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1
November 2016 (Tuesday) - Visiting My Mum I had an
excellent day’s fishing yesterday, but the fish we were catching were rather
scrappy. I may well have overdone it; my right elbow was *really*
aching this morning. The pain kept me awake last night (that and the
combined snoring of "er indoors TM"
and "Furry Face TM") As I
scoffed my brekkie this article popped
up
in my Facebook feed. It made me think… There was no such thing as ADHD when I
was a child. But (apparently) whereas one child in ten is now
diagnosed with ADHD in the United States, pretty much no children at all are
diagnosed with it in France. The
author of the article rather implied that there is a high prevalence of ADHD
in the US because the culture there is driven by loony-lefty-tree-hugging
talking and reasoning with kids which is encouraged by the pharmaceutical
companies who invented the phrase “ADHD” to sell their products,
whereas in France if the kids misbehave they get a slapped arse. This
sounds rather cynical, doesn’t it? However I do remember "My Boy TM"
bringing a friend home once. This child was supposed to have a severe form of
ADHD. Other parents had warned me of his terrible behaviour. The boy lived
over the road from us; I would sometimes see him on the front of his house
hanging from the upstairs windowsills screaming and shrieking. When he came
to visit, I told him very firmly that we didn’t have any of that nonsense in
our house and something of a transformation came over him. He said OK,
smiled, and his behaviour was perfect. And
when I was a cub leader we had a child who would constantly spin around like
a whirling dervish (supposedly because of ADHD). We tolerated this
because at cubs we had to run a loony-lefty-tree-hugging talking and
reasoning regime. However one evening I asked him to go and do his dancing at
the other end of the hall because he was in the way. He stopped spinning,
glared and me and announced “it’s not dancing!” The other boys looked
at him and said “yes it is”. The spinning/dancing stopped there and
then; from then on he joined in with what everyone else was doing and the
ADHD was never mentioned again. Is
ADHD a real condition? Is it just bad behaviour? Is it a manufactured
money-spinner for the pharmaceutical companies? I don’t know but my limited
experience makes me wonder if it *really* is a proper medical
condition then just maybe it might be being over-diagnosed. And this may
explain why. I then
took "Furry Face TM" round the park for a walk.
As we walked I saw Bernie. I’d not seen him for ages. It was good to have a
quick catch-up. Once
home I settled my dog and set off out. I went to the fishing tackle shop. On
Sunday I whinged about the price of fishing tackle at the boot fair. Today I
went to Angling Direct and I nearly laid an egg. I was expecting to pay up to
twenty quid for a new reel. They started at eighty quid, and some were over
four hundred quid. I’m going back to the boot fair. I
popped into Tesco for a box of chocolates and a get well soon card, then
drove down to Hastings where I collected my Dad. We drove on to Brighton to
visit my Mum. She’s had her aortic heart valve replaced. She was in good
spirits; looking really well bearing in mind she is only five days post
surgery. We
would have stayed later, but Dad was keen to get home before it got too dark;
he is eighty after all. We left Brighton at 4.30pm. We got to Hastings two
hours later, and I got home after a further hour’s driving. Three hours to
cover sixty miles? Sussex
*really* needs a coastal motorway. |
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2
November 2016 (Wednesday) - Another Hospital My
little dog had a nightmare shortly after 4am; his fidgeting and whimpering
woke me. I settled him and he was soon fast asleep again. Unlike me though. I
gave up trying to sleep and got up shortly after 5am. I watched this week’s
episode of “Dad’s Army” in which Private Fraser was found to have a
hoard of gold sovereigns. It passed half an hour, but again the episode’s
ending was rather weak. I then
had a look-see on the Internet. I had an email to tell me that my Apple ID
had been disabled for security reasons. I wasn’t especially worried; I don’t
have an Apple ID. But if I wanted to verify my Apple account (that I don’t
have) they suggested I went to somewhere on albertsonshomecenter.com.
That seems to be a timber merchant somewhere in California. I wonder if their
website has also been hacked? The
blatant opportunism of these cyber-crooks amazes me. I suppose enough people
must fall for their scams for them to bother continuing. I set
off to work; it was *cold* this morning. As I drove the radio boiled
my piss. As it does. Apparently there are new rules as to what dangerous
chemicals are allowed in school chemistry laboratories. And schools with
blacklisted chemicals have to get the bomb disposal squads to come and blow them
up. What really wound me up was the attitude of the presenter on the radio.
As with anything scientific or technical the chap *always* tries to
make the thing into a joke in a painfully transparent attempt to cover up his
own ignorance. I got
to work; I did what I had to, and at lunchtime I made a quick getaway. I had
some time owing. I
stopped off in Wincheap; the pet shop there sells
fishing tackle. That is another supplier of fishing tackle which I’ve been
unwittingly driving past for five years. Yesterday I whinged about the prices
of reels. Today I got a rather good reel for fifteen quid. I shall test it
out soon. I then
drove on to the hospital at Pembury where I had a job interview. Do I want to
leave my current job? Not really; but I do feel I’m capable of doing more. Do
I want to work at Pembury? I don’t know. I got there and the interview didn’t
so much focus on what the job is about as on the paperwork that goes behind
it. So my wishes may well turn out to be academic. Perhaps posting a selfie
outside the place was a tad premature? I came
home and walked my little dog round the block. If I don’t take him out the
very moment I get home he gets very over-excited and fractious. And with him
walked I then got to have a look at the parcel which had been delivered. Last
Wednesday I ordered a pair of trousers from eBay. I asked for 42 inch short –
they sent 36 inch regular. I’ve emailed them to say I’m sending them back. We
shall see what happens… |
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3
November 2016 (Thursday) - Dig Dug I had
a night plagued with rather vivid dreams from which I was rather glad to be
woken by a restless dog. And with no reason to be up and about at
sparrow-fart I found myself learning about dog psychology well before 7am. I then
checked my emails, and was pleased to see I only had LinkedIn emails to one
account. Not that I use LinkedIn very much, but a while back I realised I was
getting LinkedIn emails to my Google email address, and my profile picture on
LinkedIn kept coming and going. After a little detective work I found that I
had two LinkedIn accounts. One I set up using the email address that I use,
and one I didn’t set up was attached to an email address I rarely use. I can
only assume that when the nice people in PC World set up my lap-top they
created me a LinkedIn account, or that someone has been playing silly
beggars. I requested a password change on the old account and shut it down a
couple of days ago. The emails seem to have stopped. So if
anyone has friended me on LinkedIn using the Google email address, that
account is no more. I
bagged up the wrong trousers that came from eBay yesterday, put the lead onto
my dog and we went out for a walk. We soon met up with "Daddy’s
Little Angel TM". "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM" ran to me. I was about to get down to my
knees for him when he stopped running, He wasn’t running to me at all; he was
running to my little dog. “Fudgey Fudgey Fudgey” he shouted. We
walked to the post office where I sent the trousers back from whence they
came. Feeling a tad peckish we got sausage rolls from Greggs where we met
Shrub’s mum. We chatted for a bit, then carried on with our walk. We went
past where "My Boy TM" works, and we stood
outside for a few minutes in the hope of seeing him. No such luck; so we came
home along the river. Once
home I had another rummage in the shed to see what more fishing gear I could
find. It is amazing what is in that shed. I found an unhooking mat, two rod
bags and a large rod holdall, a rig wallet and a humungous rucksack to keep
them all in. Result. My
phone beeped. Dave Higgins had added me on Facebook Messenger. I wonder who
he is? As I pondered I thought I might sort my letter rack; I’ve not been
through it for some time. I found a couple of bank statements so I had a
quick look at the accounts. Bearing in mind how I’ve hammered the reserves
recently (with ill dogs and car repairs and pond filters and new laptops
and stuff) they could be worse. But bearing in mind there is bedroom
plastering, new fuseboxes and hall lighting needing
doing they could do with being a bit better. I had
a letter from the Halifax about changes to my account. I haven’t got an
account with them. I had
a letter from the estate agent who sold nest door’s house asking if they
could sell mine too. I
spent all the money I might have spent on Christmas cards on Crisis at Christmas. I got
an offer of cheap energy from “Ovo”. Call me
an old traditionalist but I shall stick to getting my leccie
and gas form someone I’ve actually heard of. I had
the offer of a free eye test from Vision Express. I had
a letter from the dentist to say he was putting up his bill by seventy pence
per month. He’d also sent a rather posh magazine which went straight in the
bin. If he’d not sent the magazine he needn’t be putting his prices up. My
optician and the water company also both sent rather posh magazines which
went straight in the bin. Renault
sent me an incredibly posh magazine which went straight in the bin. That one
must have cost a fortune to print. Corgi
Home Plan sent a rather impersonal letter saying that as my boiler was now
five years old I should take out a policy with them. I shall stick with IB
Heating. My
life insurance people had sent a letter saying I had life insurance with
them. I re-read it a few times; I have no idea why they were pointing out the
obvious. And I
had the option of having a cheap will written up for me. I’ve already written
my will. It is on one of the links at the top of this page. I then
had a brainwave and wasted an hour or so rigging my laptop and ChromeCast so’s I could play “Worms” on the telly
in the living room. It didn’t work… I got the sound to work, but not the
video. I got it to do the picture for Dig-Dug, but the picture as lagging a
couple of seconds behind the action on the laptop and I kept getting got. So
instead I reprogrammed a Wherigo – some chap played one of my Wherigoes and liked it and asked if he could have it. I
was only too happy to oblige… so if you are ever in Devon… |
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4
November 2016 (Friday) - Catastrophe, Calamity, Cataclysm I woke
in desperate need of the loo at 3.20am, and was finally nodding off again
when "Furry Face TM" jumped on me at 4am. I lay
awake for a while before giving up on sleep and watching “The Secret Diary
of a Call Girl” which the SkyPlus box had
decided to record for me. I’ve a vague plan to upgrade to a SkyQ box but I’m not sure if I can transfer over all the
rubbish I’ve recorded from one box to the other. The plan
for today had involved going caving in bath, but this wasn’t happening. So
rather than suling about what might have been we
went to London. Regular readers of this drivel may recall I organised a
virtual geo-ghost hunt in London earlier in the year. I organised another
today. Unfortunately today wasn’t a convenient day for most people, but six
of us had a go at the “Catastrophe, Calamity, Cataclysm” series of
geocaches. We met up underneath a railway bridge over the river Thames. Narrowly
avoiding plummeting to my doom we then went up to the Monument. Have
you ever been to the Monument? It is about a squillion miles high and has
perhaps the longest spiral staircase I’ve ever struggled with. Mind you the
views were rather good. We admired them whilst our hearts pounded and our
legs quivered. From
the Monument we walked past HMS Belfast and the Tower of London and on to the
old Royal Mint. At this point I was glad to have people along who knew
London. For the next hour or so we wandered around places I’d only ever heard
about on a Monopoly board. We spent a few moments doing what might best be
described as geology homework, and then as the rain started we thought we’d
take a little break. A pint of ale and a plate of chips were very welcome,
but by the time we’d finished what was drizzle had become heavy rain. We had
intended to walk from wherever it was that we were to Piccadilly. But instead
we thought we’d take the tube. Totally failing to find Fenchurch Street tube
station (has it got one?) we got the tube from Tower bridge to the
Embankment and walked. Before
long we’d found our final known target and with all the information needed to
solve the puzzle (I’d blagged it a week ago at home!) we got on the
tube again. I won’t say where we took the tube to because that might be a
spoiler. However where we thought would be the closest tube station was
actually a mile and a half from where we needed to be. So we got back onto
the train and went a stop or two down the line. We
still had quite a bit of walking to do, but eventually we found the final
part of the “Catastrophe, Calamity, Cataclysm” series. Happy dance. We
would have carried on caching, but the rain was persistent so we made our way
to the nearest tube station, and on to Charing Cross where we all said our
goodbyes. We
were home shortly after 6pm; rather earlier than I’d expected. The rain in
London had been bad; the rain in Ashford was torrential. There had been talk
of fireworks; the rain put paid to that… I took a few photos whilst we were out.
I put those on-line then we had an evening on front of the telly. |
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5
November 2016 (Saturday) - Rhubarb Cider I
slept well last night – yesterday was a good day but had been rather tiring. Over
brekkie I finished off this week’s work on my dog psychology course and did
the end of week quiz. I got full marks. On hundred per cent. I was pleased
about that. So,
flushed with success at my score and also still on a buzz over yesterday’s
day out I had a look at the geo-map. The chap who’s set the geo-walk we did
yesterday (and the rainbow series we did earlier in the year) had also
set a walk round London based on Sherlock Holmes. Whilst the puzzles involved
are supposed to be solved as you walk around, it is much easier on the day to
have blagged the puzzles before you go out. That way all you have to do when
out is to get the photos. The day is quite long enough with all the walking
not to need to be puzzle-solving too. The Sherlock Holmes series has seven
puzzles to solve; I have answers for four so far. If any
of my loyal readers know when new drains were fitted to Great Scotland Yard
or is going near the Temple Church in Fleet Street… My
laptop then flashed up something in the status bar. Urgent attention was
needed. Suspecting the worst I had a look-see only to find two messages. One
was suggesting I buy more hardware from the people who made my lap-top so I
can connect the device to other stuff I don’t have. That notification has
been disabled. The other was about some feature of Microsoft Edge. Who uses
Microsoft Edge? I took
"Furry Face TM" out for a walk. There was a
little incident when he tried to attack a bus. He ran between my legs and as
I went arse over tit I accidently trod on his foot making him yelp. I
actually once broke a dog’s foot by treading on it as it ran underneath me,
and with that in mind my dog got told off. He was rather subdued for the rest
of the walk. We got
to the park and found the Saturday morning joggers out in force. Probably a
couple of hundred people jogging; all looking miserable. One young lad was
crying as his mother forced him to run. As we walked I met a friend pushing
her baby in a push chair. She was off to town and told me how she’d just been
sworn at by someone in a yellow hi-vis jacket who was marshalling the
joggers. He felt that people should know better than to bring push chairs
into the park when the joggers are there. We
also met OrangeHead. I say “met”; she was with her gang, and when with
her gang she has an attitude. She looked at me with utter contempt. The next
time I meet her she will be all smiles. We
came home where "er indoors TM"
was making herself some pumpkin soup. It smelled nice; I was fobbed off with
a hot cross bun. With that scoffed I made my way to the train station. The
journey to Folkestone was interesting; I spent it listening to some twit
droning on about his get-rich-quick scheme. He has this plan to somehow
generate free electricity from sunlight in the deserts but he then ranted
that it wouldn’t work because it is too cloudy in Folkestone and told me that
he was buying a house in Cheriton Avenue where he would be starting his
business. Even though there isn’t enough sunlight in Folkestone, his plan
would be a winner because he wouldn’t have to pay any tax because sunlight is
free (!) I was
glad when the train stopped. I met Jimbo and we had a decent bit of brekkie in the Bridge
café. From there we went on to the Firkin where we met my Ham Street Lover
and had a few pints including one of rhubarb cider. Rhubarb cider - can you
believe it!! We also discovered the wonders of Facebook live and transmitted
to a waiting universe. I think the universe seemed to like what it saw. Things
were rather hazy when Emma joined us at the Pullman. There was talk of going
to Kipps, and I can distinctly remember planning to get on a train… |
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6
November 2016 (Sunday) – Hythe The
plan was not to stay drinking in Folkestone for *too* long yesterday
because I didn’t want to leave my little dog alone with fireworks going off.
I think I may have stayed out just a tad longer that I had planned to. I can
remember there being talk of a train and all of a sudden it was far-too-late
o’clock and the guard on the train was waking me up and telling me we were at
Charing Cross. Charing Cross! The
journey home was spent in the company of two rather nice young ladies (who
had legs all the way up to their bums) who were even more drunk than I
was. They blamed prosecco. I kept up a running commentary of my movements on
Facebook; it seemed to amuse the world. I was
glad to get home; it was a shame it was about seven hours later than planned.
I say “about”; in all honesty I have no idea what time I got home. It
was all rather vague. I woke
before 6am feeling remarkably well; even if my innards were making odd
noises. As they gurgled I pootled about on the Internet. There seemed to be
very few piccies from people at fireworks events last night. Did no one do
fireworks? I put together a Facebook event for the next astro club meeting, and tried to chivvy up a few more speakers
for next year. I then started advertising the next astro
club meeting but hit a snag. One of the websites that no one ever reads (Total Ashford) has gone west, but
I got free adverts in other websites that no one ever reads. I
shall plug the club in the Facebook groups nearer the time. As I pootled
both fruits of my loin phoned to tell me off. "er indoors TM" got up some
four hours after I had. I *hate* this insomnia. I have no trouble
nodding off at the most inopportune times (like when on the train home)
but when I *want* to sleep (like when in bed at 5am) I am wide
awake. Normally
on a Sunday we’d be off on a planned walk somewhere but with the possibility
of mum being discharged from hospital today we’d kept our options open. As it
turned out mum wasn’t coming home and others were visiting her today, so we
thought a walk up the canal at Hythe might be a good idea. We put
the lead onto a rather over-excited little dog and drove down to West Hythe.
I’d had a look on the geo-map and had found a series of six geocaches along
the canal with one or two others on the way. We arrived to find the car park
was full. We parked on the edge of the car park; no one gave us a parking
ticket. We had
a rather good walk along the canal. "Furry Face TM"
had a good run; we walked slower and found half a dozen caches. I took a few photos whilst we walked.
Once home I posted them on-line and "er
indoors TM" did up the last of the pumpkin soup as a late
lunch. I then slobbed in front of the telly for
several hours. I
think I might still be drunk… |
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7
November 2016 (Monday) - Clever Dog !! On the
one day that I didn’t need to be up and I’d actually managed to stay asleep, "er indoors TM" had forgotten to turn
her alarm off. Over
brekkie I watched the second episode of “The Young Pope”; an odd show.
I wonder where it is going? "Daddy’s
Little Angel TM" phoned – did I fancy a dog walk? We went
through the back streets to the far end of the park where "Stormageddon
- Bringer of Destruction TM" disgraced himself by sitting
in puddles. As we walked we met OrangeHead who blanked us. Her Chunky Little
Friend was civil, but I got the impression that OrangeHead wasn’t pleased
about that. We
came home, and after a quick episode of “Paw Patrol” "Daddy’s
Little Angel TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM" went their way, and we drove round to
Matalan where again I failed to get any trousers anywhere near big enough for
me. We
then went on to Hastings to collect my daddy, and then on to the Royal Sussex
County Hospital in Brighton to see my mummy. She’s now ten days post heart
surgery and looking a lot better than she had been. There’s talk of her
coming home later in the week. We
stayed for a couple of hours, then fought our way back home through the
rush-hour traffic. "er indoors TM"
then went bowling whilst I caught up with some of the stuff the SkyPlus box had recorded for me. The second of last
week’s episode of “Game of Thrones” was good, and the last episode of
the current season of “Poldark” was excellent. That Ross Poldark is
quite the beast. I then
had a look at this week’s instalment on dog psychology. This week we are
looking at “Communicative Intentions”. Apparently it came as something
of a surprise to science to find out that dogs can actually understand what
we say to them, and that they can communicate what they want to us. Science
only determined that in the last twenty years. Presumably
science doesn’t have a pet dog? (Odd… I do!) Mind
you when science got going it found out that dogs can understand gestures
from humans far better than chimpanzees or other great apes can. Perhaps
my dog is pretending to be thick, or just being wilfully disobedient… |
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8
November 2016 (Tuesday) - Fishing Again The
last day of my little long weekend; I was wide awake cuddling my dog at 4am.
After a while I gave up trying to sleep. Over brekkie I finished this week’s
instalment of the dog psychology course. It seems that whilst dogs are
wonderful at communicating with humans, their closest relations (the
wolves) are nowhere near so good. Wolves are on a par with the great
apes. Have dogs evolved to communicate where wolves have not? Is that the
secret of their success? I don’t know, but I completed this week’s work and
scored one hundred per cent in this week’s test. I felt
rather pleased about that. I had
expected the car to be covered in ice; I was pleased to find it wasn’t. But
it was still minus one degree when I collected "My Boy TM"
at 6.30am. We went to McDonalds for McBreakfast,
and with that scoffed we arrived at Shirkoak lake
just as it was getting light. Bearing in mind our success the other week we
thought we’d have another day’s fishing. The
fishing started slowly; mind you it was *cold*. But as the day warmed
up so the fishing picked up. Both of us were kept busy for much of the day.
"My Boy TM" was only using one rod as he
maintains it is easier to keep an eye on just one rod rather than two. I was
using two rods and proved him right. There were several times when I had
rather big fish on both rods, and a couple of times when we had fish on all
three rods at the same time. We had
been intending to have a day tiddler bashing; very few tiddlers were caught.
But I lost count of how many times I needed to use the landing net. We must
have had over fifty respectable carp between us. Although the fish we were
catching weren’t huge, they were on average between two to four pounds in
weight which isn’t bad when your average catch is only a couple of ounces. (Real
fishermen weigh in pounds and ounces. Never weigh a fish in kilogrammes;
you’ll only embarrass yourself). The biggest of the day (not caught by
me) came in at nine pounds, and pulled “like a banshee on crack” (!)
The
owner of the pond came round; we chatted for a bit as his dogs tried to eat
our baits. As we
fished I took a few photos and even made a little video of Dan’s piscatorial
excellence. Ideally
we would have stayed longer, but we knew that sunset was at a quarter past
four. And by half past three it was getting rather cold. We
came home; I dropped "My Boy TM" home. He was
late for dinner (!) Once I’d unpacked my fishing gear I walked "Furry
Face TM" round the block. As we walked up Francis Road I
saw that one house had already got their Christmas decorations up. Bonfire
night was only three days ago and they are now Christmassing.
Can you believe it? With
our walk done I ran round doing the Hoovering (with a Dyson) and
managed to clout my knee against the doorframe. That *really* hurt. As
I was still seeing stars my phone rang. "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
was ranting about what a rip-off the TV license is. I told her to pay up and
shut her ratlle; I might have been a tad more
sympathetic had I not been counting into how many pieces my kneecap had just
been shattered. I
hobbled to the sofa where I sat for a while. I don’t think I’ve done any
lasting damage to the knee; it just hurts. As it throbbed I had an email. A
few days ago I re-wrote one of my wherigos for a
chap who lives in Devon. It has now gone live. I’m quite pleased
about that. Being
Tuesday the clans gathered – tonight at our house. We had a good catch-up.
And Bernie joined us. It was so good – whenever I’ve seen him recently he’s
always been in a ruch for work. It was so good to
catch up. Must
do that more often… |
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9
November 2016 (Wednesday) - Mr Trump ? "er indoors TM" woke me as she
came to bed at 1.20am, and I then lay awake from most of the rest of the
night. I dozed fitfully, but never for longer than twenty minutes. I gave up
trying to sleep and was up shortly after 5am. As I
scoffed toast I watched the documentary about a mock SAS training camp.
Whilst it was very interesting there is no way I would want to go through
that training. And they swore a lot too. This made me think; I swear too
much. Must stop that. I set
off to work through the torrential rain. Yesterday morning at the same time I
was setting up my fishing gear on a beautiful morning. What a difference a
day makes. As I
drove to work the pundits on the radio were speculating on the results of the
American Presidential elections, and just as I got to work the result was
announced. Social media then filled up with all sorts of doom and gloom. Mind
you it would have done regardless of whoever won. One candidate was alleged
to be guilty of all sorts of misdemeanours; the other was seen to be a
looney. Both got to be candidates for the most powerful position on the
planet only because they could afford it. I suppose the director of the FBI
announcing a major investigation into the conduct of one of the candidates a
week before the election has had a major bearing on the result. Mind you the
winner does seem not to mince his words – the public are often taken in by
off-the-cuff brash promises. Will
Mr Trump be as bad as everyone thinks he will be? Time will tell. It always
does. I
stopped off at Morrisons for some fruit. They had their Christmas decorations
up already. If there was any other supermarket that hadn't got their
decorations up I would have gone there instead as a protest. But I expect
they are all in full Christmas spirit. As I
shopped I saw the new "Dad's Army" film was available on
DVD. I bought a copy. Yesterday on Facebook I'd seen postings that Clive Dunn
(who played Corporal Jones) had died. I thought he'd died years ago.
He had. He died three years ago. I wonder why people were posting about his
death yesterday? I had
a rather busy day at work but an early start made for an early finish.
However an early finish means I get to Ashford for the rush-hour traffic. I
got home, collected "Furry Face TM" then drove
round to collect "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" and
then drove all the way back through the rush hour traffic. For some
inexplicable reason my dog had to meet her new puppy. And the puppy currently
resides at the far side of town. "er indoors TM" showed up “chez
puppy” and I took "Furry Face TM" for a walk
and left them to it. That
was an hour and a half ago… |
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10
November 2016 (Thursday) – Stuff Over
brekkie I looked at my Facebook feed. It was still stuffed full with all
sorts of rants about Donald Trump and the American Presidential election. Far
more so than there ever has been about any British referendum or election. I
then went through my friends list to see exactly who was posting this stuff.
I have two American Facebook-friends. Two. I counted them. They weren’t
posting much; neither were the Australian, Polish or Romanian people on the
list. It was only the British ones who were being vocal. Meanwhile
yesterday’s horrific accident in
Croydon
goes pretty much un-noticed. Why don’t people get worked up over things which
*are* something to do with them? Whilst
I had the Facebook-friends list up I went through it and removed the people I
don’t actually know. Who are Stacey Scott and Doug Yeomans anyway? I then
looked at my emails. I had a job offer. Not the one I’m
waiting for, but one which made me think. I’ve been offered a job on a cruise
liner as a guest lecturer. I’d get more money that I get now for sailing
around all sorts of exotic locations. Whilst at the locations I get to play
tourist; whilst on the high seas I get to spout to the masses on a range of
subjects. I know a thing or two about blood, snakes, astronomy, fishing… maybe
I might just consider it. I
popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and we went
for or usual short walk round the park. For once it passed off relatively
uneventfully. As we walked we passed within a few feet of a squirrel on a couple
of occasions. My dog didn’t notice the tree-rat at all. Sometimes he is not
the most observant of dogs. As we
walked the nice men from the council were working around the park. I say “nice
men from the council”; their vans all had logos for “Aspire Landscape
Management”.
I assumed this was some private company but it turns out I was right. Aspire
Landscape Management is what any other council would call the “Parks and
Gardens Department”. It is the branch of the council which does parks and
gardens. I can’t help but wonder how much time and money they wasted coming
up with the corporate name and logo. I must admit they do a *very*
good job in Viccie Park, but what does the daft
name achieve? Once
home my little dog had his brekkie, and I had a look at my printer. When I
went to print off some astro club stuff the other
day it wasn’t working. This morning there was nothing wrong with it. Odd. I
picked up the house phone; I was intending to phone Brighton Health Authority
(or whatever daft name it operates under) to have a whinge to find we
had a message on the 1571 thingy. Ruth Creedy wanted me to phone her about
Alfie. I phoned her back and suggested she phoned the vet. I then
set off to work. As I'd fiddled with my printer I
found a few astro club bank statements Woops! I
drove them round to Sarah and popped them through the letterbox then went on
to Fat Fish Tackle in Chartham; I needed a few more
bits and bobs of fishing tackle. Swivels are always useful, and I got a
couple of floats and some carp rigs and assorted stuff. As I shopped I was very conscious of a loud-mouthed
idiot who was pontificating noisily to the world in general with his opinions
on everything piscatorial as he stood at the till. He'd obviously long since
paid for his shopping but was just standing in everyone's way giving the
assembled throng the benefit of his (so-called) wisdom. He thought this lake
was good and that bait was bad, and it was clear that if he thought something
was true then it must be true. I probably spent fifteen minutes looking at
the stuff in the shop, and this twit was loudly rattling on the whole time
despite the fact clearly no one was actually listening to him. As luck would
have it he left just as I was about to pay for my stuff. As I walked to the
till one of the chaps behind the till turned to the other and said "Thank
F... he's gone". I innocently remarked to one of the assistants that
I though the loud-mouthed twit was his friend; he fell about laughing. Mind you it has been my experience that every
fishing tackle shop has one such bore. Perhaps they wait in fishing tackle
shops until the pubs open?
The
rest of the day was rather dull… |
|
11
November 2016 (Friday) - More Stuff I
slept for five hours last night. Not too shabby at all when you bear in mind
that I’d decided that if I had another night like the last few I was going to
take the day off work as sick leave. Over brekkie
I watched the third episode of “The Young Pope” which my SkyPlus box had recorded. It’s is a strange program; but
in true keeping with today’s telly the foxy blonde got her tits out in this
instalment. It is a drama about the Pope and the Catholic church, and yet the
tits come out. Why? And again in true keeping with today’s telly seventy
minutes of recording only played for just under fifty minutes by the time I’d
fast-forwarded through the adverts. I then
sparked up my lap-top and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. Facebook was alive with lamentations about the death of Leonard Cohen. I have
nothing against the chap, but I can't say I ever liked his music. I can
remember my old mate David Thornton back in the late 1970s describing his
songs as "music to slit your wrists to". A tad harsh
perhaps? I must admit I thought the chap had died years ago. Mind you I'm getting a little fed up with people
giving glowing epitaphs on social media about ex-celebrities about which they
have never previously publicly shown any interest whatsoever. Take this
example of the late Leonard Cohen. I'd not anything about him for years neither
in conversation, on social media or have I heard any of his music being
played anywhere that I can remember since my old mate David Thornton was so
dismissive of his work. And now everyone is devastated about his passing.
For all that it was rather obvious at the time, the
referendum asked a rather stupidly simplistic question. Did we want to stay
in the EU or not? Plenty of misinformation and lies were bandied about and
the leave campaign won. So the decision was made. But what *exactly*
does leaving the EU mean? Do we try to remain part of their free trade bloc?
If so that means keeping some of the EU rules? Do we just up-sticks and go? It turns out that repealing all EU legislation would
leave the UK with whole areas of law with no legislation whatsoever. No one
realized that the UK handed over much of our law-making lock stock and barrel
to Brussels and (apparently) there are whole swathes of law about
which Parliament hasn't legislated for forty years. If we get shot of all the
current laws will laws passed fifty years ago have any relevance to today's
world? We might suddenly find ourselves with absolutely no laws about
Internet usage for example... It seems that there are enough MPs ready to vote
against any kind of Brexit until a *properly* thought out Brexit
strategy can be devised. (As opposed to the unworkable nonsense that
Farage and Johnson were touting - and where are those millions of pounds that
were promised to the NHS?)
I wonder what the new lot will be like… |
|
12
November 2016 (Saturday) - Tea Party After three hours sleep I found myself wide awake at
2.30am. Rather than laying in bed I got up and
watched a little telly. Firstly a rather rubbish episode of “Game of
Thrones”. Those who get rather obsessive about the show would say that
the monumental battle of whatever-it-was is a turning point for the entire
saga. I thought it was a lot of fighting and shouting that went on for about
forty minutes too long. I then watched the first episode of the second
season of “Thunderbirds are Go”. I had no idea the second season had
started; usually my SkyPlus box finds things like
that for me. It was rather good. I went back to bed at 4am and lay awake until
finally nodding off shortly after 5am. I got another three hours sleep. I then had a little look-see on-line. The bank had
emailed me to tell me of my “enhanced on-line banking experience”. I
had half a mind to change my bank to one which wouldn’t have an “enhanced
on-line banking experience” but would have “a new website”
instead. Is anyone impressed by this nonsensical way of putting things? I then had a look on Facebook. One or two people
were posting about the death of Robert Vaughan. I quite
liked him in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”. I could have gone off tree-climbing today… I *could*
have - but my weight combined with my rather painful tennis elbow doesn’t really
lend itself to climbing. There was also the county geo-meet today but I
wasn’t feeling it today. If only I could get a little more sleep I might feel
a little more sociable. Instead I took my little dog for a walk round the
park. Fortunately we were late enough to miss the joggers. As we walked I saw
a group of other dog walkers having a minor set-to with a collarless rather
scruffy looking mutt. I got chatting with one of the walkers. He too has had
altercations with the joggers in the past. I had a vague plan to come home via the bakery, but
the rain was getting heavier so instead I came home and spent an hour or so pondering a
geo-puzzle. I have figured out who most of
the golfers are. Presumably there is some competition each has won a certain
amount of times. If I can find out which one it is that Arnold Palmer has won
once and Nick Faldo twice then I might be on to something… I need to have it sussed by Thursday – I’ve organized a little walk on which I
hope to find the cache which goes with this puzzle.
We
came home, and "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
collected her Christmas decorations which were in storage in our attic room.
I wonder how much else of hers we have up there. "er
indoors TM" ran her home, and I dozed in front of the
telly. Having been wide awake for much of the night I couldn’t keep awake for
much of the afternoon. We had
been planning to go to Rye in the evening for the bonfire parade, but the
weather was against it. In the past we’ve bonfired
in the rain, but I wasn’t feeling it tonight. In fact this is the third year
running I’ve backed out of going to Rye bonfire parade because of the bad
weather. So
while "er indoors TM"
went off to the film night I set about the mammoth pile of ironing which had
mounted up over the last week or so. It only took three hours to shift… |
|
13
November 2016 (Sunday) - Dry Hill Over
brekkie I watched yesterday’s episode of “Thunderbirds are Go”. It was
only the fifth episode of the second series; I hadn’t missed the start of the
second season by much, and I’ve now seen most of the episodes I had missed
via catch-up TV. I quite like it; there are plenty of references to the
original and to other Gerry Anderson stuff if you pay attention. There was
even a South Park
reference
which surprised me. Looking
out of the window I could see the weather was a complete turn-about on yesterday.
I think my little dog had also seen that and he knew what was coming. He
turned his nose up at his breakfast; he never eats his breakfast when he
thinks we are going out. I tried to get him to eat some more (or any of it)
but he wasn’t keen. So I gave up trying to feed a dog that wouldn’t eat and
we set off for deepest Surrey where we met Karl Tracy and Charlotte. We’d
been talking about walking the Dry Hill Hike for some time; today we got
round to it. I wouldn’t say the hill was “dry”; but it was certainly
not as wet as it might have been. A lot of the route we walked was on
bridleways and country lanes, and despite a lot of the paths being obviously
heavily used by horses, the mud was superficial at worst. As we walked we
went past some rather beautiful houses. We saw lots of horses and their
riders, a friendly robin, and we even rescued a little mouse from my dog. And
at 11am we observed a two-minute silence on a little diversion to an iron-age
fort. Geocaching-wise
we managed a clean sweep. We went along having spoken with the owner of the
series who’d felt two caches might need replacing, but found the lot. One of
the supposedly missing ones was laying out in the open in a field of crops
some seven metres from the obvious hide, but we left it where (we felt)
it was supposed to be. Mind you the walk was very “old-school”. We
walked a series of twenty caches; the same route could have had forty. It was
an excellent walk but had I organised the route I would have put more caches
on it. But then these older series are more spread out. After
seven miles walking we got back to the cars rather earlier than planned, so
we got out of muddy boots and wandered down the road to the nearby pub. We
sat in front of a roaring fire and enjoyed a pint of Harvey’s best bitter.
And then a pint of London Pride went down rather well. I was eyeing the
Harvey’s Old Ale, but with a fifty-plus miles journey home along the motorway
there is only so far one can go without a tiddle
stop. As we
pulled up so our new neighbour was coming out of next door. We chatted for a
few minutes; he seems pleasant enough. Here’s hoping. I then
hosed the mud off of my dog’s underneath and off of our boots. "er indoors TM" had been given a list
of instructions from "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" so
as she set off on her chores I sparked up my lap-top. I took a few photos as we walked; I
published those for the world to see, then settled in front of the telly. I
watched Friday’s episode of South Park; I’m now pretty sure who I thought was
supposed to be Michael Jackson is actually supposed to be Donald Trump’s
wife. I
watched another episode of Game of Thrones. It was rather good. Then
there was David Attenborough and Planet Earth II. It was very good. And
then there was something of a disappointment. “Mars” is supposed to be a documentary about the
first manned mission to Mars (in 2033) with flashbacks to current-day
footage from Space X explaining the technology. The bits from Space X were
interesting. The speculative bits were rather rubbish really. Obviously made
from dramatic effect they were somewhat lacking in any kind of scientific
basis. Even the Apollos of nearly fifty years ago didn’t have single stage
rockets going from Houston to the Moon and back. I’d
been looking forward to the show… I hope the second episode is an improvement
on the first… |
|
14
November 2016 (Monday) – Rain Both
me and "Furry Face TM" slept well last night. I
came down shortly after 7am to find him tightly curled up on the sofa. He
usually sleeps well after a good walk, and much as I do like him on the bed
he can be fidgety. Over
brekkie I had a little look-see on-line. Not much had changed overnight. Mind
you I did get a little peeved by something I read on Facebook. One of my
daughter’s friends was having a rant about how few women and
black-minority-ethnic are in positions of authority in society. Is this true?
I regularly answer to both professionally. And if it is true is this *really*
institutional bias? I can remember the days of “positive discrimination”
when people of various minorities were given various jobs on the basis of
their minority (rather than their ability to do a job). The idea
didn’t work because the people of the various minorities didn’t apply for the
jobs for which positive discrimination was being used. I pondered about
posting a little rant to this effect but decided against it. She obviously
felt strongly on the matter, and I’m sick of the pointless arguments which
the Internet generates. I then
stood on the scales and weighed myself. I’m sick of being so fat; I’m now
seventeen stone and one pound. Diet time. Mind you when I say “diet time”,
“constantly hungry time” is a more accurate description. I hate being
fat, and over the years I have tried pretty much every diet there is.
Everyone (especially those without a weight problem) has theories
about weight loss that don’t work for me. After years of trying them all, the
only way for me to lose weight is to be hungry all the time. I’ve reactivated My Fitness Pal dot com; keeping tabs on what I ate last
time helped. I
popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and we went
out to meet "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" and "Stormageddon
- Bringer of Destruction TM". We had intended to walk out
to Singleton Lake to feed the ducks but the rain put us off of that idea. We
just had a quick zoom around South Willesborough
and came home again. Once home I had intended to sort my fishing tackle; I
didn’t get of with that rucksack I found in the
shed and wanted to put all my gear back into the bag from which I’d taken it.
But again the rain put me off of the idea. So I
phoned the hospital to reschedule the upcoming CT scan of my nose (that
took about ten times longer than it needed to) and made a start on this
week’s dog psychology course. I went
to bed shortly after lunch and spent a little longer than usual nodding off.
Cold feet ! – I wonder where my hot water bottle went? Over a
bit of tea (chef select roast beef dinner – 396 calories!) I watched
an old episode of “Upstairs Downstairs” and now I’m off to the night
shift… I shall take a lot less food with me that I usually do… |
|
15
November 2016 (Tuesday) - Between the Night Shifts After
a rather busy night I was glad to get away from work this morning. I would
have liked to have gone directly home, but I had a hospital appointment. A
pre-med before the next surgical re-boring of my nose. I arrived and was seen
by the fattest nurse I ever did see. She was probably very professional, and
extremely good at her job; but all I could think of was just how huge she
was. As she took my blood pressure and stuff I could see the hoard of tins of
sugary pop in her office. As I stood on the scales I mentioned I’d started a
diet, and she had the cheek to tell me that was a good idea. My
little dog was glad to see me when I finally got home. We went straight for a
little walk around the park. For one the walk passed off without excitement,
and we came home and I took myself off to bed. Just as I was about to get to
bed I heard a sound outside. A van from “Bensons for Beds” pulled up
and started unloading, and just a few feet away from me on the other side of
the bedroom wall the nice people from “Bensons for Beds” started
building the bed they’d just delivered. They
weren’t *that* noisy. I
slept until the late afternoon; over a cuppa I had a little look-see on-line. Ten
years ago today I blogged about the extinction of the Chinese River Dolphin;
it turns out that it is just possible that some might have
survived.
here's hoping Last
night I saw nextdoor.co.uk advertised. it is
basically a way of getting in touch with the neighbours. it might be
worthwhile; it might not. I've signed up for it. I’m
off to another night shift now… |
|
16
November 2016 (Wednesday) - Bit Tired I was
glad when the day shift arrived at work this morning. I like working at
night; the work can be varied, I feel I am actually doing something
worthwhile by actively contributing to patient care when the rest of the
world sleeps, but being a lone worker is so lonely. I left work quite a while
later then I probably might have done because it was such a novelty to have someone
to talk to. I got
home just as "er indoors TM"
was leaving home. She pulled off just as I drove up. I was surprised not to
be greeted by an excited dog when I got in. "Furry Face TM"
was in his basket and was fast asleep. He looked at me (bleary-eyed)
and heaved himself up. I couldn’t disappoint him, so we went for a little
walk. We did
our standard “round the park” walk; as we went up Beaver Road my dog
picked a fight with a bus and then with a motorbike and a gang of workmen. We had
something of a surprise in the park; the nice people from “Aspire
Landscape Management” had been working on the Chinese garden. The Chinese
garden is a rather pretty secluded corner of the park. But because of its
seclusion it is an ideal place for the local drug dealers to do their thing
undisturbed. Or it has been up till now. The chaps from “Aspire Landscape
Management” have removed all the shrubbery and hedging and opened the
area up. It looks rather good. With walk
done I took myself off to bed. I set my alarm, but didn’t need to. I woke
shortly after mid day. Over some toast I watched
the last episode of the documentary about a mock SAS training
school.
I liked the show, but I must admit I never warmed to the lead instructor. He
swore too much. Having been watching him over the last few weeks has made me
conscious that I too swear too much. I then
did more of my course on dog psychology. How on Earth did
mankind’s worst enemy (wolves) become our best friend (dogs).
It turns out that there is a lot of evidence to suggest this was through a
process of natural selection in which the more sociable wolves effectively
domesticated themselves. As I
learned all sorts of things my very own domesticated wolf snored on the sofa
next to me; intermittently farting. I can’t help but wonder if dogs would
have become so popular if the early ones farted as badly as my one does. I
completed this week’s lectures and got full marks. I’m a swot! I made
myself a cup of coffee and had two hob-nobs with it. "er indoors TM" bought a packet of hob-nobs
the other day. Much as I like them, a cup of coffee and two hob-nobs is one
tenth of my daily calorie allowance. I need to go back to rich tea biscuits;
they are less than half the calories. I then
dozed off in front of the telly… |
|
17
November 2016 (Thursday) - Kings Hill I
slept well after having done two night shifts; I was licked awake by "Furry
Face TM" just after 7am. Having woken me he wagged his
tail and then went back to sleep. I wish I could have done. Over
brekkie my cousin was having a rant on Facebook about something she’d seen on the
telly.
She was incensed that potentially life-saving treatments were not available
on the NHS. I don’t know the specific details of the one shs
was so cross about, but some of these treatments not available on the NHS
don’t actually work. I can remember the outrage in the 1970s when the people
of Hastings raised thousands of pounds to send a young boy (who went on to
be best man at my wedding) to Switzerland for treatment to stop him going
blind? It didn’t work for him, and it has since been proved this treatment
was a scam and didn’t work at all. But this didn’t stop people all around the
world raising loads of money and sending children to a quack who was running
a rather cosy little racket in a very scenic mountain location. Quite
a few of the treatments not available on the NHS don’t actually work. That’s
why they aren’t available on the NHS. I
popped the lead onto my little dog and we set off to Kings Hill. We took a
little longer to get there than we might have done. There is something
fundamentally wrong with Google Navigation. Whilst it is excellent at knowing
which roads are busy and which are not at a given moment, it has no idea when
roads are closed for weeks at a time. But we weren’t *too* late in
meeting up with Gordon and Aleta. We had
a rather good walk along paths which were well marked. We did take a little
aside to our route at one point and it was there that we found the utterly
impassable footpaths. And it did rain a little heavier that I’d been
expecting. But all things considered a walk round the golf course with good
company wasn’t too bad a way to spend the morning. Geocache-wise
it was a good walk; we found all our targets. We had a minor hiccup with the
field puzzle; had we listened to what we’d been told and walked the route
backwards things might have been a lot easier for us. After
two hours we found ourselves back at the car. I was amazed at how few photos I’d actually taken
today. We said our goodbyes, and it wasn’t long before we were home. Once I’d
hosed the mud off of my dog I popped up to the corner shop where I rescued
the nice people who run the shop from a drunk. He was getting rather aggressive
because they didn’t sell “Texan” bars. I told him they’d sold out, and
he seemed happy and staggered off. He seemed to be oblivious to the fact that
Nestle stopped making them thirty years ago. I
scoffed my sandwich whilst watching an episode of “Game of Thrones”.
As I watched it my wet dog snuggled up to me. He burped a few times before
falling asleep. I then spent a couple of hours doing on-line corporate
inductions for my new job at Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells Health Authority
(did I mention I got the job I applied for?). It turned out I wasted
that time as my computer didn’t save the work I’d done. Oh well… do it again. "er indoors TM" came home
early and boiled up a rather good bit of steak for dinner. Probably a few too
many calories, but having decided to cut out the extraneous rubbish I so
often shove down my neck gave me a few calories to spare in my allowance. This
calorie counting amazes me. I walked off less calories in the morning’s walk
than I would get from four hob-nob biccies… |
|
18
November 2016 (Friday) - CT Scan, Downe House I
slept quite well last night. So did my little dog who spent the night in his
basket. He seems to spend the night in his basket after we’ve been out for a
longer walk. Perhaps he’s getting old? Over
brekkie (coffee, toast and jam, 297 calories, 15% of the day’s allowance)
I had a look-see on-line. I had emails for the astro
club advertising the Thursford Christmas
Spectacular, from GPS tracking offering us the ability to track all our
vehicles with GPS devices, and one from Gerald Yusuf who wanted to book accommodation
in January. Somehow the email address has been picked up by a spambot. I then
drove out to Maidstone; I had an appointment with the human resources people
at the hospital there. All sorts of paperwork to sort out before I can take
up my new position with them. I then
went to the local hospital for a CT scan of my sinuses. Now to wait for an
appointment to get the operation done. Mind you I can see this not happening.
The specialist assured me it would be done as a day case; now they are
talking about having to stay in hospital overnight. And they want me to take
two weeks off work after the operation. That won’t happen with the new job on
the horizon. And bearing in mind the polyps grew back last time I am
beginning to question the logic of having it done again. I came
home. As I pulled up I could hear my dog barking. He doesn’t bark excessively
when I’m about the house or in the garden; I’m pretty sure he recognises my
car. I took him round the park where he nearly caught a squirrel. Had he kept
quiet he would have caught it, but he rather spoiled his chances by barking
at the poor creature. I then
organised a little geo-walk for next
week,
then had a cuppa whilst watching a bit of telly. I watched last night’s
episode of “The Young Pope”. An odd show – I always thought Popes were
supposed to be religious. Jimbo arrived; we went to
the gorge where we met Steve, Sarah and Stevey.
After a rather good bit of dinner we slowly made our way to Downe House (sixty miles away) where the astro club was staging an observing evening for the
paying punters. They’d all paid thirty quid a head and it was rather cloudy.
But after an hour’s cloudgazing we gave them one or
two PowerPoint shows. It was
a rather good evening… for the punters. Much as I didn’t dislike the evening
I don’t think I really contributed much… |
|
19
November 2016 (Saturday) - Off to Work I hadn't been asleep long when my dog jumped on the
bed and started walking all over me. That did it for the night's sleep. I
dozed on and off; finally giving up trying to sleep shortly before 5.30am. Not much had happened on-line overnight (which was
probably just as well) so I took the opportunity to get a little bit ahead
with the dog psychology course. Today I learned all sorts of things about how
dogs actually do understand hundreds of words, and the games you can play
with your own dog to prove this claim. As I learned, my very own test subject
was snuggling up to me in the hope of getting toast. He is not the ideal test
subject as I am convinced he understands me perfectly but often chooses to
ignore me. I've shown this by the fact that when I call him when he's
misbehaving he will often carry on what he is doing, but his tail will wag on
hearing his name. I wonder if I can devise any more experiments to prove his
recalcitrance.
Surely the legal questions of leaving the EU should
have been sorted out *before* the decision was even considered?
The weather is supposed to get worse overnight… |
|
20
November 2016 (Sunday) - Working Again I slept surprisingly well last night; waking shortly
before the alarm. Mind you I don't like getting up whilst it is still dark
outside. I was surprised to find my little dog had spent the night in his
basket; mind you, much as I like having him with me upstairs I'm slowly realising that a lot of my restless nights are due to *his*
restlessness.
There was then talk of how religious fervour is sweeping the UK gypsy and travelling folk communities. One traveller interviewed was rather vocal
about how praising Jesus is far better than stealing and fighting. (And
they wonder where these stereotypes come from...)
I got to work and braved the weather as I ran from
the car park to the door. Once in I dried off and did my thing. I didn't
really mind being at work today as the weather outside was so bad.
Mind you I stayed awake, which was a result… |
|
21
November 2016 (Monday) - Weight Loss One of the most obvious things about me is that I’m
a fat bloke. I hate it. I’ve been fat pretty much all my life, and have
always been jealous of those who can neck the pies without a second thought.
Periodically I try to do something about it. Over brekkie I had a weigh-in.
I’ve been on a diet for a week, and I’ve lost half a stone. This weight loss
thing is *really* easy; you just don’t eat. I’ve been constantly
hungry for a week, and I’ve lost weight. Simples. I find that making a written note of what I eat on myfitnesspal dot com helps. It knows how many calories I can have per day, and says how
many calories there are in what I’m eating. And because I am really anal
about keeping the food diary it makes me realise
just how many calories there are in bars of chocolate and bags of crisps and
stuff. And so I stop eating them. The flip side is that I am constantly hungry. So
much so that it hurts. Mind you this is probably why I am so fat; if I am not
stuffed to the point of being bloated I am hungry. I’m trying to convince
myself that the feeling of hunger is actually the feeling of weight loss.
Between 2011 and 2013 I lost nearly six stones by being constantly hungry for
two years. Those who don’t have a weight problem tell me this
is a bad way to lose weight. They are probably right but over the years I’ve tried
every weight loss plan imaginable. None of them work for me. Being hungry all
the time does. Over brekkie (toast and coffee, 297 calories)
I checked my emails. StatCounter had its weekly
report on who had been looking at my other blog. I am legally required to
provide evidence of how I keep myself up to date in professional matters so I
write a little blog about work-related stuff. Other people have folders of
random papers; for me a blog works. You can see the thing here (but be warned –
it is dull). It never fails to amaze me just how many people read
that blog. It is hardly riveting. Mind you neither is this, but seventy-eight people
tuned in yesterday. Seventy-eight !!! I then had a look on Facebook. I have an invite to
go tree-climbing in a few weeks’ time. Much as I quite like clambering, my
weight (coupled with a dodgy right elbow) doesn’t make it easy.
Perhaps by then there will be substantially less of me to heave up a tree. Not much else of note had been posted overnight. Having
just worked all weekend meant I now have a couple of days off. The plan for
today had been a day’s fishing, but yesterday’s storm had made everywhere
waterlogged, and a second instalment of the storm was forecast for mid-day,
so fishing got postponed until another time. Instead
I drove round to collect my angling buddy, and me and "My Boy TM"
went for a little drive. First of all we had a look round “World of Water”
to get some ideas for garden pond-type stuff. And whilst we were there we
popped into Lilly’s Café for a spot of brekkie. I have this theory that if I
occasionally shove in a load of calories it fools my metabolism. Lilly’s Café
is a rather scary-looking place, but the fry-up was good. Nine hundred
calories good. From
here we drove down to Hastings to see my mum. She’s looking better after her
recent heart surgery. We stayed there for a couple of hours; sorting out her new
phone whilst we were there. Her phone isn’t difficult to work; she just seems
to be determined not to be able to work it. The
plan was to come home via the Koi shop in Guestling
but the place doesn’t open on Mondays, so we drove past it. We stopped off at
Tesco. "My Boy TM" got the makings of dinner; I
got the Doctor Who DVD “The Power of the Daleks”; first broadcast
fifty years ago the episodes have long since been lost, but they’ve
re-created it in animation form. I took
the first fruit of my loin home and then walked "Furry Face TM"
round the park. The heavy rain of earlier had abated, and the sun was out as
we walked. Our walk was rather uneventful; it has been like that for the last
few walks. Probably for the best. Once
home my dog made short work of the treat I’d bought him in Tesco and I put on
my new DVD. I watched four episodes before I had t
go out. First of all to Steve and Sarah’s to shift a fridge, a dishwasher and
a washing machine. And then to collect "Daddy’s Little Angel TM",
drive her half way across town to collect a disassembled bunk bed and take
the stuff back to her flat. By the
time I got to watch “Game of Thrones” over some tea I was worn out… |
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22
November 2016 (Tuesday) - A Walk, Watching Telly... I woke
in pain this morning; I think I overdid the furniture moving last night and
my elbow was *really* hurting. Over
brekkie I watched last week’s episode of “South Park”. Whilst I quite
liked it I got the distinct impression that I had no real idea of what was
going on. I then struggled with my phone for a while. Last night it developed
a bug in that the wi-fi would not turn on. After a lot of struggling with it
I tried telling it not to scan for networks and it started working again. I then
checked emails. I had two for the astro club; one
was an advert to improve our Google rankings, one was an advert for improving
our organic audience development strategy. I’ve now removed the email link
from the club’s website and put a picture of the email address there instead.
If people want to contact the club they can read words in the picture.
Hopefully spambots can’t read. I also
had a message from one of my loyal readers recommending the “alternate day
fasting” diet in which you eat normally on one day and seriously restrict
what you eat on the next. It may well be worth a try. I
popped the lead onto my dog and we went out. We’d arranged to meet friends
for a little geocaching session not far from Bessel’s Green; Google’s sat-naving probably took us about twenty miles out of our way
to get there. But for various reasons everyone else was delayed and we were
actually first to get to the meeting point. It wasn’t long before we were all
together, and four of us (and two dogs) set off on a rather damp walk.
Bearing in mind how dry this year has been, it was rather odd to be walking
along muddy and squelchy paths today. But we had a good walk. We were
intrigued by one metal stile which had been comprehensively destroyed (how
did that happen?) and we were amazed to find a full bottle of gin in the
undergrowth. Hunting for a geocache; found a bottle of gin. How many people
can say that has happened to them? I took a few photos whilst we walked. It
was a rather pretty walk; it was only a shame the day wasn’t brighter. We
walked for two hours; billed as a walk of two miles, “Hannah” measured
it at three and a third miles. I’m of the opinion that my sat-nav over-estimates walking distances. Geocache-wise
it was a good walk. There was a range of hides; some trickier than others. It
would be an ideal route to take someone new to the hobby on to show them what
sort of things to look out for. But I wouldn’t recommend it to the
inexperienced; there were some rather difficult ones there. Personally I
would have upped the difficulty setting on many of the caches (but that is
just me). Some were works of genius, but as is so often the case, the
cleverer the hide the more fragile it becomes. We got
back to the cars just as the rain started. We said our goodbyes and came
home. I came home to find "er indoors TM"
stashing meat into the freezer. She’s taken to ordering meat in bulk. It is *really*
good stuff and it is really cheap too. And
with meat stashed "er indoors TM"
went back to work. Me and my dog settled in front of the telly for the
afternoon. His snoring kept me awake. Firstly through an episode of “Thunderbirds
Are Go” which was rather good, then through another episode of “Game
of Thrones”. I then voomed round with the
hoover and watched Sunday’s episode of “Planet Earth II” over a cup of
coffee. I must admit this episode was a disappointment. The first one was
about obscure islands and the second one about mountains. I’ve not seen many
wildlife programs set in these locations. But this third episode was set in
the jungles; I’ve seen several programs about jungles. My
phone pinged. A month ago I ordered some new trousers from eBay. The ones
which were sent were the wrong waist and leg size so I sent them back. I’ve
finally got a refund, but no refund for my postage costs for returning the
trousers. Time for negative feedback… that usually elicits a response. Being
Tuesday the clans gathered. Today in Romney Road. Insults were bandied (as
they often are) and then we watched the Christmas episode of “The
Flash” – last Christmas’s episode. We are a tad behind with the show… |
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23
November 2016 (Wednesday) - Broken Fence My
CPAP machine woke me at 4am. It was blowing at storm force 10. I turned it
off, went for a tiddle and came back to bed. Having
turned it off had reset it and it then gently helped me breathe until "er indoors TM"’s alarm went off at
7.30am. I
checked out the Internet over brekkie. Not much had changed overnight really.
Mind you I did have an email from the astro club
offering to help us revamp the club’s website to maximise its earning
potential (for a price). Hopefully now I’ve tweaked the email links
this spamming might abate a little. I then
took "Furry Face TM" for a little walk round the
park. There was a minor incident with a cyclist; dogs don’t understand cycle
paths. And we met one of the dog walkers we often see. She knows Fudge by
name, and commented that he always seems to be a happy dog. I hope he is. The
plan was to do some pootling in the garden before the forecast rain started,
but I had a minor shock in the garden. Storm Angus (which hit last weekend)
had taken out one of the fence panels. It was one which needed replacing;
I’ve actually got its replacement ready to put in place. But there will be a
little digging and landscaping involved. If any of my loyal readers are
available on Friday morning for an hour’s messing about… I
rooted about in the shed and found some bits and bobs for fence-fixing, but
whilst fence-fixing is fun with company it is dull on your own. So I came
back inside to find the central heating was still on. I am forever adjusting
the timer so it turns off shortly before "er
indoors TM" goes to work. How does it switch back? I then
completed the sixth week of the dog psychology course. Today we touched on
dingoes – the feral descendants of once-domesticated dogs. I got full marks
in the end of week quiz; I was rather pleased about that. A spot
of lunch over an episode of “Game of Thrones”, then I took myself off
to bed for the afternoon. I have no trouble nodding off at any time, but
today I had cold feet. I can’t find my hot water bottle anywhere. I shall
have to get one in Morrisons on my way to work later… Off to
the night shift… |
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24
November 2016 (Thursday) - Dull Day I did
my bit at work and came home. As I drove I had the radio on. Yesterday the
Chancellor of the Exchequer made his autumn budget statement, and this
morning he was interviewed live on the radio. He was
tackled about the cost of Brexit. Now that the
decision to leave the European Union has been priced up, far from making
massive savings the country is fifty-nine billion pounds worse off. Did
the politicians promising savings make mistakes, did they get their figures
wrong, or did they just say shit was sugar to get their way? If I'd voted out
because of the promised savings I'd be a bit miffed right now. Or is it that
those who've come up with the figures are engaging in mischief-making? (as
has been alleged) Either
way I'm fast coming to the conclusion that politics is too important to be
left to the politicians who just treat it all as a way of scoring petty
points against each other. Once
home I saw "er indoors TM"
for a few seconds, then took "Furry Face TM"
round the park for a walk. As we went he managed to run under the front wheel
of a passing bicycle. He came out unscathed, as did the bicycle. I couldn’t
see what all the fuss was about. He then played nicely with several other
dogs, but ten disgraced himself by making a nuisance of himself around Orangehead just as she was picking up her dog’s “deposits”. I then
sparked up my lap-top for a quick look on-line. Yesterday I finished Week Six
of my dog psychology course; I had an email congratulating me on completing
Week Four, and with little else of note going on I took myself off to bed for
the rest of the day. A spot
of late lunch over “Upstairs Downstairs” and I’m off to another night
shift… The day between the night shifts is often dull… |
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25
November 2016 (Friday) - Bit Tired On Tuesday
I went for a little geo-stroll with some friends. For a week or so before
we'd been tearing our hair out about a rather tricky geo-puzzle. From the
position of the icon on the map we thought we might be passing near it, but
we couldn't solve the puzzle. I
posted some photos of our walk on Tuesday, and last night whilst at work I
got a message that the chap who'd set that puzzle cache had seen my photos,
and that we'd walked right past it. In fact, I'd taken one of my photos
whilst almost standing on the thing. That's
what I like about geocaching; you have no idea that the things are there. Also
whilst I worked there was mention on the radio about the fascination that the
British public have with Nazi Germany. Did you know there are people who
collect spoons made by the third Reich? You can buy books about the subject on
Amazon. I came
home, and it wasn’t long before "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM"
and Sam arrived to help me with the broken fence panel. "Stormageddon
- Bringer of Destruction TM" caused mayhem by nearly
falling in the garden pond, but after a little messing about we get the new
fence panel in place. I then walked home with them; it gave "Furry
Face TM" a walk. And it gave me some company. Much as I
like the time off that goes with the night shifts, doing the night shifts can
be rather lonely. As we
walked home I couldn’t believe the queues of traffic waiting to get into the
designer outlet village. It is probably one of the most popular shopping
destinations in the South East; I think the place is rather over-rated. But
that didn’t stop the traffic queuing in all directions to get there. And then
I went to bed for a bit… Four hours later I got up and over a late brekkie I
watched last night’s episode of “The Young Pope”. I’m still not
entirely sure what is going on, and for a program about the Catholic Church
it has far too many tits. But it makes for entertaining viewing. A
quick McDonalds (too many calories) then it was time for this month’s astro club. Attendance was noticeably down this time.
Possibly due to the talk – personally I was fascinated by the lecture on
gravitational waves, but I can see that some people mind find if off-putting.
For myself I find the attitude of one of our members somewhat off-putting.
Having disagreed with her on a matter of some triviality some years ago she
now makes a point of blanking me whenever she sees me, and has ordered her
husband to do the same. Several people have commented on this. It is getting
rather tiresome now… |
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26
November 2016 (Saturday) – Lingfield After
two night shifts I slept like a log. I had a vague recollection of being
trampled by my dog in the small hours but when I got up we was fast asleep on
the sofa. Over brekkie I watched an episode of one of my favourite shows - “Upstairs
Downstairs” - on the ITV encore channel. In today’s episode her ladyship
was having it away with a young airman. The young airman went on to get shot
down – a judgment perhaps? I then had a little look on Wikipedia. It turns
out that many of the actors who were in “Upstairs Downstairs” acted in
very little else. Mind you this morning’s episode was rather different to
many I watch. Usually I watch it in the afternoons, and at that time of day
the adverts are about suffering animals and children. It made a pleasant
change not having depressing adverts. With "er indoors TM" off to the convocation
of candlemongers in Windsor I had been left to my
own devices today. So I popped the lead on "Furry Face TM"
and we drove up to Leybourne where we’d agreed to
meet Tracey and Karl. Having arrived a few minutes early I checked the
geo-map to find I’d parked not sixty yards from a geocache, so me and my dog
made a crafty find whilst we were waiting. Tracey
and Karl soon arrived and we set off for Lingfield in Surrey where we’d
planned to wander round the Lingfield Loop series of geocaches. We parked up
to find the car park ticket machine was broken (what a shame!) and we
set off on our stroll. It was a rather cold morning; several of the puddles
we found were covered in ice, and it was rather foggy too. We
walked past the village jail where the last resident was a poacher (over a
hundred years ago). We saw pheasants and hawks. We saw some birds which
we couldn’t decide if they were yellowhammers or goldfinches. We took the
wrong bridge. We found a very odd arrangement of military pill boxes – whilst
now derelict they had obviously been arranged to have overlapping fields of
fire. What on Earth had they been set up to defend? Geocache-wise
it was a good walk. The caches were not too far apart and were (mostly)
straightforward finds. We logged a “did not find” on one; we thought
it had gone missing. Billed as a walk of six miles “Hannah” measured
it as seven and a half. And I took a few
photos
as we walked. We
finished walking just as it was getting cold. Rather than doing the nearby
Wherigo we went to the Greyhound for a crafty half. The Greyhound is an odd
pub. It looked rather posh from the outside. On the inside it was full of
assorted thugs shouting at two TV screens. Interestingly the two TV screens
were tuned to different channels and were showing different sporting events.
But the thugs didn’t seem bothered, and they were civil enough as well. My
little dog slept most of the way home (when he wasn’t farting). Once
home I drove round the block twice trying to find somewhere to park. There
were no spaces to be had; eventually I found a space in Francis Road (three
streets away). I had hoped to park closer to home so I could load
up my fishing gear, but that wasn’t going to happen this evening. Ironically
"er indoors TM" came
home twenty minutes after me and said there were loads of parking spaces
outside. After
a rather good bit of dinner "er indoors TM"
went off to the Saturday film night and as my dog snored I settled in front
of the telly. I might
have an early night… |
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27
November 2016 (Sunday) - Fishing in the Cold After a
night of rather vivid and disturbing dreams I was rather grateful when "er indoors TM"s alarm went off. I was
slightly less grateful that it was 5.30am though. She’d arranged to go on a
day trip to Bruges. I could have gone. I would have liked to have been to
Bruges, but to be honest the coach trip there and back was somewhat
off-putting. Endless hours on a coach drives me mad, so I’d decided not to
go. Also I’d been under the misapprehension that it was a girlie thing… I wish
I had signed up for it now. I
drove her up to the pick-up point then drove round to collect "My Boy
TM" and we went fishing. We got to Shirkoak
lake ten minutes after the gate was supposed to be unlocked (which was
only ten minutes before the gate was actually unlocked). We set
up just as dawn was breaking, and were soon fishing. Fishing was rather slow
today. And cold. After an hour or so a car pulled up in the car park and a
chap got out. He slowly wandered round the pond, he chatted with us as he
came past. He tried to impress us by pretending to be looking for where he
thought the carp were lurking. If he was really as keen on fishing as he
would have had us believe, then he would have been at the lake an hour
earlier than he was. Shortly
after that another pair arrived. They had a rather large trolley on which
they carried all of their gear and they made great show of setting up their
camp. It was fun to watch them; one chap in bright yellow Hi-Vis jacket had
clearly never been fishing before as his mate was having to do everything for
him and to constantly shout instructions. However this mate seemed to be
spending a lot of his time making endless cups of tea. We could hear the
whistle of the boiling kettle going off every five minutes. I took a few photos whilst we fished.
Today was probably the quietest fishing session we’ve had all year. And it
was COLD. Despite this we had a rather good time; we watched a kingfisher
catching tiddlers and we saw a deer in the next field. But it was a shame
that rain stopped play about an hour earlier than we’d intended to pack up. As we
drove home the rain stopped. I got to walk "Furry Face TM"
round the park before it got dark. And once home I had a shower and finally
started to get warm. Despite the cold of today I’d caught the sun and I sat
in front of the telly with hands and feet like blocks of ice but with a
glowing face. I
watched two episodes of “Game of Thrones” and an old episode of “Gladiators”.
I’m hoping to get the David Attenborough planet Earth documentary watched and
the National Geographic program about Mars watched before "er indoors TM" gets home. Wonder
if she got me a pressie… |
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28
November 2016 (Monday) - A Decision I
didn’t sleep that well last night, and got up well before the alarm was due
to go off. As brekkie cooked I stood on the scales – I’ve lost another five
pounds in weight. I’m going to investigate this “fast days” diet but
in the meantime hunger is doing the trick. It is a shame that hungry hurts
though. As I
scoffed my toast I watched Saturday’s episode of “Thunderbirds are Go”;
although it is clearly a children’s program I quite like it. As I watched it
my little dog came and sat with me. I quite like that too. As I
drove to work the radio was spouting its usual drivel but I wasn't really
listening. I'd got my letter of resignation with me and I was still uncertain
as to whether or not to hand it in. As I walked through the door of Morrisons
I saw something which made my mind up for me. I have
all sorts of personal reasons for wanting to leave my current employer. Some
rather petty and trivial, others not so. But the local newspapers were
carrying the story about the review of hospital
services in East Kent. The plan is... well, I won't go into details but the
bottom line is that (in my opinion) if I don't jump ship I will either
be left high and dry, or be transferred to Margate within a couple of years.
So bearing in mind the hospital up the road in Maidstone is offering a
recruitment incentive and Margate isn't the easiest of places to get to, I
gave the boss my letter. I
start my new job eighteen miles up the motorway in eight weeks’ time. I
wonder what the future holds. If the past is anything to go by it will be
tears and smiles. Admittedly usually more smiles than tears, but time will
tell. It
always does. |
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29
November 2016 (Tuesday) - Introducing Treacle I
slept better last night. I had been undecided about changing jobs for a while
and the uncertainty had been preying on my mind. Now the decision is made and
I have a start date I feel a little more settled. Mind
you I was still awake long before I needed to be awake this morning. Over
brekkie I watched an episode of “Derek” then had a look-see on the
Internet. I’d received a friend request on Facebook overnight. From Hellene Corneil. I wonder who Hellene Corneil
is. Apparently she lives in London but is originally from France. From what I
can work out we have no friends or interests in common. I wonder why she’s
sent me a friend request. Perhaps she fancies me. Understandable, but she’s
in for a disappointment. I also saw that the Crystal Maze is to return to the
telly. I then
checked my emails to see that (yet again) Amazon was trying to sell me
that which I’d already bought from them. I
spent a few minutes scraping the ice from my car then set off to work. It was
cold today – the dashboard thermometer in my car read minus six degrees. The
pundits on the radio were spewing their usual drivel but one article made me
listen. The auction house Sotheby’s is selling an original musical manuscript
written by Beethoven. But a musical expert from Manchester University claimed it was a fake. He listed all sorts
of reasons why it was a fake. The chap from Sotheby’s insisted it was genuine
and claimed to have a team of experts who would vouch for its veracity. He
made great show of the fact that they hadn’t asked the bloke from Manchester
University to verify the thing; the implication being that this chap didn’t
know the difference between his own arse and a hole in the ground. Said
Mancunian then pointed out more problems with the manuscript, and it was at
this point that the chap from Sotheby’s told us all that the so-called
Beethoven expert hadn’t actually seen the manuscript in question. Unfortunately
the radio presenters stepped in at this point and moved on to the next
article. I thought they were going to have a fight. I did
my bit at work, and came home through the cold. I ran "Furry Face TM"
round the lock, then a little later we went out to
meet "er indoors TM"
who had just collected the latest addition to our family. “Treacle”
is a little (mostly) black ball of fluff; the result of an unplanned
meeting of a pug and a cocker spaniel. Fudge seems quite interested in her;
she seems rather unsettled. The evening has been rather fraught… I
never wanted a dog. I’ve now got two… |
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30
November 2016 (Wednesday) - More Puppy Stuff Fudge woke
me with his fidgeting shortly before the alarm was due to go off this
morning. I went downstairs to find "er
indoors TM" had spent the night on the sofa with the
puppy. She seems to be a rather delicate little blossom at times (the
puppy, not "er indoors TM").
When me and my dog came down and woke them they both went up to bed. I
thought the idea of "er indoors TM"
spending the night on the sofa was so that the puppy didn’t get the idea of
sleeping upstairs, but what do I know? "Furry
Face TM" helped me eat my toast as I watched another
episode of "Derek", and then I set off to work. I got to my
car and came straight back home again once I realised I had "er indoors TM"'s car keys rather than
my own. Once
I'd scraped the ice from the car I set off to work, and again the dashboard
thermometer read minus six degrees. As I
drove the pundits on the radio were spewing their usual drivel. Apparently
two high street banks aren't up to standard. Personally if I had
accounts with RBS or Barclays I'd be moving my money today. I have no idea
whether or not those two banks are good or bad, but having heard that the
Bank of England has given them the thumbs-down I wouldn't take any chances. I
wonder how many of their customers feel the same. There
was also talk about the growing extremism
across the world.
The chap on the radio said that two fifths of all Germans see all Muslims as
a threat. What a sad indictment of our world. I got
to work and we had a rather fraught day. The inspectors were in, and nerves were
frayed. They come round every five years or so and it is usual for the
inspectors to find many trivial failings. It is a commonly overlooked fact
that when I was in charge the inspectors found the fewest failings they’d
ever found. But am I bitter? Once
inspected I came home and found the baby asleep in her cage. Fudge woke her
with his excitement. I let her out of her cage and spent a couple of minutes
being licked by two dogs. Against
my better judgement I took both dogs for a walk. I say “walk”; "Furry
Face TM" walked whilst the puppy was stuffed down the
front of my jumper. We didn’t go very far at all; the baby was terrified by
every passing car. We
came home to find "er indoors TM"
was home over an hour earlier than usual. It was as well that she was home;
on getting home her puppy immediately tiddled and
pooped. She wanted the puppy; she can clear up after her. Lacey
was having tea at her other grandparents house just
round the corner this evening. We collected her and took her home. It was an outing
for the new puppy if nothing else. Sometimes she isn’t quite such a delicate
blossom… |
