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1 July 2025 (Tuesday)
- Too Hot...
I
was fast asleep when Bailey woke me by trampling up and down on my chest, obviously
anxious to go outside. So not wanting any little accidents I took her out
only to have her playing silly beggars hunting round the garden looking for
frogs (again). I gave her a couple of minutes then went back to
bed, but once I’m woken I struggle to get back to
sleep, and that was before one o’clock. I dozed on and off during a
very warm night, finally getting up shortly before half past five. I made toast and had a look at the Internet. There
was quite a bit of consternation on one of the local Facebook pages this
morning. Yesterday it had been claimed that some woman was taking photos of
children on Folkestone beach, and a full-blown witch-hunt had been stirred
up. Had this woman actually been taking photos, or
has she had some petty squabble and someone who felt slighted was getting
petty revenge? Who knows? And I saw something which worried me somewhat, As a child I took a friend along to Boys Brigade with me.
Boys Brigade really should be banned; it is all about brainwashing children
into believing crackpot religious nonsense. My friend was taken in by all the
religion and he’s now a Baptist minister in the West Country. Every week his
church put out a video of their prayer ceremony, and
I often find myself watching it in stark amazement. This morning my old
mucker was on the webcast saying “Whatever
troubles we find ourselves faced with today let us pray so that God might be
glorified”. Think it through – his idea of a supreme being is
one that needs to be continually reassured about just how wonderful it is.
Would any supreme being really be that insecure? It
bothers me that my old mucker has devoted his life to this crackpot nonsense,
but what can I say? I
got into my car and the thermometer told me that it was already twenty-three
degrees, and that was at half past six in the morning. With a few minutes
spare I drove round the road to where I hid a geocache a while ago. Not only
had someone logged that they couldn't find it, they were
so confident in their ability that they had logged that it needed
maintenance; writing in their log "we searched well enough at
the object described". The object described was a sign on a lamp
post; I even gave a photo of that sign. The cache was magnetically stuck to
the lamp post behind that sign. I got out of the car, saw the thing right
away, sighed, and drove off. There
are two schools of thought about not finding a geocache. Some people think
"I can't find it.. Oh dear” and that's
it. Others think "I can't find it because it is not there"
and log "Needs Maintenance" which alerts the geo-feds. I wish they
wouldn't. I
drove off to work., As I went up the motorway there was an interview with the
head honcho at Portsmouth harbour who had the hump. Apparently the harbour
authorities across the UK all chipped in to the cost of the inland border
facility at Sevington, and because of changes to
various laws the place is now redundant and will be sold
off at a loss. The bloke from Portsmouth says he wants his share of the
cost back from the government, and rightly so. The
whole idea of an inland border facility at Sevington
was a stupid one, wasn't it? The idea was that lorries would come ashore at
Dover and then drive twenty miles to Sevington
where they would then be inspected... giving them twenty miles along which
they could drop off any illegal stuff they were carrying. Surely whoever came
up with that idea should be sacked for incompetence along with whoever gave
them that job in the first place. I
went to Sainsburys to get a sandwich and some supplies for our upcoming
holiday. Needless to say not a single manned till
was open, so I went to the self-service tills. The machine went berserk
because I was trying to buy a bottle of gin. Some assistant
with a face like a slapped arse walked over, glared at me, and pressed the
button to say I looked old enough to buy gin. She wasn't at all happy when I
asked her to remove the security tag on the bottle, but never once actually
spoke a word. As I went out I saw a bit of a fuss.
Another customer had kicked off and had one of the manned tills opened for
her. I commented that if I'd known that the manned tills were open I would have used one. The chap on the till (also
with a face like a smacked arse) commented that he'd only just opened the
till... well, his words were that he'd only just opened the till. His tone
clearly said "f... off fatso". Supermarkets
boil my piss. Back in the day we had corner shops, and lots of them. The chap
behind the till wanted your custom as the shop was his personal
livelihood and he knew that you had many other places where you could spend
your money. These days the corner shops can't compete with the supermarkets. And
supermarkets are relatively few and far between; on my twenty-five
mile journey to work there's only two that don't involve a major
diversion. And
supermarkets are staffed by people who for the most part couldn't care less. When
I got to the work's car park it was quarter past seven and twenty-six
degrees. I
went in to work where it was a colleague's last day. Apparently last week she
found that her son hadn't got in to the local school she wanted for him and the alternative wasn't very good. So she approached one of those "we buy your house"
companies who gave her cash there and then. She's packing tomorrow and moving
to Sheffield later this week. I
got myself a cheese scone at tea break. Some people say sod it and move
to Sheffield. Me - I have a scone. Work was work. When I came out the thermometer in
the car said it was thirty-seven and a half degrees. I suspect that was an
over-estimate as the temperature is always high when I get into the car. But
by the time I’d reached the traffic lights a couple of miles down the road it
had only dropped to thirty-four and a half degrees. I came home to find Treacle had just been sick.
We’re blaming the heat. Being on an early I did have a naďve plan to take the
dogs to the woods, but I don’t like to take them out of the temperature is
over twenty-three degrees (at most) and according to the BBC that’s
not going to happen until ten o’clock tonight. |
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2 July 2025
(Wednesday) - Making Plans
Another
restless hot night. Treacle particularly suffered. At two o’clock I arranged
her so that the fan was blowing on her, and I listened to her panting for
much of the night. I got up at half past five, made toast and had a
little look at the Internet. It was rather dull this morning, which was
probably for the best. I sent out birthday wishes to
two Facebook friends. Someone I know through fishing, and an ex-trainee who
was thirty-nine today. Thirty-nine? There wasn’t a lot else going on, so taking care not
to disturb the sleepers I got ready for work. I
had quite a walk to find where I'd left my car. Fortunately
the rain which was coming down as I'd scoffed toast had stopped. I drove
round to the co-op where some new lad was filling the fridges with the
sandwiches. I asked if they had coronation chicken. He (oh-so-politely)
explained that you only ever get coronation chicken at Christmas time. I
smiled politely, and thought better of saying that
Sainsburys and Tesco have the stuff all year long. As
I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about the
government's performance in Parliament yesterday. They'd won the vote for
their proposed welfare bill, but had to make so many concessions they might as
well have lost. The
chap being interviewed made an interesting point. The chap said that incoming
governments rarely get into office by actually winning
an election. They usually get in as the outgoing government has lost an
election having pissed off the electorate. A subtle point maybe, but
probably true. The governments we get aren't so much the most popular choice
as the least unpopular one. The point was also made that Labour's massive
landslide victory meant quite a few surprise candidates got in who normally
probably wouldn't. And knowing that they are in by a fluke and will be out at
the next election they don't see themselves as having a long-term political
career and so will act as their conscience dictates rather than how their
party tells them. Which is why the government has had to make so many
concessions on its welfare bill. Personally I see
this as a good thing... I
got to work where there was a minor flap going on. Nothing major really.
Absolutely every workplace the world over has minor flaps from time to
time. Back in the day when I was a manager I would have been in the
thick of the flap with all the other managers... These days I see myself as
being well out of it, and minor flaps being somebody else’s problems. And
with flap flapped I did my bit and did some e-learning. Ironically bearing in
mind this morning's excitement today I learned about Business Continuity
Planning. Back
in the day if things went west we'd make up a
work-round as we went along. And then the world changed. I can remember
talking with an ex-friend (many years ago) who had moved into "disaster
planning". The place where he worked had once had a minor crisis
about which the local newspaper found out, and
vilified them as they had no written procedure for dealing with that specific
crisis. This chap told me he spent all day thinking up utterly implausible
scenarios and devising plans for coping with them. I can remember him telling
me what fun it was; and the more implausible and outlandish the disaster for
which they were planning, the better. What if the Martians invaded? What if
the Martians invaded on a Bank Holiday? What if the Martians invaded on a
Bank Holiday and the police and army were all off on holiday themselves? These
days not only are there comprehensive disaster plans for everything, there's
even a formally recognised
international standard for them. Whilst
I did my e-learning I waited for the forecast thunderstorm. I'd heard rumbles
of thunder as I scoffed brekkie, but there were major storms forecast for
today. None of which happened in Maidstone, though I’m reliably assured we
had several downpours at home. With work worked I came
home. Bearing in mind we’d had some rain (and also
that the dogs were asleep) I decided against a walk. Instead
I geo-puzzled. Yesterday geo-HQ announced the
criteria for the next set of geocaching Treasures… ones with a relatively
high difficulty level and ones with the “special tool required”
attribute. There’s not that many that fit the bill, and most of those that do
involve going up trees. For the most part this evening’s puzzling involved
finding ones that didn’t risk my neck. I’m so happy that heatwave has passed… |
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3 July 2025
(Thursday) - What You Don't See
With the heatwave passed (for now) I slept
much better last night. I made toast and had my usual rummage round the
Internet. I was presented with a memory… nine years ago we had the geo-rally. We all met up at the
motorway services near the Medway towns, and at one o’clock in the afternoon
we all set off in our various directions. We had twenty-four hours to go
geocaching, and there were points for types of geocaches found, and for
counties and countries visited. We travelled three hundred and twenty eight miles through nine counties and came fourth
out of nine teams. I wonder if we might have another rally… The only
problem is that at the time the local geo-fed wasn’t
keen on the idea even though he was happy with a similar event that happened
every year in Sussex. I’ve emailed him to sound him
out. Here’s hoping. As I drove the dogs to the woods the pundits on the
radio were talking about how the Chancellor
of the Exchequer was seen crying in public. The poor woman’s
probably finding the job a tad more stressful tat
she thought… We got to the woods and had a good walk. The dogs
charged about as dogs do. They chased shadows and completely missed squirrels
and slow worms and deer. Fortunately they completely
missed any fox poo as well. After four and a bit miles
we were back at the car and heading home. I hung out
washing and packed in readiness for next week. Is it just me who packs undercrackers as though I’m
expecting terminal dire rear? I programmed “Hannah” for the New Forest, did
some CPD, and had a little kip I woke up over an hour later. Now to load up the “er indoors TM” -mobile,
collect the house-sitter (“Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and
Pogo) and have an early night… |
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4 July 2025 (Friday) - Off On
Holiday
With an alarm set I didn’t sleep well. Treacle was restless too; falling
off the bed twice during the night. I got up at half past four hoping for a quiet bit of
toast only to have “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and
Pogo coming to say goodbye. Then “er indoors TM” and
the dogs came down. Bailey saw this as an opportunity for an extra hunting
session in the garden. Treacle followed “er indoors TM” about
like a lost lamb, and Morgan staggered about with a WTF is going on
expression. But we had a very good walk.
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5 July 2025
(Saturday) - On Holiday
In
a novel break with tradition I left my watch on last
night, and this morning it told me that I’d had a good night’s sleep. One
lives and learns. I thought I’d had a terrible night. The bed and floor
creaked every time I moved, and I was amazed at how many times during the
night I looked for a clock that wasn’t there. But my watch told me that I
slept well, so it must be true. Mind you I’d been up and on the toilet for
ten minutes before it realized I was up. Morgan and Treacle got up, and Bailey appeared from
wherever it was that she’d spent the night. I took the dogs out. The biggest
two tiddled and came back in, Bailey charged into the hedges and carried on
the hunting she’d been doing yesterday. She spent pretty much all of
yesterday afternoon and evening hunting round the garden. I have no idea what
she was after, but whatever it was, she wasn’t going to give up on it. I told her to tiddle; she stopped hunting
, looked at me with obvious contempt and did that
which she’s been told to do. We all went back inside and back to bed where we
woke “er indoors TM”. Being
Saturday we tuned in to Steve and Ashford Radio over the Internet. It
seemed odd listening to him and not getting ready for Dog Club. We (I)
got the “Guess the Lyrics” competition: “I’m hoping it’s going to come
true” – Breakfast in America by Supertramp. We spent a little while watching te
birds and squirrels on the bird feeder, then had a rather good full English
breakfast the seeing that the forecast rain had come a lot earlier than
expected we got out the Infinity table and played scrabble. I say “scrabble”;
it was a word-based game that was different enough from scrabble to avoid
litigation, but close enough to make no difference. Eventually the rain dried up, and we went for a
little walk in the nearby woods. Our route was laid out by three geocaches
over five and a bit miles. We had a good walk. The
dogs got to run for the most part but they went back
on leads when we saw the horses. Somehow the walk involved far more uphill
than there ever was downhill – how did that work? Geocaching-wise the walk wasn’t the best, With an entire forest to hide things it did we really have
to stomp quite so deep into the undergrowth? We came back to base where we sat in the garden
watching the world go by. And drinking beer. Dinner was rather good, and as
the evening went on we got the infinity table out
again and it all got rather vague… |
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6 July 2025 (Sunday)
- Still On Holiday
My
watch told me I had another good night’s sleep. My watch lied again. I woke at seven o’clock and spent an hour or so
fiddling about lo-line. I munzed and wordled and kept quiet as everyone else was fast asleep.
As I peered into the Internet I saw that apparently
there were issues at Dog Club yesterday. Not only were there complaints about
the noise, there was a minor squabble at the second
session which takes place after we leave. The later group was
summed up entirely in the words of the woman who took the complaint: ”I don’t know who runs the group”. The
woman who used to run that group walked away because everything was getting “too
political”, but was utterly unable to explain
what she meant by that. And since then no one has
taken any responsibility for the group. After a few messages this morning we’ve now got a
couple of people who will hopefully step up should the need arise. It got to eight o’clock and with no signs of
movement I went back to bed. Eventually we all got up. The dogs went outside
and once they’d done their hunting I went round
gathering dung. We had brekkie, and spent a
little while watching the birds on the bird feeder. Back home I’ve been using
my birdsong app to detect the birds I can’t see. Here the birds aren’t that
noisy, but you can see loads. All sords of tits (!) and finches,
nuthatches, jays woodpeckers… and seven a few
squirrels having a go at the squirrel-proof bird feeder. Eventually the rain stopped
and we drove out for a little walk. As we drove be were constantly slowing to drive round the horses and
ponies and donkeys which were just randomly wandering wherever they wanted to
go. We got to where we were going and set off on a
little walk. Today’s walk was more on open heathland and despite the recent
heat the ground was quite soft in places, and Treacle found some stagnant
water to wallow in as she does. Where we walked had been a bombing range during the second world war; I’d hoped to see some impressive craters
but in the meantime they’ve all rather overgrown. As always geocaches gave us targets for our walk,
sadly they weren’t in what I’d consider to be perhaps the best locations.
Despite there being loads of space to hide the things, they had been carried
into the woods and seemingly drop-kicked into the densest thickets. The
trouble we had today was that pretty much each one we searched for had been
hidden by someone who’d marched off from the car park with the geocache in
his hand wondering where he might hide that one, but had no regard for any
others in the area and with no plan for making a little guided walk out of
them all. And with few (if any) paths marked on the maps consequently
our walk was about double the length it might have been. We got back to the car and after a quick snack drove
on to the sixpenny brewery. We’d got a box of beer on order, and we sat and
had a few drinks in their garden. It was a rather good place to be. We came home, and sat in
the garden again. The bird feeders had been pretty much emptied, and despite
the cottage’s instructions asking us to top up the bird feeders, there was no
bird food. There was human and dog food though. Once the hounds
were fed we had some rather good burgers, and then
sat and watched the night sky get darker over a gin and tonic… |
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7 July 2025 (Monday)
- Anses Wood and Dinner
I’ve
been sleeping a little longer than I have been lately, but I’m still wide
awake a couple of hours before everyone else. It don’t
help that the bed in the cottage screams in pain whenever there’s any
movement on it. I got up and had a little look at the Internet as I
do. The geo-feds have given a tentative thumbs-up for the idea of a geo-rally
so that’s something I might sort out when we get home. Or might not sort out. In the few days since I had the idea I’ve rather
gone off of it. My heart sunk when the weather forecast said heavy
rain… and then I realised the weather forecast was
for back home, Not where we are at
the moment. I munzed, got Wordle on
the last attempt (stilt – stupid word) and went back to bed. After an hour or so I got up as the dogs wanted to
go outside. Again they were far more interested in
hunting than in doing that which they were supposed
to go outside for, but that’s dogs for you. I then spent a little while perusing the bird book, and then spent a little while peering at the bird
feeder deciding what bird was what. It takes some doing when they all look
pretty much the same. We then had a full English brekkie. That was rather
good… With brekkie scoffed we set
off to Fritham. We parked up near the pub and
walked three quarters of a mile down to Anses Wood
where we hunted out a series of geocaches. They took some hunting. It didn’t help that the paths round the wood weren’t
as clearly marked as they might have been. Or in any way marked at all. And
it really didn’t help that the geocaches were seemingly deliberately placed
as far away from any paths as was possible. There’s some “right to roam”
thing in the New Forest which apparently means that you can just stomp
wherever you like. Personally I prefer the rules
that are applied back home where you hide geocaches in relatively sensible
positions only a step or two away from the paths, but what do I know? With walk walked we wandered back to where we’d
parked the cars, and having unloaded what we didn’t need with us we went over
the road to the Royal Oak… only to find the place didn’t open on Mondays. As
we stood outside and pondered what to do so three other groups came and went.
They are losing so much money by not opening… We decided to try the Royal Oak in North Gorley.
This one was open and welcoming. We had a pint and some nuts and another pint
and some olives and another pint and fish and chips. The food there was
rather good. I’d certainly go back there. We came back to base. The ladies went shopping, we
had a gin and tonic and lost Bailey. I say “lost” – she didn’t go that
far away really(!) And with dog recovered we had a game of “Sorry”
and some profiteroles and another game of something or other which I
completely slept through. It’s hard work being on holiday… |
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8 July 2025 (Tuesday)
- Burley
Despite
being on holiday I still had my early root around
the Internet. This morning there was consternation on the NHS Pension
Facebook group that I follow. Someone wanted to do what I’ve done – take my
pension and reduce my working hours so that effectively I get the same money
for half the effort. However your holiday allowance
is in proportion to the hours you work. And if you only work half the hours
of a full time person you only get half the annual
leave. Obviously. This has been the case for part time workers in all walks
of life for ever. Some idiot woman was kicking off about how unfair it was
and if she wasn’t going to get her full leave entitlement it wasn’t worth her
while retiring. There was quite the argument going on, and this idiot woman couldn’t
seem to realise that there wasn’t anyone posting to a random Facebook group
who could change the system for her. We had some brekkie, and
then drove down to Burley. We parked up in the nearby woods and had a short
little walk trying (and succeeding) to find five geocaches. Again,
like most New Forest woods the paths weren’t as well marked as they might be,
and again like most New Forest Geocaches they were hidden in the most awkward
of places. As we walked we (Treacle)
found a swamp. We (Treacle) then found a stream in which the dogs had
a spuddle. Sadly it didn’t
so much wash off the swamp stink as add another level to the fragrance. And then we went into Burley for a look-see. Have
you ever been
to Burley? Twenty years ago it was a very wonderful place full of
all sorts of olde-worlde witching type shops. Nowadays it’s got some of the
same shops, but those that have survived are rather tired, and there’s
several shops that are closed and empty up for sale. Sadly the place isn’t what it was. We had a crafty pint in the Burley Arms. Up till now
I’ve had some rather good beers in the New Forest. Unfortunately
the pint of Otter Ale I had in the Burley Arms shouldn’t have so much been
served in a pint glass as served with a knife and fork. There’s a limit to
how many lumps there should be in a pint of beer. We came back to base, and after hosing the dogs down
we sat in the evening sunshine. I got the lap-top out, did the geo-admin for
today’s walk, and logged in to the NHS app. My GP had sent me an urgent
message. I wish he’d ring me up or send me a text or email. The NHS app
online is a pain in the glass. Eventually I logged in to see what was so urgent…
Was I (or had I ever been) a smoker… It was rather good to be sitting in the evening
sunshine. It was a shame that Bailey had to go walkabout. I eventually
captured her in an overgrown thicket; my legs got somewhat ripped to shreds. Tracey boiled up a particularly good scampyun chips; it wasn’t until I started scoffing that I
realized just how hungry I was. And with dinner gratefully devoured we sat on
the patio again watching the birds and as the darkness fell watching the
bats. The port came out, and then did the Vienetta. It was gone eleven
o’clock by the time we decided it was too late to spark up the Infinity
table. |
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9 July 2025
(Wednesday) - Brownhills
I
slept well I suppose, but did find myself laying
wide awake rather earlier than I’d like. At home I’d just get up and pootle
about, but here when I get up, so the dogs leap up claiming to need a wazz, but actually just wanting
an excuse to charge round the garden like things possessed. I got up at eight
o’clock and let them out. They had a funny five minutes then went straight
back to sleep. My watch told me that my sleep had been excellent,
as was my energy… Seriously? I sparked up the lap-top as I was by then wide awake
and had a look -see to find out if I’d missed anything overnight. I hadn’t. I took the dogs out again and went round the garden
harvesting dog dung. One or two from our pups, and some pretty hefty fossilized
ones that had been there for some time. And then we had dog inspection – a
quick once-over for ticks. All seemed OK, but Treacle had lost a tooth. Her
mouth had been bleeding the other day and the loose
tooth was gone. I blame the huge sticks she insists on carrying. We had brekkie. When we
went to the brewery the other day I bought some New Forest honey. If you are
ever tempted to buy the stuff, don’t bother. It’s massively overpriced and
tastes like my old great aunt’s perfume. We went out for a little wander. We drove down to
the Brownhill Enclosure where we parked up and walked round some rather
pretty woods. We found a tributary of the river Avon in which Treacle had a
great time. Bailey went in for a paddle, but Morgan wasn’t at all keen. He
really doesn’t like water. We came back to the cars, had a little picnic, then
relocated to another car park a mile down the road and walked
another little circuit. This time we saw several deer, and
heard birds of prey. I found that a sure-fire way to get a bird of prey to be
quiet is to get the birdsong app out. Geocache-wise it was much the same as everywhere
else we’ve been this week. A beautiful place to walk with endless places that
would make ideal hiding places that were ignored in favour
of silly places in the most inaccessible thickets. We came back to base, and spent the evening drinking
sixpenny best and raspberry gin before having a very good bit of dinner… Again I found myself falling asleep as the evening wore on. |
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10 July 2025
(Thursday) - Janesmoor
The
trouble with letting the dogs out in the mornings whilst on holiday is that
they think the garden is one big adventure zone. To them it probably is.
There was five minutes charging about and exploring before anything that
needed to be “done” was actually raked out. I then went and “did” myself,
and found the dogs had gone back to bed. With everyone else still
sparko I got out the laptop and had my usual look at the Internet. It would seem that there’s already plans for a geocaching
event at the solstice weekend. Bell-ringing (!)
Oh well, so much for the day-long rally. I was going of the idea anyway. But
bell-ringing.in a church in Bexley? I might pass on that. Everyone else got up, and we had brekkie.
A full English one. You can’t go wrong with one of those. By the time we’d
scoffed it, it was mid day.
And rather warm. A shorter walk was on the cards for today. So we drove out to the Janesmoor
enclosure and walked down to the river; hoping it
hadn’t dried out. It hadn’t. And it was still quite clean, so we played fetch
with those dogs (Treacle) that would chase into the water to fetch
sticks. Morgan and Bailey weren’t having any of it though… We walked back to the car via a couple of geocaches. On Monday we’d found the
Royal Oak in North Gorham and had a wonderful bit of dinner. Navigating our
way through the horses that were all over the roads we went back there, and had another dinner. Despite the heat of the day I went for the rack of ribs which was rather good. Suitably replate (stuffed!) we went back to
base for a few gin and tonics (or is that gins
and tonic?) before finishing off the last of the black forest gateau and
the vienetta, and then having another go on the
Infinity table where in a novel break with tradition I won a game of “Sorry”. |
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11 July 2025 (Friday)
- Coming Home
I’ve been sleeping with my Smartwatch on this
week, and it has said nice things about the quality of the sleep I’ve had up
till this morning. However with an alarm set I
didn’t sleep well (I never do if I have an alarm set), and it could
tell the difference. We got up, packed, and had brekkie. I passed
on the honey today. It tastes of my (late)
great aunt’s perfume. And with brekkie scoffed we loaded up the cars. As we loaded I found myself watching Treacle. We actually lost her at one point. I found her in the dining
room looking rather confused. She doesn’t seem to be herself at the moment. We were supposed to be out of the cottage at ten o’clock; we made it
with five minutes to spare. Wanting to break up the journey home, and bearing in mind today was going to be another
hot day we’d looked at the geo-map and had found a little wood near Four Marks in Hampshire. We
parked at the designated car park. The instructions on geocaching dot com
said “Parking for many cars”; there was probably room for four cars in
total. But once parked we walked into the woods. Like all woods the paths
marked on ordnance survey maps bore no relation at all to the paths that were
actually in the woods. But we had a good little
walk. We walked for about an hour, and then had a
picnic by a very pretty little village pond. But all good things have to come to an end.
We said our goodbyes and consulted Google which said that home was one
hundred and one miles and two and a third hours away. It probably got the
distance right, but the timing was out by about an hour. There were one or
two delays on the way (!) We got home and managed to unload most of the kit before our
house-sitter (Pogo) woke up. “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” had
been busy cleaning the kitchen. Once we’d unloaded the car “er
indoors TM” took the house-sitting team home and I
unpacked that which I dared to unpack, and got the
first load going through the washing machine. I had a little look in the garden. The plants were nowhere near as
dead as I thought they would be; it would seem we
had far more heat in the New Forest than had been had at home, but I ran
round with some water anyway. “er indoors TM” returned and popped up to the kebab shop to get dinner. You can’t beat
a kebab with a tin of Doctor Pepper. We scoffed whilst watching the final of
the most recent series of “Taskmaster”, and with that
scoffed I sorted the holiday undercrackers which I’ve got washed and dried. If only the rest of the laundry was that easy to sort… That’s my job
for the weekend… |
|
12 July 2025
(Saturday) - Doing the Laundry
Much
as it was good to have a break, you can’t beat your own bed… sadly it was far
too hot to sleep last night. I managed a couple of hours but that was about
it. I got up at two o’clock and whilst I was up I
put a load of washing in to scrub. I then dozed on and off for a couple of
hours before hanging that lot out just as it was getting light at half past
four. I put another wash load in and went back to bed where I lay awake for a
couple of hours, and then got that lot pegged out at
seven o’clock. A third lot went in to the washing
machine and I made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. You so easily fall back into the old ways. I saw that two colleagues had been presented with
long service awards at a formal ceremony yesterday. That was a vast
improvement on last year’s debacle when I got a
certificate and award for forty years service which
came in the internal post last November. It arrived three years late and was
handed to me by the most junior lab assistant who left a few weeks later. I’m glad that my ranting at the time were taken
seriously by management and “proper awarding” of these things is now
done. And there was ranting about a proposed hosepipe ban.
On the one hand there’s only so much water and we’ve had a dry year. On the
other hand we’ve had a few (lot) of those
lately. Had Southern Water’s money been spent on maintaining the
infrastructure and building desalination plants things would be different.
After all, the average Californian uses a garden sprinkler
and they are in a desert. I munzed; deploying my Itty Bitty Kitty (it’s a Munzee thing). And I got
Wordle on the fifth attempt (exile). And we got ready for Dog Club.
As we got ready Steve was on the radio, The “Guess
the Lyrics” contest was “And if our love was just a circus
you’d be a clown by now”. No? – Elton John – I’m Still Standing. Dog Club was really good.
Without needing to be asked several people brought
along lots of water, and we had a huge water bowl and ice blocks. A dozen
dogs were really well looked after. We played, we sniffed,
we shared treats. As we Dog Clubbed so one of those who’d seen the
minor squabble at the second session at last week’s Dog Club told us what
happened. It wasn’t quite as minor as we thought… We’ve had a few issues over the years; one of which
was with an older bloke with a dog which was (and
still is) far stronger than he is. About a year ago his dog was forcibly
trying to hump every other dog, and despite having the dog dragged off and
returned to him many times, the chap seemed reluctant to do anything. I
didn’t want to get heavy handed, but when in its rush to pork another dog his
dog trampled Bailey, I saw red. I grabbed his dog by his collar, dragged him
back to the old bloke and told him that it wasn’t working. I had to stare at
the bloke quite aggressively for him to get the message and piss off. Apparently this chap came to last week’s second session where his dog again
tried to hump everything whilst he stood back and did nothing to stop it, and
when challenged got quite confrontational. I stayed to
the start of the second session to see if he turned up. He didn’t but one of
the younger blokes who goes to the second session told us what happened, and
we left this bloke with instructions to eject the old chap without warning if
he showed up again. It was rather later than usual as I drove home, but
as I drove off so Steve was playing “Breakthru”
by Queen on the radio. Surely that was 1989? And
then he asked about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the first run
of “Doctor Who”. Definitely 1989. I brought the dogs home; “er indoors TM” was
off to Craft Club. I brought in some washing, hung out the white
wash was which had scrubbed whilst we’d been at Dog Club, then put a
fourth load in. I did have a plan to pootle in the
garden, but it was too hot. So instead I told Tripadvisor about
some of the places we’d visited last week. I got washing in; I put more washing out. “er indoors TM” returned from
craft club with the makings of a very good ploughman’s lunch which we scoffed, and then sat in the garden having a bit of a lazy
hour or so. And then “er
indoors TM” set off to the local am-dram society’s
latest production. And I spent the evening ironing all that laundry that I’d
washed and dried today. Oh well… at least all the holiday laundry is now
sorted. Let’s hope for a cooler night tonight… |
|
13 July 2025 (Sunday)
- Taking It Easy
I slept well; last night wasn’t so hot. I made toast – you can’t beat
toast with peanut butter and marmalade (try it!). And I had my usual
peer into the internet. My Facebook feed today was
seemingly full of adverts for old men’s chair yoga. Apparently
you can sit on a dining chair and thrash about and build muscle whilst losing
weight. Apparently. All these adverts took me through
ten minutes of preamble before asking for money. I
suppose enough people must stump up the akkers to
make it worth the while of those paying to put up the adverts – I found something free on You-Tube that
I might start (together with the diet re-launch) tomorrow. I Wordled (gnome on the fourth
attempt), Munzed, and planned a little Munzee
expedition. We need to get a lot of a certain sort on Munzee for this month’s
Clan War, and going round the block would get us well over half-way there. So we went round the block and got over half-way there. As
we went I opened a gold qrate
and got a mini squid cubimal as well. Go me. Seeing we still had time on our hands we drove out to Charing to hunt
down a geocache. The latest geo-Treasures need us to find rather difficult to
find caches which need a special tool to get to the paper log. We parked up and walked for half a mile to a bridge over a sand quarry
where we hunted for over half an hour. It was just as I said we should give
it two more minutes that the thing came to light. I was glad it did. That
gave us our first “Tools of the Trade” treasure and we’ve five more to
find. The next closest is in Cranbrook. After that we’ve something of a
mission. There’s one in Hastings… possibly. It hasn’t been found for eighteen
months. There’s one in Sittingbourne… possibly. It hasn’t been found for two
years. The one in Heathfield hasn’t been found for four years. After that the rest are quite a bit further away. In a novel break with tradition the weather forecast had been right; a
cloudy morning followed by a sunny afternoon. We’d been right to go out in
the morning. “er indoors TM” boiled
up another rather good ploughman’s lunch, then we had a lazy afternoon in the
garden. As it cooled I fed the fish then looked at
those plants I’d salvaged from when I’d chopped back the bog filter a few
weeks ago. Sadly nowhere near as many plant had survived as I thought might, but I put the two
that hadn’t totally croaked into floating pots in the big pond
and I shall see if they take. I shall clear the wreckage of what I pulled out
of the bog filter tomorrow. Probably. I then came inside and solved geo-puzzles in the hope of getting more
of these geo-Treasures. Sadly they are few and far
between and many of them are up trees. And then I struck on the frankly
genius idea that if there’s not many suitable caches
available, put some new ones out. So I posted to the local geo-Facebook page. People might put a
few out… five would be nice. “er indoors TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst
watching “Canal
Boat Diaries”. I don’t think I’d get on with a canal boat.
There’s a very limited amount of places you can go (i,e, along the canal) and
you can’t go very fast. Mind you I’m thinking more and more about a camper van. I then spent a little while working on a new geocache which will allow
others to get this new Treasure… |
|
14 July 2025 (Monday)
- Hasfit
I
slept reasonably well last night. It helps when it’s not so hot. I got up and
stood on the scales; I’d planned to go back on the diet today. Mind you, I
was rather pleased to see that after last week’s holiday I’d only put on four
pounds. I made toast and a cuppa (two
hundred and seventy-seven calories) and had a look at
the internet as I do most mornings. This morning my Facebook feed was filled
with adverts for cruises; something I feel would bore me senseless.
On the other hand, someone I know through dogs was posting photos of her road
trip along Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. Now I think I’d quite like
that… because you can stop off along the way. The people who took us to
Uzbekistan do a Route 66
tour. Maybe next year? I munzed and unlocked a qrate, got Wordle on the fifth attempt (undid),
and took the dogs out. As we drove to the woods the pundits on the radio were
interviewing the Chief
Secretary to the Treasury who spoke a lot without actually saying
anything. Politicians charged with running the nation’s finances are on a hiding to nothing. The Labour
ones are full of ideas and suggestions until they actually
have any power to do anything at which point
they realise it is all rather expensive. The
Conservatives sell off anything over which they might conceivably be expected
to have any responsibility so nothing is ever their
fault (the water debacle springs to mind)… We got to the walk and did what used to be our
standard walk before we extended it, but we covered three and a half miles in
just over an hour this morning. As we went we met a
couple of other dogs, said hello and walked on past. We found no swamps or
dog poo or squirrels. We chased a woodpecker, but it cheated by flying off.
All rather dull. We came home. “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” wasn’t
back from her appointment so I cleaned out the pond’s filter, chucked out the
last of the plant wreckage from the bog filter and voomed
round with the bionic burner. After an hour I was knackered, so I made us both a cuppa then
pondered geo-puzzles. Yesterday I hit on the idea that since there are
precious few geocaches within a hundred miles that qualify for the latest
series of geo-Treasures, I might create some. Last night I planned one such
and wrote the web page for it. I checked that I’d got the sums right – I
hadn’t but I think I have now, It always pays to
check. And flushed with success I devised another. I took. “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and
Pogo home, then took a circuitous route home via the locations of my new
geocaches and put out some nanos. As you do. Once home I gave the two cache web pages a last
once-over and sent them in to the geo feds for their assessment with the
request that if all was well they might be published
tomorrow or later so that I get the International Geocaching Day 2025
hider souvenir. I wrote
up some CPD, fed the fish, and then had a look at the chair yoga workout I
found yesterday. It played for eighteen minutes; I turned it off after six.
It was bollox. I was rather hoping for an actual
chair workout; not to be sitting on a chair and waving my hands in the air
whilst trying not to forget to breathe. I had another look on-line
and found the Hasfit workout for seniors.
It took twenty minutes to work through, and for all that I spent the entire
time sitting on a dining chair it wasn’t long before I was rather sweaty. I
shall have another go at it tomorrow, and wear shorts… I think I might have
some somewhere. I then rewarded myself with a cuppa
and a slice of lemon drizzle cake (two hundred and fifty calories),
and after an epic battle I eventually beat the chess bot. “er
indoors TM” went bowling. I considered another run-through with the chair workout, but thought better of it. I don’t want to overdo
it just yest. Instead I watched a couple of episodes
of “Orange is the New Black” whilst the dogs snored. And then I saw that we’ve achieved the second of our
three Munzee Clan challenges for the month. Result. |
|
15 July 2025
(Tuesday) - Early Shift
My
alarm woke me this morning. That rarely happens. I got up, and scoffed toast
whilst watching half an episode of "Orange is the New Black",
then got ready for work. I tried to be quiet; I don't know why. “er indoors TM” and the dogs
would sleep through anything in the early morning. I
drove off and it wasn't long before I was very conscious of an idiot on a
motorbike who was far too close behind me. And then I was very conscious of
an idiot in a car who'd misjudged how much room there was to the side of a
dustbin lorry and was coming head-on at me at speed. I emergency stopped to
avoid going straight into this car, and in my rear-view mirror saw the idiot
on the motorbike swerving sideways at ninety degrees. The idiot in the car
drove off, and I carried on with the idiot on the motorbike now keeping a
sensible distance behind. I
stopped off at the co-op to get a sandwich. Again
their fridges were all but empty.. As
I drove up the motorway to work so the
pundits on the radio were talking about the government's new scheme. You can get a bung of up to four
thousand quid towards the cost of a new electric car (provided it's not
one of those Chinese ones). But even with the government's bung the
leccie car would still be far more expensive than a
proper car, and I for one still have nowhere to charge the thing. I
got to work and had a little look at the Internet. I had emails The geocaches I put out yesterday had gone live, and I had
got my hider souvenir. And I saw there
had been a Munzee
event in Dover on Saturday that I missed… or not so much “missed”
as “knew absolutely nothing about” I was rather miffed about that…
until I saw that only four people showed up for it (including the
organizer and her husband). If you are going to go to the effort of putting on
something like that, why on Earth don’t you publicise
it? I
got Wordle on the fourth attempt, then made a start at the early shift. As I worked I got a message that one of the caches I'd hidden had
been found... but only one. At lunch time I had a message to say that I'd
made a mistake in the formula I'd used in the other one. I'd actually written "DCE" whereas what I
meant was "ABC". A subtle difference, but the difference
between doing the happy dance along Beaver Lane and sulking in front of a
lap-top screen. Which presumably is what several people had been doing this
morning. I managed to put my mistake right, and then
had lunch. Sadly the co-op's piri-piri chicken
sandwich wasn't all that good. I
had an email. There was a job being advertised at the Medway hospital. Did I
fancy being the lead for staff training there? A few years ago
I would have jumped at the chance. Now...? I'm tired. I really can't be arsed
with it any more. Not so much the training as I actually enjoy that. It's all the paperwork and meetings
and being in charge. Been there, done that. It's all a bit like hard work.
These days I'm quite content to just do my bit. Being
on an early made for an early finish. I came home and we took the dogs to
Orlestone woods where we walked for a couple of miles. The dogs were good;
but there was a dodgy five minutes when a rather stupid rabbit ran out of a
hedge and found itself nose to nose with Morgan. Treacle
had a wallow in the mud remains of a swamp. I wish she hadn’t. We
came home. “er
indoors TM” gave Treacle a
serious scrub whilst I had another go at the chair workout. The
nice man in the video said that if you don’t have dumbbells then you could
improvise with what you’ve got. I improvised with a couple of bottles of
tomato ketchup. Once
I’d recovered (you’d be amazed how knackered you can get whilst sitting
down) I spent a little while looking at
dumbbells on the internet. eBay was flogging some second-hand ones but the adverts were rather misleading. Not charging
for delivery but expecting the buyer to collect is a tad cheeky when
collection would cost over twenty quid in petrol.
Especially when you consider that you can get a pair of brand-new ones from
Amazon for less than a tenner which should come tomorrow with free delivery… |
|
16 July 2025
(Wednesday) - Dumbbells
I
didn’t sleep very well last night; Treacle was at the foot of the bed and
pushed my legs over the edge a couple of times. I gave up, got up, made toast and watched an episode
of “Orange is the New Black” then had a little look at the Internet as
I do most mornings. It was still there. I sent out birthday wishes to the friend having a birthday
today. Sadly the last posting
on her Facebook page was from me wishing her a happy birthday last year. I
wish people would use Facebook more; being a nosey person I want to see what
people are getting up to. It is too easy to lose contact. There
was a very strong smell of farmyard and manure as I walked up the road to my
car this morning. What was that all about? I found my car where I'd left it
yesterday. It is usually where I leave it; if only I
could leave it in the same place every day. I
drove round to Sainsburys to get petrol only to find their petrol station was
closed. That was a pain in the glass. So I set off
up the motorway to try the Sainsburys nearest to work. As I got on to the motorway so my car flashed an alarm and told me I had
forty miles worth of petrol left. Woops. As
I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the Anglican Dean of
Gloucester. He's gone into business with the Gloucester brewery who make
"CathedrALE", and the Dean is
now formally blessing the stuff to raise money
to renovate his cathedral's cloisters. Not
that I'm in any position to take the moral high ground here, but you
would have thought that the Dean would be aware of what the bible says (specifically Proverbs 20 Verse 1), wouldn't you? Mind
you those same cloisters which he is trying to renovate were used as a
filming location in the Harry Potter films, and I know of several self-styled
Christians who won't watch Harry Potter because their priests have told them not to. Seriously. Some
see it as occultism; but from what I can work out it strikes me that the
average priest would rather kids didn't read or watch Harry Potter as the
priest then has a hard time trying to explain what bits of made-up claptrap is made-up claptrap and what bits the kids are supposed to
believe. A Chrismation and a lumos both seem
equally implausible to me. I
got to the Aylesford petrol station with a few miles to spare and topped
up. Unusually they had quite a few sandwiches in. Generally
they don't in the mornings. I commented about that only to be told that the
one I'd just bought was one of yesterday's leftovers. Ho hum... But
it tasted OK when I scoffed it. Far better than yesterday's piri-piri thing
that gave me something of a guts ache. Another early start made for another early finish. I
came home, did the “Feed The Fish” ritual,
then once “er indoors TM” finished with work
we took the dogs out. We went to Orlestone as we can get there in less than ten minutes. We had a good
walk; the dogs behaved themselves… right up to about the last minute when
Treacle and Bailey both waded through rather rancid mud. I wish they hadn’t. “er
indoors TM” scrubbed the girls whilst I sparked up my Amazon app and learned
something. My Amazon delivery was only seven stops away and was round the
corner in Francis Road. Seven stops – that’s hardly anything. It took an
absolute age for the counter to drop to six stops. Twenty minutes later when
the van came into sight I realized that when the
Amazon app says your parcel is seven stops away, that’s not seven deliveries
away, that’s seven stops. The poor driver is probably making half a dozen
deliveries at each stop. But my parcel arrived. Less than a day after
ordering them, I had my lightweight dumbbells. Once we’d scoffed dinner and
let it settle I had another go at the Hasfit 20 minute Chair
Exercises for Seniors Workout at Home with dumbbells rather
than bottles of tomato ketchup. It’s great – I spend the entire time in a dining
chair and at the end I’m absolutely knackered… If I can keep this up I’m going to be ripped. I wonder how long it will be
before the novelty wears off… Am I being hopelessly optimistic in hoping to
get below thirteen stone in weight? After all, that’s only trying to lose
another two stone and I’ve done that once this year
already. Mind you *if* I managed it I would still be
two stone overweight… |
|
17 July 2025 (Thursday)
- Rather Busy
I slept through till half past seven this morning, but was rather aching when I got up. I suppose
this chair workout lark is slowly taking effect? I
got up, made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. There was upset in
Hastings Old Town. There are two major hills there – East and West – with
funicular lifts on each. The one on the west hill takes you from the heart of
the sea front to a residential area. The one on the east hill takes you from
a car park to a field. The west hill lift (the useful one) has been
broken for some time, but in compensation the owners are offering holders of
season tickets for that lift free use of the other one. Not
that it’s of any good to them. And I saw red when I checked my emails. Someone couldn’t find a
geocache I’d hidden by Singleton Lake and had suggested I go check on it…
Someone who has found over thirty thousand of the things and only ever hidden
three (and none of those in the last ten years). I Munzed, then took the dogs to the woods.
We did a slightly shorted version of our usual walk;
cutting out the bit where the rancid thing is. As we walked
we saw slow worms, and then there was an interesting episode. All three dogs
flew to the edge of the path and stopped. Twenty yards into the woods was a
herd of deer. The dogs watched the deer; the deer watched the dogs. Bailey
made a half-hearted move toward the deer. The deer looked at her, as did
Morgan and Treacle, and after she’d gone forward five yards she stopped and
came back; looking rather sheepish. As we walked I realized that it was rather
quiet. Quiet as in silent. I ran my birdsong app for
two separate ten-minute sessions and didn’t detect a single bird. And I found a frankly epic turd. What can
there be in Kings Wood that does turds the size of
tennis balls? We came home. I made us a cuppa then cracked
on in the garden. I harvested dog dung, hung out the washing then ran round
the lawn edges with the strimmer. I had a go at the lawn with the lawn mower,
then had a go at the gravelled areas with the
garden vacuum. I swept round the yard, then emptied the last of the wreckage
from when I cleared out the bog filter. And whilst I was at it I loaded up the car in readiness for a tip run. So easy to type, two and a half hours to do, and the garden looked
just the same at the end as when I started. I came in for a little break and got Wordle on the fifth attempt. “Modal”
– what a seriously stupid word. I then drove over to… I won’t say where, but a friend had hidden a
geocache somewhere relatively locally which would seem to have gone missing.
Could I replace it? Of course I could. And with that replaced I drove on to
the tip to unload. As I got rid of rubbish I also
got rid of the old kite buggy. I felt rather sad about getting shot of it but we’ve not used it in over ten years, it takes up a
lot of storage space, and the tyres had perished. I came home and did my twenty minute chair
fitness workout. I’d already walked four miles round the woods, spent two and
a half hours gardening, loaded the car with rubbish, and unloaded it all
again, and all of that was peanuts compared to sitting on a dining chair
waving my arms and legs about. I made us another cuppa to calm my nerves. I then drove down to collect “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and
Pogo and we drove to Orlestone woods where we met “er indoors TM” for
our evening walk. Our three dogs walk better when Pogo is along;
he seems to take over as pack leader and they all follow him. We had pie and chips for dinner. Arguably not that much of a diet food, but what with all the stuff I’ve done today,
my diet app said I still ended the day having scoffed one thousand five
hundred calories less than I could have had. I walked over twenty thousand steps today… |
|
18 July 2025 (Friday)
- Another Busy Day
My piss boiled (again) as I peered into the
internet at toast-scoffing time. Our local MP has tabled an Early
Day Motion to celebrate Victoria Park in Ashford which has received
a Green Flag award. The Green Flag award being
awarded because of other people’s efforts and having nothing to do with our
local MP. Like his predecessor our current MP seems to be very
good at being seen to take credit for other people’s efforts. Yesterday we saw a strange turd
whilst on our walk. Could it possibly have been from the arse
of one of those wild black cats that get seen from time to time? I asked on
the Facebook page about sightings of those cats locally… This morning there
were quite a few replies. As is always the way I got several stupid answers. Some from people trying to be
clever, and some from those who couldn’t be clever if they tried. But it
turns out that the most likely dropper of that turd
was a wild boar. I’ve always known that Kent has one of the highest populations of wild
boar in England, but I’ve never seen one in the woods. Mind you I’ve
never seen a large black cat there either and I’m quite convinced there’s
some up there. Could there be wild boar? I shall keep an eye out. For boar,
as well as more turds. And I saw a new geocache had gone live which would
qualify for the new Treasures thingy. At just over
twenty miles away that is on the list to be done
soon. I tried to Munz, but after
a couple of caps I got kicked out of the app and couldn't log back in. Wass
there an issue? I Wordled instead, but my phone
wasn’t having it, so I pressed the re-boot button and got dressed. I took the dogs to Orlestone woods for a walk. We
did probably the longest walk we could do in those woods, and it came in at
just under two and a half miles. As we walked we met
the yummy mummy joggers. We’ve seen them before in their skin-tight lycra. Call me an old puritan if you will, but they might
as well jog round the woods in the nip for all that their (so-called)
clothes keep secret. Their dogs and mine all played nicely as they do. And I realized that I’d done the yummy mummies a
disservice. When I saw them I automatically thought
they had far too many dogs. As we chatted I counted
that between the two of them they had seven dogs… that’s three and a half
each compared to me with four. And I tried the birdsong app again. Having found nothing the last couple of times I tried it, it found
birds today. We came home for a cuppa and I tried the Munzee app again. It worked.
As did Wordle; albeit with a rather stupid word (loris). I then had a
little look at a geo-puzzle that
Gordon said he was struggling with. After quite a bit of brain strain I wasn’t getting anywhere. I’d like to have the
thumbs-up on that one as with that, this morning’s new geocache, and one at
Cranbrook that I’d been planning on doing for a while this latest batch of
geocaching Treasures would be looking a lot more possible than it originally
was. I drove “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and
Pogo home, then set about
some CPD. I got the garden ready for later, then
did my chair fitness routine. Again I ended up as a
sweaty mass at the end of it. I sat down for a little rest… and woke up an
hour later as the Iceland man arrived with the shopping. I had a go against
the chess bots, lost twice then went and had a shower. Sadly many people weren’t able to join us this
evening, but it was rather good to meet up with those that could. A few drinks,
a little scoff… we had a very good evening catching up with friends in honour of Chris’s birthday. Admittedly his birthday isn’t
until tomorrow, but the weather forecast is for thunderstorms all weekend. Will we have thunderstorms all weekend? Time will
tell – it always does… |
|
19 July 2025
(Saturday) - Two Resuscitations and an FTF
Between the heavy rain beating on the window
(several times) and Treacle whinging to get back on the bed (several
times) I didn’t have the best night’s sleep. I made toast and saw I’d had a message overnight. A hint on that
puzzle I’d been
struggling with recently. And with that final hint I had the
solution. There’s no denying that I’d needed one or two hints on this one. In
retrospect I’d massively overthought the puzzle. I won’t give any spoilers,
but let’s just say that having a degree in maths (which
I have) gave me several completely wrong ideas. As I scoffed toast Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the
Lyrics” competition. “You’ve been waiting much too long now. It looks
like she’s not coming home”. No? – “Substitute” by “Clout” from
the late 1970s. Despite the weather forecast we got ourselves organized and drove over
to Dog Club. Threats of thunderstorms had put people off, but we still had a
dozen dogs in attendance and we all had a great
time. We had maybe ten minutes of rain, but only ten minutes. Seeing the rain was holding off I thought we might drive out to get
that geocache whose puzzle I’d solved. We drove out to the back of beyond,
had a little stroll, and soon had the thing in hand. And seeing how no one
had found it in eighteen months that was one I could add to my list of
resuscitations. We came home. There was one shower as we drove, but it only lasted for
a few minutes. We came home to glorious sunshine, and I had the hump. Having
not planned anything for today because of supposed constant torrential rain
we had the possibility of a wasted day. So we went on a little outing. Over brekkie I’d had an email about a new geocache just south of
Canterbury. It still hadn’t been found. Could we be first? We loaded up the
dogs and set off, and after half an hour we were on Stelling Minnis common by
an oak tree with a blank geo-log in our hands. First to Find. Go us. And with the weather still holding I reckoned it wasn’t *that*
far to Margate and another geo-Treasure. It wasn’t that far really (!) We parked up and started
searching… And searching. Some geocaches are blindingly obvious. Some aren’t.
After twenty-five minutes I messaged the friend who’d hidden it for a bit of
a hint. We found it, but it took some finding; it blended in incredibly well
with its surroundings. And it was another resuscitation for my list too. As we drove home we had the third rain shower
of the day. It was quite heavy but only lasted for five minutes at most. We got home, fed the fish, gathered dog turds and had a late lunch
which we scoffed whilst watching a film. We recorded “Everybody’s
Talking About Jamie” ages ago, and finally got round to watching it
today. It was rather good. I followed it up with my twenty minute chair
workout which again left me a sweaty lump, and I
looked out of the window at a glorious evening. We thought about taking the
dogs to Orlestone, but they were all fast asleep. When I checked the weather forecast yesterday
evening it was for torrential rain all day today. That was the same forecast
when we left home this morning for Dog Club. In all we’ve seen three passing showers
today. I counted them. Admittedly heavy showers, but none lasted for more
than ten minutes at most. We’ve had a rather bright sunny day; I think I’ve
caught the sun. We cancelled a garden party planned for this
afternoon because of meteorological incompetence. If I was as good at my job as the weather
forecasters, people would die… But we put up with it. No one expects the
weather forecasters to get it right; we all laugh about them. And we pay
them a
ridiculous amount of money with no expectations of them ever getting
it right. Who do I get my money back from? |
|
20 July 2025 (Sunday)
- Geo-Meet
I
slept well, but got up reasonably early in the naďve
hope that new geocaches would be going out in honour of today’s geo-meet up.
The chap running the meet is notorious for setting fiendishly difficult
puzzles so I thought I might allow myself some puzzle-solving time. He didn’t put any out… I made toast and had a look at Facebook. Some woman with whom I used to work was on holiday half the
world away. She’d taken a pile of books to read. I can’t understand why
people travel so far just to do so little. If you’ve going to travel why not see where you’ve travelled to? If you don’t
want to travel, just take a week in the back garden (the weather’s good
enough these days). I once worked with someone who had a week in Mexico
every year, but never left the hotel in which she
stayed. People were arguing about whether a Facebook group
called “Kids of the 70s” was for people who were children in the 1970s
or people who were born in the 1970s. Some people really will argue about
anything… and then someone had claimed to be a Facebook friend of Freddie “Parrot Face”
Davies.. oh, that kicked off. And it would seem we missed the Pirates Day in
Hastings (again!) this weekend. Meanwhile my cousin who is
into swimming and paddleboarding in the sea off of
the Sussex coast has found herself a nemesis.
Superman has Lex Luthor, Batman has the Joker. My cousin has The Huge Titted Woman. Apparently The Huge Titted
Woman has already fallen foul of the lifeguards. I Munzed, got Worldle on the fifth attempt (blank), and had a go
at my twenty minute chair workout. I then needed a
little rest before a dunk in the shower. “er
indoors TM” went shopping, and I pored over the
geo-map. I’ve located one geocache in the Cranbrook area that would do for the
latest Treasures thingy… but I can’t see anywhere sensible where we might
park the car. “er
indoors TM” returned from shopping. She’d got some bargain grapefruits. Aldi had
been knocking them out at twenty-nine pence a go. Is that cheap? I’ve not
bought a grapefruit for years. We got into the car and drove down to Dungeness for
the monthly geo-meet where we all met up at the Pilot. The morning’s drizzle
held off for a little, but the rain got a tad heavy
so we retreated inside. The rain didn’t last long, but we were quite happy
where we were. We’ve been to dog-friendly places before, but so many places
aren’t so much “dog friendly” as “dog tolerant”. The Pilot was
really “dog friendly” with at least one dog at every table. I bought
some scampi fries and shared them with our dogs and many of the other dogs in
the pub. And I bought some whitebait which our dogs loved. The other dogs
didn’t get that. The rain didn’t last that long; it was really good to catch up with friends. We came home and I fell asleep. More beer than sense
does that. I woke to find “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and
Pogo were in attendance. They boiled up dinner. It was rather good… And following on from yesterday’s rant today was
forecast to be thunderstorms all day long with formal weather warnings from
the Met Office… we had a little drizze in the
morning and quarter of an hour of rain at mid-day… |
|
21 July 2025 (Monday)
- This n That
I
had an early night last night which was a mistake. It usually is; I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go at half
past eleven. I did get back to sleep, but not realizing how high up I was in the bed I had a stretch an hour or so later and clouted my
head on the bedroom wall. I went to the loo at three o’clock and from then on
lay awake pretty much all of the rest of the night
until finally giving up and getting up at seven o’clock. I had a go on the scales and saw weight had gone on.
I’ve a naďve hope that this is actually muscle from
all the exercises I’ve been doing. Muscle weighs more than blubber… or so I
am telling myself. I had a look at the Internet. It was still there.
There wasn’t much going on really. A couple of people had had birthdays, and
my cousin hadn’t had any more set-to with The Huge-Titted
Woman, so all was well. Mind you I did have a dubious
friend request. “Jelena” has already got a few friends on there
already, most of whom look old enough to know better. This is the first one
of these I’ve had this year. I’d thought that the Facebook Feds had taken a
moral stance. Clearly not… My phone beeped; my banking app has a new feature in
which you can ask for a balance forecast and it will deduct any standing
orders and direct debits that will come out before your wages go in, and you
can see just how much money you have to squander.
This was presented as something revolutionary… I’ve been doing that with
Excell spreadsheets for as long as I’ve had Excel spreadsheets, and on paper
certainly as far back as the early 1980s. Doesn’t everyone? I took the dogs for our walk. As I drove the pundits
on the radio were talking about their recommendations for books
to read over the summer. Mind you when I say
“books to read”, someone or other on the radio was talking about how
there is a selection of narrators to choose from, and how whichever actor is
being paid to read the book out will influence many people’s choices of
book. Back in the day you would read a book yourself; these days
someone reads it to you… We got to the woods; the overnight rain had left
them rather damp. But we had a good walk. Bailey was a tad willful though,
disappearing into thickets a few times. At one point she was gone for nearly
five minutes. A passing normal person asked if I was looking for a small
white dog as she’d just seen one in hot pursuit of a rabbit. We came home for a wash – the dogs had rather grubby
tummies. I ran “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and
Pogo home, and seeing the forecast for a day of rain was again misleading (at
best) I had a look at the garden. I cleaned out the fish
pond filters and thought that the water flow in the big pond wasn’t
what it might be. So I took the pumps apart and
found the problem. The pumps were struggling to push water through as they
were full of crud and muck. I’m rather keen on cleaning out the filters;
clearly the pumps need a scrub from time to time. I shall have to remember that. I had a spot of lunch, and
had another look at the geo-map and spotted one or two potential targets for
the latest “Treasures”, then went back into the garden where I put
together the new support for the bird feeder. I was half-way through disassembling the old one
when the rain finally came, so I retreated inside until the rain stopped
and did some CPD. I eventually got the old bird feeder stand apart.
The birds don’t seem to like the new feeder stand. My delivery from Amazon arrived ten minutes after Amazon
said it would. Last week I bought some dumbbells for my chair workout. I’ve
now got some heavier ones, and I tried them out. They didn’t feel that heavy
until I started thrashing about doing my chair workout with them. This twenty minute workout is hard work. It must be doing some
good as I’m certainly feeling it. “er
indoors TM” boiled up dinner then went bowling. I put on an episode of “Orange
is the New Black” and did the ironing. I’ve got to go to work tomorrow… |
|
22 July 2025
(Tuesday) - A Day At Work
I
slept well. As I made toast I saw one sparrow was
braving trying out the new feeder. It's a bit high for the pigeons, but I
expect they will get the hang of it eventually. As
I scoffed toast I watched half an episode of "Orange
is the New Black", then taking care not to wake anyone I got ready
for work. I
drove off towards the petrol station where it was all kicking off. Some idiot
was standing at the petrol pump brandishing the petrol nozzle as though it
was a weapon; waving it at any passing cars or
customers. The petrol station staff were shouting over the Tannoy
that he had to stick the nozzle into his car's petrol tank, and the more they
told this bloke, the more he waved it around. I got my petrol and went in to
pay where the staff were getting more and more
frustrated with this chap. Another customer went out and told him to stick
the nozzle into his car's petrol tank; he glared at the petrol station staff,
put the nozzle back into its holder and drove off... I
headed off to work; being at Pembury today I drove west-wards through the
-hursts and the -dens and through five sets of temporary lights. As I drove
the pundits on the radio were interviewing some official of the Israeli
government asking why they are shooting people who are simply trying
to get food from the depots that they themselves have established.
The fellow flatly refused to answer, and claimed
that his side were the victims of the piece. They might have been at the
start of this current bit of the ongoing decades of conflicts, but not any more. There comes a time
when both sides have to make concessions, but sadly
the chap being interviewed felt that it was totally reasonable for the
Israeli government to demand whatever they like and to expect everyone else
to kowtow to them. And
there was a lot of talk about Nigel Farage. He seems to be getting ever more
popular; proof of the old adage that you really can
fool all of the people all of
the time so long as you talk loudly and confidently. He's put the wind up the
Tories (again). I
got to work a bit earlier than I needed to. I do that so's I can have a cuppa
before I start. As I cuppa-ed I had a look at the Internet through my phone.
I had another dubious
friend request on Facebook from someone who would seem to have more
chest than sense. You'd think that Facebook would have algorithms to sort
that sort of nonsense, wouldn't you? They have bots that spot key words in
posts and ban you for using them, no matter what the context. Work
was work. I did my bit and came home again. Through all the temporary traffic
lights. Once
home I had a quick blast through my chair workout. For all that I’ve been at
it for over a week, I’m still finding it hard work, which is probably a good
thing. “er indoors TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we washed down with
a (sadly grim) bottle of Sauvignon Blanc whilst watching
another episode of “Quantum Leap” which was rather good, and
then an episode of “Below
Deck” in which incredibly rich people pay far too much money to
charter a yacht crewed by a bunch who are all amazingly far too immature to
do the job for which they are being paid. |
|
23 July 2025
(Wednesday) - Leaks
I had a rather bad night’s sleep. Everyone else was restless. By the
time everyone settled I realized I might as well get up. I watched the second
half of an episode of “Orange is the New Black” then had a little look
at the Internet. Ozzy
Ozbourne died yesterday and I lost count of the amount of people who
were posting tributes. There wasn’t much else happening on-line
at six o’clock so I got ready for work. I set off to work through the rain. The rain which had been forecast
for the weekend (which never showed up) turned up a couple of days
late yesterday and had an encore last night. As I drove through the -hursts and the -dens
the pundits on the radio were talking about how the government is working
with Deliveroo and Just Eat and all the other delivery companies. Recently
I've seen all sorts of things on-line about how illegal immigrants are
working for the delivery companies. I thought it was just the standard hatred
for anyone who looks remotely different to the archetypal Brit, but apparently I was wrong. It turns out that illegal
immigrants are actively seeking jobs with the delivery companies as it has
been claimed that it is rather easy to get a job there. The implication was
that they would take on anyone and not ask any questions. Those doing the hiring at the delivery
companies have been told to sort
out their hiring procedures or face up to five years in prison. And there was a *very* misleading
talk about the NHS's drive
to get blood of the more obscure groups. There was an
interview with a medical student whose understanding of blood transfusions
left a lot to be desired. When the NHS wants rare blood groups, it isn't
talking about B Negative or AB. There are millions of people with those
groups in the UK (do the sums!). The difficulty in matching blood
isn't really to do with ABO groups (matching them is straightforward).
You would have thought that any talk about precision matching of blood might
have mentioned the words Duffy, Kidd, Kell, Dombrock, Lutheran, or the
letters c, C, D, e, E, M, N. S or U, wouldn't you? No? Well, I would have
thought that. I suppose when you are trying to compress a
rather (incredibly) complicated matter into a twenty-second sound bite
for someone who would prefer to be shouting at the football match on their
telly, things are going to get simplified beyond recognition. And (despite what you might read),
blood will not be frozen. Yesterday as I drove to Pembury
I went through five sets of traffic light. I found six today. I stopped off at Tesco for a sandwich. Unlike
the co-op, Tesco have followed Sainsbury's lead in providing coronation
chicken sandwiches all year long. I got a portion of their carrots and
houmous dip too. They didn't have Volvic flavoured water so I roughed it with Highland Spring. Their
meal deal came in ten pence more than the co-op's but fifteen pence less than
what Sainsbury's want. In the past whenever I would get lunch from
Pembury's Tesco I would get a freshly baked
croissant too, but that's two hundred and fifty calories that I don't really
need. You would have thought that someone would have invented stuff that you
can scoff that tastes good but doesn't have calories, wouldn't you? I got to work, had a cuppa, and cracked
on. The coronation chicken sandwich lunch wasn't bad. I do find
drinking far too much water at lunch time stops me being hungry... even if I
do spend an inordinate amount of time going to and from the loo for much of
the afternoon. As I returned from the loo for the umpteenth
time “er indoors TM” sent
a message. The pond would seem to have developed a leak. That's handy... I
have a naive hope that having cleaned out the pumps at the weekend the
pressure of water returning to the top bog filter is a tad much, and the hose
just needs sinking. I shall find out tomorrow when I get jiggy with it. As I drove home “er indoors TM” sent
a message. I’d done the dogs a disservice. The wet hall carpet wasn’t because
of dog tiddle but because of a leaking radiator… I’ll contact Daisy to see if
she can sort it. And “er indoors TM” sent
another message. There was a little mouse in the humane mouse trap. Once home I took the humane mouse trap to the
end of the garden to release the mouse safely, but before I could the stupid
thing jumped and Treacle pounced… and ate it. Her arse is rank enough without mouse
flavoured farts… |
|
24 July 2025
(Thursday) - Rostered Day Off
I
slept reasonably well, which was a result. I popped out to the garden to
check the pond. I had a theory about yesterday’s leak. Was it not so much a
leak as plants bunging up the outflow? I unbunged the outflow last night and
overnight the water level had remained unchanged. That was an easy fix. I
made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. This morning
Facebook presented me with several posts about snake keeping. Some idiot had posted a video of him feeding a dead rat to his
boa constrictor. Having fed many dead rats to boa constrictors (I really have!), here’s a tip. Hold
the dead rat in a very long pair of tongs and wear a glove. Snakes have heat
detectors in their snouts – they “see” heat. If you offer the food in
your hand they will smell the food but sense the
warmth of your hand, and go for your hand rather
than the dead rat. Been there, done that. Interestingly no end of other
people considering themselves experts on the matter found no end of fault
with the video of the idiot feeding his boa constrictor. The vivarium was the
wrong shape, the water bowl was too small, the substrate was wrong… no one
had any issue with holding the dead rat in his hand… Like
so many hobbies, snake-herding was (and clearly still is) one big
argument. We
got the dogs on to their leads and went off to find the car. The forecast had
been for rain, but we’ve had forecasts of rain recently (!) We
drove up to Kings Wood. As we drove the pundits on the radio were
interviewing someone or other. I have no idea who it was, but judging from
what was being said I would guess it was the Minister for Sending Them All
Back On The Next Banana
Boat; just lately there’s been no end of talk about sorting out the illegal
immigrants. I got the distinct impression that the government chap being
interviewed was scared that if the current Labour government doesn’t do
something they will be out on their arses and replaced by whatever the Nigel
Farage Club will be called in four years’ time. We
got to the woods, and first off we walked to the
location of one of my geocaches which had been
logged as not being there. Someone had logged “Got to the area and many
trees now coppiced. Couldn't find it near the location”. We got to the
location and couldn’t see a coppiced tree within fifty yards,
and saw the cache laying in the open pretty much exactly where it was
supposed to be. I covered the thing with a couple of sticks
and we carried on with what turned out to be a dull walk. We walked for
nearly for and a half miles and didn’t see anyone
else at all. We didn’t chase anything, the swamps were only paw-deep, and
what we rolled in was only dry mud which soon brushed off. We
came home. With “er indoors TM” in the office today I made a cuppa for
just me and had a look at the monthly accounts. Time to make some economies,
perhaps? I wrote up some CPD, gathered
dog turds and then had a go at my chair workout. My watch doesn’t seem to
recognise that as exercise, but I certainly do. I thought about mowing the
lawn, but the sky was getting rather black, so I had a pot noodle instead. By
the time I’d scoffed the pot noodle the rain had started. I put “Orange is
the New Black” on Netflix and slobbed in front
of the telly until the plumber arrived. He was early. He spotted the issue
with the leaking radiator; it had rusted through. He disconnected it and
drained it, measured it up and will be back next week with a new one.
Hopefully. There was talk of problems with the boiler making the water be a
mucky colour, but that’s an issue for later. “er
indoors TM” returned and boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed
whilst watching an episode of Celebrity Bake Off from ages ago. I really should have an early night – I’ve got to
leave home about six o’clock tomorrow morning. |
|
25 July 2025 (Friday)
- Dull
I
had an early night... and woke before midnight feeling full of energy and
raring to go as I do whenever I have an early night. I managed to nod off
again and stayed asleep until er indoors TM” went
to the loo an hour or so later. It wasn't her that woke me so much as as the dogs jumping off the bed to follow her. And when
they all finally settled again I had maybe twenty minutes before little
Bailey started licking my hand. I
gave up trying to sleep and was scoffing toast and watching "Orange
is the New Black" by five o'clock. It
was as well I was on an early this morning; the dustmen make quite the racket
when they drag the bins about, and the bin lorry that follows half an hour
later makes a point of being sure that the road impassable. I got away before
they showed up this morning. As
I drove the pundits on the radio were talking to a blackcurrant farmer.
Did you know that ninety per cent of the blackcurrants grown in the UK go
into making Ribena? Makes you wonder where the stuff for the jam comes from,
or exactly what the stuff in the jam is, doesn't it? There
was also a lot of talk about the strike by junior doctors which was
starting today. Is it a good or bad thing? Do doctors get paid too much?
I don't know, but they certainly aren't getting what they once were. And
neither am I... Are you? Here's a challenge. Work out your hourly rate of pay
in terms of how many chocolate frogs you could get for one hour's
money. Then
see how much your hourly rate of ten years ago would have got you. Makes
you think, doesn't it. Today
as I drove west-wards I only faced three sets of temporary traffic lights,
which made for a better journey. Again I stopped off
at Tesco for lunch and one or two other odds and sods. Lunch today featured
another coronation chicken sandwich, and sweet chili houmous with breadstick
dips. The Tesco coronation chicken sandwich was twenty calories more
than the Sainsbury's version, and the sweet chili houmous with breadstick
dips was double the calories of the normal humous with carrots,
and wasn't anywhere near so good either. Work
was work. I did my bit, and being on an early meant for an early finish. I
came home and “er indoors TM” boiled up pizza for dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the
most recent episode of “Star Trek”. Both weren’t bad… Today
was dull and I’m rather tired… |
|
26 July 2025
(Saturday) - Harrietsham
I
was sleeping so well when I bit my tongue in my sleep and woke up with a
start at ten past three. I didn’t really get back to sleep after that. I
made toast and had a look at the Internet. Facebook told me it was Terry’s
birthday today. I miss Terry; it’s now four years since he went. We first met nearly
twenty-five years ago through flying kites. He worked overseas a lot, and
we’d only meet up a few times a year, but the times we met were always
special. Camping holidays, beer festivals, pub crawls round London and
Maidstone and Dover. He would always come back from abroad with a bandanna
for me… I
miss Terry. And
my eyes rolled when I saw some of the posts on one of the work-related
Facebook groups. Do people *seriously* ask such basic questions about
very detailed technical matters on Facebook pages rather than asking senior
colleagues or manufacturers of laboratory instrumentation? And if Facebook is
their only resource, how do they distinguish between the one correct answer
and the myriad of utterly wrong answers? I
munzed, got Wordle (haunt) on the fifth go,
and got ready for the off. As
we drove round to Dog Club Steve was doing the “Guess the Lyrics”
competition on the radio, “I stop and stare at you walking on the shore”.
No? – Peter Andre – “Mysterious Girl”. No? – Me neither. We
got to Dog Club and realising we’d left some vital stuff behind, I went in
with the dogs and set up, and “er indoors TM” went
back to get what we’d forgotten. I was doing fine with the dogs until they
heard the barking of their friends arriving, and all three bolted out under
the gate into the car park to meet their mates. Fortunately
they were immediately captured by their mates’ owners. As
Dog Club went on I had a little chuckle. Treacle
tiddled on the decking in the field. As the session went on pretty much every
other dog had a sniff and tiddled in the same place. We
said our goodbyes, and as we drove off Steve was doing the mystery year
competition on the radio. When did Prince Andrew get married? 1986. We
drove up to Harrietsham where we met Karl, Tracey,
Charlotte and Jess. We went on a little walk all the way up to the top of the
Downs and back again. It was quite a long way up, but the views from the top
were spectacular. As we walked down a frankly epic hill
we saw some people coming up. I suggested that as they came past we gloated about how we were going down and they were
going up. We all chuckled, and one of them said “hello Dave”. I didn’t
recognise her… it was my very first ever trainee with whom I worked nearly
thirty years ago. We’d lost touch – it was good to have a little catch -up. As
we walked along one of the lanes so Bailey’s lead
dropped. Her collar actually snapped from where
she’d been pulling to be at the front of our group. I managed to bodge it
round her neck. We’ve got a spare somewhere. And
as we scoffed our lunch I registered my bottle of
beer on the Untappd app. I do that when we go on our walks. It gave me a
little badge for having checked in four hundred and thirty-five bottles of
beer on that app. Which is apparently more than anyone else on my Untappd
friends list has done. Our
route was (as always) laid out for us by a series of geocaches. A guided
walk is always good; it was only a shame that so much of this walk was on
county lanes. Admittedly mostly quiet county lanes but there was one dodgy
bit where we must have had to dodge a couple of dozen cars in the space of a
few minutes. Mind you, I’m not complaining. Someone has taken the trouble to
give me a guided walk through some rather pretty countryside, and I am very
grateful for that. I took a few photos whilst
we were out. Once home I posted them to the Internet, and
saw that we’d got one or two more geo-Treasures. The
dogs were soon snoring. Usually after Dog Club they are fast asleep by half
past ten. They were worn out but by the time we came home today it was
mid-afternoon. And
as we had a cuppa so the heavens opened. I was glad
we had that rain whilst sitting on the sofa and not while we were out. “er indoors TM” boiled up a very good
chili which we scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “Transaction” – a very good ITV comedy
featuring a particularly foxy trans character… I’ve
got to go to work again tomorrow… |
|
27 July 2025 (Sunday)
- Early Shift
I
spent much of yesterday evening nodding off and struggling to stay awake… and
I was wide awake and watching “Orange ins the New Black” before five
o’clock this morning. With
telly watched I had a little look at the Internet. This morning my Facebook
feed was telling me all about house prices in the Liverpool area. What was
that all about? There wasn’t a lot else going on, so I sorted the
undercrackers I’d washed and dried last night, set the dishwasher going, and
got ready for work. I
wandered off up the road to find where I'd left my car, and
set off to work. As I drove the farming program was on the radio - you always
know when you are up far too early as that's when the farming program is on.
This morning they were interviewing the head honcho
of a leech farm. The chap started off by saying that in days gone by he was the farm manager. These days he is still doing exactly the same job, but he made a point of saying that
he is now the "quality systems manager". I sighed and
thought about turning the radio off. But I didn't. The program was
surprisingly interesting. Apparently leeches are still used in the NHS in cases of
plastic surgery and re-attachment of severed digits as they are really useful
in restoring circulation. And
they are used to reduce red cell mass in cats and dogs with polycythaemia; something I deal
with (in humans on a regular basis. It was only a shame that neither the chap
being interviewed or the interviewer could pronounce "polycythaemia". I
found myself thinking of an old colleague who used to breed leeches. I can't
remember why on Earth she bred them, but I can remember that she got a
particularly nasty infection from one when she let it bite her. Shortly after
that she moved to the Channel Islands where it was alleged that she was
running sex parties on a superyacht, and the last I heard of her was that she
was in a French prison charged with selling unlicensed and unproven drugs
which would supposedly (but didn't) cure cancer. I
got to work and did that which I couldn't avoid, but an early start made for
an early finish. I came home, and together with “er indoors TM” took
the dogs down to Orlestone for a little walk. We went round the woods; again the woods were very quiet. Where were (and where
are!) all the birds that my app used to find? As
we walked we found ourselves greeted by a couple of
dogs. The woman with them was so apologetic and seemed very grateful that we
weren’t angry. Like me, this woman has met several other dog owners who
really don’t understand what dogs are like. Her dogs and our dogs all woofed
at each other for a few seconds, and then all was fine. As it always is. We
had a good walk; it was only a shame that Treacle had to dive in the deep
puddle just as we came to the end of our walk. “er
indoors TM” boiled up lamb chops which we scoffed
whilst watching another episode of “Quantum Leap”. I’ve got
a theory… if I make a point of trying not to fall asleep in front of the
telly this evening and don’t have an early night, I might not be wide awake
from three o’clock tomorrow morning. It’s a good theory (I hope). |
|
28 July 2025 (Monday)
- Rostered Day Off
Over
the last few weeks I’ve been sleeping on top of the
duvet rather than under it, as I usually do in the summer. Last night I went
under the duvet and slept a whole lot better. It
was all kicking off on Facebook as I scoffed toast this morning. Forestry
England have removed permission for geocaching in seemingly random parts of
the New Forest “due to the respective areas now being considered fragile
to wildlife/plantlife and Forestry England wishing
to restrict (where possible) access to these locations”. I can see their
point; when we were there a couple of weeks ago many of the geocaches were
ridiculously far from any footpaths and getting to them involved bushwacking
through the undergrowth. Sadly the geo-Fed who’d had
to enforce the ruling wasn’t quite as tactful as he might have been. Some
people really do go out of their way to be obnoxious when on-line to people
they know they will never have to face in person. And
I was presented with an advert for a company which specialises in the cleaning of
horses’ willies. What on Earth was that all about? I
put a load of washing in to scrub, got the dogs on to
their leads and took them out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were
bringing the latest news from Gaza. The locals were saying that the Israelis
have taken to dropping aid parcels from planes… the accusation was made that
these aid parcels were being used as bombs being deliberately dropped directly on the
settlements and tents of the people they are supposed to be helping. Were
they? I don’t know. All I know of the situation is what I hear in the news,
but from what I hear, the UK is supporting the wrong side. We
went down to Orlestone for a little walk. We did a once-round-the-woods, and
it was rather uneventful. We didn’t see anyone else, we didn’t roll in
anything, we didn’t chase anything, no one vanished into a thicket… All
rather good, if somewhat uneventful. We
came home where “Daddies’ Little
Angel TM” had finished
her business in Ashford, so once the washing was on the line we drove her and
Pogo home. The route back was somewhat circuitous… first of all to Pegwell Bay and
home via Oad Street calling in on three very specific geocaches as we went.
The first was one with a beautiful view over Pegwell
Bay. From there it was a short hop to rummage round
a fence in the general vicinity of Ramsgate. Having round both of those that
left us with one more geo-Treasure to get. With not a lot on the agenda for
today and very few qualifying geocaches I set sail for Oad Street. After
quite a drive and quite a walk after half an hour’s fruitless searching I was
ready to give up. But one last go came up trumps.
And seeing how the thing’s last finder found it over a year ago I got to add
to my list of geo-resuscitation, which was a result if you consider that sort
of thing to be a result… which personally
I do. Each to their own. We’ve now got all the current load of geocaching
Treasures… I wonder when the next lot will come out. Pausing
only for a cuppa and a cheese sandwich, I then mowed the lawn. What with the
heavy rain of last week it needed some mowing. And with the lawn mowed I ran the hair trimmer over my head. I walked past
the barber’s earlier; for the price of one and a half haircuts in there you
can get a set of trimmers and save an absolute fortune. I got my current set
four years ago; they do last and I’m probably about five hundred quid up on
the deal on these trimmers alone. I don’t think I’ve paid for a haircut in twenty
years. I
made us both a cuppa, did some CPD, and then had a go
at my chair workout. I’ve skived on that over the weekend. I need to keep up
with it. And
no day not at work is complete without a bout of ironing. By
the time “er indoors TM” set
off to bowling I was all in… For a supposed day off I haven’t stopped. |
|
29 July 2025
(Tuesday) - Here Come The Aliens
I
spent another night under the duvet (as opposed to on it) and slept
much better. But as Albert (Einstein) famously remarked, everything is
relative. I was still wide awake by four o'clock. I got up at five o'clock
and watched an episode of "Orange is the New Black" then got
ready for work. Yesterday
I'd managed to park outside the house so I didn't
have to go far to find the car. I drove round to Sainsbury's to get some
petrol, then headed west-wards to Pembury. As I drove there was only one set
of temporary traffic lights for me to negotiate. That was a result. Perhaps
the people who do road works are on holiday for the summer, much like the
government. The pundits on the radio were talking about how the Prime
Minister has called a Cabinet meeting for today. Apparently this is unheard
of when Parliament is in recess; they knocked it on the head last week,
and don't intend to turn up for work for another
five weeks. Nice
work if you can get it. One wonders exactly who runs the country until they
roll back in. Personally I would have thought that
the committee that is in charge of the UK would be
meeting at least twice a week every week (as a bare minimum), but what
do I know? This
morning the pundits on the radio were broadcasting from outside Buckingham
Palace where the England women's football team were due to be staging a
victory parade later today in honour of their having just won the Euros.
With bands from the armed forces marching with them and providing a musical
accompaniment, it sounded very much like the country was gearing up for
the sort of celebrations that would normally go with winning a war. In fact the vicar who was wheeled on to blether the "Thought for the Day" platitudes actually said that international sporting events were
"war without casualties". Mind you she also said a lot of
other stuff too; all seemingly made up on the spur of the moment. Why
not give it a listen?
You wouldn't believe how many nonsensical disjointed non-sequiturs were
bodged together in such a short period of time this morning. It must be
wonderful to be a vicar - you just spout drivel safe in the knowledge that no
one actually listens to what you are saying. Am
I wrong? Have you *ever* paid attention when some religious-type
starts pontificating? There
was also criticism
of Nigel Farage who would seemingly have illegal immigrants drown
rather than be picked up by the life boats. Apparently since he made
his claim that the RNLI was being used as a “taxi service” for illegal
trafficking gangs, enquiries from potential lifeboat volunteers have
quadrupled and donations to the RNLI have gone up thirty-fold. Mind
you he's not alone in his dislike of the illegal immigrants. It wasn't that
long ago that the lifeboat at Hastings was prevented
from being launched to help them. Meanwhile
science has found aliens. Again. Not just conspiracy theory crackpot internet
drivel, but proper scientists
this time. It would seem they (the aliens, not the scientists) are
on course to invade, with the actual invasion planned for some time in late
November or early December. That will be something to look forward to, won't
it? Borg or Daleks... Personally I'm hoping for Borg. Not that either would
be an ideal outcome, but I'd rather be assimilated than exterminated. Either
way, it would be a right pisser just before Christmas, wouldn't it? I
did my bit at work. Originally I wasn't supposed to
be in today, but what with one thing and another work was a tad short-handed
today, and I was asked if I could step in to the breach. For all that I might
whinge, I don't mind helping out really. It goes
with hospital work. If you don't want to be asked to help
out at odd times and short notice, you really need to go work
somewhere that periodically puts up a "Closed" sign. And
then I drove home again. I've always said that whilst I like working in
Pembury I hate going there. Some see that as a contradiction, but it is a
true statement. I quite like working there. But the journey to and fro is a pain in the glass. It is less than eight miles
more than my journey to Maidstone, but even allowing
for "Operation Brock" stupidity I can get to work in
Maidstone half an hour quicker than it takes me to get to work at Tunbridge
Wells. One journey is a simple drive up the motorway;
the other endless stopping and starting along country lanes. But I get to
listen to the news on the radio. It's as well that I quite like listening to
the news, isn't it? I
spent much of the day in a reflective frame of mind. Having thought about it , why would any aliens invade? It would be quite a bit
of arse-ache for them. Presumably
they would do so because they want our planet and all its resources. But
you'd think that aliens ain't stupid; you'd think
they could see we've got atom bombs and could put up a fight if they tried to
invade. The sensible thing for aliens to do would be drop loads of rocks on
Earth to stir up cloud cover, kill off loads of plants, and with the plants
gone, animals (including humans) would soon follow. Aliens would be
daft to turn up looking for a straight fight, wouldn't they? But
however it pans out, Object 3I/ATLAS (the aliens space ship or rock)
is seven
miles across. Science has seen it. It’s on a par with what put paid to
the dinosaurs and it is travelling far faster than
most comets, asteroids and other space-rock-thingies. Perhaps they are going
to just drop a humungous rock on us... I
wonder if they will. |
|
30 July 2025 (Wednesday)
- Early Shift
In
a novel break with tradition I slept right through
until ten minutes before my alarm was due to go off. That was a result. I got
up, made toast, had a very quick look at a dull Internet and was in the car
and on my way west-wards before six o'clock. As
I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about a lot of things. About
how the Israelis have got the arse because the UK government is
threatening to formally recognize the state of Palestine
if the Israelis don't improve their attitude. And there's no denying
that it needs improving. The Israeli
position is that the UK is rewarding terrorism... The UK probably is, but at the moment the way forward in Gaza seems to be to take
the least crappy option, sure in the knowledge that no matter what happens
will only result in a very temporary truce until they all find something else
to fight about. There's
been a massive earthquake which has set
off tsunamis at Hawaii and Japan. And there was talk about how the coffee giant Costa isn't the cash
cow it once was. That
made me think... As I walked in to the Pembury
branch of Tesco there was quite a queue at their coffee machine. I got
chatting with a bloke who was waiting his turn. He said he needed his coffee
fix every morning, and that a cup of coffee from that machine was three
pounds fifty. That's seventy quid a month. You can get a jar of decent coffee
for less than a fiver and that would last you for more than that month. And
you can drink the stuff in the comfort of your own home too. Still, I suppose
that being coffee it will get drunk. Unlike tea. What is it with tea
drinkers? They never drink more than a couple of sips of tea, let it get
cold, and then chuck it away. Watch any tea drinker - that's what they all
do. My late great aunt Lily was always banging on about having a nice cup of
tea; she would get her nice cup of tea, have one mouthful and the rest would
get thrown away half an hour later. I
went in to the early shift. We'd all been dreading
today as the inspector was coming. Fortunately for everyone (except him)
he phoned in sick. Apparently the inspector was someone with whom I used to
work many years ago... someone I once considered a friend, but someone who
showed me the validity of the two hundred
and eighty fifth Rule of Acquisition. No good deed ever does go
unpunished. As
I worked my bank app told me that there had been money going out of my
account... to Tabeo Plans Ltd. Who are they? It
turns out that this is the new name for my dentist. You'd think they'd have
something dental-related in their name, wouldn't you? I
did my bit, but being on the early was good. I got to go home early. A shame
I didn't get home as early as I do when doing an early shift at Maidstone, but early is as early does. We
did the “Feed The Fish” ritual, harvested a
bumper crop of dog dung, put on our boots and went down to Orlestone. We had
a rather good little wander round the woods. As we went
I tried out my new Map My Walk app. It doesn’t seem to do much that my GPS
unit doesn’t do, but I only take my GPS out when we’re on a geo-mission. I
suspect it will be like my birdsong app – I will use it at every opportunity
for a month or so until the novelty wears off, and then I will forget all
about it until my phone says the app has been put into deep sleep as I
haven’t used it for ages. We
came home; I did my chair fitness workout and wore myself out. For all that
you don’t actually get off your arse the entire
time, that workout is hard work. I suppose that’s the idea of it. “er indoors TM” boiled up a very good
bit of chicken curry which we washed down with a bottle of Asda’s finest
whilst watching a couple of episodes of “Below Decks”. I’d
like to have enough money to charter a superyacht. If I had, I wouldn’t, but
I’d like to have that much money. |
|
31 July 2025
(Thursday) - Drizzle
I
slept rather well last night for a change. I got up at about the same time
that I was talking to a nice man about coffee in Tesco at Pembury yesterday,
made toast and had a took at the Internet. I
had to do some moderating on the “Upstairs Downstairs” Facebook page
that I help to run. Someone asked a perfectly reasonable question about
hereditary peerages, and some keyboard warrior got needlessly offensive. He’s
been suspended for a week. Suspended from the Facebook “Upstairs
Downstairs” group… how sad is that. I
told everyone to play nicely. Unfortunately some
people really do have to add a personal insult to everything they type. Where
ideally someone might say “I disagree for the following reasons”,
people are actually saying “you are wrong because
you are stupid”. The trouble with social media is that no one ever has to face anyone else and so they get cocky. I
took the dogs out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were saying
that more children are taking PE “A”
level than “A” French, German and classical languages combined. And PE
“A” level only counts for four per cent of the total “A” levels
taken. Mind you, have you seen the PE “A” level paper? It ain’t easy. We
got to the woods just as the rain was starting. According to my Met Office
weather app the rain was supposed to start at ten o’clock. It started at
eight o’clock, and fizzled out after an hour. But
rain notwithstanding we went on with our walk. As we walked
we didn’t see any slow worms, and there was only one deer and that was in the
distance. It stood perfectly still until I zoomed in with my camera at which
point it pissed off. As
we walked we saw what I thought was a geocacher. We
saw some woman scrubbling in the undergrowth where
I’ve hidden a geocache. When she saw us coming she got up and carried on walking past us. I smiled
and said hello, but before I could say anything more she reacted as though I
was an axe murderer and she couldn’t get away quick
enough. I had a little look at where I’d hidden that geocache. Someone (presumably
her) had been rummaging and there was no pot there. I’m hoping she took
it and put it back after we were gone. If there’s no log registered on the
thing by next week I’ll go out with a replacement. I
tested my new “Map My Walk” app as we went. It announced progress
every mile, which made me jump. It seems to agree with my watch on the
distance we walk, but it thinks I burn less calories than my “MyFitnessPal”
app thinks. We
came home. The forecast rain hadn’t arrived so I voomed
round the garden with the lawn mower. It’s only been three days since I mowed
the lawn, but it had grown impressively in those three days. And then I had a
go at the front garden with the garden burner. That’s the way to deal with
weeds. I
made myself a cuppa and had a look at Amazon. Fish food and deodorants don’t
buy themselves or have themselves delivered. I’ve mentioned before about how
the days of the average shop must be numbered when you can sit on your own
sofa, buy stuff and have it delivered cheaper than going to the shops. As
I shopped so the dogs kicked off. Someone was in the front garden having a go
at the geocache there. I went out and said hello – it was a Spanish couple
whose English was about as good as my Spanish. We all smiled at each other. I
came back in, and Munzed, then failed to get
Wordle. I got to ?RILL on the second go… brill,
grill, drill, trill, krill… It was frill. I
sulked, and wrote up some CPD, and looked out of
the window at a rather bright day, and with CPD done I popped over the road
for a Polish pot noodle for lunch which
I scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Orange is the New Black”, and
as I scoffed it so the rain started. Not particularly heavy, but enough to
make me not want to continue in the garden. With
telly watched I then cleaned out the fish tank; it’s surprising how grubby
that gets. And with fish tank cleaned I watched another episode of “Orange
is the New Black” before having a go at my chair workout. The
rain had stopped and had started again, but fish don’t feed themselves.
Treacle likes feeding the pond fish. She looks at me expectantly but won’t
move until I say “I’m going to feed the fish”.
Once I’ve said that she’s like a bullet out of a gun to get to the pond… but
only once I’ve said that. I
cleaned out the fish tank filter again… and then watched more telly whilst
glancing out of the window as the rain stopped. We
had a yellow warning of thunderstorms and torrential rain
today. We were told to brace for an entire month’s worth of rain in a few
hours. We had a few showers. Yesterday Gordon told me that the BBC
are now getting their weather forecast from the Met Office… They want to ask
for a better one than the one I had this morning. |
