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1 May 2020 (Friday) -
Before the Night Shift
Being the first of the month I got myself a
new razor blade from out of the cupboard. That made for a much more
comfortable morning’s scrape. I made toast then peered into the depths of the
Internet. Yesterday I posted a little rant onto
Facebook about the Thursday evening clapping. If people want to clap, that is
up to them. I was a little concerned that if people don’t want to clap or are
unable to do so (for a myriad reasons) then that is no longer up to
them. It is now seemingly up to a growing self-appointed jury who judges them
and advertises their non-participation in social media. This morning I was
amazed to find that over eighty people had agreed with me. I posted up my third choice of film… today’s
was a particularly obscure one. I then had a message from the local Munzee group. April’s clan war was over and I’d been
elevated to clan leader. Whilst geocaching is currently dead in the water,
what with Munzing being something that can be done
whilst walking the dogs or going shopping it seems to be having something of
a resurgence. We settled the dogs and I drove "er indoors TM" up to Gillingham.
Regular readers of this drivel may recall that the "er indoors TM"-mobile went
belly-up on March 22. The car has had a good innings, but it had reached the
point where replacement was cheaper than repair, and what with her firm
talking of opening up their office very soon, a replacement car was very much
needed. She’d spent quite a bit of time looking
on-line to find what she wanted (to me all cars are the same), and the
car of choice was in Gillingham. We got there, we had a test drive. She bought
the thing. I must admit I was amazed at how quick it all went. I was also amazed by the salesman’s face
mask. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes when I saw that he was wearing a
rather ill-fitting one. For much of the time he had the thing under his nose
so that he could breathe, and he took it off several times so as to use his
phone. So many people are wasting these face masks in this way. These things
would all be far better off in hospital wards and in care homes where they
would be used properly. Having driven up in one car, we came home in
two. There’s no denying that I nearly came back in a different car. I’d liked
the look of one of the cars that I’d seen there, but I thought better of
getting it right now. My car has been recently serviced and MOT-ed, and with
a re-sale value of (about) only five hundred quid I’m realistically
better off driving it until it dies. Once home I walked the dogs round the block.
I would have gone further but the rain was against us. I scoffed some cheese
on toast and took myself off to bed for the afternoon where I slept for a
couple of hours. I woke to see I had a message on Facebook. A
month ago I gave my Geocaching
Adventure Lab a bit of an overhaul. Some cowardly anonymous person from
Australia had published all the answers on-line together with instructions on
how to blag the thing. I changed the questions and answers so that they
couldn’t be found out from Google Street View, and whoever it was who gives
out all the spoilers didn’t like it. There was quite a nasty little rant
about me on the geo-spoilers page. I’ve not replied; it just encourages him… Hopefully "er
indoors TM" will boil up some dinner soon, and then I’m
off to the night shift… |
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2 May 2020 (Saturday)
- After the Night Shift
Apart from a rather unusual D-group in the
small hours (it’s a blood banking thing) the night shift passed off
rather peacefully. I commented about the obscure blood group on Facebook, and
all sorts of people commented (which was fun). As I drove home I kept looking at the “range”
thingy on my car’s dashboard. Having got a full tank of petrol before work
yesterday, my car’s estimated range (until more petrol was needed) was
about fifty miles higher than usual on a full tank. Travelling cross-country
to Pembury has been far more fuel-efficient than going up the motorway to
Maidstone. As I drove home I listened to the pundits on
the radio who were drivelling on about coronageddon.
Despite a daily death rate still over seven hundred (and anyone with any
sense realising the need to continue lock-down for quite a while yet) the
politicians were all talking about easing restrictions. You might think that
this a rather stupid thing to do, but the politicians realise that although
lock-down is very necessary, it is very unpopular, and the one who makes the
most noise about ending it will be the one who gets the most votes at the
next election. I got home, had a shower and went straight to
bed where I managed to sleep for just under three hours. I came down to find "er indoors TM" (still in pyjamas)
had stripped the kitchen and was having a major spring clean. I made myself some toast, and scoffed it
whilst telling the world about my fourth choice of film (for the ten films
Facebook thingy) and then sent out some birthday wishes. I then wasted some
time doing some of my latest Coursera course. “Finding
Purpose and Meaning in Life” seems a bit “tree-hugging” but it
might be interesting. If nothing else I got a free app out of it. With the spring cleaning still in full flow I
took myself out into the garden where I sat for a couple of hours reading
Alexie Sayle on the Kindle whilst having a pint or
two. Once "er indoors TM"
was ready we took the pups round the park for a walk. We’d had reports that
our Munzees had faded (it comes to us all!)
so we did a little Munzee maintenance as we walked.
There were a couple of “dog episodes”, but as another regular dog
walker said to me, the problem really does lie with those who don’t walk
their dogs from one month to the next and don’t know how dogs brains work. It
spoke volumes that one half-wit we met in the co-op field didn’t know how to
undo his dog’s lead. We came home; I did more Coursera whilst "er indoors TM" tried to find her
locking nuts. I expect they are in the car somewhere. Failing that, there’s
always eBay. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
very good bit of dinner. We devoured it then tuned in (via Zoom) to
what is becoming a regular feature of lock-down – the weekly on-line quiz.
Some easy questions, some not so easy. I rather amazed myself by coming
second. These quizzes are really good fun, and a good way to catch up with
friends. It was a shame that I was rather distracted
this evening. Fudge seems to have hurt his front right leg. I’ve given it a
good going over and can’t find any source of pain. I think he’s strained
something. I shall keep an eye on him… Did I even mention that I never wanted a dog?
This worry is *exactly* why… |
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3 May 2020 (Sunday) -
Poorly Dog
After a restless night I got up rather early.
Fudge snored on the sofa as I scoffed Tesco granola and watched an episode of
“After Life” then sparked up my lap-top. I told the world about my fifth choice of
movie (Dammit Janet!) and sent a birthday video to a nephew. If asked
I would have said he was sixteen or seventeen… He’s twenty-nine today.
Twenty-nine (!) Where do the years go? With nothing seeming to have happened
overnight I spent a little while working on my Coursera course “Finding
Purpose and Meaning In Life”. This morning I was presented with seven
questions:
I set off to work, and as I drove and
as I did my bit at work I found myself thinking about those seven questions
my Coursera professor had asked this morning. What is my purpose? What do I
want from life? All rather "big" questions, aren’t they?. What matters most? – I really don’t know. Who relies on me – the dogs maybe? Who inspires you – local community leaders
mainly. The chap who ran our Boys Brigade when I was a lad for one. What causes do I care about? I don’t really
know – it changes quite often. What am I grateful for? I have a lot to be
grateful for… but I’m not when I should be. What gets me out of bed? – The backache if I
stay in there too long. How do I want to be remembered? – I really
don’t know. I *think* the idea of the course is
that if I know what I want out of life I’ll end up a whole lot happier.
Personally I just want everyone around me to be happy, because generally when
everyone else is happy, then so am I. Mind you I can't pretend to have been very
happy today. I kept thinking about Fudge. When I came downstairs this morning
he'd been fast asleep on the sofa. He must have moved awkwardly in his sleep
as he suddenly sat bolt upright squealing in pain. Within seconds Pogo had
flown down the stairs and was licking him in an obvious display of concern. "er indoors TM" took him to
the vets this morning. After having been given a once-over the vet couldn't
find anything obviously amiss. He did have a minor set-to with another dog
yesterday. I can't help but think he jolted his back somehow, and that is
playing him up again. He's been prescribed tramadol and rest; he's not keen
on either. I also spent a little time peering out of the
window at work today. I do that a lot when working at the weekends; often
sulking about what I might be missing. But with the world in lock-down I was
missing nothing today. I had been peering out of the window watching a pair
of goldfinches bathing in a puddle on the flat roof outside. They were having
a whale of a time right up until the point at which I tried to take a photo.
That scared them off a few times before I finally got a (blurred)
photo. With work done as I walked back to my car I
had a look at one of the Munzees I'd stuck on a
road sign there a month or so ago. It had faded to the point of being
unreadable, so I replaced it with a new one. Having put out over fifty Munzees near work I suspect they have all now faded. I
shall replace the lot eventually when I can. Once I got home "er
indoors TM" took the terrible twins out, and I sat with
Fudge. He was very upset that he wasn’t going for a walk, and he was hurting
himself more by getting stressed. I eventually settled him. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of dinner. With that scoffed we had another Zoom
video-meet-up. It was good to catch up. But there’s no denying that an early
night might be in order… Fudge is sulking... the pain killers seem to
have helped but he’s not happy. And consequently neither am I… |
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4 May 2020 (Monday) -
Still Poorly Dog
The vet had given strict instructions that Fudge
was to sleep on a bed which would give him support. Having been settled into
his basket last might I came down to find him laying
on the floor. I spent a little while trying to help him get comfortable
before insisting that he went back to his basket. He would seem to prefer not
being in there, but when in his basket he wasn’t quivering in pain.
Eventually he nodded off. I watched an episode of “After Life”;
I say “watched”. It was on the telly but I was watching Fudge mostly. With telly done and Fudge asleep I had a look
at the Internet. Geocaching HQ were giving out an e-souvenir for anyone who’d
found a geocache yesterday. Many of those who only a few short weeks ago were
advocating staying indoors and had lambasted me for taking the dogs out had gone
out hunting under rocks for film pots. I told the world about my sixth film choice,
I sent out a birthday message, and then spent fifteen minutes on my Cousera course. What motivates people? Wanting to help
others or self-interest? As I left home I paused briefly to log a
couple of virtual Munzees. Overnight some had
appeared outside the house as if by magic (thank you my Munzee clan pals!) and a touch of the phone gave me
some vital points (vital if you like that sort of thing!) I set off towards Pembury. As I drove the
pundits on the radio were talking about a possible easing of lock-down.
I can't help but feel that the government has got to do something decisive.
The roads are getting noticeably busier and with talk of easing of
restrictions and talk of schools and workplaces going back and with talk of
only the olduns being left in quarantine, lock-down
seems to be little more than a social craze which has run its course. The
public have lost interest in it and are clearly now moving on to whatever is
the next big thing. The government needs to enforce the lock-down properly,
or the pandemic will have a second peak which will make what's gone before
seem like peanuts. There was also an interview with some farmer
or other who was banging on about how lock-down has done for his business.
His business being the only UK-based supplier of nitrate-free bacon. "Nitrate-free
bacon" indeed... it never fails to amaze me how the public go for
these crackpot schemes. You really could put bottles of water on a supermarket
shelf, tout them as "dairy-free milk" and sell them at a
fiver each. Despite nearly being run off the road several
times by various maniac drivers (there were a lot of them about today)
I got to Pembury and popped into Tesco. Having bought no end of jam,
marmalade and peanut butter recently, I'd not got any honey. So I got a
couple of jars, and some more beer and wine too. I did have a plan to support
the little shop in Goudhurst for beer as they have some stuff that you don't
get everywhere. Tesco also had some obscure ale at two quid a bottle cheaper
than the little shop. There is only so much supporting the little shop you
can do. As I wandered round Tesco I met some old chap
who was inadvertently and obliviously walking against the direction proscribed
by the arrows on the floor. Several normal people were glaring at him and
tutting. They boiled my piss. I went up to the old chap (as close as
social distancing would allow), smiled, and told him about the arrows and
told him that you can only walk in only one direction round the store because
(at this point I raised my voice) if you don't then you upset the
idiots wearing ripped gloves and ill-fitting masks. I'm glad to say this
shamed several of the idiots (with masks under their chins and gloves
riddled with holes), and they shuffled away looking suitably embarrassed. Work was work; today we had more free Easter
eggs and free coffee, and also some rather odd-tasting supposedly melon-flavoured
water. At the risk of appearing ungrateful I would have preferred cake. I
would also have preferred a pay rise, but I've done that rant before. The
public's love affair with the NHS won't last long enough for a pay rise, so I
shall settle for whatever freebies I can get. And I shall be grateful because
a *lot* of people who deserve recognition aren't getting anything. Once I got home "er
indoors TM" took Treacle and pogo for a walk. The idea
was that I would sit with Fudge, but he was very fractious and not at all
happy that he’d been left behind. I took him for a short walk; up the road to
Dan-Dan’s (niece-in-law is the closest I can describe her relation to me)
and back. It was a round trip of about two hundred yards which he seemed to
manage well, but once home there were some whimpers and yelps. The trouble
is… I’ve seen this before with Fudge. He soon
learns that I’m a soft touch and immediately respond when he cries. But he’ll
have a great walk, pulling on the lead clearly in no pain when we are out and
once home be whinging all the time. Is he crying because he overdid it on the
walk, or is he seeking attention? "er indoors TM" boiled up a
very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a TV show in which
Paul Hollywood went around various restaurants in Tokyo. It was far better
than you might think… Fudge has been asleep for over an hour… |
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5 May 2020 (Tuesday)
- Before the Late Shift
After a rather good night’s sleep I came
downstairs to see Fudge laying on the floor. I fussed him a little, but that
disturbed him so I left him dozing. I put some honey on to some toast (which
was rather good) and scoffed it whilst peering into the Internet. I was
rather disappointed to see that very little had happened in cyberspace
overnight, but bearing in mind that little other than arguments ever seems to
happen, that was probably for the best. I told the world about my seventh
choice of film, and sent out some birthday wishes. Two of the people having
birthdays today asked if I would like to support their charities. I would
have done *if* either had nominated a charity to support. I’m sorry
but subsidising a government-funded hospital isn’t a charitable act. (I’ve
done that rant to death many times before). I had a little look at my emails. Someone
claiming to be called “Sophie” had commented on something I
wrote elsewhere last November in which she showed a complete
misunderstanding of the nature of human disease and made a rather pitiful
attempt to peddle her crackpot herbal medicine. Now let’s be honest, if “herbal
medicine” actually worked it wouldn’t be called “herbal medicine”,
it would be called “medicine”. I marked her comment as spam. Google can sort
her out. Fudge was anxious to go out, so "er indoors TM" distracted the
Terrible Twins and I walked Fudge up to Dan-Dan’s and back again. With his
back playing up, I thought a five-minute outing was plenty. I then took Pogo
and Treacle round the park where the walk went relatively well. There was a
minor incident when Pogo sniffed the bum of one of the “never-walked-before
dogs”. Bearing in mind that (like all of the “never-walked-before dogs”)
this dog was on a lead I felt that we’d got away lightly. But the old bat at
the other end of the lead turned to her mate and started clucking about how
some people just let their dogs off the lead. I suppose she’s got a point.
Some people *do* let their dogs off the leads. That would be me. With walk walked we came home. I opened the
back door and Fudge led the charge up the garden. The dogs have this thing
where they all run up the garden (all shouting) with Fudge in the
lead. If Fudge doesn’t lead, the other two aren’t interested in going out. For a dog with serious back issues he ran
down the garden rather speedily and noisily. I trimmed the lawn’s edges and got the lawn mowed. It was a shame that the strimmer collapsed
half-way through. I say “collapsed”; “snapped in two” is
perhaps a more accurate description. I think I’ve bodged it back together
again. Let’s hope so; what with the queues at B&Q it would be quicker to
get a new one delivered from Amazon than to go round the corner to the shop. I had a quick shower, and did a little CPD.
As I perused the intricacies of the Cw
blood type (!) I had an email from Neighbourhood Watch. So far (it
has to be said) Neighbourhood Watch has been something of a
disappointment, but today there were reports of a theft of a motorbike from
near a friend’s house. It turned out that this friend’s doorbell had seen
something suspicious in the small hours and had actually video-ed the theft
as it happened (a doorbell – can you believe it!). The footage has now
been squealed to the pigs. Perhaps that hundred quid spent on a doorbell
wasn’t the waste of money I’d said it was? And so to work, and by half past eleven the
day was effectively done… |
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6 May 2020
(Wednesday) - Five Thousand
As I peered into Facebook this morning, it
suggested I might like a particular page. “Love Zone” alternated
between posts which advocated either crackpot religion or child pornography
with a little animal cruelty thrown in. For all that I find Facebook very
useful, the thing does leave a lot to be desired. I sent out a few birthday wishes, and with no
emails at all I did the morning dog walk in two stages. Firstly I walked Fudge round to Brian and
Rachel’s where we delivered a birthday card. Fudge pulled like a train the
whole way. I wish he wouldn’t. This is why he has a bad back; he hurts it,
and as soon as it starts getting better he overdoes the pulling and hurts it
again. With Fudge walked I took Pogo and Treacle
round the park. It is amazing how fast we can go round the park when we are
not waiting for Fudge who straggles up to a hundred yards behind us. We met a
couple of “never-before-walked” dogs. The owner of one had the dog on
an extending lead and was using a ball-thrower to lob a tennis ball into the
distance. Needless to say their game wasn’t working. We also saw another dog which was about the
size of a cart-horse which was dragging two teenaged children about. They
were trying to restrain the dog by pulling on his collar; they were nowhere
near strong enough to do so. As we walked home I actually did point and
laugh at a couple who drove past in their car. The windows were all up, but
both occupants were wearing these surgical masks. This craze for wearing surgical masks is just
stupid. Surgical masks are worn to prevent the wearer spreading infection
onto anyone else. That’s why the staff of operating theatres wear them and
the patients don’t. The only time I’ve ever worn one was when I was in an
operating theatre (assisting with a bone marrow extraction). Going
round wearing the things achieves nothing for protecting yourself. Have you
noticed that the things are being billed on eBay as “fashion accessories”? We came home; I again harvested a bumper crop
of dog dung from the lawn, then spent an hour scrubbing out the pond’s fish
poo filter. It’s a messy smelly job, but one I would rather do at a time that
suits me, rather than waiting until the thing is blocked solid and leaking
with the backflow and needs doing right away. I set off to work. With a rather lame play
being broadcast on the radio I turned over to my frankly strange choice of
music, and howled along all the way to Pembury. Just as I got to work so my phone beeped. I
had a friend request on Facebook from a young lady. Her blouse was unbuttoned
and was revealing a rather saucy bra. She'd sent me a message in which she'd
said that she wanted "it" badly. Judging by her attire in
the photos on her Facebook profile I can only assume that "it"
would be "clothing" as she didn't seem to be wearing very much in
any of them. She had also sent me a link to her "Whatsapp f... site" through which I
could contact all sorts of young ladies of dubious morals. I decided not to
follow her link. I went straight to the works canteen where I
had a rather good bowl of tempura vegetables with chili sauce which I chased
down with far too much rhubarb crumble and custard. Belly-aches which last
all afternoon don't make themselves, you know. As well as a belly ache I also had a general
muscular ache for much of the afternoon too. When full of fish poo, that
filter can be rather heavy. I think I might have overdone it this morning. Feeling somewhat under the weather I did as
little as I could get away with today until the relief arrived. The late
start does give me time to do stuff at home, but the late finish can be
something of a "pain in the glass" (as "Stormageddon
- Bringer of Destruction TM" would say). Especially when
the A21 is closed and going cross-country through the winding lanes in the
dark is the only option. And in closing, today is my five thousandth
blog entry. The first thousand entries were recorded on Yahoo who haven’t
hosted blogs for years. I’ve got an archive of my ramblings here. I first started recording history in
September 2006 when seemingly everyone was writing blogs. The novelty soon
wore off for everyone else, but I’ve kept it going. Kite festivals, beer
festival, holiday with friends, holidays with families, walks, dogs,
grandchildren… it’s amazing what has happened over the last fourteen years.
And it is even more amazing that so many people tune in every day to see what
has boiled my piss this time. I just wish more people would blog; I’m a
very nosey person. I’d love to see what everyone else gets up to.. |
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7 May 2020 (Thursday)
- This n That
I slept like a log until half past two from
when I just dozed fitfully. After a few hours I finally gave up trying to
sleep and watched an episode of “After Life” as I scoffed a bowl of
Tesco’s muesli. I then sparked up my lap-top to peer into
cyber-space as I do most mornings. Nothing really exciting had happened
overnight, so I told the world about my ninth choice of movie and had a look
at my emails. Netflix were recommending that I might like to watch “The
Vicar of Dibley”. I loathe and despise that show. I spent a few minutes on my Coursera course “Finding
Purpose and Meaning in Life”. This morning I was taught a “Loving
Kindness Meditation”, but it wouldn’t let me do the end of week
assessment unless I paid forty quid. Oh well… I set off to work listening to the radio as I
went. The pundits on the radio were talking about the possibility of
lock-down coming to an end in the next few days. Judging by the huge amount
of traffic on the road today, lock-down is already well and truly already
over. There was also talk of how the government
recently bought close on half a million surgical gowns from Turkey. After
endless delays the RAF were sent to fetch them only to find that the things
aren't actually fit for purpose, and they are now languishing in a
warehouse somewhere whilst the government haggles to get its money
back. Good luck to them - have you ever haggled with a Turkish
salesman? They don't muck about. But this is the problem that the health care
sector faces at the moment. The market is being flooded with all sorts of
personal protective equipment from legitimate suppliers, unscrupulous
fly-boys and well-meaning well-wishers, but much of it simply isn't fit for
purpose. There were those on the radio who were sneering at the requirements
of British Standards, but those requirements are there for a reason. There's
no point in wearing a surgical gown if the thing falls off half-way through
the operation, is there? And surely everyone has seen the diagrams of how to
bodge the face mask ties with paper clips because the home-made ones are
giving people sores behind their ears? The pundits then wheeled on some financial
expert or other who seemed obsessed about the recession that coronageddon will invariably cause. It would seem that we
are on course for a financial melt-down the likes of which the world hasn't
seen since the days of the South Sea Bubble three hundred years ago. I can't
help but feel that this just shows the ultimate futility of the capitalist
system which is based entirely on greed. It doesn't really work at a time
when we need something more compassion and care based, does it? Or am I still
just a naive old leftie? For some reason I headed off to Maidstone
this morning when I should have been going to Tunbridge Wells. Woops! But I
turned the mishap to my advantage by stopping a few times to remotely zap
"Points of Interest" Munzees which
I needed to zap as my contribution to the ongoing team (clan) effort
as I came down the A26. I got to work with a few minutes spare, and
thought I might treat myself to scrambled egg on toast in the works canteen.
I had the last of it, much to the dismay of the chap in the queue behind me.
He was not happy I'd had the last of the batch. He flatly refused to wait for
two minutes for more to be brought out, and made a point of glaring at me as
he ate a bowl of dry cornflakes to demonstrate his chagrin and disgust. Silly sod. As I got on with my work so my phone beeped. "er indoors TM" wasn't happy.
I'd left the margarine out and one of the dogs (Pogo?) had eaten it.
Not just had a lick or a nibble, but had scoffed the lot. Woops! My phone also beeped with a message from "er indoors TM" as I drove home. She’d
been to the vet’s to get more tablets for Fudge, and when she went back to
her car so her battery had died. That was a pain in the glass. I arrived with
her just after the nice man from the RAC got there. Fortunately he carried
spare batteries. Unfortunately they weren’t cheap. As I got home I was surprised to see that
some scratter had dumped a broken vacuum cleaner in
the front garden. That was nice of them. When once all the locals would stand
out there clapping the NHS workers on a Thursday, now one of them has dumped
their knacked vacuum cleaner into the garden of one
of the people they used to be clapping. The NHS workers didn’t get a clap this
evening up our street; the novelty has worn off. But it has been revealed
that those in the prison service have had pay enhancements of up
to four thousand pounds each during this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Being clapped and getting about-to-expire
Easter eggs was all very well, but I for one would rather have had four
thousand pounds in cash. (Is that ungrateful of me?) |
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8 May 2020 (Bank
Holiday Friday) - An Afternoon in the Sun
When I came back to bed from a trip to the loo
in the small hours Fudge was pacing the bedroom restlessly. I laid down on
the floor with him and after about half an hour he settled. I lay on the
floor for another half an hour (whilst he snored) to ensure he really
had settled, then spent about five minutes trying to get up. I went back to bed where I lay awake
listening for him, but (unlike me) he slept. Amazingly he slept
through the noise that the bin men made. Making enough racket to wake the
dead they still left that fly-tipped Hoover that we had dumped on us
yesterday. We got up at half-past eight and left him
sleeping. We barricaded the top of the stairs (so he couldn’t come down on
his own), but after a few minutes I could hear movement. I carried him
down, and he scoffed his brekkie right away. He’s got tramadol from the vet’s, but this
spell of bad back seems to be lasting longer than others have done. The vet
said yesterday that if he’s not right in five days’ time they will do X-rays. Over my brekkie I peered into the Internet.
There was quite a bit of fuss being made for today’s VE day. A lot of people
had put out the bunting in readiness for celebrating. I didn’t… and it is a sign of the times that
I feel I have to justify this. If people want to celebrate and be proud of
their country, then that is fine. I don’t have any problem at all with that,
and I respect their doing so. I would suggest that (as a scout leader)
I have probably formally saluted the nation’s flag more than most. But… in my experience there is a very short
step from honest patriotism to narrow-minded jingoism. There is a small but
vocal minority who aren’t content to have a team to support; they also need a
team to beat as well. I’ve been told many times by friends and colleagues of
non-Caucasian appearance that they have been frightened to walk the streets
whenever the England football team loses. I was rather concerned that claiming victory
in a war that was over decades before they were born might have encouraged
that element. (There are members of my family who really do have serious
issues with anything vaguely related to Germany, and have ever more serious
issues with me because I don’t). I walked round to Pets at Home to get dog
food. The place wasn’t so much a pet shop as a plague pit. I work in a
laboratory where I regularly handle blood samples contaminated with the
COVID-19 virus and I am advised to wear less personal protective equipment
than the girls in the pet shop were wearing. There is “taking sensible
precautions” and there is “ignorant paranoia”. The two are very
different. As I came home I met a friend in the street.
He too had seen similar in other shops; we were both ranting about this when
two more idiots came past. One’s protective face mask was under her nose, the
other’s was tucked down under his chin. And then I did chuckle though when in
the local shop. Some woman asked if they had face masks, and when told they
didn’t she tried to sell them her home made ones. The chap behind the counter
said he wasn’t interested and that she should give them (NOT sell them!)
to the local hospital. We had a cuppa as we watched the morning’s
live broadcast from the Big
Cat Sanctuary at Headcorn. We spent a rather
enjoyable half-hour watching the snow leopards whilst the keepers told us all
about them. Apparently they do this every Friday. I shall tune in more often
(when I can). We spent the afternoon in the garden. I drank
beer and read my Kindle in the sunshine until I fell asleep; "er indoors TM" got a net and dredged
the pond to the delight of the dogs. "er indoors TM" suggested we
had kebab for dinner. Having it delivered was only took a few minutes longer
than going up the road to get it. We scoffed it whilst watching last week’s “SAS
– Who Dares Wins” and a show in which Paul Hollywood was touring Japan. Today wasn’t a bad day at all. Having worked
for the last eleven days I needed a day off… |
|
9 May 2020 (Saturday)
- Another Afternoon in the Sun
I think I might have overdone the sitting in
the sunshine yesterday; I slept for over ten hours last night, only waking
when my back hurt too much too lay down any longer. I came downstairs to see everyone else had
been up for ages. Fudge seemed better than he has been. He didn’t scream in
pain at all yesterday (which was a definite step in the right direction)
but his belly was tense, and he flinched when I stroked him this morning. And
as the day went on so he visibly got worse, and was crying in pain again by
the early evening. If only he would stop sprinting down the
garden to chase sparrows away from the pond. He can achieve the same result
with a sedate stroll, but there’s no telling him that. I peered into the Internet over brekkie.
Having put up my tenth choice of film yesterday it seemed odd not to have to
post one this morning. I saw I’d got an invite to a Zoom quiz; I’d been
hoping there would be one this weekend. I also saw I had a friend request from “Anna
Cantoro” on LinkedIn. I have no idea who she
is, but much as LinkedIn is rather dull, the random young ladies who want to
be my friend over there actually have clothes on. On reflection I won't add
her as a friend... she might take them off. I then tried to deploy a virtual Munzee for friends in Faversham. That took some doing;
there’s thousands of the things over that way. Finding a space on the map
took some time. With a little time to spare I spent a little
while hunting on-line for a Lego Fudge model for my Lego town. Hopefully the
base plates I’ve ordered for it should be arriving soon, and then I can get
going on the town in earnest. Mind you I can’t help but wonder just how long
I should have to wait for these plates. I realise they are coming from China,
but having ordered them two months ago they should be here by now? I’ve heard
all these horror stories about how post offices are swamped, but stuff I’ve
ordered recently has arrived within days. I do hope the plates haven’t been
sent by Yodel or Hermes; if that is the case I shall give up on them, write
off the money spent and order new ones. At mid-day the nice man from the fencing
company popped round to have a suitably socially distanced look at our back
fence. Over the years I’ve bodged it and bodged it, but it needs fixing
properly. I suspect that the cost of a proper fix will mean that I shall just
continue to bodge it, but we shall see. Once the nice man had gone I cracked open a
bottle of beer and got out my Kindle, and having learned nothing from
yesterday I spent another afternoon in the sunshine. This evening we had a rather good Zoom quiz
in which I did reasonably well… but it was good to catch up with friends. I’m feeling rather tired now… |
10 May 2020 (Sunday) - The Weather Turned
I
didn’t sleep at all well. Fudge wanted to come upstairs last night so "er indoors TM" carried him up, and I
lay awake for most of the night listening out for his cries. He made quite a
few slurping sucking noises, but other than that he had a peaceful night. I
eventually gave up trying to sleep and lay on the floor with him until the
pain in my back got too much, then I came downstairs for toast and my usual
rummage round the Internet. Pretty much nothing had happened overnight, and
with no emails of note I spent half an hour writing up CPD. Bearing
in mind that the wooden sleepers round the pond were looking a tad shabby I
gave them a lick of paint, and flushed with enthusiasm I popped round to
B&Q to get more fence paint. The queue was rather horrendous, but
judicious brandishing of an NHS staff card got me in the place right away.
Amazingly they had trollies that had been cleaned to which I was directed.
I’d not seen anywhere else do that. I
got three tubs of fence stain. For all that the stuff claims to be “one
coat – lasts up to five years” it has been my experience that one coat
lasts about eighteen months before the fence looks as though it needs going
over again. I
came home and went into the garden. Fudge lead the charge of dogs up the
garden, and looked incredibly sheepish when I shouted at him. He doesn’t help
himself. As I painted fence panels so "er
indoors TM" put a coat onto Fudge. He hates wearing a
coat, and the subsequent sulk slowed him right down. I
got two panels done. Over the years I’ve found that I can (on average)
paint one fence panel per hour. I use a paintbrush (as God intended);
I’ve got one of those spray gadgets but it’s been my experience that it
sprays paint everywhere except on the panel you are trying to paint. "er indoors TM" dished up a very good lunch of
a cuppa and home-made Chelsea buns, and having scoffed them I spent an hour
or so re-arranging my Lego town. We then set off to Folkestone to collect
"Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM" and
transport him to Margate. Now far be it from me to cast aspersions on my most
recent grandchild, but the driver side rear window of my car was working fine
when we left Folkestone, and it was utterly poggered
when we reached Margate. Oh,
how I laughed. We
came home via Faversham for virtual Munzee-ing
purposes. The munzee-ing was virtual so we didn’t
have to leave the car. I didn’t want to leave the car – I’ve spent the last
two days in the garden in the baking sunshine; today was overcast, cold and
raining. Once
home we had a rather good bit of dinner washed down by a frankly
disappointing bottle of wine. Having shelled out a fiver for some rather good
bottles of the red stuff recently, I was expecting more from the stuff that
set me back a tenner. Once
we scoffed we had a Zoom meet-up with friends. For all that the world is in
lock-down I’m seeing a lot more of some friends than I have for years. Oh
– and the Prime Minister made a proclamation about the ongoing coronageddon crisis this evening. He spoke for ten
minutes without actually saying anything. I
can’t help but wonder if the Prime Minister has pissed on his chips; having
been seen as the saviour of the nation after the Brexit debacle he was
ideally placed to go down in history with Churchill and Lloyd George. He
should (and realistically could) have laid down the law and would have
been respected for it. (Margaret Thatcher did it when she kicked the
unions in the knackers). But tonight’s broadcast was all “please please please” where he
should have said “do as I say, dogbreath!”. I’ve
mentioned before that Mr Johnson fulfils the office of Prime Minister in much
the same way that Zaphod Beeblebrox
carried out the office of Galactic president. Not actually wielding any
power, but drawing attention away from power… |
|
11 May 2020 (Monday)
- A Day's Leave
I slept well; Pogo eventually woke me at six
o’clock. He wanted a tiddle. To be fair, so did I. We both did our thing and
went back to bed. He was soon snoring; I wasn’t. I gave up trying to sleep
and watched the last episode of “After Life” which was rather sad and
not at all funny, then I sparked up my lap-top to have a look at the
internet. A rather epically breasted young lady (and
her chest) had sent me a friend request on Facebook together with a link
to her video. Against my better judgement I had a look at it – it was a tad
on the risqué side… To be fair to her she did say that it was “indeed not
suitable for some Facebook users”. It wasn’t really suitable for anyone
or anything. I reported her to the Facebook feds. It was at this point that "er indoors TM" emerged from her pit
and announced that Treacle had been sick. I cleared up a pool of
semi-digested swede. Yuk. And as the dogs went in to the garden so Treacle
brought up quite a bit more. I also saw that the fence on not-so-nice-next-door’s
side had blown down in the wind. I bodged it back up whilst not-so-nice-next-door
glared from an upstairs window. I called up that the fence was broken; she
looked away. I wonder if she will do anything about it? It is rather
difficult having a neighbour who flatly refuses to speak to us. I took Fudge for a short walk round the
block, then took Treacle and Pogo for a longer one round the park. As we
walked I saw a young couple walking their dog toward us on a lead. I quickly
got my two onto a lead and had them sit so they could watch the dog go past.
(This is actually working with increasing success…if the other dog just
goes past). But the bloke brought his dog up to Pogo so they could say
hello… Schoolboy error… As I calmed Pogo I commented to the other
chap that he obviously doesn’t walk his dog much. The implied sarcasm went
right over his head. “No” he said. “Only since lock-down came in
really”. I had planned to paint the fence today on a
day off, but the wind was rather blowy and it was rather cold. So I wrote up a little CPD for an
hour or so until a row kicked off on the “Geocaching in Kent” Facebook
page. The chap who started the group and promptly disappeared crawled out of
the woodwork and started throwing his weight around. Amazingly those I felt
would have made a stand took the side of the chap of whom no one had ever
heard. I got the hump and left the group in a fit of pique. Within two hours
I was invited to join a replacement group which had been set up by an exodus
of like-minded people who weren’t going to be dictated to by this idiot. I drove "er
indoors TM" round to the garage, then I went up to the
attic room where I re-arranged my Lego layout. There’s a video of what I did here. I did as much as I could, but I really do
need those new base plates (that I ordered two months ago) to arrive
soon. I’m not really sure what I can do about them – they should have arrived
a month ago, but the seller keeps moving the expected delivery date, and
until that date passes, eBay don’t want to know. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
very good bit of scran which we devoured whilst
watching a Cameron Diaz film. “Bad Teacher” was
rather good – I wonder why I’d not seen it before… |
|
12 May 2020 (Tuesday)
- Another Day's Leave
I woke shivering; an alliance of "er indoors TM", Treacle and Pogo had
captured most of the duvet. I tried to get some back, but found myself
fighting a losing battle, gave up, and got up. Over brekkie I peered into the Internet. The
Facebook page of the epically-chested porn-monger that I reported to the
Facebook feds yesterday was still up and running. Whoever it is that runs
Facebook has some very dubious standards. They will suspend users for using a
name by which they are known rather than their birth name, but are quite
happy to allow animal cruelty and pornography on their site. There was quite a bit of politics being
bandied about on Facebook too as people were trying to understand the Prime
Minister’s proclamation that he made last Sunday. There were those who said
that it was all perfectly clear and there were those who said it was all very
contradictory. In these very uncertain times whatever the Prime Minister says
will be wrong, but I can’t help but feel that if he’d made a point of
speaking for a much shorter period of time, and re-recorded the message a few
times to take out all the hesitancy, ums and ahs,
and upper-class grunting noises, he would have come over a lot more
convincingly. Fortunately all the squabbling on the
geocaching pages seemed to have died down. I only had one email today. On 15 May 2018 I
wrote about how the British Mammal Society were trying to survey the UK’s
mammals and had created an app. The idea was that you photographed a mammal,
said what it was and told them. Their experts would have a look and see if
you got it right and using the GPS location on the photo they could build up
a picture of the UK’s mammal population. This morning they told me that I had
correctly identified three squirrels in the park in July 2018. "er indoors TM" distracted
Fudge, and I took Treacle and Pogo round the park. We had a good walk; we had
no “episodes” at all. We met other dog-walking acquaintances who all
asked after Fudge. Several of them commented on all the other never-before-walked
dogs that are infesting the park. I smiled – it isn’t just me who has noticed
this. With dogs walked I strimmed
the lawn edges and mowed the lawn. Arguably it didn’t need mowing, but I’d
rather keep it short and easily mowed (once a week) rather than
breaking my back trying to hack down a jungle (any less frequently). I
got the lawn mower and strimmer out, set them all up… and then went round
with the poo shovel. Despite having already cleared the garden, my furry
associates had again left their mark. How can three small dogs produce so much
dung? I popped to the corner shop. As I got there I
saw a “rather delightful family” outside. The young mother (with
earphones in each ear) shrieked at the four children (all coughing
profusely) to stay outside the f…ing shop. Three of them stayed outside the f…ing shop, but the fourth tried to follow her mother in
and got her hand shut in the door. As she cried so her brother yanked her
hand out and made her cry more. I told the young mother about this when I
went in. She glared at me for making her take an earphone out, announced “whatever”,
bought forty cigarettes, and then went out and screamed at the small child
who was crying. She’d got her cigarettes; I got two packs of
self-raising flour. A month or so ago toilet roll
was like gold dust; now it is baking ingredients. "er indoors TM" seemed pleased
with the self-raising flour. Even more pleased than
I was, which was odd. She’s the one who does the baking. Mind you she’s
getting good at it. After a quick cuppa I took Fudge to the vet
for a blood pressure check. As we waited so another “family from hell”
arrived with some sort of killer-murder-hound in tow. The receptionist
politely reminded them that only one person is supposed to come to the
consultation. The mother of the tribe laughed contemptuously, pointed at the
father who was fighting with the dog, and loudly announced “well, I can’t
drag that f…er about, can I?” Bearing in mind Fudge’s problems of the last
week we got seen by the vet rather than the nurse (as had been planned).
She could find nothing obviously causing him pain, so said to carry on
forcing him to rest. His blood pressure was one hundred and fifty-two (vets
don’t measure the diastolic pressure) which is pretty much what it was
last time, which was good. However having seen the vet, the bill was twice
what I’d expected to shell out. Oh well… I didn’t want that Lego lunar module
model anyway (!) With yesterday’s wind having gone I spent the
afternoon in the garden painting fence panels. I got four and a half done
before the blister I’d generated burst and it was too painful to carry on. I
pootled a little in the garden. Not-so-nice-next-door was in her
garden. I thought about mentioning her broken fence, but bearing in mind she
always pretends to ignore me I just shook it and loudly told the dogs not to
go through the wreckage. Talking of fences I wonder if I should chivvy
the fence man. He had a socially distanced look at my fence on Saturday but
hasn’t given me a quote yet. I distracted Fudge whilst "er indoors TM" took Treacle and Pogo
up the park. When she brought them back I had the job of bathing Treacle; the
foul creature had rolled in something disgusting. Did I ever mention I never wanted dogs? |
|
13 May 2020
(Wednesday) - Back to Work
Over a bowl of Tesco
granola I watched the first episode of “Pure”.
It was more “funny oo-er” than “funny
ha-ha” but it was entertaining enough. I then had my morning
look at the Internet. The page of the epically-chested porn-monger I
mentioned two days ago was still active. The geo-squabble that
kicked off a couple of days ago was settling down with effectively everyone
who wants to talk about hunting under rocks for film pots having moved to a
new Facebook page. It would seem that the chap who sparked the whole sorry
mess has now got the hump because several people have been sending him nasty
messages. I haven’t, but will quite happily get the drinks in for those who
have. I can’t help but feel that bearing in mind the chap runs a small shop and
is dependent on local trade, pissing off his customers is a silly way to
proceed. I also saw that the
geo-feds have reactivated geocaching as a hobby, and Forestry England have
opened their woods. I set off up the
motorway to work. The roads were the busiest they have been in weeks as the
country has been ordered back to work today. As I drove I listened to the
radio as I do. The pundits on the radio were talking about how coronageddon has affected the economy this morning.
Several people spoke and were interviewed; it was rather worrying how it is
crystal clear that the consensus of opinion of most people being interviewed
was that we'd had a good holiday in the lock-down, but making money is *far*
more important than people's lives and so it is back to work for everyone.
And the implication was *everyone*. If you couldn't go to work, you
could work from home, and anyone not serving the Great God Money clearly
wasn't trying hard enough. However there was an
interview with the head honcho of Northern Ireland where they are continuing
the anti-virus measures, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer was quoted as
having extended the
furlough scheme for a further four months There's certainly a
lot of mixed messages coming out. I got to work and did
my bit. I've just had a five-day break before which I worked for eleven
consecutive days. Some would complain; It can sometimes work against me, but
I quite like this seemingly random pattern. Despite the traffic
being busier than it has been recently I made good time home. We took the
dogs round the co-op field. I didn’t want to go too far with Fudge; he’s
clearly on the mend but he does tend to overdo it. With geocaching now
officially allowed and the Forestry Commission woods open again I re-enabled
my geocaches on Forestry Commission land (all fifty-six of them!). "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good curry which we scoffed whilst watching last week’s episode of
Bake-Off. I’m now going to
start on my latest little project – to compile a website of all the events
and activities of the Kent geocaching community from the last ten years
bearing in mind some twonk is about to delete the original records of them… |
|
14 May 2020 (Thursday)
- Early Shift
Just as I was about to scoff brekkie I saw
that the new series of Schitts Creek was available
on Netflix. It was rather good. Better than what I’d watched yesterday. I then sparked up my lap-top and waited an
age whilst the thing did its updates. Eventually I was able to get on-line. I
had been expecting a load of abuse about having reactivated over fifty
geocaches yesterday, but no one had commented (for which I was grateful).
If people want to go hunting them, unless I completely scrap the things I
can’t stop them, and there’s no point trying to stop anything which I can’t
actually stop so I might as well allow it. Mind you I have noticed that those
who were the most vocal about staying at home and not leaving the house at
the start of lock-down are now those who are quite publicly out and about. I had an email from the Environment Agency –
fishing is now allowed again. Having stopped it was frankly ridiculous; if
there was anywhere that you could isolate yourself it was when fishing.
Though reading what some of the local fisheries managers are posting they are
going to make it as difficult as possible for people to actually go fishing.
I realise that not everyone understands the intricacies of how a virus works
and moves and lives and does its thing. I realise that not everyone has
studied human physiology and medicine to a post-graduate level. But it would
seem that (having been told to stay alert) most people are treating
the virus as though it were a tiger. I set off to work on a rather bright (if
cold) morning. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how
parliament is trying to function with most MPs logging in remotely. You would
think that what with MPs having responsibilities both in their constituencies
and in London, video conferencing would be something they had been doing for
years, wouldn't you? Apparently some of them are OK with the
technology, but quite a few simply can't work the video calling. And so are
so thick that they have actually clicked the wrong button(s) when
casting their votes on-line (and then bleated about how hard it is to the
Speaker of the House afterwards). This winds me up. This is the twenty-first century. I can do
Zoom conferencing. Six-year-olds can do Zoom conferencing. The inability to
use I.T. is akin to being unable to read and write. And these are the leaders
of our country. There was also talk of the oncoming
recession. It would seem that our country is on course for the worst economic
recession in history. It has been suggested that all public sector workers
get a pay freeze (or even a pay cut). That's a good idea... when I need to
pay any bills I shall just drag a few neighbours down to the bank and they
can clap into my account. Despite the roads getting progressively more
and more busy I made good time to work. Pausing only briefly to deploy a Munzee I was soon in and doing my thing. An early start made for an early finish. I
came home, and spent a little while working on my Kent geocaching archive. I
got a first
draft together. Very much a work in progress and it has still got a lot
of work needing doing, but it’s a start. I then tuned in to the virtual geo-meet that
took place this evening. After all the aggro of the last few days it was good
to catch up with friends. And then after a spot of dinner we video-whatsapped with Karl and Tracey. I don’t think I’ve ever done quite so much
keeping in touch since this lock-down kicked off… |
|
15 May 2020 (Friday)
- A Smaragd Race
I woke feeling like death warmed up with the
mother of all hangovers. Odd really as all I’d had to drink yesterday evening
was a couple of glasses of Doctor Pepper. Completely failing to find where the jar of
honey had gone, I spread peanut butter on my toast and had a look at the
Internet. It was much the same as how I’d left it last night. I rolled my
eyes at a Facebook friend’s video of last night’s Thursday clapping which was
showing just how much fun and excitement the clappers were having. With video
footage clearly showing one entire family in another family’s house, social
distancing was clearly out the window. Do these people *really*
support the key workers when having their little session, or is it (as my
nephew so succinctly said) “… starting to turn into a mini carnival”.
I wonder just how many of the revellers (they weren’t just clapping – the
video really did show a full-on street party) will write a letter to the
Prime Minister protesting against the public sector pay freezes that are
coming? I mentioned my plans for a
geo-archive on the new-look Kent Geocaching Facebook pages in the hopes
of getting some more contributions, got dressed, and took the hounds round
the park. We had a rather good walk in which (amazingly)
Pogo was held up as a shining example. As we came through Bowens Field there
were two small children impotently shouting at their dog who was going
berserk in a hedge. Pogo went up to see what was happening so I called him
away. He stopped, turned and came back to me. The smallest child then shouted
at the eldest “Why can’t we have a dog like that?” We came home; had a cuppa and a croissant,
then I cracked on in the garden getting four and a half fence panels painted.
Somehow Fudge got covered in white paint; a clever trick as I was putting
brown stuff on the fence. With fence painted I drove "er indoors TM" round to the garage to
collet her car. When I came home there was an odd family outside the house.
One was sitting in a car, the rest were socially distanced around, and all
were having a picnic on the pavement. What was that all about? I could have done some landscaping in the
garden, but until I get a date for the fence replacement (*if* it isn’t
too expensive) I can’t really do that much more. And I ached from the
painting. So I went up into the attic and sorted Lego. Not so much “played
with” as sorted. Over the last year or so I’ve had quite a few deliveries
and not thrown out the envelopes and stuff, so I had a little chucking-out
before working on a little park area in which several people dressed as Santa
were having a fun-run. One of the Santas was being
sick, and there was an axe-murderer in the crowd. As I Lego-ed I listed to the latest album
from Sparks which I’d downloaded. I won’t say it was crap, but I will say
that I’ve not been so disappointed since I listened to their last album.
Having said that, as I write it is in sixth position in Amazon’s top selling
albums so (again) I would seem to be in the minority. I popped over the road to the shop to get
some milk. I spent twenty quid on beer too; they do have a rather good
selection. And once home both "er indoors TM"
and I bought a smaragd from the Munzee store. We’ve
having a smaragd race. As you do… (As I write this, Microsoft Word is quite
happy with the word “smaragd” but wants to change the spelling of “Munzee”) After a rather good bit of dinner we tuned in
to a live performance by Hazel O’Connor. She got going some ten years or so
after Sparks… Like Sparks I was dead keen on her music forty years ago… I suspect that if the software wasn’t
continually buffering I might have enjoyed it more, but how often is it that
you can be seriously disappointed by two of your musical heroes in the same
day? |
|
16 May 2020
(Saturday) - Hemsted Forest and a Quiz
Over some toast I was rather pleased to see
that my smaragd had been captured overnight whereas "er indoors TM"’s hadn’t. Oh how I
gloated. There was a minor row kicking off on one of
the work-related Facebook groups I follow. The BBC had released a little
thingy on a web page “Coronavirus:
How Exposed is Your Job” in which members of the public type in their
profession and the BBC tell you how likely you are to die from the virus.
Amazingly the questionnaire hadn’t heard of biomedical scientists; the very
people who actually do the lab tests for the stuff. All the keyboard warriors
were kicking off about how unrecognised blood testing is as a job. I took the
novel step of sending the BBC an email on the subject. I wonder if they will
reply? I also had another email from the nice people
who created the “Mammals” app. I saw a rat on 15
June 2018; they agreed it was a rat. "er indoors TM" popped to the
shop where seemingly the world and his wife was buying picnic stuff for a
trip to the beach. So with the rules regarding lock-down being somewhat
incomprehensibly somewhere between relaxed, ignored and abandoned we thought
we’d walk the dogs. A maintenance run on my geo-series in Hemsted
Forest seemed like a plan. As we drove we listened to the local radio.
The presenter who only a few short months ago was um-ing
constantly seems to have stopped that, but has now developed an annoying
habit of not so much breathing as desperately gasping for air into the
microphone. I wish she wouldn’t. We got to Hemsted
Forest where we were surprised to find Karl, Tracey and the girls. They
thought they’d abandon their plans for marching up the North Downs, and we
had a rather good socially distanced walk. Not having met up for a couple of
months, it was good to catch up. We hunted out the series of geocaches I hid
in those woods last year. Over the last few months I’d had several reports of
how bad the GPS co-ordinates of my caches were. Using more than one GPS and a
few Smartphones I was rather pleased to see that my original GPS co-ordinates
were pretty much spot-on. The problem was that the people who’d found the
caches had put them back where they felt would be a better place to hide
them. Some up to fifty feet from where I’d put them. Which is rather annoying… Mind you I did chuckle at the normal people
as they came past. There were quite a few people in largish groups clearly
not distancing but judging others that they passed. And (as always) I took a
few photos as we walked. Seeing as we were half-way to Hastings we
drove on and had a couple of socially distanced meet-ups with parents. It was
a shame Pogo had to dump on my Dad’s petunias, but such is life. I slept most of the way home; once home we
had a rather good bit of dinner, then tuned in for the Saturday Zoom quiz… A
really well thought out quiz in which I came fourth
from last. Not too shabby I suppose… |
|
17 May 2020 (Sunday)
- Early Shift
After a rather bad night in which I saw every
hour of the night I was finally fast asleep when the alarm went off. I watched
an episode of “Schitts Creek” whilst
scoffing a bowl of granola, and as I scoffed so my phone was seemingly going
frantic with a stream of notifications and messages. I was hoping for great things to have
happened on the internet overnight, but most of the messages were that people
had found geocaches that I’d hidden. Some people had posted up some photos of
what they’d been up to yesterday which I was glad to see (as I’m a rather
nosey person). I sent out some birthday wishes to people having birthdays
today, and seeing how "er indoors TM"
had put a Skyland in the garden I captured it and three bouncers too (it’s
a Munzee thing). As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were talking about how ex-President Obama had publicly expressed his lack of
confidence in President Trump's ability to handle the Presidency. It does
seem odd that the USA have gone from one of their most respected presidents
to one of the most internationally-laughed-about in a single bound. There was also talk of how the Prime Minister
has acknowledged that his speech to the nation last Sunday didn't quite come
over as he had intended. He's admitted that had he been a little more clear then the public wouldn't be as confused as they are now. Perhaps if he'd prepared a little more... or
at all...? Being a Sunday a lot of the talk on the radio
was of a religious nature. Apparently a lot of the open-air drive-in cinemas
in America are being used by churches during daylight hours now. You can't
socially distance in a church, but at a drive-in cinema you can stay safely
sealed in your car (away from the quite literally plague-ridden Great
Unwashed) whilst the vicar shouts the platitudes at you via the
loudspeakers that at night are used for the films. It is a scheme which has proved to be rather
popular if for no other reason than that the congregants don't have to
pretend to be polite to each other as they never actually meet up.
Unfortunately the delivery of the Holy Sacrament is proving to be
problematical though. Experiments had been tried in which the righteous drove
their cars up to the altar to receive Holy Communion through the driver's
window (much like a McDonalds drive-through). However the Archbishop
of Wisconsin and Milwaukee has put a stop to that as it "lacks
reverence". It probably does, but since you can get a drive-through
McDonalds but not a drive-through Holy Communion, there are those who've
taken offence at having had their religious freedoms restricted and are suing
the church leaders. (You couldn't make this up, could you?) There were several other stories of stark
nonsense (that's religion for you!), but amazingly no one has asked
the glaring religious question of the age. With humanity facing the worst
pandemic in a century, where is God in all of this? Given that God exists
(and that's a leap of faith in itself), God is demonstrably either unable or
unwilling to do anything about this pandemic. So I find myself wondering why do the
righteous continue to suck up? I was religious in my past. I was a born-again
happy-clappy Christian. I was a Steward in the
Methodist church. But one day I realised that I didn't actually believe a
word of it, and that I was having to make a *lot* of excuses for God. I got to work and did my bit. Half way
through the morning my colleague asked if I wanted her to mind the shop
whilst I slipped off for the free brekkie that was available in the staff
canteen. Always being up for free food I took her up on her offer and set off
for a plate of scrambled egg and beans on toast. However I was told that I
was too late for toast, so the nice lady slapped beans and scrambled egg on a
slice of raw bread. Totally mistaking my look of utter amazement, she asked
if I'd like a second slice of bread to make up for the lack of toast; she
assured me it would be free. I thanked her, but declined her kind offer. Beans and scrambled egg on raw bread wasn't
as bad as it sounds. As I forced it down so my phone beeped. The
nice people in China from whom I'd yet to receive those Lego road plates I
ordered months ago were rather upset to hear I'd not received anything and
offered me a refund. I took them up on the offer - I wonder if they will
actually stump up the money? With work done I came home and took the dogs
for a little walk round the park. As we walked we met Chrissie and Ethan; I
was almost on top of them before I recognised them; I was miles away. It was
good to catch up. Fudge got told off by another dog for
attempting to “do the dirty deed”, and each time that we did “sit”
to cross a road, someone or other would comment on how well-behaved the dogs
were. Not a bad walk. I came home and promptly fell asleep… I’m not
feeling on top form… |
|
18 May 2020 (Monday)
- 98.5%
I slept like a log last night, but I still
wasn’t feeling on top form when I woke. I made myself a bowl of granola and
scoffed it whilst watching an episode of “Schitt’s
Creek” in the hope I might perk up. With telly watched I had a little look at the
Internet. This time last week I mentioned that I’d reported a porn-monger to
Facebook. A profile linking to mucky sites asked to befriend me, so I
squealed them up to the Facebook feds. A week later that site is still
active. Amazing how advertising graphic sex doesn’t go against the Facebook “community
standards”, isn’t it? But other that his/her/its non-removal, not a lot
had happened on Facebook overnight. I sent out four birthday greetings, then
had a look at my emails. They too were equally dull. I captured bouncers in the tree house and the
Skyland (it’s a Munzee thing) and got ready
for work. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were interviewing the head honcho of some airline or other. This bloke was
banging on about how all the public should be wearing face masks to prevent
the spread of coronavirus. Apparently wearing masks reduces the risk by
ninety-eight point five per cent (or so this bloke claimed). They then wheeled on professor doctor
someone-or-other who asked what specific risk had been lowered by
ninety-eight point five per cent (spreading the virus, contracting the
disease, getting run over by a bus... it could have been the risk of
absolutely anything), and what evidence there was to support this utterly
unsubstantiated claim. The airline bloke didn't know; he'd just heard
something somewhere that mentioned ninety-eight point five per cent.
Presumably he'd totally misunderstood what was going on and seemingly made up
the rest. But he was insistent that because he'd heard it somewhere, it had
to be true. This was followed by an interview with some
transport manager (it was a bit vague as to exactly what it was that he
managed) who said that he'd heard that there was no real evidence that
wearing face masks actually achieved anything , but since everyone else was
wearing them, he would as well. Apparently that "stood to reason"
and "made sense". I took a deep breath. For thousands of years it was common
knowledge that the world was flat because that too "stood to reason"
and "made sense". I've mentioned before that the
stupidity of my fellow humans never fails to amaze me; and none more so than
that which is broadcast live on national radio. This was followed by the "Thought for
the Day" section which I thought was rather apt considering my rant
of yesterday. Some leading Methodist went on (very earnestly) about
seeing how God had failed the righteous in countless historical disasters in
the past, why should God do anything about Coronageddon?
Apparently standing idly by and watching calamity unfold is what God does
best, and anyone who expects anything more doesn't really understand what God
is all about. It would seem that completely letting down a believer's faith
is in itself a test of faith One lives and learns... the convoluted logic
that the righteous employ to make excuses for the failings of their God have
to be heard to be believed... I got to work; I deployed a few Munzees and got on with my work. And with work done I
came home again. As I do. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching “Ricky
and Ralf’s Very Northern Road Trip” which was rather good. I think I’ll have another early night –
yesterday I mentioned I wasn’t feeling that good; I’m still feeling a tad
ropey… |
|
19 May 2020 (Tuesday)
- Bit Dull
I slept like a log. Over a bowl of granola I
watched an episode of “Schitts Creek”
then had a quick look at the Internet to see if I’d missed much overnight. There was quite a bit of nastiness being banded about on the Geocaching UK Facebook page. For a
hobby that can be quite fun and through which I’ve made a lot of good
friends, it never fails to amaze me just how horrible and nasty the people
who post on the national page can be. I can’t help but wonder why. I chased up the refund for the Lego plates
which never arrived, and got ready for work. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio
were talking about the effects of the pandemic on the economy. Pretty much
every so-called expert who was wheeled on seemed to be crystal clear that
whilst all the deaths have been sad, the detrimental effect on the economy is
far more serious and far more concerning. Pounds over people every time... A very sad reflection on our society... Thre was then talk about
how President Trump is openly and loudly advocating the use of hydroxychloroquinine as an anti-viral agent (even
though its only advocate of the stuff is him). He told the world how he's
taking it to prevent him getting the virus. There was a lot of discussion
about why he's making such a song and dance about the stuff; it is claimed
he's got no vested interest, so what is going on? I thought about popping to Sainsburys before
work, but "er indoors TM"
now has a working car, and I would seem to have spent several hundred quid
over the last month on shopping we didn't need, so I decided against it.
Instead I went in to the works car park, deployed a Munzee
(as one does) and did my bit at work. Work was much the same as ever, but as the
day wore on I wondered if I shouldn’t have gone shopping after all. I came home via Aldi, which was the quietest
I’ve seen it for a long time. I bought some uncooked bread stuff (I like
that) and a couple of bottles of red wine (I like that too) and
came home to an empty house. "er indoors TM"
had taken the hounds out. But some of the Lego that I’d ordered at the
weekend had arrived. Lego Fudge and Lego Sid together with Lego "Daddy’s
Little Angel TM" and a shovel for the Lego turds. "er indoors TM" came home and
boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with one of the
bottles of plonk that I’d bought on the way home. I followed it up with a
couple of glasses of salted caramel vodka. I’m not sure the last glass was a good idea… |
|
20 May 2020
(Wednesday) - A Day Off
Whilst everyone else snored I made some toast
and peered into the Internet. I chuckled a little as I read the ranting on
Facebook. I have various Facebook friends who are staunchly Conservative,
Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Party supporters. All were accusing the
BBC of being biased against their choice of political party and being biased
in favour of their opponents. I thought better of making any comments; all of
these people are rather odd. All really do feel that having their choice of
political party in power really would have us living in a utopia *until*
their party gets elected. At that point there is a lot of noise about just
how crap the world would be if the opposition was in power. All seem
oblivious to the fact that all parties have had a go in power (nationally
and locally) and all have succeeded and failed to various extents. Pausing only briefly to delete a friend
request from Sanjoy Sarkar (who?) I sent out birthday wishes, and
again chased up the refund for those Lego plates that hadn’t come. I got the dogs onto their leads; for the
first time in two months we did “boot dogs” and drove up to Kings
Wood. We had a rather good walk; for the first few minutes we were followed
by a rather noisy normal person. Walking in flip-flops, everything he said to
his pal came out as a shout, and I could clearly hear his conversation from
two hundred yards away. But he and his pal soon turned off and left us in
peace. Which is more than they did for the wildlife; only a few minutes after
they went so a dozen deer came running past from the direction in which
they’d gone. The reaction of the dogs was amazing; I was expecting them to be
shouty and maybe give chase; instead all three stared in frank amazement. The main reason for going to Kings Wood today
was to finalise plans for my new geo-series which was put on hold when
lock-down closed the woods. I got the last set of GPS co-ordinates that I
needed, and we came home where I showered the fox poo off of Fudge. I wish he
wouldn’t roll in the stuff. I then drove round to Wickes where I
collected the wood that "er indoors TM"
had ordered to fix the arbour, then my phone beeped. I had an email. I’d got
the refund for those base plates. That was a result – I was about to just
give up on that. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
surprisingly good ham sandwich which I devoured, then I spent much of the
afternoon painting more fence panels. The nice fence man has given me a quote to
replace the fence between our garden and new-next-door… well… not so
much the fence as the uprights. This are the bits that rot through and are
back-breaking to replace. He says he can swap them out for concrete uprights
into which the existing fence panels can slot, and I can then replace the
panels later when money permits. Having the nice man fit new concrete
uprights won’t be cheap, but he’s quoted about a thousand pounds less than I
thought he might, so here’s hoping. Salvaging the existing panels will save a
few hundred quid so that’s why I’ve got handy with the paint brush. He says
he can start in a couple of months. The fence between our garden and not-so-nice-next-door
is a different matter though. It is lower, but many of the uprights have
rotted through and they’ve done nothing to repair any of them. A lick of
paint made it look better, even if it didn’t address the actual problem. The
actual problem being her-next-door’s problem. After I’d got eight panels painted I found I
couldn’t actually move any more, so I sat in the
sun and read my Kindle for a bit. We had a very good bit of dinner whilst
watching more of “Ricky and Ralph’s Very Northern Road Trip” which is
a very good show. However it does totally ignore the fundamental difference
between Northerners and Southerners which is that the Southerners don’t care
that Northerners come from the North. "er indoors TM" joined in with
the bi-weekly Zoom chat. I didn’t tonight... I’m beginning to get fed up with
these Zoom chats. More and more no one talks of anything but the ongoing
pandemic and I find that despite having spent nearly forty years
studying and working with human disease and having one or two post-graduate
qualifications in the subject, I’m being very superciliously told that
everything I’ve learned is completely wrong by garden centre till operators,
telephonists and McDonalds chip-fryers… I think I spent too long in the sun today… |
|
21 May 2020
(Thursday) - Busy Busy...
As I scoffed my toast so Treacle was stomping
round the living room proudly showing of the carrier bag that she wasn’t
supposed to have. She loves having things she shouldn’t have – she doesn’t
damage them in any way, she just loves showing off that she has stolen them. Fudge was a worry this morning, turning his
nose up at his brekkie. Last night he tucked into his boiled swede and the
night before he yummed up a bowl of rice.
Eventually we got him to eat some biscuits. Has he gone vegetarian, or does
he just not like the really expensive special kidney-friendly food we’ve
bought for him? There wasn’t too many squabbles kicking off
on Facebook this morning and my in-box was pretty much empty so I sent out a
couple of birthday wishes and took the dogs out. With the Forestry Commission
woods open we went down to Orlestone Woods. Since
we were last there someone has fixed the pot holes in the car park (which
was a result). We had a very good walk round the woods and
only saw one other person. It strikes me as frankly ridiculous that during
the peak of the pandemic I was forced to walk the dogs round a crowded park
when (had the woods been open) I could have walked for hours without
having met anyone. With walk walked we came home, had a cuppa
and a Bakewell tart (without a cherry!), I hung out the washing and
got on with painting fence panels. I got five and a half done before it got
too hot to continue. I came in, had a bit of cheese on toast, then
cracked on with the ironing until my phone rang… A couple of weeks ago I had a letter from the
hospital telling me of a telephone appointment with the sleep clinic to see
how I was getting on with my CPAP machine. (Five years too late, perhaps?)
The letter said where I had to attend, who I would be seeing, and that I
should take the CPAP machine for a service. And then I re-read it. A
telephone consultation but I had to go to the hospital? I phoned them and was
told that it was a telephone consultation. The specialist would phone me. The
nice people at the sleep clinic admitted that the letter was confusing, but
apparently the secretary lacked the ability to modify the letter template. I
was told that it was easier all round for the clinic to send out a confusing
and misleading letter and tell people what was happening when they phoned in
confusion, rather than training the secretary on how to use Microsoft Word. I would put in a complaint, but I’m getting
sick of complaining about that hospital. My telephone consultation was planned for
half past two – I was an hour into a rather huge pile of ironing when the
phone rang (ten minutes early). I was glad that I had a telephone
consultation; had I taken the time to go to the hospital I would have put in
a formal complaint. Some secretary-type asked me some questions from a list,
said they needed me to send them an SD card from my CPAP machine (she said
they should have asked for that four years ago), and in two minutes it
was all over and done with. I had hoped to speak to the specialist about whether
or not I should still be doing night shifts. I shall ask next time. After another couple of hours I had the
ironing done, and it had cooled down outside. I got another couple of fence
panels painted, and also got a coat of paint onto some of the trellises. I
was about to pack up when "er indoors TM"
started sawing wood for repairing the roof of the arbour, so I helped there.
I suggested that by painting the wood then she would save time later, so I
picked up the tin and gave it a good shake. It was at this point that she
told me she hadn’t put the lid on properly when she finished with it the
other day… Oh how I laughed… It didn’t take that long to brush the paint
down the drain. Being Thursday we tuned into the geo-Zoom
meet from the garden. Or "er indoors TM"
did. I listened in the background (as I said yesterday I’m being a tad
sensitive at the moment). As I listened I tried unscrewing the roof
panels from the arbour that "er indoors TM"
wants to replace. They took some unscrewing, and half the screws snapped as
they had rusted through. Mind you bearing in mind that I (actually Jose)
put the thing together on Easter Sunday 2007, it has lasted well. All that is
wrong with it is that a few of the roof slats need replacing, and the thing
needs a coat of paint. I cost a couple of hundred pounds, but I think that
was money well spent… For a day’s holiday I haven’t stopped… |
|
22 May 2020 (Friday)
- Before the Night Shift
I slept like a log last night. This morning
as I checked Facebook there were quite a lot less videos of the Thursday
clapping from last night. There wasn’t any of it up our street last night.
There would seem to be a growing sentiment against this Thursday
clapping thing; the novelty is finally wearing off. Mind you, those that
are doing it are doing it big-time. The video footage of the clap in my
nephew’s street showed they all had their mates round to join in and social
distancing was out the window as a mini-carnival was being staged. I pity any
of the key workers that they were clapping who were trying to sleep in that
street. I got the dogs leaded up and drove them down
to Orlestone woods where we had a rather good walk without
meeting anyone as we walked. We came back to the car park to see something
odd though. There was a family of four in a car. With their windows open I
could hear them chatting about the birds they could see and the alpacas in
the paddock nearby. They were excited at seeing the dogs, and the “boot
dogs” trick really impressed them. I drove off rather slowly watching
them in my mirror. They were showing no signs of leaving their car. Had they
just driven to the car park for a bit of sightseeing? I dropped the dogs at home and popped round
to B&Q for some bits and bobs. Coronageddon-panic
had subsided somewhat since I was last there, but they had a sign up saying
NHS workers should show their ID badge at the till so that B&Q could show
their appreciation. I showed my badge and jokingly said “please don’t
clap; we’ve had enough of that“. With a straight face the woman behind
the till said “yes – I think we all have”. But they gave me ten per cent off of what I
bought. Over the years the panels on the shed have warped and twisted, and
there are a few baps between them. Rather than farting about replacing them,
I got some filler, and once home I bodged the holes full of the stuff.
Fortunately the holes were all at one end, and I got a coat of paint on to the
other end of the shed. I could have painted the front as well I suppose, but
I ached somewhat (presumably from the previous two days of painting?) I took myself to bed for the afternoon. I
didn’t sleep well. It was too hot, but I dozed fitfully for three hours
before getting up and doing a little more painting. I’ve pretty much got all
of the fencing done; just half of the shed to go now. I seem to have got it
done far quicker this year than in previous years. I fed the fish (to the delight of the dogs),
and had another look-see at the Internet in case I’d mossed anything during
the day. I hadn’t. With any luck "er
indoors TM" will boil up some dinner in a bit, then I
shall set off to work… The day before a night shift is always rather dull as
I just loiter about waiting for time to pass. |
|
23 May 2020
(Saturday) - Chicken Sh*t Bingo and Extreme
Dishwasher Loading
After a rather good night shift I listened to
the radio as I drove home. The Prime Ministers’ lackey Dominic Cummings would
seem
to be in trouble for having broken lock-down rules. Rather than
self-isolating at home when ill, he travelled half-way across the country so
that he’d have family nearby to look after his children. Or so he claimed.
The lock-down rules are vague (at best) – did he did wrong, or was the
media having a slow news day? Who knows? I stopped off at B&Q where the queues to
get into the place were already forming at half-past eight. And (unlike
yesterday) the place looked like a plague zone. It never fails to amaze
me that I wear less personal protective equipment when dealing with
virus-ridden blood samples than the Great Unwashed do when going shopping. I got some more paint for the fences (I
might run out half way through the shed) then went home and took myself
off to bed. I got a couple of hours sleep before the dogs
barking got too much. I came down to find the living room in uproar as "er indoors TM" was having a tidy-up.
Over a cuppa I peered into the internet to see if I’d missed much. I hadn’t
really, but I had been accepted into the Facebook group “Extreme
Dishwasher Loading” (which seems to be good for a laugh). As I perused, so "er
indoors TM" was playing episodes of “Top of the Pops”
from thirty years ago. There was some crap music in the early 1990s. It was
with a sense of relief that I turned it off and we took the dogs round the
park for a walk. We left home in glorious sunshine and had a
rather good walk in that there were no “episodes” at all. However
there were no “episodes” because the thunderstorms kept everyone
inside. And the thunderstorms were rather impressive. We were soaked to the
skin by the time we got home, and by the time we got home it was glorious
sunshine again. We put on dry clothes, sent into the garden,
got out the chairs… and ran them all back into the shed quickly as a
hailstorm hit. After a couple of hailstorms and
thunderstorms we finally got to spend an hour in the sunshine with a pint and
the Kindle and I dozed off; the night shift and a couple of pints had taken
their toll. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of dinner and with it scoffed we tuned in to the Saturday
Zoom quiz. Based on “Richard Osman’s House of Games” we had a very
good quiz (even if I did come second to last). And the evening was
rounded off with a quick game of “Chicken Shit Bingo” – a game which
might well be modified for canine participation… |
|
24 May 2020 (Sunday)
- 12 345
I slept like a log; night shifts do that.
Over brekkie I had a look at the Internet and sent out five birthday wishes. It’s
odd how there will be no birthdays in my life for a week, then five people
have a birthday all at once. I saw a friend was doing that “ten albums”
thingy on Facebook that I did a few weeks ago. One of his albums was by the
band Transvision Vamp; A chap I met whilst I was
studying with the Open University told me he’d once slept in the same bed as
the singer of that group. Admittedly he was in it the day after she was, but
that was his lame to fame. I met some really good people through the
Open University all those years ago… being pre-Facebook and pre- all other
social media I’ve lost touch with all of them. Such a shame. With no emails at all I made the mistake of letting
the dogs out for a tiddle. On the strength of last night’s “Chicken Shit
Bingo” I had planned to make a video for a game of “Pogo Piddle
Pot-Luck” but had forgotten all about it until it was too late. We got our gear together, and spent half an hour
trying to find the extending dog leads. Eventually we gave up searching and
decided we could manage with their usual leads. We made good time up the motorway, and were
soon at Fawkham Green where we met Karl, Tracey and
Charlotte who (by some strange co-incidence) just happened to be
walking the same route that we had planned. There are those who might say we
weren’t completely fulfilling the letter of the law today, but how can I
control where other people choose to go for their legally-permitted exercise?
We made a point of keeping the legally proscribed distance apart as we
walked, and (quite frankly) if the Prime Minister is quite happy
to have his chief aide openly flaunting the lock-down rules then he has
effectively declared lock-down is over anyway. Our walk followed the Fawkham Green
series of geocaches and it was a (mostly) good walk. We did find
ourselves coming a tad adrift as we walked across a golf course. I’m sure
that two of the caches there were on parish boundaries rather than on
footpaths, but speaking to some toffee-nosed twit on one of the greens it
would seem that the golf club owners have tried to redirect the footpaths
away from their legally proscribed courses so that they don’t have the lower
orders (like me) getting in their way. But by knocking down the
official footpath signs and not posting where they want us proles to walk,
the golf course people have just caused chaos. As we walked we found a surprising lot of
these painted rocks that are getting ever-more popular. And we saw two very
large trampolines which were just randomly set up in a field. As we walked we
saw from the paper logs in the geocaches that others were out walking and
geocaching today. We actually caught up with two friends and walked with them
(at a distance) for half a mile or so until we found a rather good
picnic spot. They carried on, and we sat down for half an hour. Usually we like to find a pub on our walk, or
end at a pub. Although it is heavy, I quite like taking a couple of beers
with us; we can stop where we like and not have to worry about the normal
people who might be swarming around in a pub garden. We had a very good picnic lunch; we sat in a
quiet field far away from everyone else. It was a bright sunny day; just
twenty-four hours previously we’d been cowering under a tree in a
thunderstorm. Geocache-wise it was a good walk. Some of the
co-ordinates were a tad iffy, but no more so than couldn’t be attributed to
tree cover or power lines, and all the hides had rather good clues to help
us. And we found five different geocache types today as well (which is
rather impressive if you are impressed by that sort of thing). Toward the end of the walk I found my
twelve thousand three hundred and forty-fifth geocache. Not an officially
recognised milestone or achievement, but one I was happy about. As always I
took a few photos. I slept most of the way home. Within seconds of getting home "er indoors TM" found the missing
extending dog leads. They were where she’d put them. Oh well… they will do
for next time. I then went out to the pond to feed the fish.
Despite having a seriously bad back and despite having just walked nearly
nine miles, Fudge flew up the garden like a bullet from a gun to bother the
fish. He *loves* trying to get the fish food before the Koi get any. We had a good bit of dinner, then tuned into
a Facebook Live quiz run by a pal of "er
indoors TM". It was all going well until the the world’s longest river was revealed. The Nile is
actually the world’s longest river, but the Amazon is wider and deeper and
therefore bigger by volume. The question-master hadn’t realised this subtle
difference. We had, but personally when doing on-line quizzes these days I
take the line that someone else has made the effort to entertain me, and
therefore I accept whatever they say (even if it’s wrong). It would
seem that not everyone else is as accepting as me… |
|
25 May 2020 (Monday)
- Hic !!
With an alliance of Pogo, Treacle and "er indoors TM" having claimed most of
the duvet and having turned on the bedroom fan I gave up laying
in bed shivering and came downstairs for brekkie. A row was kicking off on
the national Facebook geocaching page in which “Karen from Facebook”
was ranting that some people had gone geocaching recently and hadn’t
sterilised pretty much everything in their wake as they went. I didn’t get
involved; but it amazes me that the less anyone knows about matters
microbiological, the more vocal they are on the subject. It also amazes me
that there is now (supposedly) such an expected high quality of
hygiene expected in a hobby which is all about scrubbling
under rocks for film pots that have been left in the dirt for months and
years. I had a look at my emails and saw another
series of geocaches had gone live. Thirty-odd new ones had appeared yesterday
evening in Coxheath, and fifteen more appeared this
morning near Marden. And there could well be more coming, for which I am
grateful. A prolific hider of the things has announced that he’s finding the
walking all a bit too much these days and (bearing in mind his caches are
all rather old) he’s asking for people to put out new ones in his area at
which point he will archive his old ones. I’ve offered to take on a short-ish series in the back of beyond if no one else will, and
I spent a little while perusing the map of that area. The route is already in
place, but finding somewhere to park a car on that route takes some doing… And I had an email from Amazon. Based on my
recent activity (of
buying the latest album from “Sparks”) they thought I might be
interested in buying the latest album from “Sparks”. I went into the garden and got the paint
brush out. I finished painting the shed, got a coat of paint onto the wooden
barrel which houses one of the water features, and spent an hour or so
painting trellises. As I painted so “not-so-nice-next-door” was busying
about on her side of the fence. The stupid woman had spent half an hour
reinforcing a post which her strange ex-husband had put in years ago to
reinforce the fence. Ironically the post she reinforced is fine as it is, but
it in no way contributes anything to the integrity of the fence. The fence is
still flapping about just as it was before she started fannying
about. When Fudge started barking at her I told him to be quiet as he will
see plenty of her when the fence falls down later. Hopefully she took notice
of that. I painted until it got a bit too hot for
that, so I came in, had a quick shower, and looked at the monthly accounts.
As always they could be better, but as always they really could be a whole
lot worse. If I’m looking to replace the entire fence supports (for more
than I’ve spent on a car before) I can’t be *that* hard up, can I?
It’s just that I’d like a lot more money than I actually have. Using twenty-first century technology we
spent the bank holiday afternoon enjoying the sunshine with the first fruit
of my loin and his tribe. A couple of bottles of Polish lager, a pint (or
so) of salted caramel flavoured Baileys, several vodka-infused
strawberries and I am reliably informed that "My Boy TM"
had “blown”… Me - I’m feeling raring to go… Which is more
than I was this time twenty-four years ago when I can remember getting
particularly unwell on a combination of white wine and Harvey’s Best Bitter |
|
26 May 2020 (Tuesday)
- Before the Night Shift
I was rather disappointed as I peered into Facebook
this morning. Being a nosey sort of person I had been hoping for photos of
what people might have been up to at the weekend. But I suppose lock-down has
put the tin lid on doing most things. There was pretty much nothing but
adverts for stuff for sale on Facebook this morning. I had a few emails this morning; several more
geocaches had gone live overnight. Some near work – had I been working this
morning I could have chased a First to Find. But I wasn’t, and so I didn’t. Instead I leaded up the dogs and took them
down to Orlestone Woods. Usually we have the place
to ourselves; today was the busiest I’ve ever seen the place. We must have
met a dozen other dog walkers; all of whom commented on how busy the place
was. We came home, and I then spent half an hour
cataloguing my souvenir beer glasses. Over the years I’ve amassed quite a
few, and they just sit on shelves gathering dust. I advertised the lot for
sale before Christmas, and I’ve had someone express interest in some of them.
I put the lot through the dishwasher (in two loads) whilst doing a
little more admin on my new geo-series which will go live in Kings Wood at
some point over the next few weeks. I took myself to bed for the afternoon. I
slept reasonably well apart from a rather vivid dream un which a rather surly
Prime Minister invited me to a formal dinner at which we ate rather bad fish
and chips. What was that all about? I got up, and spent an hour and a half
struggling with the geo-admin for the four new Wherigoes
I have in the pipeline. As I got more and more angry with the recalcitrant
software so the doorbell rang. Those Lego plates I’ve been waiting for have
finally arrived. Having ordered them originally on 18 March I received a
refund for their non-arrival six days ago. I promptly ordered others from
somewhere in darkest Europe, and they arrived today. I shall fiddle about with them when I have
more time. I’m hoping "er
indoors TM" will boil up some dinner soon – then I’m off
to the night shift… |
|
27 May 2020
(Wednesday) - After the Night Shift
As I was walking out of work this morning my
phone beeped. Over forty new geocaches had gone live including a rather large
series of the things not five miles from where I was. I looked on the map to
find one which I could get to in the car and do as a drive-by, and I thought
I might try for a First to Find. Less than half an hour after my phone beeped
I was driving home having done the Happy Dance for my first FTF for some
time. As I drove home the pundits on the radio were
talking about how Twitter is cleaning up its act. Facing quite a lot of
criticism for their website being used to peddle lies and inaccuracies,
they’ve taken the bull by the horns and labelled the
tweets of their biggest problem-client as “unsubstantiated” and “false”.
Needless to say, Donald Trump is furious about having his output described
this way, but surely there is something wrong with the world when the President
of the United States really is making “unsubstantiated” and “false”
tweets. There was also talk of how today NASA is
sending two astronauts up to the International Space Station having paid a
private company to take them there. I can’t see why NASA can’t spend the
money building the rocket themselves rather than paying Elon Musk to do so
and allowing him to make a profit on top. But them I’ve never really
understood capitalism… Well… let me clarify that. I understand it all too
well. I’m just not sure that I agree with it. I got home, and together with "er indoors TM" took the dogs to Orlestone Woods. It wasn’t as busy as yesterday, but we
did have an “episode”. I’m not saying Pogo is completely blameless,
but he doesn’t like other dogs on leads. And the idiot taking his pampered
princess round the woods on a lead (who does that? – really?) just
fuelled the flames by picking the dog up and waving it round like a toy. But other than that, the walk went well.
Fudge kept up far better for "er indoors TM"
than he ever does for me. I made myself some toast and had a look at
the Internet. It was much the same as ever it was. I captured a polar bear in
the Skyland (as one does) and went off to bed where I slept for a lot
longer than I usually do on a hot day after a night shift. Feeling rather tired I went up to the attic
room and unpacked those new base plates. I spent a little while fiddling
about. After an hour or so I made a short video of my Lego world. You can see
it by
clicking here. There is still a lot to do in Lego world - I
need to: ·
Make platform 2 smaller to install a car park ·
Do more with the park (where the fun-run is happening) ·
Extend the pond ·
Change the train’s couplings (magnets aren’t strong enough) ·
Put passengers into the train and bus ·
Swap out the two light grey plates (that’ll cost over £30!) ·
Get Lego Treacle, Pogo and Rolo (on order) ·
Find some panoramic backdrop "er indoors TM" boiled up a
very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of
“Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins”. I’m told that the ISS and the Space X will be
visible from the back garden in a bit. I might go have a look, or I might
just go to bed. |
|
28 May 2020
(Thursday) - 5G Bio Shield (!)
I slept for a good eight hours last night – not
surprising really. Night shifts do that to most people. I scoffed a bowl of
granola whilst watching an episode of “Schitts
Creek” then sparked up the internet. A row was kicking off on the work-related
Facebook page. The Prime Minister is blaming NHS laboratories for delays in
testing for corona virus. His criticism is unfounded, the NHS laboratories
are providing results within hours. But historically the medical laboratory
has always been someone to blame. Consider a visit the GP for example. They will
take a blood sample and tell you to come back for the result in a month. The
result will be available the next day but they say to come back in a month
because they don’t have any earlier appointments. But the implication is
clearly made that the delay is because of the laboratory. The Prime Minister
is doing the same over corona virus testing… As Oliver Hardy one remarked “twas ever thus”. I checked my emails. The Bricklink
site (it’s a Lego thing) I found for those last two base plates had
sent me their invoice. LinkedIn had suggested that I chum up with someone
with whom I had absolutely nothing at all in common. I quickly Munzee-ed
from the sofa (capturing a leprechaun and a banshee as one does) then
got myself ready for work. I set off to work on a bright morning up a
rather busy motorway. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking
rubbish as they usually do. I didn't really take much notice of what they
were saying; it was mostly blah blah blah; pretty much repeating the
same old stuff. We are in a pandemic the likes of which we've not seen for a
century. What does the future hold? No one knows, but everyone speculates. Mind you the "Thought for the Day"
bit was laughable. Some Rabbi was banging on about how people are looking out
for each other during the pandemic, and because some people are being nice to
each other, this proves that his God exists. The reasoning went along the
lines of God had said for people to be nice to each other - people are being
nice to each other - people are being nice to each other because God said so
- therefore God exists. Usually the Rabbis on the "Thought for the
Day" don't talk such utter claptrap. Personally I prefer to think
that people are being nice to each other because it is the decent thing to
do, rather than for fear of being zapped by a thunderbolt. As we did our bit at work we
had a chuckle. Someone somewhere is taking advantage of the gullible.
There is a growing concern (amongst those who don't actually know anything
about it) about how dangerous 5G technology is (even though it isn't).
Some chap has been selling anti-5G devices which will protect you from their
supposedly insidious emissions. An electronics engineer took one of these
things apart and found that it is no more than a five-quid USB memory stick
with a blue sticker on it. Mind you all the time people are paying over
three hundred quid for rubbish, other people are going to sell them rubbish (for
over three hundred quid). If any of my loyal readers would like to get
themselves s a 5GBioShield I can supply them at a
bargain mates-rates price of only two hundred and fifty quid – and I’ll throw
in a free tin-foil helmet too. I got home and found "er indoors TM" bathing Treacle and
Pogo who had both stomped in stagnant mud on their walk, and we then joined
in the weekly geo-Zoom meeting in which I could hardly hear a word that was
said. I wonder what’s for dinner… |
|
29 May 2020 (Friday)
- Help the Goats
Yesterday some chap bought seven of those
beer festival pint glasses I’ve been wanting rid of. This morning as I peered
into the Internet I had a message asking about the rest. It would be good to
send them to someone who wants them rather than send to the bin. There was also quite a bit of talk on social
media about the end of the Thursday clapping for the key workers. As a key
worker myself (NHS) I really never wanted anyone to feel under any
obligation to go out and clap me. I've yet to find any other NHS staff who
weren't embarrassed and just a little insulted by the whole thing. The
general feeling was that it was like clapping a bus driver for not
crashing... I also saw that this year’s Rye Bonfire
Parade has already been cancelled. Such a shame – I’ve not got along for a
while, but it was always fun. Pausing only briefly to retrieve the bins
from where the bin-men had flung them I set off to work on another bright
morning but today I didn't have to brave the motorway. Instead I went
cross-country to Tunbridge Wells. The roads weren't *that* busy and it
wasn't a bad drive at all. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking
about how the government's furlough scheme is slowly being phased out, and
they were interviewing some young half-wit about how she is being affected by
this. Her job as a delivery driver is entirely self-employed, and she claimed
she stood to lose all her income from that. She told quite a heartfelt tale
about how her and her mother were desperate for income and struggling to
maintain their previous lifestyle without that money. However she then (somewhat idiotically)
went on to say that her money earned from working in a petrol station was
still secure, and that the money her mother gets for being her carer is unaffected (!) I couldn't help but wonder if this woman knew
she was telling the world (via national radio) about all her little
moonlighting schemes? There was also talk about how Donald Trump
has again shown his unsuitability for high office. Having got the hump that
Twitter have labelled one of his outbursts as being of dubious veracity he is
threatening to make social media beholden to the same rules as newspapers. He
is suggesting that their content must be fact-checked or they will be liable
for any inaccuracies or outright lies. However it was pointed out (with several
examples) that if this is actually brought into law then his Twitter
account has fallen at the first hurdle. As I drove to Tunbridge Wells I again drove
past the little independent petrol station. Again I felt a pang of guilt that
I don't support them. But again I'm not going to support them when I can get
petrol fourteen pence a litre cheaper elsewhere. I got to work. I did my bit. There was cake.
Happy days. I took a little detour on the way home. This morning
at tea break I saw a new geocache had gone live. As I left work seven hours
later there was still no find logged on it. I set off hoping for a First to
Find and I arrived at the point where my sat-nav said I should be at exactly
the same time as a mother and daughter. When they realised what I was doing
they became quite chatty. The daughter told me that her older sister had
hidden the geocache as a Guide activity… I tried to be encouraging but… The thing hadn’t so much been hidden as
drop-kicked in the general direction of a hedge. And rather than using a
half-way decent cache container, the hider had used the sort of thing you’d
expect to find filled with sweet-and-sour sauce at a Chinese take-away. None
of which is the fault of the hider… Again a Guide leader has seen there is a
geocaching badge and has thought they’d have a go with absolutely no
knowledge or experience of the hobby. All their caches will be up for
archiving by Christmas… Such a shame… And in closing today the local goat sanctuary
is in financial difficulties. You can help them by
clicking here. |
|
30 May 2020
(Saturday) - Early Shift
I slept rather well, but woke feeling like
death warmed up. I got up feeling rather grotty, and wasn’t helped by the
smell of the somewhat rancid milk that I nearly poured onto a bowl of
granola. I made some toast instead, and watched an
episode of “Schitt’s Creek” then
peered into the Internet to see if much had changed since last night. "er indoors TM"’s fundraiser for the
goat sanctuary had raised over fifty quid overnight (which was a result for
the goats), but other than that I hadn’t missed much. I sent out birthday
wishes, then pausing only briefly to capture a nymph and a mermaid in the
tree house and a flying horse and a Puffle in the
Skyland (it’s a Munzee thing) I got ready
for work. As I drove off to work the pundits on the
radio were interviewing some farmer who had the arse about how a very wet
winter and a very dry spring had played havoc with his ability to plant
anything. Whilst I sympathised for the fellow, I got the distinct impression
that he was looking for someone to blame for the weather. I also got the
distinct impression (that for some inexplicable reason) that person
was me. What was that all about? There was also talk of how some vegetarian
crackpot was claiming that the recent pandemic was just peanuts compared to
what will happen if we all carry
on eating chickens. He might have a point; he might not. Personally I'd
rather eat a chicken than a lettuce. I got to work; I did my bit. And with a few
minutes spare I wrote up a
little CPD. Having woken up feeling rough I didn’t get much
better as the day wore on and came home feeling decidedly iffy. I spent an
hour or so sitting quietly working on solving some geo-puzzles that had gone
live during the week. I solved some; others foxed me. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
good bit of dinner, then we tuned in to the Saturday Zoom quiz. This week we
had multiple choices for each question. I knew what a gharial was anyway, but
we chuckled about nuns chasing llamas, but alcarraza, barchan, carcajou,
demiurge, elision, felucca, hafiz and impasto could have been anything on the
“Call My Bluff” round. Usually we would have stayed chatting, but we
said our goodbyes and turned the telly to the BBC news channel and watched
the launch of the SpaceX taking astronauts up to the International Space Station.
The first time that people have been taken to orbit by a private company… It’s amazing… and quite possibly it could be
the worst thing that will ever happen to humanity as the keys to the universe
are handed to rich individuals. |
|
31 May 2020 (Sunday)
- Sutton Valance to Wierton (and back)
I slept like a log, and woke feeling rather
better than I had felt yesterday, which was something of a result. I made
myself some toast, then peered into the internet to see what had happened
overnight. Very little had happened on Facebook… I say “very little had
happened”; my feed was filled with all sorts of quotes and memes from
mindfulness websites and groups. I’ve always been rather dubious about “mindfulness”
ever since some consultant psychiatrist was interviewed on Radio Four who
said that mindfulness was actually rather dangerous as it was being practiced
by all sorts of people who don’t actually know how to do it properly. Some of
these were (so she claimed) doing more harm to people’s states of mind
than good. She might have had a point… I once went to see a counsellor. I
went in feeling a tad miffed and came out feeling positively suicidal. I’ve
been wary of any of that sort of thing ever since. We got ourselves and the dogs together (finally
persuading Fudge to eat something) and set off. As we drove we listened
to Steve on Radio Ashford until the reception became too poor. We didn’t have to go *too* far out of
our way because of the road closure at Leeds castle, and soon we were in the
car park at Sutton Valence where the dogs started their howling/screaming
concerto. They know when we are going on an adventure and once we arrive at
where we are going to start walking, the excitement becomes too much for
them. We should really do something to stop it… Karl, Tracey and Charlotte soon arrived, and
we went for a rather good (if socially distanced) walk. Earlier in the
week a series of geocaches had gone live following the Greensand Way from
Sutton Valence up to Wierton and back in a circular
route. The views were spectacular, the countryside beautiful. We walked past
some rather impressive houses; we walked past one tumbledown shack which was
up for sale. "er indoors TM"
looked it up – half a million quid would secure you the tumbledown shack of
your dreams (nightmares). We watched a hawk fly into a tree, then swoop
out and after vanishing from sight for a second it flew to a post where it
perched. We managed to get to within fifty yards of it; it had clearly caught
something and was ripping its prey to pieces. Yuk! As we walked we found a little pond. It was
rather pretty so we stopped and had our picnic. It was good being able to
stop by water; the dogs all had a spuddle, and
Treacle and Pogo both had a swim. I had worried that today might have been
too hot for the dogs, but it wasn’t as hot as it might have been, we were
able to have the dogs in the shade for quite a bit, they had plenty of water,
and were able to swim in a pond. And their blue cooling neckerchiefs worked
wonders. They were still damp and cold at the end of the walk. It was a shame that Fudge had to roll in
quite so much dirt and ash, but that’s the kind of dog he is. Geocache-wise it was a very good walk. Aleta
had done a sterling job in putting out this series. With caches packed
closely together and good hints we didn’t really have any problems at all.
There was one iffy cache – but that had been hidden by someone else. I posted
“Needs Archiving” on it. But that one was a perfect example of why
when I hide caches I don’t want anyone else’s caches nearby. People will walk
this excellent series but remember the one crappy cache for which someone
else is responsible. (Hopefully that one will soon be gone) Today’s was a good walk - I took several
photos. We got back to the car park; we said our
socially distanced goodbyes. We came home cross country to avoid the road
closure. Once home we had a cuppa then "er indoors TM" boiled up a rather
good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a TV show that had been
recommended to me. “The
Secret World of Lego” was rather rubbish really. It was all about
what goes on the Lego headquarters in Denmark, and because the company guards
its secrets (you can’t blame them for doing so) it was rather out of
date. I only watched it because people at work
would expect me to pontificate on the show tomorrow. I wish I hadn’t. |
