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1
May 2016 (Sunday) - 147 In The Rain
My
CPAP made my nose so cold that it woke me at 2am. I dozed fitfully until 5am
when I got up for a crafty tiddle. I then went back
to bed knowing I wouldn't sleep. I slept like a log and awoke to find Nick
was alreay up and about. I found that not being the
first one up was rather odd. I'm *always* the first one up. We
had a very good brekkie, and then as I washed up I found myself sniggering.
The washing up facilities were next to the toilets
and showers. Windows had been left open and what I could hear was rather
entertaining. The "shower shaggers"
were doing their thing again (beasts!), and two small children were
having poos, each "plop" baing
heralded with a cry of "Fire in the hold!!" By
10am we were ready for the off; we had this vague plan to finish off the
stretch of caches that we couldn't get to on Friday as our first targets.
Again we struggled to get round the road works, but soon we were walking
through the woods in the rain. Yesterday the weather had been glorious; today
it was wet. Whilst the rain wasn't really heavy, it was a very fine rain that
left you soaking wet. We exchanged pleasentries
with some joggers, and with that section of the circuit done we then
relocated to where we'd stopped yesterday. We
carried on caching (getting progressively wettter
and wetter) until we found a rather scenic little area where a river
crossed the road. We scoffed lunch there then carried on until (finally)
all three hundred and sixty of the Compass caches were found. As well as
those three hundred and sixty we'd also found eighteen others on the way. And
today I'd beaten yesterday's record and acheived a
new personal best of one hundred and forty seven caches in one day. Back
to camp; it was *so* good to get into dry pants.(And
dry everything else come to that). Having had rain all day the evening
was dry; very pleasent. We sat and watched the
brave little robin hopping round looking for scraps where we were sitting,
and then we scoffed some rather good fajitas for tea. And a couple of bottles
of beer too. Perfect. I
washed up, and was in bed shortly after 10pm; I was worn out... |
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2
May 2016 (Monday) - 5:5 and a Cream Tea
It
was much warmer last night; I slept through to 6.30am. Once up I started gathering
together all my odds and ends and packing up as best I could. The new air
beds took some packing away. They were cheap, they worked well. But getting
the air out wasn't easy. I
think the weekend had taken its toll on all of us; we were all up an hour
later than usual today. We had another really good brekkie, then just as I
started the washing up so the rain started. And then the nice people from the
next camping pitch asked us if we had any jump leads; their camper van
wouldn't start. We didn't, but we thought we might be able to bump-start the
van. That
added another hour to our day... We
packed up a load of wet tents and drove away from camp at mid
day. We then drove down to a nearby village called Roche where there
was an old church on top of a rock. It was wonderful; we had to climb a
couple of ladders to get up to the ruins. It was only a shame the weather was
so awful. Mind
you at the ruins were the clues for the location of a 5-5 geocache not far
away. There was a dodgy five minutes when "er indoors TM" climbed the tree to get that cache only to
fall out of the tree. She hit the ground rather harder than I would have
liked to have done, but she claimed she was fine. From here we drove down to Exmouth.
We left a very wet Cornwall and again got caught in the road works on the
A30. We arrived in Exmouth at 3pm where the weather
was glorious. Cream teas went down very nicely; we'd been promising ourselve a cream tea all weekend. Talking of cream teas I learned something from our
Cornish friends. Apparently when in Cornwall one puts the jam on the scone
first then adds the cream. However when in Devon one puts the cream on first
because (so I am told) Devon cream is crap. I must admit that teh cream I had in Devon today was rather good. We had a rather good tea. Personally I felt the
waitress should have had a dress which actually covered her bum and her
chest, but (as usual) moral stances were in the minority. Bearing
in mind the fun we'd had with road works we used Google's navigator to
suggest the best way home. We went via several back roads through Somerset
and Wiltshire. As we drove we saw road signs warning us of tanks on Salisbury
Plain. That was an eye-opener. The
plan had been for the vehicles to meet up at Cobham services so we could say
our goodbyes; we got to Cobham shortly after 8pm. I had forgotten just how
far it was from Exmouth to the M25. KFC made for a rather good tea; even if
it did taste rather odd. Goodbyes
were said, and we all went our various ways. We got home just before 11pm. It
had been a rather good holiday. I'd certainly do it again... |
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3
May 2016 (Tuesday) - Wye, Washing
Much
as I liked our holiday there is nothing quite like your own bed. I slept very
well, even if the house did seem empty without a certain little dog. Whilst
we'd been away "Daddies
Little Angel TM" had been round and tidied up. She meant
well, and she'd done a good job. It was only a shame she'd thrown away the
stand for my razor and the washer which connects the hose pipe to the tap.
Bearing in mind the hose pipe attachment is rather old they don't make those
any more. I shall have to buy a new one. And an entire new razor as you can't
get the stands on their own. I'd
taken one or two photos of our holiday. Over brekkie I put them where everyone can
see them.
I then put the wet event shelter onto the washing line and went and collected
"Furry Face TM". Cheryl
suggested we might go for a walk up to Wye Downs. So we collected "Daddies Little Angel TM"
and "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM" and all drove up to Wye Downs. We didn't stay long. Let's just say that some of us
are more "go outdoors" than others. Instead we relocated to Viccie Park where they have "proper footpaths
made out of tarmac" Home;
and I then started on the washing. For all that the weekend away had been
fun, it had been wet. I had quite a bit of laundry to sort. So I set the
washing machine to scrub the first batch of stuff whilst I got in the (now
dry) event shelter. I
popped the first load of washing on the line and had a bite of lunch. Over
lunch I watched last night's episode of "Gotham", then put out the next load of washing. I then carried on
preparing for next week's interview as the third lot chugged through the
washing machine. By
the time "er indoors TM" came home I'd got three loads washed and
dried and the washing machine was doing its thing with my smalls. "er indoors TM"
boiled up a rather good bit of scoff and we set off to Willesborough
via Kwik-Fit where Matt was waiting for us. We had a rather good evening putting the world to
rights before watching an episode of "The Flash" through
which I didn't sleep for once... |
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4
May 2016 (Wednesday) - End of an Era?
I read some sad news on Facebook; St Helen's
Methodist church in Hastings is closing down. Whilst this is a matter of
indifference to most of humainty it really is the
end of an era for me. I first went to the place in the spring of 1975 when a
friend took me to the Boys Brigade company which met there. That place then
became (effectively) the centre of my universe for the next nine
years. I met so many friends there; we had so many adventures. At the time
our Boys Brigade comany was the envy of the county.
We did so many things; our marching band performed all over the place, And
four of us even got the highest award the Boys Brigade had to offer; no one
in the history of the 8th Hastings had ever got the Queens Badge before. I met "er indoors TM"
in that place; we got married there. The children were christened there. For
a while I was even one of the church stewards (like a deacon in the Church
of England). Mind you I suppose I should really be surprised the
place has lasted so long. The website for the place says they average eighteen people turning out every
week. I can remember back in the early 1980s being told the place had running
costs of over a hundred pounds per week and that the weekly collection rarely
raised much over forty quid. I popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM"
and we drove down to Bethersden. Regular readers of
this drivel may recall that about six months ago I hid a series of thirty
eight geocaches in a loop around that village. One of those caches seemed to have gone missing. Personally I thought
it was still there, but it doesn't hurt to check these things. Well, these days it *does* hurt. Moving is
becoming more and more painful, but we went anyway. It was as well tyat we went; it *had* gone. And it was a rather
pretty place to go for a walk anyway even if my dog did roll in fox poo, eat
horse poo, get straw stuck in his throat and spend five minutes quacking like
a duck. Once home I settled "Furry Face TM"
and went shopping. I had intended to go into town but instead thought Tesco
might do. I got petrol and the makings of a geocache for tomorrow's mission.
I came back via B&Q where I got a new attachment to stick the garden hose
onto the tap. I only needed a rubber washer but ended up having to spend ten
quid on the entire assembly. I also got some new cord for the garden
strimmer, and then spend an hour strimming and
mowing the lawn. The new strimming cord wasn't very
good. I shall have to get some *really* thick stuff. With lawn mowed I then had
a spot of lunch whilst watching this week's episode of "Game of
Thrones". "Game of Thrones" has acquired something
of a cult following; it is one of those shows that attracts the sort of
people who take great offence at anything less than gushing praise being said
about it. For myself I find it entertaining enough. I have heard it described
as "Lord of the Rings" interspersed with soft porn, and in
all honesty that is not a bad description. Today's installment passed an entertaining three
quarters of an hour. It was only a shame I didn't really remember who was who
and what was what. I really need to watch the entire lot from the start
again. I spent much of the afternoon preparing for next
week's interview and also organising something to
do at the weekend. Silly ideas don't have themselves you know. "er
indoors TM" came home
and boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed as we watched
"Bake Off". We had a bottle of plonk too... |
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5
May 2016 (Thursday) - Jasmer, Fizzy and Committee
I then had a quick look-see on-line. Among the
morning's emails was one from LinkedIn who were trying to chum
me up with a commercial archaeologist and a third sector professional. (What
do those do?) I got notification that three friends had birthdays
today. One of them was twenty years old; I thought she was probably about to
take her GCSEs. Where do the years go? I then popped up the road to the polling station.
Today saw the election for Kent's police commissioner. There were various candidates standing on party
political bandwagons. Naked greed and wooly-minded blathering had offered
candidates as had well-meaning incompetence. The racist xenophobes had put up
two candidates. Personally I feel that such a position should not be
anything to do with silly political games; it was a shame that the only
candidate who wasn't openly advertising a political affiliation had published
a personal statement that said a lot without actually saying anything. I considered spoiling the ballot paper as a
political statement, but that acheives nothing. In
the end I put an "X" for well-meaning incompetence. I
usually do that for the simple reason that their hearts are in the right
place (i.e. not in their wallets, hugging trees or trying to charter
banana boats) And then on to Sittingbourne.
There is a geocache there which was under a bridge. It has a rather unusual
D/T; one which I needed to get. The thing had been reported as being missing
so a few days ago I had a word with the chap who hid it and offered to
replace it for him. He was happy for me to do so. A few days ago I'd also
asked if anyone else wanted to come along with me. A few people were up for
it. After a rather awful journey I parked my car just as Aleta
arrived. We followed out GPS and found ourselves in the middle of a bridge
over a busy A-road. The cache was underneath us. We got to where we could see what was what and I had
a go at waddling along the girders. I was a tad nervous on the girder; I was
not at all confident in ducking under the support beams and so I waddled back
to (relative) safety. Matt then arrived, took the replacement cache
that I'd acquired, and he zoomed out to the middle of the underside of the
bridge like a monkey. Jamie then arrived and he too went straight out to
across the girder and back again with no hesitation. I thought again about going out myself. It looked so
easy, and several friends had said it wasn't hard. It probably isn't
difficult when you are half my weight and twenty years younger than I am. We said our goodbyes and I moved on to my second D/T
target of the day. This one was up a tree. I wasted ten minutes farting about
up the wrong tree before a phone call to "er
indoors TM" put me right. I then spent ten minutes looking at a little snake
at the base of the target tree, and frittered away another half an hour (or
more) scrambling all over, up and down that tree before sending a message
to the C.O. Even armed with a rather serious hint I still drew a
blank. I shall go back another day. I'd gone out to fill some squares on my D/T/ grid. I
was determined to do that. My backup plan was a drive to Guildford and a
diversion to Hever Castle on the way home. As backup plans go it worked well. A shame it took
so long, but such is life. I'd taken some photos of the day's fun. Once home I posted them on-line. Jimbo then called round after work. We took "Furry
Face TM" for a walk round the park then made our way to
Singleton Barn. Four bottles of assorted ales slipped down very nicely with
some dinner, then we had the first meeting of the
new committee of the astro club. The first meeting
of which I had to take minutes... My notes are somewhat cryptic. If any of my loyal
readers can hazard a guess at what B.O.B is
supposed to mean please drop me a line... |
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6
May 2016 (Friday) - Fairy Ring
I got rather frustrated when I had a look on
Facebook over brekkie. A friend of a friend (who is no intellectual genius)
had posted that she felt that Britain should leave the EU because she didn't
want foreigners commanding the British army. I'm not sure where this flight
of fancy came from, but it was then followed up by all sorts of nonsense
about voting to remain in the EU being disrespectful to those who fought
Hitler. Those posted on the thread were incensed about Britain having to
comply with EU regulations whilst at the same time being unable to provide a
single such regulation. No one actually said "I'm not racist but I
don't like foreigners" but that was the gist of what many were
saying. I
then had an email. A new geocache had gone live not five miles away. Looking
at the map it seemed to be in the back of beyond so I popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and we
drove off in hot pursuit of the First to Find. We got as close as we could in
the car and then... I was a little bit miffed. Geocaches have terrain
ratings so you know how hard it is to get to the things. This one was marked
as T1.5, the easiest you can do if you are not in a wheelchair. We walked for
five hundred yards. Well marked footpaths got us to within eighty yards of
where we needed to be and then we had to jump a small stream and hack our way
through the undergrowth. The cache was called "Fairy Circle";
I soon found nine logs laid out as a fairy circle.
But the GPS was a bit jumpy. After seemingly ages I was about to give up when
I could see people in the distance. Hoping it would be fellow hunters of tupperware I waited for a while. It was fellow hunters of
tupperware. It was good to catch up with Paul and
to meet his brother in law. Together we hunted for half an hour but to no
avail. I
picked up my dog and carried him back through the thickets. He was able to
jump the stream himself. I
had a vague plan to go to Dymchurch today but "Daddies
Little Angel TM" had other plans, so we came home. I
registered my geo-failure on-line then popped into town. I found the milk
shake shop to be closed again (does it ever open?) and with the astro club stuff done at the bank (for the last time)
I drove out to Argos to collect the rubber dingy I'd ordered. With shopping done I watched a film over a spot of
lunch. "Ex Machina" is a film I've wanted to watch for some
time. It started and ended well. I'm not sure about the middle; I slept
through that part. I then wrote out the minutes of last night's astro club committee meeting and popped round to "Daddies Little Angel TM".
She was staging a family meal. "My Boy TM"
arrived and there was sad news. His beard had been put down. For some reason
every time "My Boy TM" looked at "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM"
so the little one cried. We had a rather good bit of dinner. Now to see if
there are any leaks in that rubber dingy. best to
test it first in the living room rather than have it sink on its maiden
voyage on Sunday... |
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7
May 2016 (Saturday) - Kemsing
Over
brekkie I had a look-see on-line. The chap who hid the geocache I couldn't
find yesterday has put up another hint. Apparently he's hidden it under a
rather enormous tree stump. I think it can stay where it is; I've struggled
out there once already. Yesterday
I finished up by saying "Now to see
if there are any leaks in that rubber dingy. Best to test it first in the
living room rather than have it sink on its maiden voyage on Sunday..." The dingy seems OK, but there was a split in the
pump's hose. So we took the "er indoors TM"
-mobile to the garage, left it there, and went on to Argos to register
out displeasure. To be fair the people in Argos were helpful and
sorted us out a new pump (without a hole in it). We then went for a little outing to Kemsing. Regular readers of this drivel may recall that a
couple of days ago I spent half an hour scrambling all over a tree trying to
find a geocache. I went back to that tree and found the thing in less than
two minutes. From here we had a little pootle
through the woods then drove up to the village sign where we played a wherigo. I spend hours making these games for others, and
rarely get a go at playing one myself. This one was not unlike one I wrote
from scratch; you start off and it tells you how far away you are from the
final geocache. That's all you know. So we started off and found we were a
few hundred yards from where we needed to be. We chose a direction at random
and (pausing only briefly for "Furry Face TM" to bark
at the locals) walked for a hundred yards. We checked the game and saw we
were a few hundred and fifty yards from the final location... And so we
proceeded. To be honest there were only so many directions in which we could
go, and it was a rather scenic village through which to wander. It
probably took us longer to complete the final twenty-five yards than it did
the rest of the game. We
failed utterly at hunting down a cache hidden in a phone box, and after a
quick ice-cream we drove off down the road for a mile or so. As we drove I
got a little stressed at other drivers. Do they *really* have to be
quite so close behind? We
parked up and walked across fields and woods filled with bluebells to sign a
challenge cache. This was one you aren't allowed to claim until you have
found (at least) one hundred geocaches twice in one calendar month. We
did that last weekend in Cornwall. We
did another quick cache as we were in the area then made our way home. As
we drove we got a message. A friend of a friend's friend's
cat's aunties next door neighbour's friend's friend
had a canoe they didn't want. It was going free to a good home. Did I want
it? Whilst
there are no hard-and-fast rules about aquatic geocaching I have formed the
distinct impression that it is the done thing to
take to the high seas in a canoe. Only the Great Unwashed set sail in rubber dingies, and consequently are somewhat looked down upon.
So, having dropped "er indoors TM" off at the garage to collect her car I drove round to Birling
Road to have a look at this free canoe. Oh dear... I must admit my hopes weren't high. When I arrived
the girl greeted me with the news that it needed a little work doing. So I
told her I had only one question; does it float? If it floats, all else is
piddling details. On reflection her answer was something of a giveaway. She
said "not very well". That doesn't really answer the
question does it? Things float or they do not. So we went to have a look at the canoe. It was a bit tatty, but what do you expect for free.
However the first thing I noticed about it was the foot long split along the
top. And then I saw the gaping hole in the underside where a previous mariner
had been torpedo-ed. This was no small leak; there was a hole beneath the
water line through which you could stick both hands. She
seemed rather disappointed when I declined her kind and generous offer. I
came home, got a bucket of water, and washed the bird poop off of my car. I
could have done a much better job of cleaning the car, but washing bird poop
was good enough for me. I then tested out the new pump. It worked rather
well. "er
indoors TM" then got
busy in the garden. I got busy watching Star Trek... |
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8
May 2016 (Sunday) - HMS Badger
Some
time ago I downloaded a little Star-Trek based game which is played on my
phone. I lost interest after about two minutes. Periodically it sets off
alarms to remind me to play it. It did one such alarm at 5am this morning. I
tried to get back to sleep, but it wasn't happening. I got up shortly after
6am and over a spot of brekkie I watched an old episode of Fort Boyard. Always an entertaining show
even if Melinda's chest is a little distracting. And
then I had a look on-line. It seems that I wasn't the only one who'd had an
eventful day yesterday. I quite like Facebook if only for the opportunities
it offeres for me to be nosey. However my piss
boiled a little as I read the blatently racist
stuff my ex-brother in law (amongst others) was posting. Sadiq Khan has been elected Mayor of London. The chap was born
in the UK... when the right wing racists finally start deporting everyone who
doesn't fit their model of who should be allowed to remain in the UK just
where will they stop? I woke "er indoors
TM", loaded HMS Badger (and pump) into her car,
and (having settled "Furry Face TM") we were off.
This morning's geo-mission was (again) gonig
for combinations for terrain and difficulty that have so far eluded us.
"High Terrain" caches are ones which are difficult to get
to. Today's were in the river Teise. Pausing only briefly to collect a puzzle cache five
of us were soon inflating our flotilla; ably supervised by Jo and Ben who had
come along to offer moral support (and to laugh). "HMS Badger"
was the only rubber dingy; Gordon and Matt (and their crews) were in
inflatable canoes. In retrospect HMS Badger turned out to be a
disappointment. Its top speed was about one tenth of that of a canoe, and I
seemed to spend an inordinate abount of time trying
to extricate my vessel from various aquatic undergrowths.
I shall replace it with a canoe at the earliest opportunity. There was an embarrassing five minutes when the
river was completely blocked by a collapsed tree. There was another
embarrassing five minutes when I actually fell in the river. Mind you I'm not
complaining. If the high terrain caches had been in trees then a fall would
have hurt. Falling in the river was utterly painless, even if it does teach
you the value of dry pants. We went out with several riparian targets; we found
three. I was impressed. We only intended to sail for a couple of hours; once
dried off we picked up another cache just up the road (as we were driving
by) and made our way to Rochester where a geo-birthday event was taking
place. A rather good bit of dinner, several pints, and the company of good
friends. I can think of worse ways to spend an afternoon. For some odd reason I slept much of the way home;
once home we took "Furry Face TM" for a walk
round the park. He spent far too long playing silly beggars in the river. We
have a new game for the river; he stands in the middle and I throw a stone
in. He swims-jumps-runs in the general direction of
where the stone splashed. And then he woofs until another stone is thrown in.
And so it goes on. I find it a tad dull, but he seems to love it. We came home, put wet clothes on to wash and then
had something of a lazy evening... I ache somewhat. Do any of my loyal readers want to make me an offer
on a rubber dingy? |
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9
May 2016 (Monday) - Geo-Broken
After the exertions of yesterday I had something of
an early night last night. I slept like a log until 1am, then
lay awake for much of the rest of the night. I gave up trying to sleep and
got up shortly after 5am. I then wasted ten minutes trying to find where my
sandwich box had been hidden. Whilst we had been on our Cornish holiday the
girls had come round and tidied up. Whilst they did it with all good
intentions I now can't find anything... Over brekkie I watched "Dad's Army"
then set off to work far earlier than I really needed to. Mind you I was at
something of a loose end, and being a geo-calendar day I needed to go locate
some Tupperware. My first target was in the back of beyond along a
narrow country lane. On arrival I could see the geocache; laying
broken on the roadside. The thing was smashed in two. I couldn't say whether
it was deliberately broken or not but I had my suspicions. This one had
supposedly been hidden for the local scouts. From my own experiences of
thirteen years as a scout leader I would *never* involve scouts in
geocaching. Whilst most would enjoy the silly game, I can picture the faces of
half a dozen who wouldn't rest until they had
personally destroyed every last one. It was as well it was still early; despite this
minor setback I still had time to drive down the road a bit further to get
today's geo-calendar filler. Only eight more days to fill now. As I drove the radio was spewing drivel; having had
a week's holiday I've got rather out of touch with reality (as dictated by
Radio Four). The Prime Minister was warning that leaving the EU may well destabilise
Europe. His critics were decrying him, but I've said this
all along. Just look at the history of Europe. Hundreds of years of war and
now co-operation. Admittedly it may be co-operation about the standardisation of bananas, but it's not war. There was also concern expressed that official
figures about death rates in hospitals might not be quite as reliable as one might hope. It transpires that one is as likely to die over
the weekend when in hospital as at any other time. In fact one of the pundits
being interviewed (who was a professor-sir) said that in fact patients
get better treatment at weekends; mainly because with far fewer out-patient
clinics going on, staff can concentrate on the acute in-patients at the
weekends. However I got the impression that the whole
discussion was more about political squabbling rather than about achieving
anything practical. There was also quite a bit of talk about today's transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun. An expert was wheeled
on and the pundits asked him all sorts of facile and banal questions. I
couldn't help but wonder if the people asking the questions really were as
stupid as they seemed. I stopped off at Morrisons
for supplies, and then got some petrol. I was still far too early for work.
So I sat in the car park and used my phone to have a look-see on-line for
half an hour. There was a minor embarrassment when I got to work;
that missing sandwich box had been in my locker for the last week. Woops. I got on with the day; work was much the same as
when I'd left it before my week's holiday. And with my bit done I came home
again. I walked "Furry Face TM"
round the park; "er indoors TM"
drove round and picked us up just before the rain started. We had a rather
good bit of scoff, then she went bowling. I've made myself comfortable in front of the telly... Game of Thrones is on soon, then
it's Gotham... |
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10
May 2016 (Tuesday) - Road Works
Last
night's episode of Gotham was rather good, but there's no denying that Game
of Thrones failed to grip me. I slept throough much
of the show. In many ways it has become a victim of its own success. Like
Heroes and Lost it started very well but it has now run out of story and the
writers are obviously now making it up as they go along. We are now at
episode three of the new series and nothing of note's
really happened. (or if it has, I've slept through it) I then had another terrible night's sleep, mostly
spent listening to the sound of the rain. And I was again up at 5.30am
watching drivel on the telly. After an hour or so
"Furry Face TM" got up and spent a few minutes
uncontrollably barking at absolutely nothing at all. I wish he wouldn't do
that. Having barked himself silly he then went back to sleep. Funnily enough
I felt like doing the same. And so to work. It was a rather rainy drive; if
nothing else the rain washed some of the dirt off of my car. Those who would have us leave the European Union were
on the radio making great show of how the Prime Minister has recently had to make concessions to the German Chancellor. This is apparently terrible.... I can't see it myself. The Prime Minister's job is
effectively performing a juggling act trying to keep everyone happy. He has
to keep all sorts of people sweet; for myself I have as much in common with
the German Chancellor as I do an MP from Hull or Whitby
so I don't really see any problem here. And talking of Whitby the
pundits on the radio have been touring the country getting the opinions of
the Great Unwashed about the European Union. This morning they interviewed
some fishermen from Whitby who claimed the European
Union's rules on fish quotas are killing their livelihood. They accepted there had to be a limit on how much
cod they can pull out of the North Sea, but they didn't like the fact that
the limit in question had been set by bureaucrats in Brussels. However they made no secret that it would be
perfectly acceptable to have to work to exactly the same limit had it been
set by a bureaucrat in London. I got to work little earlier than I needed to, so I
spent a few minutes checking out the world via my phone's Internet
connection. Several people were grumbling about the rain and calling it
"a return to typical British weather". I was very tempted to
ask when we last had heavy rain but resisted the temptation. After all having
heavy rain is nowhere near as British as grumbling about heavy rain. And I had a message that a possible family trip to Legoland had gone west. I was rather disappointed about that; I've never
been to Legoland. Once at work I did that which I couldn't avoid and
then came home again. The weather had chirped up a bit during the day. As I
walked out to my car my phone rang. It was the BBC asking how Ashford's
application for dark sky status was progressing. I wish I could have been
more helpful but not actually knowing anything myself I couldn't actually say
anything. I wonder if they will quote me... I got home to find my road's been dug up. I wonder
what's going on... |
|
11
May 2016 (Wednesday) - Classic Literature
I slept much better last night; only waking an hour
before the alarm was due to go off. Over a spot of brekkie I watched another
episode of "Flowers"; a very odd show. I quickly had a look-see on-line. Not much had
happened overnight. The morning's news gave me a wry smile. Not so much
news as tittle-tattle really. Apparently the Quenn
found Chinese officials to be very rude recently. She made a private comment
to that effect, and it is all over the tabloids. Simularly the Prime Minister's private comments about
corruption in Nigeria and Afganistan have been made public. Interestingly no one is actually claiming that
anything said by the Queen or the Prime Minister is factually wrong... I've no dealings with the Chinese or the Afgans, but I distinctly remember a Nigerian chap with
whom I worked telling me he thought the British system of working was odd in
that managers in the UK (generally) didn't openly invite bribes for favours in the workplace. I stopped off at Morrisons
on the way to work to get some sausage rolls. We'd planned to have a picnic
at work this lunchtime. Everyone had brought in all sorts of goodies to
scoff. We had quite a feast piled up in the rest room this morning, and we
all spent the morning glancing out of the window. The early torrential rain
eventually subsided into a mere downpour. By mid day
the rain had abated, but the ground outside was saturated so we had a picnic
lunch inside. We had far too much to eat; I spent much of the
afternoon with something of a stomach ache. I came home to find the postman had been. I've
received a few copies of the book in which a couple of my stories were
published. These ones are for family; my mum will actually like it, the fruits
of my loins will pretend to like it, and "er
indoors TM" is already using her copy to prop up a wonky
table. I must admit I'm a little disappointed that this
book hasn't been the earth-shattering success for which I'd hoped. You can
get it on paperback or in e-format from Amazon by clicking here. I'll even sign it for you. Twice... |
|
12
May 2016 (Thursday) – Sulking
Another decent night's sleep; I woke only a short
while before the alarm was due to go off. Again I watched "Flowers"
over a bit of brekkie; again I watched it with a sense of "wtf was
that all about?" As the show ended so "Furry Face TM"
wanted to go into the garden. I went with him to make sure he didn't run
round woofing (as he does). I couldn't help but notice that not only
does the lawn again need mowing but also the stuff flowing over the fence
from next door needs trimming back again. I only did that last week. If ever there was a seriously futile excercise it is gardening. Over the last week I've been preparing for a job
interview. That interview was today. I thought about all sorts of witty and
erudite things I might write in today's blog entry. Then I didn't get the job
and thought about all sorts of sarcastic and bitter things I might write in
today's blog entry. In the end I decided not to write any of them... Today was a geo-calendar day, so with a little time
on my hands I put the lead onto my dog and set off in pursuit of a find. My
first three targets had been randomly drop-kicked into hedges by Scouts... no
luck. My next three targets eluded me; the GPS was a tad wafty
and I had no hints. Targets seven and eight had gone missing (I had inside
information on those). Having located pretty much every errant sawndwich box in the area I was rather stuffed. So I
relocated to Tenterden where after a couple more
failures I finally found one on my eleventh attempt. I've only got seven more of the "must-find"
calendar days to go. I wonder how long my sulk will last...? |
|
13
May 2016 (Friday) - Tom Hanks
I sometimes wonder if having thicker curtains might
help me sleep longer; I was awake with the dawn, and lay awake for some time
looking at my sleeping dog. I say "sleeping" he was crashed
out and snoring but his eyes were open. Do dogs sleep with their eyes open?
My one seems to. I sparked up my laptop and had a look-see on-line.
Amongst the morning's haul of emails was one from my professional body asking
me to cast my vote in the election for the body's governing council. I had to choose two out of four people of whom I
had previously never heard. Three of them looked rather scary and the fourth
looked like he/she/it was straining on a rather recalcitrant poo. Realising that if I didn't vote I had no grounds for
complaint when the wrong candidates got elected I had a look at their
election statements. Other than one of the candidates having nominated
another (which I saw as somethong of an own goal)
there was little to choose between any of them. So I didn't bother. I really
couldn't be arsed. There was also an email from Ryan (who apparently
knows me through LinkedIn) asking if I want a job doing what I do but for
more money in London. This made me think... Do I want a job doing what I do
but for more money? I tried for one of those yesterday and am still sulking
now. If I don't take Ryan up on his offer I can be sure of no future
disappointments. But if I don't take him up on his offer I can be sure of not
getting a job doing what I do but for more money. It is odd really. Yesterday morning I was quite
content with my job. I then had an interview for promotion, was unsuccessful
and now am incredibly hacked off. In retrospect I've been a manager before; I
didn't really like it then and (despite my current sulk) I quite like
what I am doing now. Perhaps if I'd been offerd the
job and turned it down myself (which I may well have done) I would now
be in a rather better frame of mind. I then took "Furry Face TM"
for a walk round the park. We were almost home and I was pleasently
surprised that the walk had passed off without event when a small child
appeared from nowhere and charged across the road at us. This brat jumped at
my dog; landing inches from him. Said brat then screamed at my dog and
started play-attacking my dog with an invisible sword. I think "Furry
Face TM" was quite within his rights to bark at this
brat. After a while the brat's fat mother waddled across the road (with
half a dozen other ill-behaved brats in tow all seemingly in a civil war).
Before she could say anything I told her that most dogs would have bitten her
brat for the way he was behaving. I also hinted that decent parents *don't*
allow their children to run across streets, and walked off leaving her
shrieking at her hoarde of brats. I set off to work earlier than I might have done: EI wanted me to deliver candle stuff to her mate in
Canterbury. As I drove my heart sank. "Desert Island Discs"
was on the radio. Usually this show is a chance for various celebrities to
try to make themselves appear far posher than they
really are by pretending to like obscure classical music to which no one
actually listens. Ever. But this show was different. Tom Hanks was in the
chair; he was rather interesting and (with the forgivable exception of
"Thus Spake Zarathustra") all of his
music selections were the sort of thing to which real people actually listen. I got the candles delivered, then (as I was in the
area) went for McBreakfast. Sausage & Egg McMuffin, hash brown, caramel frappucino.
Not too shabby even if I did get a brain freeze from the caramel frappucino. Pausing only briefly to watch some idiot woman
reverse her car into another car I the made my way to work. And everything of
not today was over and done with by 11am... |
|
14
May 2016 (Saturday) - An Afternoon on the Beer
I woke shivering at 5am this morning. "er indoors TM"
had wrapped the duvet round herself and "Furry Face TM"
had plonked himself between us (thereby pulling the duvet tight). I *could*
have chased the little dog back to his basket but I was awake and cold. So I
got up and wasted time getting some preliminary ideas together for yet
another Wherigo. Whilst I am aware that not many
people actually go out and do Wherigos, those that
do are prepared to travel for miles to do them. I have an idea for a really
easy one that involoves a lot of travelling about.
If nothing else it would be popular for those who fill geo-grids. We
then got into the car, and after a little detour to collect Suzy-pup we made
our way to the saucily-named Thong Lane where we met Jo and Ben. There were
some geocahes up trees in the area. Regular readers
of this drivel may recall that I'd been there
before.
But watching other scrambling up trees is always entertaining. From here we made our way to Borden where the
geo-clans were gathereing. Once a month the
glitterati of the Kent geo-world come together. Today Tracey and Karl had organised a meet-up. I like the monthly meet-ups; today's
was somewhat reminiscent of the halcyon days of yore when I would spend the
entire afternoon in the pub. Having slept most of the way home I then spent the
evening watching Sean Connery as James Bond in the film "Diamonds are
Forever". I can remember my cousin whinging
about not liking the film when it first hit the cinema in 1971. He wasn't impressed forty-five years ago; it has not
improved with time... |
|
15
May 2016 (Sunday) – Polegate
Not quite such a cold night last night. But having
determined that I needed to be up for 7am I was wide awake shortly after 5am.
I gave up trying to get back to sleep and set the washing machine loose on
several T-shirts. Over brekkie I had a look-see on-line. I had to tell
someone off on one of the Facebook discussion pages I moderate. Why do so few
people understand the basic principle of a discussion. When faced with a
difference of opinion the first line to take is "I disagree with you
for the following reasons", *not* "I disagree with
you therfore I shall prove my point by swearing at
you". It was something of a shame that the chap I had to correct
then illustrated his logic by posting a web link which actually proved he was
wrong. I hung my T-shirts out to dry, and failed to solve
an on-line geo-puzzle. Rather frustrating... We drove round to collect Suzy-Pup and her
associate, then allowed the sat-nav
to guide us to Polegate. I thought it took a rather
convoluted route. Did we *really* have to traverse every narrow lane
in both Kent and Sussex? But we got to the Treacle Mine with five minutes to
spare. We soon met our geo-buddies and pausing only briefly for a bit of cake
we were soon off on our wanders. The "Woodland Wander" series of geocaches took us round some rather
scenic places. Woodlands, fields, rather quiet country lanes. And the
geo-element was rather good too - these weren't the average film-pot-under-a-rock
hides; many of them were custom-made works of genius. As we walked we heard a call. Would you beleive it; my brother was driving by on the way to a
boot fair. What were the chances of that? We found ourselves back at the cars by
mid-afternoon. We'd asked the nice lady in the pub if we could her car park
so we felt it would only be polite to have a pint there. And with pint guzzled we set off on the main
business of the day. We'd chosen to come to Polegate
because just down the road was a geocache which was in a culvert under the
road. We parked the cars and walked down to the river where we put on our
wellies. Sam kindly found the deepest part of the river for us, and so (as
she emptied her wellies) we then went in to the shallower bits and each
of us scrambled through the culvert to do the secret geo-thing. I found it
was a little cramped in there, but I'm probably showing my age. The pub near where we'd parked our cars had a sign
saying "no dogs"; with a quick Google search we found a pub
not five minutes away that claimed to be dog-friendly. Just as well as we had
three with us. The Cricketer's Arms in Berwick was a
good find. Beer poured straight from the barrel; helpful frfiendly
staff. I felt for them when the wonderful food they served had cold chips,
but that was soon sorted. Usually we don't hang about too long in the pub
after a walk, and certanly not when so far from
home. But today was different; we stayed for dinner. An
wonderful meal with excellent company. I'd certanly
go back there again. I took a few photos whilst we were out; once home I put them on-line. I think I shall
have an early night now... I'm feeling worn out. |
|
16
May 2016 (Monday) - Chicken Bones
The weekend was rather a busy one; I suppose that
it's no surprise that I slept like a log last night. Out cold for over seven
hours. That rarely (if ever) happens these days. I got up and found my
little dog was still asleep. After his tea he went straight to his basket
last night and was still there this morning. He also had found the weekend
rather wearing. Over brekkie I had a look-see on-line. In addition
to the Brexit-ers who've thought about their
decision there seems to be a growing movement advocating leaving the European
Union for the simple reason that the likes of the Prime Minister, ex-Prime
Ministers and various prominent politicians feel staying in is the best
option. The logical extension of this is that because the likes of the Prime
Minister, ex-Prime Ministers and various prominent politicians advocate
breathing, one should immediately drop dead from aasphyxiation. I also read that one of the video feeds from the
International Space Station has picked up a UFO, and that our old friend science has discovered lesbian gorillas. I tried solving a geo-puzzle as well. I would have
done better had my lap-top not been on a go-slow. It is not the most
up-to-date device in the world. I'm beginning to wonder if it will soon be
time to replace the thing with a newer model. I gave up fighting with my lap-top and took "Furry
Face TM" for a walk round the park. As we went we had the
usual episodes of my dog being scared of other dogs, my dog scaring other
dogs, my dog humping other dogs. He tried to hump OrangeHead's
dog. It was as well that at the time OrangeHead's
dog was being walked by OrangeHead's stunt double.
I'm assuming it was her daughter. There was a worrying few moments when "Furry
Face TM" was choking. I pulled chicken bones from his
mouth. I must admit I like KFC, but I don't throw the bones across the park;
especially not when there is a bin not ten yards away. Once home I re-booted the lap-top and had another go
at geo-puzzling; rather more successfully this time. I wonder if the thing realised I was getting a tad hacked off with it. I saw a few messages from friends going off on a
geo-mission today. It would have been good to have joined in, but I was on
the late shift today. So I set off to work; still sulking somewhat. I've had
the weekend to reflect on last week's interview. I *wouldn't* want to
be in a manager's position again. But *I* want to make that decision,
not have it made for me. As I drove to work Women's Hour was on the radio.
There was an interview with some bright up-coming young musician (I didn't
catch her name). She is supposedly featuring live with Stevie Wonder
among other famous musicians, and apparently Women's Hour was lucky to have
her on the radio. She sounded quite interesting when interviewed. As a
special treat for the listeners she then sang a couple of songs. Oh dear.... She really didn't sing at all. It was best described
as a howl. It was truly dreadful. To think people are paying good money to
listen to her... I got a bit of shopping in Morrisons.
I noticed that armpit-squirt has dropped in price. Eighty-four pence today;
the same brand was one pound fifty the other week. And as I was in the area I
stopped off in Go Outdoors where I got a new picnic blanket and a seat belt
for my dog. He won't like it. The nice lady in Go Outdoors told me my Go Outdoors
bargain card was about to expire; have I really had that thing for a year? It
was somewhat ironic that as I arrived at work my phone beeped with an email
from Go Outdoors with a promotional code offering me an extra ten per cent
off of any purchase I might make today. Once at work I did that which I couldn't avoid, and
then came home as promptly as I could for my usual Monday fix of Game of
Thrones and Gotham. Gotham was excellent; I can't reallyu
comment on Game of Thrones; I slept through much of it... |
|
17
May 2016 (Tuesday) - Body Parts
I was far later to bed than I should have been last
night; my dog was asleep on my lap and I didn't want to disturb him. When I
got to bed I slept well, but when I woke shortly before 5am my right leg was
still very painful. I've pulled a muscle down below my knee; it still
hurts. Over brekkie the SkyPlus
box wasn't working at all so I pulled the thing's plug and re-booted it.
Eventually I got it going again and I watched last night's episode of "The
Last Man on Earth". It was the last one of the currrent
series; it ended on something of a cliffhanger. I'm quite looking forward to
the next one. I then watched the last bit of last night's Game of Thrones (the
bit I slept through). I've not been overly enthusiastic about that show
lately but last night's installment took an interesting turn. I think they
must seriously have run out of ideas as they resorted to Nudey-Dragon-Girl
getting her jubblies out (and to think I slept
through that). Most entertaining, but no serious substitute for a plot. I thought she'd got a clause in her contract about
not having to get them out any more; perhaps the show really is struggling if
they are having to resort to this level? I quickly had a look-see on-line. Again LinkedIn was
suggesting I might like to join the navy. I decided that if that was all the
Internet had to offer I would set off to work and see what the radio had to
offer. The radio said that a survey has shown that women churchgoers live longer than us heathens. Much was made of the fact even though
few few explanations or reasons were given I was then rather worried by the fact that the
police have been unable to track down the owner of a missing foot. A severed human foot was found near Bath some time ago and the Old Bill haven't managed to
track down its owner. You would have thought that whoever it was might have a
rather distinctive appearence? Interestingly after I'd done my bit at work the evening's
news told of a severed head which has been found in Cambridgeshire. Something of a theme here? Once home I took "Furry Face TM"
round the park. As we walked we met a small beagle called Sherlock. The chap
walking Sherlock was having a serious domestic with the small children in his
care. They'd only come along to go to the playpark and had no interest in
walking round (and I quote) "crap fields with that dog".
Oh the joys of wilful children. As we walked we saw some slightly older children
laying on the grass and snogging. They do that... |
|
18
May 2016 (Wednesday) - Another Dog ?
Having spent much of yesterday evening falling
asleep in front of the telly I wasn't impressed to
find myself awake at 4am this morning. I wasted an hour trying to get back to
sleep before watching "Dad's Army" over brekkie. I then did
a little channel-hopping and discovered "Irish Paint Magic". At
first sight the show struck me as something of a Bob Ross rip-off. It turns out that the chap presenting the show is
actually a Bob Ross qualified instructor. Mind you whilst his painting was
good, the chap doing the painting did seem to be somewhat stilted. As the
episode went on it struck me the chap was trying to imitate what Bob Ross did
in his shows. He would have been far better off trying to do his own thing. I then spent five minutes solving another geo-puzzle
before setting off to work. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were
interviewing the editor of the Sun newspaper. His paper has fallen foul of the press regulator. A few months ago he published a headline story claiming the Queen
was in favour of Britain leaving the European
Union. This story was proved not to be true, and the Sun has ben forced to publish an apology. The chap being interviewed was rather recalcitrant.
He said they'd published the apology and the regulator's decision because
they had to, but he remained adamant that his story was true. I got to work and spent much of the day in something
of a sulk. There was a geo-mission planned for today. Several of my friends
were off to Essex. But taking the day as holiday wasn't practical. So I spent
much of the day looking out of the window and thinking about what might have
been. Mind you the weather forecast had been for heavy
rain for today; it did rain for most of the day. I suppose I would only have
grumbled had it rained on me whilst I might have been out and about. Once home I took "Furry Face TM"
for a walk. We were on the final stretch on the way home through the Co-op
field when we had a little episode. On our walks my dog plays, scraps, fights
and ignores all sorts of other dogs. So I didn't really think anything when
he was playing with a rather small bundle of fluff. But when I put his lead
on before leaving the co-op field the little bundle of fluff puppy started
crying. It was then that I realised that no one was
with this baby dog. I looked around, but no one was to be seen. I stroked the puppy and she stopped crying; I
stopped stroking her and she started crying again. So I had a look at her
collar. There was a phone number. I rang the number three times; each time
the thing rang and rang with no answer. There was a post code and a house
number on the dog's collar so with a little help from Google I had an address
which was a little way away. I picked up the little puppy, tucked her under my
arm and we set off to take her home. I found the house and knocked on the door. I could
hear movement inside and eventually a rather "council"-looking
woman answered the door and asked what I wanted. I said "your dog...", whe replied "what
about it?" in a rather confrontational way. So I waved the puppy a
bit and asked it it was
her dog. She looked at the dog (clearly not having yet seen her) and
said that she was her dog. There was a silence which stretched for a while
before I asked if she wanted her dog back. Eventually this "delightful lady"
took her dog and just stared at me. I stared back for a while, then walked away. As I walked she suddenly realised what had happened and called after me to ask how
it was that I'd turned up on her doorstep with her dog. I explained that I'd
found her dog some distance away, and had gone to not inconsiderable
inconvenience to return her dog out of the goodness of my heart. She stared
at me as though I was speaking in some foreign language, so I repeated what
I'd just said. She then explained to me how far I claimed I'd walked with her
dog, and asked me what her dog had been doing in the co-op field. Clearly she
didn't beleive what I'd told her. Looking back I should really have offered to have
taken her dog home with me. Perhaps I should have a word with the local dog
warden? We came home, and I then drove round to Steve and
Sarah's. I spent a few minutes enjoying their new sofa, then
we carried the old ones to where they could be collected. The old ones
weren't so much heavy as awkward. A rather good bit of dinner went down very nicely, then we watched "Billy Elliott". I've not
seen that film before. It was quite good... |
|
19 May 2016 (Thursday) - Road Works
Apart from one trip to the loo I slept for over
eight hours last night. Being on a late shift I hadn't set an alarm. I'm
convinced that setting an alarm gives me a restless night. With no alarm last
night I slept very well. Mind you my elbow was incredibly painful this
morning; carrying someone else's litte dog
yesterday did it no favours. I got up, ran the clippers over my head and sat down
for a spot of brekkie. The morning's haul of emails was dull; LinkedIn was
recommending that I be friends with people with whom I clearly had nothing in
common, and Amazon was recommending that I buy the very e-books that I have
already bought from them. I then saw an article on social media which made me chuckle. It was talking about the
shortage of trained blood testers in America, how so few qualified
blood-testers are about, and how good the pay is. The artlcle
was followed by a tirade of griping from actual blood-testers who absolutely
crucified the article. Don't beleive what you
read... I also saw the first teaser
trailer for the new Star Trek series which is planned for
next year. And already the so-called Star Trek fans were criticising
in on social media. Such a shame. Being in a late shift today I had a little spare
time so I took "Furry Face TM" for a walk. As we
went up the road a nice lady in her car flashed her headlights and beeped her
hooter and waved at me whilst grinning like a thing possessed. I wonder who
she was. Two minutes later a young chap in the wetlands park a young chap (with
a staffie) greeted me witha
cheery "Hello Dave!". I had no idea
who he was either. As we walked we met OrangeHead
and her gang of cronies. As is always the case when with her mates OrangeHead was rather aloof, but her chunky little friend
was quite chatty. Her little dog's not doing too well. As we came across the co-op field I kept an eye out
for the errant puppy we found yesterday, but she was nowhere to be seen. Home again, and my little dog took himself off to his
basket. I set off for the late shift at work. I had a little trouble getting
my car out of my road this morning. Last week the road was closed and dug up
for electrical problems. Having filled in the holes and cleared off, today
the water company were digging up the same bit of tarmac. My father used to work for the department of British
Gas that dug holes in the road twenty years ago; I can remember him telling
me how there was no co-operation at all between hole-diggers back then, and
how much time and money and effort could be saved if the hole only needed to
be dug once. I would have thought there would have been some
co-ordination between those with vested interests in digging holes in the
road, but apparently not. As I drove to work "Women's Hour"
was on the radio. They were discussing a novel scheme in which schoolchildren
who wanted to discuss various social and emotional problems could now
formally apply for an appointment with a school-based counsellor. Giving
children someone with whom to walk was being heralded as a stunning
innovation. All I can say is that when I was a child that was what the
teachers were for. I can remember being rather shocked at the lack of
pastoral care shown by the teachers when the fruits of my loin were at
school; and that was some time ago. Perhaps we are going full-circle? |
|
20
May 2016 (Friday) - Worn Out
I was awake at silly o'clock (as I so often am)
and with little else on the agenda I thought I'd watch a little telly. I'd recorded "Locked Up"; a Spanish show about a rather foxy prisoner who is having a
tough time behind bars. Usually I'm not keen about watching shows with
subtitles, but in this case I've made an exception. There was more than
enough rampant jubbly-waving to make the subtitles
irrelevant. I might even watch the second episode. I think it airs on
Tuesday. As I put my shirt on I watched my dog who was pretending to sleep. His head was down and every
time I looked at him he closed his eyes to feign sleep. However a frantically
wagging tail gave him away. With the telly program
finished I set off to work. As I droveI listened to
the news on the radio. Apparently over two hundred assorted celebrities (including
Steve Coogan, Sir Patrick Stewart and Brian Blessed)
have signed a letter saying how they all feel that Britain would be better off remaining
in the EU. Information on exactly to whom this letter is
addressed is rather vague, and the letter has been dismissed by the
leave-campaign because they don't like it very much. The leave campaign seem
to be doing this an awful lot at the moment. There was also talk of who will take on the role of James Bond now that Daniel Craig is (apparently) standing down There are those who feel that the time is right for
a woman to appear in such a role. I thought this was something of a rather
old idea; after all Modesty Blaise is older than I am
(did you know that Sparks once recorded a theme song for a Modesty Blaise
series that never aired) and April Dancer is even older. I got to work for the early shift. With the vagaries
of my shifts today was day five of a five-day week. I realise
most people do five-day weeks all the time. I used to for many years but now
I'm finding them very hard work. Working longer days
(but less of them) suits me far more. After work I set off to McDonalds where I met "er indoors TM", Jimbo
and Stevey. Whilst in the queue a random woman
greeted me with a hearty "Hello Dave". I smiled sweetly and
made some small talk; I had no idea who she was... "er
indoors TM" then went
home to walk "Furry Face TM" and we went on to astro club. Tonight's meeting wasn't too bad at all. Being secretary is somewhat easier on the club night
than being treasurer was. Now to chase up a speaker for July and to sort out
name badges for the committee... |
|
21
May 2016 (Saturday) – Pears
A restless night; that dog really should stay in his
basket. "er
indoors TM" was up early and offered to cook my toast.
That was nice. Over brekkie I did a little astro
secretary-ing. The speaker we thought was
long-since booked for the July meeting isn't replying to emails. I chivvied
him from a different email account, then played
about on badgemaster dot co dot uk
designing badges for committee members. "er
indoors TM" said goodbye
and set off. I would have liked to have gone with her; there was a lesson
today in how to use GSAK. GSAK
is a wonderful bit of software with which you can program your GPS unit with
most (but not all) of the live geocaches in any given area, and even
some of the dead ones as well. But during the week things had taken an unexpected
turn so I collected "Daddies Little
Angel TM" and drove down to Hastings to see my dad
instead. He's not been well lately. Despite some iffy weather the journey to Hastings
was uneventful. We arrived and it wasn't long before "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM"
had taken a bite from every bit of fruit in my mum's fruit bowl. To make
amends "Daddies Little Angel TM"
ate some of the fruit. She quote liked the pear. How can you get to be twenty
seven years old and never had a pear before? Dad seemed to enjoy our visit; he was looking better
than he was the last time I saw him. We had a rather good bit of dinner, then had to make a move. It would have ben goood to have stayed all day but today was one of those
days when I was pulled in several directions. We then came home and made our
way to WIllesborough where the clans gathered to
say goodbye to Emily. Billed as a tea party I shifted four pints of ale
before coming home and walking "Furry Face TM"
into a thunderstorm. Needless to say we cut our walk short... |
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22
May 2016 (Sunday) - Damp in Dartford
I slept like a log; I woke to realise
that I should really have packed my rubber dingy during the week whilst it
was dry rather than leaving it out to get wetter and wetter. It wasn't *that*
wet as I stuffed it into a green sack and then loaded it into the boot of "er indoors TM" car. We collected Suzy and her entourage and set off to Dartford. Regular readers of this drivel may recall I'd
done a spot of extreme geocaching there a few weeks ago and said I needed to
make a return journey. We met up with the team and once everyone was
together over a dozen of us set off to a bridge over a tributary of the river
Thames. There was (and is) a geocache under that bridge. Jo and I had
got to it before when we got to it by marching (somewhat gung-ho) into
the river and reaching the cache from the river. There's no denying that at
that time I was actually armpit-deep in the river, and it is just possible
that Joe's comment of "is that a fish or a turd" might not
have been the most encouraging thing to say. So today a different approach
was taken. Rather than marching (somewhat gung-ho) into
the river and reaching up, ropes were strung up and hardy souls were harnesssed. Several of our number got to the cache that
way. Personally I thought that they should have taken a dunking but what do I
know? As this went on "Furry Face TM"
was quite contentedly digging into the side of the river. Something had got
his attention; it was quite good that he was constructively ocupied and not getting into mischief. From here we went along to a culvert through which
another river got to the river Thames. There was a geocache about fifty yards
into that culvert. Those who advocated messing about with ropes were somewhat
scuppered here. There was no way a rope would help.
There was no choice but to get wet. The plan was that we would have got here at low
tide, but the earlier messing about with ropes had taken longer than
expected. I'd done this one when I last visited Dartford;
today the water in the culvert was a *lot* deeper. The chap who'd hidden these extreme caches had
joined us today; from here he led us on a littlle
extra bonus; ropes and slings up a disused telegraph pole. Several brave
souls went up. I didn't. Realistically I think I could havee
done it, but I know my limitations. I *could* have done it but I would
have taken too long, and time was pressing. We needed to be elsewhere for
high tide. We made our way back to the cars, and pausing only
briefly to climb a tree, we relocated to what was my prime target for the
day. A difficulty one - terrain five cache. *Really* easy to see, a
pig to actually get to. This one was attached to the top of a wooden thing in
a river. Clearly visible from the towpath; only accessible by boat. T5-D1 was
the *only* one of eighty-one possible D-T combinations I hadn't
previously found; there are only two of these that don't involve *serious*
tree-climbs within fifty miles of home. So getting that was a "must-do" We arrived at high tide; I was amazed at how high
the water was. It was probably twelve feet higher than when we were last
there. On the last trip to Dartford we'd arrived at
low tide. The wooden thingy was then standing in mud. I got into "HMS Badger", a ten-yard
sail and one wet bum later saw me doing the top-secret geo-aquatic-rituals. I
was soon joined by a couple of geo-canoes. After a while I got out of the dingy and others got
in and had a go. We messed about on the river for a while before relocating
again. There was a cache a little way away under a bridge.
Supposedly *very* hard to find. We'd got a hint or two from previous
finders, but eleven of us (with a combined geo-score of about 48000)
spent the best part of an hour in the river to no avail. So we went to
another bridge and found a cache under that one instead. We'd been rather lucky with the weather; we'd had a
little drizzle toward the end of the day but it was only as we got back to
the cars that the rain really started. We said our goodbyes and within ten
minutes of setting off home so the torrential rain started. Once home I gave my little dog his tea, he got a
shower, and he took himself off to his basket where he went straight to
sleep. He's had a rather busy day. as had I.... I put on-line the photos I'd taken during the day and realised I felt quite
exhausted. I only got to add four finds to my geo-total today, but
it's not always about the numbers. Today was good fun. I quite like aquatic
geocaching. Maybe I need to upgrade HMS Badger.... |
|
23
May 2016 (Monday) - Bruised Tum
My
stomach muscles ached this morning; probably from where I fell through the
second bridge yesterday. I can think of no other reason why I would have such
an impressive bruise. As
my toast cooked I put some washing into the machine, and over brekkie I had a
look-see on-line. Yesterday
"er indoors TM" posted one of the photos of yesterday's
adventures onto the Facebook group "You Might Be a Geocacher if..." It was a picture of some of us waist
deep in the water in the culvert. Some
people were impressed, some were amazed. It rather niggled me that one twit
announced that we were in a sewer and another thought we might contract polio
from the Thames. Actually several people were rather negative in their
comments. Mind you that Facebook group seems to attract those who feel that
they lead a seriously crazy lifestyle by finding fifty film pots under a rock
in less than a year.... While I waited for the washing machine to scrape the
mud out of my trousers I spent a little while trying to solve geo-puzzles.
Have you ever heard of a band from the fifties called "Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers"? No? - me neither. Which is probably why I
struggled to solve the puzzles. I didn't go to Canterbury for work today. I went
elsewhere. Despite not having secured promotion at the interview of a couple
of weeks ago I spent today at a course on "People Management".
I won't dwell on it too much... The course finished a tad earlier than expected, and
with a much shorter journey home than usual I was able to walk "Furry
Face TM" round the park quite a bit earlier than I
normally do. We did get caught in a downpour, but it stopped as quickly as it
started so we just kept walking. Patagonian Tripe-Hounds don't seem bothered
by the rain. As we walked we met some young joggers who were being shouted at
by an older jogger. He looked like some sort of teacher; I thought it best
not to get involved. We saw OrangeHead in the
distance with a gaggle of cronies in tow; we kept away. Once home I fannied around
with laundry until "er indoors TM"
came home. Socks to sort, and "Game of Thrones" will be on
soon.... Normally I make all sorts of lewd comments about Nudey-Dragon-Girl's
chest, but today I'm going to take a moral tone. After "Game of
Thrones" I shall watch "Gotham". The girl in it who
plays a young Catwoman had her birthday yesterday.
She was seventeen and had a beach party. It was all over social media. I would not have let my seventeen year old daughter
post photographs of herself on Facebook with so little on. I used to tell her
mates off for doing so... |
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24
May 2016 (Tuesday) - Genetically Modified
My bruised stomach was still rather painful when I
woke this morning. I got up; my dog didn't. I had a rather lonely brekkie
watching "Dad's Army". In today's episode out heroes had a
fight with the Americans. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were
talking about genetically
modified foods. Two points of view were offered. On the one hand it makes
sense to make use of crops which have been modified so that that now yield far more food than their naturally
occurring predecessors. On the other hand those who would burn witches at the
stake were screaming about the dangers of genetic modification and were
shouting that scientists shouldn't meddle with nature. It rather annoyed me that these people are allowed
to vote. Are they really that stupid? Do they not know the first thing about
genetic modifications. We've been doing it for
thousands of years. One obvious example of this is the rather small
genetically modified wolf that sleeps on my bed most nights and goes pretty
much everywhere (except to work) with me. The process by which his genes have been modified
was much slower than that employed in the laboratories; it took many
generations to get there but the principle is exactly the same as making GM
foods.. Talking of "Furry Face TM"
I was rather worried about the
next news item. Dog fights are on the increase in the UK. Those evil
bastards who fight dogs against each other are coming from all over the world
to stage their fights in the UK because the legal penalties are far less
(should they be caught). Dog fighting only carries a six-months sentence in
the UK but the same crime warrants a five year prison sentence in France I stopped off at Morrisons
to buy apples and bananas (which bore no relation to the original fruits
of those names) and then went into work for the early shift. I did what I
had to until I could go home. But an early start made for an early finish,
and I was soon walking my little dog round the park. We met several puppies
who wanted to play. "Furry Face TM" ignored them.
Rather rudely I thought. He then got into a race that he couldn't win (with
a greyhound). We came home where "er
indoors TM" was cooking up liver for my dog's tea. Not
that he is spoiled at all. I then spent a little while going over my social
calendar for the next few months. Some of the events I had pencilled in have since been cancelled, others have been
re-scheduled. I've now only got three weekends with nothing planned in the
next three months. I got some of the dog's liver for my tea, then we went down to Folkestone
for the evening. Not a bad way to spend the evening even if I did sleep
through Star Trek... |
|
25
May 2016 (Wednesday) – Badlesmere
I slept well, but woke to find my stomach hurt even
more this morning. The bruising is becoming rather impressive. Over brekkie I
watched an old episode of "A Bit of Fry and Laurie". I used
to enjoy that series when it first came out. I was rather disappointed to
find that it hasn't stood the test of time. I then had a little look-see on-line. I got just the
teensiest bit cross with what I saw. My ex-brother in law had posted
something (rather
hate-inspired)
on Facebook whinging about how many Mayors of
various places in the UK are Muslims. Personally I think the reason that so
many Mayors are Muslims is because they are the ones who've got off their arses and stood for election and their religion is
utterly irrelevent to being Mayor of anything (but
what do I know?) I also saw a post with the slogan "We didn't
fight 2 World Wars to be ruled by the EU". Bearing in mind the most
recent of these wars was over seventy years ago are we as a nation *really*
this jingoistic? And do those how post this stuff have
any idea which countries were on which side during those wars? I resisited the temptation
to get in to arguments (this time). On a lighter not I saw that there is to be (another)
Doctor
Who spin-off TV series. Details are somewhat sketchy at the moment. Mind
you my hopes aren't high. I never liked "Sarah-Jane Adventures"
or "Torchwood". And I saw what I considered to be a blast
from the past. A restaurant in West Malling
owes a butcher several thousand pounds. This butcher has got fed up with
waiting for his money and has taken to standing outside the restaurant with a
placard saying how much the restaurant owes him. When I was a child the local corner shop would put
up posters saying how much people owed them in unpaid bills when payments
weren't forthcoming. It wasn't long between the shop's starting this policy
and their going bankrupt. I wonder if this butcher will go the same way? When I got into my car the radio was giving the
hourly sports bulletin. I've always maintained that sport (of any flavour) is something you do, *not* something
you watch or listen to. Consequently it failed to grip my attention. It
wasn't till I got to work that I realised I'd not
actually listened to anything the radio had to say this morning. (Which
was probably good for my blood pressure) Instead I'd been mentally planning out a Wherigo which I hope to release with the summer picnic
that I'm organising for the geo-crowd in August. It
will be (loosely) based on the beetle drives I used to do as a
fund-raiser with the scouts in years gone by. I went in to work; I had toyed with asking for today
as a day off. I was glad I hadn't done that; it rained for much of the
morning. But it brightened up as the afternoon wore on. After work I met "er indoors TM" and "Furry
Face TM" at Badlesmere and we
went for a little stroll looking for places in which to conceal tupperware. It doesn't hide itself you know... |
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26
May 2016 (Thursday) - Still Bruised
I was out like a light last night. I would have
slept better had I not woken at 4am shivering because an alliance of "er indoors TM" and "Furry
Face TM" had nicked all the
duvet. I wrestled some small part of the duvet back and
slept through to 7am. Over brekkie I had a look-see on line. Among my
emails was one telling me of a vacancy at Maidstone
hospital. I'm tempted to apply for that. And there was quite a bit of dross
too. As well as Amazon trying to sell me what I've already bought from them
there was the usual drivel from LinkedIn, an invitation to go on a geo-booze
up in Croydon, a couple of requests for me to do on-line surveys and the
usual helping of spam. However there was no email confirming the chap I was
hoping might give the talk at astro club in July.
I've emailed him a few times; I think that if he's not replied after three
weeks of trying either I have the wrong email address or he's not keen. I've
now stalked him down on Facebook and sent a message. Here's hoping. Failing
that would any of my loyal readers care to give a lecture on any topic of
their choice (as long as it is vaguely astronomical) on the last
Friday of July? I had a look on Facebook; one of my old muckers has
had a hip relacement operation. My dad had that a
couple of weeks ago. Now Adrian's had one done. He's only a month older than
me. Makes you think, doesn't it? I took "Furry Face TM"
for a walk round the park. He mostly ignored all the other dogs who wanted to
play. But I had a couple of incidents. At one point he was bimbling about some twenty yards behind me. I called to
him "Come on straggler!" A passing normal person took
offence at the term "straggler". Amd
then a little later when preparing to cross Francis Road I told him to "wait
up". Another passing normal person demanded that I repeat what I'd
said to him. I would have thought that someone clearly in their seventies
wouldn't be going round trying to pick a fight. I came home and my dog scoffed his brekkie and took
himself off to bed. I had a quick look-see on-line and then set off to work.
Slowly. I went to work via McDonalds. It was a bright morning, and a caramel
frappe together with a sausage and egg McMuffin
slipped down very nicely. There are those who don't like McDonalds. I can't
see why not. Good food prepared quickly which is not overly expensive is not
to be sniffed at. It has been my experience that the entire family can eat at
Maccy Ds for less than what one person would spend
in a "proper" restaurant. And be seated, fed and out before
the waiter of a "proper" restaurant would come over to take
the order. I also stopped off at the cheapo-bargains shop where
I got half a dozen sandwich boxes (just in case). I got to work with a few minutes to spare, and I did
my bit. I spent much of the time wondering about the vacancy at Maidstone. Should I apply for it? Over lunchtime I checked my emails (on my phone).
A recruitment agency had contacted my through the much-maligned LinkedIn
asking if I would consider working in the private sector's blood testing
labs. Would I? I don't know. I didn't think there were many opportunities. My bruised stomach still hurts... |
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27
May 2016 (Friday) - Dog Selfies
I woke probably an hour earlier than I needed to.
Mind you my dog got up with me this morning and sat with me as I scoffed my
brekkie. He didn't scrounge; he just put his chin on my lap and went to
sleep. I sat quietly stroking his back reminding myself that I never wanted a
dog. It was as well that I was up early. Today was a
geo-calendar day and bearing in mind how badly the last one went I thought
I'd make an early start. After all I wasted over four hours on my last
geo-calendar debacle I set off to Junction 11 of the M20 and from there
took the A-road. There were supposedly several easy-to-find caches along it. My first target eluded me, as did the second. I was
beginning to suspect the worst, but the third time was the lucky one. I then set off toward Canterbury and work. Up till
this point I'd had the radio off so I could hear the sat-nav's
instructions. I turned the radio on to hear what I can only describe as
stark staring nonsense. Sheikh Saleh Bin Fawzan
Al-Fazwan, an influential Saudi cleric and a member
of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars has proclaimed that taking selfies
with cats or other animals is “prohibited" unless completely necessary. In the first instance why on Earth would anyone ban
selfie taken with an animal of any shape or form except for cases of extreme necessity. And secondly what constitutes extreme necessity
when having a selfie taken with your pet? Is God *really* going to smite me with a
thunderbolt for having a photo taken with my dog? If so I have to question if
I want anything to do with Him. I stopped off at Morrisons
on the way to work. Having run out of peanut butter at home I needed to get a
sandwich. Morrisons was dull this morning. Probably
not a bad thing. I arrived at work a little early. Having time on my
hands I wandered down to the minor injuries unit. It wouldn't cost anything
to have my bruised tum checked out by a medic. You never know - I might have
had a mesenteric thrombosis (look it up!) I booked in and the receptionist took down my
particulars (Oo-er!). I was rather
vague about the exact circumstances by which I'd got the bruise; normal
people don't understand the need to climb through a bridge into a river. It wasn't long before a nurse was asking me to take
my trousers off. Result!! I had my stomach mauled about and after five minutes
I was sent on my way with a warning to act my age and not be so daft in
future. There's nothing wrong that time won't put right. Just as I was about to go and do some work my phone
beeped - an email. Yesterday I mentioned I was struggling to get in touch
with the chap I thought had been booked to give the astro
club's talk in July. I've now got hold of him. He had no idea we were
expecting him, but all is now sorted (on the speakers front) at the
club... at least until next March. And whilst on the astro
club, over lunchtime I got a mention for the club on the council's
tourism website. I would have thought that with all the work the club has
done for the local council over the last year or so they would already have
made mention of us. I wonder where else we might get a free plug. I did my bit at work, and came home. I had several
offers for the evening. "Access All Areas" was playing at
the Farriers Arms. Had they been playing absolutely anywhere else I may well
have gone along but I resented paying seven quid to walk through the door of
somewhere that messed me about so much last year. There was a geo-meet in Bredgar supposedly organised
for a geo-band. But if I was going to listen to live music it would be that
of mates. Instead "er
indoors TM" came home with fish and chips... |
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28
May 2016 (Saturday) - Back to the Western Heights
"er
indoors TM" had an alarm
set. It woke me this morning. 8.30am !! Over eight
hours asleep. Having done a full five days at work I must have been tired. I got up and had a little look-see on line. Not much
had changed in the big wide world. The European in-out argument continued all
over social media. Pundits have been complaining on the radio all week about
how ill-informed the public have been for this up-coming referendum and how
right they are. So many facts and figures are being bandied about as reasons
to stay in or leave. And pretty much all these so-called facts are unprovable
speculation, and pretty much all these figures have been shown to be wrong. But I remain convinced that facts and figures will
have little (if any) bearing on the final result. I am sure that the
"out" vote will win purely because the average Brit hates
foreigners. We drove down to Folkestone
to collect Jimbo and Stevey
and made our way to the Western Heights. The Western Heights is somewhere we
go at least once a year. It has the most wonderful views across Dover and the
English Channel. The wildlife is up there with the best you'll find anywhere
in England; today we saw slow worms and a rather huge hawk. And if you are prepared to go past signs saying
"No Entry; Keep Out" there are some amazing places to see.
All sorts of underground tunnels and bunkers. Not that I would dream of going
past such a sign. We parked up in somewhere that I describe as "The
Dogger's Car Park"; I have no idea what it is really called, but
when I say "The Dogger's Car Park" everyone knows where I
mean. We wandered round admiring the views of the harbour
and walked round to the Drop Redoubt where we looked at the hard work which
the geo-gang had done at the CITO of a few weeks
ago. We found a rather pleasant spot high behind the
redoubt and had a picnic overlooking Dover. And with lunch scoffed we then
walked up past the detached bastion taking great care not to go past any
signs which said "No Entry; Keep Out". Unfortunately dogs
can't read very well (or that's my story) and so we had to go into the
grounds of the bastion to look for my dog. (Or that's what I would have
said had we been caught). It was a good place to go noseying...
it was a shame that the holes through which I'd previously scrambled to get
into the North Gate and the detached bastion had all been sealed closed. We carried on walking and (finding two geocaches
and quite a bit of fox poo on the way) soon found ourselves at an old
wartime gun emplacement. There was an interesting hole in the ground under
this fortification... I climbed in. "Climbed" sounds rather graceful,
doesn't it? Perhaps "splatted" might be a more truthful
description. I scrambled and skidded about down into the darkness and soon
came to another hole. I shone a torch into this hole. It looked interesting,
but it was a hole which was less than a foot high and the ground here was
muddy and sloping away at a forty five degree angle. I could *easily*
have got into that next hole. Getting out however... I clambered out. There was another such hole under the next gun
emplacement. I scrambled into that one too. However the first hole had quite
a few bolders inside which helped me climb. This
one was just mud. I skidded in very easily. Getting out took some doing. We came back past the Western Outworks. This place
had some *serious* fences around it. Eventually we found where a hole
had been cut in the fence. We were remarking on just how foolish it would be
to go inside when a certain dog again shot off where he shouldn't have gone (or
so the official story goes). I'd not been in this place before. It was quite
amazing. And criminal that such a place is just being left to decay. We spent
quite some time looking about in all sorts of places that we really shouldn't
have been. But time was pushing on. We made our way back to the
car and set off homewards; making a slight detour to Samphire Hoe for ice
creams. Once home I got the lawn mower out and had a go at
the lawn. It hasn't been done for over a month, the lawn mower struggled. I
shall have to have another go in the week. I then tried to do the monthly
accounts and wasted an hour fighting with the PC. Somehow it had lost its
start menu. Eventually I found it, and did the accounts. They could be
better; they could be a whole lot worse. I'd taken a few photos earlier. I then put
them on-line for the world to see, then prepared "Hannah"
for tomorrow's outing. I might have an early night. I feel tired for some
reason... |
|
29
May 2016 (Sunday) - Teynham
I woke this morning to find my left arm was wrapped
around my dog, and my right elbow was rather painful. Perhaps I overdid it
somewhat yesterday? Over brekkie I solved a few geo-puzzles and then
checked my emails. One of them was something of a complaint about the series
of geocaches I'd put out round Bethersden last
year. The person writing to me was polite but they said "For me really, it
was a bit too long, I had an operation for a new knee three months ago, so it
really was a test, and there is literally nowhere to have a sit down!! A pub
halfway would have been great, or even a bench. For our lunch we sat in a
damp field to eat our sandwiches.... When we were halfway through I realised
I had had enough, my knee was getting painful, but of course we were about
3.5kms from the car. We then had to decide to continue the route or take the
quickest way back to the car. We chose the road, but it was very busy, not a
pleasant walk..." I took a deep breath. Geocaching is a hobby which
requires a little skill with map and compass. You *don't* have to be
Bear Grylls to look at an ordnance survey map to
see there are no pubs on the route. And I clearly said in the instructions
that the route was one of eight miles and the terrain was a tad challenging. Is it *really* my fault if they didn't read
the instructions or plan their day properly? In a novel break with tradition "er indoors TM" was ready before me
this morning. We drove round to the co-op, then on to collect Suzy-pup (and
her entourage) before heading up to Tenyham for
today's geo-adventure. Relatively recently three series of geocaches had
gone live around Teynham. I'd had chats with the
chap who'd hidden them. He felt that each series could be done in about three
hours. So the theory was we'd walk the first series, have a spot of lunch in
the pub then walk the second series. If time allowed we would press on and do
the third.... I thought this was a good plan. We met up with the gang and immediately fell foul of some old bat who took exception to our parking on
the public highway. But we treated her grumbling with the contempt it
deserved and set off. We wandered down the main road a bit then turned into a
footpath and.... I'd never seen stinging nettles quite like it
before. It took an age to be able to move just a few hundred yards.
Eventually the only realistic option was to hop over an electric fence and
walk down a field. But once we were over the fence we were able to press on. It was a lovely day for a walk. We saw all sorts of
wildlife; hawks, lizards, viking horses(!)
The scenery was beautiful. But we seemed to be taking our time. In theory we
should really have been onto the second loop of caches by 1pm; not only be
half way round the first one. So finding ourselves near a pub and bearing in
mind it was gone 1pm we changed lunch plans and stopped at The Ship in Conyer for a pint and a cheese ploughmans.
Very nice. Eventually we moved on. We found some more caches;
we plated flowers into our hair. The plan was to have finished the first loop
of caches by about mid day. We actually finished at
3.30pm. Mark joined us and we adjourned to the pub where a pint of East Coast
IPA went down very nicely. Bearing in mind we'd over-run by a couple of hours
we considered whether we should continue, but (as it so often does)
idiot enthusiasm overpowered common sense and we set off up the road in
search of more tupperware. This second loop of
geocaches also took us to some rather pretty places. And to quite a few
stinging nettles as well. There was a dodgy five minutes when (in a little
aside to the geo-loop) we went in search of a geocache hidden by someone
else. Eventually we (I) found it; it was in a little derelict house.
But I came within six inches of falling in a pond utterly obscured by
six-feet-high nettles. It was a shame we had to give up on two of the
caches on this second loop. Time was pressing and the light was failing. We
logged our last find at 9pm; having (according to "Hannah")
walked a shade over thirteen miles. We joked about doing the third loop by
torchlight but it wasn't going to happen. We made our way back to the cars,
said our goodbyes and came home. A very tired little dog hungrily gobbled his tea and
went straight to his bed. I won't be that far behind him... |
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30
May 2016 (Monday) - Before the Night Shift
I slept like a log last night. It is amazing how a
full day's walking does that for you.; I woke to
find myself cuddling a sleeping small dog as though he were a teddy bear. Over a bit of brekkie I organised
a littlle walk for later in the week, If any of my
loyal readers find themselves at a loose end on Thursday, a walk round Downe might be a good way to spend the morning. I realise a lot of people will be at work mid week. But I won't be. Bearing in mind that "er
indoors TM" had plans to take "Furry Face TM"
out today I walked round to see "Daddies
Little Angel TM" and "Stormageddon
- Bringer of Destruction TM". We then walked out to the
McDonalds in the orbital park only to find they workmen hadn't finished
building it yet. It had recently been demolished to make way for a bigger
one. As I drove past the othher day it had looked
open. It looked like a building site today. Instead we went to see the goats at the farm and
went back to "Daddies Little Angel TM"'s
flat for a cuppa and to watch a bit of telly. "Almost Naked
Animals" was quite amusing; even if I have reservations about
whether it makes suitable viewing for an eighteen month old. I came home to find "er
indoors TM" was out but "Furry Face TM"
was in. I was rather cross; I could have taken him with me earlier. I set about mowing the lawn; after half an hour's
effort "er indoors TM"
turned up; she'd been shopping. She then took Fudge off to the Bank Holiday
geo-barbecue whilst I had a shower. As I got out of scrub my phone rang.
"Daddies Little Angel TM"
was in intense pain. She'd phoned 111 and they'd suggested calling an
ambulance. I *could* have taken her to the hospital myself but (as
she said) she'd get immediate service if she arrived in an ambulance.
There are those who might feel that I should have taken my little girl to the
hospital. However after all these years taking her to hospital has something
of a "been there, done that" about it. Instead I gave her instructions to text me any
developments and I took myself off to bed for the afternoon. I'm off to the night shift
now.... |
|
31
May 2016 (Tuesday) - A Day Asleep
Last night as I worked I listened to the radio.
There was a documentary on Dr
Martin Couney who lived some time ago and specialised in the care of premature babies. Bearing in
mind that America doesn't offer free health care and most parents of
premature babies were faced with horrendous bills, Dr
Couney had a rather unusual idea. He charged the general public twenty five cents to
come and look at the babies in their incubators. This fee generated enough
income to pay for the care of the babies; the public couldn't get enough of
staring at the poor things as though they were some sort of freak show. And people have the gall to complain about the
National Health Service... As the day shift came in there was all sorts of
grumbling about "typical British weather". The three bright
days of the long weekend have been forgotten because of one wet morning. I
came home through the rain, and once home popped the lead onto "Furry
Face TM" and walked him round the block. We didn't go
far; although the rain had pretty much stopped, the wind was fierce and I was
rather tired. Night shifts do that to you. With dog walked I had a shower then over a bit of
toast I had a quick look-see on-line. My dentist had emailed me a reminder
about next week's appointment. Emails from the dentist - that's new ! I took myself off to bed and slept for six hours. I woke with something of a sore nose; my CPAP
machine does that sometimes. I spent a little while working on my latest Wheri-project., then sorted my socks whilst watching a
classic episode of "Upstairs Downstairs". Off to the night shift now.... The days between the
night shifts are usually dull. |
