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1 June 2013
(Saturday) - Gotham, Honey Boo Boo
Again I was awake and doing my morning
ablutions at silly o'clock. I don't know whether or not getting up or lying
there is the best thing to do in the small hours. I'd rather not have to make
the choice but sleep through, but there it is. Over a spot of brekkie
I did the astro club's accounts. despite
a rather low turn out last night we took quite a bit of money. Having our
gallant kitchen staff doing hot dogs and soup turned quite a profit.
Personally I like having soup and hot dogs available - it saves me the hassle
of sorting an evening meal (which can be a rush). However it is not
fair to expect people to spend their evenings slaving away in the kitchen. Kalle arrived, and we
set off to collect the rest of the troops. Five of us and two small dogs made
our way to the Sussex village of Gotham (it really exists!) for a
walk. And whilst on that walk we thought we might find a geocache or two
along the way. One of our number had been in contact
with the cache owner of a series of caches down that way and we'd been asked
to replace any caches that were missing, so we were guaranteed of a clean
sweep of caches. We started walking shortly before mid day, and were out for almost six hours. We'd gone a
long way to do this series, and in retrospect I must admit that this wasn't
one of the better series of caches that I've been on. The footpaths and bridleways were not at
all well marked. The cache hides were perhaps not really suitable for a
series of twenty. When hunting out twenty caches on a route one needs
straight-forward hides. Under rocks would be ideal hides. Caches randomly
stuffed into hedges take a long time to find. And the DNFs...
We'd been asked to replace any missing caches as we went. We made seriously
intense searches for each cache, but ended up replacing about a third of them
because as well as our being unable to find them, these ones had not been
found by a lot of previous searchers. And so home. With er
indoors TM" off to the film night I settled down with the
Rear Admiral and "Daddies Little Angel TM" to
watch "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo".
It is perhaps one of the best shows I have ever seen. Featuring what would
appear to be some of the most scary freaks on the
planet. It is billed as a reality show. It just can't be reality. It's got to
be made up. Go on, loyal readers, give the show a try. It's genius... |
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2 June 2013
(Sunday) - Sugar Loaf Hill
I was rather aching this morning; I’m a
little surprised really. Yesterday’s walk wasn’t especially arduous. I
struggled out of my pit after a good night’s sleep and after a quick bit of brekkie we had a message. A cancellation. So a reduced
contingent set off to the Admiralty where we collected more, and then on to
the Valiant Sailor (oo-er!) where we
rallied the last of the troops. In a novel break with tradition today
wasn’t about geocaching. Instead we went for a walk around the hills across
the top of Folkestone. Six of us (and three small dogs) strolled along
the footpaths across the top of Crete Road East and down to the top of Crete
Road West where we looked across to Sugar Loaf Hill. As I wrote last week,
Sugar Loaf Hill is where they got the idea for Mount Everest from. There were
the more sensible amongst us who took the level route which cut out a lot of
the hill. There were also those who thought that you couldn’t say that you’d
climbed the hill unless you had done so. From the bottom. In retrospect that
was one of my sillier ideas. Once at the top we spent five minutes
gasping for air, and then found the geocache at the top. (We had to do
one!) And then we had a spot of lunch. The views from the top were
spectacular. We then came partly down and followed the
path along to Caesar’s camp, scaring the long-horned cattle as we went. The long-horned
cattle amazed me. For large animals with particularly vicious looking horns
they are incredibly timid. Fudge slipped the lead (when I fell down the
hill) and chased one. This cow was a hundred times his size and was
equipped with two-foot long daggers on its head, but it ran away from the dog
in terror. Bearing in mind that it is a long time
since we last went underground, the idea was to do a little tunnel-ratting as
we went, and having Furry Face along helped our mission. When caught red-handed
on the wrong side of barbed wire fences (labelled “keep out!”) it is
often difficult to explain one’s self. However had we been rumbled today we
could have claimed we were retrieving an errant Patagonian Tripe-Hound. We got close to our two subterranean
targets. But only close. Both had been sealed to keep the likes of us from
going underground. So we conceded defeat and made our way slowly back to the
Valiant Sailor (oo-er!) for a crafty
pint. There are photos
of our walk on the internet. Quite scenic ones too, even if I do say so
myself. There’s some wonderful views for be had from above Folkestone. Finding ourselves back home several hours
earlier than has been usual on a Sunday recently I mowed the lawn. That was
hard work. It’s some time since the lawn was last mowed, and whilst having a
go at it I found an old bone that Fudge had been chewing. Or that is the lawn
mower found the bone. It did make a noise. Whilst the damage to the lawn
mower is quite severe, I think that it will live to mow the lawn again. It
will just do it *very* noisily. I then got the strimmer
out to do the edges, and that struggled to the point of collapse. If any of
my loyal readers have any lawn-attacking implements surplus to their
requirements, I’m your man (!) With ‘er
indoors TM off bowling I set about the monthly accounts. Could
be better; could be a whole lot worse. But what is money for; if not to
squander on a new lawn mower… |
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3 June 2013
(Monday) - Busy
Over a spot of brekkie
I had a look at the asro club's accounts. I bagged
up some of the money and took it up to the bank. I don't like having too much
petty cash kicking about the place. I arrived at the bank a few minutes early
and found that some of the bank staff were waiting
to get in as well as the customers. One of the staff was rather impatient,
and was hammering on the window and bellowing to be let in. I wasn't
impressed at that. I took my place in the queue outside. I was
third in the queue. As the door opened we all walked in. The idiot who had
been first in the queue made great show of his dramatic entrance. And as he
played to a crowd that was blatantly ignoring him everyone walked past him to
the tills. When he realised that his little performance had gone unnoticed he
then started ranting at an uninterested world that he had been first and now
was last. I paid in loads of dosh and then went round
to the pound shop to get some more magnetic key holders. The pound shop had
sold out. That was a pain. They did have insoles for shoes at a pound each.
That was also a pain as I'd just paid five pounds for a similar thing in the
shoe shop. Home where I collected Furry Face and we
went for a walk round the park. There was a caravan parked in the middle of
the park. A pikey invasion? I hope not. I wonder what's going on there. We then came home and I did some more of my
psychology course. Today we covered superstitions and their psychological
causes. Fascinating! It was at this point that the front door opened and the
birthday girl came in with Sid. We exchanged insults and set off on a
mission. We took a bin load of garden rubbish to the tip (seemingly at the
same time as the rest of humanity) and then went on for some McDinner as a birthday treat. "Daddies
Little Angel TM" and Sid then went off on their merry
way. Finding that (for once) I had been able to park the car outside
the house I took the Hoover out to it and had a bit of a clean-up inside my
car. A job which was long overdue. I then sorted my undercrackers
and exchanged insults with some passing geocachers
who were investigating my garden. They told me that the cache of mine in
Banks Road that I'd replaced only a few weeks ago had gone missing again. So
I put Furry Face's lead on him and we went on a walk to replace the missing
cache only to find it was where it was supposed to be. I then got the laundry on from the washing
line and spent two hours doing ironing. We had tea, and with er indoors TM" setting off
bowling I settled down to watch "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo". There was tragedy in tonight's episode -
Glitzy the pig got his marching orders. He farted after Mumma
got him agitated,and Mumma couldn't cope. Personally I'm not sure that a pig would
make a good house pet but Honey Boo Boo was
heartbroken. |
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4 June 2013
(Tuesday) - Stuff
This morning over a
spot of brekkie I watched one of my psychology
lectures. Today we were covering memory and the concept of deja vu. Perhaps I might have been mistaken whenever I
think I've been somewhere or done something before. And then my piss
boiled as I had deja vu again properly. The plan for the
week was originally to be preparing for the kite festival at Teston. The arrangement for many years has been that we
put on a weekend long show for the county council; they allow us to camp out
for the weekend. The council have changed that arrangement. They want us to
pay them one thousand pounds for the right to camp in the field whilst still
putting on the show for them at our own expense. Consequently camping won't
be happening this weekend and the event was cancelled. Or so I thought. Some kiters have decided to put the kite festival on after
all. They will drive for hours, fly the kites on Saturday, drive home in the
evening, drive back again and do it all again on the Sunday. The council were
against camping in the first place. They only allowed camping because it was
the only way to get the kite fliers along. And now there are those who have rolled
over and are giving the council what they want. Free to the council and at
not inconsiderable expense to themselves. Surely this is the
death knell for Teston Kite Festival as it has
been. From here on in it will be a day's kite-flying event; the long weekends
camping with friends will be no more; just as the council has wanted. What particularly
boils my piss over the whole sorry saga is that with kite festivals dying all
over the country, those who are going to put on this show really can't see
that it is they themselves who have killed off this festival. I then had a look
at my emails. A new geocache had gone live in Magazine Road; which is on my
morning's drive to work. I set off fifteen minutes earlier than usual and
soon had that cache in my hand. First to Find as well. That cheered me up a
little. I popped into the
Cheapo Bargains shop on my way to work. Another example of psychology in
action. Because the place has got "Bargains" in big letters
on a sign outside the place, one thinks one is actually getting bargains.
Whilst some things there are cheap, much of it is at supermarket prices; if
not more expensive There was something
interesting on the radio as I drove. Apparently a
company has set up in business reclaiming dumped supermarket trollies, and
has an app you can download to your phone which you can use to report unwanted
trollies. I might just download that. After a rather
eventful few days, today was rather dull... |
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5 July 2013
(Wednesday) - Stuff
This on-line psychology course has made me
think. Did you know that just by seeing a word written down you would subsequently
be more likely to choose that word in preference to others when given a choice. Which is how advertising works.
If you see a particular brand name written on billboards, or posters for a
politician there is a marked subconscious effect. You don't need to hear or
see anything other than the name of what is being touted, but when you come
to vote, or buy your new telly your brain remembers what its seen and you are
more likely to choose what you've seen advertised. Even if it's rubbish you
will still want to choose it over ones you haven't seen; purely because your
brain is more familiar with seeing one word rather than others. It turns out
that, given the choice, human nature will have us
choose something we know we actively dislike over something we don't know. It's called "Mere conditioning",
and it's made me wonder just how much I do because I honestly want to, and
how much I do because that's the way my subconscious makes me. As I drove to work I had a wry smile. For
the first five miles of my journey I had some fool driving not six feet from
my rear bumper. He overtook (dangerously) at the first opportunity
that he had, and then tailgated the next car. However I caught up with him at
the road junctions in Challock (three miles
later) and Thanington (six miles later) and at
the traffic lights in Wincheap (eight miles
later). He'd driven really dangerously to no advantage to anyone. the government
is going to increase penalties for such stupid driving. And with everything of interest over and
done with by 7am the rest of the day was rather dull... |
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6 June 2013
(Thursday) - GPS, Committee, Chips
er indoors TM" came home
with a new hand-held GPS unit last night. You know you've arrived in
geocaching circles when you have one of those. Personally I'd like to have one purely for
the gadget value, but I can't see the advantage of them over my phone. My
phone is connected to the Internet so I can geocache as I go whenever I like.
GPS units are not connected to the Internet so you have to research the area
where you are going caching beforehand. Which means that
you can't go caching randomly wherever you like. And not having an
internet connection means you have to muck around recording your finds when
you get home; something that GPS-ers often put off
and is a topic which causes a lot of whinging on geocaching forums.
Admittedly the storage capacity of these GPS units is phenomenal, but people
will load up a thousand caches and sit back; seemingly oblivious to the fact
that caches get disabled (which won't show on stored details), or that
new ones go live when you are out and about. This regularly happens at cachers meetings where GPS-ers
are seen with sheets of paper with the co-ordinates written down for them. GPS units also require one to fart around
producing PQs to do searches which involve far more
fiddling around than pressing a couple of buttons on the phone. The maps on
the GPS units don't come close to the ordnance survey maps I use. I like
seeing where footpaths and bridleways go on a map as opposed to just seeing a
green blob of woodland. And the GPS units aren't actually any more accurate
or precise than my phone. I've been watching these GPS units in
action for several months now. I've lost count of the amount of times that
I've heard GPS-ers announce that they haven't got
particular caches loaded when we are out and about. I've watched GPS-ers spend large parts of walk transmitting cache details
from one unit to another because people haven't got cache details. I've even
seen GPS units being unable to determine what side of a river a certain cache
is on. Admittedly the GPS units are rather robust
and they have a far better battery life than a phone, but other than that I
can't see why people rave about the GPS units After all, I have a pocket full
of spare batteries. Having been giving the matter serious consideration for
many months I really can't see what I can do with a GPS unit that I can't do
quicker and easier with my phone. As I watch what er
indoors TM" does with hers I shall either see the error
of my ways, or I shall gloat. And then I sulked. The plan for today was
to be driving off to Teston Bridge picnic site to
be setting up for a weekend's camping. Not only has that been cancelled, I
seriously wonder if there will be any more camping weekends there. The
arrangement has always been that kite fliers put on a show for the public and
the council allows them to camp for free. The council's made no secret that
they don't like people camping, and have been difficult enough to cut the
camping down to once a year. So as a protest (!) some of the kite
fliers are going up there this weekend to put on a kite show. With a thousand
fields in the county in which to have a protest kite-fly they have chosen the
very one they should be boycotting. Are these people really that thick that
they can't see that the council (who doesn't want camping there anyway)
has got what they wanted all along? If any of my loyal readers could explain
the logic behind this, please let me know. I put the lead on to "Furry Face TM"
and took him out for a two-hour walk. He was mostly good as we walked. There
was a little episode when he wouldn't come back when called. However in his
defence he'd found some frogs to terrorise and was rather distracted. After our walk we came home to domestic
trivia. Hoovering and washing and ironing. All very
dull, but all jobs that needed doing. With the chores out of the way I got
the latest batch of beer out of the bucket and into the barrel. This beer
should do us for Brighton; that's one kite festival which won't be undermined
by misguided well-meaning intentions. I really need to be thinking about getting
another batch of beer on the go for our summer garden party. I sent the
invites to that out via Facebook today. Or that is I sent the invites to
those people on my Facebook list who might be able
to get along. If I've missed any of my loyal readers out, please drop me a
line and I'll send through details. And then I set off out. First of all to
Tesco, which was surprisingly dull and uneventful; or so it seemed until I
came to come out. As I walked toward the door the alarm went off, and a
delightful couple (who I can only describe as "being somewhat
council") started pushing their trolley a lot faster. The store
detective, aged about twelve, gave chase. As I walked passt
the argument it was bordering on fisticuffs. On to the astro
club's committee meeting. Lots planned - the future looks interesting. And home via the chip shop as a treat. The
chip shop was advertising the fact that the packaging they use is recyclable.
This was apparently something remarkable. I didn't have the heart to tell
them that the newspapers that wrapped chips forty years ago were 100%
recyclable... |
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7 June 2013
(Friday) - Elvis
I had a late night
last night, finally turning in about 1am. I woke at 2.30am, and lay rather
restless for the rest of the night. I streamed some Sparks
albums from You-Tube on my phone, but I couldn't get back to sleep. I finally
got up at 7am; sulking that I wasn't in a field like I really should have
been. I had a day's leave booked for today specifically because I was
supposed to be in a field. Oh well; a day off when the weather is good is
never a bad thing. I did more on-line
psychology over brekkie. It's a good course but it
is slightly marred by the fact that the course tutor is a "pushy"
vegetarian. If people choose to be vegetarian then that is their choice.
However there is a vocal minority of vegetarians who push the fact and seem
to delight in trying to lay guilt onto non-vegetarians. I can't help but feel
that there is no place for pro-veggie propaganda in an on-line psychology
course, but what do I know? I also did the
"half-way" test for the course. I don't think that as an
examination it was very good. It merely asked for a lot of recollection of
specific facts and didn't test any understanding at all. I then put "Furry
Face TM"'s
collar and lead on him and took him for a walk. He was off the lead for a lot
loger than usual today. He was mostly well behaved,
but while we were out he did think that he'd saved the world from three
joggers, two postmen, three cyclists, two motorbikes, an old lady's shopping
trolley, a man wearing a silly hat and a dustbin lorry. I wish he wouldn't
take it on himself to have woofing fits at anything which moves. Whilst we were out
I hid a geocache,and found
one which had been eluding me for over a month. Home again - I put
more laundry into the washing machine. Dull I know, but it won't wash itself.
And as the afternoon wore on the clans gathered. Eight of us then set off to
meet even more at the New Chimneys for a birthday meal, a few beers and
Elvis. I do like an Elvis tribute, even if he is doing Dusty Springfield
songs. Perhaps I'm getting
old - after three pints I came home and went straight to bed... |
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8 June 2013
(Saturday) - The Speldhurst Stroll
I woke shivering at 4am having somehow
thrown all the covers off of me. As I tried to sort out the mess I'd made of
the bedding I had the shock of my life. "Furry Face TM"
had somehow sneaked upstairs in the night and had made himself a nest inside
the covers I'd thrown off of myself and over him. He sprung from a tangled
blanket and licked my nose. Try as I might I wasn't going to get back to
sleep after that fright. Over a spot of brekkie
I listened to next door clanging on their piano. There is an old adage "practice
makes perfect". If only it were so. In several years of clanging,
practice has so far not even got as far as "not bad". But
I'm not complaining. All the time they clang that piano morning, noon and
night I have no qualms about making as muck noise
as I like. With er
indoors TM" off candlemongering
I set off on a geo-mission with Lisa. First we went to Pembury
to see if we could find one of the county's oldest geocaches. We found it, as
had some "normal people". Someone had written in the log
"I have found your stuff in this box I think you are f*ing strange". Which was nice. From there we went on to Tunbridge Wells
for the monthly cacher's meeting. It was good to
meet up with friends, and after an hour or so spent chatting eight of us went
off on a geo-stroll of about five miles and twenty-something caches. Some
tricky cache hides; the GPS co ordinates seemed to
be variable. At one point I was up a tree; at another I was nearly breaking
my neck. There wasn't too much mud, and on the way one of our number found his
two thousandth cache. I
took some photos whilst we were walking. I do like these monthly cachers
meetings. It's an ideal chance to meet up and chat with with
like-minded people and go for a stroll with friends old and new. Today we had
a really good gossip, and had a good walk in the sunshine with others who
don't think there's anything wrong with hunting out plastic boxes in the
woods With the walk done we went back to the pub
for a crafty half and then came home. I walked "Furry Face TM"
round the block, and with er indoors TM"
off to the film night I settled down in front of the telly for a slob-about
and to recharge my batteries for more geo-nonsense tomorrow. My neck really aches now. I wonder if I ricked it earlier when nearly breaking it...? |
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9 June 2013
(Sunday) - Biggin Hill
Three of us and two
small dogs went to Biggin Hill today. As we drove
we saw a stall selling asparagus. Apparently it is in season now. Personally
I wouldn't know the first thing about asparagus. I'm told that it is well
regarded in posh circles. I shall consult "the Man with No Alias
(patent pending)" and get his august advice on the matter. Once in Biggin Hill we set off on a five mile guided walk. I say " five mile guided walk" - regular
readers of this drivel will know that it was a series of geocaches. "Doris's
Right Old Mixture" was (and is) a series of twenty three
caches through some rather scenic countryside. Quite scenic views; some
clever geocaching. We found all the caches, and at the end of the walk was a
pub. Ideal for a pint to wash down our sandwiches. Because I'm polite I asked
if they minded us having our picnic in their garden with the beer I was about
to buy. The spotty young oik looked down his nose
at me as though I was something Fudge had just plopped onto his carpet and
patronisingly conceded that he couldn't stop us. And they wonder why
the pub trade is dying on its arse. It was only a short
walk back to the car. From there it was two minutes to Charles Darwin's
house. There is an Earthcache in the grounds of
that place. An Earthcache is a special type of
geocache. In over two thousand finds I've only found one of those. We thought
we'd go for the Earthcache. We arrived to find it
was in an English Heritage site and that it would cost us ten quid (each)
to get near the Earthcache. We didn't bother,
Instead we went for another series of geocaches; "Doris's Break Out".
Based in the general vicinity of Jail Lane, "Doris's Break Out"
is a series of seventeen caches along five more miles. We failed on a few of
these I'm sorry to say. Whilst out and about we found ourselves at the back
door of the gardens of Charles Darwin's house. The gates were open and
unsupervised. It would have been really easy to have sneaked in, done the
secret geocaching ritual, and sneaked out again. I seriously considered it (for
about five seconds) but thought better of it. I shall go back at some
point and do the Earthcache properly and honestly. And then - would
you believe it - I got kicked. By a horse. It &@*! hurt
and still does. We were minding our
geocachical business, walking along a footpath. The
footpath was clearly marked, and our GPS-enabled ordnance survey maps
confirmed we were on a public right of way when a horse came up to me and
kicked me on the thigh. Hard. Fudge wasn't bothering the horse in any way,
nor was I. It was an unprovoked attack. The horse then seemed determined to
push on at me. I hollered obscenities at it; in retrospect I wonder if I
should have punched it. By now Fudge was upset, and as Hurksy
distracted the horse I bundled up Furry Face and got him (and me) to
safety. When I got home I
phoned Kent Police to report the incident. I had taken accurate GPS readings
of the field where the incident happened and photographs of the animal in
question. The police made it clear that (like with pretty much everything
else) they weren't interested. I was under the impression that the
landowner had a duty of care to people using the footpaths across his fields.
For example one would not expect to find tigers loose in a field traversed by
a public right of way. And by the same token if my small dog should playfully
nip a child then he would be put down. The police explained that dogs are (apparently)
unique in the animal kingdom in that the law expects them to be controlled.
All other animals are by definition wild and can do whatever they like. My piss boiled. And
it still boils. Let's be quite frank here. That horse is dangerous. If I had
I taken my grand-daughter caching today and if the horse had struck her at
the same level it struck me, the blow to the head would probably have killed
her. There is a horse loose in a field near Biggin
Hill that should be put down. The police have made it clear that they don't
want to know anything about it. I might just go
back there with my cooking hammer. That should do the trick... |
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10 June 2013
(Monday) - My Leg Hurts
I had a rather disturbed night's sleep. I
think I would have slept well if not for my equine altercation yesterday.
Every time I rolled on to my right side I yelped in pain. Not good(!) Over a spot of brekkie
I looked out of the window and wondered about what might have been. The original
plan for the weekend had us camping. The weather at the beginning of the
weekend was good. Yesterday was cold. Whilst out walking yesterday I was
searching through my pockets trying to find gloves. Which
is not really the sort of thing one does less than two weeks from midsummer's
day. There had been a geocacher's camp at
the weekend - I'd seen the photos of people there huddled up in the cold. One
of the attendees reported that the first thing they did when they came home
was to turn on the heating, and that her husband had gone to bed with a cold. This morning was rather chilly, dark and
overcast. Perhaps it was for the best that we didn't go camping. I had a look at some of the photos from the
people that did put on a kite show at Teston over
the weekend. It looks to me as though there were hardly any of the normal
people there on Saturday despite good weather on that day. Whenever I've been
at Teston on a non-kite festival day there has never been many people using the place either. This
makes me wonder why the council are asking for so much money for us to stage
a kiting event there. Clearly it's not as though the field is in use for
anything else. "Daddies
Little Angel TM" arrived shhortly
after brekkie and we took the dogs for a walk. Or
she and the dogs walked. I alternately hobbled and staggered. My leg was
rather tender after yesterday's equine incident. It's got scarring and the
bruising is starting to come out. I phoned the doctor for advice. As I was
able to stand he thought it unlikely that the leg was broken. He suggested
ice packs to relieve the swelling. I phoned the land owner to see what they
had to say about their wild horse. After a lot of unanswered calls someone
answered the phone. I described where the incident had happened and the horse
in question, and the chap on the phone admitted that it was their animal on
their land. I suspect that he will regret that admission. He then said that the boss was away until
Saturday and I should ring back then. I assured him that I would, and in the
meantime I suggested that he might like to do something about what was
demonstrably a dangerous animal. He didn't seem very inclined to do anything
but wait for the arrival of his boss. During the day several of my loyal readers
have offered suggestions and advice for which I am very grateful. I've now
handed it all over to "suethem.com" and am awaiting developments. It was interesting that the chap at the
stables should take the stance that he did. Today's psychology lecture
described his attitude perfectly. Apparently most people seem to be happiest
when they are deferring to higher authority. Just like the bloke at the
stables did. Today's psychology lecture had yet another blatant
pro-vegetarian advertisement. I think the chap's rather naughty to be using
the course as a vehicle to push his views in this way... |
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11 June 2013
(Tuesday) - Slow Worms, Ghosts...
I slept well for a change. After a spot of brekkie I scrounged a lift to town. I had a cheque to pay
into the astro club's account. Whilst in town I had
a mooch around. It looks like the old hardware shop
opposite the NatWest is closing down. I suppose they just can't compete for
prices with the superstores. I popped into Wilkos
for the makings for some ale for our summer party. They were having a sale on
the home brew stuff. I got the ingredients for five gallons of mild for
£6.28. That works out at less than sixteen pence per pint. That'll do me. I
also got a Euromillions ticket. Winning that would
do me as well. I then went round to the pound shop for a
look-see. There were bargains to be had, and I had some. There were also
wall-to-wall screaming harridans, shrieking harpies and squalling brats as
well. For all that I like the pound shops they can be just a little bit
"council". But what does one expect for a quid. I came home and mowed the lawn. Having
nearly exploded the lawn mower last week I was wondering how the poor thing
would cope today. It did quite well really. Whilst trimming the lawn I found
a slow worm. In years gone by we used to have loads of them in our garden; we
rarely see them nowadays. Which is a shame. "Daddies
Little Angel TM" arrived with Sid, and we put Fudge's
lead on him and took the dogs for a walk. Whilst going round by the Shetland
ponies we had a surprise. We met Cheryl. I didn't recognise her. That was
thick of me. We went on with our walk round to the park. Fudge was again
mostly well behaved when off of his lead; even if he did vanish into the
undergrowth for longer than I would rather he did. There was someone with a power kite and
buggy in the park. We watched for a while, then came
home. By then it was mid day. As "Daddies Little Angel TM"
vanished off on whatever it was that she was doing, I had a spot of lunch
whilst watching my on-line psychology lecture. Today we looked at the Stanford prison experiment It was scary. In 1971 experimenters set up
a fake prison and volunteers played the roles of convicts and guards. Those
playing the guards went from being decent citizens to sadistic bullies in a
matter of days. Which goes to illustrate something I've said for years -
those seeking power over others should not be allowed that power. I then got my five gallons of mild into the
bucket to start fermenting. I'm hoping for good things from this stuff.
Pausing only briefly to return the most recent fruit of my loin to Folkestone
I then set about Bubble Witch Saga games on Facebook until the clans gathered
for the Tuesday evening session. After bandying insults we watched "Being
Human" which was good; but not the same without ghost Annie making
tea... |
|
12 June 2013
(Wednesday) - Stuff
Following
a few day's break from work, I went back to the
grind today. And my insomnia returned with a vengeance. I went to bed at 11.30pm
last night and woke feeling fully refreshed at 1.40am. I then lay away before
finally giving up and getting up shortly after 5am when I felt like death
warmed up. I
seriously considered phoning in sick and spending the day in bed. I
came down to find that the bucket of beer I set fermenting yesterday
afternoon was bubbling well. I was pleased about that. I then watched an
episode of Battlestar Galactica.
Having finished the Babylon 5 DVDs some time ago i
thought I'd try the Bat Glak again. Perhaps I was
prompted by the cameo appearances of Katee Sackhoff in episodes of Big Bang Theory. I can remember
that it was eminently watchable. That is Battlestar
Galactica and Katee Sackhoff were both eminently
watchable. Mind you she spends more time in the bath and in the nip on Big
Bang Theory than she ever did on Battlestar Galactica. Perhaps I've chosen the wrong series to watch? I
didn't get chance to do any of my psychology course today. Which
was probably for the best. Mind you as I drove to work I learned that a
recent study has shown that the Lego corporation are making more and more
of their mini-figures with angry faces. Apparently pirate lego
and Harry Potter lego are rife with grouchy looking
characters. Experts
seem to think that angry lego characters will
affect the development of the children that play with lego.
It may well do so. I'd never really considered the expressions of the lego figures. Now that I have I know that they do have an
assortment of grimaces I've decided that I want some angry and miserable ones
for the lego train set that I plan to build. They
can be waiting for the train which is running late... Whilst
at work I learned something new. Regular readers of this drivel may recall
that I've been ranting about Kent County Council who want
the kite fliers to pay an absolute fortune for camping at Teston
Bridge picnic site. It turns out that (as always) there is more to this than
meets the eye. A colleague who lives in the area told me that much of the
land owned by Maidstone council has a problem with ex-council house tenants
who have found life to be much cheaper when one operates out of a tent.
Apparently tents are springing up all over the Maidstone area. Maidstone
council aren't too pleased with this. Presumably if these campers see us in
our tents they will join in, but unlike us won't go home at the end of the
weekend. I
wonder if other festivals suffer from hangers-on...? |
|
13 June 2013
(Thursday) - More Stuff
Having slept like a log I got up and
watched another episode of BattleStar Galactica before my beloved emerged from her pit this
morning. As I scoffed my toast Furry Face made himself
comfortable on my lap. He's quite funny really. When he sits on me he usually
brings one of his toys with him and drops it on the sofa somewhere near where
he has plonked himself. If I move that toy off of the sofa he goes and
fetches it back. Even if he's fast asleep he immediately wakes to go retrieve
it. And so to work. As I drove I
listened to the news. Tree-huggers are up in arms about mobile phones. Apparently less ethical twitchers
are using apps to mimic bird calls to attract rare species to be
photographed. This is frowned upon in ornithological circles because it
upsets the birds being attracted. I don't see it somehow. It's hardly news,
is it? Isn't this what duck hunters have been doing for years? I can remember
Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny with a duck caller over
forty years ago. Mind you Elmer was intending to blow those birds away with a
shotgun, but the principle is the same. With a few minutes spare I stopped off at
the cheapo-bargains shop as I was driving past. Having waited until the
stroke of 9am to be allowed into the shop (so that the staff could finish
their cigarettes) I was rather miffed to find that their sugar was half the
price of the stuff that I'd bought in Wilkos on
Tuesday. But I got a bargain on eight tins of Spitfire that I shall guzzle at
the weekend. Some with my Ham Street Lover on Saturday, and if any are left
then I might have those on Sunday. And so to work where I did my bit, and came
home again. And today I shall leave my loyal readers
with a moral psychological dilemma. Talking totally hypothetically of course.. Imagine that you had been knifed in the back viciously
and in an unprovoked way (in a metaphorical sense), and you knew the
person who had done it to you. And then you found yourself in a position to
do exactly the same nasty and vindictive thing back to that person. Would you do it? I don't think I can
because I would like to think that I am a better person than one who would do
that. Or should I say "could", as we are talking hypothetically... |
|
14 June 2013
(Friday) - Ramsgate, Dungeness
I
was up with the lark and watching the antics of Apollo and Starbuck at 5.30am
today. It's only recently that I realised that the chap who played the part of
Apollo in the original 1970s BattleStar Galactica played the part of the arch-nasty in the recent
re-make. And
so to work. I say "work" - I was on a course today so I
wasn't at my usual haunt, but in Margate instead. As a treat I arrived early
and had a fry up. I have often thought about adding a page to this blog entitled
"the Perfect Fry-up". I've had excellent frips
(to coin a phrase) in all sorts of places. I'm afraid today's wouldn't
rate highly though. I
did my course which was on the dull side. It finished at mid
day, and I'd arranged to take the rest of the day as holiday. By an
amazing stroke of luck the course was held just up the road from a shop in
Ramsgate which sold geocaching supplies. I'd arranged to call in to see them.
Firsttofind.co.uk was a rather impressive name for a web site. But as a shop
- I was disappointed. Whilst their stock is good, they are really an on-line
business. I had been hoping to have a mooch round a
shop and have a good browse. Instead when I finally found the place (it
took some finding) it was effectively just a counter. They probably had
loads of stuff, but weren't geared up for passing trade, which was a shame.
But I found the cache just down the road from the place. Whilst
I was in the area I picked up a puzzle
cache I'd solved some time ago and was saving until such time as I was
passing (like today) The
puzzle was reasonably straight forward, and (I think) that this cache
will stay in my cacher-stats for some time as it is
the most easterly cache in the UK for miles around. I had planned to go on to
Ramsgate harbour to hunt out some caches there, but what looked like a short
walk on the map looked a bit further in reality. So I contented myself with
watching the kite surfer for a few minutes. And
so home to find my lego train tracks had arrived
from eBay. I would have got the tracks out but "Daddies
Little Angel TM" was in residence and Skinhead was
visiting. Much as I enjoy embarrassing the fruits of my loin, I wouldn't want
my Dad to get his lego out when my mates were
about. Once
er indoors TM" came
home we got "Furry Face TM"'s lead on him and went to
Dungeness for a walk. It was a really good evening for a wander; we had the
entire area to ourselves. "Furry Face TM"' did
disgrace himself when he got a whiff of a rabbit, and there's no denying that
I wish he hadn't been carrying a fish head around quite so much, but you
can't have everything... |
|
15 June 2013
(Saturday) - Dover, SingStar
I was really late
to bed last night, and had no burning need to be up particularly early. But
still I woke at 4am. I pootled about for a bit and watched some DVDs until my
beloved emerged from her pit. The Lisa-mobile
arrived and we set off to Dover. There is a geocache in the drop redoubt
rated 5/5 - very difficult terrain; very difficult to find. Bearing in mind
that the drop redoubt isn't open very often we thought we'd try for it today.
5/5 caches aren't common and we didn't want to turn down the chance to find
it. It was actually a relatively easy cache to find. We'd taken Furry
Face with us. Dogs were allowed in. I've been there beefore
so I knew what to expect. For some reason I didn't think they'd be doing
re-enactments. They were. The bangs of the rifles terrified the poor pup. I
took him out, but he was shivering in fear. I sat quietly with him, but he
was inconsolable, actually having a tiddle acident when one particularly loud bang went off. Poor
pup. We soon left the
drop redoublt and wandered the Western Heights
looking for other caches. We found three more. One of which was particularly
ingenious. I had hoped to do a bit of tunnel-ratting, but someone had
securely fastened the entrance to the St Margarets
deep shelter, which was a shame. There were picnic
tables at the car park and we watched the ferries coming and going before
moving on to Samphire Hoe for a wander. Samphire Hoe is rather scenic, but it is also very
windswept. And so home. I
mucked about ordering more lego on-line for a
while, and then the clans gathered. We then wandered round to Denmark Road
for an engagement party. Cans of spitfire were poured down necks along with
lager and sambucca. There were rumours of mankinis, but only rumours. We got the Singstar out. I lost comprehensively - even at Wizzard and Sparks when singing against someone who
wasn't born until twenty years after Wizzard and Sparks heyday. And so home.
Leaving the womenfolk crashed on the sofas I tootled off to my pit, hoping
that over a gallon of booze would have a soporific effect. It usually does. |
|
16 June 2013
(Sunday) - Fathers Day
Over a spot of brekkie
I reflected on the date. Today is the start of the coarse fishing season. In
years gone by I would have been dashing out to go fishing. Fishing is
something I've let slip recently. The coldblow
syndicate would seem to have ended. A shame really; but I only used my coldblow membership once last year. Twenty quid for one
afternoon is a bit steep. In fact I think I've only been fishing twice over
the last three years. And then Fudge started woofing. There was
someone in the garden. A geocacher looking for the
cache. I went out and had a chat, as you do. It was someone I've not seen at
any of the meets, but a name I recognised, and it was good to chat. "My Boy TM"
called and we set off. There was a "Dad's Day" event
organised for the fathers in the family. Over a dozen of us met up at Uncle
Fred's yard and once the rain had passed the sun came out. We had a wonderful
afternoon picniccing in the sunshine, flying power
kites, playing rounders, having a barby. I particularly liked the barbecue which was
cunningly made out of the drum of an old washing machine. I might just have
to copy that idea for myself. I fell asleep in the sunshine; and woke to
find people saying their goodbyes. We went on to Dan-World where we watched
Man vs Food and had take-out kebabs. Very nice, I think I ricked my neck when I fell over
playing rounders. It hurts to move my head... |
|
17 June 2013
(Monday) - Bins
I got some petrol
this morning on my way to work, and then popped in to Morrisons
to get some shopping. As I was walking out something in the newspaper stands
caught my eye. In Ashford we are
about to get a lot less dustbin collections and instead have a lot more
recycling. We will have to separate recyclables from rubbish, and put our
food waste in different bins from perishables. Blue rubbish will have to go
into the yellow tub whilst red waste will have to go into the aquamarine
receptive. And so on. This kind of active
sorting of waste has been going on for some time in Canterbury. And now it
turns out that despite people's best efforts to sort refuse into its
constituent rubbish, when the bin men collect it, they just chuck it all into
the same skip. Apparently three
bin men are up for the sack because of this revelation. Personally I can't
help but wonder if this is for their chucking the various flavours of tat all
in together, or if this is because they got caught doing so. And then my phone
rang. Regular readers of this drivel may recall that I got hoofed (literally)
by a horse a week ago. Last Monday I contacted "sue them dot com".
Today the legal-eagles at "sue them dot com" phoned me back
to say they weren't interested in my case, but wondered if I wanted to have a
pop at my bank for mis-sold PPI insurance. So, to recap... I
was the victim of an unprovoked attack from an uncontrolled horse on a public
right of way. Whilst I survived the incident, it was purely luck. Had the
blow hit my shin then a bone would have been broken. Had the blow hit a child
it could have killed them. The landowner doesn't care, nor does the owner of
the horse. The police are utterly disinterested, as are "sue them dot
com". The Ramblers Association don't want to get involved; they have
referred me to the local council who have still to get back to me after a
week's inactivity. Perhaps I should go
turn that horse into glue and/or dog food and then see if everyone is still
unconcerned... |
|
18 June 2013
(Tuesday) - I Told You So...
A bit of a rant
today, I'm afraid. But it does lead on from yesterday's witterings... Yesterday I whinged
that no one was at all interested in dealing with the feral horse that
savagely attacked me the other day. There are those who mock my being
savagely attacked by a feral horse; but what do they know? It's something I
wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.... I've spent forty years mocking the equinophobic but now I'm conceding that they might
possibly have a point, but I digress. Again. Amongst those who
couldn't give a stuff about feral horses are Kent
Police. I shall rant about them (again) today... Being able to say
"I told you so" might be satisfying to the person saying it;
but it is always something of a pyrrhic victory. Regular readers of this
drivel may have worked out that I am not a fan of the local police force.
Over the years they have made all sorts of blunders to which I can personally
testify. They have wrongly arrested people dear to me; and then (having
released them with no apology) made it clear that that wronged individual is
not to make a complaint. They have refused to charge security staff at Ashford International Station who were recorded
on closed circuit TV assaulting a member of my family. They have refused to
investigate a break-in to a family friend's car, saying that CSI-style investigations is something they only do when
they aren't busy elsewhere. They have cautioned people for trivial offences
despite those people having plenty of witnesses to testify that they were
miles away at the time of the alleged incident. They refuse to go take a look
at a dangerous horse in a field near Biggin Hill
(!) When I have sent
written complaints to the Chief Constable about these and other incidents I
have had phone calls from the police telling me that they are the police, and
I should learn my place and not complain. For years I've
publically run down the Boys in Blue, and now it seems I was right all along.
They *are* rubbish. I heard on the radio this morning that finally their failings
have been recognised publically. H.M. Inspectorate
of Constabulary has found that Kent Police wrongly classified a quarter of
the crimes recorded on their books; among these mis-classified
crimes being rapes and robberies. This is terrible,
but in Kent Police's defence (and it pains me to defend the 'bules) it would seem that they have been running an
"institutional bias towards chasing numerical targets for solving
crime". The media reported this as though it was some sort of
revelation. This is the cause of the sorry state of our police force;
needless paperwork. It is far easier
for a copper to nick a tramp for vagrancy or to nick some dopey students
smoking kippers in the park than it is for them to catch burglars
hours after the event. Because an easy nick is a quick nick and it looks
better when counting the nicks. And in this age of league tables of course
the police are going to go for the easy option to get to the top of the pile. As a society we
should realise that it is time to abandon scoring policing on crimes solved
in this way. That way the police can stop fannying
about on trivial incidents that don't warrant investigating (like formally
investigating an allegation that I murdered someone's wife ten years before I
ever met that person). The police might then be able to concentrate on
the important stuff. However I doubt
this will happen. League tables are politically correct at the moment.
Schools have been playing silly beggars to score well in league tables for
years; even though everyone thinks they are a bad idea. Meanwhile in more
trivial circles my neck still hurts. Too much rounders
I expect. Mind you the aching leg is getting better. Not that I will be
shutting up about that horse any time soon... |
|
19 June 2013
(Wednesday) - Dodgy Guts
I slept reasonably well last night, but
woke this morning feeling decidedly iffy. I then spent a rather unpleasant
ten minutes in "trap one" trying to decide which end I
should point at the porcelain. Gastro-intestinal difficulties are (in my
experience) a subject of hilarity; albeit in rather bad taste. Unless (of
course) it's me with the icky guts. I had seen the weather forecast for the day
- glorious sunshine. So I had planned on an early start. A long walk for
"Furry Face TM" and home before the day got too
hot. But overnight the weather forecast had changed. At 8am the sky was black
and rain was predicted from 10am onwards. So with bad weather coming and my
guts not being on top form I abandoned the idea of a long walk and we just
went round the block. As we came home so the sun came out. I put
some washing into the washing machine and gardened for a bit. lawns don't mow themselves, nor do fish pond filters clean
themselves. With gardening done I put the washing on the line, filled the
toilet for the umpteenth time (yuk!) and took myself off to bed for an
hour. When I woke Daddies Little Angel TM" was in
residence. She was shouting into her mobile to "fams"
and "bluds". I wish she wouldn't.
I brought in dry washing, put more wet washing onto the line, filled the
toilet again and went back to bed. The afternoon was equally dull. I got the
beer out of the bucket and into the barrel. I got a dozen shirts ironed and I
watched a psychology lecture before going back to bed. er indoors TM" came
home and we took "Furry Face TM" for a walk. We
could have walked further but I wasn't feeling one hundred percent. We came home and I slept for an hour before tea. I didn't eat as much as I would have liked
to. "Furry Face TM" was also sick this evening... |
|
20 June 2013
(Thursday) - 5-H-T
I went to bed last night still feeling
icky. I slept till 2.20am, then dozed fitfully for
the rest of the night. I finally got up just after 6am still not feeling one
hundred per cent. I came downstairs to find that Fudge also seemed under the
weather. Poor pup. Mind you I'm wondering if my dodgy innards
were more to do with the chocolate limes I scoffed on the way home on Tuesday
evening, or having had my evening meal at 11pm for two nights running. As for
the cause of the dog's malady I expect he's eaten something else that he
shouldn't have. Fudge then helped me eat my morning's toast
(he likes toast) as I watched my dose of BattleStar
Galactica, and as DLA
arrived, so I set off to work. I needed an apple to go with lunch, but I
couldn't be doing with calling in at the farm shop. Supermarkets do apples
which are of better quality than the ones at the farm shop, and are cheaper
too. Sad, but true. Whilst in the supermarket I looked for a yo-yo (for
geocaching purposes). I couldn't find one, so I asked an assistant for help.
This request foxed her, and she called over some colleagues. None of them had
ever heard of the concept of a supermarket selling any sort of toy (let
alone a yo-yo), so I gave up. The nice lady in the cheapo bargains shop
was insistent that they had yo-yos. She had no idea where they were, and she
couldn't locate them, but she was sure that they had some somewhere. Perhaps
they have. And so to work. I was greeted by a
colleague who looked stressed. She stopped me and asked me if I thought she
looked stupid. I wasn't getting involved, so I told her I was taking the
Fifth Amendment (the right to remain silent) and left her to it. A little bit later I took the opportunity
to fan the flames by asking her if she had got the answer to her question.
Mind you, it turns out (so she told me) that she is extremely intelligent,
but she hides her light under a bushel. I do much the same. It is best to
conceal the fact that one is a genius; society expects much less from tattoo-ed bald thugs than it does from geniuses. Talking of geniuses, I was asked today
which animal was it that only had one leg. My inquisitor was sure that there
was a species of fauna that only sported one leg. She maintained that there
was a colony of whatever-they-weres at Blean bird park. And so home, where I am hoping for a good
night's sleep. A colleague swears by 5-hydroxy-tryptophan which he assures me
gives him a good sleep every night. He's given me some of the stuff to try.
It comes from Holland and Barrett so it must be good sh*t
(!) According to the Internet as well as aiding sleep, 5-hydroxy-tryptophan
has all sorts of other benefits including curbing the appetite, reducing the
symptoms and complications of cerebellar ataxia, lessening the symptoms
experienced during alcohol withdrawal and reducing symptoms of mania. That's
a result. Mind you the stuff isn't without it's down side. Reported side effects include heartburn,
nausea, upset stomach, diarrhea, muscle cramps,
gas, bloating, and lack of sexual desire (which is probably for the best!) I've taken the tablets. Let's see what
happens. |
|
21 June 2013
(Friday) - Busy, Busy...
Last night was something of a test for
5-hydroxy-tryptophan. Did the stuff do the trick? Difficult to say, really. I
woke at 3am, and several times after that/ but I got proper sleep, with some
rather vivid dreams. The experiment was rather messed up by the shop over the
road having a very noisy delivery at 4.30am. I shall try again tonight and
see what happens. After a spot of brekkie
I took "Furry Face TM" for aa
walk. This morning's constitutional was quite eventful. Fudge had a serious
woofing fit at a vagrant in his sleeping bag in Bowen's Field wetland park.
And I had a serious woofing fit at the fit (in more ways than one)
young mother who came jogging past with a push chair. As well as transporting
the littlun, she was using the push chair as some
sort of exercise device. Periodically she would stop running with the push
chair and start pulling various contortions over and about it. It was quite
entertaining. And so home, where I did my homework for
the on-line psychology course. i
had to choose a topic about how mankind interacts with animals and write a
short piece on it. I chose "zoos
- good or bad". I have a couple of days until the thing is to be
handed in, so if any of my loyal readers would like to offer any comments or
advice I'd be very grateful. I then took the seats out of the car in
readiness for the evening's plans. The seats are heavy - I weighed one. It
weighed two and a half stone. That's a lot. And then I realised that in the
last two years the amount of weight I have lost is equivalent to two car
seats. That really is a lot to be lugging about. After a spot of lunch I put the lead on
"Furry Face TM" and took him ffor
another walk. It's odd - no matter how little or how far we walk in the
morning, in the afternoon he's still desperate for a walk. But when we go he
is obviously aching and seems like he can hardly move. I wonder if some cod
liver oil in his food might help him? Whilst out we met a colleague who is hoping
to move to the area. I replaced one of my geoccaches
which I found had gone missing a few days ago, and we made our way home via
the Bowens Field Wetland Park. "Furry Face TM"
went straight into the swampy bit and came out smelling as though something
had died. I'm not sure what it was that had died, but something had. My dog
had found one of its bones. Recapturing the pup was then quite tricky as he
seemed convinced I was after his bone. And so to Smarden
(via four geocaches) to collect the camping gear. We don't need it for
a little while, but I was at a loose end today so together with the Bat, er indoors TM" and the Rear
Admiral we got some of the gear together. I need to go through the shed to
see what else we have, and what we need. Once home we put the gear away, and
put the top box onto the car for the summer. And with all the jobs done a lot earlier
than expected we went out for a little drive. One of my geocaches had been
reported to have a wet log so we went out and replaced one dry log with
another. And then we went on to three more caches. Home for a curry, and more
5-hydroxy-tryptophan... |
|
22 June 2013
(Saturday) - Birthdays
5-hydroxy-tryptophan came up trumps last
night. Six hours of unbroken sleep. That is unheard of. I was well pleased
with that, and felt quite smug as I watched my morning's fix of BattleStar Galacticaa over
toast and coffee. I wasn't quite so smug about the weather though - mid
summer and torrential rain. We drove down to Folkestone to see the
birthday boy, and then went shopping. A gas barbecue from Tesco, and we
ordered a new wall unit from the hospice's charity shop. It will (hopefully)
be delivered on Wednesday. Home for a spot of lunch. We bandied
insults with "Daddies Little Angel TM"
and the Rear Admiral, and then took "Furry Face TM"
round the block. He likes that. Once home er
indoors TM" prepared for the new wall unit by shifting
the clutter from the old broken one whilst I did more on-line psychology.
Apparently 5-hydroxy-tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin, low levels of
which are common in people with depression. So as well as sleeping better I
might stop being such a mardy old git (!) And then I played silly
on-line games until it was time to go out. The Bat arrived, and we went to the County
Hotel where everyone gathered for a belated birthday meal. Two pints of very
black beer, and an "all you can eat" buffet before going to
Queen Street (oo-er!) for coffee and
cake. Wonderful food with wonderful friends. Mind you, the problem with an
"all you can eat" buffet is that it encourages you to see
just how much you can eat. I felt rather bloated as I lay down to sleep... |
|
23 June 2013
(Sunday) - The MBHW Series
Another success for
5-hydroxy-tryptophan as I had another good night's sleep, not waking till
nearly 6am. Perhaps a lie-in one Sunday might be nice, but laying about in bed is really
only any use if you want to waste your life that way (!) So a spot of brekkie was scoffed, and then we went out promptly. We'd arranged to do
the "May Bank Holiday Weekend" series of geocaches; we'd
arranged this a couple of weeks ago. But what with
one thing and another I hadn't really done my homework. I'd downloaded all
the caches to my phone, but it wasn't till we were within a few miles of the
start that I realised my mistake. It was only then that I realised where we
were going. These caches were around the Haywards
Heath area. I should have rallied the Sussex chapter along. By the time I had
realised this, it was too late. Next time I will be more organised. We parked up and
set off on our walk. To begin with I think it's fair to say we struggled a
little. GPS kit was thrown by overhead power cables. And we never seem to
have much urgency when we are out. With a series of seventy caches (plus
five others along the way) we should really have been much further on
than cache #11 by mid day. But even if it is all
about the numbers, it's not about rushing. We had a great time. We saw deer
and foxes. We had a picnic by the river. I shouted abuse at the steam trains
(I *hate* steam trains) The forecast rain never came. Suzy Woo was off
of her lead a lot - she's getting really good at that now. The cache hides
were good. Relatively easy; but then that is what one wants when there's lots
to be found. Mind you I did think some of the hides were a bit cheeky. We'd
walked the area two months ago, and quite a few of the caches we'd found then
had been archived. The caches we were hunting today had been released a week
or so after we'd last been there. I recognised several of today's hides as
being exactly the same as ones we'd found last time. The old archived hides
had been resurrected. It certainly made the last part of the afternoon easier
when we were running short of time. We started walking
at 10.30am, and according to the wonders of the technology we carried it
would seem that we walked for about six hours, and we were still for three
hours. That seems to be the going rate for caching hikes - two thirds of the
time is spent walking and one third hunting and doing secret geocaching
rituals. We covered nearly seventeen miles; which is probably the longest
walk I've done for some time. I *really* ache
now... |
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24 June 2013
(Monday) - Stuff
Following three successes for
5-hydroxy-tryptophan, last night wasn't quite such a victory for the stuff. I
woke at 3am, but got back to sleep only to wake again at 5.30. Mind you I did
have an alarm set, and I've mentioned before that having an alarm set does stuff up my chances of sleeping. Still, I shall
persevere with the 5HT for a little longer and see what happens. Fudge sat with me as I scoffed my brekkie. I was still aching from yesterday's walk, and he
seemed to be aching too. Perhaps he might benefit from cod liver oil? I shall
speak to the vet. Talking of which we got a text from the vet yesterday saying
that we hadn't collected his anti-flea treatment, and would we collect it
urgently. I collected it only the other day. I phoned them to see what was
going on; the nice lady at the vet's said she was fed up with people phoning
because they'd got a text from them. Apparently their computer system takes
it upon itself to randomly text people all sorts of messages. The nice lady
told me that she wished that the computer would ask her first. And so to work. Today wasn't a bad day
really. It was in many ways a good day. But after the really good and
eventful last three days I really wasn't feeling the entire "work
thing" today. I wonder just how early an early retirement I can get away
with? I did my bit, and came home listening to the radio as
ever. The latest celebrity to have been supposedly abusing children is
none other than the Italian premier. He's been sentenced to prison for seven
years. He denies the allegations, as one would expect him to. Interestingly
the girl he supposedly paid to podger also denies
the allegations as well. If the alleged injured party is denying all
knowledge one can't help but wonder what is going on. Something else to winder about is the
latest discovery of our old friend science. It turns out that there is a correlation
between lowering of pollution levels and the advent of increasingly worse
hurricanes. Perhaps it's time to throw the rubbish back in the river...? |
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25 June 2013
(Tuesday) - Goodbye Mick...
The night before last wasn't a triumph for
5-hydroxy-tryptophan; last night was better. I slept until ten minutes before
the alarm was dur to go off. I got up and over a spot
of brekkie I checked my emails. Frustration. there is a puzzle-geocache beased
in the general vicinity of Dungeness Power Station. the
puzzle is based on the fact that one TV channel has featured link pieces
based on footage from the area. I *think* I know what the channel is, but I'm
having problems solving other parts of the puzzle. So I emailed the cache
owner to check that my initial assumption was right. he
emailed back to say he wasn't telling. On reflection I suppose that it is his
right to do that. However it's not as though I just gave up and asked him to
tell me where the cache was; all I wanted was one small hint. He says he's
looking forward to seeing my "Found It" log. I suspect he's
going to have a long wait. I've wasted enough time on this cache; there's plenty of others out there I shall go for instead. The news seriously bioled
my piss this morning. Twenty years after the Stephen Lawrence affair teh establishment is waking up to the fact that there was
(just possibly) institutional
racism in the police of the 1980s. The pundits on the radio were calling for
independent investigations to review the policing of the time. Are they serious. A friend of mine resigned from the Met in 1983
because he didn't like the fact that black lad were
regularly beaten up in the police cells. Another friend of mine saw the same
happening in the cells in Sussex police stations at the same time. The chaps
of afro-Caribbean origin with whom I went to college were no friends of the
police having had first hand experience of what the
police of the time were like. It's well established that if you were a young
black lad in the 1980s the police would have given you a slap. It's no secret that I'm no fan of the Boys
in Blue, but I'm pretty sure that this institutional racism is firmly a thing
of the past. It happened, but after various riots it stopped. There's plenty of things wrong with the current police
force for independent tribunals to investigate. Why bother wasting time
investigating that which we all knew happened and have now stopped? Being Tuesday the clans gathered; today at
Arden Drive. Insults bandied, telly watched. I missed last week's meeting; it
was good to get along tonight. And in closing today spare a thought for
the family of Professor
Mick - he died today... |
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26 June 2013
(Wednesday) - Furniture
5-hydroxy-tryptophan worked its wonders
again last night - six hours unbroken sleep. I wonder if that will be my last
good night's sleep. I've run out of the small supply that I had and am
wondering about whether or not to continue with it. I have a serious aversion
to taking any kind of medicine on a long term basis; if I did have any
deficiency, this little course of tablets should have corrected it. At thirty
quid for a rather small bottle, the stuff isn't cheap. And for all that I
sleep well, I have been waking still feeling tired. In the interests of long-term health (and
short term economy) I shall give up with the stuff for the time being. I spent the morning productively (for a
change). An hour's homework, then a psychology lecture. Last week I wrote
an essay for that course - today I had to mark the essays of six other
students. Some had made a good effort; some had made piss-poor attempts. And
then the door bell rang. Our new wall unit was
being delivered. Oh how I laughed. The two delivery chaps were pleasant
enough, but thick. The unit came with removable glass shelves. Neither of
them had thought to remove the glass shelves and so were
surprised to find one had shattered when they dropped it. We arranged for me
to get some sort of a discount, and they drove off. "Daddies
Little Angel TM" helped me get the new unit in place.
Firstly we removed the old unit. In fragments. Oh, the clutter we found on
it. Six tins of hot dog sausages and four tins of soup all seven years past
their expiry dates. Countless baseball hats. Fishing rod bags. The Guinness
Book of Records 1998. The Top Ten of Everything (1996 edition). My
bronze swimming badge from 1975. Countless sets of luminous flashing rabbit
ears, eight tiggers, All manner of tat. And when we
had finally made a space for the new unit we had a surprise. The unit was too
big. Eventually through forcing, heaving, straining and pure brute force we
got the new thing in place. But it gouged a lump out of the ceiling as it
went in. And it is now permanently in place. It will not be coming out again
in this life. After a spot of lunch "Daddies Little Angel TM"
went up to town to get her new phone. her old one
had been somewhat problematical since she dropped it in the sea last weekend.
I went to the glazier to sort out a new glass shelf for my wall unit. Thee new glass shelf cost a quarter of the amount I spent
on the wall unit. I am undecided what to do about the bill for this shelf. On
the one hand it was clearly the fault of the delivery people; they admitted
as such. On the other hand I bought the thing from a charity shop. I feel
guilty asking for them to stump up for the shelf. Once we'd done our respective chores we
plugged "Daddies Little Angel TM"
new phone in to charge and whilst we waited for PUK
codes to do their thing we took the dogs round the park. We struck up a
conversation with some nice ladies who were playing with their dog in the
river. Fudge and Sid would paddle, but weren't keen on going in too deep. So
"Daddies Little Angel TM"
hoiked Fudge into the deep bit to prove he could
swim. He'd been rolling in fox poo, so it was river or bath for him. On the way home we met up with some
geo-pals who were off to find the latest cache that I'd hidden. We exchanged
pleasantries, then made our way home where I
intended to do more on-line psychology, but actually played Bubble Witch and
Candy Crush Sagas. The plan for the evening had originally
been to go on a walk with the arky-ologee club. But
the house was such a mess following the aftermath of the new unit;s installation so we stayed
home and er indoors TM"
sorted out some of the stuff. If nothing else I have found my "Kiss
Me Quick" hat and a false beard. Whilst she sorted stuff that really
should have gone in a bin ten years ago I fed hot
dogs from ten years ago to "Furry Face TM". Inn the meantime next door clanged scales out of their
piano. you would think that after all these years
they would be showing some improvement on the thing. But sadly not. As they clanged I got my recent eBay
purchases together and assembled my lego train
track. It's almost there - I just need a few more sleepers to build a second
loop, then I can measure up and see if I can't make space for a table
somewhere. Meanwhile my dog is really farting badly
now. I wonder why... |
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27 June 2013
(Thursday) - Stuff
The first night for a week without the
magic tablets and I slept well; waking just before getting up time. Let's
hope this is the way of the future. Furry Face was sleeping too well to come
and see me as I scoffed my toast, which was a shame. He's taken to helping me
with the crusts. Oh well - his loss. I had my brekkie
and set off to work. As I drove the talk on the radio was of "fracking" which I once thought was a swear word
on the BattleStar Galactica.
It turns out that "fracking" is a way of
extracting natural gas from deep underground. In years gone by the NIMBYs would have opposed any drilling anywhere; nowadays
communities are competing to have their fields drilled up as there are
financial incentives to have drilling in your neighbourhood and getting your
rocks fracked. I say "financial
incentives" - you actually get a bung. They can frack
my garden if they want to. Mind you I'm rather amazed by the whole fracking thing. On the one hand there is (apparently)
far more shale gas to be had from fracking than
there was ever North Sea oil and gas to be had. Cheap fuel is always good. It
will last my lifetime, so I'm all right (!) On the other hand in this
high-tech twenty first century shouldn't we be using these irreplaceable
reserves sensibly (and getting energy from renewable sources) rather than
just burning gas? And so to work where I did my bit whilst
hobbling around. Somehow or other I did for my right knee yesterday. As the
day wore on so my knee got progressively worse. I don't know what I did to it; if I did
know then I would be sure not to do it again. I hope it gets better soon. I
have plans for walking dogs tomorrow, and plans for a rather ambitious hike
over the weekend. I don't want to be mucking about with a gammy knee. It
hurts. And in closing here's something to make you
think. Two new burger chains are on their way to the UK from the USA. Shake Shack and Five Guys
are about to open. Featuring burgers that cost a tenner they are looking to
cater to the sort of punter who likes paying way over the odds for their
shopping. For no adequately explored reason the words "Sainsburys" and "Waitrose"
spring to mind. I shall be sticking to Maccy
D... unless I can persuade the Man with No Alias (patent pending) to
go out for dinner... |
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28 June 2013
(Friday) - New Bins, Astro Club
As I scoffed my brekkie
and watched DVDs I wondered if today was "Blue Box
Friday". I checked the website and found that it was. I also found
that there is an Ashford council recycling app. I downloaded it and shall
fiddle with it later. I set off early to the glazier to get the
replacement shelf for the new wall unit. An small
glass shelf cost seventeen quid (!) There was a minor mishap when I
spent too long chatting and gassing with the people in the glaziers that I
actually left without picking up the glass shelf, but it didn't take too long
to go back and get it. Woops. Fortunately the thing fits nicely where it
should. "Daddies
Little Angel TM" arrived. She was very excited about her
latest money making scheme - "Extreme Couponing". She's been
watching the Honey Boo Boo channel and had this
theory that she could save a load of money by using money-off coupons when
she goes shopping. She was rather vague about where these coupons would come
from; but had some idea that you could get them by being pro-active.
Personally I wish she's stop being pro-active and start being quiet, but what
do I know. I suggested that when the money-off coupons
came through the letter box she might use the coupons in the shops and not
use them to line her guinea pigs' cage. This idea came as something of a
revelation, and she started looking at the clutter that had just come through
the door with a view to saving on her next shopping bill. We took the dogs for a wander and came home
via Pets at Home. I'd phoned them to see if they had a starter unit for the
fish tank light. They'd told me that they had the one I needed, and even
quoted a price. When I got the the shop they were
insistent that they didn't do starter units for fish tank lights. They were
adamant that no one had spoken with me on the phone, and even showed me all
the lighting section to prove that they had none. And so home where I had more dealings with doombrains. I arrived home to find our new recycling bins
were being delivered. For some reason we only had half the amount of bins that
the neighbours had been given. I asked the chaps doing the delivering why
this was. They didn't know and fetched the supervisor. This half-wit (and
that is a kind description) told me that bins were allocated following a
review of the amount of waste put out by each individual house. I asked said
half-wit how such an analysis of rubbish output could be conducted, bearing
in mind that on bin days we have been putting our rubbish in a pile with
rubbish from several other houses. He had no answer, so I phoned the council
and complained. Half-wit will be dispatched with more bins for us. Interestingly these bins were put in our
garden; somewhere that previously bin men have never
dared to tread. Hopefully in this new world order of bin collections they
will actually be able to collect the bins rather than just leaving them like
they have done in the past. I spent an afternoon doing dull washing and
ironing and sorting undercrackers, and then set off
to astro club. An interesting talk; a chance to
meet up with friends. I won a voucher for the chip shop in the raffle. good times. Mind you attendance at astro
club is down on what it has been. I wonder why - I think it's every bit as
good as it ever was. Meanwhile, unlike trans-Atlantic knees, my
knee seems to be on the mend. I shall be grateful for small mercies... |
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29 June 2013
(Saturday) - Shadoxhurst Dog Show and Fete
Another good night's sleep, even if I was
up with the lark. After a quick fix of BattleStar Galactica Steve and Sarah arrived and we popped round to
the Foundry for a spot of brekkie. You really can't
go wrong with a fry up. And so to Shadoxhurst.
The astro club had been asked to put on a stall to
entertain the punters again, and we did. After an initial bit of to-ing and
fro-ing with a rather officious twit in a hi-Vis jacket we were soon
organised and ready for the punters. We had an array of scopes set up (including
the solar scope), hand-outs and magazines on display, and we spent much
of the day chatting with the normal people about things astronomical. In between entertaining the masses we
soaked up the ambiance. there were cake stalls and
tat stalls. I bought a book from one of them - "How to Hypnotise a
Chicken". There was a pet supplies stall who
gave me some free samples and can deliver food to the door at half the price
I at which get the stuff from Pets at Home. There was a home
made ice cream stall. There was a beer tent. there
was even a ditch in which you could tiddle - the
event was let down by the lavatorial facilities. "Daddies
Little Angel TM" and the Rear Admiral and Sid came to
visit our stall, and helped us out for a bit. In between astronomisng
we watched the dog-related run. There was an entertaining five minutes in the
agility event when a dog got stuck in the tunnel and a small child had to be
sent in to retrieve said pup. There were also several CrackWatch
opportunities in the tug'o'war; if only I'd been
quicker with the camera. And we even had a visit from a llama. I took one or
two photos of the day and have
put them on-line. Home, and we took "Furry
Face TM" for a walk round the park. He seemed to like it.
After the walk and after tea I tried him on some of the free sample of dog
food I'd got earlier in the day. He absolutely loved it. I'll see how he gets
on with the rest of the stuff. I may well be going over to that stuff on a
permanent basis. And with er
indoors TM" off out for the evening I settled down in
front of the telly for a DVD-o-thon. Sometimes you can't beat a good
slob-about. |
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30 June 2013
(Sunday) - Strolling round Somerhill
Yesterday was something of a milestone. Yesterday 's witterings was my
two thousand five hundredth blog entry. I've recorded history (as I see
it) daily since 10 September 2006. That's over six and a half years. Not
bad going really. I gave Fudge some of his new mixer for his brekkie - he yummed it up.
Maybe he'll be getting that stuff more often. And so out for a walk. What else would we
do on a Sunday? Originally the plan had been a walk round Ringmer,
but Ringmer is a long way away, and it would be
daft to go there when the Brighton contingent are deployed elsewhere. There
was talk of going on a geocaching mission round Robertsbridge,
but instead we went to Somerhill near Tonbridge. It was a sunny day; perhaps a tad warm to
be walking, but it was good to be out walking without being so cold that my
nose was constantly running. We started off by walking a series of eighteen
geocaches; Mole's Somerhill Stroll. Not a bad walk
really. Billed as six miles it came out a shade under nine miles. One thing I
have learned about series of geocaches is that the distances given are always
seriously underestimated. Whilst we walked the dogs attempted to chase
rabbits, we saw wrens and buzzards, and we caught the sun qite
spectacularly. Regular readers of this drivel may recall
that a few days ago I was whinging about my knee hurting. It was getting
better. I say *was* - I think today's stroll hasn't done it much good. It's
rather tender again. On the way back to the car we found a geocache
specialising in trackables - it had four. I've
never seen so many in one cache before. There are some
photos of our walk here. We had planned to go on to pck up a puzzle cache on the way home, but we had a
problem. Our planned solution involved answering questions about a nearby
hospital to get some numbers. With those numbers we would do some sums to
work out the co-ordinates of the hidden cache. My calculations had one of the
digits as being minus two. Something was obviously wrong. I emailed the cache
owner, but had no reply so we didn't bother with that cache. We might try
again when we are next in the area. We came home via Wateringbury;
a new cache had gone live there during the day and there was just the outside
chance of getting a "first to find". We didn't FTF;
we were beaten to it. Mind you I had a result in another way. I say
"result" - it wasn't really. Something negative is hardly a result.
Some time ago I hid a geocache and submitted it for publication. It was
turned down because it was too close to a nursery school. I would have
thought that it was quite far enough away not to cause any problems, but I was
over-ruled. Shortly after that I had another cache turned down because it was
within sight of a play park. I suppose it was. If you had a rather powerful
telescope. Since then I've been keeping a little list
of newly released geocaches with fail the "playground rule".
I would suggest that the one we found today fails in that the suggested
parking is in the car park of the local scout hut. Personally I couldn't help
but feel that a recommended parking place should be near the cache, and it
was rather annoying having parked half a kilometre from the cache to walk
past several good parking places. And so home. I am finding more and more
that having walked for a few hours and then having been driven home I can
hardly move when the car stops. Old age, perhaps? But it really hurt to get
out of tha car and hobble the few yards to the
front door. Daft really, as I'd walked nine miles earlier. With er indoors TM" of to a
meeting of the Honourable Association of Candlemongers
I spent much of the evening falling asleep in front on on-line psychology
lectures. Tonight we were touching on hypnosis and childhood development. it seems that there are various stages of mental
maturation that we all go through as we grow up. I'm not sure I've done quite
as many of those stages as I might have done. Which would
explain a lot... |
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