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1 November 2015
(Sunday) - Longfield Hill
I got up this morning and was just a little disappointed to see the
huge bag of Haribos still untouched. The idea was
to have something for the Trick or Treating kiddies we had been expecting
last night. But none came. Not one. "er indoors TM" has this theory
that we are supposed to put out a pumpkin or something as a signal that they
are welcome? Over brekkie I found I was suffering. Perhaps I should go see the
doctor about his self-diagnosed tennis elbow? I think I overdid it on Friday
at astro club putting the chairs out and then
putting them away again. And carrying a small grandchild yesterday didn't do
it any good. I've also been having a few twinges in my back from an old
washing-up injury I sustained in 1981 (really!) I'm getting a bit hacked of with this
getting older lark. I'm not entirely decrepit but as time goes on these aches
and pains are becoming rather troublesome. And I *want*
to put the chairs out at astro club. And I *want*
to carry my grandson about. Totally ignoring physical discomfort we collected Suzy and her
associate, and then drove up to Longfield Hill
which is somewhere in North Kent. (I'm a little vague as to exactly where).
We soon met Martin, Claire and Rob and set off on a little geo-stroll. The
day was very foggy; the fog did lift for a while, but only for a while. Mind
you for all that it was foggy it wasn't cold. We were walking in T shirts for
much of the day. Our walk started off along the main road but we were soon walking
through wet crops. Today was the first outing of my new gaiters; they worked
well. Mind you having spent out on new gaiters I've found the old ones, but
such is life. We had an excellent walk; according to "Hannah" we
walked just over five miles. At one point of the walk we were up a tree, at
another we were playing the popular board game "Guess Who" (actually
playing it in a wood!). In all we found thirty caches. We were walking
for two hours and stopped for one and a half hours. It never fails to amaze
me just how much standing about there is in this geo-caper. We arrived back at the cars at 1.30pm then drove a little way down the
road to where the monthly Kent Cacher's geo-meet
was in full flow. We arrived to find many of our friends and soon were
chattering away. I quite liked the pub which had been chosen for today's
meet-up. Not only was the ale good, they did a cracking roast dinner, and the
place was dog friendly so I could sit and pass scraps under the table to a
waiting "Furry Face TM". With roast dinner devoured I had a pint of afters,
and some cake. We said goodbye to Martin, Claire and Rob, and (as is the
way at these monthly meets) teamed up with Tracey, Carl, Victoria,
Jessica and Charlotte. Whilst we'd been scoffing dinner so three new
geocaches had gone live near the pub, so we went to find them whilst walking
off the third pint. As we walked we had a minor geo-success. We found we were having to walk what seemed to be a long way to get to
the latest concealed sandwich box; we wondered if this was because there
might be a geo-puzzle in the way. (Geocaches are not allowed to be hidden
very close to each other because they fight). With that in mind as we walked, we found... well, I won't say what we
found, but I will say that it at was exactly the sort of place where I would
put a geocache. Tracy hit on the idea of looking at the hint for the closest
geo-puzzle (even though the icon on the map was half a mile away). The
hint fitted exactly with where we were, and within a few seconds we had the
cache in hand. The thing even had the cache name on it, so we logged it as a
find with a clear conscience. Perhaps an unorthodox way of finding a cache,
but we did so without cheating. By now the light was fading and it was getting dark, so we made our
way back to the car and I slept for much of the way home. As always I
took a few photos whilst we were out. Once home I put those piccies up onto Facebook, did the geo-admin, and then
tested out a Wherigo (in simulation). A
friend has been working on his first one, and I've been actively encouraging
him. It is no secret that they take a lot of effort to set up, and it is also
no secret that there are only four people locally who make this effort (and
I'm one of them). If I can encourage more people to get involved with
this icon type I can have more fun myself going out and doing more Wherigos. After the exertions of the day an evening in front of the telly was very much in order... |
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2 November 2015
(Monday) - Still Foggy
I can distinctly remember intending to feed grubby trousers into the
washing machine last night, so I was rather surprised to see them laying
where I left them this morning. So as I scoffed my toast and watched "Dad's
Army" the washing machine did its thing with them. Regular readers of this drivel may recall that over the last few
months I put a lot of effort into putting out a series of geocaches around Bethersden. This morning I had an email telling me of a
"Did Not Find" on one of the cache hides. Has it gone
missing? For all that I enjoyed the setting up of the series I now have the
ongoing mundane routine maintenance. Do I wait for someone else to go out and
also be unable to find it (and effectively be wasting their time) or
do I go out and find it is exactly where I left it (and be wasting my own
time)? "Furry Face TM" was itching to get outside
this morning. Usually he needs to be actively turfed out; this morning he was
pawing at the door. Naively assuming he was as desperate for a tiddle as I usually am, I let him outside. He flew into
the darkness barking for all he was worth. I wish he wouldn't do that before
6am. Mind you the neighbours on one side were
already up with the baby, and the day the neighbours
on the other side refrain from clanging their piano or from drunken ravings
at all hours (or both) is the day I listen to any of their complaints
about noise. I then spent a few minutes trying to remember where I'd left the car.
Eventually I fouind it some way down Christchurch
Road; there had been nowhere closer after astro
club on Friday night. At the time I'd intended to move the car closer during
the weekend but never got round to it. Once in the car I set off to work slowly. I'd allowed myself a little
extra time to get to work this morning. Yesterday had been a day of thick
fog, and today looked to be much the same. Unusual weather conditions have
apparently blanketed the country in a thick fog which looks set to stay
for a little while. As I drove to work the radio spewed its usual stuff. Much of the world are squabbling. Much of the world does that. And
those that aren't squabbling are apparently using phone apps to secure easy
sex. This is apparently causing something of a mini-epidemic of sexually
transmitted diseases and is a major cause for concern for those who have to
deal with that sort of thing. To say nothing of those who wanted a cheap
trill and have had their nasty turn green and fall off. I got to work, did my bit despite feeling very tired all day, and came
home through the dark. I don't like these dark evenings. Once home I ran
"Furry Face TM" round the block then came home
and fed my shirts and smalls to the washing machine. "er indoors TM" came in, swore, and then took what she'd just
bought back to the shop. Fish and chips made for a good bit of tea, then as "er indoors TM" went bowling so I
started ironing my shirts whilst my undercrackers
tumble dried. And in closing there's going to be a new Star Trek
series in a year or so... |
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3 November 2015
(Tuesday) - Not Foggy
Despite a rather early night last night I was still wide awake this
morning at 4am. I woke to find myself cuddling my dog as though he was a
teddy bear. Mind you he didn't seem overly bothered by the arrangement. I lay awake for an hour, then got up and watched last night's episode
of "South Park" in which Tweek and
Craig were outed as being gay. Apparently this was a decision made by the
Japanese. One learns so much from that program. And then with a little time before I had to go to work I watched more
"Toddlers and Tiaras". In today's show one mother was
ranting at the camera about how much her child likes doing the pageants
whilst the child was ranting that she didn't want to be there. This mother
went on to extol the virtues of home schooling as it fits in with the
pageants whilst her daughter complained that she missed her schoolfriends. Another mother likened the entire thing to
a dog show and one of the judges then said how it is good (and rare)
to see a genuine smile on any of the children. I *love* that show; the whole thing is so fake. As I watched the thwarting of the overpowering mothers I had a quick
look-see on line. Preparations are going well for the New Years
Day event. The actual event itself has
been published and already has a dozen people signed up for it. And the
first draft of the walk I have planned has got the thumbs-up as well. I just
need to get new (non-leaking) wellies and go out and have another
recce. My car was parked right outside the house this morning. As I started
the engine I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. What looked like a
very large cat was walking past. I looked again; it was a fox. Bold as brass
marching up the pavement. And so to work. Yesterday the pundits on the radio were talking about
how the thick fog had settled in for the week. This morning as I drove off to
work I noticed that the fog had gone. Much of the talk on the radio this morning was about the broadcaster
Peter Donaldson who had recently
died. Whilst any death is sad, I can't help but feel that there was
rather too much air time spent on the matter. Perhaps I'm just a miserable
old git, but I listen to Radio Four because it is
about the news and not about the celebrity presenters. There was also consternation about the house-building crisis. It turns
out that nowhere near
enough houses are being built in the UK. There was an interview on the radio on this subject with one of the
country's leading builders. The show's presenters tried to make big issue of
the fact that the government has been hoping for tens of thousands of houses
to have been built near Ebbsfleet. Actually there
have only been about six hundred built. The builder being interviewed took no
responsibility for the housing crisis. He said that if the government wants
tens of thousands of houses he will build them. At a price. He made the
observation that as a private company they were out to make money, not to
provide a service at a loss. And (at the moment) there is not much
money to be made from building houses. He rather implied that this is (yet another) failing of running
a country by market forces rather than by social decency. I might have
remarked on this occasionally in the past. I got to work for the early shift, and did my bit. And then came home
again. Even on an early shift it is now dark when I get home. I took "Furry
Face TM" round the block, and quite enjoyed nosing
through the windows of all the people who haven't realised
it gets dark earlier now and had left their curtains open. Once walked "Furry Face TM" had his
dinner, and (under instruction from "er
indoors TM") I put our dinner on to boil. It didn't turn
out too badly. And with dinner scoffed we set off to Somerset Road where we
watched budgies squabbling and had some rather good cheese crisps. Whilst we
were there the landlady from the Queens Head in Kingsnorth phoned me. On
Saturday when I called in they grudgingly took my phone number and said they
might get back to me (for which I was clearly supposed to be grateful).
They got back to me this evening and were rather vague as to whether they
would even be open on New Year's Day. But still seemed shocked that I had
already booked with another pub that wasn't openly dismissive of me. Oh - and here's another date for your
diaries... |
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4 November 2015
(Wednesday) - New Wellies
After an hour of laying awake I got up and was watching "Chewing
Gum" shortly after 6am. A rather overlooked series; it is actually
quite good. I then spent a little while having a look-see on
Amazon (dot com). "Daddies
Little Angel TM" has recently shown an interest in
post-apocalyptic fiction and I was seeing what was going cheap in the genre.
There are quite a lot of rather good books of that type by John Wyndham and
Edmund Cooper. I wonder what she will make of Triffids
and the Kraken? It was raining as I set off to work. That reminded
me I needed to get new wellies so I went to B&Q. I got there and asked
where the wellies were. I was rudely directed to the garden section by some
old battleaxe who clearly didn't like being at work
at 7am. I'd already tried the garden section - the door to that area was
locked. So I told that to the old battleaxe who
sighed and marched over to the automatic doors which were indeed locked.
Using brute force she wrenched them open and told me that if I got locked in
I should shout and someone would come and let me out. I found the wellington boots in a heap. Some had
sizes on them; some did not. So I forced open the doors from the garden
section to the main store and walked out. On 7
January of this year I blogged about how rude the staff in B&Q are. I
keep forgetting what a crap shop it is; every time I go there I always end up
wasting my time and then going somewhere else. The
morning's news boiled my piss (as it so often does). The Health
Secretary is offering junior doctors a stonking great pay rise. Or so it
seems. He's actually offering a pay rise on the one hand whilst cutting
overtime rates. Been there, had that shoved down my throat... But it speaks volumes that no one cares what is he offering physiotherapists, pharmacists,
optometrists, biomedical scientists, audiologists, transfusion practitioners,
painters, gardeners, porters, cleaners, cooks, electricians, plumbers,
secretaries, radiographers and all the other NHS workers who aren't doctors
and nurses. I got to work, did some, and came home via the
garden centre in Chartham where I got my wellies.
Once home I took "Furry Face TM" for his walk. He
then had his tea, and with "er indoors TM"
off flogging candles I had mine. Before 8pm which was really good. Mind you being home alone means
I'm bored. And next door has been clanging the same irritating scales on
their f@*@ing piano for three hours now. It is Mrs next door who does it. She does it purely to irritate
nutty Mr next door. His drunken screeching will start soon... |
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5 November 2015
(Thursday) - Bonfire Night?
Being on a late shift I didn't have an alarm set for this morning and
so I slept a while lot better. And it is amazing
how much warmer the house is at 7am rather than at 5am. Once brekkied I took "Furry Face TM"
round the park for our walk. I think I confused him a little by not following
our usual route. I had this plan to get a photo of him in front of the
fountain so I went on one side of the hedge whilst he went on the other. When
he realised what had happened he tried to run
through said hedge. And got just the teensiest bit stuck. With walk walked I then drove down to Folkestone.
As I drove there was a program on the radio which could have been rather
interesting. It started off trying to explain the way in which algorithms
can be used. I say "trying" because the presenter didn't
like the term "algorithm". He would have preferred "estimate"
or "best guess" and wasted five minutes of air time making a
big fuss about it. He then seemed to get rather stressed when the experts
being interviewed told him that (bearing in mind how little he understood
of basic maths and science) the application of
prime number factorisation to DNA analysis and
cryptography simply couldn't be dumbed down enough to be explained to him in
thirty seconds. It rather amazes me that Radio Four presenters expect the listeners to
be conversant with the most obscure books and plays, but don't understand the
most basic mathematical or scientific concepts. I'd gone down to Folkestone a little earlier
than I needed to because last night I'd solved a geo-puzzle. I had this naive
idea to go find it today. I didn't find it. I found myself scrambling up a
muddy slope to rummage in a jungle; I gave up after five minutes and went
round to see the littun. Littlun was watching a new (to me) TV show. "Paw Patrol"
is best described as "Thunderbirds done by dogs"; I quite
liked it. I would have watched more, but work was calling. As I drove toward Hawkinge I felt rather peckish so I stopped off at the roadside burger van. The
fact that there was a geocache not ten yards from the van was neither here
nor there. I had a rather good saugage in a
baguette and got fried onions all down my shirt. I called in to Sainsburys as I was passing.
Normally I wouldn't go there but time was pressing and it was the only
supermarket I was passing. I needed supplies so I got a jar of their
own-brand strawberry jam and a jar of their own-brand marmalade. Both costing
nearly three times the price of what Morrisons
charge for their own-brand stuff. I got to work and had a rather horrendous day. For those who
understand such things I had a case with a serious haemmorage
with a concomitant anti-Fy(a) followed by an anaemic
anti-M. For those to whom this is akin to the application of prime number factorisation to DNA analysis and cryptography, let's
just say it was something of a brown alert (like a red alert but needing
fresh pants). In fact the shift was such that despite working overlooking (sort
of) the county cricket ground I didn't get to spend hours staring out of
the window watching their firework display. There's no denying that I was
rather vocal in my complaints on the matter. Mind you once home I did watch the Rocky Horror Show Live which was
being broadcast on the Sky Arts channel. What with that and the landscape
artist of the year competition that's twice I've watched the Sky Arts channel
this week. I must be getting cultured... |
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6 November 2015
(Friday) - Wet Day Off
I've whinged about the bin men before. Today
they excelled themselves. They actually did empty the recycling bin (because
we'd left it blocking the pavement because they won't walk two steps into the
front garden to get it). But having emptied it they then abandoned the
thing on the pavement closest to where the bin lorry was at the time.
Admittedly I only had a round trip of fifty yards to retrieve it but it was
as well that "er indoors TM"
had put lame daffodil stickers on it so I knew which one to fetch back. I had intended to go out on a second recce for my planned New Year's
walk today but the weather forecast had put me off. So instead I took "Furry
Face TM" for a shortened walk. About two months ago someone did one of my Wherigos
and said the actual cache itself was in a sorry state. I never got the
message, and only found out by chance a day or so ago. So I replaced it this
morning, and having done so we carried on with our walk round to the park
where we picked a fight with a staffie. You would
think my dog would have learned his lesson from the last staffie
who handed him his arse on a plate. We got home just as the rain started, and as "er indoors TM" set off to work so I
put some washing in to scrub. I then phoned the washing machine fixer people.
Our washing machine has a dial from which you can select twenty or more
programs. Now you can *select* them, but whatever you select, it just
does a quick wash cycle. The fix-it man is coming on Monday morning. I then spent a little time working on my presentation for the next astro club meeting. It won't be as long as it might be
but hopefully it will entertain the masses. I also tried to get in touch with
the nice lady who does the bookings for the hall in which the astro club meets. (It's been decided that we should
try to change the date of the December meeting). The nice lady wasn't in
all day. Seeing how the bin men had done their thing this morning and the bin
was now empty, I then bleached the recycle bin; it had been getting a little
bit whiffy. I also tried to do some hoovering but
despite "angle-able head rollerball technology" I couldn't
get it to work. It was as floppy as the neck of the pheasant that Fudge had
the other week, and after a few minutes I gave up with the thing. "Daddies Little Angel TM"
and Fia arrived with the littlun
and Sid. Chesse on toast was scoffed all round,
then Fia went off. I then met Cheryl at the KFC and
we brought home second lunch. The girls then set about a mini tidy-up of the kitchen. That was nice
of them. They also gave the hoover a once over. The thing was as dead as the
pheasant that Fudge had the other week so we took it (and some rubbish)
to the tip. We then collected Lacey from school; she stays late on Friday for
German class. I took the girls back to Cheryl's where we had coffee and Rolo expressed his love for Sid as only a boy dog can. It
was at this point that I left the girls to it and came home, I dozed through "Upstairs Downstairs", and then slept
through episodes of Star Trek and Bug Bang Theory until "er indoors TM" finally came home.
Apparently she's been driving "Daddies
Little Angel TM" home. had I
known I could have taken her home and saved three hours waiting around. Bearing in mind I'm working the next two nights I wouldn't have minded
going out and doing somthing this evening.
Fireworks would have been a good choice, but the constant rain of the last
two days rather put paid to that plan. So instead I sulked... |
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7 November 2015
(Saturday) - Before the Night Shift
I slept well last night even though I was woken in
the small hours by a small dog trying to get comfortable. I resisted the
temptation to take him back to his basket, then rolled over and slept through
till after 8am. Over brekkie I had a look-see on-line. Little had
changed. Squabbles and knob jokes abounded on social media in equal
proportion. I laughed at the knob jokes and resisted the temptation to join
in with the squabbles. I looked out of the window; the day was overcast.
With heavy rain forecast within the hour I decided against going out
route-planning for my New Year walk, which was a shame. I like to do
something "special" on the day of a night shift before going
to bed, if only to give me something to blog about. Instead I took "Furry Face TM"
for a shorter walk. We took a rather circuitous walk round to the back of the
park to (hopefully) avoid most of the joggers who infest the park on a
Saturday morning. We did avoid most of them, but we were almost forced off
the path by a swarm of forty joggers who were doing a bonus lap. To their credit they stopped and apologized for
jogging ten abreast. I was tempted to ask why they bothered jogging because
not one of them looked to be enjoying it, but I kept quiet. We came home, and I spent a couple of hours emptying
unwanted tat from my back room into dustbin bags and then did a tip run. It
never fails to amaze me just how much rubbish I have hoarded. (If it were
not rubbish then I wouldn't be so surprised to realise
I hadn't thrown it away years ago). As I came back from the tip so the drizzle started.
This rather boiled my piss; we *could* have gone out for that longer
walk before the rain hit after all. I finally managed to get hold of the nice lady who organises the hall bookings for the hall in which the astro club meets. She said she'd seen all the calls I
made yesterday but because she didn't recognise my
number she hadn't answered it. (Oh how we laughed). I've managed to change the date of the December
meeting. It's now planned for a date which I can't make because I made my
arrangements based on a date which was originally decided upon in a formal
committee meeting over a year ago. As "er indoors TM"
set off to today's geo-meet I had a shower and over a spot of lunch watched
this week's episode of "Detectorists". I then took myself
off to bed for the afternoon. I slept as well as I could for a couple of
hours despite next door's clanging their infernal piano. I'm off to the night shift now. Much as I say I like
the night work I actually like the fact that working longer shifts means I
work less of them and consequently have more days off in the week. But I'm coming to actively dislike the day time
before the night shifts. I spend the morning desperately wanting to actually
do something so the day isn't wasted and the afternoon trying to sleep whilst
next door clangs their piano. I've got another tomorrow... |
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8 November 2015
(Sunday) - Between the Night Shifts
Last night as I worked the radio was playing its usual mix of interest
and banal. There was a discussion about the use of the death penalty in British
justice. Arguments were made on both sides; pro and con. I can quite
understand that the death penalty is irreversible; in the cases of
miscarriages of justice (and there are quite a few) one cannot say sorry
after the event. However would there be many (or any) such miscarriages of
justice? Would the death penalty act as a deterrent? I don't know but I am
reminded of a chap I once knew who thought nothing of leaving his six-year
old daughter eating in a public restaurant whilst he nipped off on errands.
When I told him of the dangers of doing so he explained that where he came
from (mainland China) his village still had a public stocks in which
various criminals could be imprisoned and be pelted with all manner of
things. Mind you it didn't happen very often; the threat was enough to make
people behave themselves. Consequently he came from a much safer place. People really did think
twice before performing criminal acts. There was another radio discussion about the rate at which the human
population is rocketing. What with increasing birth rates and increasing life
spans there are seventy million more people every year on this planet.
Various fatuous windbags pontificated on the matter. The general consensus of
the fatuous windbags seemed to be that "the lower orders were
breeding like rats and decent people (like them) weren't". I
couldn't help but wonder if what was seen to be "decent people"
weren't the sort of people who would get the chance to breed in the first
place. For myself I realise that there are only so
many people who will fit on this world. Having made a conscious decision to
stop breeding when I did (and having had my nads
cut) I would nevertheless have liked more children. As well as death penalties and overpopulation the night's radio
featured quizzes, plays and an expose on a chap in India who was publically
killed by a mob for eating beef. The radio was actually quite interesting for
once. And having listened to all sorts of stuff overnight I'd actually been
looking forward to the church service on the radio as I drove home. I was
disappointed. Billed as " a
celebration of music" it was actually rather awful howling. I turned
it off. Once home I checked social media over brekkie. It would seem that as I
slept yesterday afternoon and worked last night so everyone else had had a
whale of a time. Those that hadn't been watching bands or karaoke-ing had been out watching fireworks at various events. "er indoors TM" soon set off with "Furry Face TM"
on a geo-maintenance mission. "Geo-maintenance" is one of
life's really unneccessary things in the geo-world.
People hide geocaches; others go find them. Having found them, these others
then do the secret geo-thing and are supposed to put the caches back how and
where they found them. In practice they don't. They don't always close the things up
properly. They don't always hide them as they found them. And so a sandwich
box which was hidden only a few months ago is soon either waterlogged or
missing (or both). But (if nothing else) geo-maintenance is a
walk for my dog. I then took myself off to bed for the day; I would have slept much
longer had I not recevied a succession of phone
calls and texts in the late afternoon. After the umpttenth
I gave up trying to sleep and got up. The house is lonely when my little dog is not here. Off to work again... |
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9 November 2015
(Monday) - A Day Asleep
As I drove home after the night shift. I couldn't
believe what I heard on the radio. The country's most senior general has
publically expressed concern at the thought of Jeremy Corbyn
becoming Prime Minister. It is no secret that Mt Corbyn
came to office under the suspicion that he was a bit of a twit, and it realls seems that he has done his level best to remove
any doubt on the matter. It comes to something when a serving military
officer now publically expresses concern about the bloke. At the time of his becoming leader of the Labour party there was concern about how many people had
seemed to have joined the Labour party purely to vote
in the leadership ballot. Was the election really fixed? Did tens of
thousands of Conservative voters *really* effectively make the Labour party unelectable? As I arrived home I saw a van outside our house. But
not just any old van. A van from the Acme Lawnmower, Washing Machine and
Dangerous Toy Corporation. It was at that moment that my phone beeped with a
text message telling me that the nice man from the Acme Lawnmower, Washing
Machine and Dangerous Toy Corporation was coming to look at our washing
machine. By the time I got in he had already worked his
magic. The programmer had indeed gone west and he'd fitted a new one. He also
made the observation that we'd had the thing set to do cold washes only. If
nothing else we've been saving money all these years. I had vaguely planned to take "Furry Face TM"
out to plan the New Year walk today, but I was feeling rather too tired to
wrestle with navigating new (to me) footpaths so instead we did one of
our standard walks round to Singleton Lake and back. Whilst at the lake my
dog was busy snuffling in the undergrowth (as dogs do) so I thought
I'd photograth the geese who
were looking particularly scenic. It was at that point that Fudge decided to
pick a fight with a goose. Once home I had all sorts of plans about what I
might do with the day; but feeling rather tired I thought I'd get an hour's
sleep then spend the afternoon doing all sorts of little errands. I woke up and looked at the clock. I expected it to
be early afternoon; the clock said 4.30pm, so I decided to do the petty
errands another time. "er indoors TM" came home and in a novel break with tradition
was n't bowling tonight so instead we caught up
with watching stuff off of the SkyPlus box. Can't beat an evening of rubbish telly
and grim red wine... In the meantime the washing machine is making rather
seriously bad noises. Perhaps we need the nice man back? |
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10 November 2015
(Tuesday) - In The Mud
I slept like a log last night. Perhaps the night shifts had taken
their toll. I woke just after 7am which for me is something of a lie-in. I
got up, had a swift brekkie and checked the weather forecast. It wasn't good,
but time was pressing; I really did need to firm up my plans for the New
Year's Day walk which I'd offered to organise. So I
popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and drove
out to Great Chart. I'd provsionally worked out a route in my
mind and (would you beleive it) my plan
pretty much worked. Unlike my Bethersden route (which
needed some serious re-routing and several re-visits) today's walk went
nearly one hundred percent as planned. There was one minor hiccup out near
Daniel's Water where the landowner seems to have deliberately blocked off a
footpath. But to their credit they have made all the other footpaths crystal
clear with well marked signs. As we walked we met horses and goats. "Furry Face TM"
chased squirrels, rabbits and "f-birds" as best as he could
whilst being on his lead. Mind you despite being on his lead he did get
muddy. We did do a little back-tracking as we walked; but we've got nineteen
potential places in which to hide tupperware along
a route of four miles. We walked for a shade over two hours which I am hoping
will be just right for New Year's day. I
took a few photos whilst we were out. Once home (and dog bathed) I
put them on-line. Perhaps I shouldn't have had KFC for lunch, but it was
tasty. And with lunch scoffed I then did the geo-on-line-thing to see if the
potential hides I came up with earlier were acceptable. They are now in the
hands of the geo-feds. Here's hoping. As I fiddled about on-line so the washing machine did its thing with
some sheets. Last night when tumble drying it sounded as though it was
chewing on sheet metal. Today it sounded fine. Perhaps it has a problem
tumble-drying or perhaps it doesn't like my smalls? It struck me that I could do with some more film pots so I wandered up
into Ashford to get some. Whilst there I thought I'd go into the mobile phone
shop and have a whinge. The signal I get with EE is
generally frankly terrible if I'm not in an urban area. "er indoors TM"
gets excellent signal with Vodafone in places where I get no signal at all.
I've phoned and emailed the people at EE and been fobbed off with being told
to take my phone to one of their shops to have it tested. So I went into the
shop and stood and waited. After fifteen minutes of waiting I walked out.
Ashford has two branches of EE so I went to the second branch where I again
stood and waited for another fifteen minutes before walking out again. Mind you the milk shake shop was open (for once) so I treated
myself to a battenburg milk shake. Not too shabby
at all (!) It was a *real* battenburg
milk shake. I watched them make it. They chucked two large lumps of battenburg cake into a mixer with ice cream and milk and
mashed it up before my eyes. They make milk shakes out of pretty much
anything. I've had shakes from black forest
gateaux, bakewell tarts and even werther's originals in the past. "er indoors TM" phoned. She was going off candlemongering
this evening. Did I fancy some KFC if she brought it home for a quick bit of
tea? KFC twice in one day? Can't be bad. However I didn't tell her I'd had KFC
for lunch. She will find out by reading it here. And with "er indoors TM"
off candlemongering I was left "home alone"
with my dog. Usually on Tuesdays the clans gather but today people seemed to
be busy. I'm going to spend the evening staring at the telly
and hoping that this KFC-induced guts ache subsides soon... |
|
11 November 2015
(Wednesday) - Cookie Monster
I was out for the count last night when suddenly (and for no good
reason) "Furry Face TM" declared "Red
Alert" at 3.33am. He flew round the house, barking like a thing
possessed then took himself back to his basket and went to sleep as abruptly
as he had woken. As I scoffed my toast at brekkie time so my dog jumped onto the sofa,
put his chin on my left hand and fell asleep looking absolutely worn out. Did I ever mention that I never wanted a dog? As I took said dog for his walk we saw that something had ripped open
the dustbin bag in the front garden. Perhaps that was what had upset him in
the night? We were out for our walk a little earlier than usual this morning;
loads of kiddies were on their way to school. Most of the smaller ones had
nagging mothers in tow. I can't remember my mother ever whinging
and griping as much as this lot seemed to be nagging this morning. Every
single thing that every single child did was wrong. Once home I tidied up the ripped bin bags and took them to the tip. I
went via the YMCA charity shop; I'd gathered together a box of books that I
hadn't read for years but were too good to throw away. I thought I'd give
them to the YMCA as it it easier to park there than
it is near to any other charity shop. I certainly shan't take anything to the YMCA charity shop ever again.
They were disinterested to the point of rudeness. It would have been churlish
of me not to leave the books with them, but the old harridan on the counter
made it clear that they were doing me a favour by
taking the books from me. I had a little while before work so I popped down to Folkestone to see the littlun.
He seemed a little under the weather. Whilst there I got to see a new TV
show; The Furchester Hotel. It features Elmo and Cookie Monster
(of Sesame Street fame) running a hotel. In today's episode they had a
visit from a very important porcupine. TV don't get
better than that. In a novel break with tradition I showed up at work today. Word is
that there will be a vacancy for a senior position coming up at the labs at
the Maidstone Hospital soon. I'm tempted to
apply.... |
|
12 November 2015 (Thursday)
- C.V. Writing
i seem to be
somewhat obsessed with the possibility of a promotion to the Maidstone Hospital. I lay awake for much of the night
speculating on the "what if"s of the matter. Do I *really* want to
go back to a managerial position? Despite the "unfortunate episode"
that led to me being in my current position I actually do like my job at the
moment. I feel it rather suits me, and I've not once in the last four years
felt physically sick at the thought of going into work (a welcome change
from how things used to be). However... These days I do wander in to work on the
dot of starting time, spend much of the day spouting purile
banter, and am gone like a shot the moment the clock gets to home time. I
make no secret that at the moment I am just coasting to my retirement in (about)
eight to ten years' time. I particularly like my current shift system (which
gives me days off like today). And I don't miss the problems and
difficulties of command at all. Nowadays no one phones me to tell me they are
going sick just an hour before their shift starts. When equipment has little
hiccups I can pass the problem over to someone else with a clear conscience. But I do feel I could contribute so much more.I've been "the boss" before; whilst
I'm not a natural manager I don't think I was *that* bad at it. I
particularly miss the formal training and mentoring of the trainee staff. I
would like the opportunity to feel that I'd actually done something positive
from time to time. And a couple of hundred more quid each month wouldn't
go amiss. Do I want to go back to being a boss? I don't know.
At the moment it is not a decision I have to make. I shall wait for the job
in Maidstone to be advertised and see exactly what
is on offer and then think about applying. And (you never know) - they might not even
want me. One off the advantages of my current job is that
what with the vagaries of the shift system I do have quite a few days off
mid-week. I used one of those days (Monday) to get the washing machine
fixed. Tuesday was another such day when I got my New Year walk (provisionally
and hopefully) sorted. Today was another day off and so I'd arranged to
get the boiler serviced. In a possible New World Order I might have to use
annual leave for that sort of thing. The nice boiler man soon arrived and was pleasantly
surprised at how clean our boiler was. It didn't take him long to do his
thing and he was soon on his way. And so "Furry Face TM"
and I were soon on our way too; a walk round to Frog's Island and back. As we walked Fudge did his fudge (as we all do).
I was just bagging it up when a passing looney stopped and announced that it
was making him feel really hungry. I did wonder if I should hand the bag of
poo over to him; instead I just smiled sweetly and got away as quickly as we
could. We carried on into South Willesborough
where I did a little geo-maintenance and we came home past the outlet centre
where a certain dog rolled in a dead sparrow. (What a delightful dog I
have). It was shortly after this that we again encountered the passing
looney we'd met earlier. He was now munching on a Cornish pasty and on seeing
us he beamed and loudly announced that he's told us that he was hungry. Over lunch I watched last night's episode of "You,
Me and the Apocalypse"; the series started well and has had some
interesting plot twists but it seems now to be in danger of not actually
going anywhere. And with lunch scoffed I had a little look at my C.V. Once I
seemed to do nothing but constantly re-write it to no avail. I then re-vamped my LinkedIn profile.
I can't help but wonder if anyone actually looks at those things but I
suppose it can't help to have the thing up to date. If anyone would care to
give it the once-over I'd be grateful for any comments or suggestions. Over a rather late dinner we watched last Saturday's
episode of Doctor Who. It was rather good... |
|
13 November 2015
(Friday) – Sandhurst
I slept well. Over brekkie I checked out social media. Nothing much
had changed in the world overnight. I finally made a decision and spent a few
minutes pruning the list of people I follow on that social media. I seem to
get endless notifications about the antics of people I once met (for an
hour) five years ago and absolutely nothing about people from whom I'd
actually like to hear. I popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and
we set off on today's mission. Earlier in the week we'd seen a posting on the
Sussex geocacher's page from our good friend Gordon
asking if anyone fancied a walk round Sandhurst.
That is only forty minutes away (traffic allowing) so I thought that
might be something to do for the morning before an afternoon asleep. As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing prominent
policemen. There are calls for the police force to become a graduate-only profession.
There were arguments on both sides... all I can say is that I've seen this
happen to my own profession and it has not been an unqualified success. "Desert Island Discs" came next - Lord Indarjit Singh was the castaway; he was rather
interesting. We soon arrived at Sandhurst church and it
wasn't long before everyone arrived. I'd not met several of the people on
today's walk. There are those who would think twice about teaming up with
total strangers in this way, but I love it. What had (up till now)
been random odd names on a geo-log sheet are now new friends. We had a good walk; there's no denying that the weather was against us
today. The remnants of a tropical storm soaked us on three occassions. The mud was slippery; one of our number was on his bum at one point, and I certainly needed
a helping hand to be pulled out of a stream and up the bank. But a walk in
the countryside with good company is always worthwhile. I
took a few photos whilst we walked too. Mind you I feel I must be honest. As a geo-walk I cannot recommend the
one round Sandhurst. One of the caches was missing;
with a C.O. who's not logged in for nearly a year I doubt it will be
replaced. The walk was billed as being one of four miles. Admittedly we did
start at the church, but that can't have added much to the final distance walked;
I measured it on "Hannah" as being a shade over six miles.
And we started at the church as the recommended parking wasn't really the
sort of place any of us wanted to leave a car. Once home both "Furry Face TM" and I had a
shower. I then took myself off to bed. Sometimes I can get some sleep before
the night shift; other times I can't. Today I couldn't. After two hours I
gave up laying there and came downstairs and watched an episode of "Upstairs
Downstairs". Thomas (the chauffeur) had had his wicked way
with Sarah (the nurserymaid). His Lordship
was rather shocked. As I watched the telly so my dog was
snuggled up on the sofa next to me. He seemed to be shivering. Perhaps
walking in the tropical storm this morning didn't agree with him. If he is
still iffy in the morning I shall take him to the vet. I'm off to the night shift now... |
|
14 November 2015
(Saturday) – Raining
Overnight the radio was full of talk about yesterday's terror attack in
France. Details seemed somewhat vague, but.... what can I say? Why? I also found myself asking "why" when I saw all the
postings on social media saying we should pray for the victims?
How does that work? Do we pray that something worse doesn't happen? And to
what are we supposed to pray? To a God which could have prevented it all in
the first place? I'm not sure I want anything to do with a supposed God which
clearly *could* make this such a better world but obviously chooses
not to. This is the twenty-first century. We can take the heart of one person
and tranplant it into another. We can put people
onto the Moon and bring them back safely. And still we act like a bunch of
superstitious savages. Sometimes I wonder about what sort of a world we are
leaving for our children. With the night shift done I popped out to get a crafty geocache; today
was a blank day on my geo-calendar. I then drove round to the Foundry for a
bit of brekkie. Yesterday I only ate toast, and with "er indoors TM" off flogging candles
to the masses at a school bazaar (or a bizarre school) today I really
felt I should have more than just toast again. I then took "Furry Face TM" round to the
park. I again forgot it was Saturday and therefore jogger day. Skin-tight lycra and bouncy boobies was clearly in vogue today.
Result!! As we were walking home so the rain started. We were rather soggy when
we got home. I then spent a little while in bed. But not as long as I would
have liked. After a couple of hours my mother phoned with some news. She was rather
excited. Her and my dad have made their wills and have paid for their
funerals and wanted to tell me where all the documents were. I'm actually
rather glad they've done that; it makes a lot of sense to have all these
details sorted in advance. But I didn't get back to sleep again after that.
Instead I spent much of the afternoon in front of rubbish on the telly with a sleeping dog at my side. "er indoors TM" came home from selling candles to the masses
and brought cake with her. She was just a little sodden. The rain had got
worse during the day so we abandoned plans to go to Rye bonfire parade.
Instead we had a rather good afternoon and evening in front of the telly sinking beer and wine whilst catching up watching
stuff recorded onto the SkyPlus box. I think I might have an early night.... |
|
15 November 2015
(Sunday) – Cranbrook
Last night as I was waiting for "er indoors TM" to finish her tiddle I was channel-hopping on the telly
and I found a wonderful program on the Discovery Channel. You can watch the show on You-Tube
if you want. It is worth watching if only to see how the program-makers go
from "vaguely possible" to "stark nonsense"
in a matter of seconds but in such a way that you don't actually notice the
transition. The basic premise of the show was that aliens have
established one or more bases on our Moon to mine the helium-3; and that the
Apollo missions stopped because the aliens told NASA to clear off. Several
obviously falsified photos were offered up in support of these claims, and
Buzz Aldrin's denial of having ever met an alien was offered as conclusive
proof that there was an alien base on the Moon. If there wasn't why would he
deny it? Over brekkie a quick Google search on the matter
revealed a difference of opinion on the on the part of those who beleive in such stark staring nonsense. Some theories
hold that the mining is still going on, other theories suggest that this
mining was something that happened a long time ago and NASA has since nuked
the mining sites to hide the evidence. Also only about half the nutcases beleived every word of the alien mining/bombing
conspiracy; the other half maintained the Moon landings were all faked. These people are allowed to vote you know. Have I
ever mentioned that I don't beleive in democracy? We collected Fudge's friend Suzy (and her
entourage) and after a quick diversion to a church near Smarden (for geo-reasons) we made our way to Cranbrook where we met up with friends. Eleven of us (and
two small dogs) then spent the morning wandering the countryside to the
south of Cranbrook in search of elusive sandwich
boxes. We came into Cranbrook itself for lunch; we
found a rather nice beer garden and washed our sandwiches down with a pint of
ale. And then we walked northwards to see what the geo-hunting was like round
there. We didn't hang around; time spent talking in a field
was time spent wasting VDT (valuable drinking time), and I learned the
difference between "ground" and "floor".
For those of my loyal readers who've never realised
the distinction, one is indoors and one isnt. We
also found "Quaker Lane" and had a minor difference of
opinion as to how it was pronounced. All I shall say on the matter is to ask
if any of my loyal readers have ever experienced an earth-quack. As we walked we were passing some puzzle caches that
I'd solved previously; there was one that has taken me about two years to
solve; I was rather disappointed it find it wasn't there. However it was the
only one we didn't find. We did find thirty other caches as we walked. The vague plan had us going west (after north)
if time allowed. Unfortunately it didn't. The light was failing by the time
we'd completed the northern circuit so we made our way back to the cars, said
our goodbyes and set off on our various ways home. I'd taken
a few photos whilst we walked. Once home and my dog (and me) was
bathed I put the photos on-line. As I did so "er
indoors TM" voomed round with
the new Hoover. Apparently the cable isn't as long as the one on the old one
was. I formed the distinct impression this was somehow my fault. And the
thing fills up quicker with much finer dust than the old one ever did. Again
something which would seem to be my fault. I apologised for both failings which seemed to go some way
to placate her. There was a minor hiccup when after taking it all apart to
empty the thing when it wouldn't go back together again. But after half an
hour's struggling (and reading the instructions) she finally sorted it
out. I hope. With "er indoors TM"
off bowling I set the washing machine loose on some towels and my undercrackers and looked at my calendar for the next few
weekends. It seems there's rarely a dull moment in my life. I then checked emails; the geo-feds have given me
the thumbs-up for my plans around Great Chart. So now I can now go ahead and
start putting in some proper work on the planned geo-series. I thought about
doing so, but instead I sat with my dog and watched fan-made episodes of Star
Trek whilst my dog slept. He seems worn out after today's walk. As "Furry
Face TM" snored I dobbed his
monthly flea treatment onto his neck. He didn't even notice... |
|
16 November 2015
(Monday) - A Day's Holiday
As well as having rostered days off I also have annual leave. Today I
thought I'd use up a day's leave. If nothing else I needed the opportunity to
take the car to the garage; the parking brake warning light keeps coming on
ever since the people in the garage serviced the car a few weeks ago. The
plan was to drive over and walk back with my dog. It was a plan I carried
out; it was a shame about the rain. We got rather soaked on the way home.
Once home the garage phoned to ask what the problem was... I then had a crack at the ironing; that's what I do an an actual leave day. Whilst I ironed I waatched a film. I've been meaning to watch "Bend
It Like Beckham" for years. I must admit I found it somewhat
predictable, and when the garage phoned to say the car was ready (about
two thirds of the way through) I gave up watching. Me and "Furry
Face TM" walked back to South Willesborough
to get the car. The garage had fixed the problem and didn't charge us
anything. Basically the manual release switch for the parking brake is on the
blink; using it causes an alarm when it shouldn't. I can either have the
thing replaced (for about £170) or not use it. I don't need to use it
as the brake releases automatically and I've never actually used it for
years. I only fiddled with it because I could. I shan't do so again. By now the rain had stopped and the day was chirping up so I took
Fudge over to Great Chart to finalise arrangements
for the New Year walk. I acheived what I had
planned to do, but despite the fact that the day had brightened up it was
still *very* muddy. A little dog had to have a bath when we got home. Pausing only briefly to watch an installment of "Upstairs
Downstairs" I spent much of the afternoon updating twenty web pages
for this New Year walk. Or that was what I told "er
indoors TM" when she woke me up when she came home. We had a bit of tea; she's gone bowling. An evening in front of the telly beckons... |
|
17 November 2015
(Tuesday) - Back to Essex
A few weeks ago (in the company of some gallant
souls) I set off to walk the first part of the Essex Way. Today, depite the weather forecast, we decided we'd go back and
walk some more of it. Bearing in mind the winter days are shorter we knew
we'd need an early start. Fudge's expression had to be seen to be beleived at 4.30am. We had a quick brekkie of coffee and Belgian buns
and set off. Firstly to Singleton to collect Fudge's pal (and her
associate!) and then on to Teynham; Matt's car
was in the garage. As we drove we had competing sat-navs
shouting instructions. "er
indoors TM" was sticking with the tried and trusted
Google whilst the back seat driver was using an app called Waze. Initially my
money was on Waze because it was confidently predicting a shorter journey
time. However my confidence was shaken when it transpired that Waze was aimed
at where we starting walking (which was ten miles closer than Google's
target of where we were actually meeting). Despite Waze's machinations we made our way through
the hamlet of Margaret Roding and along Wiggly Bush Lane to the Church at
Good Easter. Once assembled everyone piled into my car and we drove ten miles
away to Chipping Ongar. Seven of us (and two small dogs) then walked
back to where we'd left the cars. A simple enough proposition... It was a really good walk. We started walking at
8.30am and finished just over seven hours later having tracked down over
seventy elusive geocaches over a distance of about eleven miles. As we walked
I fell over (with a heavy thud) in the mud, and Suzy-pup ran off for
half an hour. And we had our picnic lunch in the porch of one of the churches
in Willingdale whilst overlooking the other. The
village has two chuches which share the same
churchyard. How weird is that? We set off expecting a wet afternoon, and within
minutes of finishing lunch so the rain started. It was heavy, and we did get
wet. But on the positive side it didn't rain for *that* long really
and we were soon at the chosen end-point. I must admit I was expecting the walk to have taken
a lot longer than it did. We were all planning to be finishing the walk in
the dark; as it was we could (probably) have gone on to have found
another dozen caches in the remaining daylight. But instead we piled into the two cars we'd left at
Good Easter and drove back to find my car in Chipping Ongar.
Just as we got there so the really heavy rain started. As we drove home I realised
just how much I prefer not driving. What with the logistics of getting from A
to B we needed my seven-seater. There's no denying that I was rather wilting
from the driving by the time we'd got home. Once home we washed the mud from the dog then washed
the mud from our boots. And with a rather good pasta bake we had a rather
disappointing bottle of porter. I took a
few photos whilst we were out. Mostly when it was dry but a few in the
rain I put those on line then thought about an early night. I'm on the early shift tomorrow... |
|
18 November 2015
(Wednesday) – Calendars
I was rather tired this morning; perhaps an early
shift after yesterday's exertions wasn't such a good idea? As I scoffed my
toast I watched this week's episode of "The Last Man on Earth"
on my own. "Furry Face TM" didn't stir at all. He
was still worn out. Bearing in mind I'd been the driver of a car full
yesterday, the car felt noticably lighter as I
drove to work this morning. As I drove the pundits on the radio were again sticking
the knife into Jeremy Corbyn. Perhaps the bloke
is just well-meaning but a little misguided. Perhaps he's the best leader the
Labour party has ever had but somehow made an enemy
of the press. Perhaps he really is a clueless imbecile. I don't know; all I
know is what I hear about him through the media. And (in all honesty)
I'm yet to hear anything positive about the bloke. I can't help but wonder if it might be better for
the Labour party for him to resign in favour of a leader against whom the press
haven't obviously taken a grudge. I stopped off at Morrisons
who had no bananas. Not one. Can you beleive it?
And then I took a five minute diversion to Harbledown
for geo-purposes. One of the things that "real" geocachers are supposed to do is to have found at least
one cache on every day of the year. I'd managed three hundred and thirteen
out of a possible three hundred and sixty six days. Now I've done three
hundred and fourteen thanks to a young lad who started filling Canterbury
with caches a few months ago. It is a shame that he seems to have given up;
he was actually contributing to the hobby. I got to work for the early shift, did my thing, and
at lunch time I stayed awake through a commercial presentation. To be honest
it was really only fair that I did so; the nice people presenting had brought
in posh sandwiches for us. An early start made for an early finish. I went home
via the petrol station at Morrisons, and once home
I took "Furry Face TM" for a little walk. We
might have gone further, but it was dark and raining. So we came home and
after a rather good bit of tea "er indoors TM"
went off to flog candles to Charlotte and her mates. I stayed home and in between fussing my dog I
polished boots, de-mudded wellies and sorted laundry. What an exciting life I
lead... |
|
19 November 2015
(Thursday) - Before the Late Shift
I spent much if the night feeling incredibly cold. In the early hours
I finally hit upon the idea of pulling the duvet over myself and suddenly I
was warm again. The rest of the night was spent in vivid dreams in which I
had hit on the idea to move into sheltered accommodation because it "made
sense" (for no apparent reaason).
However because the place didn't hold with wild parties I was then taking
bus-fulls of geriatrics on major pub crawls. It was with something of a sense of relief that I got up shortly after
7am; albeit feeling as though I'd never actually been to sleep. Brekkie was preoblematical; we seemed to
have run out of margerine. This was my fault as "er indoors TM" hasn't actually used
the stuff since the weekend. So I smeared marmalade onto dry toast and had a
look-see on-line. Apart from my cousin having squirted her armpits with
hairspray rather than deodorant, not a lot of note had happened in my world
overnight (I love social media!). I took my little dog for a quick walk round the park. He was well
behaved; unlike a small child in the playpark. As this child was going to and
fro on the swing he shouted "look Mummy - it's my willy".
Mother replied "is it darling?" to which said darling
responded "Yes Mummy it's my willy". The conversation
continued noisily in this vein; we hurried off. As we came home I saw a hand written notice haad
been stuck under the windscreen wiper of a nearby parked car. Commuters
regularly park along the local roads because the parking is free. It makes
parking for residents somewhat difficult, and clearly one such resident had
taken umbrage. Having a little while spare before work I thought I'd go see my
grandson. As I drove the pundits on the radio were wittering
on about the literary merits of PG Wodehouse's daughter. Or I think that was
who they were wittering on about. I didn't really
know, and it didn't really grip me. So instead I put on a favourite
album: "Initial Success" by B.A. Robertson. A rather obscure
album from 1980; I remember spending my first wage packet from the Harbour Restaurant on a vinyl version. I got to Folkestone and in a novel break
with tradition I was actually able to park near where I wanted to be. I spent
a few minutes playing with littlun (and
associated dogs) whilst "Daddies
Little Angel TM" ranted on about courts and estate
agents. She does that. And so off to work for the late shift. Don't you just hate it when the
day is effectively over by 11.30am... |
|
20 November 2015
(Friday) – Cold
Another night spent semi-consciously shivering having escaped from the
duvet. I finally woke enough to cover myself about half an hour before I
needed to get up. Once abluted I was surprised to see my
little dog anxious to get outside. He flew round the garden as if chasing
something then havinig worn himself out he helped
me with my toast before taking himself back to bed. As I scoffed those bits
of toast he allowed me I watched this week's episode of "detectorists";
a gentle comedy that I quite like. I then checked out the Internet. As I started to smurf
I got an "Update Java" prompt. Whilst I'm all for updating
Java I do think it is rather cheeky that you need to be very careful to make
sure the thing doesn't change all your internet settings for you. Whilst the
nice people at Java might think settinmg Yahoo to
be my home page is a good idea, I'd rather make the choice for myself. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were expressing surprise
that it's been confirmed that the terrorists who had committed the atrocities
in Paris last week had got into Europe hidden amongst the thousands of recent
refugees; and once in Europe had then had free rein to go
wherever they fancied. Apparently there is a high-level meeting of European leaders today to
review the open borders policy. Despite the fact that this has demonstrably
helped the terrorists, European leaders seem determined to keep the policy. I
would have thought that any such open borders policy was clearly going to
work in the favour of those who want to avoid
detection (for whatever reason). But apparently not having such a policy goes
against the "fundamental
right of freedom of movement". Perhaps those who make such policies might realise
that a "fundamental right of freedom of movement" is
actually a rather silly thing to have. But what do I know... I stopped off at Morrisons (who now have
their Christmas tree up), did a little shopping then phoned Lacey to wish
her a happy birthday. I got to work for the early shift and did my bit. One
of the trainees was doing her homework today (or do she said) I tried
to take a moral stance; there is a fine line between "biology
diagrams" and "nudey
pictures". I'd arranged an early finish for today so's
I could get to the astro club's presentation to the
punters at Downe House; English Heritage was
charging then fifteen quid each for us to witter on
about the stars and space and stuff. We actually had cllear
skies to do the telescope thing, but it was *so* cold. After an hour
of shivvering whilst people queued to look at the
moon we went inside and we then gave them a few shows and talks and things.
They seemed to lap it up; punters usually do. Mind you in retrospect I'm not sure why I went along. I don't think I actually
contributed anything to the event, I shivered in the cold, slept through the
talks and (in all honesty) I can't help but wonder if would have been
better spending the evening with my granddaughter. .. |
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21 November 2015
(Saturday) - A Birthday Meal
I must have been tired yesterday: I slept for over eight hours;
finally being woken by the backache I get when I've been iin
my pit for far too long. I got up to find a very rainy day outside. Over
brekkie I saw on social media that people had seen some snow earlier. The rain must have been bad; "Furry Face TM"
knows that when I'm not working we go for a walk immediately after brekkie.
He wasn't at all interested in going out until I got dressed. We went for a little walk round the park. There was a pheasant in
Bowen's Field; fortunately my dog didn't see it. As we'd left home the
morning was brightening up; as we walked the weather was going from bright
sunshine to rain and back again on a minute by minute basis. And it was *cold*;
winter has definately arrived. Once home, being at a loose end, my thoughts turned to matters geocachical (as they do from time to time). I've
got half a dozen caches in the Park Farm area that have been there for three
years. A couple would seem to be in need of fixing. I thought about going out
and replacing them (again) but pretty much everyone who is going to
find them has found them by now. So rather than leaving them
blocking up the area it is time to think about making room for something
else. So I started working on a new Wherigo. I have effectively all but abandoned the Dungeons and Dragons one I
was planning for the Viccie Park area; it is far
too complicated. People want easy. So I started working on an easy one with a
view to putting it in the Park Farm area. It will replace one of the caches
there leaving half a dozen places for others to put things out. After three hours I had come up wiith about
thirty seconds of game play. We took a little time out for a spot of shopping at the outlet centre.
Mountain Warehouse were having a "fifty per
cent off" sale so we went round to the outlet for a look-see. Mind
you Mountain Warehouse's fifty per cent off still made their prices double
that of Matalan. I really can't see the attraction of the McArthur Glen outlet centre.
People travel hundreds of miles (literally) to go there just to pay
vastly over-inflated prices. We contented ourselves with a festive bevarage
from the festive beverage stall (they actually had one) and then went
round to Matalan. I got a couple of pairs of trousers for less than the price
of one pair of trousers from Mountain Warehouse; the only difference being
the ones I bought didn't have the brand name on them. Once home I had a bit of Lacey's birthday
cake with a cuppa. I checked out emails whilst I
did so. Isn't LinkedIn a load of old rubbish? Do people *really* use
it as a professional network? I saw I had been endorsed for my skills in
management, quality assurance, medicine and research by a couple of people
who have never even met me, and I had been asked to give a professional
opinion on a chap I've met (fleetingly) on less than half a dozen occassions. I was also asked to add Dean Quinn, julie Hayes and Katherine Hibberd to my list of
connections. If any of my loyal readers know who Dean Quinn, julie Hayes or Katherine Hibberd are, perhaps they might
let me know. And perhaps they might tell julie
Hayes about the concept of capitalising a forename. A couple more hours were wasted making the Wherigo
until "My Boy TM" came round and eight of us went
into Ashford for Lacey's birthday meal. The Paper Duck does an "all you can eat" buffet. I
didn't quite eat as much as the young lady on the opposite table who really did eat until she was sick. But there's no
denying I ate far too much. Having scoffed ourselves silly we then want back
to Mark and Lisa's where we watched Christmas songs and I tried to settle my
stomach with a couple of pints of Bishop's Finger. It didn't really settle... |
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22 November 2015
(Sunday) – Brenchley
My stomach wasn't right last night. I hoped a good night's sleep might
help. It didn't. Between "Furry Face TM" woofing
and "er indoors TM"
snoring I farted through every hour of the night. I say "farted"; it was more akin to a transimittion in morse code. Over brekkie I had a look-see on line. Last night in the restaurant I
saw Mr Stephen Crowhurst.
For those of my loyal readers who have never encountered the fellow he is a
local tradesman who we once employed to do our loft conversion. To cut a very
long story short he did about half of a rather shoddy job then just walked
away, costing us thosands of pounds to put right. (Needless
to say "the proper channels" were of no help to us). There is
no denying I contemplated going up to him and giving him a slap, but
realistically what would that acheive? It is a
well-established point of law that people are legally permitted to defraud
others. This morning I looked him up on the Internet. Despite (supposedly)
having gone bankrupt the chap is still operating a loft
conversion business and a plastering
business too. Isn't private enterprise a wonderful concept.
Caveat emptor ! With brekkie scoffed we rallied the troops and set off for the Sunday
geo-wander; today to Brenchley. It is in the vague
direction of Tonbridge - I didn't know where it was
either. Eleven of us (and four dogs) had a rather good walk of some
seven and a half miles. The day started rather cold, but the sun came out and
it brightened up. As we walked dogs chased squirrels, woodpeckers flew about,
sheep were inquisitive and we even saw birds of prey being flown. There was
beautiful scenery, a disused glof course, and there
was even an impromptu chorus of "Into the Valley" (originally
performed by the Skids) as we walked into the valley. There's no denying the mud was quite slippery in places but it was a
good walk; it sums up why I like this silly hunting tupperware
game. Again it took me somewhere beautiful where I wouldn't otherwise have
gone. In fact the day was only marred by my ongoing guts-ache. I *really*
shouldn't have pigged out at last night's all-you-can-eat buffet. Geocaching-wise this walk rather demonstrated a point I've been trying
(and failing) to make for some time. As we walked around some
twenty-odd cache hides we found ourselves solving a field puzzle. We found
several today, but one of them involved our having to back-track for a couple
of hundred yards. Not a major problem; it was actually a good puzzle, and a
good hide, but in the weeks and months to come whenever anyone asks about the
Brenchley walk we will remember it as "that
one where we had to back-track". Now the cache which involved the back-tracking *wasn't* put out
by the chap who put out all the other caches. But it is the one over which he
has no control which is the one which will be remembered about his walk. I've been asked to run my new series in the general direction of
pre-existing caches. I don't want to do so for this very reason. If people
are going to remember a walk I've set out I would like it to be because of
what *I've* done or not done. After the walk we felt we deserved a glass of weak shandy.
But the two pubs in Brenchley had both closed down.
So we drove down the road for two minutes to the
Halfway House. What a find! - it is the sort of
place that you would probably drive straight past without giving it a second
thought. But they had eleven ales on; all poured straight from the barrel.
Family-friendly and dog-friendly, and although we didn't eat there the food
looked rather tasty. We were good; we only stayed for two pints. I could have stayed
longer. On the way home we stopped off at "My Boy TM"
to drop off a car seat. As always I took a few photos today. After a rather
good bit of tea I posted
them on-line. "er
indoors TM" set off bowling and I had a look-see on the
Internet... My stomach is still every bit as iffy as when I woke up. An early
night might be a good idea... |
|
23 November 2015
(Monday) – Cold
Another restless night; I shall have to steer clear
of these all-you-can-eat buffets in future. Rather than laying in bed with stomach ache I decided to get up
and have stomach ache instead. A brekkie of coffee and toast went some way to
settling things. As I scoffed I watched an episode of "Dad's
Army" which the SkyPlus box had
thoughtfully recorded over the weekend. Much as I quite llike
that show I'm coming to the conclusion that it would have been a lot better
if it had not had Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones in the cast. There is a limit
to how many times that they don't like it up 'em. It was rather cold as I left home this morning. For
the first time this year I had to scrape ice off of my car. That means that
winter has officially arrived. As I drove I listened to the radio. And I got just
the teensiest bit wound up. Apparently hospitals are now not allowed to pay
the extortionate fees that locum agencies charge for staff. Payments to agencies will be
capped. At first sight this seems a sensible idea because these payments
cost the NHS a fortune. However the NHS needs locum workers because it can't
fill the vacancies it has. Jobs are advertised; no one applies for them. And
so agency workers are used to do the jobs that demonstrably no one else wants
to do. And these locum workers are (in large part) coming from
overseas attracted by the good money. But this money is not going to be there
any more. If the money isn't offered then people won't travel half way round
the world. And so there vacancies won't be filled. The obvious solution is to pay a wage that attracts
staff in the first place. Why should someone study for five years to attain a
post in a hospital which only pays half the wage a trainee train driver gets
after six months. There was also an interview with Ed Milliband (the previous leader of the Labour party). He seemed to appear to be very good in
that he didn't run down Jeremy Corbyn in any way.
But he was strangely silent when asked to comment about how the Labour party is effectively dead in the water. He was also rather non-committal when it was
mentioned that he's apparently said to his critics “I bet you didn’t think
things
would actually get worse”. The Labour party annoys
me. they could do so much better. Last week I mentioned about having a vague plan to
fill my geo-calendar. Today was a date on which I'd not previously logged a
find, and so locating a sandwich box was on the cards for something to do
before work. According to the geo-map there was a large cache
hidden not very far from work so once I'd visited Morrisons
I went for a look-see. According to the instructions on-line the cache was
near (but not in) an old derelict shed. As I walked up to the shed I
saw a large plastic box with an "Official Geocache" sticker.
This box was laying upside down in the middle of a
field. I collected it, and followed my GPS to where the cache was supposed to
be. The lid and cache contents were strewn around the area. It had obviously
been deliberately trashed. Bearing in mind that the nearby derelict shed was
exactly the sort of place where I would play when a youngster I can't help
but think that kids have found it and wrecked it. I went on to work and did my bit. And then came home
again. The evening wasn't quite as cold as the morning had been, for which I
was grateful. Steve and Sarah delivered chocolate (which was to
be encouraged), and then "er indoors TM"
went bowling. I ironed shirts and spent a little longer fiddling with my new Wherigo... |
|
24 November 2015
(Tuesday) - Feeling a Bit Iffy
I slept like a log last night, finally waking to the cries of next
door's baby shortly before 6am. Over brekkie I watched last week's episode of
"South Park" and then a documentary about the lifeguards on
Brighton beach (the one in Sussex). I used to go to college in
Brighton and had one or two enjoyable days on Brighton beach. There weren't
lifeguards on that beach when I was last there. When that show finished there was a little countdown of the top ten
movies currently in the cinemas. I've never really had much interest in going
to the cinema. It looks like there's quite a few
films out at the moment that I'd like. No one told me there was a Charlie
Brown movie !! My aunts used to go to the cinema once a week (every Tuesday)
and take pot luck as to what was on. Thyet were
rarely disappointed. Once a week might be a bit much. Once a month maybe? Today's drive to work wasn't as cold as yesterday's. It was actually
ten degrees warmer. Seven degrees (celcius)
this morning; minus three yesterday. As I drove the radio spewed its usual
blend of drivel. The most memorable part of it was that it didn't actually go
fizzy and lose reception for several miles around Godmersham.
Dodgy atmospherics or a new transmitter? Once at work I carried on organising the
troops. The hospital has advertised a competition for Christmas; participants
have to create a nativity scene out of vegetables. Rather than carving a
parsnip myself I've decided to mastermind the scheme. I have a team poised to
create. All we need is the instructions. The flyer we found said to email for
details. We have emailed; we wait expectantly. I came home to find "er indoors TM"
was home. She'd taken the day off sick today. She'd been whinging
about being a bit under the weather for a few days. I must admit I wasn't feelin quite one hundred per cent today; I wonder if I'm
going down with the same bug? Perhaps an evening in front of the telly
might sort me out? |
|
25 November 2015
(Wednesday) - Shaddap You Face
I woke rather early this morning from a particularly vivid dream in
which I had recently moved to a rather salubrious part of town called "Posh
B*stard Estate" and had been forced to
make emabrassingly polite small talk with a whole
load of chinless wonders. It was horrible. On waking I could hear next door's baby gurgling and people singing
"Happy Birthday". One of the sad things about the fruits of
my loin having grown up and left home is that birthdays don't start before
5am any more. Mind you one of the sad things about having a Patagonian
Tripe-Hound is that most days seem to start before 5am. Said Patagonian Tripe-Hound was sitting with me as I scoffed my
brekkie. He was half asleep; dozing contentedly (as he does) when
suddenly and for no reason he leapt up and ran around barking. I often wonder
what goes through his head. Talking of what goes through heads, for some reason the song "Shaddap You Face " was stuck in my head this morning. It didn't seem to want to go anywhere. So I posted it to Facebook and took "Furry Face TM" for his morning constiutional. Yesterday I mentioned I wasn't feeling on top form; this morning I was certainly feeling a bit under the weather as we walked. It was probably just as well that nothing much of note happened this morning.Again the
more effort that goes into making a "clever cache", the shorter the
thing actually lasts. |
|
26 November
2015 (Thursday) - The Fur Flew
This is why
he stays on the lead when we go on long walks at the weekends. I giggled a
little as they tried to find the way out of the place. |
|
27 November
2015 (Friday) - Sigh...
|
|
28 November 2015 (Saturday) - A
Booze Up
I found my HCPC registration certificate. I might need that. Virgin
media had sent me a ton of rubbish despite my asking them not to do so. There was a
reminder that I needed to get my boiler serviced (from the chap who did it). There was a
newsletter from the Howletts Foundation which went
straight in the bin. There was
also a newsletter from the RNIB which also went
straight in the bin. “The
Homesick Alien” has completely vanished and is actually lost. “The
Brighton Kite Flier” is in a sandwich box near Folkestone. “Mr Manky’s stunt
double” looks to have run out of steam somewhere in north Kent. “The
World’s Sexiest Chip Fork” is currently in a sandwich box near Bristol. “Oh Pooh”
looks as if it is in Devon. “Pisces-ed as a rat” seems to be in the vicinity of the
amazingly named town of Gaylord Minnesota. “Clowning
Around The World” seems to be lost somewhere in Germany In fact
there is only “Adventures in Space (and time)” that seems to be
currently active. |
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29 November
2015 (Sunday) - Visiting My Mum
|
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30 November
2015 (Monday) - Parsnip Dalek & Cauliflower Sheep
There were
still some politicians actively denying the entire concept of global
warming... That's what
happened today. Result! |
