
at nine o’clock last night. “er indoors TM” came to bed a
while later, and the thundering of the dogs woke me. I got up feeling like
death warmed up and drank a pint of Coca-Cola in the hope that it might act
as some sort of a restorative, then went back to bed where I spent the rest
of the night plagued by nightmares of having been drafted back into the Scout
Association. There are some people who love being a Scout
Leader. I was one for thirteen years. Looking back there were some
highlights, but there’s no denying that for much of that time I did it out of
a sense of being morally blackmailed; there were never enough leaders, and if
I didn’t help out, who would? I suspect the 6th
Ashford Scout Group is probably better off these days with leaders who want
to be there rather than leaders who feel they have to
be there. I got up at eight o’clock still feeling grim.
Far better than I had felt during the night, but grim
nonetheless. I set the washing machine loose on some laundry then peered out
of the window and sighed. Yesterday evening we’d abandoned chairs and tables in
the garden when the rain hit. My plan had been to tidy up this morning, but
the rain was still quite heavy as I scoffed toast. After an hour’s geo-plotting the washing
machine was done so I hung wet stuff round the house, woke “er indoors TM”
and went to have a look in the garden seeing how the rain had stopped. I got some tidying done, and then we set off
on the day’s adventure. With our usual companions peeling beans (it’s a
chutney thing) it was just us today. We went to Hollingbourne
for a little stroll. A little while ago a geocaching adventure lab cache
series had been set up there, and it was ideal for us for this morning. We
wandered round the village looking for points of interest and answering easy
questions when we found them. And having found five lab caches we had the
co-ordinates for the location of a geo-puzzle. I won’t say where that final
was, but I will say that sometimes ordnance survey maps don’t know the
difference between roads and footpaths… With the Hollingbourne
adventure done we drove on to Penenden Heath. Back
in the day there used to be monthly meet-ups of
geocachers, but what with the pandemic they’ve all been on hold for a while.
In fact the last meet-up was the one that I staged on 15
February 2020; a year and a half ago. Today saw the geo-meets starting up
again. There were a *lot* of friends who were away and on holiday
today, but there were quite a few friends along to the meet today. It was
good to catch up with them, and to meet new friends too. It was such a shame
that the event got cut short by the torrential rain, but (as always) I
got a few photos of our
walk and our meet. We came home through the heaviest rain. The
rain stopped half-way down the motorway, and we got home to find most of the
stuff in the garden had dried out. We got it all away except one table and
the event shelter itself which were both still damp. Just as we got the last
bit away so the rain we thought we’d left behind
caught up with us. In the time it took to run from the garden to the house we
got soaked. We both pootled on-line for a bit as the dogs
snored. For all that they like their adventures, they do seem to sleep a lot.
As they snored I wrote
up a little CPD as the lightning flashed, then dozed in front of the
telly as some incredibly dull drivel was broadcast on the Discovery channel.
Supposedly talking about the formation of the solar system the programme took
an hour to say what could have been said in two minutes. “er indoors TM” boiled up a very good
bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “House of Games”
whilst the tumble drier dried my undercrackers. No matter how bad my life
gets, it is never as bad as that of my tumble drier… |
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2 August 2021 (Monday)
- A Birthday
I got up early this morning. Having “er
indoors TM” working from home has a lot of advantages,
but wrapping her birthday pressies is tricky when she’s never out of
the way. I got them done as she snored at half past five this morning. As I wrapped I scoffed toast and watched the first episode of
the second season of “Chewing Gum” (which was rather lame) As I peered into Facebook this morning I was
bombarded with begging messages. Christian Aid, Save The Children, UNICEF…
all of them publishing photos of starving children. And less than a minute on
Google shows how much the people working for these companies earn… far more
than I do. My antivirus then asked if I’d like to know
what it had done over the last month. It claimed to have blocked two thousand
three hundred risky connections and had protected thirty-two thousand files.
Had it? I have no idea. Taking care to let sleeping dogs lie (and
sleeping birthday girls) I set off to work. Since I'd last driven up the
motorway the (frankly stupid) "Operation Brock"
barriers had been removed, which was a major result. As I drove I
listened to the radio as I do. And (quite honestly) they didn't say
anything at all of note really. The Prime
Minister's wife is pregnant. Bearing in mind he is that same age as I am,
I wonder if he's thought this through. I certainly wouldn't be wanting
another child at this point in my life - I would be hoping to retire just as
the child would be getting expensive. But I suppose that for some, money really
is no object. There was also talk of a second Scottish
independence referendum, even though the last one did seem to be rather
decisive. I suppose that today's United Kingdom is in a very different
position to the one that they voted to stay in. As I drove up the motorway so one of
those "Traffic Officer" cars shot past me, turned on
its "Do Not Pass" light in the back window and all its
flashing lights, and slowed to a crawl, eventually stopping all the motorway
traffic. We all sat there stopped for less than a minute then the "Traffic
Officer" turned all his lights off and drove off. As did everyone
else. I wonder what that was all about? I got to work and did what I had to. There
was a minor hiccup at tea break when I spotted a tear in my new trousers. The
material was wearing through by the thigh pocket. I put these trousers on for
the first time on 21 June. That’s six weeks of wear out of them. I would have
been disappointed with six months. When I was a lad stuff made by the Lee
Cooper corporation was worth having. I’ve ordered another pair (from a
different company) which should arrive later in the week. With work worked I came home (singing
along to the third Ivor Biggun album) and, once
home, I ran the dogs round the co-op field. I took a couple of tennis balls.
Pogo played “fetch” very nicely; Treacle carried a ball and would not
let it go. As we came round the co-op field we saw
OrangeHead in the distance with a whole new posse, and one of her old posse
on his own making a point of ignoring them. With the dogs fed and settled we drove round
to the abode of the first fruit of my loin. Cheryl had made a rather good bit
of birthday tea for “er indoors TM” and Lacey had made a
very good birthday cake. I scoffed far too much… |
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3 August 2021
(Tuesday) - Still Here
I could have had a good night’s sleep had I
got up and gone for a tiddle when I woke. Instead I
lay in bed for a couple of hours trying to get back to sleep desperately
trying to ignore the fact that I desperately needed a tiddle. I eventually realised that I was going to do
that tiddle, and “er indoors TM” would break my face if I
didn’t do it in the general vicinity of a lavatory. So
I got up, did that tiddle, made toast and sorted the undercrackers that the
tumble drier had sorted on Sunday. As I scoffed toast and sorted socks I watched another episode of “Chewing Gum”.
It’s not a bad show. I then got the leads onto the dogs. We walked
for seemingly miles to where I’d parked the car last night and drove down to Orlestone Woods. We got there despite the driving of a
lorry of a local scaffolding company. When most people drive up to one of the
roundabouts on the A2070 they slow down so as to be
able to negotiate their vehicle around the traffic that they are about to meet
on that roundabout. However when the driver of a
certain scaffolding’ lorry approached the roundabout they actually sped up
and expected all the other cars to swerve around them. They nearly run me and
four other cars off the road at the roundabout by the outlet centre, and sent traffic in all directions as they flew
round the roundabout of remembrance. But (to be fair to them) I see this
sort of driving more and more these days. We got to Orlestone
Woods and had a good walk around. We met a young lady with two lurchers, and
Treacle cowered in terror We met the little old lady with the Jack Russel and
the poodle, and Treacle again cowered in terror. However
when the walk was over and we were doing “Boot Dogs” she tried to pick
a fight with a couple of passing dogs. Was it because she thought they might
get the treat that I give them at the end of a walk? She’s not a greedy dog
normally. Once home again the dogs had their brekkie
whilst I made a start in the garden. Whilst the fish pond
filter wasn’t leaking I thought it best to clean it out before it did. Having
blocked the bath’s plughole a while ago I’ve since worked out a way of
cleaning out the filter straight into the drain. Far cleaner. A lot less
smelly and seems to be quicker too. As I scrubbed Koi poo out of the substrate (as
one does) Cheryl called in on a flying visit. With fish poo safely down the drain (best
place for it!) I took down the event shelter. There was a minor disaster
in that the poles were all full of rain water. I’ve
emptied them and stood them in the shed to dry out. I ran round the garden harvesting dog dung,
made a cuppa for us both (which we scoffed with bit of birthday cake)
and then wondered what to do next. I’d planned out my morning with several
chores to do before bedtime, and I’d got them all done about three hours
earlier than I thought I might. I sparked up the Internet to see if I’d
missed much. There was a message on Facebook saying that Geocaching HQ have
set up a new challenge. Each month there is a challenge
based on a mountain, and there are two e-souvenirs available each month.
At first sight this looks like a bit of fun, but (at the risk of appearing
to be an old misery-guts), it’s actually rather
crap. Finding one cache gets you the first souvenir, and the second only
needs another fifteen. That’s just one dog walk. And you’ve got all month to
do it. They could have made it more of a challenge, couldn’t they? I do like geocaching, but it rather bothers
me that Geo-HQ don’t put in the effort. They are utterly dependent on
thousands of volunteers to keep their business going for them. There are
countless geocaching apps available – theirs is far and away inferior to
every other one. The messaging system on their website is hit-and-miss at
best. Their way of loading geocaches from their website onto a GPS unit is
nowhere near as good as that offered by another provider. And I’ve just paid
£18 to Project GC so that I can do so much more with the hobby. I was then fiddling about with the link on
the right hand side of the blog’s page (from
which you can see my geocaching statistics) when suddenly everything
stopped working. I got a message saying that mankybadger.blogspot.com was
unavailable, and I had an email. Blogger's spam-prevention robots had
detected that my blog “has characteristics of a spam blog” and (apparently)
violates their phishing policy. I immediately appealed, and the three hours I
thought I’d got from getting all my chores done early were then wasted in
something of a panic looking at alternate ways of ranting at the world. Eventually I took myself off to bed shortly
after lunch time in a sulk and it was with something of a sense of relief
that I woke (three hours later) to find I’d been re-instated.
Fortunately for humanity (!) the blog is safely backed up,
but my work-related blog
isn’t. Bearing in mind I have a legal requirement to be able to show two years worth of ongoing learning
I’d better do something about that. I *think* I’ve got tons of web
space with my MicroSoft account. I shall look at
creating a backup. |
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4 August 2021
(Wednesday) - After the Night Shift
The night shift went rather well really but
it was still good to see the early shift arrive. As I drove home the pundits
on the radio were talking about
the hijacking of Panama-flagged asphalt tanker Asphalt Princess.
I’ve ranted before about hijacking of shipping. Have you ever seen any of
these tankers up close? They are *huge* ships. Have you ever been on
the bridge of one of these? They have radar which shows them all ships (big
and small) for miles around, and the computerised system identifies them
all. So they should see the hijackers coming from
miles away. I really can’t understand why the captains of these tankers don’t
phone up the local coastguards when they see something dodgy approaching And given that the crew sat idly by and
watched the hijackers sail up, the hijackers don’t just jump aboard. The
tankers are *huge*; someone’s got to help them up the ladder… What am
I missing here? I turned off the news and sang along with “Ivor
Biggun” CDs until I got home. I went to bed and slept for three hours, finally
waking in something of a panic. I’d had a nightmare in which I’d somehow been
written into the book “Brideshead Revisited” and was having terrible
troubles with the upper classes. I made toast and had a little look on-line.
My comments on one of the geocaching Facebook pages had upset one or two
people. There seems to be an attitude in geocaching in that the hobby isn’t
something that you actually *do* very often. Anyone new to the game
and reading the Facebook groups would soon form the impression that you are
supposed to just talk about geocaching, only rarely get your hands dirty, and
you are seemingly supposed to actively look down on those who actually do the
hobby.. I also had a begging message from Oxfam.
Whilst I do feel for those who are intended to benefit from their work,
thirty seconds on Google showed me their chief executive earns more than four
times what I get. Their communications officers, managers and deputy managers
all earn more than I do. I’m getting just a little bit tired at the emotional
blackmail being piled on me from people who are better off than I am. “er indoors TM” and I took the dogs
round to the co-op field and back. Pogo kicked off at other dogs a few times.
He shouldn’t do that, but some other dog owners don’t help. If someone is
clearly making their dog sit whilst he snarls at your dog walking by, would
you walk your dog up to say hello? We came home where I then spent two hours
ironing whilst watching five episodes of “Four In A Bed”. Four B&B
owners were competing to see who was best, but as always
they weren’t comparing like with like. There were only really two B&Bs in
today’s contest; one in the deepest Devon
countryside and one in Canterbury city centre. One of the other places was a
restaurant on the Isle of Wight that offered three bedrooms, and the other
was an outdoors activity centre seeming to specialise in corporate events.
The place from Devon won it using what seems to be a winning formula on that
show. You go first and bend over backwards to give everyone a good
experience, so everyone rates you highly. You then mark everyone else down
when you go to their B&B and magically you are the winner. “er indoors TM” sorted dinner which
we scoffed whilst watching “Lego Masters Australia” which was rather impressive,
but when you think that each model made probably contains tens of thousands
of pounds worth of Lego, you have to wonder just how
the contestants practice for the show. And in closing here’s a question. Today the
postman delivered two of the magazines to which I subscribe. Which would you
read first? |
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5 August 2021
(Thursday) - Packing
I woke (and had a tiddle) at half past
three and went back to bed. The plan was to wake after a couple of hours,
hoof “er indoors TM” out of bed, and we would both take the
dogs for a walk round the woods. I woke just before eight o’clock; far too
late for “er indoors TM” to get a walk in before she had to
start work. I made toast and peered into the Internet. It
was much the same as it ever is. There weren’t *that* many squabbles
kicking off today, but there were quite a few “what do you think will
happen” posts on the “Upstairs Downstairs” Facebook page. It would seem that the show is undergoing something of a
resurgence and a lot of its new fans don’t seem to realise the programme is
getting on for fifty years old. There were some rather amazing posts on the
Facebook “Tomorrow People” page that I follow. “Amazing” in
that the chap who run the page is constantly complaining. Every day he posts
up albums of hundreds of photos of entire episodes of the show, and all sorts
of homo-erotic photos of the stars of the show. And every so often Facebook
restrict his account because he’s not supposed to do that. So
he has a little whinge, and then (once the restriction is removed) he
carries on anyway. And my piss boiled
when I checked the weather forecast. The weather forecast for today (from
the BBC) was for light rain. However that’s for
all of today. When you went into the hour-by-hour breakdown, there was less
than a ten per cent chance of rain right up until late afternoon, and no rain
on the forecast until six o’clock this evening. It must be wonderful being a weather
forecaster – you just spout any old bollox and the
cash keeps on rolling in because everyone knows you can’t do it anyway. I got the leads on to the dogs and took them
on a little walk. We went up to the corner shop to post a parcel for “er
indoors TM” (they send parcels on from there). As I did
the parcel thing so the dogs sat and waited outside.
There was a minor episode when the woman and small child who had been in
front of me in the queue went to leave the shop. The child went from quiet
and mild disinterest to full-on hysteria (in the blink of an eye)
because he was terrified of dogs. I (perhaps just a tad sarcastically)
asked if it was those two dogs of mine sitting quietly tied to a fence
several yards away that were bothering him. In the subsequent commotion the
mother managed to slam her child’s head in the shop door. Meanwhile the dogs
sat as good as gold and didn’t bother anyone. Or (to be honest) didn’t
bother anyone until I came out and untied them from the fence when they tried
to pick a fight with a passing bus. We walked up to the park and came home
through the co-op field. As we walked we met other
dogs. We ignored some; when we growled at others I
did the whistle training thing to get my two to come to me and sit. The idea
was that I would have my dogs’ attention as I brandished treats, and the
other dogs would walk on by. A good plan in theory; in practice it never
works. The other dog owners always bring their dogs up for a treat too and it
all kicks off. We came home, and I popped round to Godinton. As we’d walked earlier
I’d been scanning Munzees and was very nearly
at a Munzee milestone. I only needed a few more
scans to open two qrates, and ten minutes spent
scanning bar codes stuck to lamp posts did the trick. Rewarded with two Qubimals and two more golden qrates
(bad spelling is a feature of Munzee) I went
on to Matalan for one or two odds and ends for next week before coming home
to mow the lawn. “er indoors TM” made lunch, and asked if I’d like some cole
slaw. It was left over from last weekend and apparently “tasted fizzy”.
I declined her kind offer of instant dire rear. Instead
I packed my suitcase. As I packed I found six pairs
of brand-new trousers in the cupboard. That’s “brand-new-still-got-the-labels-on”
brand-new trousers. I really must stop buying more trousers until I’ve worn
my way through these ones. And with suitcase packed I fell asleep on the sofa
for an hour or so as the washing machine washed dog blankets. Dog blankets are
very smelly things (as are dogs) We had a spot of dinner, and just as “er
indoors TM” started her packing I had a sudden panic. Having
packed *all* my undercrackers for our holiday tomorrow (I take no
chances!), I realised that I’d got none in the drawer to wear in the
morning. As I type this the washing machine is frantically trying to
rehabilitate the set I had on today. Let’s wish it well. And as “My Boy TM” takes
command of the house I’ll just say that I intend to broadcast from
Lincolnshire during the next week but I don’t know
if the internet stretches quite that far. If it does, I will see you all
tomorrow… if it doesn’t I’ll be back in a week or
so. |
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6 August 2021
(Friday) - Off on Holiday
I didn’t really sleep very well what with the
excitement of it all, and was up at five o’clock
packing the last few odds and ends. “er indoors TM” was soon up as
well, and the sleepy dogs stared at us in frank amazement wondering what was
going on so early in the morning. It didn’t take long to load the car, and we
set off only a few minutes later than planned. As we drove
I had considered Munzing up the motorway, but apart
from a blast at Lakeside I abstained. We were soon at a rather damp McDonalds
somewhere in the vicinity of Duxford where Karl had got us all McBrekkie. The dogs perked up at company,
and perked up even more at a sausage and egg McMuffin. As did I. From McBrekkie we
took a short (thirty-something miles) drive to Stilton (where they
used to sell the cheese - *not* where they made it!) and we took the dogs
(and ourselves) on a little walk round the area. We had a good little
walk to break up the journey. As always the walk was
set out for us by a series of geocaches, and I did chuckle when I read that
the chap who had hidden them had written that he was quite happy for people
to replace missing ones. Our local geo-fed doesn’t allow that in geocache
descriptions in Kent, but the chap who’d openly invited help was the geo-fed
for East Anglia. Oh well, as I’ve said before, geocaching is nothing if not
inconsistent. Just as we were coming to the end of our walk
so the heavens opened, and the day went from blue skies to torrential rain…
and back again five minutes later. This was something of a theme today. With walk walked we then drove on. Taking
care not to drive straight into the side of a lorry (like some idiot woman
did just in front of us – seemingly having deliberately rammed a lorry)
we went up to Heckington and the 8 sail brewery, The plan had
been to get sme supplies then move on, but they had
a rather good ale selection and seeing they did food as well. Cheese ploughman’s
is always good. Suitably replete we made our way to Silk
Willoughby and Grange Farm. The correct Grange Farm – there are at least
three in the area. Unloading and getting organised took a while, and as we
unloaded and organised to the rain outside came and went. Several times. Eventually the rain stopped enough to go for
a little stroll before it got dark. A shirt stroll just up the lane and back…
it was a shame the dogs got so filthy. But they don’t mind shower,
which was for the best as they got one. After a little supper of port and cheese I
found myself falling asleep, and so I took myself off to bed at quarter past
eleven. Today was a long day… you can see the photos
by clicking here. |
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7 August 2021
(Saturday) - The Lincolnshire Mega
I
didn’t sleep at all well. “er indoors TM” and the hounds
had captured most of the available bedspace, and I found myself hanging off of the edge of the bed for much of the night. I gave
up trying to sleep at half past four, and spent an
hour or so on-line before getting an hour’s sleep. Eventually
I got up, and played a game of “fetch” with
the dogs in which Pogo tried to fetch windfall plums whilst Treacle tried to
stop him. It kept us all occupied. We
had brekkie, then set off to the Lincolnshire showground for the annual UK
Geocaching Mega; a meet-up of all the nation’s hunters of Tupperware. As we
drove I Munzee-ed like a thing possessed. Munzee-ers had taken the opportunity to get busy too. We
got to the showground and looked for the sign-in point. Having been told (in
no uncertain terms) that we had to pre-book (at a cost), we found
that attendance wrist-bands were being given out to
anyone who asked for them. And suitably wrist-banded we had a little look-see
at what was going on. We
spent much of the morning playing the Adventure lab games;
a fun outdoor activity. It was a shame that the things were rather fragile
though. Two of them were broken by eleven o’clock. As
we adventure-lab-ed I did chuckle at one old bat. Rudely insisting that
everyone kept a distance of at least two metres from her, she had no qualms
about walking up to other people. Social distancing only works one way in her
world. We
joined the queue at the burger van, and it wasn’t long before we were
scoffing dinner whilst watching the medieval re-enactment brigade. I couldn’t
work out how medieval types could do a GPS-based hobby
but I suppose they managed somehow. We
adventure-lab-ed for a bit in the afternoon whilst having a little look round
the stalls, then having bought the obligatory supporters pack (that no one
ever really wants) we went to find the bar. Having been told about how
good the bar was we discovered it probably had been good a few days ago, but was past its best by the time we got there. It
was a shame that the organisers were staging a “Meet the Reviewers”
event in the bar just as we were about to have a second pint. It could have
been interesting *if* we’d been able to hear what was being said. We
slipped off quietly. We
stopped off on the way home to walk the dogs. The weather forecast had been
against us, but we didn’t get *that* wet really. Mind you we’d been
lucky – five miles down the road we saw it had rained torrentially as we
tried to find a co-op. have you ever tried to find a co-op? They take some
finding. We
made our way back to base. Karl and Tracey made dinner whilst Charlotte ran
the dogs ragged. I sat and drank beer and offered sage advice (as I do). Dinner
was particularly good, but by the time we got it all scoffed and had loaded
the dishwasher it was too late to go for an evening stroll. Instead we sat and I dozed off. I woke to find everyone
else had gone to bed, and then spent half an hour being unable to upload any photos from today. |
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8 August 2021
(Sunday) - It Rained
I didn’t get to bed until after midnight last
night having failed (three times) to upload yesterday’s photos. I gave
up and went to bed, and on finding myself wide awake at five o’clock I tried
again to no avail. I left them uploading, went back to bed and came back an
hour later to absolute failure. I tried three different browsers and both the
holiday cottage wi-fi and my own mobile data. After a couple of hours I got the photos up by posting them up one at a
time. A couple of days ago I did wonder on here as to what the internet
connection would be like. As I posted the last few photos
so Karl made me a cuppa, and I then helped him cook a full English brekkie. I
say “helped”; “sat and watched him do all the work” would have
been a more accurate description. But it was a very good brekkie. And with brekkie scoffed we had a decision to
make. Were we going to go for a walk? The weather forecast was against us,
but the weather forecast was bad yesterday and we didn’t get that wet at all.
So we set off. We’d found a geocache series which
was only a short walk from our cottage. A mile or so there, two miles round
the series of geocaches and a mile or so back. What could possibly go wrong? Things went amiss fairly
soon. The mile and a half to the first geocache was a mile and a half
as the crow flies. The crow doesn’t fly along two point six miles of
footpath. “A mile and a half my arse” to quote Jess. And as we walked
so the rain got heavier and heavier. We sheltered under a tree when we were
just over a mile into our walk and pondered. Should we continue or should we
give up? The consensus was that we were already wet; how much wetter could we
get? In retrospect that’s not a question that I
would ask again for fear of finding out. But despite being wet through we had
a good walk. We saw a red kite flying past, the dogs got to chase rabbits and
squirrels, there weren’t too many hills. Geocache-wise it was not a bad walk. To be
honest we would have enjoyed it better had the weather not been against up,
but we made the most of it. Most of the caches were there (we couldn’t
find one of them), and with good co-ordinates. There were some rather
clever hides . My only criticism is that there were fourteen caches where I
would have put (at least) twenty-five. But the series was ten years
old, and that’s how they did things back in the day. It started to dry out as we started the mile
and a half (my arse!) walk back to the
cottage, but it started raining again just as we got within sight of base. Once home Charlotte helped me and “er
indoors TM” wash the much off of the
dogs. First of all with the garden hose to wash off
the worst of the mud, dirt and grit, and then in the shower to warm up. And
then we got ourselves sorted. I myself skipped the
garden hose bit and just went straight to the shower. Doing a reprise of my sterling efforts of the
morning I sat and watched others make a very good bit of dinner which we all
enjoyed; we deserved it after the walk. We then got out the Blokus
and the profiteroles, and then spent half an hour gazing at the beautiful clear
sky and/or barking at the owls according to your personal preference. More port, more cheese… and to bed at half
past midnight. For all that we’d got wet earlier, today was a good day. You
can see photos
of it here. |
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9 August 2021
(Monday) - Heckington
After a late night I slept like a log, finally
waking just after six o’clock. I tried to get back to sleep, but it wasn’t
happening. I got up and fought with the cottage’s wi-fi again. I managed to
post up yesterday’s photos, but again I had to do it one at a time, which was
rather painful. Eventually I had the photos uploaded, I sent
out some birthday wishes, and we scoffed a leisurely brekkie before Karl and
Tracey drove Victoria and Jessica to the train station. They were only
staying for the weekend and had other things to do this week. It was a shame
they couldn’t have stayed. Whilst we waited for them to return
we had a rather quiet few minutes. Charlotte and “er indoors TM”
had a look at the Internet, me and the dogs had a little sleep. With the girls safely on the train back to
civilisation we set off on a little adventure. With our boots all still
wringing wet we left them drying and drove up to Heckington
and the eight-sail brewery for a spot of lunch. Paninis and ale. As we
arrived so the heaven opened and perhaps the heaviest shower of the holiday (so
far) hit. But like all of these showers (and
we’ve seen a few!) it went just as quickly as it came on, and we had a
good lunch. It was a shame that the dogs had to kick off quite so vigorously
at a passing Saint Bernard… But to be fair to the dogs, the Saint Bernard was
*huge* and he wasn’t really *passing*. So often these enormous
other dogs are with people who march them up close enough to cause upset and
then stand there grinning, completely oblivious that the fuss my dogs are
making is the fuss they have caused. With dinner scoffed we had a little wander
round Heckington; the wander being led by the local
geocaches. There weren’t many. We found all that there were in the town, but
some of them were rather difficult hides. I can understand why geocaching
isn’t taking off in Heckington; people are giving
the hobby a go and finding it too much like hard work. After an hour or so we were back where we
started… at a brewery. So we had another pint then
took a leisurely drive back to base past a couple of churches for
geo-purposes. At one of them we had a rather tricky field puzzle to solve,
but with puzzle solved we drove three hundred yards down the road to find a
miniature model church bolted to a tree. Rather impressive. We came home to find our boots every bit as
wet as we’d left them, which was something of a pain in the glass (to coin
a phrase) so we hung them out to dry, and sat
outside having a pint, a bag of smoky bacon crisps, and some plum loaf. The
plum loaf was rather good. Pausing only briefly to explore the cottage’s
outhouses we had a very good dinner. You can’t beat a bit of scampi, followed
by strudel with cream and ice cream. There had been talk of an evening of games,
but I had fallen asleep once between scampi and strudel, so an early night
was a good move (for me at least). I
took a few photos of the day – and they posted up with no problems (which
made a change) |
|
10 August 2021
(Tuesday) - It Stopped Raining
I had an early night, but
was wide awake after four hours sleep. So rather than laying wide awake I got
up and spent an hour sorting yesterday’s photos (which
sorted very quickly compared to earlier this week). With photos sorted I
prepared “Hannah” for today’s excursion, and after an hour I was
feeling tired again and so went back to bed where I didn’t sleep well. There
was a very loud repetitive sound which sounded for all the world like the
ticking of a clock. After laying awake listening to
it for well over an hour I realised that it was the sound of Treacle sucking
the blanket. I got up, made a cuppa, and took it and my
boots outside where I gave them a good polish. They soon looked as good as
new; you’d never think they had been soaked right through a day or so ago. Pausing only briefly to retrieve my sock from
Treacle we had brekkie, We then drove off to… I’m a bit vague as to
where it was, Having pulled up on a grass verge there was a minor hiccup as
one of our number took a tumble into a ditch. But soon we were on our way.
Two days ago we’d got soaked in the rain; it was a
glorious day today. We walked down a beautiful canal, and (as only a dog
can) Treacle and Pogo found the only stagnant bit and both dunked
themselves in the mire. As we walked down the canal, people coming
back the other way warned us about nesting swans. Whilst everyone else
diverted along behind the hedgerow I carried on alone so as
to get the nearby geocache without disturbing the swans with the dogs.
Most of them were on the water, but one was on the nest. It didn’t attack me,
but it made it clear that I should shove off. Seeing how the swans had built
their nest practically on top of the geocache I was after,
I abandoned the search for that one. We continued our walk down the canal, then
across a field where we picked up an old train line and followed that in a
circular loop through some pretty countryside. It was only a shame that the
bottles of beer we’d taken were all bottle conditioned and so were full of
yeast, but we didn’t burp *that* much. Geocache-wise it was a fair walk. We found all of the caches we searched for except the one by the
swans. All had good co-ordinates given. Several had no hints provided which
was a shame on a series with so many caches; we didn’t really have time to
mess about like that. One or two didn’t match the description given as over
the years they had been swapped and replaced. We’d gone knowing of issues having contacted
one of the cache owners and having arranged to replace a missing cache. We
replaced a few wet (soaked) log sheets, but the series of geocaches is
eight years old. It needs a serious maintenance run with all the caches being
cleaned out, logs replaced, and descriptions amended to reflect what the
things are like now as opposed to what they used to be. Had this series been
in Kent it would have been archived and replaced, but they don’t seem to do
that up here in Lincolnshire. After seven and a half miles we realised we’d
parked not too far from a pub. We had a crafty pint, and
stayed for dinner. Salmon teriyaki was very nice, as was two more pints. I
slept most of the way home. Once home the dogs got scrubbed. They weren’t
dirty; just smelly. And then we sat outside as the sun set. The dogs barked
incessantly at the sounds of whatever it is that lives in the tree over the
road. We have a theory that it is an owl. There is certainly something that
scares small birds living nearby. We’ve not seen a single sparrow all week, and
the seeds (from the bread) that we put out this morning had
remained untouched all day. As always I
took a photo or two. After the second glass of port
I found myself falling asleep… we’d had a busy day today… |
|
11 August 2021
(Wednesday) - Folkingham
Having got to bed
relatively early last night it was rather annoying to be wide awake at
quarter past two. But I used the time constructively writing yesterday’s
diary and posting nearly seventy photos (one at a time) to Facebook. After a couple of hours I felt tired and went back to bed only to be woken
by “er indoors TM”’s alarm. I decided against flushing it
down the loo and went back to sleep again. As everyone else did
their morning ablutions I sat outside and had a cuppa and was rather pleased
to see the bin men deliver a new bin. Not that we needed one, but it gave the
dogs something to bark at. And as the bin lorry drove off into the distance I saw a hawk circling overhead. I think it was a
red kite (but I could be wrong). It flew really low and slowly, and
once I’d got my phone out to take a photo so it shot
off upwards where it soared and hovered for fifteen minutes. It only went
when I fetched everyone else to look at it. Everyone else then
made brekkie whilst I programmed “Hannah” for today. And having
programmed “Hannah” for today, I then did it again (wrongly as it
happened) having mistakenly programmed “Hannah” for yesterday. Tracey set some
laundry going in the washing machine. We were intrigued to see how it came
out – the washing machine has a sign saying that it had been tested with
water, but there was no mention of it having been tested with laundry. We scoffed a very
good full English brekkie, then got ourselves ready and set off to Folkingham. We arrived, and with
cars parked we set off on our walk. It didn’t take long to realise that I’d
not quite got “Hannah” set right but we muddled through; despite nearly
failing at the first hurdle. After less than a couple of hundred yards we
found the footpath was impassable. We managed to find a
way round, and a bakingly hot day soon cooled and
we had a good walk. As we wandered across fields and along lanes
we watched the red kites soaring in the skies, and saw a deer in a copse. Geocache-wise this
wasn’t the best walk we’ve ever done. Fortunately
the previous people to have walked the route had done a lot of
geo-maintenance, but even so, a lot of the caches on this route had already
been archived. After seven miles we
found ourselves back where we started and we did a
little geo-field-puzzle round the village. Having been set some years ago,
the clues we were searching for were missing. We gave up and retired to the
village shop where we consoled ourselves with a bit of ice cream, and then
went on to the local pub for a couple of pints. Taking a minor detour
to the co-op (for more port) we were soon home. There was a minor
disagreement about the kitchen hierarchy. Who was head chef? Who was
sous-chef? I was quite content to be potwash. Karl cooked up some
rather good burgers, and with them scoffed we sat in the garden and watched
fighter planes from the local RAF station flying about; both actually in the
sky overhead and virtually on “er indoors TM”’s phone’s
radar app. We then came inside
for profiteroles and viennetta and more port… and I
woke up at one o’clock to find everyone else had gone to bed. I spent half an hour
trying to show the world the
photos I’d taken today. They simply refused to post to the Internet
though… I got them up three days later… |
|
12 August 2021
(Thursday) - Kelby
Despite being incredibly late to bed, the
dogs were even later. I think they must have been on Charlotte’s bed as our
rather spacious bed became incredibly congested at four o’clock. We had something of a late start today; once
armed with a negative COVID test (I do them every four days!) I again
tried and failed to post up yesterday’s photos, so contented myself with
sending out a few birthday wishes before we all
settled down to brekkie. Having started the day late, we were rather
late getting going, but we only had a short walk planned for today. Initially
I thought that was probably for the best as it did look to be rather hot for
the dogs but, like yesterday, it cooled down. Pausing only briefly to hunt
for a geocache in a derelict chicken coop (geocaching takes us to the most
amazing places!) we soon parked up just outside the little village of
Kelby from where we had a rather good little walk. We started off by
quarrelling with some other dogs; well… Treacle quarrelled; Pogo and the
other two dogs were all friendly enough, and so was the nice man with them.
He got chatting at us, and within minutes we were embroiled in a surreal
conversation about the various acronyms formed from his car’s registration
number. Even when on holiday two hundred miles from home my idiot magnet
never fails. We had a very good picnic lunch (as we
usually do). I could have spent all day sitting in the countryside
staring at a view which went on for miles (we estimated about twenty)
whilst drinking very good beer from the local brewery. As we walked we say
so many birds of prey. Again I thought they were red
kites, but my four years in Red Lake Primary School’s bird club are nearly
half a century ago, and I can’t remember very much of what Mrs Wright taught
us. We also saw two hares. Hares look a bit like rabbits, but they are bigger
and taller and nowhere near as podgy. If you could imagine a stretched-out
rabbit… that’s a hare. We also saw a giraffe. Not a
real one, but an ornamental one in someone’s garden. Interestingly my
brother’s neighbour had a model of the Eifel Tower in his front garden but the council told him it was too tall and had to
come down. This model giraffe was taller… After four miles we were back at the cars. It
was only a few minutes more before we were back at base and we spent a rather
good afternoon finishing off the second twenty-litre job lot of beer, eating
crisps, and throwing windfall apples for Pogo to fetch and Treacle to guard.
As we sat in the glorious sunshine we were
periodically covered in the dust being kicked up by the combine harvesters
operating in the field next to the cottage. Eventually we came inside; some of us had
dinner to cook whilst others had moral support to offer. As I watched dinner
being cooked Charlotte brought the dogs to stare through the window at us.
They seemed to like that. Suddenly the sky became very grey. Despite
the BBC’s weather app insisting there was only a three per cent chance of
rain, a torrential downpour hit. The little area where we had sat outside was
quickly flooded, and that rain must have upset the farmers no end. We had a very good bit of dinner, far too
much pudding, far far too much port, and we played
a couple of rounds of Blokus. I lost one, and (jointly)
won one (despite nearly dozing off a few times). And amazingly the heavy rain of only three
hours previously had given way to a perfectly clear sky so we star-gazed a
little; seeing quite a few of the Perseid meteors. I
took quite a few photos today too. But I waited until coming home before
posting them. The internet is iffy in Lincolnshire. |
|
13 August 2021
(Friday) - Home Again
I’d set my alarm for
seven o’clock this morning. Having had several late starts this week I
thought it best to take no chances. Usually I don’t
sleep when I have an alarm set, but today I was woken by the sound of my
alarm saying “get your arse out of its pit – it’s seven o’clock”. (It
actually does say that !) We had a rather
frantic couple of hours. Packing, loading the cars, constantly clearing dog
dung (both were pooping like things possessed) and finding all the
windfall apples Pogo had hidden round the house all took time. We finally
drove off just as the cleaner arrived to tidy up after us. Though (to be
honest) I don’t think she had much to tidy. Pausing only briefly
to get petrol we were soon heading south on the two-hundred miles journey
home. As we drove we all struggled to stay awake. “er
indoors TM” said she was fine (I hope she was – she was
driving!) but me and the dogs could hardly keep our eyes open, and
Charlotte was particularly quiet. Faced with a long
journey home we’d looked at the geo-map and planned a short walk about
half-way home, and at about mid-day we parked up at a church near Sheering in
North Essex from where we had a short (two and a half miles) walk. Our
route had been laid out for us by a series of geocaches, and despite crossing
the M11 motorway twice it was a rather good walk. No stiles to clamber over,
only two horses on the way (and they were friendly). There was an
overgrown footpath on the way, but you can’t have everything (!) If I
could find a similar short route I’d put out a
series of geocaches like that. Geocache-wise it was
a good route. Relatively large boxes to find, all in good order, and with a
simple puzzle to solve for the final cache of the route. I’d recommend anyone
new to the hobby to try this one… if it wasn’t a hundred miles away. I
took a few photos of our walk, and once back at the cars we said our
goodbyes. With the last walk done the holiday was officially over. Despite
concerns about holiday traffic we made good time
home; I Munzee-ed like a thing possessed as we
went. Once home It didn’t take long to unload the car. Unpacking properly
will take some time though. I got twenty assorted
T-shirts washing whilst I uploaded the last two day’s photos and blog
entries. A week ago I wrote “I intend to
broadcast from Lincolnshire during the next week but I don’t know if the
internet stretches quite that far”. The internet reaches into
Lincolnshire easily enough, but reaching out had
been problematical. And with two days worth of
diary and photos posted on-line I hung out the T-shirts to dry and herded my
socks and undercrackers into the washing machine. “er indoors TM” boiled up a very
good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Lego
Masters: Australia” in which the contestants made some wonderful
space-related Lego models only to see which one could be destroyed the most
spectacularly. It has given me some ideas… The dogs have been
asleep since the moment they came home – I think I shall have an early night
too… |
14 August 2021
(Saturday) - Gardening, Ironing
I went to
bed just after ten o’clock yesterday evening. I woke at half past nine this
morning. The week away had certainly taken its toll. I put another load of
washing in to the washing machine to scrub and had a
shave. Much as I loved being away for holiday, I’d certainly missed having a
shaving mirror which was in the general vicinity of the sink in which I was
shaving. Just as I
was making toast the dogs went frantic. Cheryl had arrived with something to
put in the freezer. I have no idea what it was; I didn’t dare ask. I get told
that something is being put in the freezer and I say
“Yes Ma’am”. I had
peanut butter and marmalade on toast (what do you mean – yuk! Try it!)
and had a little look at the Internet to see what I’d missed over the last
week. I hadn’t missed much as it happened. So I
pondered the geo-map planning some new walks, and re-thinking some plans, and
pondering what I had in mind for the Adventure Lab caches I’ve been given by
Geo-HQ. And all of the plans look to be thwarted by
old existing geocaches which have been laying there unfound and rotting for
years. Whilst there is a case for keeping some of the older ones, do we
really need quite so many kicking about? Slowly but surely
they are strangling the hobby. I went out
into the garden, hung out washed trousers and mowed the lawn. In the ten days
since I’d last mowed it, it had got rather long. And with edges strimmed and lawn mowed I hung
out more washing and then attacked the stepping stones
that go up the centre of the lawn. When I set them in place (about fifteen
years ago) I just laid them and thought they would sink into place. They
have done just that, and having sunk a fraction of
an inch below ground level, the grass and soil is actually encroaching over
them. So I lifted each in turn, using garden
scissors trimmed the grass and soil round the edge of the hole, and re-laid
the stone. Simple enough to type, but by the time I’d dealt with the five ant
nests I found whilst doing it (I wondered where all the ants were
coming from) two hours had passed and I had developed and burst a rather
impressive blister on my thumb. Having got
up rather late, by the time we’d realised we were rather peckish it was nearly
two o’clock. “er indoors TM” boiled up a rather good bit of
lunch then went shopping. I tided up the garden carnage and again confirmed
what I have been ranting for years. Gardening is such a futile exercise.
Having spent the best part of three hours in the garden it looks just the
same as when I’d started. Admittedly the lawn and paving slabs do look
tidier, but you’d need to have that pointed out to realise. “er indoors
TM” went shopping; I got the ironing board
out. I don’t know just how much laundry “er indoors TM”
generated for me last week on holiday (I don’t count her stuff – I just
wash and iron it) but I had washed seventeen t-shirts and six pairs of
trousers of my own. Between us I’d got enough ironing to keep me occupied
whilst I watched a DVD. “Scum” is an old favourite film of mine. I have seen
it dozens of times. How has it taken me so long to realised that one of the
senior prison wardens was played by the actor who was Mr
Samgrass in Brideshead Revisited? With “Scum”
and ironing finished I then watched David Attenborough on the “Eden”
channel. I didn’t realise that the largest egg in the world was something that was given to him (in
fragments) over fifty years ago. A rather
good dinner, two episodes of “House of Games” and now “Madagascar”
is on the telly. I shall do a little more geo-planning and then have another
early night… |
|
15 August 2021
(Sunday) - A Knuckle Sandwich
Once the dogs finally settled last night,
new-next-door’s son came home drunk. He’s probably a pleasant enough lad; he
just doesn’t have a volume control at the best of times. Oh well… all the
time he’s making noise at five o’clock he can’t complain about the dogs. I had a look at my emails. One of the
geocaches I’d hidden in Kings Wood had been reported as missing. And then I
looked closer. The report was dated a week *before* I actually went out and replaced it last month. It had taken
someone several weeks to get round to saying there had been an issue. I wish
people would get on with the admin of hunting Tupperware a lot more promptly
than they do. I sent out birthday wishes on Facebook,
geo-plotted a tad more, then took the dogs out for a little walk before it
got too hot. I won’t say where we walked – there are those who in the past
have stalked my movements in the desperate hope of getting to be first to
find on a geocache hide, and I was geo-plotting this morning. Once I’d geo-plotted I took the dogs on for a
little walk, and they were as good as gold (for once). As we walked we met quite a few other dogs and we didn’t have a
single “episode”; even if they did pull like trains. We came home to find the house smelled
wonderful; “er indoors TM” had been baking. Her first
attempt at a pineapple upside-down cake was rather good. With any luck she’ll
make more. I quickly popped over the corner shop for
cream to pour over it, then started on the hours of geo-admin which will be
required for what I’d done earlier this morning. It is hardly surprising that
Munzee is taking off in leaps and bounds whilst
geocaching is slowly dying on its arse. In Munzee you just stick a bar code onto a lamp post and off
you go. In geocaching you put in hours of effort just to be told “Quack Quack Oops” by the geo-feds. With “Daddy’s Little Angel TM”
off to the gym (!), we settled the dogs and went round to the abode of
the first fruit of my loin. Today was Cheryl’s birthday and a little
gathering of her immediate family was taking place. Still having something of
a re-hab after last week’s excesses I drove and “er
indoors TM” had a pint or two. I contented myself guzzling
several litres of Doctor Pepper and eating far too much;
though I turned down the offer of a knuckle sandwich. Two-year-old Eddie was
offering knuckle sandwiches to anyone who wanted one. He didn’t get many
takers, but I was giggling about the thought of a knuckle sandwich all
afternoon. It was rather good to sit in the sunshine
with family – I only dozed off twice. But there’s no denying that I spent much
of the time fretting about the dogs. I *really* don’t like leaving
them. We left them about two hours longer that I had planned. And that’s it. The holiday is over. Having
had ten days that all felt like a Sunday, today really was one, and tomorrow
is Monday. But I’m not fretting about going back to work. Having spent years
(decades) dreading going back to work after time off, in a strange way
I’m actually looking forward to it. |
|
16 August 2021
(Monday) - Back to Work
I didn't have a good night; I spent most of
the night in a sweat (too much to eat at yesterday's barby,
perhaps?), and when I wasn't sweating I was
clouting either “er indoors TM” or whichever of the dogs
was snoring the loudest. I spent an age trying to find what I'd done
with my sandwich box; finally finding it where I'd left it over a week ago. I
made toast and scoffed it whilst watching an episode of the second season of
"Chewing Gum". Whilst it was entertaining enough I can see why a third season never got made. I recorded another negative COVID test then
set off to work. As I walked to my car I made a
point of pretending not to see not-so-nice-next-door who was shoving
something quite huge into the public dustbin outside the hairdressers (at
half past six in the morning). I considered fishing it out to see just what
she couldn’t put in her own rubbish but thought better of it. Instead I set off work-wards. As I drove the only thing
I could hear on the radio was talk of the evacuation of
Afghanistan. Following the withdrawal of the western troops the Taliban
have re-taken the country and the place looks set to descend back into the
dark ages. (I could be wrong, but I doubt it). When I was a lad the future looked so bright. Now we face environmental
collapse, crackpot religions, and being unable to say a word in protest for
fear of offending those who make a profession out of being offended. There was other stuff on the radio, but I
couldn't hear a word of it. Today the pundits on the radio seemed to be
specialising in interviewing people who mumbled or shouted or stood too far
from the microphone in a deliberate attempt not to be heard. Some mornings
the radio is thought-provoking and inspiring. The only thoughts provoked this
morning were "WTF are they talking about?" I got to work for the early shift. After an
hour or so in one part of the lab I was seconded to another. There are those who
don't like being moved about during the day; I'm only too happy to be wanted.
But an early start made for an early finish and I
took a little (quite substantial) detour to test out my latest
geo-project. I got to the back of beyond, sparked up this geo-project and
found that what I had on my phone was the Mk1 version that I’d made yesterday
morning. I’d never actually put the Mk100 version (that I actually wanted to test) onto my phone. Woops. I came home, made geo-project Mk101 and made
sure that was on my phone. I shall test that tomorrow. Some of the family
were going to the cinema this evening; “er indoors TM” went
with them. I didn’t. I took the dogs to the co-op field for a walk, and with
walk walked they had their dinner and I had mine. Pizza covered in grated
stilton – that should be good for a stomach-ache. As I scoffed it I
watched “Sandkings”; the first episode of the
re-imagined “The Outer Limits” series (which is now twenty-six years
old). I didn’t realise that the original story on which it was based was
written by the same chap who wrote “Game of Thrones”. It was every bit
as good as I remember it; I wonder if all of “The
Outer Limits” shows are available on Netflix or Amazon Prime? |
|
17 August 2021
(Tuesday) - Late Shift
Another restless night: I’m wondering if
maybe a new mattress might be in order. We got our current one on Saturday 30
August 2014 when a suspicious-looking chap sidled up to me in a charity
shop and said “Psst – wanna
buy a mattress?” and we got a decent mattress out of the back of a lorry
for a tenth of the going rate. But seven years of supporting my carcass have
probably done for it. If any of my loyal readers know where I can get another
hooky mattress, I’m all ears. I made toast and had a look at the Internet.
It was still there. I had a message from China. A little while ago I bought a
rather sexy shirt from Amazon from a seller in China. Labelled “XXL”,
this thing would have been tight on one of my dogs. After a few messages to
and fro it would seem that people in China are
nowhere near my size, and “XXL” over there is “incredibly thin”
over here. I’ve been offered a refund; it’s just a shame it has taken so long
to sort this out. There was an interesting row kicking off on
Facebook; a friend was having great fun at the expense of an ex-colleague of
his. Like so many Brits, this friend of his had planned to
retire to Spain. However having loudly campaigned
in favour of Brexit, this chap has found that now that the UK is not a member
of the EU his plans are thwarted and he may possibly even have to sell his
villa in Spain (at considerable financial loss) as emigrating isn’t
the foregone conclusion it once was. A turkey who voted for Christmas? Not my circus, not my monkeys. I popped the leads onto the dogs and we drove down to Orlestone
Woods where we had a little walk. As we went round
we met a new dog walker; a rather posh woman with a Labrador. Treacle hid
behind me, obviously frightened of the Labrador. The posh woman sneered at
her; calling her a coward and loudly explaining how her dog wouldn’t hurt a
fly. The silly woman stomped past us in a most arrogant way, then stopped
dead when she saw Pogo following ten yards behind us. “Oh my!” she
exclaimed, then cowered in terror behind her dog as Pogo sauntered past. I didn’t point at her and laugh… I didn’t
need to. We came home where I popped to the corner
shop for a sandwich for later and a Danish pastry for coffee time. As the
dogs slept “er indoors TM” and I had coffee time. I wrote up a little CPD, then
left home a little earlier than I might have done so as to
test out my latest geo-project. It didn't take *that* long to take the
circuitous route out to the back of beyond, and testing went far better than
it did yesterday. Having the right version of the geo-project to test made a
world of difference. I then carried on to work
where I had a good late shift... I was going to say as good a shift as anyone
can have on the late shift, but I had a far better late shift today than some
I used to have in "a previous life" (shall we say).
It makes a world of difference knowing that the boss isn't going to spend
time in the morning going over every single thing I
did the night before actively looking for the most trivial of mistakes to
blow out of all proportion. However it was rather
depressing when the night shift arrived. The longest day was two months ago;
it is now dark when the late shift finishes. With some utter tripe about the
Victoria and Albert museum on the radio I drove home singing along to one of
my "Ivor Biggun" CDs. Mind you it was something of a pain driving
past the front door and then spending fifteen minutes driving round the local
area desperately looking for somewhere to park the car. |
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18 August 2021
(Wednesday) - Before the Night Shift
I got up this morning, made toast, and sat
and watched my lap-top for ten minutes. Pressing buttons achieved nothing and
it was whirring like a thing possessed. Eventually it announced that it had
updated something which was (and is) utterly meaningless to me. I wish
it wouldn’t keep doing that. If it wants to ponce about it can do it when I’m
doing something else; not at the very moment when I want to use the thing. When I eventually got into the Internet I saw that the latest scammer to try to befriend
me was still active. I had a friend request on Facebook late last night. He (apparently)
has created a secret Whatsapp group,
but needs many hot women for his (!) group. If any of my loyal
readers knows of a hot woman who is at a bit of a loose end, why not have
them drop him a line and get them to sign up before his (?) group is
full. I’m not entirely sure if by “hot women” he wanted foxy ones or
sweaty ones. I took the dogs for a walk. We had an “episode”
before we even got to the car. As we walked up the road so some woman coming
down the pavement waited until we were passing her, at which point she leapt
(gazelle-like) into the adjacent garden where she started screaming
and waving her arms like a thing possessed. That set the dogs off barking. We then had a “near-miss” in the
woods. Seeing a chap walking toward us with his dogs on their leads I put my
dogs onto their leads. He seemed offended that I’d put my two on leads; I
explained that Pogo often doesn’t like seeing other dogs on leads. This
seemed to be something of revelation to the chap who then said that he
has so many episodes with other dogs, and wondered
if things might be better if his dogs were off of the lead. I made the observation that pretty much every dog I’ve ever
met in the woods (but his) were running free. The chap considered it,
but he said that if his dogs were off of the leads
then he couldn’t tell them off if they barked (!?) Why do I attract these loonies? We came home and had a cuppa. The milk was on
the turn, but such is life. It wasn’t that bad to warrant going to the shop
for more milk. I sat down and spent an hour or so getting my CPD up to date, then there
was a minor commotion as the postman called. Once I’d settled the dogs I had a look to see what had arrived. We had the annual confirmation of who lives
in the house for the electoral register, and the TV licence too. I do think
that nearly a hundred and sixty quid a year for the BBC is a bit much, but I
don’t get any say in the matter…. I then geo-puzzled a little, and (with quite
a lot of help from “er indoors TM”) solved a nearby puzzle
which has had me stumped for some time. The plan was to spend the afternoon asleep. I
went to bed and the dogs came with me. They slept very well; I dozed as bast
as I could on the scrap of bed they left for me. I
arranged them several times so that we could all have some space, and every
time they arranged themselves back as they were. Afternoon sleeps before the
night shift are odd. If the dogs come up to bed with me
I can’t get comfortable. If they don’t then I’m lonely. After three hours I got up to find “er
indoors TM” had got some fresh milk so I made another cuppa,
and saw I had a message from the Facebook Feds. They’d reviewed the filth
that my prospective friend was peddling and had decreed that it doesn’t go
against their community standards. I suspect that in a few months they will
say that my pointing this out (!) contravenes their standards… Hopefully “er indoors TM”
will boil up some dinner in a bit, then I shall be off to the night shift. |
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19 August 2021
(Thursday) - Bit Tired
Last night’s night shift was one of the
better ones, but I was still glad to see the relief arrive. As I drove home I was glad that I could, and thought I’d probably
done the right thing getting petrol last night before work rather than this
morning. I’d arrived at the petrol station at Sainsbury’s last night to find
eight of the twelve pumps out of action. The chap behind the till told me
they weren’t getting enough deliveries to maintain their usual service.
Laughingly I asked if this was another benefit of Brexit; with a straight
face he told me that he had been told he wasn’t to comment. As I drove the radio delivered its usual
blend of drivel. The pundits on that radio were interviewing the Defence
Secretary about the collapse of the Afghan government and the take-over by
the Taliban after the withdrawal of all western forces from Afghanistan. The
Defence Secretary seemed to feel that having the Taliban in control wasn’t
necessarily a bad thing; if they did anything that the western governments
didn’t like then they would be sent a stern letter(!) There was an attempt to make a scandal out of
the fact that the Foreign Secretary had been on holiday last week, but those
being interviewed on the matter were adamant the chap had spent most of his
holiday in his hotel room on the phone to all sorts of people. I can’t help
but wonder what that was all about. If he is going to carry on doing
work-related stuff, why go on holiday? I can’t say I’m a fan of him, but
demonstrably he’s the best option for the job that we have at
the moment (come on Sir Kier – sort it out!). And like anyone
in any job he is entitled to a holiday. Doesn’t he have deputies to step up
whilst he’s away? There will always be some crisis or other going on – are we
saying that senior ministers can’t ever have a day off? I came home to find the front door locked and
everyone asleep. The noise of my unlocking the front door woke the dogs. Apparently it was my fault that “er indoors TM”
hadn’t set her alarm. I didn’t quibble; I just took the blame. Life is easier
that way. I went to bed; after three hours asleep (despite
the best efforts of Pogo and Treacle) I woke, and we all walked up to the
park and home through the co-op field. We had a good walk, we played “ball”
in the co-op field, and despite seeing several other dogs we didn’t have a
single “episode” at all. With walk walked I had a late brekkie and peered
at the Internet as I scoffed toast. The porn-monger who had been peddling
filth (with Facebook’s blessing) yesterday was no longer doing so.
Perhaps the Facebook Feds had taken a moral stance after all? Mind you
Facebook were running adverts for rather saucy bras today, so whatever moral
stance they might have taken didn’t last very long at all. I spent a little while doing the ironing
whilst watching several episodes of “Four In A Bed” in which utterly
unlike Bed & Breakfast establishments went up against each other. As is
often the case, the winners were those who offered pretty much the same
services as everyone else, but at half the price. The take-home message of
this show is that if you are planning a few days away in a B&B, it pays
to shop around. After this finished
I dozed in front of the telly cuddling dogs until “er indoors TM”
boiled up a rather good curry which we washed down with an overpriced bottle
of French wine. And with curry scoffed I finished the plonk with some cheese.
The dogs had cheese biscuits and seemed happy. Back in the day I would have
shared the cheese with the dogs, but I can’t help but wonder if too much
cheese contributed to poor Fudge’s illness. As we scoffed we
watched another episode of “Lego Masters: Australia”. Have you ever
seen any of the “Lego Masters” programmes? They are rather impressive… I’m really tired… |
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20 August 2021
(Friday) - Smart Meter, Church Micro
As I scoffed toast I peered into the
Internet. It was much the same as it ever was, but I did chuckle at something
I read that a friend had posted on Facebook. It advocated that we should
never apologize for anything, and had immediately
had an “I never do” comment from someone whose nastiness is only
exceeded by his arrogance. I considered commenting that it is better to
apologize for your own failings yourself than to have others do it for you, but decided against it. Glossing over all the twee memes about dead
dogs crossing the rainbow bridge which fill my Facebook feed these days (which
I find particularly upsetting) I had a look at my emails. I had a flurry
of “Found It” logs on some of the geocaches I’d hidden. There was
mention about these having being found on the way
home from the recent geo-Mega-meet. These reports were from someone of whom
I’d not previously heard but had found over seventeen thousand geocaches. “Travelling
home” in Kent from someone of whom I’d never heard with that many finds
had me intrigued. It didn’t take long to find that these people lived in
Manchester… So they were travelling home from
Lincoln to Manchester via Kent? It also didn’t take me long to find that
despite having found over seventeen thousand geocaches, they’d only ever
hidden one. One ! I also had an email from the power company to
say that our energy bill was ready to view. Despite our having underpaid by
fifty quid in the last quarter (and that included a fifty quid bung from
the power company because the ombudsman said they had to pay us!) our
monthly payments are to remain unchanged. And the smart meter which was
installed on 12 July has announced that in the last twelve months we used the
most power in January 1970. I can’t say I’m impressed. Having been successfully wound up I took the
dogs to the woods for a walk. We walked our usual route round Orlestone Woods and didn’t see anyone. Mind you we didn’t
have a quiet walk. I’ve never heard quite so many buzzing insects, and the
squirrels were shaking the tree-tops about as they were scrambling all over.
There were also some very noisy things crashing about in the undergrowth.
Deer? Boar? To make up for not seeing anyone as we walked,
we met an idiot as we parked when we came home. As I got out of the car so this chap started apologising because he
hadn’t seen me. I have no idea why he was so upset by not seeing me, but he
wouldn’t shut up about how sorry he was; he certainly seemed distraught about
it. I popped to the corner shop for a sandwich
for later and a bun for coffee time, and came home
and made that coffee. I registered another negative COVID test, and suddenly
the morning had gone, and it was time to set off to work. As I drove the drivel on the radio was
mind-numbing in the extreme, so I sang along to the (so I'm told) odd
choice of music I have on my memory stick. I drove straight to work and sat
in the car park and enjoyed the peace and quiet as I scoffed the sandwich I
had bought earlier. The excitement of a late shift in the blood
bank was something of a contrast to the peace and quiet of lunch time. At twenty-five past four I took a couple of
minutes out, and activated one half of my latest
geo-project. And as I did my bit so the geo-feds did
theirs in activating the other half. After a few days' work, Church Micro 665
- Lenham was up and running. A five-part little
walk along the public footpath going through the churchyard in Lenham answering questions as you go; each correct answer
rewarding you with one fifth of the co-ordinates of a nearby geocache. In the
past few weeks I mentioned that I'd been
awarded another set of Adventure Labs by geo-HQ; let's hope the punters like
what I've done with them. I'm told that I'm not the first person to set an
Adventure Lab as a Church Micro, but no one can seem to find any other
examples of this. (In my world setting an Adventure Lab as a
Church Micro is a big deal; in reality it is
probably rather trivial. But reality is a dull place, isn't it? Who wants to
live there?) I then got on with my work; periodically
looking at my phone in the hope that someone would go and do the Adventure
Labs (and associated cache), and after a little while I had a message
to say that someone had got First to Find, and that all was well with what I
had set up. I was glad about that; no matter how much you plan and test,
there is usually some problem which is overlooked. I had intended to put the finishing touches
to my next geo-project over the next few days with a series of six Wherigo
geocaches going live next weekend, but that plan has hit a snag. The location
I had in mind was on SSSI land, and despite having got all the requisite
permissions from the land manager it turns out I also need to get them from
the land owner too. Having filled in no end of silly
forms for the Forestry Commission I've now got to fill in exactly
the same forms for Natural England... Well... I haven't *got to*
at all. Quite frankly I can't be arsed. I shall just
find somewhere else. Doing so will be a lot less trouble... I just need to find somewhere else. Or let someone else put caches out instead. |
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21 August 2021
(Saturday) - Before the Late Shift
I slept through till nine o’clock this morning; the aftermath of a night shift perhaps? Leaving “er
indoors TM” and the dogs snoring (they have no trouble
sleeping!) I made toast and peered into the Internet. Some friends were
having birthdays. I sent out birthday wishes, and
looked at the Facebook page of one of those friends. Had he changed his job?
It didn’t take long (on Google) to find out that his Facebook page was
a tad misleading. He wasn’t (and isn’t) the managing director of one
of the leading Swiss banks. He is actually only the
head honcho of their IT department. I say “only” – another few minutes
on Google came up with an estimate of his salary… About ten times what I get.
Forty years ago he was my best friend. To think we
walked to school together for years. We were both in the Boys Brigade. We did
so much together. I’ve seen him three times since 1984… I think he’s
deliberately distanced himself from the old days (or just from me!). I
mention this bloke from time to time. I’m not jealous… much. I rolled my eyes when I read something on one
of the work-related Facebook groups. In a discussion about something or other
some woman had posted “With the turnover and incompetence we have in our
admissions department, I do not trust them to admit the patient to the right
medical record number”. What a thing to say… let alone put in
writing. It didn’t take me thirty seconds to see she was posting from… well,
I won’t say where. But there’s not many hospitals in the area that she could
be saying that about. A year or so ago someone posted something equally
disparaging about their place of work on one of the other Facebook
blood-testing groups and found herself out of a job by the end of the week.
Someone she thought was a friend reported her to hospital management. I had an email from Credit Karma; my credit
score has gone down by eleven points. I wonder why? I set off to work. I didn't bother switching
on the radio - I just howled along to my strange choice of music as I drove
toward Lenham. Today is International Geocaching
Day and there is an e-souvenir if you found a film pot lurking under a rock
today. According to the geo-map there were a few caches I might hunt for near
Lenham Heath so I thought I might chance my arm
there (as it was on the way to work). Just as I was on the trail of a
likely target my phone beeped. A new geocache had gone live just on the other
side of Lenham. The chance of being first to
find... bearing in mind how few new caches appear these days that isn't
something to be sniffed at. After a short drive I parked the car at what
seemed to be a sensible place to park, only to find the car was at
forty-five degrees to reality. Pausing only briefly to reverse off of the verge it wasn't long before I had the new
geocache in my hand - and I'd got there before anyone else. First to Find.
Result!! Finding a cache on the way to (or from)
work on International Geocaching Day would seem to be "a thing"
in my world. In the nine years I've been doing this lark I've worked on eight
of the International Geocaching Days. I got to work and popped to the works canteen
for a spot of lunch. Pastie and chips went down rather well before the late
shift. The late shift was rather hard work… |
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22 August 2021
(Sunday) - It Didn't Rain
I was woken by the rattling of the torrential
rain against the bedroom window at five o’clock this morning. Was this in for
the day? Had we been right to cancel plans for a walk in the countryside
today? After half an hour or so the rain subsided and I dozed off, waking
again at half past nine. I made toast and peered into the Internet.
There wasn’t much going on really, which was probably for the best. There was
a minor squabble on one of the Facebook groups that I follow in which someone
claiming to be called “Chosen Betty” was trying to pick a fight with
the Archbishop of York (somehow seeing him as personally responsible for
some disaster or other) but seeing how the Archbishop wasn’t a member of
that Facebook group, “Chosen Betty” was having something of a
one-sided argument. I had an email from the Credit Karma people. Apparently my credit rating has gone down because I’m not
using my credit card enough. They told me that the outstanding balance on my
credit card is forty-nine pounds and I should use
the card more. Forty-nine pounds? I spent more than that using my card the
last time I got petrol. They’ve clearly got something wrong – I wonder how
this is affecting people who rely on this sort of thing? As the weather outside went from black skies
to glorious sunshine and back again (seemingly on a continuous loop) “er
indoors TM” dished up coffee and Belgian buns and I struggled
with a geo-puzzle. You can see it by
clicking here. (Please do click there!) There are seven odd pictures
which I thought were outlines of seas. Once you’ve identified which sea they
were (*if* they were actually seas) you then
had to do something mysterious (several ideas sprang to mind) to
convert each to a number. And what you did with each number was then anyone’s
guess. Having identified (I thought) over
half the seas I co-opted “the brains of the outfit” to see if she
could identify the rest – after all she is a dab hand at geography. Not only
did she identify them all, but she also got her mum to work out how you
turned them into numbers. After a little co-operative effort we had the final location of where the cache was.
I’d been trying to solve this one for a while. It looked as though I could
stop off to walk out to this one to break up the journey to go visit my Dad
when we would next be visiting. And with no rain forecast for two hours we
thought that next visit might be right then. “er indoors TM” and I walked the
dogs to my car, and we drove down to Rye. The plan was a little walk out to find
this cache; a little walk back, and on to visit parents… It was a good plan. We parked up and walked out to where this
puzzle geocache was. It was a surprisingly long way from where we’d parked
the car, but a good walk for everyone is always a good thing. Eventually we
found this cache; it took some finding. I then looked at the map and realised
that rather than walking straight back the way we came, if we continued we could take a loop back finding a few more
geocaches as we went. That too was a good plan. Or it would have
been if not for the swamp. Admittedly we found those extra geocaches, but
Treacle found a swamp, and Pogo joined her in it for a bit of a wallow. Realising that visiting parents with dogs in
that state was a no-no we hurriedly changed our plans. Rather than driving on
to Hastings we walked into Rye and did the two series of Adventure Lab caches
that are there. One set took us round the town from the Landgate (almost)
to where we’d parked and then up to the church, and the other took us on a
little adventure round the church. As we walked round the church
we met another couple of people also playing the Adventure Lab game. We “talked
Tupperware” for a while (as you do) before going on to do the
Church Micro. Ave you ever “done” a church micro? You should! As we walked back to the car
we commented on how good the dogs had been. We’d met no end of other dogs
today, and our two had ignored all of the other
dogs. No “episodes” at all. That was to be encouraged. As we drove home so the rain started… and
then stopped again. Flushed with success at solving that puzzle
this morning (and one or two in the week) I tried and failed to solve
a couple more fiendishly difficult ones. “er indoors TM” boiled up a
particularly good bit of dinner which we washed down with a half-way decent
bottle of plonk whilst watching “The Cockfields”
on catch-up TV. We had a rather good day today; making the
most of it in spite of the forecast rain which never
came. |
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23 August 2021
(Monday) - Making Plans
I was out like a light when “er indoors TM”
and Pogo had a fight at twenty past four this morning and didn’t really get
back to sleep after that. After an hour I gave up trying to sleep, got up and
had toast as I watched another episode of “Chewing Gum”. As that
finished and as I was about to turn off the Sky-Q box I caught the end of
some utter drivel on the Sky History channel in which some scary-looking chap
was expounding the theory that because he personally couldn’t have built the
Great Pyramid of Giza on his own, it must have been built by aliens. And
because the Great Pyramid of Giza had been built by aliens, then so must
pretty much every other structure in history that was built before last
Tuesday. Apparently (so he claimed) the Great Pyramid of Giza wasn’t a
tomb at all; apparently it was a power plant, though what power it generated
and how it generated it was never explained. I must admit I would have found the chap
expounding this theory a tad more plausible had he ever been given a haircut,
and had he not looked like a looney. I tuned in to Facebook and sent out a couple
of birthday wishes; there were a few photos of a wedding on Facebook this
morning. An ex-cub scout of mine (and life-long friend of “My Boy TM”)
had got married at the weekend. Many of the generation of the fruits of my
loin are getting married right now... a few years after they all had their
children. More and more I hear from the younger generation that having
children is no big deal, but getting married is. Are
they right? When you consider the cost of a wedding (and divorce rates)
I suppose they have a point. Mind you according to Facebook he did get seven
toasters as wedding pressies... what is the trade-in value of a second-hand
toaster? I checked my emails (dull), activated
the dishwasher and set off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were
talking about the evacuation of allied forces from Afghanistan. Bearing in
mind that there doesn't look to be enough time to get everyone out before the
last Americans have gone, Boris Johnson is (supposedly) going to beg
President Biden to delay the American withdrawal. The sensible money seems to think that
President Biden won't be interested, and there are grave concerns in
government circles that the so-called "special relationship"
between the UK and the US will be exposed as little
more than wishful thinking on the part of a nostalgic UK which is (quite
frankly) living in cloud-cuckoo land. Other than wild speculation about COVID-19
there wasn't much else on the news this morning. It never fails to amaze me
how the morning news show can make so much out of so little. I got to work, the night shift went home and I leapt into action. I say "leapt"...
"lurked about doing that which I couldn't really avoid"
would be a more accurate description. I considered taking the dogs to the woods
this evening, but as I came home after the early shift the roads were rather
busy, and having negotiated my way through the traffic once, I didn’t fancy
doing it again. So we went up to the co-op field
again where we played “ball”. Playing “ball” involves Pogo
playing “fetch” nicely with one ball whilst Treacle jealously guards
the other. We came home, and “er indoors TM”
took the dogs out again. I stayed home and watched the video of a friend’s
funeral. It was rather good and it made me think.
It’s no good being squeamish; I’ve lost four very dear people so far this
year. Plans don’t make themselves, you know. Whilst I’m not going to write the speeches
for my own funeral (though I could leave a message!), I’m making a
shortlist of what music I want played. Everyone will walk out at the end (sobbing
pathetically) to the version of “Mr Blue Sky” which was my
fiftieth birthday pressie. But I’m still undecided as to what else to put
on. I’ve got
some ideas, but what to start with? Will we have a musical interlude
half-way through? I’d really better start making some firm ideas or I’ll just have it decided for me… For what it’s worth I’ve already written my
last ever blog entry which will be published after I croak… |
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24 August 2021
(Tuesday) - Stuff
After a very good night asleep I was woken by
the dulcet tones of my phone's alarm saying "get
your arse out of its pit". It really does say that; I thought it was
rather funny at the time when I set it up. I got up and make brekkie. There was a minor
catastrophe as we'd run out of marmalade. We have loads of jam and peanut
butter - but no marmalade. Some people would see this as a minor
inconvenience; it was apocalyptic to me. I sulked as I watched the last
episode of "Chewing Gum", then had a quick look at the
Internet. There were two separate arguments brewing on
one of the Sparks-related Facebook pages I follow. Some chap had found a
website selling Sparks-related merchandise at a fraction of the price of that
charged by the official website, and the cheaper stuff came complete with
spelling mistakes and was of far poorer quality. Did we all agree that this
was actually officially licenced stuff? The poor
chap posting seemed to think that the dodgy stuff must be legal because
it is illegal to sell rip-off poor quality unlicensed merchandise. Some
people were rather nasty in telling him how thick he was. And there was a lot of unpleasantness about a
particular arty film for which Sparks recently made the soundtrack. I've not
seen it, and don't really intend going out of my way to see it. Apparently it is a terrible film, but if you are a Sparks
fan you are supposed to pretend to like it because that's what fans do. There
was quite the row kicking off about that too. I got dressed and walked out of the
house in the desperate hope of getting a GPS signal for my Munzee app. It is hard to play a GPS-based game when your
phone's GPS has gone doolally and seems to think you are somewhere off the
coast of Nigeria (as my phone did this morning). I took a little longer than usual driving
away from the house as I'd found my car was parked in place with only six
inches between it and the cars in front and behind. It didn't take *that*
long to winkle my car out; if only people could spare a thought when they are
parking you can easily get seven cars in the bay outside our house. But
people rarely give any thought. As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the
radio were talking about the new rules coming into effect soon in which care
home workers must be vaccinated against COVID, and it was claimed that sixty
per cent of UK care homes will have to sack workers refusing
to take the vaccination. There was talk about civil unrest over this,
and that forcing people to have vaccinations contravenes their human rights
and civil liberties. Presumably this is their human right to be a twit? Take
anti-vaccination as an example of some people's stupidity. Ever since Edward Jenner
gave the first jab over two hundred years ago, it has been a resounding
success. Nevertheless the anti-vax movement goes
from strength to strength?... is it because some people are scared of needles
and make the most of how everyone has rights and no
one has responsibilities? I blame the schools. If over the last few
decades teachers hadn't pussyfooted around so much and forced the kids to
learn their lessons we wouldn't have such a load of
uneducated people who feel that their misinformed and factually incorrect
opinions are of equal worth as proven facts established by experts over many
years. It bothers me that in today's society the
considered opinion of an educated person is of no more worth than the whim of
a half-wit. There was also consternation being expressed
that McDonalds has run
out of milkshakes. McShakes are the latest
thing to run out as the nation's few remaining lorry drivers struggle to
deliver essential supplies. Nandos ran out of
chicken last week, and there's been shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables
in local supermarkets for weeks. Oh well... there's still water in the tap (for
now). Work was work (as it usually is), but starting early meant that I finished early. On the
way home I popped to Aldi to get marmalade. I got some biccies
as well. Like most supermarkets right now their fresh fruit and veg section
was rather sparse, but amazingly the “centre aisles of tat” were full
of the usual sort of tat that Aldi is famous for. With a nationwide shortage
of lorry drivers and all sorts of foods in short supply, there is still an
abundance of cheap rubbish. I bought a couple of tennis balls and a
ball-thrower for he dogs. And I got a Euro-Millions
ticket too. Thirty million Euros would suit me very nicely. When I got to Ashford
I had a stroke of genius. Rather than getting tangled in the traffic lights
along Brookfield Road (where the road is up for a month) I decided to
go through the town and home past the Outlet Centre… where one of the many
lunatics who drives up there far too fast had driven straight into another
car and had blocked the road. By the time I’d got round the wreckage and the
police and the ambulances the entire town was gridlocked. Our road was bunged
solid with cars trying to use it as a cut-through only to find police
guarding the bollards which are supposedly to allow emergency vehicles
through but have been stuck in the “open” position for years. It speaks volumes about the mentality of the
local traffic officers in that on the one day that people should be using
that area to avoid the jams the authorities decided to enforce the fact that
it should be closed. I eventually got home to be snarled at by “er
indoors TM”. I think she’s still got the arse
that her handbag is awash with hand gel from where Pogo sat on it. I’m not
sure why I’m in trouble about it, but I find it best to just go with the
flow. She took the dogs out and I mowed the lawn.
It took some mowing. And with lawn mowed I sat down
and looked at the household accounts. Every month I sit quietly and account
for every penny that I’ve squandered over the last month. A bit petty of me?
Perhaps. As always I’m not too badly off. I’d like
more money, but I might well be a whole lot worse off. I wonder if I might
squander a little on eBay… I shall type “1970s Lego” into the search
bar and see what happens. |
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25 August 2021
(Wednesday) - What If...
Finding myself wide awake half an hour before
the alarm was due to go off I got up. Over brekkie I
watched an episode of “The Chair”.
Wanting something to watch, Netflix recommended it. Though bearing in mind
they made it, they would, wouldn’t they? It was billed as a “comedy-drama”…
it wasn’t very dramatic and it was more “funny-WTF”
rather than “funny ha-ha” but it might improve as the series goes on. When that finished and as I was about to turn
the telly off my eye was caught by some utter drivel on the Sky History
channel. Some rather odd-looking people were rattling on about Puma Punku.
I’d never heard of Puma Punku before – it is (apparently)
the Bolivian equivalent of Stonehenge. And (again) because the rather
odd-looking people didn’t know how it was made, aliens must have made it.
After five minutes I turned the program off thinking that their crackpot
theories might well gain a little plausibility had those expounding them had
a wash and a haircut before appearing on the telly. Call me old-fashioned if
you will, but I have trouble lending credence to someone with the appearance
of a deranged tramp. With a few minutes to spare I had a look at
the Internet. There wasn’t a lot kicking off this morning
so I got myself ready for another early shift. As I got to my car so not-so-nice-next-door
came down the road. She goes out very early most mornings for some rather odd
fast-walking, not-quite-jogging strange sort of exercise. (The sort of
trot you employ when you need to get to the toilet immediately but don’t dare
run as that will just end in catastrophe). Having made several efforts to be civil to
her this year and having had every single overture rudely rebuffed I
pretended I hadn't seen her and fiddled about in my car's passenger footwell
until she'd gone past. That woman is a worry; I’ve offered to repair and
replace her knacked fence (on a few occasions); she just hysterically
ranted that she can't afford to do it. I've offered to repair her knacked
shed; she just gibbers incoherently and then tells me I don't understand
English. I've tried to offer an olive branch many times... and have
reluctantly decided it best to go back to the ways of the last fifteen years
in which we simply completely ignore each other. As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the
radio were talking about how in China there are quite a few conspiracy
theories circulating claiming that the global COVID-19 pandemic started in
the USA, and not in Wuhan (as all the evidence would seem to suggest).
Even Chinese diplomats are spouting this nonsense. There was then loads of talk about how
President Biden is refusing to delay
the USA withdrawal from Afghanistan. I wonder if President Biden is getting a tad
fed up with the international perception that the USA is supposed to be the
policeman of the world? I rather lost interest in the rest of the
news as my mind turned to that Euro Millions ticket in my pocket. There was a
jackpot of thirty-three million euros in last night's draw. As I drove I planned how I would spend it. I would buy a house
(cottage/bungalow) in the countryside vaguely equidistant from
Hastings, Maidstone and Ashford and it would have to be near woodlands and
footpaths. I would get the place decorated and have electric ports for
electric cars installed before we moved in. I would have a loft
conversion done to give me an extensive Lego room. I would have to get the
huge garden dog-proofed and would landscape the garden and have a rather
impressive ornamental lake dug. I then started thinking about how I would
share my winnings. Who would I share it with? How much would I give out, and
how much would I keep for myself? I got to work and checked on-line. I actually did have a winning Euro Millions ticket... but
with only two numbers and one bonus I've won four pounds and twenty pence.
I've adjusted my plans somewhat, and am keeping the
lot for myself. Selfish? Perhaps. At tea break I had a little rummage in my
locker. Last year (on November 12th) I broke a tooth. I had the
remains of it pulled out the next day, but that night I was on a night shift.
Thinking my gob might not be up to anything too arduous to scoff that night I
got a few pot noodles and stuck them in my locker. I re-discovered them
today, and seeing they were now two months past their expiry date I thought
I'd better start getting them scoffed. I had one at morning tea break and it
gave me a guts ache that lasted all day. But another early shift meant that I got out
early, and I used the opportunity to take the dogs round the co-op field and
to use the ball-thrower that I got yesterday from Aldi. In a novel break with
tradition Treacle played “fetch” nicely. She seems to have realised
that Pogo has far more fun chasing after the ball than she does jealously
carrying one round. With a ball each, both played “fetch”
successfully. With walk walked I then rigged up a fishing
net and got most of the plums out of the tree overhanging the bottom of our
garden. They have been falling and splatting on the shingle. The chap who
lives in the house at the end of the garden doesn’t seem overly fussed about
the falling ones so presumably he is equally disinterested about the ones
that were still up the tree. In any case it is a rather grey area as to whose
tree it is as the deeds of our houses disagree as to who owns that bit of
land. If the bloke in the house at the end of the
garden kicks off, he can have the plums. We’ve got a plan to make plum jam,
but I’d rather just not have them splatted into the shingle. I doubt he will
ever know though… unless not-so-nice-next-door squeals me up. I
wouldn’t put it past her… |
|
26 August 2021
(Thursday) - More Stuff
After a good night’s sleep
I turned on the telly and made some toast. If I turn the telly on before
making toast then all is well with the world. If I make
the toast first then sit down and turn the telly on
then the Sky-Q box wants to do software updates and is utterly useless until
my toast and coffee are both cold. The thing knows. As I scoffed warm toast and drank warm coffee I watched the second episode of “The Chair”
which was entertaining enough, but for all that it is supposed to be a
comedy-drama I’ve not seen a single funny bit yet. With five minutes before the end of “The
Chair” I sparked up my lap-top. If I turn it on
and give it time to boot up (whilst I’m doing something else) then it
is ready in seconds. If I turn it on wanting to use it then it takes about
quarter of an hour to get going. Facebook was a bit dull this morning. There were
a couple of squabbles kicking off as there so often are. The Radio Four
Facebook page was a classic example. No one was discussing the issues of the
day; they were just making personal attacks on each other for want of
anything better to do. But I did laugh when my cousin described her being
woken at four o’clock by her neighbour having a physical fist-fight
with his car. I had a look at my emails. LinkedIn suggested
that I become friends with Shadie McDuse. I had no idea who Shadie
McDuse was (is); it would seem she is a lab
assistant somewhere in London and we have one LinkedIn friend in common. The
LinkedIn friend in common works for a recruitment agency specialising in
filling vacancies in veterinary surgeries. I’ve mentioned before that
LinkedIn leaves a lot to be desired. As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the
radio were talking about the shortage of blood sample
bottles. If we run out, I'm out of a job, so this is a subject rather
close to me. (We get through about two to three thousand of the things
every day at work) There was talk about how there are issues
getting the bottles moved about because of the shortage of lorry drivers and
issues at ports, but there has been talk of blood sample bottle shortages on
one or two of the international blood-testing groups I follow on-line so this
*isn't* due to Brexit (much as some would like it to be).
Possibly pandemic-related, but there are rumours flying around that it is all
because of a shortage of plastic due to the Chinese not supplying the stuff.
China does make
a third of the world's plastic. Are the Chinese playing silly beggars? Who knows? There was also concern about how light pollution
may be contributing to declines in
insect populations. Artificial street lights
have been found to disrupt the behaviour of nocturnal moths, reducing
caterpillars numbers by half. Amazingly the modern LED streetlights appeared
to have the biggest impact on insect numbers. These modern LED street lights wind me up. Back in the day when I was on
the committee of the astro club we were in
consultation with the local council about the introduction of these lights.
Billed as the best thing since sliced bread, what was promised bears no
relation whatsoever to what was delivered. Back in the day we had street lights that lit up the street. Now we have intense
pools of light (which attract the insects to their doom) interspersed
by humungous areas of darkness where you really can't see the black dog on
the end of the lead you are holding. (don't believe me? - I've got a
black dog or two you can borrow). I've said before (many times) that the LED
street light is an experiment that has been tried
and has failed. I went to the petrol station before work and got
a car-full. As I went to pay
I was glad to see that I got called to a different till to the one I paid at
last week. Last week my credit card had got declined even though it works
fine everywhere else. My card worked fine today. I remarked about it to the
chap behind the till who laughed. Apparently the
card reader at the other till only reads about one card in ten. They know the
thing has issues, but their management refuses to do anything about it... And then I popped into Aldi to cash in my winning
Euro Millions ticket. The girl on the till called over her manager and after
ten minutes the two of them figured out how to give me my four pounds and
twenty pence. From the way they spoke I got the distinct impression that most
people don't bother collecting such minor winnings. Does that make me a
cheapskate? Possibly, but that four pounds and twenty pence has paid for
three quarters of the first round of drinks for our next weekend walk. If any
of my loyal readers have an unclaimed Euro Millions ticket for a trivially
insignificant amount of money, don't throw it away. I'll have it and drink it
for you (!) After that, the rest of the day was rather dull… |
|
27 August 2021
(Friday) - Rostered Day Off
I rolled my eyes when I peered into Facebook
this morning. One of the work-related Facebook pages now has a “mission
statement”. Some people really do lap up this meaningless management-talk
claptrap. But whoever came up with this utterly trivially pathetic little gem
had fallen at the first hurdle. Their mission statement hadn’t included their
target audience and as those who love this sort of drivel will know, stating
your target audience is the first part of any mission statement (apparently). Mind you they could probably benefit from
deciding who their target audience is. The group started off with a load of
people who work in hospital laboratories sharing experiences but nowadays
seems to be filled with either anti-vax conspiracy theories or students
wanting someone to do their science homework for them. I then spent a little while staring at the
geo-map. I’ve got plans for another series of Wherigo caches… if only I could
find a decent location for them. I went down the road; I had appointments at
the dentist’s. I arrived to see so many signs
exhorting the public to wear face coverings and found three receptionists all
wearing face masks as neck warmers. I signed in and was soon called in by the
dental hygienist. There seems to be a rapid turn-over of dental hygienists as
I never see the same one twice. The last one was rather rude and offhand and
patronising and left me tasting blood all day. This one was polite and
friendly and seemed to be rather impressed with the state of my gob. She did
her bit and I went back to the waiting room to wait
to see the dentist. Whilst I’d been in with the hygienist the waiting room
had been annexed by a group that I can only describe as “The Family From
Hell”. Mother was shrieking swear words into her phone whilst the
brats swarmed. Periodically Mother would stop swearing into her phone and
would swear at the brats. I was glad when the dentist called me in. I was in
with him for less than a minute before he sent me on my way with instructions
to come back next February. I came home to collect the dogs,
and leaving “er indoors TM” working I took the dogs
out. As we drove we found ourselves behind a bus.
There was a filler cap sticking out of the bus labelled “coolant” from
which fluid was gushing and steam was pouring. I was rather glad when the bus
turned off; I didn’t want to be stuck behind it when the imminent breakdown
happened. We drove up to Challock;
I’d had reports that there were issues with the series of Wherigo geocaches
I’d hidden up there a while ago. We walked the entire series – it was only
two miles and made for a good dog walk. There were a couple of caches
missing; I replaced both. As we came to a road
I put the dogs back on to their leads, but mistakenly attached Pogo’s lead to his ID tag rather than his collar, and
when he pulled the thing broke and was lost in the undergrowth (as it so
often does). As I searched for it, one of the locals came busying up and
asked what I was doing. She seemed rather taken aback that I had a genuine
reason to be walking up and down along the footpath outside her house, and we
got talking. I was rather surprised when she asked if I was a breeder. Was
she trying it on? Did she “want a portion”? My immediate thought was “not
since the late 1980s” but then I realised she was talking about the dogs. Toward the end of our walk
we came past a little farm shop. The place had signs up about an off licence
and selling local produce. Securing the dogs outside (where I could see
them) I went in and had a look. I had high hopes of getting a couple of
bottles of beer from a local brewery. They did have beer from a local
brewery… Faversham is local, but you can get bottles of Shepherd Neame beer
in the local supermarkets for half their price. I bought a cake to bring home, and we all
came home. Leaving the dogs with “er indoors TM”
I popped round to the pet shop where I got a new tag for Pogo’s
collar. I had hoped to get a nice blue one but I had
to have what they had. The chap on the till apologised for the poor selection; yet another casualty of the shortage of
drivers. Aldi’s beer selection wasn’t what it might
have been either. I spent a little while updating the Wherigo
cartridge after this morning’s walk, solved a geo-puzzle, then cracked on
with the ironing whilst watching more episodes of “Four In A Bed” in
which the losers obviously gave away the contest. The idea of the program is
that owners of Bed and Breakfast establishments visit each other’s places and
pay what they think the place is worth. Bearing in mind that everyone is
looking to find fault, overpaying the opposition is just doing yourself down. “er indoors TM” boiled up fish and
chips which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Joe
Lycett’s Got Your Back” in which Joe Lycett is trying to take over
where Esther Rantzen left off. He’s having a fair stab at it… For a day off I’ve been rather busy… |
|
28 August 2021
(Saturday) - A Stag Do
I was out like a light when my phone beeped
with a reminder to do another COVID test. I’ve asked them not to send those
reminders at quite such an ungodly hour. Do I really have to block their
number? Finding myself wide awake I got up, made toast and had a look at the Internet. Facebook was awash
with people trying to sell stuff this morning. Lego, fishing gear… all vastly
over-priced with shallow promises of “vintage” meaning “worth more”
when what they should have said was “second-hand” meaning “used”.
But all the time people pay over the odds, other people will take their
money. I also saw that today was the first
anniversary of the release of the new “Bill and Ted” film; I’ve still
not seen it. There was an amazingly petty squabble on one
of the Facebook Lego-related pages in which someone had made a very
impressive model of the BattleStar Galactica out of
fake Lego which upset the Lego purists no end. And there were quite a few photos of now-dead
pets on Facebook. Today is Rainbow
Bridge Remembrance Day when we all remember our beloved pets that have
passed on. I’m sure whoever came up with this idea had the best of
intentions, but does anyone *really* need this? It is four and a half
months since my best boy died in my arms and two and a half months since Sid
went. Both are raw nerves and I really don’t need
some bleeding heart do-gooder reminding me of that about which I am still
pathetically blubbing on a daily basis. I then spent an hour solving two geo-puzzles.
Both were Jigidi jigsaw puzzles. They filled time
whilst I waited for “er indoors TM” to emerge from her pit. Pausing only briefly to collect Ro-Ro we
drove yup to Kings Wood or a little walk. Pogo immediately dumped, and as I
took his “stuff” to the poo-bin I heard him and Treacle kicking off.
As I came back from the poo-bin so I saw them
kicking off at another big dog. I shouted at them
and they immediately ran to me and sat. As they should. I have a theory that
some of their bad behaviour is actually their idea of protecting er
indoors TM”. We then had a good walk round the woods; we
saw some other dogs and each encounter passed off without incident. Perhaps
because I was there to protect er indoors TM” and so they
didn’t need to? Or perhaps because the voices in their heads said so? We came home for a cuppa and a slice of cake.
As I scoffed I solved another geo-jigsaw. I don’t
like these puzzles, but it is all good preparation for a walk at some stage
in the future. And then the phone beeped. Favourite daughter-in-law had
announced that there was helium to be collected from Argos. Bearing in mind that
I don’t dare say no to her, I leapt into action. I took Pogo and Treacle to “Daddy’s
Little Angel TM” where they are having a sleepover, then came
home via Argos where they seemed to be having a “park like an idiot”
day. Once I’d finally collected what I had been
sent to collect I came home to find that in my absence we’d had a torrential
downpour. I had a shower, and it wasn’t long before
Chris and Kirsty were at the door. We all drove down to Dymchurch where one
branch of the family gathered. Matt and Glen had been told they were going to
a quiet barbecue. They had no idea what was waiting for them. To be honest,
neither did I… There’s a few photos here. Hook a duck for shots.
Party games. Karaoke. More drink than sense. And the cabaret… it all
got rather messy… |
|
29 August 2021
(Sunday) - Borstal, Teams...
With the dogs off on their little sleepover
the house was rather empty and lonely when I got up this morning. Amazingly I
didn’t feel anywhere near as rough as I thought I might this morning after
six bottles of ale, more apple sours than you can shake a stick at, and more
sambuca than sense. I made toast, told the world about my
adventures yesterday, set “Hannah” up for today, and checked out the
map to plan a route to the Medway Towns via Folkestone, then got ready for
the off. It was much easier to get ready with no over-excited dogs swarming
about. Firstly we had to collect
over-excited dogs so we drove down to Folkestone where “Daddy’s Little
Angel TM” assured us that the hounds had been well-behaved. As
we walked them back to the car so Pogo tiddled like a thing possessed and
Treacle cried. Treacle will not tiddle on pavement and tarmac, so we drove (as
fast as we could) to Radnor Park where she tiddled what seemed to be
about a gallon of dog wee. The sense of relief from her was palpable; why
will she only tiddle on grass? Silly dog. From there we followed my phone’s GPS which
eventually led us to an obscure country lane near Borstal. Borstal is a village
near the Medway towns where the first young offenders’ institution was built, and gives the name to the prisons. Despite the
name, the countryside around it is rather pretty. It wasn’t long before Karl, Tracey and
Charlotte arrived, and we set off on a little walk guided (as ever) by
a series of geocaches. We walked alongside the railway and the river, across
fields and through woods, and got some incredible close-up views of the huge
bridges over which the M2, the high-speed train line HS1 and the train track
cross the Medway valley. The stinging nettles were a bit think in parts, but
you can’t have everything. Although the sky looked dark as we started,
we had no rain. Sometimes overcast, sometimes bright sun, the weather was
good to us. Geocache-wise it was a very good walk. We
found all of our targets. I did find the given
co-ordinated were a tad awry on some of the hides, but
bearing in mind that the things were hidden six months ago I expect the tree
cover has had a lot to do with that. I
took a few photos as we walked, and slept for
much of the way home. Once home I spent a little while doing all
the geo-admin from today’s walk then got rather angry trying to set up
Microsoft Teams on my lap-top. Cheryl has said that
tomorrow’s family bingo will be played via Microsoft Teams as Zoom is too
much like arse-ache (or so I am reliably informed). Admittedly Zoom
does chuck everyone out after an hour but most people are capable of logging
back in again. I spent about an hour trying to get Microsoft Teams going but
kept getting into silly software loops. It wanted my phone number but
wouldn’t accept it. After repeating the same steps about twenty times it
suddenly accepted it. It then refused to go any further until I installed the
app on my phone but refused to believe I had done so. It eventually took my word, but refused to recognise any contacts. Eventually I
managed to call Cheryl on Teams and it worked, but it took some doing. “er
indoors TM”’s lap-top wasn’t having anything to do with it at
all. It seems to me that Microsoft Teams is too
much like arse-ache as well. “er indoors TM” boiled up a very
good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching tonight’s episode of “Lego
Masters: Australia”. In this episode the contestants were building
bridges and testing them to destruction. They spent ten hours building
something which was then trashed. As we watched so the dogs snored. Their
sleepover last night followed by today’s walk has done them in… Mind you our booze-up last night followed by
today’s walk has done me in too. |
|
30 August 2021
(Monday) - Bank Holiday (?)
I was up far earlier than I might have liked to
have been after the last couple of days, but that’s what goes with doing an
early shift on a Bank Holiday. I made toast and scoffed it whilst watching an
episode of “The Chair” (which really isn’t that good) then had
a little look at the Internet. It seems there was a big geocaching event in
London this weekend. With loads of new Adventure Lab caches
I could have gone to the wicked city last Friday on my day off… Back in the
day the local Facebook groups used to tell us what was going on well in
advance. Back in the day (if only I had known) I would have organised
a trip up there. Nowadays people just tell me after the thing had happened.
Oh well… I’m off work next Monday. Maybe a trip to the wicked city then? There was an impressive argument kicking off
on the Facebook page of a local lake. There are arguments all over Facebook,
but none quite so impressive as those on fishing-related pages. A local lake
which has been a successful fishing venue for years was bought by new owners
a few years ago. I’ve only ever fished the place once under the new
ownership; at the time these people seemed to be bending over backwards to
give offence. Now they’ve discovered the internet they can argue with so many
more people. I sent out a couple of birthday wishes and got
ready for work. As I drove up the motorway
I looked at the rain being pushed away by the car's windscreen wipers. I
don't mind working on a Bank Holiday when it is raining. As I drove the
pundits on the radio were talking about the rise in independent councillors
on local councils. Apparently the mainstream
political parties aren't happy about this as unskilled amateurs are doing the
jobs that historically were done by wannabe-MPs and other career politicians
in training. However local people in councils run by independents are happy
with the idea as they have people in charge who have no political axes to
grind and can do what is best for their neighbourhood. There's a novel
idea... There was also a lot of talk about how a lot
of people are currently incredibly skint having had to fork out for new
school uniforms. It was claimed that a new school uniform costs over
three hundred quid per child. It would seem that the
government has had to step in to put a cap on uniform prices, but planned
legislation won't be
in place in time for this school year. I can remember back in the day when I was a
cub scout leader that we too insisted on a uniform. If kids were told what
they had to wear then there were no contests to see
who could come in the most expensive football costume or the latest pricey
fashion statement. A cub uniform was deliberately cheap. Perhaps the schools
have lost the plot somewhere? They must have if the government has had to tell
them to cut the price. I got to work for the early shift. It went as
well as could be expected. As I worked I left my
phone connected to the Internet. I don't usually do that, but there weren't
any bosses about to catch me out today. As I worked there were quite a few
messages flying about from friends and family who also seemed to be having
trouble getting Microsoft Teams to work for them. I came home to find “er indoors TM”
had gone visiting relatives so I took the dogs up to the co-op field where we
played an odd variation on the game of ”fetch”. I had two balls and
would throw them in different directions. Treacle would hare off after one
ball; Pogo would sit at my feet looking disinterested. Treacle would pick up
the first ball and run to the second, where she would drop the first ball and
bring the second one back to me. When she dropped the first ball so Pogo
would run and fetch that one to me. We did this for one circuit of the co-op
field before coming home. “er indoors TM” came home just in
time to tune in to the family bingo night. I wouldn’t say that Microsoft
Teams was a resounding success compared with Zoom, but then (once we’d
finally got the thing going) it wasn’t as much arse-ache (I love that
phrase!) as it might have been. If nothing else I won twenty quid. Personally I’m quite happy to play for bragging rights,
but “My Boy TM” likes to play for money even though he
don’t seem to win that much of the stuff… |
|
31 August 2021 (Tuesday)
- Early Shift
I slept like a log and woke full of energy
and raring to go… at twenty past one. I then dozed fitfully for the rest of
the night. I watched another episode of “The Chair”
as I scoffed toast, then sparked up the lap-top. Now
that I’ve finally managed to install Microsoft Teams, that thing starts
itself every time I turn the lap-top on. Having to keep turning it off – that
is arse ache (!) I had a look at the geo-map with a vague plan
of finding a walk for the weekend. I might have found somewhere. And then I
activated GSAK (it’s a geo-thing) to confirm a hunch. I’d not had any
“Found it” logs all weekend on any of the geocache I’ve hidden. None.
It seems that there were only fourteen new geocaches set up within thirty kilometres
of home over the last month. Is the noble pursuit of hunting Tupperware dying
on its arse? I wonder just how much longer this
silly game had got left. I had hoped to see photos of what people had
been up to over the weekend. There were one or two, but for the most part
arguments and lies abounded on Facebook, so I turned off the lap-top and got
ready for work. It was rather drizzly and overcast as I drove
up the motorway, and was far busier than it had been
at the same time yesterday. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking
about how the American
evacuation was now complete and how the world is now waiting for all the
terror attacks to start again. Perhaps they will. Perhaps the allied forces
should have stayed in Afghanistan. But I can't help but wonder what the
Americans think they are achieving by seemingly doing little other than
involving themselves in leading the world in interfering in in other people's
wars. There was also a lot of talk about how
dangerous the sport of rugby is. It would seem that playing rugby is causing serious
and long-term brain damage to pretty much everyone who plays the game. I got to work and did my bit. We had
something of a busy day; not so much through workload as through a lot
of people having taken leave today. I can understand wanting to take the week
of a Bank Holiday off, shame about the weather though. I spent quite a bit of
time today staring out of the window at a rather dismal day. As I did that which I couldn't avoid my
thoughts turned to a possible day out in London next week. Bearing in mind
that the biggest issue would be getting there I had a look on-line and was
quoted eighty-four quid for an off-peak return to Waterloo. Eighty-four
quid!! So I phoned and spoke to a human who gave me
a price of less than half of that. With work done I came home via the railway
station (as they will be the people making the final decision on train
ticket prices) and they were at a loss to explain the quote of
eighty-four quid. Maybe a trip to the wicked city might be happening next
week. I collected the dogs and took them up to the
co-op field where we tried another game of “fetch”. This one was
something of a disaster in that after the initial excitement Pogo refused to
go more than ten yards to fetch a ball. So I would
chuck a ball half a mile (with the ball-launcher) for Treacle, and as
she vanished into the distance I would then lob another ball close enough so
Pogo cold be bothered to go get it. As we played so we got chatting with another
dog-walker. Someone with whom I used to work many years ago. Ten, to be
precise. Today marks ten years since the management at the local hospital
stabbed me in the back and sent me packing (not that I’m bitter). With dogs walked we came home and (with a
*lot* of help from Gordon) I figured out how to import the locations of
an Adventure Lab into a GPX file. Most people will be blissfully unaware of
the very existence of GPX files and Adventure Labs and so will have no idea
about the excitement of combining the two. Having combined the two I tried to
transfer the hybrid to my GPS unit. “Hannah” wasn’t having any of it
though… I spent much of the evening falling asleep in
front of the telly. I *hate* that – wide awake for most of the night,
fast asleep for most of the evening. |
