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1 May 2014
(Thursday) - Bit Dull
The theory behind my CPAP machine is that
when I put it on it gently blows air up my nose. As the night goes on and my
sinuses contract (decreasing my breathing), the device senses taht I'm taking in less air and increases its pressure. When I woke at 5am this morning the thing
was blasting a hurricane up my conk. Surely it would make more sense to
surgically re-bore my nose thather than to fart
around pumping air up a contanatly decreasing beak. I watched the latest episode of the Tomorrow
People. The plot is getting convoluted to the point of silliness now. Mind
you there's still a few episodes left in the season
to make sense of what's going on. There's still no news about a second season.
A second one would be good. To work through the rain. A rather
miserable morning. As I drove the talk on the radio was simularly
dull. The politician and alledged terrorist Gerry
Adams has been arrested in connection with a murder that took
place forty two years ago. The UK legal system really needs to grasp the
concept of the statute
of limitations - for justice to have any meaning there must be a time
limit in which retribution for a crime has to be made. How can anyone provide
any reliable evidence in a case which happened forty two years ago? Those who
haven't died can hardly claim to have any decent memory of what happened when
I was eight years old. I certainly don't. I didn't have long for sax practice today;
unfortunately rain stopped play. Rather heavy rain; torrential in fact.
However as consolation I had an email to say that the geocache I'd hidden on Tuesday morning
had finally been accepted. If I'd hidden it near Ashford it would have been
found within an hour of going live; being in Canterbury there's no one with
any interest in the thing at all... And so home. I would have put stuff into
the car had it not been raining quite so hard... and if I'd not been feeling
just a little under the weather. (Today was rather dull) |
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2 May 2014 (Friday)
- Off to Geo-Camp
I had a reasonable night's sleep, but woke
to find the CPAP machine was blowing air out of my mouth. That was a rather
strange experience. After a quick brekkie I loaded
the last of the bits and bobs into the car and drove to Tesco for a sandwich
for lunch. From there I set the sat-nav to Paddock
Wood and drove straight into a traffic jam where I then waited (whilst my
piss boiled) for an hour and a half. And so the the
Hop Farm at Paddock Wood for the Kent Mega - a weekend of geocaching
activities. The Hop Farm is a huge place, and some of the local cachers had arrived last night and set up camp. Being
given instructions of where to find them I thought I'd soon be in the right
place. In retrospect we'd set up just a little too far away from everyone
else on the site. But as the idea was for the Kent cachers
to be together I just went with the flow. I arrived at 10am to find everyone else was
still in bed. It didn't take too long to have camp set up, and after a quick
sandwich for lunch the rain started. Just drizzle on and off, but enough to
be a pain. As the afternoon wore on so more Kent cachers arrived to join our camp. And one or two others
joined in as well. I found myself chatting with a couple of new friends, and
the three of us made our way to the pub where there was to be a formal
meet-up geo-event. On the way we met a lady from Germany who was over for the
weekend, and we chatted with her for a little while. "er
indoors TM" and Gordon Tracy arrived, and we made our way
back to camp for a spot of tea and a beer or two. And as the beer flowed we
decided that we were "camping" - "tenting"
being little more than cottaging with canvas. And
then we played cards; forfeits involving eating a paper bag. The evening became rather vague at that
point... |
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3
May 2014 (Saturday) - A Challenge
It's no secret that I was reluctant to go
geo-camping this weekend. One of the main reasons was that I thought it would
be rather cold in May. It was cold; we woke this morning to find a thick
frost on the cars. We had a rather early start today, we collected Lisa from Paddock Wood railway station
at 7.30am, and then got on with the business of the day. There are twelve different geocache types.
Some are sandwich boxes, some don't actually exist,
but require people to spot and report on something they find. Some are
meetings of cachers. The rules forbid two
particular meetting types to be held on the same
day, so the most cache types anyone can find on any one day is eleven. Today
four of us were going to do eleven cache types. I'd planned the specific caches and the
order in which we would do them. We started in Camer
park for a meeting cache - a "Cache In Trash Out" tidy up of
a park in North Kent. We spent an hour and a half
gathering rubbish, pausing only briefly to collect two other cache types. A
traditional cache wihich was up a tree, and a
puzzle cache which was in a thicket. It was at this thicket that we met one
of the elite group of people who adjudicate on the
validity of potential geocaches prior to their being accepted and made live.
He said he'd been present when his mate had found this puzzle cache a couple
of weeks ago, but couldn't help us with any hints as he'd not been paying
attention at the time. From here we drove to a nearby church where
we easily found a multi-cache, and then on to another church where we
struggled to find a letterbox hybrid cache. This one was rather difficult to
track down, but had we failed I did have a backup plan. Fortunately for my
nerves we didn't need the backup plan. And then to Holly Hill where we did a
virtual geocache; we did have some problems here. The find was easy enough,
but the cache owner decided to delete the logs we made because they weren't in
the correct format. Whilst the fellow was well wiithin
his rights to do so, part of me did feel it was a needlessly pedantic thing
to do; especially when we were on a mission. I eventually managed to get my
phone to sort out an acceptable report; even if the phone was overheating by
the time I'd done so. By now it was mid day. With six cache types
under our belt we had equalled our previous best score at this game. So we
went on to Yalding for a pub lunch in the sunshine,
and then half ann hour was spent playing GPS games
to get our seventh cache type - a Wherigo. Wherigos are rather obscure and can be time consuming. I
was pleased to have got success here; failure on this one would not have been
disastrous, but would have involved a rather time-consuming Plan
"B". Having got the thing we went back to the pub for a pint and to
watch everyone else doing the GPS game. I even shouted a few helpful (!)
comments at one of two cachers. The day's eighth cache was the one which
*had* to work. In Tunbridge Wells there is a webcam cache. We had to stand in
the right place (with our hands in the air) and then use our phones to
get a webcam image. It took a little fiddling to get the webcam picture, but
it was fiddling we had to do. Had we fallen at this hurdle we would have had
a problem; webcam caches are very rare. If we had drawn a blank here the next
closest webcam cache is in North London. Whilst in Tunbridge Wells we went to Toad
Rock for a geology lesson, and with the Earthcache
completed we went back to base. Cache type ten was something rather
special. Geocache HQ are experimenting with new
types of geocaches and forr the first time in the
UK we had the chance to do a Lab Cache. In fact we had the chance to do ten.
We did one today. Given a list of names of cachers
attending the mega-event we had to spot the fake one. Back to camp for tea, where we were joined
by Dave who came up for the Mega. and with tea
scoffed we went down to the pub for a crafty half and the eleventh cache type
of the day. Cache eleven was a meet; and after the meet was a spot of night
caching. I'm normally not a fan of night caching; but being guided by the
C.O. and with several hundred people along for the ride, tonight's night hike
was an experience I wouldn't have missed. By now we were cached out, so it was back
to base where we drank beer and port roound the
camp fire until bed time. It was a rather cold evening, and by midnight Lisa
had rather cold toesies; a fact which was broadcast
far and wide... |
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4 May 2014 (Sunday)
- The Kent Mega
Although there was was no frost on the car this morning, last night was
rather cold. Incredibly cold. And I was tired. In the past I've done
geo-walks of twenty miles, of one hundred caches. But nothing was quite as
wearing as yesterday's eleven icons in one day challenge. After everyone had
(eventually) emerged from their pits and brekkied
we went for a little geo-stroll. Nineteen geocaches, all letterbox hybrids.
All with simple puzzles to solve, and all with a
rubber stamp insiide. We solved all the puzzles and
got all the stamps. By now it was mid day, so we made our way back to the Hop Farm where
the Mega - Event was in full flow. Over one thousand people were in
attendance. There were cachers from all over the
UK, from Europe, and people from Africa and America. Even My Boy TM"
had come over for the day. There were all sorts of things going on, goodies
to buy, and (literally) tens of thousands ot
trackables to be found. We then went back
to the Lab Cache woods and finished off doing the first ten of these
available to people in the UK, and having said godby
to Dave we then sat about activating our new trackables.
Not an easy task on a phone. Pausing only
briefly to laugh at someone stuck in the mud (so much for a 4x4) we
drove into Padddock Wood for some shopping, then drove out to Maidstone for the Barn Dance event. It
was here that we realised we'd acheived minor
celebrity status; not only had I obtained a series of groupies (that was a
result), but we weren't the only people to have tried for eleven icons in
one day this weekend. However we were among a small minority of people who
had been successful. I'd seen this
challenge coming and had specifically not done the Tunbridge Wells webcam
before, and had solved puzzles in advance and had picked the easiest Earthcache and virtual. Others hadn't been quite so
pro-active. With hog roast scoffed
we drove back to camp and sat round the camp fire for a while. Others stayed
longer than I did. I was falling asleep and soon went to bed. I was tired
out... |
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5 May 2014 (Monday)
- Roundabouts, Home...
Despite not being too cold at all last
night, as I drove to the shower block (yes, drove!) I saw that the
thermometer in the car was registering 1oC. I was surprised by
that; it certainly felt warmer. Having used the facilities I made myself a
cuppa and watched the world go by from our gazebo. It was really peaceful
watching the mist burn away at 6.30am. After a while the chap in the next tent
emerged, smiled, took his tent down and was gone by 7am. I felt rather sorry
for this chap; he'd arrived on Friday morning and asked if he could set up
near my tent. I was fine with that, and as he set up he said he'd come down
on the train from London and was on his own. Bearing in mind that many of the
attractions of this weekend were a car drive distant, the chap was at at disadvantage already. Unfortunately having the rest of
the Kent cachers arriving to be loudly told that
there was an intruder in our midst (and having him pointed out) seemed
to scare the chap away. I only saw him maybe a couple of times
during the entire weekend. I hope he had a good time wherever he'd been
during the daytimes. We had a rather good fry-up for brekkie, and then together with our new friend from
Derbyshire we went off geocaching. After all, what else do you do at geo-camp. Only a small walk of a couple of miles today; on the
way we met an old friend who walked with us till we finished our circuit. The weather was glorious and we got back to
camp to find that the tents were dry, as we'd hoped. The plan was to have all
the camp packed away by 4pm in readiness for the closing event. We were
packed away by 2.30pm, so we went geocaching. First of all to a cache based
on Nigel Molesworth. I can't beleive
that no one seems to have heard of Molesworth. We
then got a river-based cache which was supposed to be done from a canoe, but
with a bit of effort we did it from a bridge, and then we took our lives in
our hands finding a cache on a frankly dangerous roundabout on a dual
carriageway. It's odd that a cache on a roundabout on a local housing estate
was removed by the geo-authorities for safety reasons, but one which sees
cars speeding by at over fifty miles per hour is quite acceptable. And so back to base where we said our
goodbyes and we came home. Packing away didn't take too long, and once we'd
retrieved "Furry Face TM" from "My Boy TM"
we crashed out in front of the telly. Roll on the next mega geo-camp... On reflection... It's no secret that I
didn't really want to go to this weekend's camp. It was too early in the year
(read "going to be too cold to camp"), and very few of our
number were up for it. But as it turned out our immediate party was nearly
double what I expected it to be, and the vast
majority of people at the event were warm and welcoming. More so than at the
kite festivals which I have attended for over ten years. I feel unsure when
inviting anyone to a kite festival, but I wouldn't hesitate to suggest that
people might like to geo-camp. In retrospect I would have liked to have
camped a lilttle closer to the main action (we
*were* several hundred yards further than we might have been but that was my fault(!) ), and it was a shame that with many of the
planned activities being up to ten miles away, anyone without the use of a
car would have missed out on a lot of fun. But it was (for me) a great weekend.
I hear there are plans to do another next year; I have already volunteered to
help. And (as always) there are some
photos of the weekend here. |
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6 May 2014
(Tuesday) - New Phone
I'd booked today as a day's holiday,
feeling I might need a rest after a weekend away. It was odd sleeping back on
the CPAP machine; I think I do get more sleep with that thing blowing air up
my nose; but perhaps only an hour or so more sleep than I used to get. I had intended taking "Furry Face TM"
for something of a long walk today, but he was really badly behaved; refusing
to acknowledge me when he was off the lead. He was back to his bad old self
of being missing for too long; I lost him for over fifteen minutes so when he
finally appeared (looking really frightened that he'd got himself lost)
I put his lead back on him and brought him home. I then went up to town. "er indoors TM"
had a parcel that needed collecting, and as I was passing I went in to the
phone shop to talk about my upcoming mobile upgrade. I came out with my new
phone. I've only ever heard one person who actively dislikes the Samsung
Galaxy phones, so I got a Galaxy S4. Whilst I was at it I stopped off at the Sky
shop and upgraded the TV package so I can now get all the "On Demand"
stuff too. And as a celebration of the New World Order
of technology I treated myself to a black forest gateau milk shake and KFC
for lunch. I've been going into that branch of KFC since before "My
Boy TM" was born and in that (nearly) thirty years
they have never employed anyone who speaks even half-way decent English.
Today I conveyed my order by a series of pointing and shaking my head as the
assistant recited the menu. Once home I scoffed my KFC, then despite
the nice man in the phone shop having copied all my data over, I spent an
hour (or three) re-installing all the apps and reconfiguring the phone
to how I want it to be. I've still got a lot to do. I then went through the monthy
accounts. Not too good, really. Stag weekends and camping weekends have taken
their toll on already stretched finances. But I keep smiling. I have been
told that I can't take it with me when the reaper comes knocking. My
immediate reaction was that if I couldn't take it with me then I wouldn't go,
but I am told that this is not an option. And then I mowed the lawn. I say "mowed";
the grass was over eight inches long, so I just gave it a cursory haircut. I then had a look-see at the geo-map. Every
weekend we go for a walk; but we don't just wander aimlessly; preparation is key. I have an idea for a rather serious walk this weekend;
seventeen miles over several hours. If any of my loyal readers would like to
join in, feel free to drop me a line for the details. Before I knew what was happening the day
had gone, and it was time to adjourn to Arden Drive for the weekly gathering.
Apparently whilst I wasn't looking Sir Token croaked. It's amazing what
happens when you aren't paying attention... |
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7 May 2014
(Wednesday) - Cats in Boxes
Much as I'm not
keen on the CPAP machine, it seems to be doing the trick; last night I got an
unprecedented six hours sleep. I woke shortly before 6am, and set the dishwashed going (a job I forgot to do last night)
then watched a bit of telly. "Life's Too Short" (featuring
Warwick Davies) was rather entertaining, and "Pramface"
shows promise. As I scoffed my toast "Furry Face TM"
helped me with the crusts. I'm not sure I should be encouraging him to eat
crusts, but he is such a fussy eater that it's good to see him eating
anything.0 The morning's radio
news was interesting. Yesterday I ranted about the poor standard of spoken
English in the local KFC. Today the pundits highlighted the poor quality of
spoken English in immigrant
care workers employed in UK care homes. The elderly, infirm and
vulnerable are struggling to be able to communicate in any way with those who
are supposed to be looking after them. Because the only people applying to
work in care homes are immigrant workers who have only a cursory grasp of the
English language. Also the local
Kentish health authorities are looking to recruit 500
temporary staff to bolster their overworked staff. Many of these people
will also be immigrant workers. Possibly with poor language skills too? Who
knows? As I've said before
I can't help but feel that if the media weren't so actively hunting for
honest mistakes and oversights in a very overworked and underpaid section of
society then just perhaps there might be more people seeking employment in
the care industries. Just perhaps there wouldn't be such a recruitment
crisis; perhaps there might be candidates who *could* make themselves
understood. At lunchtime I had
a saxophone practice; I've been neglecting that lately, so once again I set
up my music stand at the far end of the works car park. My teacher says I am
to play "On Top of Old Smokey" *really* loudly, so I was giving it
full blast when a woman came running toward me screaming for me to stop. She
glared at me, went to the car next to where I was playing and opened a box in
the boot of that car. She fussed about inside this box and then told me how
evil I was because the noise I'd been making had terrified her cat.
Presumably her cat was in this box; I never actually saw a cat, but I did
notice that all the windows of that car were open an inch or so. I listened to her
ranting for five minutes, then suggested we called
the RSPCA and let them decide which of us was the
villain. She said nothing
more, but drove off rather promptly. Once home I took
"Furry Face TM" round the park. Apart from a
minor contretemps with a bulldog our walk was mostly uneventful. With "er indoors TM" off candlemongering I watched the first episode of "Game
of Thrones" on my newly upgraded SkyPlus
box. So far it is all swords and tits and precious little story, but it is
still early days... |
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8 May 2014
(Thursday) - Ranting
The CPAP machine might not be overly
comfortable, but with it doing it's
thing I had another night with six hours sleep. I'm rather keen on the
device. Over brekkie I
watched teh latest episode of "The Tomorrow
People" as "Furry Face TM" scoffed the
crusts from my toast. I do like that show - the plot is now going somewhere
and I don't fall asleep whilst watching it. I also spent a little while
clearing rubbish from the SkyPlus box. Having set
the thing on series link for a few shows it seems to have recorded the same
episodes a dozen times. I've now cleared about a fifth of its memory. I checked my emails: a new geocache had
gone live along Church Hill, which is less than two miles from home. Twenty
minutes later I was parking my car along that lane and chatting with Martin
who was cycling past on his way to work. I don't like to give spoilers about finding
caches, but I will say that in this case the map can appear deceptive; this
cache looks like a find which can be done easily as a drive-by. It can be
*if* you aren't averse to forcing your way through the undergrowth. So a
quick dive through a hedge saw me with the cache in my hand and I had scored
another First to Find only thirty minutes after the cache went live. Happy
dance... If nothing else this has proved that I've
set up all the geocaching stuff correctly on my new phone. Which
is a result. And then on to work. The radio was all
abuzz about the latest scandal to rock the supermarkets. Apparently several
of them have been selling
Halal meat without labelling it as such. I'm no expert on the subject,
but from what I understand, Halal
meat comes from animals whose throats have been slit and have then been
left to bleed to death. This is done because those of various superstitions
feel that God has told them to do it. Whilst I'm very happy to eat dead
animals, I see no need for them to suffer needlessly in this way before I eat
them. As far as I'm concerned this cruelty is just another thing on my list
to discuss with the Almighty when I get chance; I won't eat Halal meat. And I
can't understand why anyone would insist on the stuff. It would seem I am not alone in feeling
this isn't a good thing to do, and one of my loyal readers has got himself
banned from Tesco's Facebook page for telling them the error of their ways. Something else on the news which boiled my
piss was the news that antibiotic resistance is becoming acutely serious.
It's no secret that as time goes by, so bacteria develop resistance to
antibiotics. So to counter this problem our old friend science makes new and
better antibiotics. However it seems that the pharmaceutical industry isn't
really putting a lot of effort into developing new antibiotics any more. The
reason why? - there's not enough profit to be made from it. Sometimes I wonder what goes through the
minds of my fellow man. At work I sulked. No sax practice this
lunchtime. I had a go, but a combination of cold, wind and rain made things
just too impractical to spend forty minutes tonguing the Volga boatmen on top
of their old smokey. It was just as well the rain had cleared up
in time for "Furry Face TM" to have his walk this
evening. And with him walked I popped round for some McDinner
with the Rear Admiral. From there we went on to the astro
club committee where in between bandying nonsense we made five minutes worth
of decisions in an hour and a half. It's only been twenty minutes since that
meeting and my mind has gone blank. I do hope Jason sends out minutes of what
happened... |
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9 May 2014 (Friday)
- Telly
Yesterday evening
"Furry Face TM" wouldn't settle; he kept
wandering about and whimpering. It turns out that the cheeky pup had found a
left over Easter Egg. I've heard that dogs shouldn't have chocolate; he'd
given himself a belly ache. Mind you he was
well enough to scrounge the crusts from my brekkie
toast this morning. As we sat together on the sofa I watched "Derek"
in which the residents of the care home were getting jiggy
with each other, and then in "Ade at Sea" Adrian Edmonson spent a day helping in the construction of an
offshore wind farm near Liverpool. I drove to work
through a rather sunny morning; something of a contrast to yesterday's rain.
As always I listened to the radio. There was precious little of note today.
Mind you, yesterday I whinged about the scandal of Halal meat being foisted
onto an unsuspecting public. Perhaps more worrying is the fact that most
people I've encountered today have no idea what Halal meat is all about.
There's far more to it than just saying a prayer over the animal. The method
of slaughtering animals involves of a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife
on the throat, cutting the jugular veins and carotid arteries of both sides
but leaving the spinal cord intact. If done correctly the animal dies
instantly. If botched then the animal suffers whilst it bleeds to death.
Opinion varies on how often the process is done correctly. Click here to see the wikipedia entry on the subject. Why does no one seem to
know about this? With my bit done I
came home and walked "Furry Face TM" round the
park. "er indoors TM"
was off out on a hen night. I had the option to go out for Chinese, but I was
feeling a little under the weather so I stayed home and once I'd ironed seven
shirts I watched two more episodes of "Game of Thrones". The show has
promise; but it would benefit from exchanging a few of the tits for a bit
more plot... |
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10 May 2014
(Saturday) - This and That
Through the wonders of continuous positive
airway pressure I slept till 9am this morning. That's unheeard
of. Over brekkie I solved a geo-puzzzle
(with just the teensiest bit of help) and then saw something on-line
which made me cross. A local branch of the Pilgrim's Hospice is to close.
The public are up in arms and all sorts of campaigns to save the place have
been launched on Facebook. But as Mr Fenn (my
old English Teacher) used to say "fine words butter no parsnips".
The hospice openly says on their website "More than 75% of our
funding comes from our hugely generous local community". Obviouusly the local community isn't so generous any more. Those who are full of indignation aboutt the closure of the hospice have become accustomed
to free health care but they don't seem to realise that not all of it is
government-funded. I have maintained (for over thirty years) that the
best way to maintain public services such as this is *not* to subsidise them
by voluntary donations. No government (of any political persuasion) is
going to fund anything that someone else is already paying for. The Health
Service is under incredible financial constraints; why would they use very
limited resources on hospices and air ambulances and blood deliveries when
someone else is willing to pay for these services? I then spent the morning failing to solve
more geo-puzzles, and then we went on something of a mission. To town for
assorted shopping. We got the makings of five gallons of beer for £7.50,
which was something of a bargain. We went to Dobbies
for a crafty munzee, and then round to the Riverview
Diner at Bybrook Barn for lunch. For those of
my loyal readers who've never been there, the Riverview Diner is an authentic
American diner which was shipped to Ashford from the US fourteen years ago.
I'm reliably informed (from those wwho know)
that the menu is "American as the Brits would imagine it to be".
There's no denying the place is rather gimmicky, but I love it. From there we popped round to the music
studios. The music shop has relocated there and I needed new reeds for my
sax. I got chatting with the chap on the till, and when he realised I was a
student at the music studios I got a ten per cent reduction. We then went on to visit "Daddies Little Angel TM",
who is blooming. We took her to Folkestone's equivalent of the
Cheapo-Bargains shop. Something of an eye-opener. We would have gone on to
the Admiralty, but time was pressing. Home, and Martin visted. He's been to the Folkestone Geek Fest which
had taken place today. I'd considered going, but had decided against it. I
was right to have done so. Having paid a fiver to get into the place there
was nothing to do except to spend more money. Many years ago when a group of
us used to frequent the fandom scene there was all
sorts of stuff to see and do at sci-fi conventions. Nowadays they are just
places where you buy overpriced merchanidise and
buy expensive autographs from people who were famous many years ago.
Apparently sci-fi stars of twenty years ago were littering Folkestone's Geek
Fest today. Charging (on average) fifteen pounds per autograph they
couldn't keep up with the demand. And with "er
indoors TM" off to film night and "Furry Face TM"
chewing on his new bone I tried out my new saxophone reeds. There is still an
occasional bum note, but far fewer than I have been experienceing.
Mind you at £8.50 for three, as opposed to ten for a fiver from eBay, I would
hope for a noticeable improvement. I'm now going to watch more of "Game
of Thrones"; if nothing else the blonde one gets her kit off and flops them out with entertaining regularity... |
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11 May 2014
(Sunday) - Crockenhill
After a good night's sleep I woke shortly
before 6am. Not bad really. Over brekkie I started
watching something new I'd recorded: "Almost
Human". I gave up after a few minuutes.
I'd seen it all before; it was just yet another TV show about police. When
will the makers of TV shows realise that there is more to the world than
police. So I watched another episode of "Game
of Thrones"; for the first four episodes the fit blonde girlie had
been getting her kit off. Not so any more. Just lately there has been a preponderence of choppers (of more than one sort). And so off on a walk. I'm just getting the
teensiest bit pissed off with people taking the piss of the walks I go on.
Admittedly hunting plastic boxes with GPS equipment is hardly the worthiest
pastime the human race has ever devised. But by the same token neither is
sitting on one's arse shouting abuse at a TV screen broadcasting sporting
activities which one is never going to attempt in real life; said sporting
events featuring teams representing places hundreds of miles away. I'm sorry - I'm getting just a little bit
sensitive at the moment. Every pastime I take up (scouting, archery,
geocaching, power kiting, writing, you name it) is fair game for
ridicule, but when I say the slightest word against sitting on one's arse
doing absolutely F! all with one's life people take
bitter offence. Our walk today was round Crockenhill in north Kent. Rather beautiful scenery, but
close enough to London to see the Crystal Place radio mast, Canary Wharf and
the Shard. The walk was going to be a long one, so we
made an early start. As we walked we met friendly lambs and over-familiar
horses. The walk was billed as being seventeen miles; we did take a couple of
diversions to pick up some challenge caches and we ended up with a total
distance walked of just under twenty one miles over twelve hours. We left home
hoping to a hundred cache finds; we got one hundred and eight. Not bad
really. I
took a few photos whilst we were out. After a quick cuppa (once we'd got home)
I suddenly realised just how tired I felt. I wonder if I will be able to move
in the morning...? |
|
12 May 2014
(Monday) - Stuff
Not a bad sleep compared to nights before
the CPAP machine; but bearing in mind the walk we did yesterday I would have
expected a better night. Mind you "Furry Face TM"
seemed to be feeling it; he didn't stir from his basket when I got up, and he
made no attempt to scrounge the crusts from my toast. Over brekkie I
watched more "Game of Thrones"; after a dubious starrt it's getting better. Mind you I don't see how far
they can take the story if they will keep killing off the main characters. As I drove to work I listened to the radio.
There was an interview with a correspondent who was out in the jungle with
the international search for the hundreds of children abducted by the extremist
group boko haram. There were fears that these children will be sold as
wives to uneducated savages and wouldl be little
more than slaves. I really thought that slavery would have been abolished
internationally by the twenty-first century. I
was wrong. However as the day wore on so news of half
of these children emerged. Just over half have been filmed; apparently having
now subscribed to the superstitions of their captors. These girls are now
hostages to be exchanged for convicted murderers and terrorists. Mind you no news has emerged of the rest of
the children. There is speculation that these ones are not kow-towing to
their captors and consequentlly will be sold into
slavery. And so to Morrisons.
The queue for the automated check-outs was growing. Purely because only one
person was operating a till; a dozen other manned till stations were empty. Self service checkouts are the way forward apparently.
Not only are they cheaper than paying someone to take your money, they are
allegedly becoming better at spotting
potential shoplifters. Now this is what I expected the future to
be; high tech, not barbaric. Lunch time sax practice went well; but
there's no denying that I'm getting bored with Daisy and Smokey. Once home I
took "Furry Face TM" round the park where we met
a nut case. Originally I thought he was doing sparring practice; but as I got
closer it was apparent that he was having a full-on fight with an invisible
opponent; said invisible opponent seeming to be getting several good blows
in. I watched for a couple of minutes, but the fight was so uneven; the one I
could see was having his arse handed to him on a plate. After a rather good bit of tea I popped
round to the music studio for sax lesson. My fortissimo isn't quite as forte
as it might be. But I seem to be making progress. I then set about "Furry Face TM"
and the washing machine. Being the twelfth of the month one needed monthly
descaling and one needed monthly flea treatment. I hope I did the right
procedure to the right one.. |
|
13 May 2014
(Tuesday) - More Stuff
Despite (or perhaps because of) over
six hours sleep with CPAP nozzles up my conk I woke shortly before 6am with a
rather sore nose. Over brekkie I
started watching the second season of "Game of Thrones"; I
still can't work out what "Blondie-dragongirl"
brings to the plot other than her two impressive attractions (which she
flops out with entertaining regularity). But it passed a bit of time
whilst I scoff my toast. With toast scoffed "Furry Face TM"
moved from his basket (where he was sleeping) and jumped onto my lap (where
he carried on sleeping). As I drove to work the morning's news on
the radio wound me up. There was a spokesman from the National Association of
British Midwives (or whatever they call themselves) who claimed that
the latest Government directive was a wonderful thing. The most recent advice
for mothers-to-be is to have their babies in midwife-led centres or at
home because (according to the latest research) the risk of complications is
just the same as having a baby in a hospital, and the implication was that
these were cheaper than traditional hospitals. The radio then wheeled out another expert (I
didn't catch who it was) who claimed that this same research actually
said no such thing. This chap argued that this report showed that there was
actually double the risk of serious harm to newborns
and mothers delivered in midwife-led centres or at home compared to those
born in hospital wards. The Government-sponsored pundit experts then glossed
over the details of this report, and tried to rubbish his critic; all the
time seeming to be oblivious to the fact that having babies is a dangerous
game. Clearly no one had told him that mothers to be are not interested in
dry Government reports; people just want what's safest for all concerned. I have no idea which of the two theories
was right or wrong; all I can say is that if I am going to do anything with
the potential of being life-threatening (like having a baby) I'd
rather do it in the general vicinity of lots of medical assistance. And as
for having a baby at home... anyone who advocates that has clearly never seen
a baby being born. It's a messy process. (Over the next few months I will have
something of a vested interest in the subject of squeezing littluns out). And then my piss really did boil about the
news that many fraud trials are about to collapse because barristers claim they
aren't getting
enough money to make it worth their while getting off their arses and rolling
into court. Apparently the judicary
are up in arms that because people can't afford barristers and bearing in
mind that legal aid won't stump up, many people are unable to get competent
legal defence when accused of crimes and misdemeanours. I could see that the pundits were missing
the point here; the point being that the whole judicial system clearly needs
a serious review and shake-up so that it is actually available to the average
man in the street. We need a scheme which doesn't necessitate being beholden
to over-paid wig-wearers that none of us can afford. As it was on my way I got some petrol from Morrisons in Canterbury (which is once more slightly
cheaper than Ashford's cheapest) and then went on to work. I say "work";
perhaps I could have put myself out more than I did. Mind you, there's no
denying that in the last week or so that I have been getting more sleep I've
also been a lot more tired during the day. Sax practice went reasonably well. I've got
to get better at slurring notes (when required); teacher says I'm
rather lax on that issue. I started on two new tunes today; I'm reasonably
happy with the start I've made on "Joshua", but "Yankee
Doodle" needs more work. After forty minutes squawking away in the
car park I realised I'd actually given myself jaw-ache. I don't know it that
is good or bad in sax-playing circles. Home, and I walked
"Furry Face TM" round the park. It looked like it
had rrained heavily; theere
were puddles everywhere. But it stayed dry for us; it was a lovely evening. Then it was on to the Admiralty where the
talk was of which lady sci-fi actresses had maintained moral standards, and
which ex-Cylons had "flopped
them out for artistic reasons". I was shocked. I was even more
shocked as we watched old episodes of "Doctor Who"; as I've
mentioned before it's not a show which has really stood the test of time. Oh, and Binks made himself
comfortable on the laptop... |
|
14 May 2014
(Wednesday) - 10p
Another good night's sleep; I'm slowly
getting used to having air forced up my conk for most of the night. I go to
bed and put on the CPAP machine and it gently wafts air into my beak. As the
night goes on and my airways close up so the thing gradually increases the
air flow. When I wake (seven hours later!!!!) the thing is blowing at
seemingly hurricane force. Bearing in mind that when I woke today the thing
was blowing harder than I ever could, it's hardly surprising I was waking
every night. I watched more "Game of Thrones"
over brekkie. It's a good enough show; the plot and
acting are good. Does it really need all the nudity and sex scenes as well? (Or
am I just getting more and more puritanical as I get older?) And with my
toast alternately scoffed and fed to "Furry Face TM"
I checked out the Internet. I've had a friend request via Facebook. A
rather attractive young lady by the name of Therese Tierney wants to be my
cyber-friend. On the one hand I like to be sociable; after all there have
been so many times when I have taken a chance, said hello to someone new, and
started many special friendship. On the other hand I don't recognise this
person's name or face, and I have absolutely no idea who this person is, or
in what way she might know me. I seem to have no friends in common with
her; and from what I can work out she seems to be based in Southern Ireland.
I wonder who she is... I stopped off in Asda on my way to work. A
few years ago I would pop in to Asda on my way to work every day; now it's
months since I was last there. But needs must; as I was scoffing brekkie earlier I'd realised that my "flowers and
frolics" were cold. The material of my jim-jams had worn through in
a particularly vital spot and I was "hanging out". New
jim-jams were needed. Urgently. I got some new undercrackers
as well; I've had something of a high attrition rate on the elastic of those
recently. And then on to work. As I drove there was
an article being broadcast about and from one of Google's
new robot cars. Still experimental, the car was
doing all the driving, taking the developer and the
interviewer on a tour around somewhere or other (I didn't catch where).
The car was generally reacting as it should to road conditions, and has
apparently been judged safer than a human driver (by various independent
tests). The chap being interviewed seemed to think
that driverless robot cars would be commonplace within ten years. There was
then an interesting question posed.... given that a robotic car is demonstrably
safer than the one I drive about (because it's me driving it as opposed to
a computer) how much cheaper would the insurance on one be? Or more
realistically given that robotic cars will probably be insured at much the
same rates as cars of today are, how much more will we have to pay for the
insurance for a traditional "self-drive" car in years to come? Personally I'm amazed that self-driving
cars weren't developed years ago. This article made my
piss boil. Apparently not content with the abysmal standard of behaviour and
attainment in our schools, the crackpot educational theorists have decided
that asking children to show respect to their teachers is making the brats
depressed. It's been suggested that children no longer call teachers
"Sir" or "Miss", but should address teachers by their
first names. Call me old fashioned if you will, but the
sooner we get back to proper discipline in schools the sooner we'll have
school leavers who can read and write, and we'll have a decent society again. I did my bit at work, blew my sax badly,
and came home. For a change of scenery me and "Furry
Face TM" went round Frog's Island for our evening walk.
It took much the same time, and as we were walking I found a ten pence piece
on the pavement. That was a result. Once home I gave "Furry Face TM"
his tea, and I got five gallons of best bitter on the go. There's a camping
weekend on the horizon. In years gone by I've spent over eighty quid on a
weekend's beer. Now I spend less than a tenner and get more for my money.
More quantitatively; qualitatively is arguable... |
|
15 May 2014
(Thursday) - Rants and Pants
Last night I set a
bucket of beer fermenting; this morning I was very pleased to find
fermentation was in full flow. I did dull chores, then fed most of my toast
to "Furry Face TM" as I watched my early morning
fix of telly. I didn't watch
"Game of Thrones" over brekkie
this morning; instead I caught up on this week's episode of "The
Tomorrow People". There's no denying that his show could learn from Game
of Thrones"; if Tomorrow People are going to do nudey
prod-games, they would do them far more effectively by removing their pants
first like they do in Game of Thrones". Not that I'm advocating nudey prod-games. I also had enough
time for this week's episode of "Derek"; another show which
most people seem to have missed, but is not too shabby at all. After brekkie-telly I checked out the Internet; social media
again amazed me. Intelligent and reasonable people were once more posting
frankly nonsensical gibberish about the supposed efficacy of crackpot
pseudo-medical remedies. If sucking kiwi-fruit or drinking bleach really
did cure cancer, then cancer would never be the terrible problem that it is. (If anyone
thinks I'm being facetious about drinking bleach, see my rant on 18 April
2011which was inspired by a relative who, having been taken in by the
crackpot herbalists, actually was drinking bleach on a regular basis for
alleged medicinal reasons - even though every mouthful made him throw up) And as for the
conspiracy theories which suggest that these herbal (so-called)
remedies are being suppressed by the pharmaceutical industry... (takes a deep breath). If rubbing pineapples
on your arse really did prevent cancer, then the pharmaceutical industry
would never have been created in the first place. It would be arse-pineapples
rather than pharmaceuticals which would be a billion pound industry. (Dur
!!) And so to work; in
my new undercrackers; I quite like them. It's
rather sad when new undercrackers are one of the
highlights of an otherwise dull day. Mind you I'm not sure that my new socks
are of quite the same calibre; they look rather flimsy and insubstantial. The morning's news
on the radio was rather worrying As part of the ongoing international
posturing over events in the Ukraine, Russia has raised the possibility of
its withdrawing its involvement with the International Space Station. That's
an interesting position to take; does the rest of the world realise that at
the moment (and for the foreseeable future) Russia is the only country
with the capability to actually get to the I.S.S.? Am I being cynical
in wondering if Russia actually realises this.? They
could annex the I.S.S. and no one could do a thing
about it.. I did my bit at
work; and at lunchtime I had my sax practice. I'm trying the tunes teacher
set me; I'm struggling a little. "Yankee Doodle" is supposed
to be a fast and uplifting melody; I've transformed it into a dirge. And
squawky notes are getting more and more commonplace. But, as they say,
practice makes perfect. Eventually. Home, and with
"Furry Face TM" walked I came home and nearly
collapsed. I don't feel particularly well; I wonder if I'm sickening for
something. I think I might have an early night... Perhaps some of my
loyal readers might be able to suggest a herbal
tonic... |
|
16 May 2014
(Friday) - Sore Nose
Not too good a night's sleep last night.
Whilst certainly better than nights gone by, the CPAP device is making my
nose painfully sore. I wonder how much longer I can put up with the thing.
There was talk of referral to an ENT sugeon to
re-bore my sinuses; I shall have to chase that up. Over brekkie I
watched "Game of Thrones"; there was no sign of "Blondie
Dragon-Girl" or of her ample bosom in this morning's episode. Mind
you the latest actress to join the cast "flopped
them out"; there seems to be no shortage of that in this show. And for once I got all of my toast to
myself; "Furry Face TM" was busy with his bone. As I drove to work I couldn't beleive what I heard on the radio. As India elects
a new Prime Minister there was consternation expresed
by the Indian Muslim community because the new Prime Minister has allegedly
got a strong anti-Islamic bias. Apparently a sizeable proportion of the
Indian population are fearing serious reprisals for
their religious beleifs. But before anyone gets too upset for these
Muslims, in other parts of the world a Government made up of other adherents
of Islam have given a death
sentence to a pregnant woman. Her crime - she's decided to change her
religion. A matter of piddling triviality in
civilisation is (quite literally) a matter of life and death out in the
boondocks I've said it before; I'll say it again. how can educated people in positions of authority in the
twenty-first century still give such importance to religion? And I must admit I was just a little bit
annoyed at the reports
from Turkey. Hundreds of miners are trapped underground. Government
ministers are being pelted by rocks over the matter. Why? If it were a
state-owned mine then it would be fair to hold the Government to account. But
it's not; the mine is run by a private company. Do people still not
understand the vital difference between state ownership and free enterprise? At lunchtime I went to the far end of the
car park and squwarked on my saxophone. there are rather too many bum notes. Teacher says it's due
to my loose embouchure (!)... I wonder if I could get a flatter
mouthpiece that I could get my trap round easier. Once home I popped round to collect my
strimmer; "My Boy TM" had borrowed it. And with
strimmer collected I found myself home alone. Needing something to scoff I went foragiing in the general
direction of the KFC, and then spent the rest of the evening on dull
domesticity whilst watching more episodes of "Game of Thrones"... |
|
17 May 2014
(Saturday) - The Devil's Dyke
An early start saw
us on the road by 8am. Had I realised that Ditchling
was only aa stone's throw from Brighton we would
have gone cross country, but we trustede the sat-nav and went the long way via motorway.We
were making good time until we met road works on the A23. We were only a few
minutes late meeting Dave. We met up at the
Devil's Dyke; one of the highest points in Sussex. And we went for a little
walk. Some wonderful scenery, breathtaking views.
And a couple of geocaches too... We walked down into
the valley where we found a rather posh pub; the Royal Oak, annd sat in their garden for a beer or two. We then
climbed all the way back up the hill (it was a *long* clmb)
only to find we't taken the wrong path. So we came
back down again. Once finally back
at the car we had ice creams and flew kites for a bit before making our way (albeit
rather circuitously) back to Dave's for a few beers and a barby. Simon and Corinne joined us for the evening. The
beer flowed and it all became rather vague... |
|
18 May 2014
(Sunday) - Happy as a Pig in ...
Being on holiday
I'd not brought my CPAP machine. Perhaps I shold
have. Despite a belly full of beer I slept for less than four hours. I read my kindle
app for a bit, but everyone was soon awake, and after a rather good brekkie scoffed in the garden we set off to Shoreham for
a guided geo-walk. Road works meant we had to adjust our starting point
somewhat, but we were up hill and down dale. As we walked we saw skylarks and
hawks, foxes and peacocks. We even rescued a lost rambler (the Bread
Pudding Man). There was a minor
hiccup as I mistook a pig farm for an airport, and a rather good two pints of
ale to be had in the Red Lion at Shoreham's toll bridge, and all too soon it
was time to come home. With keys finally found we collected "Furry
Face TM" from "My Boy TM" and
came home for a rather good bit of curry... I
took one hundred photos whilst we were away |
|
19 May 2014
(Monday) - Never Confused
Despite a rather physically challenging
weekend spent going up and down the South Downs I didn't sleep as well as I
thought I might last night. But I slept better than I have done over the last
year or so; I suppose in the New World Order of CPAP blowing air up my nose,
five hours sleep is good. I got up, cleaned out a beer barrel and got
it sterilising in readiness for later, and then watched more "Game of
Thrones" over brekkie. It's quite a good
show with plausible characters, but it's getting rather tricky to keep count
of who has porked who. And I do wonder just how
long they can maintain such a high death rate among the leading characters. To work; I listened to the news as I drove.
My piss boiled whe I heard that crackpots are going
to allow children (some as young as nine years old) to choose
to take drugs which will delay the onset of puberty so that they can
decide whether to grow up as they were born to, or whether they want to
undergo gender reassignment procedures before hormones make nature's choice
for them. You really have to question whether
whatever half-wit came up with this idea has ever actually spent any time in
the company of nine year old children. Whilst I am all in favour of non discrimination against anyone over matters of gender
and sexuality, the idea of trying to ask such serious questions of a nine
year old is frankly ridiculous. There was another rather
laughable article about a competition/challenge (with a ten million
pound prize) prize being launched to solve one of the greatest scientific
problems facing the world today. That problem being.... well, the competition
organisers don't know what the greatest scientific problems facing the world
today actually are. But (to their credit) they are going to stage a public consultation to get
some suggestions. Bearing in mind that the public being asked
is the same public which holds "X-Factor" and "Britain's
Got Talent" in such high regard, I dread to think which matter of
piddling triviality will be declared to be the greatest scientific problem
facing the world today. However I suspect that if the public are to
be asked, it will involve Ant and Dec. The Leader of the Opposition was then interviewed live on the
radio. He was blathering on about proposed increases to the minimum wage.
In years gone by (as a confirmed leftie) I would have applauded his
every word. Nowadays... I suppose he means well. But I've no idea what he was
actually saying; I wasn't paying attention. He didn't hold my attention. On reflection I suppose the Prime Minister
also means well and he doesn't hold my attention either. (I won't extend
my leniency to the Deputy Prime minister...) I stopped off in Morrisons
for some apples and bananas. I got some armpit-squirt too. Morrison's own
stuff was less than half the price of the posh brands, so my pits will be
Morrison flavoured for the next few weeks. Shaving gel was BOGOF so I got loads of that. We all like a bit of BOGOF. To work, where I did some (work, that is).
At lunchtime I went off to the car park and had my sax practice. Oh dear.. As I got my sax out I was harangued by a
gaggle of passing Eastern Europeans who demanded to know why I hadn't got a
parking ticket stuck on my car. I explained that we were in a staff car park
and that I had a staff parking permit. My foreign friends demanded to be told
where they could get a staff parking permit. I told them. They didn't like
what I said. They weren't at all impressed by the fact that the permits were
only available to staff; they really didn't like that you have to pay for
said permits. It transpired that these people resented having to pay to use
the regular car park, and they thought it discriminatory that those who
didn't want to pay to go in the regular car park couldn't park for free in
the staff car park. I suggested they might whinge to senior
management and sent them off in the general direction of the other end of the
hospital. I then practiced various tunes rather badly for half an hour, and
just as I was packing up I got a torrent of abuse from a young mother with a
toddler. She claimed that the toddler had just toddled all the way (she
never did say from where) to come to listen to me, and how dare I pack up
just as the audience was forming. I took a deep breath and explained politely
that I was only practicing; not performing. And also that my sax playing is
rather dreadful at best. However in the interests of keeping the pubic sweet
I offered to give the littlun a private rendition.
I asked the kiddie if he would like that and he burst into tears and buried
his head in his mother's skirt. It was at that point that I walked away. Once home I took "Furry Face TM"
for a walk. It was a beautiful evening; today had been the hottest day of the
year so far, and Ashford had been the third hottest place in the UK today. We
went round the park. Once "er
indoors TM" set off bowling I got the latest batch of
beer into the barrel, and sat down to watch more "Game of Thrones".
"Blondie Dragon-girl" is long overdue a flopping-out... |
|
20 May 2014 (Tuesday)
- On The Radio
Over brekkie I
watched more "Game of Thrones"; I'm now on to the third
season. Mind you I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with the way the plot is
going. It started off as a medieval punch-up; now it's becoming more and more
"The Adventures of Harry Potter's many-greats Grandad".
As I drove to work the news told of how the
terrorist cleric Abu Hamza has finally been found
guilty of his crimes by a court of law. This chap has been a prominent terrorist
and advocate of terrorism for many years, and finally justice has been done.
However it does seem odd that having delivered a "Guilty"
verdict, the court won't actually do any sentencing until September. It is also rather strange that there had to
be a legal wrangle taking many years to get him to stand trial in an American
court for his crimes of having murdered British people. I suppose that
bearing in mind the shambolic nature of British courts (about which I have
blogged countless times) the fact that he is clearly guilty of several
atrocities means that a British court would let him off without question. And
would then award him damages as a compensation for his inconvenience. Every morning I gripe about what I hear on
the radio. In the mornings I hear some of the radio show on Radio Four; as I
drive home in the evening I hear hardly any of it; the reception is terrible
along the A28, and has been for some time. Oddly the problem seems to be
confined to Radio Four - I've never had a problem tuning in to any other
radio station along that road. I've noticed this on the radios of four
different cars over the last ten (or more) years. Today Radio Four's reception was
particularly bad; I could hardly hear a thing. I twiddled the dial and found
half a dozen other radio stations from which I got perfect reception. I
wonder what is the problem with Radio Four. I phoned
the BBC to let them know that there is something specifically up with the Radio
Four transmitter. They couldn't care less. I would change my radio allegiance in
protest if not for the fact that most of the other radio stations are just
not the same. I received an email. And my piss boiled. (It
does that) Every month the local geocachers
have a meet-up which is usually in a pub somewhere in the county. I've
volunteered to host the August meet-up and thought that rather than going to
a pub we might meet at Viccie Park and have a
picnic. After all the
pub's not cheap, and a picnic in the sun would be fun. Geo-rules say I need to have formal
permission to use Viccie Park, so I sent an email
off to the council. They replied. They are happy for us to use the park, but
if I put up a gazebo to keep the sun off, or put up the county geo-banner I
must first show them my public liability insurance. I've been trying to think of somewhere that
isn't council land. The Forestry Commission people won't reply to my
overtures. We'll go back to the pub, eh? With Furry Face TM"
walked we set off to Somerset Road for the weekly gathering where I slept
through an episode of "Merlin". I used to like that show;
it's geting to be rather samey now... |
|
21 May 2014
(Wednesday) - The Two Year Mission
I had booked a day off work today. So with
no need to be up early I was watching "Game of Thrones" and
"Life's Too Short" before 6am. I suppose I shouldn't
grumble; in days gone by it would have been before 4am. With this CPAP thing
blowing air up my nose I am getting (probably) two more hours sleep
every night. Mind you I am feeling far more tired now I'm getting this extra
sleep. I then spent a little while doing a little
maintenance on my lap-top. It's not the fastest of machines, and for all that
I am so quick to tell everyone else to scan for .tmp
files and to defragment regularly, it turned out I'd done neither on my
lap-top for over a year. To the dentist; after all this was the
reason for my having a day off. Just a check-up today; I sat in the hot-seat
to find that the dentist has instigated a new scheme. As part of the check-up
you get a little bit of paaper giving you your
"oral health score" (whatever that is). I got 94%
which I am told is quite good. I quickly mowed the lawn, and we then made
the most of our day off. First of all a quick drive out to New Romney. A mult-geocache had gone live yesterday and was still
waiting to be found for the first time. After a quick search we got to do the
happy dance as we claimed joint FTF bragging
rights. If a "normal" cache goes live locally it is found
within minutes. But no one bothers chasing First to Find on multis. We then drove up to Peasmarsh
where we took "Furry Face TM" round the woods and
found another ten geocaches. They were rather beautiful woods; somewhere we'd
never have found if not for the hunt for plastic boxes. From there we made our way to Four Oaks
where we had a rather good spot of lunch in the Rose
and Crown. We then went on something of a mission.
There was a puzzle geocache nearby.
I'd spotted the conundrum nearly two years ago. It was Star Trek - themed.
I'd been trying to solve this one for nearly two years, and last week (after
just the teensiest hint) I figured out the answer. So as we were in the area we had to go get
this one. As we walked back to the car so the rain
started. The rest of the plans for the day went out the window and we came
home. Via the cake shop. Once home I had an email. Yesterday I said
that the Forestry Commission weren't replying to me. I was being hasty. They
have replied and they are very happy for me to stage a geo-picnic in Orlestone woods. I'm pleased about that. There's no denying
the whole geo-picnic subject boiled my piss last night. I'd mentioned the problems I was having on
a geo-forum, and several people gave reasonable and sensible replies. That
really wound me up; everyone was utterly missing the point. The point being
that there is no room for common sense when dealing with petty bureaucracy.
Over the years I have come to find out (the hard way) that if someone
with a rule book says that black is white, then you
should just grit your teeth and accept it. There is no point in trying to
reason, argue or discuss. When dealing with that person, black *is*
white. But nil desperandum;
the day is saved and we are "all systems go" for geo-picnic. |
|
22 May 2014
(Thursday) - Election Day
I had a terrible night's sleep; the CPAP
machine is all very well for pushing air through constricted airways, but it
can't do anything when those airways are completely blocked. So I was up and
watching "Game of Thrones" before 5am. I then watched "Derek",
and nearly cried; it was rather sad when his dog was put to sleep. To work; as always listening to Radio Four
through the crackling and fizzing of the bad reception. The opera world
is up in arms because the latest star of Glyndebourne is (apparently)
too fat. She's only fifteen years old; I would have thought that the critics
would have had the common decency not to have been so personal and nasty
about the poor girl. The star of the opera world Dame Kiri
Te Kanawa was interviewed
about the matter on today's radio show. She was furious; and I agreed with
her. There are enough youngsters going anorexic for no decent reason without
pompous privileged windbags upsetting more of them. And the Police Federation weren't very
happy either. The Home Secretary has made a speech to them telling them
that one person in three actively distrusts the police, and that if they
don't get their act together, then Parliament will do it for them. I've often said that the motivations of
anyone seeking to join the Police Force should be seriously questioned.
Whilst there certainly are good coppers, there is a school of thought which
says that anyone who actively wants to be a policeman shouldn't be allowed
that power. Long ago I came to the conclusion that the best way to police the
country is like they do in the Channel Islands where there is a very small
permanent police force which is bolstered by members of the public each
effectively being "called up for National Service" and
acting as a police officer for two years at a time. Much the same "call-up"
system might be a better way to run the country rather than the current way
we choose our politicians. After all just consider how many of those have
recently been shown to be in power only to feather their own nests. And (perhaps
more worrying) consider just how many people went into the polling
stations today with no idea at all of for whom or what they were voting? Something which has become rather painfully
obvious over the last few days is that the vast majority of the electorate
had absolutely no idea about the choices for which they had to vote at
today's election. Here's a brief summary of what I could have voted for. I had the choice of no less than fifteen
political parties:
I'll let my loyal readers work out for
themselves which was which. And I hope my loyal readers decided for
themselves which to vote for. However I'll relate a few observations which
influenced my vote.
As for myself I certainly voted. I
seriously considered spoiling the ballot paper again, but instead I went with
my heart. Racism and joke parties were out. As were wanton greed and
unashamed opportunism. I seriously toyed with the tree huggers, but it's only
been four days since several people told me of four people they honestly beleived to be dead as a direct result of tree-hugger policies.
In the end I went for the less militant variety of well-intentioned
incompetence. I hope I made the right choice. History has shown that it rarely has been
in the past.. |
|
23 May 2014
(Friday) - A Wedding
There was a minor
disaster this morning; only three slices of bread left. So I made my sandwich
for lunch with two of them and had the slice left over for my toast. When "er indoors TM" gripes about where all
the bread went I shall tell her that "Furry Face TM"
ate it and let him take the flack. That dog can do no wrong in her eyes, so
everyone will be happy. Having watched
telly and checked out social media I navigated my way to my car. Being
dustbin day the recycling bins had been intricately strewn across the
pavements in such a way as to ensure maximum inconvenience to all
pedestrians. It's actually easier to shove the bins back where they came from
rather then putting them here there and everywhere,
but the bin men delight in leaving carnage in their wake. They also seem to
enjoy scattering loads of litter from the bins that "accidentally"
falls out along the way. To work. The
pundits on the radio were holding a post-mortem on the results of yesterday's
election. The parties of wanton greed and shameless opportunism had their
arses handed to them on a plate. Well intentioned incompetence did better
than had been expected, but the overall winner would seem to be racism. The pundits were
questioning whether racism was actually a winning policy, or whether it was
just a form of protest. I cannot help but hope that this current trend of
voting for blatant racism is just that - a protest. Mind you it's a protest
that I hope that won't be repeated at next year's elections (which actually
count for something). This form of protest vote could end up being akin to
crapping the bed in protest at something which is going on three streets
away, and then having to lay in a crapped bed. And to those of my
loyal readers who think I should shut my rattle about things political... I
sympathise, but cannot help but see several historical parallels between
these elections and what went on about ninety years ago. (What am I on
about? - Read some history !!) The radio also
featured an interview with Stewart Copeland,
drummer of "The Police" Apparently he's not
only a drummer but he's a composer too. And he was talking about becoming a
conductor too. After all, as he said, a conductor is only a drummer using
just one stick. He gave quite an
interesting interview really. Home, and with
"Furry Face TM" walked we put on our glad rags
and went up to the Elwick Club. There was a rather
serious gathering of the clans for a wedding reception. It was a really good
party; the band were rather good; and I am reliably
informed their guest vocalist was in a field of his own (and sounds better
in a field on his own). After a little while it all became rather vague,
as is always the case when one or two are gathered together. I shall be rough in
the morning... |
|
24 May 2014
(Saturday) - 40th Party
Despite CPAP technology blasting air up my
nostrils at huricane force and despite the
soporific effects of six pints of Doombar (supplimented by a couple of bottles of light ale) I was
wide awake and watching boobie-dumplings annd weeners in "Game
of Thrones" shortly after 5am this morning. I was on the G.P.s
doorstep as they opened at 8.30am. The reason I don't sleep is because I have
sleep apnoea; I stop breathing whilst I'm asleep. I do that because I can't breath because my nasal passages
bung up. The CPAP machine does its best, but it is only palliative. The cure
for my problem is to have an E.N.T. surgeon rebore the bit from the top of my conk to the back of my
throat. I told the G.P. that on 29 November. She sent
me to the sleep clinic (which was all very good) and the sleep clinic
agreed with me. They actually wrote to the G.P. andd said I should be referred to an E.N.T.
surgeon. The G.P. claimed never to have seen that
letter. Fortunately the sleep clinic had sent me a copy, so I gave a copy of
the copy to the G.P. today, and reminded them that
under NHS guidelines and standards I could expect to see an E.N.T. surgeon within six months of my first approaching
the G.P. I also reminded them that they had five days
left, and three of those were in a long Bank Holiday weekend. I don't like being rude and obnoxious, but
sometimes being "Mr Nice Guy" just doesn't work. "Robin Huss" arrived, and
we made our way to the Brookfield Road cafe where we met up with Sarah and Steve, and (after having done a tour of Ashford) by
Terry and Irene as well. We all had a rather good fry-up. You can't beat a
good fry-up after a night on the beer. It was really good to meet up with friends
we see all too infrequently; but goodbyes were said, and then Steve and I
went down to the Denverarium to put up the astro club's new event shelter. I say "new";
it arrived last October and has stayed in the bag in one of the lock-ups
until now. We got the thing up in a surprisingly short period of time. It
looks good; I'm pleased with it. It was then time for this week's sax
lesson. Teacher seems reasonably pleased with my progress; this week we've
broached the tricky subject of E-sharp and the little finger. And with sax
lesson saxed we went up town for a little bit of
shopping. Whilst there a thunderstorm hit, and we did our good samaritan bit. A wheelchair-bound little old lady was
trying to get a taxi home. Every taxi driver refused to take her, and left
her in the torrential rain. It was more than their jobs were worth to take
someone in a wheelchair (apparently), so we gave her
a lift to Kennington. We came home via posh shopping in Sainsburys and a flying visit to "Pets at Home"
for dog requisites. Once home we had coffee and cake for tea;
being still rather stuffed from the earlier fry-up. I checked out the
internet; I lost count of the comments about "typical English weather"
which had been prompted by half an hour of rain. Has everyone really
forgotten the glorious weather we've had recently? And then it was back down to Park Farm for
a fortieth birthday party. Ale was sunk, insults bandied... two consecutive
evenings of excess; can't be bad... |
|
25 May 2014
(Sunday) - Family Day Out
Despite CPAP technology blasting air up my
nostrils at huricane force and despite the
soporific effects of six pints of assorted ales last night I was again wide
awake and watching boobie-dumplings and weeners in "Game of Thrones" shortly
after 5am this morning. For all that CPAP technology does give me more sleep, it's still nowhere near enough. After three hours
of telly I went back to bed for a couple of hours. I can't usually do that. "My Boy TM"
arrived with his entourage and we set off to Folkestone where we met up with
"Daddies Little Angel TM"
at the coastal park. A picnic in the sunshine, a spuddle
in the sea, fun in the play park, an ice cream and then home. As we drove
home we became aware of a rather foul odour. "Furry Face TM"
had the aroma of a three-week dead cod. Presumably he'd been rolling in one
on the beach. We came home via Orlestone
for geo-reasons. Without wanting to go into too much detail, much of the Wheri-Planning I'd done in the week was based on what I
thought was a public car park. It turned out that what looked like a public
car park on aeriel view maps was actually someone's
back garden, and all my calculations were hundreds of yards out. Woops! Home; where a certain dog was bathed. And
having then fallen in the fish pond he was then bathed again. "er indoors TM"
set off bowling and I watched more "Game of Thrones" whilst
ironing shirts and sorting undercrackers. I'll be off to bed in a miinute.
My infernal nose is still blocked on one side. It has been all weekend. I shaan't sleep much agian. This is becoming a nuisance... |
|
26 May 2014
(Monday) - Nineteen Point Two Miles Of.....
After two terrible nights I slept from 11pm
last night right through till 6.30am this morning. I was rather pleased about
that. For the first time in ages I wasn't wide awake and wasting time
watching telly for hours whilst waiting for the rest of the world to wake up. I did have a quick look at the news this
morning. The election results are in. The winner is.... well, I think the
polls are deceptive. With only one third of the electorate bothering to
vote, I can't help but feel that the resounding winner of the recent European
election is apathy. Why did so few people vote? Were there no candidtes worth voting for, or did people *really*
not understand what they were voting for? After all, how many of the noisy UKIP voters actually realised that sending them all back
on the next banana boat goes hand in hand with privatising the NHS? And so on with our walk. Every weekend we
go off geocaching with the dogs. It's a good hobby; it's always a clearly
marked guided walk. Today was different... Should the Cache Owner of today's
series ever read this I'm sorry for any offence caused.
It is not my intention to be rude. I realise a lot of effort goes into
preparing a geo-walk. But... We drove quite a long way away today. We
went to the furthest reaches of Essex to do a series of fifty geoocaches. Billed as "a core circular walk of
about 8 miles ..... For the more adventurous there are also two loops",
I looked at the map. The two loops were quite small in comparison to the main
walk. And so bearing in mind that the distance of geo-walks is always
under-estimated I expeected
a total walk of about ten to twelve miles. So we set off. We saw an adder. We listened to skylarks. We admired quite beatiful scenery. But... despite GPS technology we struggled
to find our way. Footpaths were not maintained on today's walk. We found
several footpath signs pointing into jungles which were over six feet high
with weeds and nettles. Many of the geocache sites were found today by
blindly following the GPS arrow rather than attempting to use non-existant footpaths. And the geocaches themselves... I'm all for
a tricky hide. But fifty of them in one series? A
series of caches along a path should be just that - along a path. Under a
rock, in the bole of a tree. Not ten yards deep in inpenetrable thickets. Especially not when there are
plenty of obvious hides. For example when faced with a footpath signpost, the
obious place for a cache is at the base of that
signpost. Not six feet away under a brick which is surrrounded by nettles which are four feet high. There's no denying that the raiin didn't help; we did get rather wet. We got back to
the car rather later than planned; the car being at the start of one of the
optional extra loops of the series. In retrospect we should have gone home
there and then. But I for one wanted to see all of the series; surely it
couldn't all be that bad... So we did the final loop. (And got soaked) Part of finding a cache involves a hint.
"Up a tree", "under a rock". One cache described
as being "waist height" was in the roots of a tree. Another
described as being "low down" was chest height in a tree.
One of them involved me forcing my way through one hundred yards of jungle
with no paths to be seen anywhere. We went expecting a walk of ten to twelve
miles; the recorded distance at the end was nineteen point two miles. I'd
hoped to finish sometime in the late afternoon; we got home at 11pm. I realise that someone somewhere put a lot
of effort into preparing today's walk. But (I'm sorry to say) I cannot
recommend it to anyone... But, as always, I
took a few photos whilst we were out. If nothing else it was rather scenic. |
|
27 May 2014
(Tuesday) - Squawking
Despite a rather arduous day and a late
night yesterday I was still awake at 5am this morning. Finding our walking
boots still rather damp from yesterday's hike I popped them all into the
tumble dryer for an hour. They didn't make quite as much noise as I thought
they might. I wonder if the tumble dryer will be good for anything now. There was a minor hiccup over brekkie; on Saturday I'd bought a new load of jam (I
like jam); today I couldn't find the stuff, so instead I roughed it with
marmalade on my toast. "Furry Face TM" didn't
help me eat the crusts; he didn't stir from his basket at all. He too was
feeling the burn after yesterday's miles of walking. As I scoffed brekkie
I watched "Game of Thrones". There's not may
episodes of that left in the Sky-box's box set selection. Probably just as
well; today's episode saw the death of pretty much all of the good guys. And so to work through a rather damp
morning. The news bore little of note. The Prime Minister is sulking after
his drubbing at the
recent elections, but nowhere near as much as the Deputy Prime Minister
is sulking. The Pope is again apologizing for the failings
of the Catholic Church and is promising that the child abuse scandals
won't happen again. One of his critics was being interviewed who claimed that
a convicted paedophile is still in office as a bishop somewhere in America.
If this is true then it looks like His Holiness has a golden opportunity to
put his money where his mouth is. I stopped off at Morrison's on my way to
work; as well as the errant jam I'd also run out of coffee and sugar. Since I
was last there Morrison's had moved everything about in their store. I wish
they wouldn't do that. And then on to work for an early start. I've not had
one of those for a few months; I quite like the early start. Over lunch time I had a sax practice. Rain
meant I was practicing whilst sitting in the car. Something wasn't right;
there was far too much squawking. Sometimes my sax is really squawky, and
other times not. I wish I could figure out what causes the racket. As I drove home the pundits on the radio
were discussing the first appearence of Rolf
Harris in court defending himself. Among the
allegations levelled against him are misdemeanors
he supposedly committed whilst filing the celebrity "It's a Knockout"
in 1975. In his defence Mr Harris pointed out that he wasn't actually
involved in that show. I did smile about that. If I was going to cry in court
and pretend that some celebrity had fiddled me forty years ago, I'd at least
have the sense to find a celebrity who'd been in my general vicinity during
the time about which I was going to make up stories. Are we going to see yet another celebrity
sex case to be exposed for the shallow attempt to extort money from the
famous? I expect so. Once home I took "Furry Face TM"
for a quick walk, and then I got my sax out again. It went incredibly well. I
have now formulated a theory. I rarely squawk at sax lessons. I get to
lessons early and suck my reed for quite some time before. This evening I was
sucking like a good 'un for some time before blowing. At lunch times I have
very little sucking time. I shall take my reed into work tomorrow and suck it
on the way to the car at lunchtime. Let's see what a good suck can do. |
|
28 May 2014
(Wednesday) - This n That
I had seven hours sleep last night. That
can’t be bad. After a swift brekkie I took "Furry
Face TM" round the park. I had two intentions in doing
this. Firstly walking "Furry Face TM" is always a
good thing to do as that dog does get fractious if he is not walked to
destruction. And secondly I wanted to see if my walking shoes had survived
two separate episodes in the tumble-drier yesterday. At first I thought they
might have shrunk a little, but they seem none the worse for their ordeal;
even if the heel of the right one does seem to squelch a little. Whilst we were in the park we met Bernie.
In a spirit of well-meaning camaraderie I set my dog on him. "Furry
Face TM" woofed for a bit and ran in circles. That dog
really needs to work on his "attack mode"; he's not very
good at it. We came home and I had a go at the monthly
accounts. Not good; not bad. There is an overspend of
an odd £18.66 that I can’t explain, but such is life. I did dull laundry, and
then spent some more time on next month’s presentation for the astro club. It’s so long since I put the thing together
that I can’t really remember much of what I had in mind, but it is too late
in the day to start a major re-working of the slides. I shall just blag my way through, and at
the parts where I have no idea what the slides are about I shall allude to
"space rock thingies" and shout "Uranus".
It usually works; it has done so far. And so to work some three hours later than
usual (as I'm now doing early and late shifts). I went via the home
brew shop to get the makings of a fruit beer for the summer party. The shop
was closed; and it was a quarter of an hour after the time they were supposed
to open. Looking through the window they didn't seem to have much stock. I
wonder if they've closed down for good? I suppose
all the time you can buy the basic beer-making stuff in Wilkos
at half the price they are charging they won't stay in business for long. Realising I'd forgotten to make a sandwich
for lunch I popped into the Cheapo Bargains shop. I've missed that place.
They do some quality tat. I then went on to work; and being a few
minutes early I set up my music stand at the far end of the car park and had
a practice squawk before I went on duty. After a few minutes of making a rather
awful racket an officious-looking chap (brandishing a clip board)
marched up and asked if I knew that I was in a designated staff car park. I
assured him that I did, and I carried on practicing my saxophone. After a few
seconds he stomped off. Perhaps I should have told him I had a
parking permit. I also had a second practice session over
my lunch break (just before the rain started). I'm quite pleased with
my rendition of "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain"; even
if my E-flats leave a little to be desired. I took a rather scenic route home - "Soup
Boy" needed a lift to the girls' school. He had some story about
taking part in a fun run, but I was rather dubious about fun runs at girls schools at 8pm. He wasn't fazed, and seemed glad
that someone was taking a moral stance. After all, if I didn't, who else
would...? In the meantime I would seem to have
developed a rash... |
|
29 May 2014
(Thursday) – Fetch
Another night with more than six hours
sleep. This is becoming something of a habit. Over brekkie (shared
with my dog) I watched last night's episode of "The Tomorrow
People". As well as having implausible sex, the show also featured
rather implausible science. Admittedly scientific nonsense is the main
premise of any sci-fi show. However for it to work beleivably,
the trick is to have a scientist write much of the techno-babble; that way the
scientific jargon used might just be remotely plausible. If the thing is
based on fact it may have just the teensiest credibility. Trying to create
dialogue from words read (but not understood) on Wikipedia doesn't do
the trick. I watched the latest episode of
"Derek" too; Derek went on a date. It was really sweet. I then took "Furry Face TM"
for his walk. On the way we saw Frankie-Doodle; an ex- best friend of "My
Boy TM" and an ex-cub scout of mine. He's done well for
himself over the elast few years; he's now richer
than my entire family combined. I took my dog to the park. Yesterday I'd
bought him a new toy - a tennis ball complete with throwing stick. Today we
tried it out. I flung the ball into the distance. He woofed, ran after it,
destroyed the ball completely and brought me back the remains. Oh well, that
was seventy pence down the toilet. If any of my loyal readers have any tennis
balls they don't want, I still have the throwing stick... I had trouble getting him to come back to
me at one point. A passing normal person was feeding "Furry Face TM"
(and all the other dogs in the park) with dog-treats. I wish people
wouldn't do that. As I put the lead on to my dog (who didn't want to be
dragged away) I asked the chap with the treats if they were lactose-free
diabetic-friendly low-salt treats. The chap's jaw dropped. He had no idea. I
gave him and the assembled throng of other dog-walkers a sickly smile and
suggested that we should all hope that those dog treats were harmless as I
for one didn't know which dogs were diabetic or had
allergies. I'm sure this chap meant well, but I wish
other people wouldn't feed my dog without asking first. I maintain that a
previous cat of mine died because I couldn't get her in at night because a
well-meaning busybody wouldn't stop feeding her (despite having been asked
not to countless times) Once home I mucked out the washing
machine's filter. I had this idea it might have been the worse for the mud
that had been on two pairs of walking shoes that I fed into it a day or so
ago. It wasn't; for which I was grateful. I then did an hour's ironing whilst
watching "Game of Thrones". Unlike Tomorrow People this lot have
real sex because they take their clothes off first before getting jiggy. The beasts (!) And with ironing ironed something rather
unusual happened. My perfect precious little puppy got a smack. He had been worrying at the back door. I
knew he didn't want the toilet. I knew what he wanted. I warned him, but I
gave him a chance... Once I'd opened the back door he ran down the garden,
shouting all the way, and started throwing himself at the fence trying to
upset the dogs next door. Exactly how I knew he would. He's been told off so
many times about that, and today I saw red. He certainly took notice this time. Feeling quite the bully I set off to work
for another late shift. The home brew shop was open today. They had the fruit
beer I was after. At three times the price of a beer kit in Wilkos )and
making less than half of the volume too). Needless to say I didn't get any. Another rip-off was the price of sandwiches
in Morrisons' petrol station. Again I forgot to
make lunch, so I thought I'd pick up a sarnie whilst getting petrol.
Sandwiches were £2.50. The same thing (in less fancy packaging) in the
Cheapo Bargain shop was 99p. So I drove round to the Cheapo Bargains shop.
They were also doing bags of Walkers crisps for fifteen pence a bag. You
can't say no to a bargain like that. The rest of the day went relatively well;
sax practice was good. "Yankee Doodle" is coming together,
and two other tunes I only ever squawked for the first time some five days
ago are now reasonably recognisable. I came home; the radio featured a religious
service broadcast from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar
Square to celebrate Ascension Day, marking the moment when the risen Jesus
ascended into heaven, leaving his disciples with the joyful promise of the
gift of his Holy Spirit (apparently). In a novel break with tradition
they had dispensed with dirge-music and were employing jazz instead. it didn't do it for me... Oh - and my rash still itches. |
|
30 May 2014
(Friday) - Nasal Polyps
I've now watched all of the "Game
of Thrones" episodes on the Sky-box. The thing doesn't have season
four yet. I shall have to find something else to watch before work. So in the
meantime today I roughed it with more "Family Guy" as "Furry
Face TM" helped me scoff my brekkie
toast. The morning's news boiled my piss. Teenaged
girls have been raped
and hung in India because ignorant and superstitious locals disapprove of
anyone who doesn't subscribe wholeheartedly to their variety of barbaric
morality. The news went on to say that this sort of thing goes on all the
time. And France faces civil
unrest from a vocal minority who didn't like the results of last week's
elections. I can't say that I was overly impressed with the results of last
week's elections, but this is the main drawback with democracy; namely that
reasonable and educated people have to put up with the consequences of the
misguided decisions of the stupid, ignorant and misguided. Both these articles of news made me think.
As a child I had no idea of what the future would hold. But I was pretty sure
that it wouldn't be this sort of thing. I expected so much more. Is humanity
never going to improve? And so to work. I did my bit for a while.
When I had a minute I phoned the G.P. to whinge
about the delays to my referral to an E.N.T.
specialist; having my right nostril feeling as though it has a golf ball
stuffed up it is rather painful. The G.P. was
clearly sick of the sound of my whinging, and they suggested I phoned the E.N.T. specialist myself. So I did. After a little
judicious whinging I found myself seeing the specialist a couple of hours
later. The specialist confirmed wht I've been saying for some months; I've got a huge
nasal polyp blocking the insides of my right nostril. It needs to be
surgically removed, but before I go under the knife I need to have a scan to
see if the polyp is straight-forward, or if it has entwined itself round my
right eye, brain, and/or other assorted bits of my head. It's all quite
exciting really. I met Jimbo and Stevey for McTea, and then it
was on to astro club. A demonstration of the latest
space-simulator software; Stevey gave a planetarium
show, and there was even telescopes involved... |
|
31 May 2014
(Saturday) - Going Underground
Even though I had a decent night's sleep I
was still up and watching "Family Guy" a couple of hours
earlier than I would like to have been. Mind you the jollop
the doc prescribed for my nose has done some good. I've only had one squirt
and I can feel a difference. I had a go at the household accounts (could
be better) and also the astro club's account.
And then with"er indoors TM"
still firmly ensconsed in her pit I popped into
town to pay some of the astro club money into the
bank. The bank used to have a decent, efficient, organised, modern queuing
system. Due to popular demand (!) it has been replaced by the
old-fashioned standing in a line waiting your turn. I registered my disdain
for this nonsense with the "customer service representative".
She wasn't interested. I got some Belgian buns for lunch from Greggs,
and then went round to the milk shake shop. I had a bakewell
tart milk shake. I watched them make it from two bakewell
tarts, milk and ice cream. How cool was that !! With buns scoffed I was then off to sax
practice. Teacher seems pleased with progress so far; this week I have "Z-Cars"
and "Last of the Summer Wine" to master. "Z-Cars"
is reasonably straight-forward, but "Last of the Summer Wine"
is rather tricky; there's slurs, flats and all sorts of musical wotsits to accommodate. I came home and fell asleep. Lisa and Earle
woke me when they came round, and together with "er
indoors TM" and "Furry Face TM"
we went to a rather obscure country lane near Canterbury where we hid a
geocache. Several yards underground and a couple of dozen yards into a tunnel
which allows a small river to flow under a hill. The
water was only ankle deep, but it was a tad cold. And with caches hidden we came home via the
Artichoke in Chartham where we (I) had a
couple of pints of Shepherd Neame's finest. After a rather good bit of tea "er indoors TM" set off to film night.
I ironed some shirts and dozed in front of the telly. I wasn't feeling
especially well. I hope I'm not going down with a bug... |
