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1 August 2025
(Friday) - Bit Dull
I
had an alarm set last night... I woke in a sweat at two o'clock. I got out of
bed and onto the duvet (as opposed to under it) and lay awake for
three more hours before giving up and getting up. Rather
than scoffing toast I scoffed the leftovers from last night's dinner as I
watched an episode of "Orange is the New Black", then had a
little look at the internet as I do. Squabbles abounded; fortunately
unlike yesterday's squabbles these weren't ones I had to moderate. Today's
arguments were petty and trivial (as they always are), and as is so
often the way those who were the most vocal in picking their verbal fights
were demonstrably the ones who were the most keen to
show their ignorance. As
I got dressed I listened to the bin men shouting up
and down the road at each other. They really don't have to be that noisy, but
I suppose they feel that if they are awake then so should everyone else be
awake. As
I drove up the motorway through the utterly unnecessary Operation Brock
stupidity the pundits on the radio were interviewing some posh woman (I
have no idea who she was) about an initiative to have Latin taught in schools. The whole thrust of
this initiative is that Latin is perceived as the purview of the upper
classes when it could be studied and enjoyed by all. You would have thought
that, with that in mind, they would have got someone who didn't sound quite
so upper class on the radio, wouldn't you? Mind
you this initiative has probably got a point. When I was at school I had a choice between studying Latin or German...
I say "I had a choice". I had no
choice. Sadly there was absolutely no way that I
would have been allowed to study German because of parental prejudices about
a war that was over twenty years before I was born. But even if there had
been a different option, my father was adamant that I studied Latin because (as
he insisted) "clever people do Latin". I quite enjoyed
it; not so much the language as learning all about the Roman culture. But my
"O" level in Latin has been of absolutely no use whatsoever
to me whereas an "O" level in German might well have been.
I've been to Germany where I was utterly unable to communicate with anyone in
their native language, but if you want to have a conversation with a dead
Roman, I'm your man. I
popped into Sainsbury on the way to work to get a sandwich. They didn't have
coronation chicken, so I roughed it with beef and horseradish, and got some
tennis balls for Treacle to lose at Dog Club tomorrow. Work
was work; it usually is. The horseradish sandwich was OK I suppose. Not
being on an early I didn’t get out early (obviously). The chap who was
on the early shift took a short lunch break today to get out a tad earlier
than usual. He was planning to dash to the railway station and embark on a
frankly epic journey to Edinburgh where he planned to arrive in the small
hours tomorrow morning. Sooner him than me… “er
indoors TM” kicked
off the birthday weekend by getting kebab for dinner. We scoffed kebab whilst
watching the latest episode of “Star Trek; Strange New Worlds”. It
was rather (very) good. |
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2 August 2025
(Saturday) - A Birthday
I
had a better night’s sleep, but when I popped to the loo at three o’clock I noticed something. “er indoors TM” had
plenty of space; I was very tightly hemmed in by the dogs. And having
realised that, was I being paranoid in that having had to fight for space
when I came back to bed, were the dogs encroaching closer
and closer every time I moved? I
got up and made toast and sent out birthday wishes via the Internet to “er indoors TM” and
the three other friends having a birthday today. I smiled at one comment I
saw – a friend had posted photos of her friend’s wedding and had apologised
that she’s had to leave early for a scouting event. I did that so much in the
past. I’ve mentioned before that scouting is a wonderful activity for kids,
but as an adult it will utterly take over your life and leave you with no
time for yourself at all. I
Munzed, got Wordle on the last attempt – “daunt”
(what a stupid word) and took a cuppa and some pressies up to the
birthday girl. I then struggled with a geo-puzzle. If you know the answer to this one, please give me a
hint. I‘ve been struggling with it all week. I
turned on the radio but disaster… Steve wasn’t on this morning. I don’t know
who his replacement was, but it wasn’t the same. I turned it off. Being Saturday we had Dog Club
which went rather well. We had nearly twenty dogs along, and had a great
time… well, the dogs did. Today was seemingly “roll in fox poo” day
with a surprising number of dogs caked in fox dung sadly including Bailey. At
one point my heart sank when some chap turned up with a huge dog straining on
the lead. But I was wrong; the chap just wanted to socialise his dog. He kept
the dog on the lead and walked him round the paddock just to get used to
seeing other dogs. For some dogs socialisation is
charging about and playing with other dogs, for others it is just tolerating
the presence of other dogs. We
came home, where Bailey had a bath and a serious scrub. I went round the
garden harvesting dog turds before starting getting ready for the afternoon.
I got out a couple of chairs and found more dog turds
so I gathered those up. I got out another couple of chairs and found even
more dog turds so I gathered those up… sometimes
it’s like living with the all-England Olympic crapping team. Eventually when
I thought I’d got all the dung together Bailey came out and laid a fresh one. People
started arriving, the beer was opened, and we had a very good afternoon in
the garden with family and friends. It
all got rather vague towards the end… as it does. |
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3 August 2025
(Sunday) - A Lazy Day
Overnight I’d had a stroke of genius about
how I might solve that puzzle geocache that has been
troubling me all week. I fiddled about a bit doing some sums, typed my answer
into the checker… and it told me that was the one hundred and fifth wrong
answer that it had seen. I had a little look into Facebook. A friend
had been to a wedding, another friend had been to some big event in Chester,
some were on their way home from holidays. People had been posting pictures
of what they had been doing; as a very nosey person
I like that. And I had seemingly endless adverts for massively overprices
shirts. What’s prompted that? I Munzed; the
monthly Munzee Clan War started this morning. This month we need Widdle
points… I have no idea how to get them, or even what a Widdle point is. But I
expect we’ll find out. And with a few moments spare I went into the garden
and hacked back the overgrowth pouring over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door.
I’d not done that for a while, and when setting up for yesterday’s garden
party I saw their bushes were almost half way across
our garden. Back in the day when the husband was still there
he seemed to think there was nothing wrong with that, and he felt I should be
grateful for it as that would deter burglars(!) We took the dogs down to the Romney Marsh for
a little walk. There’s one
particular geocache on its own a mile from
the road which is supposedly a tad tricky to find. We parked up, walked the
mile, spent an hour and a half searching… and walked back to the car. Either
it’s not there or we can’t find it. I suspect it is there… Mainly because
someone found it after we came home. As we came back to the car
we walked along the military canal where a particularly delightful family was
having a swim. One of the younger ones had climbed up to the road bridge and
was preparing to jump into the canal from the bridge… I didn’t want to get
involved; perhaps I was being judgemental but they
didn’t look like they would take advice. Bearing in mind the canal is at best six feet
deep I wonder if his leg bones survived? We came home and had a bit of lunch. I wrote up some CPD and fell asleep
for over an hour. I *really* hate that. When I want to be awake I’m snoring. And at four o’clock tomorrow morning I
shall be wide awake. “er indoors TM” boiled
up a rather good bit of dinner, and with that scoffed we went out to Chilham village square where a Dutch chap who was
holidaying in the nearby hotel had organised a geo-meet. Half a dozen of us
sat in the evening sunshine and chatted about out little hobby… |
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4 August 2025
(Monday) - Preparing an Ad-Lab
I
slept like a log last night, which was something of a result. I got up and
had a go on the scales. I’ve put weight on over the weekend… back to the
dieting properly. I put a load of washing in to
scrub; I’ve rather skived on that lately. As
I scoffed toast I rolled my eyes at the argument on
one of the geocaching pages I follow on Facebook. Someone thought they were
being clever by hiding a film pot under a rock in a thorn bush which is well
known for being where the local tramps go to have a dump. I
sent out birthday wishes to the two friends having a birthday today, got the
dogs onto their leads and took them out. As
we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the latest government initiative to stop people
smuggling which is clearly doomed to failure. Stopping the small boats coming
across the channel would be easy. Simply set up a little (or not so little)
armada of boats to stop the illegal boats and escort them back to the French
coast where their little boats get scuppered..
Nothing else is going to stop them, is it? We
got to the woods and had a rather good little walk round. The walk passed off
without any episodes, which is always a good thing. We
came home for a cuppa, and once I’d hung out the washing I cleaned out the
big pond’s filter. Back in the day when I had the old-style box filters it
took over an hour to clean them out; a smelly messy job which involved lots
of heavy lifting. Now with the pressure filter I can set up for the cleaning,
do the cleaning and tidy up afterwards in just under ten minutes (I timed
it). I
munzed,
and sent out the invites to the Munzee clan for this month’s Clan War,
and got Wordle (rigid) on the fifth attempt. “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” finished her appointment, so I drove her and Pogo home, and came
home via Chilham. When we were there yesterday I saw several little points of interest which
would lend themselves to being part of a geocaching Ad-Lab,
and bearing in mind I get another Ad-Lab credit next week I thought I
might call in again and have a closer look. I found five things in Chilham Village Square which would make good Ad-Lab stages, and narrowly beat the rain home. I
spent a little while writing up my next Ad-Lab;
looking on-line for the history of Chilham and
embellishing it (just a teeny bit). I had an hour’s doze, did “Feed
the Fish”, and had another go at the twenty minute
chair workout which was (and is) surprisingly hard work. And
then I had a look at that puzzle geocache which has been
bothering me all week, and once I’d sat still for a
while I checked my blood pressure. It’s rather better than it has been. After
a good bit of dinner “er indoors TM” went
bowling. I settled in front of the telly and watched episodes of “Orange
is the New Black”. I’m
worn out and I’ve hardly done anything. And I ache. I’ve been aching quite a
bit recently… |
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5 August 2025
(Tuesday) - Rather Dull
I
had a rather good night’s sleep for once, but woke
feeling decidedly miserable. But I got up regardless, and
did my usual thing of making toast and peering into the Internet. A few weeks
ago my cousin mentioned that she was hiring a camper
van and going on a little expedition with it. Last night she and her van
arrived in Cornwall, and this morning she announced that she had taken her
first ever dump in a campsite. That was nice for her. For all that it would
be utterly impractical, I’m thinking more and more
about getting a camper van. If nothing else kite festivals would be a
possibility again. Yesterday
where I had loads of adverts for shirts in my Facebook feed, today I had
adverts for walking holidays around Machu Picchu. I’d be up for that… or
would I? It’s a long way away, and the last time we went on an international
holiday I missed the dogs. And
I saw that one of the leaders of the Willesborough
scout group had died. “Paddington” (as she was known) was quite
a character. We
got the dogs onto their leads. Bailey was dead keen to go out;
Morgan not so. As we drove up to the woods the pundits on the radio were
interviewing some of the head honchos of the Green Party. They are
having elections for their leadership, and for all that
the various candidates disagree, they were disagreeing whilst still being
civil. That’s a trick that more politicians could learn; especially when you
bear in mind that what with the recent polling successes of the Greens and
Reform it is quite likely that coalition government of extremes may well be
on the cards in a few years’ time. We
got to the woods and didn’t have the best of walks. As is always the way in
August the woods were swarming with people who rarely (if ever) take
their dogs out. As I walked I was using the dog
water bottle as a dumbbell and was waving it up and down and side to side.
Some woman shrieked at me not to hit Morgan with it. And then another woman
shrieked at me that all dogs must be on leads at all times
as dogs off of leads invariably attack each other. “Don’t
you know nothing?” she ranted. Fortunately none of these idiots
ever venture more than a few hundred yards from the car park. Once we were
away from them we had a good walk. As we walked we met a woman with a Dalmatian that we see from
time to time. She was ranting about all the “holiday dog walkers” as
she called them. It
was a shame that my “Map My Walk” packed up half-way round. We
came home where I hung out one load of washing and put another load in to
scrub, then made us both a cuppa and wrote up some CPD before wasting
a couple of hours struggling with the geo-puzzle that has had me going for over a week. I
munzed and Wordled, and
after a spot of lunch I did the dogs’ monthly flea treatments, which went
easier than it has done in the past. And then I got the sander out and had a
go at the ceiling of the little lobby by the bathroom/toilet area. It’s
needed sanding for some time. I made quite a mess doing it. I
had a go at my twenty-minute chair workout worked up quite a sweat, then
quietly walked to the back door and then announced that “I’m Going To Feed The Fish”. That
always gets the dogs going. “er
indoors TM” sorted a rather good bit of dinner which we
scoffed whilst watching a couple of episodes of “Below Deck”. Have you ever
seen it? It really is all about how the other half live. People with more
money than sense charter a yacht. Hiring the thing for three days costs two
hundred thousand dollars. I’d
love to have more money than sense… but (to be honest) I probably
have. Today
has been dull. I really need to sort out some sort of project to keep me
active… |
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6 August 2025
(Wednesday) - Early Shift
I
slept through till four o’clock last night and lay awake for an hour before
giving up and getting up. I made my usual toast which I scoffed whilst
watching “Orange is the New Black” then had a little look at the
Internet. It was still there. My cousin seems to be having fun in her camper
van in Cornwall, and I was presented with quite a few adverts for home
schooling. Earlier this week I’ve had adverts for shirts and for Machu Picchu;
today it was home schooling. I must admit I’m not a fan of the idea. A friend
once home schooled her children. One got to be sixteen years old and couldn’t
read; the other spent the mornings watching random You-Tube videos and the
afternoons playing tennis. When I was a scout leader
we would periodically have home schooled children come along. They were all
the same – utterly unable to interact with children of their own age, utterly
terrified of children of their own age and would physically cling to adults
for the whole time that they were there, and would
never come back for a second time. I don’t doubt that there are some children
for whom home schooling works, but I’ve never seen it. I
set off for work and drove up the motorway. On the one hand I wasn't
continually stopping for the seemingly endless roadworks which plague the
drive to Pembury. On the other hand I was
continually having to brake sharply to avoid the idiot drivers cutting me up
on the "Operation Brock" stupidity. As I have mentioned
before, people really should avoid driving like idiots all the time they have
their company name and phone number emblazoned across their cars, vans and
lorries. As I
drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the remembrance services
in Japan that were happening today in honour of the eightieth
anniversary of the first atom bomb that went off at Hiroshima. As a lad I was
a member of the campaign for nuclear disarmament. I don't know if our little
CND chapter in Hastings ever achieved much... And
there was talk of how the nation's finances have gone down the pan. Apparently the Chancellor of the Exchequer is facing
a forty-one billion quid shortfall. And
the winners of the competition to build humanity's first starship have been
announced. When you consider just how trashed our planet is, and just how
many atom bombs are still poised to blow up what's left, you'd think that
having some sort of lifeboat in which to escape might be more of a priority,
wouldn't you? I
stopped off at Sainsburys to get lunch, and whilst I was at it I got a couple of bottles of beer for the weekend. And
as always there was no one operating the tills, but because I was buying beer
someone had to come over to tell the automated machine that I was old enough
to buy a bottle of beer. You'd think the face recognition software would be
able to tell that, wouldn't you? And you’d think that if Sainsburys could
have a couple of totally bored staff loitering round the self-service tills
they could have the same people usefully occupied by each running a till. I
went into work and did my bit. Being on an early was a result. I came home,
and by the time I’d done my twenty minute chair
workout “er indoors TM” had
finished working and we took the dogs down to Orlestone for a little walk. As
we walked I tried out my “Map My Walk” app
which had failed yesterday; it worked perfectly today. And
with walk walked we had a rather good dinner of chicken donuts and garlic
bread which we scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “Below Deck”
in which the bosun got the sack. Hello
sailor… Meanwhile
the most recent fruit of my loin has left me a load of her washing to sort
out… |
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7 August 2025
(Thursday) - Solving Puzzles
I
woke in the small hours and put a load of washing in. When I got up properly I hung it out. Not-so-nice-next-door was
messing about in her back garden at half past six. And as always
she made sure her back door was firmly locked behind her when she came out.
Who does she think is going to get in through the back door when she is only
ten yards away, and it’s not practical to get into her garden anyway? I
made toast and had a look at the Internet. There was a note on that puzzle geocache that I’ve been
looking at for over a week. With not a single person having solved it, a clue
has been added. It’s a shame that the clue didn’t help me at all… But I saw a
series of nearly forty Harry Potter themed puzzle geocaches had gone live just
north of Folkestone. At first glance they appeared to be solve-able. I
decided to waste my time on those ones instead. Today’s
on-line argument was on one of the sci-fi Facebook pages which had
wished George Takei a happy
birthday… no end of people were pointing out that his birthday is in April. I
took the dogs out earlier than usual today. As we drove the pundits on the
radio were interviewing ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown. I always find the
chap incredibly dull, so I turned the radio off and sang along to Ivor Biggun
songs instead. We
got to the woods to find the car park nearly empty. That came as a relief;
Having had several set-tos with several normal people on Tuesday I was hoping
to avoid them today. And, just to be sure, we took a different route to usual
today and followed the smaller and lesser-walked tracks. My plan worked. We
walked for four and three quarter miles and as we
went round we only saw two other groups and both of them were as we came back to the car park. As
we walked I tried my “Map My Walk” app. The
app works, but it doesn’t seem to be sending the information to the “Map
My Walk” website. Ho hum… We
came home. As we came round the tank roundabout I had to emergency stop to
avoid a purple VW Polo whose
driver wasn’t content with dangerously cutting in on the inside, so went on
to wind down the window and give me the "V" sign. Once
home I made myself a cuppa and had a little pootle in the garden as some
shirts washed, and after a pot noodle for lunch I had a little (two hours)
ironing session before sitting in a dining chair and having a twenty-minute
workout. I
then made myself another cuppa and made a start on the Harry Potter puzzles I’d seen
earlier.
As I puzzled I told the Alexa to play music by Kate
Bush. It started off with “Them Heavy People” then went into a rather
eclectic medley featuring Pet Shop Boys, the Communards, E.L.O. and Sparks
with only occasional contributions from Kate Bush. And
with half of the Harry Potter puzzles solved I realised how I might
solve that puzzle geocache that I’ve been
looking at for over a week. I tried my theory, got the thumbs-up from the
checker, and I could see I was the first one to get the right answer. Leaving “er indoors TM” and “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” in
charge at home I drove out to… I won’t say where I drove
to, but I got to where I that cache was, and I soon
had it in hand. And I was First to Find too. After ten days’ brain straining I was rather pleased to find it and felt rather
smug too. It was a long way to go, but getting FTF on this one will give me
serious bragging rights amongst the other members of the Ancient and
Honorable Guild of Hunters of Tupperware… once they notice I’ve found it. |
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8 August 2025
(Friday) - Another Early Shift
I
slept well, but having an alarm set I was wide awake far too early. I got up
and once I’d had a shave I had a little weigh-in. I’ve lost the weight I put
on over the holiday of a month ago and am under fifteen stone again. Weight
loss is easy… keeping it off – that’s the tricky bit. I made toast and started watching another episode of
“Orange is the New Black” then suddenly had an instant weight loss
moment. Fortunately the toilet was close; something had upset my innards. Possibly the
jalapenos in last night’s dinner? With a couple of minutes spare
I had a little look at the Internet. Yesterday evening I charged off half-way
across the county for a First to Find. I thought I’d been rather clever
in solving a geo-puzzle. It
turns out a few friends had come up with the right idea over a week ago, but
what appears as a slash (/) on a windows-based lap-top
appears as a hyphen (-) on an Apple-based one. A subtle difference, but
enough to prevent you getting the puzzle solved properly. I sent out a birthday wish to an old mate. I can
remember him at Boys Brigade camp telling me that his pal had a gnat bit on
his chopper. How can he now be a squadron leader in the RAF and nearing
retirement? And another old chum who has moved to Australia was
posting to Facebook that he was on his way back home. I didn’t know he’d been
back in the UK; it would have been good to have caught up with him. I
munzed,
and got ready for work. As
I headed off to work so my car told me it wanted more petrol. It does that. So I went to Sainsburys to get some. I should really have
got some last night when I was out on my little geo-mission as petrol was
cheaper in the general vicinity of Ramsgate than it is nearer to home.
Interestingly as I drove last night I went past two
petrol stations on opposite sides of the road whose petrol was up at
different prices. Who is going to fill their car at any price when it is
cheaper over the road? Quite literally over the road? As
I drove up the motorway I lost count of the amount of vehicles in the "Operation Brock"
bit that shouldn't have been there. Supposedly just for the HGV lorries,
there were cars, vans and cars pulling caravans. Didn't they see the signs
telling them to keep right? - they are clear enough and there's enough of
them. The
pundits on the radio were talking their usual drivel this morning. President
Trump has got the hump because the average American pharmaceutical costs
about ten times the price of what it
costs anywhere else in the world. I would have thought that this was a
classic triumph of the capitalism of which America is so proud, but what do I
know? And
the Minister for Homelessness has
resigned.
It was claimed that she had a house which she was letting, but gave her
tenants formal notice to leave as she was selling the house... and once the
tenants were out she just got more tenants in and
charged them a higher rent. Whilst that's not illegal it is apparently
exactly the sort of dodgy thing the government is supposedly trying to stamp
out. Woops. I
got to work and cracked on with the early shift. There was cake; I didn't
have any. Weight doesn't lose itself. But I got out early. I came home, and
as I waited for “er indoors TM” to
finish working I did my twenty-minute chair workout. I think I’m overdoing
the hip stretching as my hips have been playing up lately. Once
she’d finished work we took the dogs down to
Orlestone where we walked for a couple of miles. I mapped the walk with my
app, and with walk mapped, the app asked me if I wanted to join in its
marathon challenge. To complete the challenge I have to walk twenty-six miles between last Friday (1
August) and the end of September. I’m over a quarter of the way there
already. Over
a dinner of pizza and garlic bread we watched this week’s episode of “Star
Trek: Strange New Worlds”. It was rather good… and the third season is
now half-way through… |
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9 August 2025
(Saturday) - Edenbridge and Games Night
I
was out like a light and fast asleep (for once) when Morgan had a
sneezing fit at three o’clock this morning. That woke Bailey and we had quite
a bit of stomping round before everyone eventually settled. And just as I was
nodding off again so Morgan had another sneezing
fit. We
got up early. As I scoffed toast I had a look at the Internet. It was still
there. Not much was going on really, which was probably for the best. I sent
out birthday wishes to three people, had a quick Munz, got Wordle (nasal)
on the fourth attempt and we got ready for the off. With
a walk in Edenbridge today we were giving Dog Club a miss. I must admit I
wasn’t keen on missing Dog Club; it has become the highlight of the week. But
there it is; we can’t do everything. We
set off up the motorway and were well out of the broadcast range of Radio
Ashford long before Steve took to the airwaves. As we drove
we were overtaken by the Fruitcake-mobile as we joined the M26 and we drove
in convoy to Four Elms. We
parked up and it wasn’t long before we were off on our walk. To begin with
there were loads of stiles, and getting the dogs over them was something of a
mission. But after a mile or so the stiles gave way to kissing gates which
were far more manageable. There was some lane walking, and a couple of busy
roads, but nothing that presented a serious obstacle. Just
like home I noticed that there was a dearth of birdsong… and then
I heard a squawk which my app identified as a sparrowhawk. Had that one done
for the birds? We
had a rather good picnic lunch… the bottle of Fullers ESB at nearly six per
cent was a tad keen. As
we walked I had a brainwave. The geocaches we were
hunting were regularly spaced except at one point where there was a gap… and
an obvious place where you might hide a geocache. We had a look and found one
exactly where you might expect one. A brand new one. I messaged a geo-buddy
who lives locally who said that a friend of his put it out yesterday and it
would be published tomorrow. We signed the log, and we’ll claim a find at the
earliest opportunity. There are those who might say this is a tad cheeky of
us. To them I would say that I agree with them. We
had a very good walk; it was only a shame that the two smaller dogs got stuck
in a thicket. It’s the sort of thing they do; normally I wouldn’t worry, but
this time they were properly stuck and Morgan
started crying. That bothered me far more than it should have done. I
scrambled into the hedge as best I could and rescued Bailey whilst “er indoors TM” rescued the
one who was crying. .. As
we walked I ran my “Map My Walk” app. At the
end of the walk it disagreed with my GPS; the two
were half a mile adrift. Is that good or bad? Mind you I’ve always thought my
GPS over-estimated distances. After
seven (or seven and a half) miles we were back where we started. We
said our goodbyes and I dozed for much of the way home. I’d taken a few photos as
we walked, and once home I told the Internet about them, and after a quick cuppa we got ready for the evening. Steve,
Sarah and Chris came round and we had a very good
evening playing on the Infinity table. Game of Life, Sorry, Ticket to Ride,
Yahtzee… I even won a couple of games. Today
has been busy… |
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10 August 2025
(Sunday) - Rolvenden
I
slept rather well; finally getting out of my pit at eight o’clock. Yesterday
as I scoffed toast I mentioned that we found a brand
new unpublished geocache with which we did the secret geo-rituals. This
morning as I scoffed toast I saw that the
thing had been published, so I logged it. I
also saw (via Facebook) that the pub where we had last month’s
geo-meet has had a drunk driver drive his car right through it, and some rather
aggressive woman in Gillingham was not only asking for free turfs, but wanting people
to deliver them as well. A tad cheeky when you think that turfs go for a
fiver each in B&Q. I was reminded of when we dug out our biggest water feature we had loads of soil left over. I offered it on
one of those Freecycle sites and I had quite a bit of abuse from some chap in
Challock who was incensed that I wouldn’t deliver
the stuff. I
munzed,
and got Wordle (minty) on the third attempt which was rather
impressive for me. The
plan for today had vaguely featured an early start and going to a geo-meet
staged by Ralph in honour of a little canoe-ing
trip down the Medway. But going there would have entailed being in Tonbridge
by nine o’clock which would have meant leaving home by eight o’clock at the
absolute latest… We
decided against that idea. In
the last week someone mentioned that one of “er indoors TM”’s geocaches had gone missing… well, not so much gone missing as
they’d dropped it inside a post. You’d think people would carry spares,
wouldn’t you? And then the next person to go looking for it logged that they
couldn’t find it. As I said a couple of seconds ago, you’d think people would
carry spares, wouldn’t you? So we loaded the dogs into the car and went down to Rolvenden for a
little walk to replace it. Whilst we were at it we
had a look at another of her caches which had had
reports of being difficult to find. The description was “behind the log”
- when we got to with four feet of where my phone said we should be there was
a log. And behind it was what people claimed they couldn’t find. But, if nothing else, we had a good walk. As we walked we got chatting with one chap in his garden who
gave us a handful of plums each. They were rather good. The walk round the
Hole Estate in Rolvenden is a good one. Three and a quarter
miles through some beautiful scenery (including a Christmas tree
farm) in less than two hours with a pub at the end (we skipped on the
pub today). I took a few photos as
we walked. We
came home. I hung out the washing and we had for a cheese roll for lunch,
then had a lazy afternoon in the garden. I dozed for an hour or so, then we
scoffed dips that we’d got in for last weekend’s garden party. I voomed round the garden with a watering can, gave myself
a haircut, and just when she wasn’t expecting it I
gave Bailey’s nose a trim. She’d got some wispy fur that was making her eyes
water, so that came off. She
didn’t like it. I
then had a go at my twenty-minute chair workout. As I’ve said
before, for all that my arse doesn’t leave the chair, it gets my heart going
and has me sweating. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a rather good
bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the first episode of the
latest season of “Lego Masters: Australia”. I had no idea it started
three weeks ago – catch-up TV is such a bonus… |
|
11 August 2025
(Monday) - Sleeper Bargain
I woke a few times in the night; finally
getting up at seven o’clock. I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It
was still there. A couple of friends had posted photos of what they had done
over the weekend. Another had been to a theme park and hidden little toy
ducks for children to find… and had been lambasted on social media for doing
so. She seemed rather upset by this. Sadly no good
deed ever goes unpunished. But this is social media in action. Generally these sort of comments
come from people who are too nasty to do anything decent themselves, too
stupid to write a coherent sentence on social media, and too cowardly to actually say anything in person. And there was a question on one of the
work-related pages asking about how often anyone might give blood. Answers
ranged from every few weeks to once a year. Reading these replies, the answer
could have been absolutely anything. Students reading anything work-related
on-line need to be very wary... for every correct bit of information there's
several that are just wrong. I Munzed not only
did I get given fifty zeds (worth about forty pence), I got a mini greeterbot (result!)
and our clan has reached the first of our monthly clan war targets. And I got
Wordle (south) on the third attempt. I took the dogs out. We went to Orlestone for
a shorter walk. We had a good walk. Pogo was with us and he taught everyone
else how to tiddle on other dogs’ tiddle. We had a funny five minutes where
all four dogs tiddled at least twice on the same spot until I chased them all
off of it. As we walked we took
a different route; the walk at Orlestone isn’t long so I had this idea of
combining some of the routes there to make a much longer walk. I managed to
add about three quarters of a mile onto our usual trek round there. It was only a shame that Pogo and Treacle had
to go straight into the deep puddle right at the end of the walk. Once home
they had a bath. I then went round the edges of the lawn with
the strimmer, and went over the lawn with the lawn mower, then had a go at
the patio with the bionic burner before making us a cuppa. I ran Pogo and his entourage home, then took
a circuitous route home via the first of the Harry Potter geocaches that went
live last week. The idea is that as you go round you play a sort of game of
Cluedo, and the sheets you need are all in the first cache. I thought I’d get
one before they either ran out or went damp and got mouldy. Once back home I cleaned out the pond filter, and had a little look at the bog filter. I need to
add another layer of sleepers as it doesn’t take much for the thing to
overflow. I had a look on Wickes website – the sleepers were six quid cheaper
(each) than what they were this time last year. I zoomed round to
Wickes and got the last three. It was a shame that as I loaded them into the car I managed to break my long-handled snow scraper, but
there it is. I brought them home, had a quick measure-up
and sawed them to shape. Sawing sleepers is hard work. And once sawed I gave
them a quick coat of paint. I made a cuppa, wrote up some CPD, and woke up over an
hour later. I’ve had a headache all day. I blame the
heat… |
|
12 August 2025
(Tuesday) - The Heatwave Continues
I
did my oh-so-regular thing of waking up feeling full of energy and raring to
go only to find it was twenty past two. Morgan jumped off the bed so I got up
thinking he wanted to go out, but it was just a ruse so as he could then jump
back on the bed to get the spot I’d been lying in. I
organised him and the other two dogs and then dozed on and off till seven
o’clock when it was getting too warm to stay in bed. I
made toast and had a little look at the Internet as I do. There was a
squabble about fish tanks that I read and rolled my eyes. So many people have
perfect tanks, then for no apparent reason buy a water testing kit. They then
find that this water testing kit claims the tank has issues and people then
trash what was a perfect set-up by adding all sorts of chemicals, and once
the kit says the water is right, they then chuck out half the water and start
again. And
a chap living relatively locally (Rochester) was selling a full-sized Tardis.
It would go rather nicely at the end of the garden, but three thousand pounds
for a little toolshed? (and that’s not including
getting it home from Rochester). I
saw a new geocache in the general vicinity of Charing. Bearing in mind we
really needed a shorter shaded walk for today, Longbeech
woods would do, and this new geocache wouldn’t be much of a diversion. As
I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing Nicola Sturgeon who has
just published an autobiography. She was keen to talk about it; the woman
conducting the interview was looking to stir up a fight. I
drove along some rather narrow lanes and eventually found a space big enough
for the car. After a little walk and a little search
I soon had the new geocache in
hand. First to Find too, which was a result. From
there it was only a short hop to Longbeech woods.
The trouble with Longbeech Woods is that unless you
are prepared to walk down the road you can’t make a circular walk. Not that
that’s an issue really. We walked down the road a little, then walked into
the woods. We saw quite a few ants today, we heard a (relative) lot of
birds…apparently it isn’t just my imagination; birds really do go quiet in August. It would seem I got
the birdsong app just at the same time that birds
got noisy. It
was as well I took the water bottle for the dogs; by the time I got back to
the car the car was telling me it was twenty-seven degrees. We’ve
officially got another heatwave. We
came home. My plan for the day had been to revamp the bog filter with the
sleepers I got yesterday, but it was too hot. I wrote up some CPD, went over my plans
for my geocaching adventure lab in Chilham, played
a little Tetris, played a little chess, got incredibly bored. I get so bored
so easily. So I went out and revamped the bog filter
anyway. It wasn’t as much hard work as I thought. I just took the decorative
rocks off of the sides of the bog filter and lifted
the liner away from the sides, put the new sleepers in place and secured
them, then put it all back again. It took a couple of hours and went a lot
quicker and easier than I thought it might. The only hiccup was that the
sleepers for the front of the filter were a little too long, but nothing that
a saw couldn’t put right. And like every gardening job it looked -pretty much
the same at the end as it did at the beginning. If you look closely you’ll see that the thing is about four inches
taller. The water depth is the same; it’s just got a little more height to
prevent overflows (hopefully). As
I fiddled about I saw we’ve got a frog living in the
bog filter. I tried to get a photo but he hopped
into the depths. I
then had a stroke of genius. Those timbers that “My Boy TM” gave me the other week are the right sort of colour to blend in
with the rockery. I could make some planters out of them
and they would blend into the rockery quite nicely. That’s my next project. I
was tempted to make a start today, but I ached too much. Being semi-retired
and having free time is all very well, but it doesn’t take much to have me
knackered. It would have been good to have gone to the woods
this evening, but it was still too hot. I wouldn’t have minded, but the dogs
suffer in the heat; particularly Treacle. It’s bad
enough for her in the morning when it is still cool, but it was far too hot
to take the dogs out this evening. I
suppose I could have a look at the night sky later… it’s the Perseid meteor shower this evening. Sadly it’s a full moon as well. As I was driving about
this morning the pundits on the radio were interviewing some expert on the
matter. I don’t know who this expert was, but she claimed that what with the
full moon you’d be lucky to see more than one or two shooting stars an hour. I
won’t bother. I’ll have an early night. I ache. |
|
13 August 2025
(Wednesday) - Early Shift
I had an early night last night,
but was wide awake at half past two this morning. I managed to nod off
again, but had a very vivid dream in which I went on
a foreign holiday with someone with whom I used to work thirty years ago, and
I was clad only in a bath towel. I woke up in a sweat just after three
o’clock, and despite trying to get back to sleep, that was it for the night. I made toast, watched an episode of “Orange
is the New Black” then had a little look at te
Internet. I’d missed a birthday yesterday; Ron Mael (the one
with the moustache in Sparks) was eighty yesterday. Eighty, and he’s
still touring the world and performing. He either must need the money, or he
loves it. There wasn’t much else happening on-line (it
was probably far too early) so trying not to wake anyone I got ready for
work. I drove up the motorway on a rather foggy
morning. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about a government
initiative to provide everyone aged under twenty-two with free bus transport… which would be
all very well *if* there were buses on which to get free transport.
Various experts were wheeled on bemoaning how few buses there are these days,
but no one seemed to want to tackle the underlying issue that buses aren't a
public service any more. They were all sold off to
private investors as money-making businesses many years ago, and like any
money-making business if they don't turn a profit then they stop running.
Some councillor from the West Country was whinging that where he lives there
is only one bus every two hours. I looked at a bus only the other day and
commented to “er indoors TM” that
it was a rather huge vehicle to be carrying only one passenger. It ain't rocket science, is it? And there was talk of a new quantum computer which can do in
a second what a so-called super-computer would take years to do, and the
thing uses less power than an electric kettle. The thing works very
differently to standard computers, but the details were rather sketchy. What
wasn't sketchy was the implication that the average person in the street
would be too stupid to understand how it worked. I thought that was rather
harsh (and rather rude) for national radio, but looking it up on Wikipedia that might have an
element of truth in it. I stopped off in Sainsburys where there was a
minor row kicking off. Some item had been priced at seven pounds, but the
self-service till wanted thirteen quid for it. The young assistant was
shrieking at the supervisor asking what she was supposed to do. There's never
anything as amusing as other people's problems, is there? I got my usual coronation chicken sandwich,
hummus dip and bottle of water and saw that the meal deal was twenty pence
more expensive than it was the last time I got one. That's a five per cent
increase. I went in to work to a surprisingly busy
early shift which was rather complicated by the vagaries of the Miltenberger
blood group system. But being on an early is always a result. The plan was to come home and take the dogs
to the woods. Instead I came home to torrential
rain. It didn’t last long, but long enough that the woods would have been a
mud bath. So instead I just did my twenty-minute
chair workout and worked up quite a sweat. “er indoors TM” boiled up a rather good chili which we washed down with a rather
decent (if rather cheap) bottle
of plonk. And with dinner scoffed I shared some cheesy biccies with the dogs. As we scoffed and drank we watched another
episode of “Lego Masters: Australia”. There’s
some seriously talented people on that show… |
|
14 August 2025 (Thursday)
- Carpentry
I
slept well for a change. As I scoffed brekkie I saw something that made me
roll my eyes. Someone was commenting on Facebook about the Hitch Hiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy movie. Someone else was fed up with people who didn’t
know it was actually a TV series, and that person
was getting serious abuse from those who maintained it was originally a
series of books (a trilogy in four parts – later six). No one seemed
to realise it all started as a radio show. I
Munzed, got Wordle (knell) on the fifth
attempt, and got ready for the day. With
another hot day forecast I wanted to get the dogs out early. As we drove the
pundits on the radio were talking about the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Apparently (so it was claimed) a growing proportion of Israelis feel
the war is nothing to do with them and is being staged purely for political
posturing. Are they right? Possibly. We
got to the woods shortly after eight o’clock which was early for us. We
walked our usual circuit. I tried my birdsong app three times. Every time it
only detected pigeons. We covered over four miles
and we only saw two other groups of people; one of which made me chuckle.
I’ve mentioned before how dog tracking apps won’t work in Kings Wood as
there’s very little internet signal. Several people have got round that issue
by attaching bells to their dogs’ collars. We could intermittently hear the
bells in the distance, but the sound might have been echoing and coming from
anywhere, to the dismay of the person whose dog was running riot. I was
reminded of my old tattoo artist friend who got one of these detectors so he
could trace his hawk when it flew off. He detected his hawk… it was on the
roof of the nearby school (which really didn’t help him at all), As
we walked Bailey found a deer’s leg bone, but soon
lost interest in it. Treacle found a dead squirrel and carried it for two
miles all the way back to the car; clearly very pleased with herself. We
came home via the town centre where I Munzed a
little more; we need the points this month. I had a quick cuppa then cracked
on with my plan for today. The
other day I revamped the rockery as I rebuilt the walls of the bog filter.
Earlier in the year I’d put rockery plants into little plastic planters
around the rockery, but they never really worked as they were added as an
afterthought, they were too small and dried out too easily. A few weeks ago “My Boy TM” came round with quite a few old timbers he didn’t need and
wondered if I might like them. I took two of them this morning, sawed
them into shape and built a little planter which was just the right size to
fit on the side of the bog filter and hold the liner in place. I quite like
sawing and drilling… I keep saying that I should take a course in carpentry. Sadly when I was younger I was
told that (being at a grammar school) I was far too clever to do anything
practical. So rather than being taught carpentry I was taught Latin; over the
years my “O” level in Latin has proved to be utterly useless to me. I
got the box of the planter to shape, dobbed on some wood paint and whilst it dried I had a spot of lunch (two carrots and some
garlic sauce stuff I found in the fridge) and watched an episode of “Orange
is the New Black”. And with telly watched I lined the planter with some
garden membrane and painted it again before watching a bit more telly. Once
the paint had dried I put the new planter in place
and put one of the rockery plants in it, and (flushed with success) I
sawed up another two timbers to size, made them into the sides of another new
planter and got those painted. I stopped at that point; I was hurting. I
came in and wrote up some CPD, and decided that I
might as well crack on with the next planter. I got the thing built and got a
second coat of paint onto it. Once that is dry I
shall line it then put it in place on the other side of the pond to where the
first one went. “er
indoors TM” boiled up burger and
chips which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek:
Strange New Worlds” which was one of the best episodes of Star Trek for
many years. Such
a shame that this season is over half-way done… |
|
15 August 2025
(Friday) - Before the Late Shift
I
had a rather good nights sleep for once; it was a
shame that the bin men had to make quite so much noise when they came up the
road at six o’clock. Some people really do have this mind-set that if they
are up then everyone else should be up too. I
made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Someone was asking the pond
groups on Facebook about how to get clear water in their pond. And as always
there was as many answers as there were people to give them. The “change
the water regularly” brigade were out in force today with a theory that
you should save rain water in huge tubs which you
leave to go stagnant and green, and then half-empty your pond and use this
muck to top up your pond. So many people were adamant that this was a good
idea; not one was able to explain why it wasn’t a silly idea. And
then I had an email - a notification about a new geocache half a mile up the
road…With everyone else fast asleep I hopped into the car and voomed up the road. Parking where I probably shouldn’t have I had a quick search and soon had the thing in my
hand. First one to find it – result !!! I’m actually amazed I found it so quickly – I could imagine
this one being rather tricky. And
with that little excitement done it was time for dog walk. The dogs had got
up by the time I got home. We
went down to Orlestone where we had a good walk. We met two other dog
walkers. The first bloke was one big bundle of stress. On turning the corner
and seeing us he was all “ohmygod ohmygod”
and trying to get his dogs onto their leads for no reason that I could
fathom, as his dogs and mine were all saying hello nicely as dogs do. The
chap was still panicking and faffing with leads when we were fifty yards past
him. The
second chap said hello and our dogs all ran up to each other and had a little
game. It
is nearly always the people and very rarely the dogs that cause any episodes. But
once we were past the second bloke we walked for two more miles and didn’t
see anyone. Unusually my app detected five different sorts of birds today. As
we walked I passed the six thousand steps mark. I do
that most days… my watch told me I’ve done it every day for the last three
weeks which was something of a milestone. As
we drove home the pundits on the radio were talking about how your subjective
age is different to your actual age and explains why some people are decrepit
in their mid-thirties whilst others (like me) walk miles every day.
Once home I tried to calculate my subjective age, but every calculator I
could find wanted my email address and wanted to bombard me with spam. I
did find the NHS heart age calculator though. Apparently my heart is five years older than the rest of
me. I
Munzed; our clan has reached the second of our
monthly targets. I got Wordle (level) on the fifth attempt. I did some CPD, I did a YouGov survey, I set off to work… And
as is so often the way when on the late shift, the day was practically over
before noon… |
|
16 August 2025
(Saturday) - Dog Club, More Carpentry
Finding
myself wide awake at three o’clock I put that to use and put a load of
washing in to scrub. And when I got up properly at
half past six I hung the washing out and put another
load in. I
made toast, and as I got the bread from the freezer
I saw the freezer door had been left ajar. Again. Woops. As
I scoffed my toast I peered into te
Internet as I so often do. The so-called alien spaceship on its way here (3I/ATLAS)
probably isn’t aliens after all. That’s something of
a disappointment. And
people on the Facebook fish tank groups were quibbling about temperatures
today. Does a difference of two degrees matter in a fish tank? Especially
when you are measuring it with one of those colour changing strips that you
stick on the side of the tank? But for many people
keeping the fish healthy is secondary to arguing about it. I
hung out the second load of washing and fed the week’s undercrackers to the
washing machine. I munzed, got Wordle (matte)
on the last attempt, and got ready for the off. Steve
was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition: “Will I
have to wait forever Will I have to suffer”. No? - The Three
Degrees – “When Will I See You Again”. Being
Saturday we drove round to Repton for Dog Club. Attendance was noticeably
down today, but we still had (about) fourteen dogs along. We played
nicely; we shared treats. There was a dodgy five minutes when we saw little
Penny had blood all over her paws. She’d cut herself on something
but she didn’t seem overly bothered. As
we drove home Steve was going the Mystery Year on the radio. Donny Osmond – “Puppy
Love”? 1972. We
got home, As Bailey was unceremoniously scrubbed (she will insist on
rolling in fox poo) I put the undercrackers into tumble-dry and then
counted the Dog Club takings. The money was down on what it has been, but
attendance has been down a tad. I suspect (hope) people are paying the
Repton people directly via text message. I don’t keep track of who pays; we
operate on an honesty system. I’d like to think most people are honest. We
had a cuppa and a cherry Bakewell tart (two hundred calories) then I
went into the garden. I
lined the box that I built on Thursday and put it into place by the pond, and put some of the surviving rockery plants into
it, then had a little look at the plant boxes by the back door. I moved a few
about (which is easier to type than it is to do), painted up the two
new boxes that “er indoors TM” got
from Aldi the other day, then sawed more left-over timbers into shape for
making another planter box. Once I’d done all the sawing
I suddenly realised that using the garden chairs as a saw-horse
was a silly thing to do as the surface I lean on is curved and so the wood I
cut isn’t as straight as it might be. With
wood sawed I was rather aching. “er indoors TM” made
us a cheese sandwich, and having got something of a second wind I went back
into the garden. I screwed the new planter box together, put a bit of a base
onto it, and gave the thing a lick of paint. “er
indoors TM” set off to visit
family. I would have liked to have gone, but my nephew has a rather huge pit
bull which doesn’t like other dogs very much, and Morgan (particularly)
cries pitifully if left alone for very long. Despite having had a very active
day of carpentry I did my twenty-minute chair workout. That worked up even
more of a sweat. After
a quick shower I activated my geocaching adventure lab in Chilham
then set about the ironing. As I ironed I watched
the last episodes of “Orange is the New Black”. I’ve now watched the
show three times. This time I started watching it on
28 March. That took four and a half months to get through. I wonder what
I will watch next… |
|
17 August 2025
(Sunday) - Insurance, A Walk, Operation Brock
I slept well, but
was still up earlier than I might have liked on a Sunday morning. I made
toast and looked at the Internet. I’d thought last week’s episode of Star
Trek was rather good, but sadly there were no end of so-called fans finding
fault with it. It was the so-called fans that got the show cancelled in 2005,
and the same killjoys won’t be happy until they’ve killed it again. I checked my emails. I had an email telling
me that my car insurance is due for renewal, and in the email the nice people
from “Insurance R Us” said “You have been with us a number of years. You
may be able to get the insurance cover you want at a better price if you shop
around” I thought that was rather honest of them so I spent a little while shopping around. Bearing in
mind I’m old, I thought that a well-known firm who specializes in the older
members of society might be the best people to tap up for a quote (I don’t
dare mention them by name for obvious reasons!). They wanted a hundred
and fifty quid more than I’m currently shelling out. I tried LV as I’ve heard they are cheap. After what seemed like an age they told me that they couldn’t insure me (!)
Oh well, it’s their loss. I shall take my money elsewhere. I then went through the U-switch comparison site and Money
Supermarket, both of which gave me loads of quotes. Both including one from “they
who shall remain nameless” which was quite a bit cheaper than what they
themselves had quoted. Bearing in mind how good my current insurers were when I had a prang a
few years ago I think I’ll stick with what I’ve
already got. But I shall give them a ring and see if they can’t get it any
cheaper… I’ve tried it on in the past and they’ve often made a reduction. And whilst I’m thinking about it, I really should review the house
buildings and contents. When we had the leccie
debacle last New Year our current insurer said we didn’t have emergency
callout cover. I spent a small fortune getting someone out, and when I
complained the nice lady insisted that we did have emergency callout cover…
but wouldn’t reimburse me on what I’d spent because of their mistake. But whoever I go with for house building and
contents it won’t be LV – I’ve taken offence with them. And whilst on the subject
of insurance, if you can scrape up the cash, it is *far*
cheaper to pay for a year’s worth in one go rather than shell out each month.
The last time I looked I was saving about two months’ payments by getting a
year’s worth in one go. Of course the flip side is
that if (when) they balls up by saying that
you don’t have emergency callout cover
when you actually do, then you are stuck with them
until the policy runs out. With that in mind I started Wordle this
morning with “quote” (despite the Q). It gave me the U and the
O as being correct; if in the wrong place. To be
honest that’s a better start than I usually have. I got it on the fourth
attempt with “lousy”. I popped into the garden and got a coat of
paint onto that planter I built yesterday, then we took the dogs for a little
walk. Two weeks ago we walked for a mile along the
canal where we spent over an hour and a half looking for a geocache before
finally giving up. Armed with a hint from people who’d been there and found
it we went back and after quite a search we found it. As we walked Bailey was entertaining. Twice
she found fox poo in the long grass which she moved onto the gravel path
where she rolled in it. You can clearly get better coverage of fox poo when
the dung is in the open on the gravel rather than buried in long grass. Treacle went in the canal and couldn’t get
out, and Morgan was gobby. We came home for a cuppa, then I set off to
work. The plan for today didn’t involve work, but the late shift had gone
sick, and there it is. As I have said so many times before, if I had my time again I’d work somewhere that owns a “closed” sign.
But that’s a decision I should have made over forty years ago. I drove up the motorway past the Operation
Brock stupidity. The lane toward Maidstone was rather busy as was the
coast-bound lane. But the Operation Brock bit was all but deserted. As I
drove the fifteen or so miles I counted seventeen
cars and two motorbikes (all of which shouldn't have been in there),
and perhaps (at most) twice that many lorries. As I drove the radio was playing the omnibus
edition of "The Archers". Seriously? How many people listen
to that drivel? I
looked it up. About five million people a week. Marginally more than the
amount of viewers that tune
in regularly to Eastenders and about a million more than the amount
who watch
Coronation Street. One lives and learns. I got to work and sulked. Yesterday afternoon
I'd pootled in the garden dodging in and out of the house to avoid the
drizzle. Today I'd volunteered to go into work and
the weather was glorious. But it could be worse. I've got a job to go into. I did my bit, and eventually the late shift arrived and I got to go home. Down the "A"
road, and not the motorway. The Operation Brock stupidity was being removed.
Apparently a spokesman for the bunch who bring it in and out of action (the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum) said
the removal was due to a decrease in expected tourist traffic. Now I'm
no rocket scientist (blood, yes. Rocket, no) but it strikes me that
next weekend is the Bank Holiday. The entire point of Operation Brock is to
ease congestion at the post of Dover. If ever there is going to be congestion
there, it will be at a summer Bank Holiday weekend. Won't it? If the Kent and
Medway Resilience Forum are removing Operation Brock on the lead-up to a Bank
Holliday, then surely they have no business
instigating it ever again and are admitting that too? I must admit I see this as our new Reform UK
County Council falling at the first hurdle. Operation Brock is a complete
shambles at best, and something they could have easily put a stop to.
Something my new county councilor assured me they
were going to put a stop to. Perhaps they might put a stop to the Kent and
Medway Resilience Forum - especially when you bear in mind that this august
body is made up of them and those to whom they ostensibly give orders.
They've had their chance and blown it. Operation Brock will be back in a month or
so… |
|
18 August 2025
(Monday) - Rather Busy
I
slept well for a change. Worn out after yesterday’s late shift perhaps? Back
in the day Sundays at work were rather different. I used to be on duty all
day on a Sunday as overtime, and I would be called in from home for specific
emergency testing on named patients. Over the entire twenty-four hours I
might be called in six or seven times all day long. Yesterday I did eight hours and I didn’t stop. How times have changed. I
made toast with peanut butter and marmalade. We get the cheapo marmalade at
seventy pence a pot. It wasn’t that long ago when the stuff was twenty-nine
pence. Yesterday as I got a sandwich from the hospital’s league of fiends (!)
shop I saw they were knocking out home-made marmalade at four quid a throw. As
I scoffed my toast I peered at my Facebook feed
which was absolutely awash with adverts for
insurance. Did the Facebook bots read my diary yesterday? I
took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were
talking about the ongoing situation in Ukraine. It seems to me that this will
go one of two ways. Either it will drag on and on as the Russians clearly
have no interest in packing up any time soon. Or the Ukrainians will have to
make massive concessions as the western world tires of paying for someone
else’s war. We
got to the woods and took a different route to usual. As we started off I saw something that made me roll my eyes. Someone’s set
up a little campsite in the woods. There’s not supposed to be any camping in
Kings Wood. I once wasted months offering to stage a litter-pick up there and
the nice people at Forestry England were deliberately obstructive at every
turn. But a group of people have said “sod it”, set up camp and no one
bats an eyelid. As
we walked so Treacle wallowed in a swamp and Bailey found some deer hide on
which to chew. And three deer jumped on to the path not ten yards in front of
us. The dogs looked at the deer, and the deer looked at the dogs, and by the
time I’d got my camera out so the deer had wandered
off. Or so I thought – enhancing the photo with Paint Shop Pro (when we
got home) shows the deer was there. As
we came back to the car park we saw a woman with two
labradors. As the dogs played I told her that the
deer were active. “Deer?” she asked. She had no idea what a deer was, and seemed rather concerned that there were large
unattended animals loose in the woods. She wanted to know who was stupid
enough to release deer into the woods, and looked in
utter disbelief when I explained that they were wild animals in much the same
way as a fox or a rabbit would be. She was rather worried that the deer might
attack her or her dogs… I took a deep breath and patiently explained that
deer don’t attack, but her dogs might chase them. She wasn’t bothered about
that; she had one of those dog tracker apps. You know – the dog tracker apps
that are dependent on having an active internet connection that you can’t get
in the woods. I patiently explained this… the nice woman explained that her
dog detector app had never failed her before and she
proudly showed it to me. She seemed rather miffed to find it wasn’t working.
I assured her that I manage in the woods three or four times every week with
no dog detector app, and left her to it. I
came home and made a start on painting the garden planters. After a little
hiatus to chauffer “Daddies’ Little
Angel TM” about then I mowed
the lawn, and hacked back some of the trees pouring
over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. There’s so much that I
cut back on that side; I could really do with a garden shredder. Back in the
day I used to borrow Brian’s sister’s one, but he did an overnight fit to
Scotland five years ago. As
I scoffed a cheese sandwich I had a look on Amazon; garden shredders are
rather cheaper than I thought they might be. I shall give that some thought. And
with tat in mind I started
today’s Wordle with “shred” which gave me an S and an E, but not in
the right places. On the fifth attempt I got it – “issue” I
put another coat of paint onto the planters, and
became very conscious that Treacle was watching my every move. When we get to
mid-afternoon it is time to “Feed The Fish”.
And with fish fed I sat by the pond for a bit soaking up the ambience. I wrote up some CPD, I did my twenty minutes’ worth of exercises. Because
it is Monday, “er indoors TM” has gone bowling. I started watching the new series of “Squid
Game”...
and fell asleep. |
|
19 August 2025
(Tuesday) - Twenty-One Thousand Steps
I slept well, but
woke aching. That happens more and more these days.
I wish it didn’t. I made toast and peered into the Internet as I do every
morning. It was much the same as ever really. Squabbles about trivia and
adverts for that in which I had absolutely no interest abounded. There was an
interesting post – someone I vaguely know through geocaching was asking if
anyone knew of a reliable psychic. Obviously this
post had got a load of sarcasm. I remember back in the day I used to try
to sell my paintings at the psychic fairs. I can remember one incredibly
poorly attended session when it struck me that if any of the psychics in
attendance were any good they wouldn’t have wasted
their time. I can also remember one well-attended event when people were
paying a lot of good money for massively overpriced crystals. There was a “faith
healer” there who was charging a small fortune to wave feathers over the
public, and he couldn’t keep up with the demand. There was an odd pervy bloke
who was getting people to pay him to rub their feet. And there was a bloke
who would surround you with tin foil, take a photo of you with flash
photography and then (for a mere tenner) then explain your aura to
you. People couldn’t give the crackpots money fast enough, and I never
made enough to even cover my costs. As I peered into the Internet
so Treacle and Bailey sat on the back of the sofa and growled at every
passer-by. I wish they wouldn’t. I Munzed, then took
the dogs up to the woods. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking
about some epic meeting that happened yesterday between the Ukrainian
President and no end of Western leaders who are keen to keep the Americans
paying for their proxy war against Russia. For once the Ukrainian chap was
expressing gratitude. We got to the woods; we walked a different
route to our usual one. As we went so Treacle found a deer skull and wallowed
in a swamp. Bailey rolled in something foul, and I found a strange object
which turned out to be an Asian hornet trap. We only saw two
other people; both over two miles from the car park, and one of them was
carrying their cup of coffee in a cardboard Costa cup. That must have been
stone cold. After five miles we were back at the car. We
came home where Bailey had a bath. I sorted us a cuppa and we had a Belgian
bun with it. At three hundred calories that put back over half the calories
I’d just walked off round the woods. I rescheduled dentist appointments, booked
the car’s MOT, then went into the garden and lined the three planter boxes
I’ve been working on over the last few days. By then it was lunch time. “er indoors TM” and
I loaded the dogs into the car and we popped over to
the garden centre. Having built and painted some planter boxes we needed
something to plant in them. And something in them in which to plant the
somethings. Two bags of compost and a few plants saw off the thick end of
fifty quid. I think that next year I might get a few bags of seeds and grow
my own plants. We came home again for a cuppa and a hot
cross bun (not quite two hundred calories) and then I went back into
the garden. I got the compost into the planters and then the plants, and I
sorted out the plastic planters that used to be round the rockery (and
didn’t really work there). I did my chair workout, then played the bots
on chess dot com. I won some games, and so did they. “er indoors TM” finished work and we
took the dogs down to Orlestone. The dogs seemed to like their bonus two
miles this evening. We came home for a dinner of bangers and mash
which we scoffed whilst watching more “Lego Masters: Australia”. And I really should have an early night –
I’ve walked over twenty-one thousand steps today… |
|
20 August 2025
(Wednesday) - Four Thousand Steps
Having
had a few decent nights’ sleep, with an alarm set I had a terrible night. I
gave up trying to sleep at five o’clock, got up and made toast. As I scoffed it I turned the telly on. Bearing in mind I’d slept
through “Squid Game” the other day I didn’t bother with that. Instead I watched an episode of “Black Mirror”
which was rather good, even if I was continually wondering what I’d seen two
of the actors in. One had been a religious nut in “Plebs”, but I never did
work out who was the actor playing the doctor. I
then had my usual root through the internet. Not a lot had happened overnight
for once. Perhaps I was up too early? I Munzed, got
Wordle (llama) on the fourth attempt, and got ready for work. I
drove round to Sainsburys to get petrol. Her who used to be the
cantankerous old bat on the till was rather chirpy today,
and has been the last few times I've been in there. I wonder what's
cheered her up? I
headed off west-wards through the -hursts and the -dens and all the temporary
traffic lights listening to the pundits on the radio spouting their drivel as
they do. Today there was a lot of talk about how local councils are being
urged to go to the courts to prevent local hotels being used to house the
illegal immigrants. It would seem that the driving
force behind this is that odious Nigel Farage. In the past, the leaders of
political parties haven't got involved with local politics; it would seem that now some of them do. A vote for
Reform UK at the recent local elections looks to have been purely a vote for
Nigel Farage... not that Reform UK is a political party. It started
off as a private limited company, with Farage holding
the majority of shares. He's since sold most of them
off, but Reform UK remains a company and not a political party. A subtle
distinction, but one that will come back to bite us all on the arse at some
point I expect. And
then there were no end of so-called experts talking about what might be
expected of an international peace-keeping force should there be
a cease-fire in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict. There was
all sorts of speculation about the RAF having to shoot down Russian missiles
and Russian fighter planes... no one seemed to be able to explain why
anything Russian would have to be shot down if it was Russia who was one of
the parties declaring a cease-fire. I
got to Pembury where petrol was eleven pence a litre more expensive than it
had been at home, and then cracked on with work.
Which was rather less arduous than yesterday's supposed day off had been. The
idea of semi-retirement was that I would carry on working but have more time
at home and so start to wind down and take life a bit easier. However it seems I'm actually going
in to work for a bit of a rest. Yesterday I did over twenty-one thousand
steps. We’ve just polished off a bottle of plonk and I’ve only just got over
four thousand steps… |
|
21 August 2025
(Thursday) - Walks, Wherigo, Tip Run...
I
was asleep for over eight hours last night. That was a result. I made toast
and rolled my eyes as Facebook told me about a roundabout in Chippenham that had been
re-painted with the flag of St George. And as always there was a very fine
line between being fiercely proud of one’s country and an unreasoning hate of
anyone who doesn’t look as though they are of white Caucasian heritage. I
can trace my white Caucasian heritage back to 1760, but more
and more I’m finding myself ashamed of my country rather than proud of
it. Entirely because of the activities of those who say they are proud of it
(even though I doubt they could trace it back more than a few decades at
most). But this is human nature isn’t it? It’s
not enough to follow one football team, is it? You are expected to express
hatred to anyone who follows any other. I
got the leads onto the dogs and we went out.
Yesterday as I drove there was all sorts of talk on the radio about how Nigel
Farage was interfering in local council politics. Now it would seem that the
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is doing the same. We
got to the woods where we had a rather dull walk. We went for five very
uneventful miles. We chased no squirrels, we didn’t roll in anything, we
didn’t upset anyone. Dull walks are probably for the best. We
came home where, after a cuppa, I went into the shed and gathered up rubbish
for a tip run, then spent a little while struggling with geo-puzzles,
Munzing, and I got Wordle on the fifth attempt before taking the rubbish to
the tip. There was a little queue at the tip. Some lorries were moving about inside and someone had made a little “closed” sign
by hammering a broken road sign to a broken road cone. It was rather sad to
behold. With
rubbish unloaded I came home where we had a cuppa and a Whitby bun for lunch, and spent the afternoon writing a Wherigo. As we
walked this morning I’d seen that the forestry
people had opened up a new part of the woods (and
opened up new paths too) and had opened up an area about ten yards
in diameter in which the proximity rules of hiding Tupperware in the woods
means I could put a new film pot out. So I did. And
this afternoon I wrote a virtual game of Hide and Seek which people will have
to play before being able to know where the new cache is hidden. “er
indoors TM” finished work and we took the dogs down to Orlestone for a walk. There
was a minor hiccup when Bailey disappeared into a thicket and was missing for
nearly three minutes. When she does that in Kings Wood I just keep going and
she soon appears again, but “er indoors TM” was
laying eggs. As
we walked we met a geo-buddy walking her dog, and chatted for half an hour or so. We
came home for a rather good bit of scoff. Burgers went down rather well as we
watched more “Below Decks” in which the crew of a luxury yacht got more and more on each other’s tits as they couldn’t get
away from each other. And
again another supposed non-working day was full-on.
Close on seven miles (and over eighteen thousand steps) walked. A tip
run done, a Wherigo written from scratch, a new geocache created, several
geo-puzzles solved… I’m going to work for a rest tomorrow. |
|
22 August 2025
(Friday) - Early Shift
Last
night I went to bed just before eleven o'clock and slept for less than two
hours. I then dozed fitfully for a bit. When I finally nodded off again I had a rather vivid nightmare in which I was
recalled to Canterbury hospital who wanted me to be in their Olympic team.
Apparently due to some clerical mistake I'd been identified as a strong
contender in the cross county running whilst eating cheese sandwiches event.
It sounds rather daft in the cold light of day, but it was rather unnerving
last night. I
got up at five o'clock and watched a rather good episode of "Black
Mirror". How much money would it take for you to say that black was
white and abandon all of your principles and moral
standards? As
I watched so I heard the bin men coming up the street. They weren't shouting
today, but they weren't being quiet as they hoiked
the bins about. I
got dressed and wandered off to find my car. It was where I'd left it last
night; it usually is. As I drove west-wards I listened to the pundits on the
radio. Apparently the summit meeting the other day
between President Trump and President Putin was a resounding success... for
Mr. Putin. Having been greeted by Donald Trump the international exclusion of
Russia is officially over. That was (so it was claimed) all that Mr.
Putin wanted, and his not agreeing to anything at all was just an added bonus for him. Nothing at all seems to have changed on the ground
in Ukraine. Mind
you, it all might be rather academic if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapses which is
looking more and more likely. For all that this can hardly be
considered to be news, the scaremongers are warning of a sudden rising
of sea levels by ten metres. At the risk of looking after number one, I'll
make the observation that my house is about forty metres above sea level. At
the moment... I
popped in to Tesco on my way to work and it was then
that my phone beeped. The geo-Feds had a minor hiccup with that Whierigo I created yesterday. Nothing two minutes on the
Internet couldn't sort, and with that sorted I got on with the early shift. Work
was work, and despite not having the best of days I was soon on the way home.
Once home “er indoors TM” and
I took the dogs down to Orlestone. Treacle tried to pick a fight with a
particularly loveable Labrador, Bailey disappeared down a rabbit home,
and “er indoors TM” collected acorns for squirrels. Personally
I saw that as collusion with the enemy, but what do I know? We
came home for fish and chips which we devoured whilst watching this week’s
episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”. It was rather good… |
|
23 August 2025
(Saturday) - Late Shift
Finding myself wide awake far too early I got
up and watched an episode of “Black Mirror” in the small hours.
Imagine a world in which you had an implant which recorded all your memories
and could cast them to a TV screen to watch with your mates later. The
episode featured Jodie Whittaker who was rather good in the show, and not
just annoying as she was in “Doctor Who”. In the past I always used to get back to
sleep after getting up and watching telly in the night, but sadly that didn’t
happen this morning. I lay awake for another two hours before giving up and
getting up. I made toast and had a look at the Internet.
It was still there. It usually is. Social media was dull
but I had a couple of emails from geocaching dot com. The Wherigo I created on Thursday had
gone live. And some people had stayed in a nearby travel lodge and been round
Kings Wood finding the geocaches I’d hidden up there. Sadly
they’d had issues with one and had said “The cache, cammo
and tree was swarming with ants. I had to use a stick to retrieve the cache
and then knock the ants off the cache to retrieve the log.
Noting the quantity of anthills in the forest I have moved the cache for the
next finder and left the hint in our log. Cache is currently behind a silver
birch tree which is behind the original host tree, under log cammo”. There’s no denying that they meant well, but
the law says it’s up to me to move the thing. Bearing in mind the entire wood
is swarming with ants at the moment I’d be intrigued
to see where they’ve put it. I’ll find out on our next dog walk. I Munzed, and got Wordle (union) on the fourth attempt. I
forgot to Wordle yesterday. As we drove to Dog Club
so Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition: “You make me acknowledge the devil in me”. No? - Edwyn Collins – “A Girl Like You”.
OK – it was over thirty years ago. Dog Club was fun. Attendance was down again,
but fourteen dogs ran riot including two newcomers who got on famously. As we
drove home Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. “It’s
a Hard Life” by Queen? 1984. The same year as Edwyn Collins. I wonder if
that was deliberate? I set off to work. The "Operation
Brock" stupidity had gone which made the motorway easier. I took a
little diversion to pop into the Notcutts garden
centre. Notcutts was heaving with
people... the place seems to attract incredibly fat people (all wearing
silly football costumes) who are totally oblivious to the fact there's
anyone else on the planet, let alone anywhere near them. They were
waddling in each other's way (and mine), randomly stopping every
few paces, and being incredibly surprised when another couldn't stop in time
and then bounced off of them. Several times. I wanted to have a look at the rucksacks in
their branch of Cotswolds. They had a nice one... for two hundred quid. But (in
all honesty) it wasn't as nice as the nice one I saw on eBay last night
for seventeen quid. Mind you those silly
football costumes worn by the fat people aren't cheap. Cotswold
and Notcutts clearly seem to know their target
audience. I got to work and
sulked. The original plan for today had me working the early shift at
Tunbridge Wells. I managed to swap the early so I could do Dog Club, but that
still left me with the late shift. Being at work this afternoon meant
that I missed the monthly geo-meet which was being staged at a micro-pub (with
a particularly good beer selection) which was only a hundred yards from
an ice-cream parlour. Oh well… by not going I probably saved about thirty
quid. If nothing else that will pay for my new rucksack. And there was cake at work… four hundred
calories of cake… |
|
24 August 2025 (Sunday)
- Edenbridge
As
I scoffed toast over brekkie I saw that Facebook
says that I am a “digital creator”. I wonder where it got that idea? I
tried to change it to “fat baldy” but
apparently that isn’t a valid category. I could choose between actor, artist,
sportsperson, chef, comedian, designer… I left it on digital creator. Whilst
I was at it I tried to change my preferred pronouns
to “hatstand/fusebox” to be in keeping with
what my LinkedIn account says, but again Facebook wasn’t having it. I
Munzed, got Wordle (spore) on the fourth
attempt, and got ready for the off. Stuffing everything into my current
rucksack was a bit of a squeeze. It’s a shame that the straps on my old big
one have had it. We
loaded ourselves and the dogs into the car and set off to Edenbridge. There
was some excitement as we went up the motorway; a hot-air balloon was landing
in the field next to the motorway in the general vicinity of Harrietsham. Bearing in mind that you can’t steer those
things (they go where the wind takes them) I rather thought bringing
it down near the motorway and high-speed train line was a bit silly but what
do I know? We
got to Edenbridge where we met Karl and Tracey. There were no girls along
today. We set off on a little walk as always laid out for us by a series of geocaches. We had a rather
good walk. Morgan avoided getting run over; it was a shame that Karl got rope
burns from the lead whilst preventing Morgan’s premature demise. We
found a film pot geocache where we were expecting to find an ammo can –
someone had pinched the ammo can. Who would steal from the hobby like that? I
found one of my old geocaches – the chap who’d hidden today’s series told me
(some time ago) that he’d been to one of my caches that I’d replaced
and found the original as well as my replacement. I told him to keep hold of
it and re-use it. He had done so; I was rather pleased to see the thing being
used. We
saw a gaggle of llamas who were very inquisitive. We
had bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale with our picnic lunch; back in the day
that was my preferred drink. It must be over twenty years since I last had a
bottle of newky brown. It was rather good. And
with seven miles walked we popped into the beer garden of The Old Eden for a
couple of pints, some crisps, and pork scratchings for the dogs. I
slept most of the way home. I took a few photos whilst
we were out; once home I posted them to the
internet. As the dogs snored (they were knackered!) we had a rather
good dinner whilst watching the latest episode of “Lego Masters: Australia”
which was sadly won by the team with the one contestant I can’t stand… |
|
25 August 2025
(Monday) - Bank Holiday Gardening
I
was amazed that I wasn’t aching more this morning bearing in mind that when I
staggered off to my pit lats night my watch told me I’d walked nearly
twenty-one thousand steps yesterday. I
got up shortly after eight o’clock, set the washing machine going and peered
into Facebook as I scoffed toast. It was still there. A few people had been
up to bank holiday weekend things yesterday, but not many. I
had a little look at the monthly accounts. I’m not skint, but I’m nowhere
near as rich as I’d like to be. Is that greedy of me? I
munzed, Wordled (mirth) and
harvested dog dung. To be honest most of it got sloshed away with a bucket of
water; there was quite a bit of dire rear going on this morning. That would
explain why the dogs had been in and out of the house all night long. I hung
out the washing, put more in, then we popped over to the garden centre. The
pansies in some of our planters were looking tired. I had a plan to get a
dozen plants for about a tenner. There was a sale going on at Bybrook Barn; I got three dozen for my tenner. We
came home for a cuppa, then I hung out the next load of washing then I
cracked on with some gardening while “er indoors TM” went shopping. I pulled the dead plants from the planters, put in the
new plants into place and moved all the pots and planters about to make them
look tidier. And then with everything re-potted and moved I found a couple of
pots that didn’t have nice plants in them at all; they had weeds. So I sent a message to “er indoors TM” to
ask her to get a few more cheap plants. I
then rolled out the huge hose for cleaning out the pond filter, and cleaned
out the pond filter, and then looked at the fishing line supporting the
floating baskets in the pond. I added a little more slack
line to them, and then spent ten minutes stripping
the cordyline (as one does) and then “er indoors TM” returned. She’d got ten Sweet Williams
for less than two quid. We
had a rather good ploughman’s lunch, then I potted the new plants, and moved
the concrete garden bench. That thing is heavy; I might have strained
something. I had an idea to move the buddleias into the shade, but according
to the internet they like direct sunshine. I
must admit I’m not overly keen on it. I
then had a little look at the internet to plan the evening. It was as well
that I did. There had been plans for a geo-meet this evening on the beach to
the east of Folkestone. We’d seen a week ago that it wasn’t in the most
accessible of places. Parking up at the old Roman villa it would be a little
(twenty minutes) walk down through the Warren to get to the given
location. Having finished in the garden and with a rather nice evening I
wondered if we might go down to Folkestone. Sadly
the meet-up had been cancelled. The chap who’d organised it (from Germany)
had said “We're from Germany and traveling
through the UK in a campervan. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a parking
space. The city is very crowded. It wasn't ideal for us either”. Sadly anyone with access to Google Street
View would have known that you can’t drive a campervan (or anything)
along that bit of beach. You’d have thought the geo-Feds who allowed the meet to be announced might have pointed this out? “er
indoors TM” boiled up a very good dinner which we scoffed whilst watching another
episode of “Quantum Leap”. I’m more worn out after a few hours’ gardening than
I was after yesterday’s miles. Have I ever mentioned that I *really*
hate gardening? |
|
26 August 2025 (Tuesday)
- Rucksacks, Geo-Meet
I
slept quite well last night, but was aching far more
this morning after yesterday’s gardening than I was yesterday after a day’s
expedition the day before. I
did my usual thing of making toast and scoffing it whilst peering into the
internet. There’s a “thing” going on at the moment where people
are spraying red crosses onto any sort
of white road marking in an attempt to make flags of St George. There were
several of those on Facebook this morning. Those who can’t spell or put
together a coherent sentence and use patriotism as an excuse for racism were
amazingly proud of them. Personally I felt that the
things would have looked a whole lot better if whoever did the spray-painting
had taken a few seconds to put down masking tape to make the things look as
though they hadn’t been done by a drunkard in a rush. I
Munzed, Wordled (annex
– what a silly word!) and took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove
there was someone from Reform UK on the radio being interviewed about how
Reform UK would deport all the illegal immigrants. Sadly
the chap refused to answer any of the questions put to him. It’s quite obvious how you might deport illegal immigrants. You
get a whole load of them from the same country, stick them all in the hold of
an RAF transport plane, fly them to an airport of their country of origin,
and unload them all on the runway. You really wouldn’t have to do that many
times before the boats would stop… but would any politician be brave enough
to do that? We
got to the woods. Early last week there was a tent set up there. Late last
week there was a camper van in the car park obviously having a little
holiday. This morning a caravan was packing up; obviously having been there
overnight. We
had a good walk… once we got away from the gobby woman. Some woman had tied more bells to her dog’s collar than you get
in the average church belfry, and if the dog wasn’t making enough noise as it
ran off in one direction, the woman was shrieking at the top of her voice as
she tried to get her dog to follow her in the other. As she shrieked at me,
those who’d set up the tent last week had left no end of food scraps which
attracts her dog. She
eventually fell far enough behind that we couldn’t hear her. As we walked we saw a buzzard and a woodpecker. I saw squirrels;
the dogs didn’t. As we walked we had a look at one of my geocaches which had been
reported to be in an area swarming with ants. I didn’t see any, but I can’t
imagine anyone would make up a story like that and go to the trouble to
bother someone else about it. The little pot is now in a sensible place; I
decided to leave it there. As
we walked I used my “Map My Walk” app. It’s odd. At
every mile (or kilometer if that floats your
boat) it tells you how far you’ve walked, how long it has taken you, and
your average speed per mile. However what it actually shouts out isn’t in agreement with what it
displays on its screen. The two were about a hundred yards and over a minute
adrift. We
came home and had a cuppa. I then voomed round the
front garden with the bionic burner… once I got it working. The extension
cable wasn’t working, but the spare did. So once the garden (and
nice-next-door’s garden) were bionically burned
I took the extension cable apart to find why it wasn’t working. I could find
nothing wrong, and when I put it all back together it was working fine. What
was that all about? I
then got out the extending lopper and hacked back the overgrowth hanging over
the fence from not-so-nice-next door, then went round with the
garden hoover. I
came in to find my new rucksack had arrived… what a load of rubbish. It had
no frame or rigidity. A seventy-litre rucksack doesn’t squash up so small
that you can almost shove it in your pocket. I suppose that is why Amazon was
knocking them out at less than a tenth of the price that Cotswold wanted. Sending
the thing back to Amazon was so easy. I pressed the “return” button,
Amazon emailed me a barcode, I took the rucksack to Asda, showed the nice
lady the barcode… and that was it. Whilst I was in the area I walked over to
Mountain Warehouse where I spent forty quid on a new rucksack. Admittedly
over twice the price that Amazon wanted, but under a quarter of the price of
Cotswold. I
came home for a late lunch of peanut butter and marmalade on toast, wrote up some CPD (dull),
then announced that I was going to feed the fish. Treacle was up the garden
like a bullet from a gun; she loves the “Feed The
Fish” ceremony as she gets some fish food. Is dried rice *really*
that good? And
then I drove back round to Mountain Warehouse – the rucksack they sold me was
missing some vital straps. We
then drove down to Rye for the evening – a chap from Vienna was on holiday
and had organsied
a geo-meet. I shared cheese and onion peas with the assembled
geo-hounds, and I shared four pints of rather decent ale with myself… |
|
27 August 2025
(Wednesday) - Bit Dull Really...
It
was a hot sticky night; I didn’t really sleep well at all. I got up far
earlier than I might and watched an episode of “Black Mirror”; would
you pay good money to have an AI simulation of your dead partner? I
then had a quick look at the Internet in case it had changed since last
night, It hadn’t, really. I
munzed, ran round the back garden with a watering
can, and got ready for work. As
I drove to work the pundits on the radio were talking about the latest news
from the war in Gaza. I don't want to seem to be belittling the conflict, but
it's been going on for years, and it will go on for years. Then
the sports news came on in which the pundit being interviewed made the
amazing observation that the whole point of any sporting activity was to
score more points that the opposition. This was (sadly)
presented in such a way that it was treated as an amazing revelation. And
then there was talk of yesterday's successful Starship launch. This
was followed by an interview with some American who was very concerned that
the Chinese might beat the Americans in the current
race to the Moon. This chap patiently explained that if the Americans get
there first they will claim the Moon for humanity,
but if the Chinese get there first they will claim
it for themselves. The chap got rather irate with the interviewer; apparently
it is patently obvious that the Chinese want the Moon for themselves, and if
they get there first, then that's it for the American space program. However this chap was utterly unable to explain how the
Chinese would be able to enforce any such claim that they might make. How
would they do so? Take up a few missiles and take pot-shots and any incoming
American ships? I
popped into Sainsburys to get some odds and ends. Again
the staffed tills were all closed. I ran some bottles of beer through the
self-service machine, and one of the miserable old bats who otherwise might
have been staffing a till grumbled and muttered as she came over to tell the
machine I was old enough to be buying beer. You'd think that these people
would have some training about how to be civil to customers, wouldn't you? Work
was work; things were busier than I might have liked. But (for once)
the roads home were rather quiet. I
came home, did “Feed The Fish” and then went
round the garden harvesting dog dung. The turds seemed much the same as ever;
presumably those cheese and onion flavoured peas the dogs had yesterday
didn’t do any harm. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which
we scoffed whilst staring at the telly. As we scoffed
we quaffed a bottle of plonk. With change out of a fiver, it wasn’t a bad
bottle of plonk at all… Today
was rather dull… |
|
28 August 2025
(Thursday) - A Walk, A Wherigo
With
no alarm set I slept well. I popped to the loo in the night, and when I was up I loaded the washing machine. I do that so that when I
get up I can hang out the washing and save a little
time. Which
I did. I
made toast and had a look at the Internet. I saw that Kent County Council
are having a consultation about what
services they are going to cut next year. It speaks volumes about our society
that I found out about this via Facebook, doesn’t it? And
I saw a friend of a friend had been given an award for ten years as a
volunteer with a scout group in Eastbourne. I smiled; I was reminded of the
time that I got a certificate for five years service to scouting... after I’d been a leader for
thirteen years. “er
indoors TM” set off for a day in the office; I took the
dogs to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were all a-twitter
because Grimsby Town football club had beaten Manchester United last night, and
Manchester United are now out of the Carabao cup (no – I’d never
heard of it either) And
there was loads of talk about Oasis who are off to play in America. The pundit being
interviewed seemed to think that the music industry is all about bands
performing live, and that studio albums and record sales count for nothing.
I’ve not seen any band live for years; I tent to avoid them as I honestly
believe that live bands are only any good for getting yourself a headache. If
they are on a CD or radio you can turn the volume
down. We
got to the woods and walked a different route to our usual ones. I try to
vary it a bit; I remember dear Fudge who had his one route round the wood
that he would do, and we had to do that route the right way as well. We had
to start at the lower car park and walk clockwise along specific paths. He
flatly refused to go anywhere else and had to go on the lead and be dragged
if we diverted. As
we walked we joined in with a jogger, and had a
paddle in a pond which had a sign saying “no dogs”.
But there was horse crap along the paths marked “no horses” and
there’s been camping in the “no camping” areas recently. What’s good
for the goose is good for a goosing. We
used my “map my walk” app as we went, and again its measurements were
slightly out. If we’d walked at the average rate that it calculated (from
the time we took to cover the distance we walked)
we would have walked it a minute quicker. I
suppose there’s not that many people picky enough to check the numbers. We
came home. Whilst I’d been out I found a space where
I might hide another geocache; at Tuesday’s geo-meet a friend suggested an
idea which would lend itself to a Wherigo so I
cracked on writing the programming… until suddenly the heavens opened. I voomed out and got the nearly dry washing in. I
then cracked on with ironing as I do. As I ironed I
watched a couple of episodes of “Black Mirror”. The first had me
feeling sorry for a murderer, and the second one made me think. Ripping the
piss from politicians is easy; I do it on here quite a bit myself. But actually coming up with a practical idea… that takes some
doing. The
episode starred her out of “Star Trek:
Strange New Worlds” I
then spent a couple of hours finishing off writing my new Wherigo. It’s a
virtual paper-chase game which I suspect will have a cult following… those
who do it will love it, but most people won’t even try. Such a shame. But
whether or not people go hunt for it, it was published within a couple
of hours of my sending it for review. That was rather quick. “er indoors TM” came home from work
and boiled up quiche and chips which we scoffed whilst watching the first
episode of “Destination
X”. An odd show… contestants are effectively blindfolded
and carted off round Europe. Occasionally they are given obscure clues as to
where they are, and the one who guesses furthest away from their actual
location gets the heave-ho. I won’t say the show was crap… but it would have
helped if any of the so-called clues had meant anything to me. It spoke
volumes that the one who had won extra clues was the first one out on her
arse. |
|
29 August 2025
(Friday) - Before the Late Shift
I
had a reasonable night, but was still awake earlier
than I needed to be. I made toast and peered into the Internet and was
immediately presented with a Facebook group I might like to join – one
specializing in dead and dying dogs. I suppose there’s a market for that sort
of thing; personally I find it rather upsetting even
if it is four years since my Fudge went. I was also presented with a photo of
Donald Trump’s ex- chief of staff saying how
stupid he is. This quote was from seven years ago… it is rather amazing how
no one else has realised. And
there was no end of talk about a young Scottish girl brandishing
knives and threatening to sort out the (supposed) migrant assault
threat. Is there a migrant assault threat? If so the
police need to sort it and been seen to sort it. It’s the lack of visible
police action that encourages these vigilantes, isn’t it? Despite
the rain I took the dogs out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were
talking about how loads of people are spending hundreds of pounds each month
on weight loss drugs. The price of those
is going up massively as Donald Trump doesn’t think it fair that people in
the UK get them cheaper than people in the USA. One chap being interviewed
said he spends about two hundred quid a month on these things and has lost
thirty per cent of his body weight this year. I’ve lost nearly that amount by
calorie counting and by bearing in mind that my cake hole is bigger than my
arse hole (stop me if I’m getting technical!) We
went up to the woods where we had a short (only three miles) walk. It
was raining when we started, but it fizzled out and was little more than
drizzle as we walked. We
came home for a cuppa, and I saw that the Wherigo I’d written yesterday had
been found. The chap who’d found it did so at about the time we got to the
woods… which meant he probably left home about half past six. He must love
it. I
then spent a little while working on my latest stroke of genius. I have this
plan to make a fiendishly difficult geocaching puzzle but in
order to solve the puzzle you have to end up
with a string of digits, and the only digits my stroke of genius can come up
with is one and nine. Perhaps
it isn’t as clever as I think it might be… I
set off to work in entirely the wrong direction taking a little diversion to
Folkestone for “Daddies’ Little
Angel TM” and Pogo. From there
I headed back up the motorway. As I drove the sky went black and the weather
went from mild drizzle to torrential rain in maybe two seconds. The motorway
was suddenly under an inch of water and I could
barely see more than a few yards in front of me. I didn't dare touch the
brakes. And after a couple of minutes the rain and the black sky went as
quickly as they came. I then took another diversion up to Sheerness and
Whelans. I wanted to get some paving slabs to cover the manky bits on one of
the garden sleepers. I got something that should do the trick, and a couple
more gnomes as well. You can never have enough garden gnomes. From
there it was on to an incredibly busy petrol station in Aylesford, and an
equally busy Sainsburys. By
the time I got to work for the late shift I felt as though I'd done a full
day already. I
got to work. It was rather busy but there was cake, so all thoughts of diet
went out of the window. And fish and chips when I got home didn’t help the
lack of diet either… I
really should get those slabs out of the car… |
|
30 August 2025
(Saturday) - All A Bit Vague
I
slept through till quarter past four, and then just dozed on and off which was
something of a pain in the glass. I got up at seven and stood on the scales.
I’m under fifteen stone which was something of a result bearing in mind
yesterday’s pig-out. I
made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do and nearly choked on my
coffee. On the right hand side of this blog (if
you are reading it from the blogspot website and not an app or the backup
site) there’s a counter which says how often this blog has been visited.
Two days ago (on the twenty-eighth) my diary was visited half a
million times. What was that all about? I
had a string of emails. Someone had been visiting my geocaches in Kings Wood
yesterday. Having seen them all on the geo-map they’d booked a Travelodge for
the weekend and were making a little holiday out of what I’d set up there. A
surprising amount of people come and stay in the area just to go for all the
geocaches I’ve hidden in Kings Wood. Over the years there’s been dozens of
people who’ve done this but I’ve only ever met one
group of them… and that was because they organised a geo-meet. You’d think more
people might do that (well, I think that!). I
Munzed, got Wordle (elate) on the fourth
attempt and went and woke “er
indoors TM” and the dogs. I’d
heard their alarm but they’d slept through it. With
them awake I went and got my car from miles away and unloaded the Whelan’s
shopping. Whelan’s do good stuff; it’s cheap, but
it’s not light. As
I waited for everyone else to get ready so we
listened to Steve on the radio. He was doing the “Guess The
Lyrics” competition. “How can we drive to a movie show when the music
is here in my car”? No? – Roxy Music. But I was unsure as to whether it
was “Same Old Scene” or “Oh Yeah”. I went with my second choice
and was right to do so. We
drove round to Dog Club and had a good session. Attendance was up and
everyone seemed to have a good time. Fetching balls, chasing each other,
sharing treats… not a bad way to spend half an hour. As
we drove home I got the Mystery Year competition on
the radio right – when did Davros first appear in Doctor Who? 1975. We
had a cuppa and I counted up
the Dog Club money, and then got ready for the day. Family
came over for the afternoon. We sat in the garden
and it all got progressively more and more vague… |
|
31 August 2025
(Sunday) - Shalmsford Street
I
had a terrible night waking pretty much every twenty minutes either shivering
with the cold or sweating hot. I blame far too much beer on Saturday
afternoon. I
made toast in the hope that might settle my iffy innards and had a look at
the Internet. I had nearly a hundred and fifty emails telling me that people
had found the geocaches I’d hidden in Kings Wood. The group who are staying
in the Travelodge had just walked a series of thirty caches and done a few
extras on the way; another chap had come down with his bike in his car and
done all three of the major series (that’s nearly twenty miles!) and a
few of the others as well. That was more than I’d want to do in one go. I
Munzed,
and got Wordle (petal) on the fourth attempt. After
a rather dull morning we took the dogs out for a little walk. Our usual
stomping grounds heave with normal people at the weekends so we looked at the
geo-map and planned a short-ish walk near Chartham. We
parked up on a little lay-by and walked across fields and along lanes to Down
Wood, then down to the railway line and back to the car along the side of the
lake. It wasn’t *that* hilly really and made for a good dog walk. As
we walked I took a few photos. We
came home where the event shelter we’d used
yesterday was dry, so I put that away, and we had a tin of fizz and some
crisps and dips. I checked my phone – I had another flurry of emails from the
people who’d been staying in the Travelodge doing my geocaches in Kings Wood.
Over the weekend they’d walked over twenty-three miles and now they’ve found
all but one of the caches I’ve hidden there… They mentioned about going back
for the last one in the morning. I wonder if we will see them on our morning constitutional? I
then spent a little while pondering the geo-map wondering about where I might
put out another geo-series… There’s a few options,
but wherever I go it needs to be a convenient dog walk. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a good bit of dinner which we
scoffed whilst watching the latest episode of “Star Trek: Strange New
Worlds”. The last few episodes were rather good. This one wasn’t bad, but wasn’t quite up to the standard which has been
set. To be honest “Star Trek: Voyager” did pretty much the
same story far better thirty
years ago. I
must admit to a sense of guilt…I missed a very special birthday yesterday.
Fudge would have been fifteen yesterday. He’s been gone four years now and I
still miss him so much. And
on a more cheerful note it is ten years since I got my Monkey Puzzle tree. |
