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1 December 2012
(Saturday) - Geocaching Christmas Party
There was vague talk of going shopping in
Lakeside this morning, but I had too much to do. Astronomy club accounts
don't sort themselves. But we eventually got our chores done, picked up Geo,
and set off to Bluebell Hill, There was all
sorts of things we could have done today. The kite club was having a
Christmas party, as was work. But instead we thought we'd try something of an
unknown quantity - the Kent County Geocacher's
Christmas meet-up. We'd met one or two other cachers
here and there throughout the last few months; and they all seemed decent
people. So we thought we'd give the Christmas bash a go. I am so please that
we did. The meet was planned for 2pm, but for those
who were interested there was a mini-cache run around Bluebell Hill. A local cacher had offered to meet up with anyone who was
interested at the Bluebell Hill picnic area and lead a little expedition. It
was a really kind offer; one I readily accepted. We were taken along the
"Snail Trail" - a trail of six caches. And as we went along
we found another six random caches as well. It was a bright morning; very
cold. But it was a good morning to be out and about. Meeting old friends,
making new friends. Smiling smugly whilst others struggled to find the cache
you've found. Swearing impotently whilst everyone else has found the silly
plastic box that you can't find. The two hours flew by, and we made our way
back to the cars, and on to the Castle Lake Hotel. I went in to the place
with a little trepidation. I didn't know what to expect. I was rather amazed.
I don't know how many people were along - I would estimate about fifty. We
had an area booked, and on seeing Lisa and Earle we sat with them. We
exchanged pleasantries with those people we knew. We were introduced to new
friends. And without realising it we were chatting away with all sorts of
people. After an hour the organisers called for quiet,and awards were made. Being a newbie to all of
this I sat quietly, and applauded politely when people were called to receive
awards. My name was called. I couldn't believe it. They'd made the effort to
look at my caching history and present me with a certificate for having found
over seven hundred geocaches. I was rather humbled that someone had done that
for me. We had a meal in the hotel, as did many
other people, and then the "Secret Santa" gifts were given.
I was presented with a telescopic magnet and a pair of tweezers (both with
attached lights) which were ideal gifts for geocaching. And we chatted
some more. As you go out geocaching, at each cache you sign the cache's log.
On these logs you see other cacher's names and
aliases. I found myself being able to put faces to so many names. And there
were so many people coming up to me being pleased to finally meet Manky
Badger. We chatted until everyone else had gone
home, and being the last few people left chatting, four of us set off on a
mission. To find a last couple of geocaches. I understand that these geocacher
meet-ups happen quite often. I shall certainly go to the next one... Oh - and it's
December. December isn't December without a Lego
Advent Calendar... |
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2 December 2012
(Sunday) - Kings Wood
Oh, it was blooming cold this morning. But
Furry Face was rather fractious, and so having let him charge round the
garden for a while I took him for a walk round the block. He didn’t seem at
all bothered by the frost on the grass and the ice on the paths. That is he
didn’t seem bothered until he skidded on the ice. That made
him sit up and take notice. I had this naïve idea that not many people
would be about before 9am on a Sunday, and we had Bowen’s Field to ourselves.
But as we got to Viccy Park I realised that we were
not alone. Seemingly every dog in Kent was running loose round the park.
Howling, and whiling, barking and fighting. Fudge went straight on to his
lead, and we went to the co-op field. Which was just as overrun
with badly behaved mutts. So we came home via a bit of a detour. The morning was dull, and in the afternoon
the Bat called round and we took Fudge up to Kings Wood for a walk round the
area. It was cold, and I slipped on frozen mud a few times. But Fudge needed
a walk, and Kings Wood is good for a stroll. There’s three geocaches up there
as well. We found two of them. The third was a puzzle which involved finding
a particular tree stump. This stump was marked with an “X” carved into it.
Apparently. We couldn’t find it. We gave up after twenty minutes, then went into Challock where we
did a few more caches, and didn’t find another. And so home to warm up. Fudge had a bath.
He doesn’t seem to mind baths too much, but if he will roll in fox poo, he
has no choice. It’s perhaps rather worrying that I am now quite familiar with
the smell of fox poo. I can recognise the smell of poo in general, but I can
now distinguish common or garden poo from fox poo. We made a discovery when
we came home - as well as fox poo, that dog also likes tea. With "er
indoors TM" out bowling I then spent the evening watching
rubbish on the telly whilst Fudge slept. Perhaps a waste of an evening, but
sometimes you can't beat slobbing about. Oh - and it's
December. December isn't December without a Lego
Advent Calendar... |
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3 December 2012
(Monday) - A Day Off
Having a day's holiday I thought I'd have a
lie-in. Fudge thought otherwise and leapt on me and licked me awake at 8am.
It's a dog thing. I had a spot of brekkie,
and pootled around on Facebook until the Rear Admiral and Sid arrived. We put
the dogs in the kitchen and popped to the bank to pay in some money. I don't
like having too much astro club cash in the house
just in case. In case I lose it or embezzle it. Mind you it would be a lot
easier to embezzle it whilst it's cash rather than
when it's in the bank account. Whilst we were in town we had a crafty fry-up.
You can't beat a bit of cholesterol. Home to collect the dogs. Both dogs were in
Fudge's basket; in a heap on top of each other; both fast asleep. They woke,
we got their leads on (Sid's easier than Fudge's), and I took the Rear
Admiral on a tour of my geocache trails. I wanted to do a maintenance run,
and he wanted an introduction to caching. Three hours later both missions
were completed. Mind you I was rather surprised to find
that about half my caches had lost their waterproofing. I wish people would
be more careful whilst geocaching. A quick cuppa, and then the Folkestonians set off home. I got the laundry out and
ironed like a thing possessed. Ironing doesn't do itself. Whilst ironing I
found all the tea towels that I couldn't find last week. And then I fiddled
about with my blog
archive. Six years of my life. I wonder if a web page is the best format
for the archive. I suppose I could put years' worths
into e-book format and make them available via Amazon for a few pence (to
cover my costs!) I might just be the next JK
Rowling (!) I then added a friend to the Kent
Geocaching group on Facebook and was frankly disgusted at the reception the
chap got. I had to remind myself that there are over two hundred people in
the group, and the vast majority are really good, decent people. But it only
takes one thoughtless comment to give offence. I really wish people would
read what they've written before pressing the "send" button. It's certainly put me off of adding anyone
else to what I have always thought to be a very good group... Oh - and the Lego
Advent Calendar continues... |
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4 December 2012
(Tuesday) - News
I woke this morning
at about 6am, which was something of a good night's sleep for me, and I then
lay there for an hour feeling profoundly miserable. I do this most mornings.
I wish I knew why. My life might not be perfect, but it's certainly not that
bad. Perhaps it's my age - there's apparently a glut of people "of a
certain age" who seem to be having the hump at the
moment. Once I get up and get going I'm OK, but for the first hour every
morning I'm never in a good frame of mind. Being miserable every morning is
getting me down (!) It would seem that
my misery will get worse for four more years before it gets better. ho hum.... I fussed my dog, brekkied, and set off to work. having
first scraped all the ice off of the car. This morning scraping the ice took
some doing. There was also a lot of condensation inside the windscreen which
wouldn't clear easily. The radio wound me
up as I drove. There was an interview with a chap who'd been naturalist-ing in Papua New Guinea. He could have given an
interesting interview. Instead he wasted my time and TV licence money by
demonstrating the difference in the sounds made by two sorts of birds he
found in Papua New Guinea. he didn't have recordings
of the birds - he did impressions of them. To the uninitiated the two noises
sounded very similar to each other. So similar in fact that the bloke was
unable to make the sounds appear to be any different. After squawking into
the microphone for a few minutes he then assured us listeners that there was
a difference if you can hear the actual birds, and that said difference is
apparently fascinating. I wish I could get
paid to be interviewed whilst doing an impression of a look-alike of an irate
seagull. There was also an
interview with one of the big cheeses from Scout HQ. Regular readers of this
drivel may recall that in years gone by I was a cub scout leader. For a boy (or
girl) to be enrolled as a member of the scout association they have to
make a promise. Part of that promise goes: "I promise.... to do my
duty to God......." It could be any God at all - but the potential
member had to profess to believe in something to which they might do their
duty. Personally I had a
problem asking children to make such a religious commitment when they were so
young. After all what eight year old can really understand the concept of
what any religion is all about. I reconciled myself to the fact that these
children were promising to do their duty to God, and it would be up to the
individual to determine exactly what that duty was. The atheist that was me
at the time had the clear idea that I had no duty whatsoever to any God, and
so I could make the promise with a clear conscience. (Nowadays I'm not so
sure). It would seem that
the Scout Association has finally realised the foolishness in trying to make
small children commit to that about which they have no clear understanding
and are revisiting their entire religious policy. About time too. Here's
some sad news. The Dandy is no more. Today saw the publication of the
last ever copy of the Dandy. As a child I used to delight in the antics of
Desperate Dan and Korky the Cat. But children today
aren't so keen. With circulation down to a mere eight thousand copies the
comic is no longer going to appear in newsagents. Apparently it will be
available on-line for those who want to pay for it. I can't see how that will
bring in the money, but what do I know? And in another
surprise it would seem that the humble text message might be in decline.
For the first time ever there has been a fall in the amount of texts having
been sent. The amount sent still numbers in the billions, but it is the first
recorded fall in text messages. Apparently instant messaging via social
networking is to blame for the decline. People would rather use Twitter than
an SMS. Which is odd - I can remember the first
fruit of my loin having a Twitter account. The novelty soon wore off... |
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5 December 2012
(Wednesday) - Snow
My plans for a lie-in went west when "Daddies Little Angel TM"
texted at 7.30am to ask about the walk we were planning to do today. So I got
up, abluted, brekkied and
pootled about waiting for her to arrive. Once she was here we fed both dogs (they
are best fed together) and looked out at the snow. Having planned to put out a series of
geocaches today, and having planned a rather serious walk along which to put
them, and having spent a little while making them, plans went on hold. It's
enough of a struggle to convince the most recent fruit of my loins to do
anything geocache-related. Let alone doing so in sub-zero conditions. Instead
we took the dogs on a walk round the nearby fields where they seemed to have
a good time. For all that it was cold, the dogs
seemed to like the snow. I took some
photos of them whilst we were at it. I just wish that I could train Fudge to be
as well-behaved as Sid is. After half an hour we came home to warm up.
"Daddies Little Angel TM"
has a nasty rash. She's had it ever since she had a set-to with Binks a few
days ago. From what we can determine, I think she's got cat scratch fever (really
- it exists!) and I suggested she see a doctor. After a bit of to-ing and
fro-ing she did just that, and has been prescribed ointment. I then patched up an old coat, and went up
to town. Money had to be paid in to banks. Santander had an offer - for two
quid a month they offer an account which gives cashbacks.
Quite a few cashbacks. I asked my bank if they
offered anything similar. They don't. I might be changing my bank soon. Whilst in the town I went to all sorts of
shops trying to find more patches to cover up the small holes in an otherwise
perfectly serviceable coat. I couldn't find anywhere that sells them though.
I came home and had a good look around. Over the the
years I collected all sorts of sew-on patches which would do the job. Now I
can't find any. Mind you, on the plus side I found my astro
club hat which I thought I'd lost. "Daddies
Little Angel TM" 's mate
Skinhead came to visit. Which was nice. I'd not seen
her for ages. We exchanged insults and pleasantries, and then terrorised the
dogs. The plan was to teach Fudge tricks. Instead Fudge seemed to teach Sid
bad behaviour. Good dog... |
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6 December 2012
(Thursday) - Dull
Fudge seemed particularly soppy this
morning. He was unusually quiet yesterday afternoon and evening as well. I'm
told that after I left for work he was sick. I hope he's not the next one in
the family to be going down with cat scratch fever. Perhaps he too needs
ointment. Mind you, I expect it was the lamb bones he
crunched up last night (or the sauce they were covered in) that disagreed with
him. His guts were ripe this morning, as were mine. Which
was nice for us both (!) It was cold when I got into my car this
morning - minus five degrees. That's chilly. My usual trick of pouring cold
water onto the windscreen failed at that temperature because the cold water
froze and made the ice worse. Perhaps I should try adding anti-freeze or
washing up liquid to the water? I need to work something out - it took quite
a while to clear the car of ice today. I had a quick look on Facebook this
morning. A teacher of my acquaintance was having a minor rant about a
news item. It's been suggested that teachers' pay rises might be linked
to the teacher's ability as judged by the success of their students.
Apparently teachers see this as a bad idea. I'm not sure I agree. After all a
salesman's pay is related to how good he is at flogging his wares.
Footballers who don't score goals get the heave-ho. What's the difference? And on the news on the radio was an article
about a company called "Golden Spike" who are
hoping to offer commercial
flights to the moon within the next ten years (for those who can
afford it). Interestingly the radio focussed on the
legal aspects of such a venture. Apparently space is somewhat anarchic. All
of humanity's laws only apply groundside or in low Earth orbit apart from a
few which were made in 1967 and aren't really applicable any more. There are
now people who are making a career out of space law. Surely going to the Moon
is a far bolder venture than legalistic quibbling? Also flying, but not quite so high, are unmanned
drone aircraft which are being used more and more to obtain quite stunning aerial
photographs. Whilst no one denies how spectacular the photos obtained
are; there is a growing feeling that these photos might be invading people's
privacy. So much so that here are calls for legislation about such aerial
photography. There are those of my loyal readers who attach cameras to kites
to obtain scenic shots. I wonder how they might be affected by this? If kite fliers had a national body then this
national body might look into the matter, but I doubt the BKFA
will be interested..... Today was rather dull... |
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7 December 2012
(Friday) - Puddles
Four weeks ago I
saw something interesting being advertised on the telly. "Empire"
was to be a stunning new six-part series following the events after the
assassination of Julius Caesar. It looked really good. I've now watched three
of the episodes. I say "watched" - "slept through"
is a better description. I shan't bother with the last few episodes. There
are far better things for me to sleep through. I mentioned on
Wednesday that I had planned to put out a series of geocaches, but the snow
put me off the idea. This morning was cold, but dry. Furry Face needed a
walk, so we set out on a mission to set those caches. He likes a walk, but he
still needs to work on the whole “lead thing”. We were having a good
walk up to the point where we got to being about three miles from home in the
middle of a ploughed field. That’s when the heavens opened. We got soaked
through. Fudge found puddles which were deeper than he was tall. At that
point we were as far from home as we were going to be on the walk, so we had
little option but to carry on. The rain didn’t last for long – just long
enough to soak us. By the time we got home little Fudge was shivering. I wish
he would wear his coat but he does seem to hate it so. The pup had a warm
shower, and then went to sleep. Keith called round
– he was having a tidy-up and found an old air-bed he thought we might use
when camping. Air beds are always useful. Someone came to the house flogging
double glazing. I wish they wouldn’t. And during all this I did the on-line
organising for the trail of geocaches we'd hidden. The first fruit of
my loin called with his entourage, and we all then went back to their house.
They are having Fudge for the weekend (after all he is their dog), so
we popped him round and I stayed for a while before coming home to an empty
house. It’s not the same without Furry Face being here... Meanwhile in another
plane of existence Stanley has got a remote controlled doo-daa which puts all of his Uncle Norman’s knick-knacks to
shame. |
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8 December 2012
(Saturday) - Lewes
I had an early night last night. Just as I
was dozing off there was a frantic hammering on next door's front door. The
hammering continued; I looked out to see a couple of policemen on their
doorstep. They continued hammering on the door for five minutes before giving
up and going off on their way. "er
indoors TM" came home quietly at 3am which was nice. Why
is it that that these little episodes never happen on nights that I'm laying
wide awake? I got up perhaps a little earlier than I
might, and came down to a very early house. I've got used to being greeted by
a sleepy Fudge in the morning, but with him being
away this weekend there was no one downstairs. For someone who's definitely
not a dog person I found myself really missing Furry Face (who had only
been gone for twelve hours). We brekkied and
having collected the Rear Admiral we set off for deepest Sussex. We don't see
anywhere near enough of Dave and Tracy,and
having suggested a weekend's geocaching round Lewes today, we took Dave up on
the offer. We all met up at the start of the Lewes circular. and had a really good walk through the Sussex countryside. Three hours later with the walk done we
drove into Lewes to find Tracy. We also found Simon and Corinne and we had a
crafty pint (or two) in the Lewes Arms. From there we went on to the
brewery shop of Harvey's brewery. They had a whisky tasting going on. It's
always been my ambition to find a whisky that I like. I am still searching. Pausing only briefly to do a few geocaches
in Stanmer Park we then went back the the Davery for a rather tasty
bit of tea, and a few beers, and some sillyness,
and more beer, and cheese and port, and more siillyness,
and it all got rather vague..... |
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9 December 2012
(Sunday) - Jack and Jill
I felt rather rough
when I woke this morning. But I woke to the sound of tea and coffee being
made. Soon everyone was up and about, and Tracy made the best bacon and
mushroom wraps I've ever tasted. Unfortunately Tracy couldn't join us for the
day's outing, so we said our goodbyes. It's such a shame we won't meet again
for ages. Really must do something about that. But Dave had ideas,
and lead us off into deepest West Sussex. We parked
up at the Jack and Jill windmills
and walked though wonderful countryside down to the Chattri monument.
Yesterday was a glorious day. There's no denying that today was cold. The
wind was bitter at times, and my hangover didn't help. But I was in the most
beautiful countryside with good friends. I wouldn't have missed being there
for the world. Whilst we were in
the area we took in a few of the local geocaches; including something I've not
seen before. Two geocaches seemingly being hidden at the same place. The
rules say that they should be a tenth of a mile apart. Something has clearly
gone wrong. I understand that both caches have now been squealed up to the
relevant authorities. After three hours
we were chilled to the bone, so we made our way to the nearest pub. Bearing
in mind how many calories there are in beer, and also bearing in mind that
the second bottle of port last night was possibly a mistake, and not
forgetting how cold I was I chose not to have beer. Instead I went for hot
chocolate. One small pissy-little cup of hot
chocolate cost as much as a pint of ale. And they wonder why people don't go
to pubs these days(!) All too soon we had
to say goodbye to Dave. We won't leave it so long next time, but for now (as
always) there are photos
of what I got up to on-line. We came home. Had
we been thinking we would have gone home via Hastings and the family
Christmas party. But we weren't thinking, and we
forgot all about it until we were home. And once home we collected Furry Face
who apparently had enjoyed having a lazy weekend. The house does seem a
better place for having him under foot again. I then checked the
internet to see what I'd missed in the day or so that I'd been away. Over the
last few weeks there had been talk of setting geocaches designed to be found
at night. Ones with reflectors and stuff. I'd expressed interest in helping
set these caches, and came home to find they'd been put out in my absence. Oh
well. There was also sad
news. Sir Patrick Moore has died. Regular readers of this drivel may recall
that I
once met him. He was a wonderful fellow, and the world will be a sadder
place for his going. Meanwhile in another
plane of existence "Ted the Spanner" has arrived on the
scene. He has a large tool. He is not averse to brandishing his implement
whenever the opportunity arises. One cannot help but wonder how much
opportunity will arise over the next few days... |
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10 December 2012
(Monday) - A Wasted Day
One of the services offered by parcelforce is that if you have a parcel to be sent, they
will collect it from your house. So "er
indoors TM" arranged for a parcel to be collected from us
this morning. I got out of my pit earlier than I needed to and waited for
postie. And waited. I put on a film to watch whilst I was waiting. I watched
the lot. I watched rubbish on UK Gold. I did some housework. I did the
laundry. I did the ironing. I played games on the computer. In between this I phoned parcelforce to see what the delay was. They promised
they'd phone me back. They didn't. So I phoned them again. And again I got
passed from person to person, all of whom took my name and number and
promised to get back to me. Eventually they phoned me back (at 6.30pm)
to say they had absolutely no record of me on their system. Oh how I laughed. Whilst we were away at the weekend we found
a dog's T shirt laying
about. So I brought it home, washed it, and thought it would be good for
Fudge. When we go out he does get cold. He's only a small dog and just lately
he's been shivering when we've been out. A T shirt will keep him warm. Having
washed and dried it I tried it on him. I've commented in the past about how
he doesn't like his coat. He doesn't like his T shirt either. He had a right
sulk. You can tell when he sulks because he stops moving. He just stands
still and sulks. With "er
indoors TM" off bowling this evening, I sat in front of
the telly watching more rubbish on UK Gold. Someone from the TV company
phoned whilst I was slobbing to see if I was aware
of their special Christmas bargains. He was rather stumped when I told him
that having cancelled the sports and movie channels because I never watched
them I was rather loathe to pay good money to have
them back. And then there was an advert on the telly for the perfect
Christmas present - a DVD of edited highlights of the Olympic Games. I
suppose that people must watch that sort of thing or they wouldn't sell them.
But I can't see the attraction. And during all of this, the nice people
next door clanged their piano and strangled their violin. I'm not
complaining. Far from it - I welcome their noise. It means I can make all the racket I like with a clear conscience. I will end today with an apology. It's no
secret that I welcome comments on all of my witterings.
If nothing else it shows people are actually reading what I write. But I have
tweaked the settings. From now on the blog software will not allow anonymous
comments. If you want to comment on anything I've written you will need a
Google account to do so. They are easy enough to set up, and they are free.
If this is a problem for anyone, then I apologize. But the amount of spam
comments that I am getting from people trying to flog their wares has reached
epic proportions. So if anyone wants to comment on what I write, that's fine.
But they can't do it quite as anonymously as they used to any more. |
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11 December 2012
(Tuesday) - Bit Dull Really
I thought I'd have an early night last
night. It took half an hour for Fudge to stop howling. I came down to him
several times, and each time he made a bolt for the stairs When I'm home
alone he always plays up at bed time. Two minutes after he settled my phone
rang. Last Friday I set five multi-geocaches. One of them seemed somewhat
elusive. It seemed I'd made a stuff-up with setting the co-ordinates. Woops. So much for my early night. And despite all
the excitement I didn't sleep well; waking at 3.30am and laying wide awake
until finally giving up and getting up at 5.30am. I had a spot of brekkie, watched an episode of "The Brittas Empire" that I hadn't seen before, and
set off to work. There was thick ice on the car this
morning, and a near pile-up on the ring road. Call me traditionalist if you
will, but if a car is on the outside lane and indicating right I feel I am
justified in thinking that car is intending to turn right. I don't think that
said car is somehow trying to overtake and will in fact actually go left
whilst still indicating right. The news was alive with Parliament's
discussions about gay marriage. I don't see what there is to discuss. Anyone
should be able to marry anyone they want provided both (or all)
parties understand what's involved and are happy with the arrangement.
Whether they should be able to get married in a church is a different
question, but one which is just as easily answered. The bible is quite clear
on the subject, so gay people can't be married in church. Unless churches are
to be forced to go against their beliefs, or vicars
don't agree with what they preach. Why is Parliament wasting its valuable time
discussing something which is so straight-forward? The most recent fruit of my loin phoned
mid-morning. She'd been home with Sid and the two of them had collected Fudge
and all been off on a walk. She'd phoned to tell me how impressed she was
with Fudge's behaviour. He didn't once try to fight with other dogs today,
and he came back when called every time. He's coming on in leaps and bounds
apparently. I'm quite pleased about that. I then carried on doing my bit at
work, and then came home. Being Tuesday the tribes gathered. Another
episode of Merlin. A good show - one I've taken a liking to. And then rather
than going to bed we went out geocaching. Wish me luck.. |
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12 December 2012
(Wednesday) - 12-12-12
Geocachers are closet
numerologists, They like confluences of numbers, and so today's date (12-12-12)
got them rather over-excited. There was a midnight meeting arranged, so we
went along. About forty of us met up at the Tesco car park by Junction 12 of
the M20 motorway. We chatted for a bit, and then at the stroke of midnight it
was suggested we checked the local cache list. Sure enough, twelve new
geocaches had gone live in honour of the occasion. Everyone sped off on an
impromptu geocaching mission, and we joined in too. Signing logs as "Team
ELF" we got five "first to finds", got stuck in
ice, and got very cold too. But for all that I was frozen and couldn't see a
thing I wouldn't have missed the event for the world, We thought we'd do a few caches. We ended
up finding eleven of the series of twelve, finally coming home shortly after
3am, rolling into my pit just before 4am. I awoke shortly after 9am, and leapt out of
bed thinking that Furry Face would be wondering what had happened. I came
downstairs and I felt sick. He was laying in his
basket, totally oblivious to my having come downstairs. Opening doors and
turning on lights got no reaction from him at all. I honestly thought he was
dead. Then he gave the biggest snore you ever did hear. He was fine; just
absolutely worn out from the night's fun. I stroked him and he eventually
looked up, gave a wag of his tail, and went back to sleep. Home again, and with my beloved out of her
pit we got ready for the day. The Bat soon arrived,
we collected the Hurks, and set off to Sandgate. Some might call it excessive, but there was a
second meeting of the Kent geocaching community today; this one at mid day. We arrived at the Brittannia in Shornecliffe
to find quite a few other people already there. Some had been to the midnight
event; some had not. It was good to put faces to names, it was good to meet
friends; old and new. The pub did a wonderful meal, and with that scoffed we
then set off to see how many of the new caches we could find. As we'd eaten,
a dozen new geocaches had gone live locally in honour of this event. People
soon sped off in their different directions to get searching.
The little prat was like a stuck record. He
didn't want apologies, he just wanted to repeat that
we were on his land. After profusely apologising for ten minute (to no
avail) I told him to get knotted and we drove off.
And then back to the pub to find a cache
had gone live there whilst we had been out, and having got that one we had a
crafty half of "Late Red" and I checked my geocaching app.
That last cache had been my 899th find. So we went back into Folkestone to
find the only one we missed out on during the night to put my number to the
900 mark. And so home for a quick fried egg sandwich
before setting off to collect Chippy and then
making our way into town. On the way we met Steve and Sarah, and were all
soon in "Oranges" where it was open-mic
night. Jason and his band were performing, and we had gone along as part of
rent-a-mob. It has been said that I don't like live
music. That's not entirely true. I like good live music. But for every band
that is good, there are a hundred which are not. Jason's band were excellent;
if let down somewhat by the sound system. Whilst the band played the Rear
Admiral arrived, seemingly suitably lubricated by copious amounts of ale. For
some inexplicable reason he'd come dressed as "Posh Smurf".
The next act, "Ken", was also good. It was a shame the same
couldn't have been said about the ale, but such is life. It was a shame that
the open-mic night had so many waiting to have a go
- it would have been good to have had an encore from the band we'd gone to
hear. But that was not to be. Some days in my life are dull. I put up
with those for the promise of days like today... |
|
13 December 2012
(Thursday) - A Birthday
As I was scoffing brekkie
Fudge was sitting on the top of the sofa watching the world go by. The phone
rang and made him jump. So much so that he fell off the sofa. I did laugh. I
didn't laugh at the phone call. We get so many calls from 0843 numbers that,
on answering, don't respond and then hang up. I wish they didn't call. The most recent fruit of my loin arrived (with
Sid), and we took both dogs for a walk. Fudge’s behaviour is improving.
He’s still a pain at times, but he’s far better than he ever was. We came home,
and soon the in-laws were with us. It was my father-in-law’s birthday today,
and we went out for lunch. Whilst geocaching the other week we’d walked past
the Five Bells in Brabourne. It had looked good, so
we went there. They had a locally made stout on the hand
pump, and an all-day breakfast. Very nice. And then home for coffee and to
proof-read a three thousand word essay on renaissance artists. Not that I
know much on the subject, but that didn't stop me proof-reading it. A quick squabble on Facebook, and then out.
First of all to Lisa's house to collect an artificial duck for reasons which
will become clear in a future blog entry. Then on to Tesco to get supplies
for the work's Christmas buffet. Whist in Tesco's I saw Mr Creosote (of
"Monty Python" fame) - this chap really did have the look and
build of Mr Creosote. Poor chap. When I came out I found that a tractor was
parked next to my car. What was that all about? And then on to the abode of "the
man with no alias (patent pending)" for an astro
club committee meeting. Plans for the Christmas meeting, plans for Stargazing
Live, plans for the future. Good times... just a shame that the complete
cloud cover prevented me from seeing tonight's meteor shower... |
|
14 December 2012
(Friday) - The News
An early night would have been good. If
only next door hadn't been shrieking at each other I might have managed a
little extra kip. My beloved came home from flogging candles at 2am, and then
snored like a thing possessed for the rest of the night. I didn't want to
sleep anyway. And so up early, a quick bite of brekkie, and off to work. I was glad to see that the
temperature had risen and that the car wasn't covered in ice. Thank heavens
for small mercies. The morning's news had something
of interest. Last night at astro club we
wondered if Patrick Moore's house would be sold; we thought it would make a
marvellous museum. Apparently that was what Sir Patrick wanted, and it might
just be a museum for budding astronomers. His house was a special place, and
I was once privileged to be shown around it. And given cake in there too. It would be good for others to have the
chance to see how this iconic figure lived. Mind you, the punters will have
to buy their own cake. In other news it seems that car
road tax discs are to go. In this modern age, sticking a bit of paper in
the windscreen is seen as somewhat old hat. Police will use number plate
reading technology which will probably spot miscreants more easily than
trying to identify forged discs. Paper driving licences are to
go as well. Personally I'm amazed it's taken so long for the technology
to catch on. And then there was the announcement about a
new species of primate having
been discovered. Shock horror - it's only just been discovered and its an endangered species
already. Am I the only one who isn't amazed by this news.
this can't come as a surprise, can it? Any species
which has gone so long without having been discovered can hardly be
commonplace, can it? Some news items should be headlined "Dur!!" Also there was the announcement of the
discovery of the world's
oldest cheesmongery. It would seem that as well
as iron and fish, cheese has been monged since
antiquity. Archaeologists have apparently unearthed evidence that cheese was
being made over five thousand years ago. I'm no expert, but regular readers of this
drivel will know that I have dabbled in matters arky-ological
from time to time. Personally I can't see how anyone could distinguish
fossilised Wensleydale from a manky bit of broken
pot, or a random rock. But news isn't news without piss being
boiled. This morning not so much boiled as simmered. Why is it that those in
positions of high office are expected to apologize for that which happened so
long ago? The leader of the opposition is to apologize for things the
previous government did when he was just a lowly back bench MP, and the
governments to apologize for Alan
Turing's conviction for his homosexuality in the 1950s (which was
actually illegal at the time). How can anyone apologize for that which
happened so long ago, and about which they could not possibly carry any
responsibility? A few years ago I was very conscious that I
was very out of touch with current affairs, and had been so for some years.
That was the reason why I started listening to Radio Four on my way to work
in the morning. It would seem that I never missed very much
of note... |
|
15 December 2012
(Saturday) - Rather Quiet, Really...
The intention was
to catch upon sleep last night. I dozed on the sofa with Fudge on my lap
until gone midnight, then lay in bed chatting on
Facebook till gone 1.30am. And was woken by the noise of the rain shortly
after. I spent a little
while this morning trying to post onto the astro
club's Facebook page. What I wanted to say was "Hi all. As a club we
have display boards and a *lot* of posters for them. But 99% of these posters
are hopelessly out of date. Being a very mean treasurer I am very loathe to spend good money on new posters which will also get out
of date. Instead might I ask
the membership to design posters for the club. We
have some very accomplished astro-photographers. A
print on A3 or A4, maybe a description. laminated
would be good. Or why not design something on a planet? All contributions
gratefully received" I posted that, and
then deleted it six times because of spelling mistakes I kept finding. The
final version has still got a typo in it, but I can't be bothered to change
it for a seventh time. Here's something
of interest. t would seem some normal people
watched a geocacher doing his thing and were
suspicious. They called the police. A town was cordoned off for hours, and
the poor geocacher ended up with a police caution. In theory this is
entirely avoidable. For all that caches are reviewed by experienced cachers before they go live, these reviewers do not have
local knowledge. To get round this, when cachers
find a geocache in a place which could be construed as less than ideal they
have the option to say so in the log that appears on-line. In theory this
should point out any shortcomings in problematical geocaches. In practice this
doesn't work. It's become the accepted practice that these logs should only
be used in a very positive way, and any log which does not gush
praise regardless of any problems is frowned upon, and then deleted. And then shopping.
First to the outlet centre. Every time I go there the shops are different. We
got some Christmas pressies, then
walked into town for more Christmas pressies. We
had a look in the clothes shops and I couldn't see anything that I couldn't
get cheaper in Asda or Tesco. A quick bit of McLunch, then on to the pound shops to pick up some
bargains. And with bargains bought we came home, collected Furry Face and
took him for a walk though some very wet and muddy fields. Whilst out we
fitted in a couple of geocaches. Well, we were in the area and it would be a
shame not to. The pup did get wet and muddy though. And was soon shivering.
He will be wearing his T shirt and coat tomorrow whether he likes it or not. And with "er indoors TM" off to the
film night watching a film I wouldn't have minded watching I dusted off an
old presentation I once gave to the astro club. I'm
presenting at our upcoming Stargazing Live extravaganza, and am fast running
out of time to have it all ready... |
|
16 December 2012
(Sunday) - Yalding
I was woken by my alarm this morning. That
hardly ever happens. Up, brekkied, dressed and out of the house by 8am. We collected Hursky and made our way to Yalding.
On the way we drove past Teston Bridge picnic site;
somewhere which is very special to me. The river was very full, the weir was
under water. And there seemed to be a lot of building work going on. I wonder
what's happening there? Pausing only briefly a couple of times for
caches we were passing, we soon met up with friends old and new in Yalding, and nine of us took Fudge for a walk. Along the Yalding Hill Walk, a series of twenty (or so)
geocaches. Up hills, down dales, through swamps. Finding supposedly leaning
trees that had actually fallen, shouting at small dogs for rolling in fox
poo; it was a really good walk. And at the end of the walk as a bonus we were
given co-ordinates for a further five geocaches which were slightly more
tricky. One of these boiled my piss. The official
rules of hiding geocaches state that caches should not be put near playparks. The actual rules say that only caches hidden
by me should not be near playparks. We found yet
another cache on top of a kiddies play area. I've actually started compiling
a list of such caches. It's getting longer. When I'm next feeling in a black
mood I might just squeal them all up. But not today. Finding all the Yalding
Hill caches took just over three and a half hours. We made our way into the
village and sat at the seats by the war memorial to eat our picnic. Disaster!
Someone (me) had left our sarnies at home. Fortunately we were with
excellent company who ensured we didn't go hungry. We then said our goodbyes to some of our
number, and three of us (and a small dog) then slowly made our way
home via whatever geocaches we could find on the way. We stopped off for
quite a serious stroll around Collier Street where we found four caches. One
named in honour of a pig which once lived nearby, One in the fields where
hops are grown. And then on to Staplehurst
where we gave up on two: one being a muilti-cache
which seemed to lead us on to a point over a mile away, and another which
required a serious hike up and down through the village; as it was getting
dark we decided against that. Instead we found "Dog's Cache"
in the dark (the light had completely failed by this time). And with
only one more pit stop we made our way home. A successful day's geocaching
having found over thirty caches. And, as always, there are photos
of the day on-line. Once home Fudge had a bath. He'd gone out
wearing his coat,but it
had got soaked whilst we were walking, And he'd also done his signature move
in fox poo (what is the attraction?) so a scrub was necessary. And we found the sandwiches I'd prepared
for lunch sitting in the kitchen where I'd left them. Waste not, want not.
They made for a passable bit of tea. And with "er
indoors TM" off bowling and an exhausted little Fudge
fast asleep on my lap I wasted the rest of the evening watching rubbish on UK
Gold. My face is glowing; I seem to have caught the sun today. Five days until mid winter
and I've caught the sun.... |
|
17 December 2012
(Monday) - Grain Sea Fort
Bikes boil my piss.
Well, to be fair it's not the bikes so much as the people riding them. Take
yesterday for example. I had an interesting altercation with a plank on a
mountain bike. I was bringing up the rear of the group with whom I was out walking. I watched the party ahead of me
scatter in all directions as an idiot flew downhill through them on his
mountain bike. By the time he'd reached me he'd slowed down somewhat. He then
launched a bitter tirade about how rude everyone else had been by not saying
hello to him. When I intimated that perhaps they didn't like his flying down
footpaths on his bike (like a bat out of hell) he got quite mouthy, claiming
that he had a God-given right to do just that. Silly fellow. And then this
morning I nearly mowed down two cyclists whilst driving to work. Both were
out on their bikes on main roads before 7a.m. Sunrise this morning was at
07.56 - it was really dark when I nearly killed them. Both of my potential
victims were clothed entirely in black, neither of them had any lights or
reflectors on their bikes at all. And one of them was cycling down the wrong
side of the road. And so to work,
which was rather uncomfortable. The elastic had gone in my underpants, and I
spent much of the day hoiking my undercarriage
about; doing the job my pants didn't. It's the sort of thing which is rather
entertaining all the time it is happening to someone else. But when it's your
own junk, it's a bit of a nuisance. And then home
earlier than usual. I got changed, and was soon zooming up the motorway with
Lisa and Earle. A call had gone up on the Kent geocaching page that people
were going to try for the cache in the sea fort which is about half a mile
off of the coast of the Isle of Grain and is only accessible at low tide. Low
tide as at about 9pm, so a dozen hardy (daft) souls met up and marched
along the causeway. The first few hundred yards were the muddiest, but people
who had been there before had already gone out to the fort and left a trail
of beacons for us to follow, and set up a ladder. And also arranged for hot
drinks to be waiting for us all. Another of our number brought muffins, and
having explored the fort we had an impromptu sixty-fourth birthday party for one
of our number. I was impressed - the birthday boy had received a kidney
transplant less than a month previously. Being a tunnel rat
at heart it was odd - reminiscent of the architecture of the tunnels at Capel and Dover, but not underground. And having a
geocache there was a nice added bonus. It would have been good to have
explored more but time and tide (literally) were pressing. So we made
our way back along a causeway which I felt was noticeably wetter than when
we'd gone out. Back on the
mainland we looked for (and found) three more caches that were in the
area. They took some finding - the local geology apparently had a lot of
ferrite which stuffs up GSP readings. And so home shortly
after midnight to find the Chinese take-away that he most recent fruit of my
loin had left. That made for a nice bit of supper. We shall have to go
back and explore that fort in the daylight... |
|
18 December 2012
(Tuesday) - Luvaduck
I felt quite ill
when I woke this morning - headache, runny nose and a general feeling of bleagh. Fudge didn't seem quite one hundred per cent
either. His ears were cold, which seemed unusual. As the day went on I think
we both perked up a bit; even if Furry Face did sleep an awful lot. Once "er indoors TM" set off to
work I took Fudge for a little walk. I had some geocache maintenance to do.
One of my caches is in a fake snail shell. Or that is it was. Now that it's
gone missing, been replaced and gone missing again I've replaced the snail
shell with a bog standard magnetic key holder. There are those who look down
their noses at magnetic key holders as geocaches. But equally only yesterday
I got an email of thanks about one of my series of caches which consists of
seven of these key holders. And a magnetic key holder costs fifty pence
whereas a fake snail costs over a fiver. Whilst we were out
we hid another cache. When we first started this game the third cache I ever
found was round the corner from my house. However "Horse
Guards" has not been looked after by its owner, was marked as
needing maintenance back in August, and yesterday it was archived (removed
from the list of active caches). I've been trying to contact the person
who owned the cache for ages, but to no avail. With that cache now gone, the way was left clear for my latest scheme. A geocache which is blatantly obvious, but rather hard to actually get at. Caches are rated on a difficulty/terrain scheme on which the difficulty and terrain are graded from a score of one (dead simple) to five (rather tricky!). I've rated "luvaduck " as difficulty 1 / terrain 4. The cache is obvious. As the name suggests the cache is in a duck (a floating plastic decoy duck). The difficult bit is that the duck is anchored in the middle of the river.And then
being Tuesday the clans gathered. Banana bread and mince pies. Very tasty... |
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19 December
2012 (Wednesday) - Guts Ache...
|
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20 December
2012 (Thursday) - That's All, Folks...
|
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21 December
2012 (Friday) - Still Here
|
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22 December
2012 (Saturday) - Family Christmas Dinner
|
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23 December
2012 (Sunday) - Sharsted
|
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24 December
2012 (Monday) - Christmas Eve
It's now
slightly more than eleven months before I get to do Advent calendar again... |
|
25 December
2012 (Tuesday) - Christmas Day
It turns
out we missed the Christmas "Downton
Abbey". I hope they repeat that. Soon.. |
|
26 December
2012 (Wednesday) - Boxing Day
|
|
27 December
2012 (Thursday) - This n That
It's two
days since Christmas and that dog has now destroyed most (if not all)
of his new toys. |
|
28 December
2012 (Friday) - Stuff
However Sid
must bear some of the blame for having (apparently) egged him on. |
|
29 December
2012 (Saturday) - 1000...
|
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30 December
2012 (Sunday) - Dull
It's rather
sad that singing in the car on my way home was the high point of the day.. |
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31 December
2012 (Monday) - New Year's Eve
|
