1 September 2015 (Tuesday) – Rolvenden

I got up this morning and saw my dog was still fast asleep. He didn't stir at all as I scoffed my toast. Mind you it was a different story when "er indoors ^TM" got up. He makes no secret as to who is his favourite.

Having got out of his pit he sensed that today wasn't a work day; it was to be a "Fudgey Adventure" and he immediately became very over-excited and wouldn't eat his breakfast. Silly pup.

The plan for today had been to go to Bethersden to start planning out a new geo-walk that I would be setting. But overnight a series of twenty seven geocaches had appeared in the Rolvenden area. I asked on-line to see if anyone fancied a walk. Gordon did, and we met up in Rolvenden and went for a little stroll. Clearly marked footpaths, straightforward geo-finds, we had a good walk. We saw steam trains and bee hives, "Furry Face ^TM" was allowed off the lead on several occassions and (in a novel break with tradition) he was as good as gold.

Those that had set the caches had given us instructions to fetch one cache home; they'd actually put out twenty-eight caches but one was too close to an exisiting puzzle cache. We found the pot we were to retrieve. It was less than an arm's length from the puzzle cache which was not in any way disguised and was out in the open in full view. How did they miss that?

As the series had only gone out last night we wondered if we might get a First to Find or two... we got one. As we approached hide #14 (which we knew was still waiting to be found for the first time) we saw a familiar young mother with her brood. I jokingly loudly announced "I know what you are looking for" to which the children both denied looking for anything. Mother told the children that all was well, that dog was Fudge, and the children then told us where they'd already searched. No one recognises me; everyone recognises my dog...

With a little effort we got a joint First to Find here. Happy dance. But Mum and littluns had already taken the only other FTF that was still waiting.

The first cache on the series was First to Finded at quarter to eleven last night by an intrepid team who then did the walk in the dark. Missing only two of the caches they logged the last one five hours later shortly before 4am. I know I like chasing the First to Find, but I must admit that with the recent rain the paths were slippery enough in broad daylight today. Personally I'm not a fan of night caching.

With only a few hundred yards to go to the end of the walk the heavens opened. I had planned to stop off in Bethersden to start planning my new walk, but with the heavy rain we said our goodbyes and went home. With one bonus cache on the route (hidden by a "gary tardis"!) we'd amassed twenty-eight geo-finds over a four-hour (and six miles) walk. I might pop out to Bethersden tomorrow morning for a walk. We shall see...

Once home "Furry Face ^TM" had a bath. For all that he'd been good, he had been spuddling in stagnant water and he was somewhat "fragrant". And with him bathed I had a shower myself before popping to the KFC for a spot of lunch.

With a snoring dog on my lap I scoffed my KFC whilst watching last night's episode of "Dark Matter". With only one more episode to go the series is now getting rather good. Will Wheaton (of Star Trek fame) has now appeared as the evil arch-baddie. He's quite good as an evil arch-baddie.

As I watched telly "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" phoned; she was about as over-excited as my dog had been when he realised today was a "Fudgey Adventure". Good news... she's been accepted onto the waiting list for a council house in Ashford. It sounds a trivial matter; it's not. Getting onto that list takes some doing.

Being Tues the clans gathered. In Folkestone tonight where we used ChromeCast technology to watch the live video feed from the International Space Station.

We saw UFOs as well...

2 September 2015 (Wednesday) – Bethersden

Yesterday I thought I might take my dog on a little walk round the Bethersden area to see if I could start planning a geo-stroll. Events conspired against that plan, but today I woke at 6am, and couldn't get back to sleep. "Furry Face ^TM" seemed up for a walk, so we set off shortly after 7am.

We started badly; a minor altercation with a cyclist. As I was pulling out I didn't see him. When he'd finished shouting the "F" word several times I pointed out that if he will dress all in black and have no lights whatsoever, he really should use his bell or hooter more often when it's obvious that motorists can't see him. And if he's too mean to pay for a bell or hooter, then he might shout *before* it is too late .

As he struggled to find any kind of response I told him that he was in the wrong, and he needed to sort it out.

We drove off.

It didn't take long to get to Bethersden; I put on my gaiters and we set off. I had a vague idea of the route I wanted to take, and we pretty much followed that route. As we walked we met over-friendly cows and ponies, and saw sheep and rabbits. We did struggle with the paths in places though.It was pretty obvious that farmers in that part of the world really don't subscribe to the theory of marking out footpaths. For much of the way I was able to use the GPS on "Hannah" to keep me on track, but there was one point where the footpaths were utterly impassable. Fortunately the country lanes there weren't busy.

I went out hoping to be able to find hides for thirty five geocaches; I got thirty five hides along (just over) eight miles. I've now got to find an hour or so to communicate my plans to the geo-feds to see if the route is acceptable. Some areas are owned by Forestry Commission or are sites of special scientific interest, or are just no-go for geo-stuff even though they don't look any different to anywhere else.

Mind you my gaiters got a goot work-out today. I'm quite pleased with them.

I took some photos whilst we were out, and once home posted them on Facebook as I scoffed my lunch. And with lunh scoffed I took myself off to bed. I would have liked to have slept for longer, but I got a couple of hours asleep.

I'm now off to Folkestone. "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" says she will feed me before the night shift...

3 September 2015 (Thursday) - Between the Night Shifts

After a surprisingly busy night shift I listened to the radio as I drove home. Did you know that our old friend science has revised the estimate of the number of trees on the planet. The best guess is that here is three trillion trees on Earth. that's seven times as many as were in the last guess at the number.

There are those who feel the figure is a matter of indifference. It is impossible to check the accuracy of that number, but it occurs to me that someone has been paid good money to come up with it.

Perhaps that money might be better spent on the police. Apparently police in Lewisham have taken to using buses as they've not got enough cars, and police in the West Midlands take their time to get to emergencies as they've had to buy cheaper police cars with no sirens.

The criminal element must love hearing this in the news....

Once home I took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. Bearing in mind that this was the sort of time that OrangeHead and her posse were likely to be lording it round the park we went out to Frogs Island instead. Apart from Fudge feeling the need to bark at absolutely everyone he saw along the way, the walk passed off relatively uneventfully.

We stopped off at the vets as we walked. I've noticed his collar seems looser; I was wondering if the diet was working. Whilst he's not put on any weight he doesn't seem to have lost any.

I had all sorts of things planned to do after our walk; instead I went to bed and slept until mid-afternoon. Once awake I spent an hour doing geo-admin on the potential geo-walk I started preparing yesterday. That only took an hour; let's see if it gets the thumbs-up.

As I worked "My Boy ^TM" came home "quietly"; his sister had sent him here with a load of stuff to put into storage. I say "storage"; her idea of storage is my idea of a spare bedroom.

I'm now off to work a little earlier than planned; last week I released a Wherigo onto the denizens of Canterbury. Apparently it don't work on iPhones so I've offered to let a nice lady have a go on my tablet.

I hope she doesn't bite...

4 September 2015 (Friday) - Works Outing

After another busy night shift I set off to Folkestone. Littlun had a hospital appointment today and I was under orders to transport him (and hangers-on) to Ashford. I'm not quite sure what happened; I found myself in Dover. I must have missed. To save time I decided to take the short cut that I knew, and found myself on an industrial estate I've never seen before.

Fortunately sat-nav saved the day.

I eventually collected my crew and cargo and brought them all home. With a little time to spare we went for a walk round Bowens Field and the park. "Furry Face ^TM" started off in something of a shouty mood; I think that seeing everyone had rather over excited him. And then the over-excitement gave way to a more "frisky" mind-set in which he started humping every other dog he saw. I wish he wouldn't do that. He's been "done"; that was the only condition I set before we took him on.

As we walked we met our friend Ralph (a little black pug) who had a fight with Sid. Dogs do that. When dogs meet they either fight, sniff each others bums, or hump each other. It is what they do. If more dog owners could accept this, the world would be a better place.

We came home and found littlun's GodMother waiting for us. A quick cuppa than she took littlun (and hangers-on) to the hospital appointment whilst I went to bed for a while. I slept like a log until they all came home "quietly" five hours later. I got up, left them to it and took the train to Canterbury. I was a little early getting to Canterbury so I spent an hour geocaching.

There is one particular cache in Canterbury which had become something of a nemesis for me. You start off with a little walk througgh the park collecting clues which then lead you to a thicket of stinging nettles. I first visited this thicket of stinging nettles in February of last year and have been back at irregular intervals ever since. I failed to find the thing so many times...

Today was my lucky day; I found three caches (three!) where this one was supposed to be. I particularly wanted to find this one as on the thing was written one half of the co-ordinates of a nearby puzzle cache. (I'd got the other half of these co ordinates from a nearby simular cache about eighteen months ago). And so armed with bonus co ords I set off to a park in central Canterbury to find my geo-target.

There was a minor hiccup when I got to this park; the hippies were staging a hippy-festival. But I eluded them and found what i was looking for. Happy dance.

I was actually in Canterbury for a works booze-up, and so made my way to where we were supposed to be meeting. I was at the Dolphin half an hour before anyone else arrived. I got myself a pint and sat in the garden reading my Kindle app.

I would have sat indoors but the drunken yobs were a bit loud. Probably harmless; but rather loud.

Eventually everyone gathered; beer flowed, and we went off to Parrots for a rather good meal. Can't really remember much of what happened. I think we had a good time. I have a vague recollection of Shepherd Neame stout being drunk (or was that me)...

5 September 2015 (Saturday) - Another Day

I slept like a log last night, finally surfacing from my pit shortly after 8am. For me that is something of a lie-in. Mind you my little dog was still fast asleep. He eventually hauled himself out of his basket when he got the idea that there was toast to be scrounged (he didn't get any).

We could have done so much today. We could have spent the weekend at geo-camp; but it is too cold to go camping this time of year.

We could have gone to visit the geocachers at geo-camp; but Bexhill was a long way to go just to watch other people camping.

We could have gone to the Ashford beer festival, but today was just that little bit too cold to be sitting on wet grass spending a fortune to give myself a headache. I'd already spent far too much on beer last night (and got the headache) anyway.

So finding myself at something of a loose end this morning I set the washing machine on an overflowing laundry basket. As it chewed on my undercrackers I went through my letter rack. I’d not been there for a while; it took a couple of hours to clear.

There was a letter from the optician. I need to make an appointment to get my eyes checked.

The bank had written to me to give me an annual summary of the charges made on my accounts. There hadn’t been any. So they’d spent time and money to tell me that.

In a similar vein I had a letter from the dentist saying that they were under new management but it wouldn’t actually affect me in any way at all. I wonder how many other letters they’ve sent out like that? And how much that cost them?

There were several vouchers from “Go Outdoors” all of which expired last Tuesday.

There was a letter from the pet insurance people saying that Fudge’s insurance policy would carry on. It was as well that it did; otherwise it would have lapsed a month ago. Mind you it is a fiver a month more than it has been for the last year now that he weighs over ten kilograms. His diet’s not going as well as it might.

I finally got round to updating the household’s entry on the electoral register; we’d only had two reminders.

There was a reminder from the R.N.I.B. that I’d kindly increased my monthly donation to them. (Had I?)

There was a nice newsletter from the Aspinall Foundation that went straight into the bin; but not before I’d taken out the free admission ticket. They send me one of those every quarter; I use maybe one in ten of them.

Vitality Life sent me an annual policy review statement. “Vitality Life” is a somewhat ironic name as they won’t actually stump up until I croak.

The car insurance people told me that the car insurance will continue. I’m glad about that because it actually continued a few weeks ago whilst I wasn’t looking. For the next year the policy is actually a little cheaper; only £1.50 a month cheaper, but every little helps.

Both of out geocaching accounts were up for renewal…. Together they cost fifty quid, but realistically that’s not bad. Each account renewal was only twenty five quid and I spend far more than that every time I go down the pub. Bearing in mind how much I go hunting tupperware the annual fee works out at about fifty pence per week.

And I updated the astro club’s accounts. For some reason the bank has now decided only to send statements once every four months.

After a hot cross bun for lunch we took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. He usually has a walk first thing in the morning; he'd not had one today and was becoming somewhat fractious. We went down to the Romney Marsh and had a minor geo-wander. If nothing else thise geo-lark shows us somewhere different to go for a walk.

It was a good geo-walk; if somewhat overgrown in places. I think I would have enjoyed it more were my arm not quite so painful. This tennis elbow is getting to be a serious nuisance. It was also a shame that "Furry Face ^TM" had to disgrace himslef by rolling in fox poo.

Once home I showered the fox poo from my dog, and after a rather good bit of scoff "er indoors ^TM" set off to the Saturday film night. I set about the ironing whilst getting three hours worth of drivel watched from the SkyPlus box. We've now got forty six percent of the disk space free on that SkyPlus box. Can't be bad...

6 September 2015 (Sunday) - Biggin Hill

After a really good night's sleep I woke up to have my piss seriously boiled by the Ashford Herald. Apparently my street is the most violent street in Ashoford. The half-wits at the Ashford Herald have worked this out from the amount of times the police are called to a street.

The police have been called to Beaver Road twenty three times so far this year. Is that a lot? I don't know. But look at the street which is in position fourteen. Only four call outs but it only has a tenth of the amount of houses that are in Beaver Road. That makes this street proportionately twice as bad as my street. Does it really take a genius to work out that the more houses there are in a street then the more of anything will happen.

Also our road is *the* way home from all of the nightclubs to the "delightful suburbs" where the council put the "more challenging elements". (Or as my daughter in law so succintly puts it "it's the main route for piss heads".)

I have formally logged a complaint with the Ashford Herald. I bet they don't do anything about it.

On the plus side "er indoors ^TM" discovered a Christmas cake at the back of the cupboard. It went out of date in May, but I shall still scoff it.

Bearing in mind how much I whinged about my gammy elbow yesterday "er indoors ^TM" ordered me to take some Ibuprofen. Whenever I hear of Ibuprofen I'm always reminded of my old mucker Dave "Rabbit" Morley who died seven years ago. He considered himself an expert on the drug because his wife worked where they were made, but he couldn't pronounce the word Ibuprofen. He called it "Ibuferen".

I never saw him that often, but I miss Dave...

We got our gear together, rallied the troops, and set off to Biggin Hill. We'd originally planned to walk around the area last week on the Bank Holiday, but rain stopped play. A lot of people were off at geo-camp this weekend, but there were still quite a few of us raring to go for today. Ten of us and two small dogs met up just outside Biggin Hill and we walked about ten miles. We'd walked this route before; but the geocaches which had been there in the past have been replaced with new ones which gave us a reason to go back.

We quite liked today's walk; starting from a pub the walk was in two loops so we had the chance of a beer at half time as well as at the end. Beautiful scenery, excellent company; as we walked we saw horses, sheep, pigs, turkeys. There was an entertaining five minutes when "Furry Face ^TM" saw a squirrel and set off in hot pursuit. Little Charlotte clung to his lead and managed to restrain him, but it was a close-run thing.

Mind you if anyone is considering a walk round Biggin Hill I feel I should specifically mention the horses. When I first walked this geo-route I was kicked by a horse. Today one of us was nearly pushed over by a horse, one of us actually was. One of us was nearly bitten by a horse and one of us actually was. (Me)

Biggin Hill horses are evil animals.

We set out in search of about forty target geocaches. We found the lot. I must say that was quite an acheivement. Some of them were quite tricky hides, two involved arboreal antics, and in several cases the GPS co-ordinates (according to "Hannah") were out by several yards.

But iffy co-ords and teeth-happy horses notwithstanding, having started walking at 10.30am we were in the beer garden having a de-briefing pint of Jail Ale seven hours later.

I'd taken a few photos whilst we were out. Once home I put those on-line, did the secret geo-rituals on the laptop and over a rather good bit of curry watched last night's repeat of Dad's Army. After all these years they still don't like it up 'em.

As my dog snored I then checked emails. Earlier in the week I'd taken my dog for a walk round Bethersden with a view to hiding nearly forty geocaches in the area. The geo-feds had emailed me back to say all was well with my provisional route. The first stage of my plan is now complete. Stage two goes into action tomorrow. In the most part it involves visiting the cheapo-bargain shop on the way to work to see how many sandwich boxes they have at rock-bottom prices. I'm hoping they have several. At least thirty would be good.

I must remember to pop in to that shop...

7 September 2015 (Monday) - Before Work

It was only when I got up this morning that I realised that I didn't spend all day yesterday whinging about tennis elbow. Much as I don't like constantly munching drugs I thought I might just have some more of that Ibuprofen, so after brekkie I scoffed two more.

I took "Furry Face ^TM" for our morning consitutional round the park. We set off at 8am so most of the usual suspects hadn't yet shown up, which was probably for the best. We did see the two old boys who always insist on calling my dog over to feed him, but I saw them before they saw us so we were able to take a diversion to avoid them. On the one hand they mean well; on the other hand Fudge's hanging round them for scraps adds ten minutes to our walk.

And talking of scraps I had to extract a doughnut from my dog's mouth as we walked. Someone had left one laying on the pavement.

We came home, and having some spare time before work I spent a little time getting stressed with phone calls.

I had been due to have had a follow-up appointment at the hospital ten days ago. It had been cancelled and I'd had a message that it had been rescheduled for some time today. I'd tried phoning them last week to no avail. This morning I was told that the secretary dealing with my case had been on holiday and that the specialist I'd been seeing had left and gone to East Grinstead.

There is talk of fitting me in to an extra clinic some time next week.

I then phoned the mobile phone people. "Everything Everywhere" sounds good as a company name, but anyone who's actually used the EE mobile phone network would agree that "Nothing Anywhere" would be a better description. I had no signal yesterday on our Biggin Hill walk but the Vodafone signal was fine.

After a lot of messing around on an automated switchboard (which kept telling me that they were committed to excellent customer service) I finally got through to Chris who clearly couldn't care less. She told me that my contract runs till 6 May 2016 and I can either suck it up till then or buy out the remainder of the contract The fact that the phone network doesn't work (apparently) doesn't invalidate the contract.

She suggested I spoke to the technical people who suggested I took the phone to the shop in the town centre. The fact that the issue is with their network and not the phone is neither here nor there...

I then phoned the vets to arrange a booster shot for "Furry Face ^TM". Apparently despite having contacted us, the shot isn't due for a couple of weeks. I'll arrange something closer to the time.

And then I got through to the optician who arranged an appointment for next Monday morning

And so to work. I did get just a little bit cross over the news on the radio today. Whilst it is hardly going to be the end of the world, it is vaguely possible that there may be some power cuts over the next few winters. The reason: building power stations is an expensive business. Apparently old power stations are closing whilst new ones either aren't yet ready or aren't even being built. Some of the pundits were blaming policy makers for allowing the National Grid to get into such a state. Personally I can't help but feel the problem is that the policy makers have decided not to have a policy and to leave it all to market forces instead.

I stopped off at the cheapo-bargains shop and bought thirty sandwich boxes. I've ordered the camoflague tape. Once it arrives I shall get busy....

8 September 2015 (Tuesday) - Another Late Shift

A somewhat restless night. Somehow I managed to escape from the duvet and woke up shivering at 3am. Over brekkie I sparked up the lap-top and had a look at social media. I had a friend request on Facebook from Amy Sabatino (who?) She lives in Georgia and sells geocaches. Her on-line presence seems to be aimed at selling stuff. I already follow too many people I barely know on social media. I don't really need any more. And certainly not someone four thousand miles away who only exists (on-line) to sell stuff.

Mind you three people on my list have already added her. Why do people do this?

On the plus side I was asked if I would organise the Kent cachers' New Year's Day event. I was quite flattered to be asked to do that.

Once I finalise my Bethersden geo-project I shall make a start on this one. I need to sort out a circular walk of about three to four miles starting and ending at a local pub. I had a few ideas where to have this. However doing this locally is proving to be rather problematical. Everywhere I look on the map is blocked off by old caches which really should have been left to die but have been resurrected even though no one actually goes to them any more. I've asked if two such caches could be sent to tupperware heaven and been told (quite comprehensively) to get stuffed.

I took "Furry Face ^TM" round the park for a bit of a walk. After humping a Yorkie we had a little chat with a chap who was walking a terrier of some description. This chap launched into an epic tirade about how nasty the local Huskies are; pointing at what he thought was a passing Huskie. It was actually a Malamute, but I didn't have the heart to tell him though.

We came home, I settled my dog, and I set off to Folkestone to see the littlun. (And his entourage). As I drove I listened to the radio. After fifteen minutes I realised that all I could hear was "blah, blah, blah"; I had no idea what they were talking about. So I turned it off and squalled along to my frankly excellent choice in music.

I got to Folkestone, had a cup of chino, and watched littun's antics. He's not too keen to be held for too long any more. He prefers to run riot on the floor. He can now stand up without any support or help getting up. Walking can only be days away.

Whilst I was there I loaded up the car with more assorted stuff to be put into storage (i.e. my spare bedroom) and set off to Canterbury.

As I drove I again turned on the radio, and again all I could hear was "blah, blah, blah" so I again turned it off and had a little sing-song as I drove. I got to work, did my bit, and came home to find out nutty neigbour ranting at the people who run the shop over the road. He was loudly telling them (and anyone else who would listen) that he hates the English and would like someone to introduce him to the millionaire Russian oligarch who owns their shop so that he could become one of the oligarch's men.

He then staggered off (clearly very drunk) and spent the rest of the evening shouting very loudly at either his wife or the voices in his head...

9 September 2015 (Wednesday) - God Bless Her !!!!

Anyone who knows me will know that I'm rather fond of an American musical duo. Recently they formed a Supergroup with Frans Ferdinand. This morning the corners of the Internet in which I lurk were alive about their latest song. It's a wonderful *new* song (according to the gobby types who have recently discovered this sort of thing). It's the *latest* great thing to come from this musical collaboration... apparently.

To me it sounds exactly like it did when it came out on their 1982 album "Angst in my Pants" but I didn't have the heart to say anything.

As I drove to work I listened to the radio. As well as their usual hot air, the pundits were talking about how today the Queen became the longest reigning British monarch. With forty monarchs since the accession of William the First (glossing over the nasty interlude with that Cromwell chap) the average King or Queen seems to last a little over twenty years. Good old Lillibet ain't done bad.

The pundits on the radio wheeled on some proper historians to say nice things about her, and much as I always thought myself an ardent royalist these historians made me think. They seemed to believe that future historians will agree that Elizabeth II was an excellent Queen. But not for any reason of which I would have thought.

She will be of historical importance because she kept her trap shut.

She does work tirelessly and is always seen here and there doing the Royal thing. But I'd never realised that she never actually says very much of note. Future historians are probably going to refer to her as "Elizabeth the Silent"; particularly bearing in mind how outspoken her successor appears to be.

I got to work for the early shift, and did my thing. I've now been working for three consecutive working days. Doesn't happen when I'm on nights. I much prefer the night shifts for that very reason. Today was rather busy, but an early start made for an early finish.

I came home, tidied the mess that "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" had made on her visit today, and then took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. Apart from his going into the river and refusing to come back out the walk went reasonably well.

We came home; the postman had delivered my parcel. After an epic struggle with the packing tape I finally got the thing open. More of the ingredients for the series of geocaches I'm putting together.

I then had a look on social media and my piss boiled. A week or so ago I posted on the group Wherigo UK that I was getting a little fed up with spending hours creating on-line GPS games that no one plays. There have been several replies over the last week, but what really annoyed me today was people who I know live within half an hour's drive of home who were saying how much they love Wherigos. If they *really* do appreciate my efforts why have they only bothered with two out of my eighteen? And it's been two years since they did those two.

I'm going to turn this lap-top off and watch telly...

10 September 2015 (Thursday) – McDinner

After a rather restless night I got up rather earlier than I might have done. I found "Furry Face ^TM" scratching at the back door. Thinking he needed a tiddle I let him out. But knowing what he is like I went out with him. He jumped out of the door then stopped and saw I was going with him, Then he flew round the garden like a thing possessed. I'm sure if I'd not gone with him there would have been a *lot* of woofing.

He did "do his business" - eventually.

Over brekkie I found I had no drivel to watch on the SkyPlus box; yesterday evening I'd cleared a lot of it. Fortunately the TLC +1 channel was showing an old favourite. In today's episode of "Toddlers and Tiaras" there was upset as one of the judges was exposed to be a relative of one of the contestants.

With a minute or two spare I thought I might start sticking camoflage tape to the thirty-odd sandwich boxes I have ready for my ongoing geo-project. I'd spent a small fortune buying camo-tape from eBay. The stuff arrived yesterday but this morning I found it is not actually adhesive. Ho hum....

I then checked emails. A minor disaster.... The munzee I put on a bus stop by the hospital in Canterbury had been flagged as needing maintenance and I couldn't log in to munzee dot com to do anything about it. I clicked on the "forgot my password" link and it said an email had been sent. Perhaps one was; I didn't get it.

Oh well; no one does munzees anyway.

As I walked to my car I saw my nutty neighbour. He did his usual half looking at me and half looking away. I toyed with the idea of asking what tonight's shouting would be about, and I really wanted to know if his wife was actually going to stab him when he was screaming "get away from me with that knife" two nights ago.

But I thought better of the idea. Speaking to him is hard work.

Instead i just went off to work. I stopped off at Morrisons on my way. I bought some glue (£3) and a sweetie bar (£0.85) and was charged £1.97. What was that all about?

Interestingly the pundits on the radio were this morning interiewing the top dog at Morrisons who was saying that they were having to close eleven of their supermarkets because of their bad financial position.

I can't see the Canterbury branch lasting at this rate.

I got to work and did that which I could not avoid. I got a formal compliment today after my involvement in yesterday's serious emegency case. I was pleased about that. And I came home again. I do that.

Once home I met up with Jimbo and we took "Furry Face ^TM" round the park. He likes that. (both Jimbo and "Furry Face ^TM") and then having given my dog his dinner we went for some McDinner of our own. Italian-style McWotsit went down very well, as did a triple caramel McFlurry and a choc chip iced latte.

It was with something of a stomach ache that the went to the astro club's committee meeting.

I've not been quite as enthusiastic about the astro club as I might have been just lately, but after tonight's meeting I might just possibly be re-enthused. Here's hoping...

11 September 2015 (Friday) - Back to Bethersden

I slept like a log last night. However I'm very conscious that my idea of a good night's sleep isn't what everyone else would think it is. I got up shortly before 7.30am which for me was something of a lie-in. I scoffed brekkie, got my stuff (and my dog) together and set off to Bethersden. I've been planning to put out a series of geocaches in the area and today was Phase Two of the project. My plan was to do the walk I did last week, but the other way round. The idea being I might find the footpaths I missed first time round. I also hoped to suss out exact places in which to hide sandwich boxes.

As we drove down the A28 we passed the point at which my route crosses that road. I made a point of looking at the time. It took three minutes to drive from there to where I parked the car, and forty five minutes to walk back.

There was a minor disaster. A week ago when we walked the route for the first time I waypointed thirty five potential geo-hot-spots on both "Hannah" and on my phone. Within minutes of starting walking I realised I'd inadvertantly deleted all of them from my GPS unit. Oh I did swear. Mind you my phone saved the day. Again.

However using the phone to find my geo-hot-spots I was able to re-waypoint using "Hannah" and I later found that my initial co-ordinates (which were on my lap-top) were good. So I suppose I was able to double check my earlier work; which was a good thing.

As we walked "Furry Face ^TM" tried to chase a rabbit, and we caught a glimpse of a small lizard. Those things are *fast*. We also saw friendly horses and ponies and (some of our number) rolled in fox poo.

My plan to walk in reverse order worked; we found the footpath for which I was searching last time. And I found hiding places for loads of sandwich boxes. The only really down side to today's walk was that within a few hundred yards of getting back to the car my dog dived into a river then climbed out through the mud. But filthy Patagonian Tripe-Hounds notwithstanding, after four and a half hours and a shade over eight miles we were back at the car.

I'd taken a few photos as we walked. Once home I bathed those of our number who had been rolling in fox poo and then posted those photos on-line. My mum likes that sort of thing. I scoffed a quick sandwich whilst watching this week's episode of "Dominion" then started preparing all the on-line stuff for my Bethersden geo-project. It only took three hours to do.

As I worked I got a message - I'd won something.

Regular readers of this drivel may remember that a month or so ago I went to the annual national convocation of tupperware hunters. It was a really good day out, and next year we are seriously considering spending a week at the annual convocation. It will be in north Wales, and I follow the Facebook page of the people who are planning it. Earlier in the week they'd had a competition. "Why do you love geocaching?" I answered "A different dog walk every time". They decided that was the best entry and I was the winner.

I've not won anything worth more than a tenner in financial terms, but I'm really chuffed about it. Unbearably smug doesn't come close to describing me at the moment.

I scoffed a rather good bit of tea, and then spent the evening camoflaging sandwich boxes. Never a dull moment...

12 September 2015 (Saturday) – Visitors

I was up and about far earlier than I might have been today because grand-daughter Lacey was coming for the day. She arrived (with little Rolo) shortly after 7am, and whilst we both waited for "er indoors ^TM" to get up we watched "Toddlers and Tiaras". The difference in our perspectives on that show was amazing. Lacey actually took it seriously. I suppose that for the young girls it is a serious business.

And whilst we watched the two dogs played chaotically. Sometimes I worry that Rolo is so small that he will get hurt, but he seemed to hold his own with Fudge today.

"er indoors ^TM" emerged from her pit, and we drove down to Brockhill Park to walk the dogs. And to find two hidden sandwich boxes too. Lacey's trainers let in the water but she didn't seem too fussed. And after an hour's walk we came home via McDonalds for McLunch. We sat outside with the dogs, and whilst "er indoors ^TM" got the dinner we watched the McMinion letting the helium balloons fly off in the wind.

I took a few photos whilst we were out, and the girls then went off to Folkestone to visit Auntie Kat. I took myself off to bed for the afternoon and slept like a log.

I awoke to find that little Rolo had had a little potty emergency. Bless him; he's only a puppy. It didn't take long to dispose of the evidence. That will be our little secret.

I then had a quick look-see on-line. The geo-feds have checked out what I did yesterday and have given me the thumbs-up. So I shall start on Phase Three of my Bethersden project (finalising the cache web pages) when I get chance; with a view to doing Phase Four (actually hiding thirty eight sandwich boxes) when days off and decent weather co-incide. I was thinking about this coming Tuesday but the weather forecast is for heavy rain.

I must admit I'm rather grateful to the "geo-feds" for their help with what I'm working on; for all that I grumble about them sometimes, the unpaid volunteers have a thankless job really.

I'm off to the night shift now.... The last few have been very busy. I wonder how tonight will turn out.

13 September 2015 (Sunday) - A Day in Bed

Last night I had the radio on during the night shift. There was a lot of talk about the new leader of the Labour party.

No one had a good word to say for Jeremy Corbyn. He seems to be universally despised because (in a novel break with tradition) he seems to believe in what the Labour party was traditionally all about.

When I was a lad politics was rather cut and dried. Leaving aside their ability to actually acheive anything, there used to be a choice in the basic philosphy offered by the two main political parties.

On the one hand you had naked greed and on the other hand you had standing up for the underdog. However when I was a teenager Margaret Thatcher came to power. Her major achievement was to show the underdogs that naked greed was for everyone; not just for the elite.

Unfortunately at the time the Labour party was run by a bunch of half wits, nutters and cranks, and it took seventeen years of Tory rule for the Labour party to finally get rid of their tree-hugging politically correct nonsense. Unfortunately in doing so they also abandoned all policies of social decency and just pretended to be the same as the Conservatives.

And now after years of copying the Conservative party, the Labour party has finally elected a leader who seems to hark back to the ideals on which the Labour party was founded. I'm desperately hoping he's not also harking back to the tree-hugging politically correct nonsense as well.

Time will tell. It always does.

As I left work to come home this morning so the sky was a glorious pink-red colour. Usually that colour in the morning is a herald of bad weather coming later in the day. There's no denying I would rather a wet Sunday be today when I'm on nights rather than when I'm planning on doing things.

I had a bite of brekkie and had a look-see on-line. I then spend half an hour putting right the mileage on my trackable (it's a geo-thing). It had been stuffed up by a scout group from Essex. I'd like to think it wasn't deliberately malicious, but it was the sort of stuff up that would take a lot of doing.

"er indoors ^TM" took "Furry Face ^TM" for a traditional Sunday walk, and I took myself off to bed where I slept until late afternoon. They still weren't home when I got up; I'm used to "er indoors ^TM" never being home. But the house seems empty without "Furry Face ^TM".

I had more toast, then checked emails. I had a DNF reported (it's a geo-thing) so I shall check that out on my way to work. I'm off there now.

And in closing today - consider the date. When I was a lad there was a rather good sci-fi show (that didn't stand the test of time) called Space 1999. The show was futuristic; the action was centred on a base on the Moon, the Moon having been blasted out of Eath's orbit by a massive nuclear explosion. The date of that explosion: September 13th 1999. When I was a lad that seemed so far into the future. Today that date was sixteen years ago....

14 September 2015 (Monday) - Thirty Four Years Later

On my way home from work I checked out the DNF on my geocache..... A DNF is a "Did Not Find" report made on a geocache. People log one of these when they look for a cache and don't actually find it. Either people just can't find it, or it could be a warning that the thing has actually gone missing.

The supposedly missing cache had originally been hidden in a crash barrier along a little-used country lane. It was very unlikely to be found by chance by any passers-by. And the actual cache itself was squirrelled away inside a Chinese puzzle box that wasn't cheap.

Sure enough it had gone. Sandwich box, Chinese puzzle box, the lot.

The person who reported it as missing had left a rather strange message in her log: "may be missing - I know how to open these boxes - so ????" On reading this you might wonder how she knows what sort of a box it was if she didn't actually find it.

This is the second box of this type that has disappeared from this location. I'm not saying the thing has been deliberately stolen by an unscrupulous geocacher, but I am reliably informed that the last one had been.

Theft of sandwich boxes... it's all a bit sad really.

Rather than coming straight home I stopped off at the opticians where my idiot magnet seemed to be working at full power. One of the receptionists was asking me the standard questions that receptionists ask, but it was difficult for me to hear her (and for her to hear me) as some incredibly stupid woman was also being asked questions. This woman refused point blank to come to the counter; insisting that she sat down and shouted across the store. She announced that answering questions was very stressful for her because she was on benefits, and then rather aggressively wanted to know why I wasn’t (on benefits).

Eventually I got in to see the optician, and I explained that I could be on benefits if it would help. The optician didn’t actually wet herself, but it came close. Once the giggling stopped I had the air blown in my eyes, did the letters and colours thing, and was then told that my eyes have gone off about as much as would be expected since last time.

The new specs arrive in two weeks’ time. That's two hundred more quid I'd rather fritter away on beer.

I came home, popped the lead on my dog, and we went for a walk. We got as far as Bowens Field (five minutes away) and then the heavens opened. We turned round, and by the time I got home I was soaked and my dog looked more like a seal than a dog.

This rain is a nuisance. I had intended to mow the lawn today. Instead I looked at my accounts (and wished I hadn’t), fed my smalls to the washing machine, had a bag of parsnip crisps and went to bed. I woke late in the afternoon to find I was cuddling "Furry Face ^TM" as though he were a teddy bear.

I was quite content to lay there, but the strange voices in my dog's head told him to declare a red alert, and he launched into a woofing fit right by my ear. I wasn't getting back to sleep after that. Instead I got up and methodically emptied the contents of the washing basket into the washing machine.

Once "er indoors ^TM" went bowling I ironed shirts whilst watching "Star Trek: Renegades". I've been watching rather a lot of fan-made Star Trek episodes and films lately. Star Trek: Renegades is by far the worst of the lot and (quite frankly) that was up against some stiff competition. It relied too much on having famous actors and heaving blue breasts and didn't actually bear any relation to the show for which it had been named.

And in closing today I'll make the observation that today is an anniversary. Thirty four years ago I started professionally testing blood. Thirty four years.... (glossing over one particular hiccup) it's not been a bad old job really. The only drawback was that when I first started I was promised a pension after forty years. I was promised that I could retire on full pension on September 14 2021. That's not going to happen, is it?

15 September 2015 (Tuesday) - This n That

Over the last two weeks I've spent quite a lot of time (and money) working on a new series of geocaches which will lead people on a walk around Bethersden. With everything finally organised the plan was to actually hide the sandwich boxes today. But the weather forecast wasn't good, and I woke at 6am to the sound of torrential rain. For all that my walk is a pleasant one, there is one stretch where (for several hundred yards) one has a choice of walking on a ploughed field or in grass higher than my dog is tall. Either way, after last night's rain neither would be fun. And there are quite a few other places where we'd get wet and mucky. And the stiles would be slippery. The geo-feds have told me that I have first dibs on my chosen locations for three months so I decided to conceal tupperware another time, rolled over and went back to sleep.

I finally emerged from my pit shortly after 8.15am when my back hurt too much to lie in bed any more. It is a long time siince I've lain in bed long enough to get backache.

Ove brekkie I checked out cyber-space. On the last two days I've had something of a retrospective. Today "er indoors ^TM" was having one. Three years ago we went to Deal and did a wonderul GPS adventure game based on "Dungeons and Dragons". There were some photos of the day; didn't I look thin!

Dungeons and Dragons - a knight's quest. I could make a Wherigo based on that.

I also reflected on other old times; "er indoors ^TM" had found photos of our old house. The place was changed somewhat in the twenty four years since we moved out. It has been bought by a property developer and is now up for rent. Over seven hundred quid per month for a two-bed terraced house !!!

As I scoffed my toast "Furry Face ^TM" jumped up, wiggled himself into place next to me and went to sleep. I then didn't really dare move; not wanting to disturb him until he woke up. It was as well that he slept. If awake he's only have been whinging to go for our morning walk. I'd planned a walk but didn't want to do it until the rain stopped.

Eventually the rain did abate, and we went for a little walk. We set off along the back roads heading south where we spent five minutes standing by a dog poo bin watching a juggernaut getting itself wedged morwe and more into a narrow cul-de-sac. As we watched so an old woman brought her dog to the poo bin to have its dump. I pointed out that the poo was supposed to go in the bin, not just in its general vicinity but the old woman pretended to be deaf.

We carried on through Park Farm and home through Willesborough Dykes where the footpaths were covered in earthworms being eaten by slugs. I never knew slugs ate earthworms.

Having stopped off at Pets at Home (someone got a bone for being good) we came home.

I'd chosen not to go round the countryside today because it would be too wet. Today's walk was all on tarmac paths but even so "Furry Face ^TM" still came home wet and filthy. He had a quick hose-off and then he set about his bone as I had lunch whist watching theis week's episode of "The Last Ship".

Much as I quite like the show it has occurred to me that the baddies could comprehensively stuff our heroes by stopping doing all their baddying on the coast and by moving inland.

I then started making a Wherigo based on Dungeons and Dragons. After four hours of effort I had two minutes of game play programmed, and then the clans gathered in Somerset Road. Nooo-gar (not nougat) was scoffed and we watched the exploits of Captain Kirk; ably assisted by Mr Leslie. Mr Leslie is a much under-rated Star Trekker.

And once home we caught up on the episode of Bake Off from two weeks ago.

16 September 2015 (Wednesday) - A Day in Bed

This morning I woke with feet as cold as ice but with my head sweating. How does that work? Over brekkie I had a look-see on line. I found a couple of things which piqued my interest. In a month or so there will be a sing-along Rocky Horror event in Margate. With tickets only (!) fifteen quid each I'm rather tempted to go along. I wonder if I can find anyone daft enough to come along with me.

I also found out some shocking news about an ex-Star Trek actress. "Kes" (in Star Trek: Voyager") was a sweet naive cute little petal. Apparently the actress who played the role has recently been charged with indecent exposure having flashed at children; earlier this year she was charged with evading arrest, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

With heavy rain forecast for the late morning me and "Furry Face ^TM" set off promptly for our walk. We took the back streets to Singleton Lake where (for the first time ever) there was no one fishing there. The idea of walking before the rain was that we wouldn't get wet. My dog didn't hold with this theoory and he chased after the ducks until he was chest-deep in the lake.

I then restrained him from getting in the way of cyclists. I wasn't really paying attention; I should have realised who was on the bike earlier. We then walked round to Viccie Park where we met all the familiar faces. Today OrangeHead had taken it back to basics with only her Chunky Little Friend in tow; none of her posse was to be seen. Fudge had a ding-dong with Chunky Little Friend's dog, tried to have his way with a passing Scottie, and (for no apparent reason) seemed to run in terror from a rather thin labrador.

Once home "Furry Face ^TM" had his breakfast and I spent an hour programming a virtual little old lady to kick a gallant kight in the goolies before taking myself off to bed for tthe afternoon. I dozed fitfully; I gave up trying to sleep shortly after 3.30pm.

I'm off to work for the night shift now. Via Folkestone. I've been promised cannelloni for tea.

I wonder what that is.....

17 September 2015 (Thursday) - Baby Jake

I had my cannelloni for tea last night whilst visiting the Folkestonians. It was really good: I'd recommend the stuff. I then went on to work where I did my night shift.

As I worked I listened to the radio; sometimes it is interesting; sometimes piss-boiling. Great fuss was made about the new Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn. Whether or not he's going to be an effective Leader of the Opposition remains to be seen. But yesterday he was filmed refusing to sing along with the National Anthem. He probably thought he was proving some political point but it blew up in his face; he's going to sing it in future.

He then flatly refused to say whether or not he would kneel to the Queen at meetings of the Privy Council; pretending he didn't know the format of the meetings. Even though it is common knowledge that he will be expected to kneel.

A few days ago I was singing the chap's praises; now as far as I'm concerned he's fallen at the first hurdle. After less than a week in the job he's come over as a bit of a twit. Can't we just write him off as a bad move and replace him now?

With my work done I went home via the nearby Sainsburys. Shortly after midnight a new geocache had gone live there. On the one hand a cheeky little FTF brightened up an otherwise dull day. On the other hand having been placed where it is, it has effectively stuffed up hours of work on the Wherigo on which I've been working for the last few days.

Oh well... I suppose I should have reserved the space. I shall just spend a couple of hours setting the thing up in Ashford instead. After all it's not as though the Canterbury masses are clamouring to do the Wherigo I put there a couple of weks ago.

Once home I changed my undercrackers. I'd managed for quite long enough in a pair in which the elastic had gone. I then took an impatient dog to Frog's Island and back again for today's walk. Unusually for us our walk passed off without incident.

Once home, pausing only briefly to throw honey all over the kitchen floor, I had a spot of brekie then I then took myself off to bed for most of the day. I had a rather restless sleep, when the phone wasn't ringing and my dog wasn't barking, my sleep was filled with dreams (nightmares) of the BBC's children's show "Baby Jake".

"Baby Jake" is the youngest of a hippy commune which seems to be squatting in a rather un-natural windmill. My Grandson likes the program. With animation comparable to what Terry Gilliam did for Monty Python I thought it was frankly scary. "Nibbles" the rabbit looks like it is about to go for Baby Jake's throat, and the less said about the Hamsternauts the better.

According to Wikipedia the show cost nearly two million quid to produce. Two million quid? Surely it could be done cheaper?

I'm off to work for another night shift now. I might have a little geo-adventure on the way. I've seen there's another new geocache on the map *exactly* where I'd planned Thanington's Church Micro...

18 September 2015 (Friday) - Bit Tired

Last night as I worked I listened to the radio as usual. Said radio served up its usual blend of interest and drivel.

I couldn't beleive a year has passed since the Scots voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. But despite an overwhelming vote to stay, the Scottish Nationalists are still agitating for another referendum.

Don't they realise that they had their choice and was told to get knotted?

And our old friend science has detemined that the most painful place in which a bee might sting you is the nostril and went on to discover that all large mammals pee for the same length of time. Apparently all large mammals empty their bladders in twenty one seconds.

You would think science might have better things to do with its time. Unless it likes that sort of thing.

Having done my bit I was immediately seconded to chauffeur "er indoors ^TM" from the garrage to her work. She's having her brakes seen to. Apparently this is going to cost me six hundred quid.

So much for what I was going to spend it on...

Wiith chauffeuring done I took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. Bearing in mind the conclusions reached by our old friend science I watched my dog like a hawk. He'd not been out for a tiddle yet this morning so I was able to conduct a scientific experiment. I concluded that either my dog doesn't count as a large mammal, or science is talking rubbish. Squeezing out one drop of tiddle every ten yards my Patagonian Tripe-Hound still had plenty in his bladder after an hour.

We walked via the vets where I made an appointment for his booster shot for Monday morning. Today he walkled in there without a care in the world. On Monday I will need to use all my might to drag him in there. How does he know?

We came home, I went to bed. I lost count of the times "Furry Face ^TM" declared "Red Alert" and was barking at absolutely nothing at all. After a couple of hours "er indoors ^TM" asked when I would be waking up as her car was ready to be collected. So I fetched her and took her to the garage.

By one of life's myriad coincidences the garage was next to McDonalds so we had lunch together.

I came home, and didn't really feel like doing anything particularly active. For a moment I felt rather guilty and looked at thee bright sunshine outside and looked at my dog. Then in the space of about ten seconds the sky went black, the rain was torrential and the thunder started. So instead I spent a little time working on my latest Wherigo.

Six hours later I'd created about ten minutes more game play, and "er indoors ^TM" came home. A bit of tea, then catching up with episodes of Bake Off...

19 September 2015 (Saturday) - Teapot Island

I was rather later getting going than I might have been today. What with having swapped duties around (I'm accommodating like that) I've just worked four nights out of the last six. Perhaps that's why I was tired.

Over brekkie I had a look-see on-line. The rugby world cup has kicked off (does rugby kick off?) and I'm not going to dare to say a word against it. I will however ask the question that why is it acceptable that everyone else can openly sneer at any pastime I enjoy (such as hiking, saxophoning, geocaching, home brewing, playing cards, astronomising, kite-flying, camping) whilst if I say a word against organised sport, serious offence is taken?

I can distinctly remember a rather nasty incident a few years ago when a chap I thought was a good friend had been lambasting me about some sad Trekkie cards I was collecting at the time. I then mentioned something about "Mighty Morphing Queens Park Rangers" and I was told in no uncertain terms that were I not a good friend of his sister in law he would have knocked me out. (This was no joke - he was serious)

Today is also national "Talk like a Pirate Day". I've mentioned this in previous years. It is a silly game which has run its course though; even the official website has gone. The replacement's not really been updated for some time either, which is a shame.

I got dressed; putting on a pair of the new pants I'd bought in Morrisons the other day. There is something wonderful about having pants with functioning elastic. I then took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. We went round to the park; normally I avoid this place on Saturday mornings because of all the joggers. Today we were alittle later than usual and most (nearly all) of them had gone home.

My dog played nicely with some other dogs; I wish he'd do that more often. More and more these days he just ignores other dogs.

We came home, and I spent another couple of hours working on my next Wheri-project. It took that long to get a mythical beast to ask a riddle. I say "that long"; perhaps "at least that long" might be more accurate. I've not got it to work correctly in the simulator yet.

Being at something of a loose end for the day I looked on the geo-map and had a stroke of inspiration. There was a canoe-ing geo-event scheduled to end up at Teapot Island this evening so we thought we might pop in. We arrived at Teapot Island, solved a geo-puzzle, failed on a Wherigo and being three hours too early for the geo-meet we retired to the riverside pub and downed ale and watched the world go by for a while.

When the time was right we wandered over to the camp site and helped the canoeists ashore, then helped get the barbecue fire going. And we had a frankly wonderful evening just sitting and chatting as it got darker and darker.

I slept all the way home...

20 September 2015 Sunday) - Hawkinge, Vets

As is so often the way, after an ale or two I didn't sleep well last night. I was up and eating cornflakes whilst watching "South Park" at 3am in an attempt to settle my wayward stomach.

It settled (after a fashion); I went back to bed. However my sleep was marred by vivid dreams in which I had been called into work because I had recently been to London for a day's parasitology course (which I had) and my wisdom was required. In my slumbers an associate had gone bright yellow having contracted the rather rare strain of "bastard malaria".

I finally gave up with the idea of sleep shortly after 7am and watched "Toddlers and Tiaras" over toast and coffee. That settled my stomach far more than cornflakes ever did.

As I was prepping "Hannah" for the day I had a message. Yesterday we spent the evening at a geo-camping event. Nick's phone had been charging in the car as we sat chatting. This morning - disaster. Nick's keys had gone missing. "er indoors ^TM" had a look in the car as I prepared to drive back out to Yalding to deliver them, but they weren't in our car.

For all that we breathed a sigh of relief I can't help but wonder where the errant keys went.

"Furry Face ^TM" seemed rather subdued this morning; only nibbling at his breakfast. Usually when he sees me getting backpack and walking boots together he gooes mental, but not today. Perhaps he was worn out with yesterday's excitement. But subdued dogs notwitstanding we got ourselves together and set off to the south coast.

We had plans to walk three shorter geo-serieses today, and so we drove out to Hawkinge to start the "Up on the Downs" series. Billed as a walk of two and a half miles the plan was to do this and another series before lunch, and then move on to Samphire Hoe for the afternoon.

We started our walk with a little diversion into Hawkinge itself, and then went on to the country lanes. We saw rabits and pheasants and fox poo. The walk was rather scenic; I took a few photos whilst we were there. But as for a geocaching walk.... I don't want to be negative, it wasn't a bad walk. In fact looking back it was actually a rather good one. And in his defence the chap who'd put the series out did say he'd never had much to do with the outdoors and that he was new to hiding tupperware... but...

I had a couple of trivial issues with the series. Personally I would have put more caches along the route; I would have had more caches at places where you change directions and footpaths just to make that change more obvious. And I would question the published distance. Billed as two and a half miles, three GPS units measured it at a shade under four miles.

However I would say that the first geocache could have been worked differently. The puzzle was was overly complicated and the final co-ordinates were some two miles away and weren't actually on the walk. The final location involved a little detour from the circuit of about half a mile. I would have done it differently.

But I'm probably just being picky here. The chap who'd put the caches out had obviously put a lot of time and effort into providing me with a walk around places I've never been before, and for all that I might whinge, I am very grateful for his efforts.

As we walked we noticed a little blood on Suzy-pup's side. We stopped and looked closer. There was a gash in her side about an inch long. So rather than carrying on into Alkham we abandoned our plans for the rest of the day and drove to the vets in Folkestone. In addition to the gash the vet found two puncture wounds. We are pretty sure she ripped her side on barbed wire; either when chasing pheasants, or when falling out of a tree (it's a dog thing).

The poor pup didn't seem overly bothered but had we carried on she would have got the wound infected. The vet closed the gash with three staples and put a "bucket of shame" over Suzy-pup's head and ordered rest, so we cut the day short and came home.

Once home "er indoors ^TM" drove "My Boy ^TM" up to the hospital. Cheryl's back had been getting more and more painful. She is booked for surgery for a slipped disc, and having been to the Accident & Emergency department she'd been told she could have the surgery today.

After a few hours of waiting around she was told things weren't as urgent as they seemed and she was back on the waiting list and sent home again.

And with "er indoors ^TM" off bowling I was left "home alone" with my dog. He seemed really quiet, and as I did the ironing I had to turn the telly up over the sound of his snoring.

He's laying asleep next to me now; he sees absolutely knackered. He has got an appointment with the vet himself tomorrow. I shall ask them if I'm fussing about him unduly...

21 September 2015 (Monday) - More Baseless Lies

This morning over a bit of brekkie I read that the police have dropped one of the investigations they are conducting about Sir Cliff Richard on the grounds that there was no truth in the allegations whatsoever. The poor chap has had these baseless lies hanging over his head for a year since the police first raided his home (when he wasn't there). Apparently Sir Cliff found out that he was being investigated through the media rather than being told directly. And for all that it's all over the papers, Sir Cliff hasn't been formally charged with anything.

Whilst there is nothing worse than "interfering" with children, as time goes on it would seem that there's also not much that is actually rarer. I've lost count of the amount of celebrities who have had their careers and reputations ruined by baseless allegations.

Perhaps the law might be changed in such a way that reporters can't comment on allegations until the accused has been found guilty in a court of law.

I put the lead on my dog and we set off early for our morning walk; as we went up the road we saw a bus trying to do an about-turn. I have absolutely no idea what a bus wold want to do an about turn but it was causing serious traffic chaos as it did.

We then went on through Bowens Field where, having ignored a dozen cyclists my dog then went mental at the next one. Sometimes I wonder what goes through his head.

We made our way to the vets; someone was due for a booster shot. I walk him in there at least once most weeks. We go into the waiting area, sit for a bit and come out. When we are not seeing the vet there is no problem. When we are seeing the vet he knows. I had to drag him in to the place this morning, and once in the place he cowered under the benches. As he cowered I got chatting with a chap who'd brought in a ferret with a sore foot. My dog's terror of the vet was no match for his jealousy and he soon came out from under the bench too see what he was missing.

We were called in to see the vet; "Furry Face ^TM" was dragged in. I lifted him onto the vet's table and caught him in mid-air as he immediately leapt off. The vet was really good with him. I told her that he seems rather quieter than usual lately. She gave him a serious going over and couldn't find any problems. She suggested the problem might be a combination of a historic bad back and not being as young as he once was. I expect there's a lot of truth in that.

He got his booster injection, and we came home to find we'd had a letter thorugh the door. I say "letter"; it was a flyer from "Nationwide Cleaners" telling us how a cleaner could save us valuable time. It's no secret that I don't live in the tidieest of houses. Having someone to sort the mess would be handy.

Until I saw their prices. Ten quid per hour. Ten quid !!!! Am I just being mean?

As I drove to work Women's Hour was on the radio. Perhaps I'm just a sexist pig but I usually find that show generally supercilious and patronising. As I tuned in they were starting an expose on erectile dysfunction which I found to be presented in a rather insulting sort of way. I formed the distinct impression that erectile dysfunction was being presented as yet another thing that men did wrong purely to annoy women.

This was followed by a pre-recorded interview with the late Jackie Collins (she died over the weekend) who was reading some of the raunchier extracts of her books. Call me old fashioned if you will but in my world there is no space for caressing nipples on national radio at 10.30am.

I stopped off in Morrisons for apples and bananas, then went on to Go Outdoors for some new trainers. They weren't cheap but hopefully they will last a little while. I have a twenty-eight day no quibble return period so we shall see.

And then to work. And as is so often the way when on the late shift, all of note in my day was over and done with by 11am...

22 September 2015 (Tuesday) - Tribble-ations

After a rather restless night mostly spent tangled in the hose of my CPAP machine I got up and watched the latest episode of "South Park". It is now up to series nineteen and... I won't say that it isn't funny any more but I got the distinct impression that if you aren't up on current affairs in the US then most of the show will go over your head. I then watched the end of "Toddlers and Tiaras" in which the winners were very happy and the losers were not.

With a few minutes before having to leave for work I quickly checked my emails. Amazon (dot com) recommended that I might like to download the ebook "Brideshead Revisited" because it was simular to something I'd downloaded before; namely the ebook "Brideshead Revisited" (!)

The rain was rather torrential as I drove to work. And as usual I listened to the radio. Hate campaigners are trying to forment civil unrest by circulating rumours that the British Legion has decided not to sell poppies in certain areas in order not to upset the minorities. It turns out that this is all lies. If poppies aren't being sold anywhere it is because no one in that area is volunteering to sell them.

Perhaps those who stir the hatred might be better employed selling poppies.

There was a lot of talk about the dire straits in which Addenbrookes hospital is finding itself. Once a world leader it is now in "special measures". A lot of hospitals are now in these special measures; mostly for ridiculous financial reasons. And they really are ridiculous reasons.

Hospitals are supposed to be run like businesses these days. However if a proper business like B&Q, Amazon or even a lady of loose morals (to name three at random) gets a customer they provide a service or a product and present the customer with a bill. Hospitals don't work that way. They get a customer (patient) and provide their service for free then tell the Government what services they have provided. The Government then says it cost too much, gives a fraction of what the actual cost was, and then wonders why hospitals are all over-spent.

Equally laughable are moves by the English Bridge Union to have the card game "bridge" re-classified as a sport. Sport England had told them to get knotted and have made the accusation that there are hundreds of bridge clubs up and down the country who are just trying to milk money out of Sport England.

After two hours I finally got to work. A journey which normally takes forty minutes was somewhat delayed by five seperate floods across the road. Once at work I did my bit, and had a much easier journey home.

Once home I walked "Furry Face ^TM" round the block, we had a rather good omelette then set off to Folkestone. We terrorised the baby in his ball pool for a few minutes, then went on to the Tuesday gathering of the clans. The ChromeCast was a little under the weather, but we played a few games, then made ourselves feel sick through eating too many sweeties and watched Captain Kirk being inundated with tribbles.

Quality stuff....

23 September 2015 (Wednesday) - Off to Norfolk

Yesterday I had a whinge about why Addenbrookes hospital was in special measures. Here's another reason.; the wanton profiteering of the drugs companies. One such comapy has put of the cost of one of its products from $13.50 to $750 for no other reason than that they could.

Perhaps NHS pharmacies might start making their own drugs and cutting out the commercial compaines altogether?

In the last day or so I also whinged at the amount of accusations of child abuse being made against children which later prove to be unfounded. Today over brekkie I was reading that eighty per cent of the prosecutions brought by the RSPCA fail to end in a conviction. There is talk of removing the RSPCA's right to prosecute as they too clearly seem to delight in making baseless allegations.

And just as I was launching into serious rant mode I had a message; my lego Advent calendar will be delivered next week. That left me in a better frame of mind to start on the morning's chores.

A bit of cleaning, a bit of laundry, a few deliveries and a tip run, then I took "Furry Face ^TM" for a short walk. We passed the vets, and as we often do we popped in and sat in the waiting room for a few minutes. Bearing in mind how terrified he was in the place only two days ago it was amazing how he didn't bat an eyelid as we went in today. Where I usually battle to get him (and keep him) on the scales he jumped on of his own accord and sat quietly.

We walked round past the Riverside Inn. The field there has a transient horse population. Some days there are no horses at all. Last week I counted six. Today there were over a dozen horses there. Where do they come from? Where do they go?

Once home I packed my bits and pieces and waited for "er indoors ^TM" to return. Once she was home we loaded the car and set off on our adventure.

In planning our route to holiday-land I'd seen there was a virtual geocache only a couple of miles away from where we were driving, so (after a hundred miles) as we came into Cambridgeshire we turned off. We needed to stretch our legs a little, and a little walk up to a trig point seemed like a good idea.

The description for the virtual cache said there would be sheep in the field. There were Highland cattle. With great big horns. But they seemed friendly enough and didn't bother me as I crossed their field to do the secret virtual-geo-ritual.

To be honest virtual geocaches are so obscure I wouldn't turn down the chance to get one; after all I expect I can run faster than a cattle.

Back to the car, and after another sixty miles we were skirting Norwich and in the village of Postwick which is pronounced (by some) as "Possick". We found the B&B... eventually. The post code took us half way along a country lane. The instructions were to keep going until the lane became a dirt track then follow the dirt track. About a mile past the point at which I decided that we must have made a mistake we found our temporary home.

It's a really lovely cottage miles from anywhere. We settled in, and the landlord told us of a rather good pub not ten minutes up the road. We soon found The Yare in Brundall, and before we went in we went to hunt down a geocache which the app said was only a hundred yards away. We soon had it. And (would you beleive?) having driven a hundred and sixty miles, the last person to find it was a fellow regular at the Kent cachers' meetings.

Dinner was excellent; as was the two pints of ale that washed it down. We had a minor hiccup in finding our way back to base, but that's one of the problems of being based in the back of beyond.

But we soon pulled up. A quick shower, and now we're slobbing about in a rather luxurious lounge. I shall make myself a coffee in a minute...

24 September 2015 (Thursday) - Great Yarmouth (and elsewhere)

Being in a different bed, I didn't sleep that well. I saw every hour of the night. I was just about to give up with sleeping and go have my morning ablutions when I heard another resident of our guest house go into the bathroom. He (she or it) was in there for half an hour. What were they doing? When they finally finished I went in and was done in five minutes.

Brekkie was very good; marred only by having to make polite conversation with the other people who were staying in the place. As we scoffed we commented on the rain. The weather forecast said it would be finished soon.

With brekkie scoffed the rain showed no signs of abating. So with complete confidence in the BBC's weather forecast we set off on our planned mission for the day. We started off with a little geo-nonsense. The UK's most easterly geocache is in Lowestoft. It would be daft not to get this one as it was (relatively) so close. It only took half an hour or so to get to Lowestoft where (despite the rain) we got not only the most easterly cache but also the most easterly multi-cache and the most easterly church micro too.

As the weather cheered up we then combined geo-nonsense and playing tourist by visiting Burgh castle where we did a Wherigo. Burgh castle was an odd place; little more than a wall in a field. I felt sorry for the passing normal people who were obviously trying to hang round us as our Wherigo cartridge was giving us far more touristy information than the normal people were otherwise able to glean.

From Burgh castle we went into Great Yarmouth to visit the Sea Life centre. It was excellent. All sorts of sea-going beasts were on display. I was in raptures over a crocodile and "er indoors ^TM" got bitten of off a shrimp. But the highlight of the place had to be the penguins. We watched their antics for ages. Did you know that they bray like donkeys?

After an age we moved on. We wandered up and down the prom but (to be honest) I was a little disappointed with Great Yarmouth. I was born and bred in a seaside tourist town, and the only difference between any of them is the name on the rubbish that is sold to the tourists. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying Great Yarmouth is bad. Far from it. But I was expecting something different and it is (in essence) just like Weymouth, Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings, Folkestone and all the rest.

Mind you I was disappointed with Amazonia. I'd been looking forward to seeing the reptiles; the place had clearly been shut down for months.

With a little time on our hands we then drove up the coast to Kelling for a walk. And on the way home we were getting a tad peckish so we thought that we'd take pot luck and find a pub at random for dinner. As luck would have it we found the Brickmaker's in Horsford. We were fortunate; Thursday night is steak night. It took two pints of their (rather good) ale to wash down the plate of steak and chips.

If any of my loyal readers are ever north of Norwich I can thoroughly recommend this place.

We got back to the guest house shortly after 8.30pm to find we were seemingly "home alone" so we slobbed about in the sitting room. I took loads of photos whilst we were out; I eventually got them on-line. If I have anything bad to say about this guest house, it is that the wi-fi is a bit iffy...

25 September 2015 (Friday) - Banham Zoo

Another restless night unfortunately. But at least today there was no one else in the guest house to whom we had to be polite. As we scoffed a rather good Full English we watched the deer in the distance from the conservatory window.

We were soon ready for the off. We went (via a few geo-targets) to Banham Zoo. Many years ago when holidaying in Felixstowe with the fruits of my loin we had a day trip to Banham Zoo and I could remember it being a really good day out. So seeing it was only half an hour's drive (or so) away we thought we'd have a look-see.

By the time we'd finished geo-mucking-about we arrived at the zoo shortly before mid day. I was initially shocked at the cost; forty quid to get the pair of us in there seemed a tad extreme but in retrospect we got our money's worth.

There were all sorts of animals there; big and small. And you could get up-close with a lot of them. The meerkats were really good, as were the mongooses (mongeese?). The otters were noisy. the lemurs were sweet. The penguins were all on their nests. "er indoors ^TM" took a really good video of the giraffes which was marred only by my declaration (toward the end) of "Christ!!! - Look at the size of that zebra's cock". Perhaps I am naive but I didn't realise just how well endowed the average zebra is.

We had a cream tea and watched a cheetah devour half a cow's leg. Then we walked round the place again. The zoo was laid out in such a way that for all that it is not huge, it seems a lot larger than it actually is. We'd been there for over four hours before realising there were camels and tigers.

I went there thinking it might be a good way to spend a couple of hours; we were in there for over five hours. We only left because the place was closing.

We came home thinking we'd pick up a few random geocaches on the way back to base, and that we might find a pub for dinner as we drove. We found several random caches including one quite a way up a tree (and another Wherigo too) but we didn't randomly find a pub. So instead we took a recommendation from our current landlord.

The Shoulder of Mutton in Strumpshaw is an odd place. I walked in and took an instand dislike to the thug who was falling about at the bar whilst shouting obscenities. They I saw the barrels on the bar from which the ale was poured directly. Bearing in mind that time was pushing on and that we were hungry we stayed and had cod and chips. The food was *really* good, but of all the places we've visited over this holiday so far, this place is far and away the worst. Leaving aside the fact that the waitress couldn't keep up, this place needs to decide what it is. At the one end (where we were) is a haute cuisine restaurant. At the other end the thugs are competing to see who can shout the F-word the loudest. You can't successfully cater to both markets....

I took loads of photos today, once we were back at the guest house I popped them on-line as we slobbed about what I have come to see as our personal lounge. I took a few photos of the place.

Apparently some other normal people are staying. I'm told I shall meet them soon... I'm not sharing this lounge.

26 September 2015 (Saturday) - Castle Acre

I woke at about 5am this morning and lay awake listening for whoever else was staying in our guest house to go into *my* bathroom. At 6.30am I realised that rather than waiting for them to get in the bathroom first (which would really boil my piss) I should get out of my pit and do my ablutions first. So I did.

We met the newcomers at brekkie. They were hippies (!) And vegetarian hippies as well. I wasn't having any of their nonsense as I scoffed my sausages and bacon.

The hippies said their goodbyes; they were only staying the one night. As "er indoors ^TM" got ready I watched for deer out of the conservatory window. Unfortunately there weren't any about today. "er indoors ^TM" was soon ready and we set off for today's excusion.

When we decided to come to Norfolk for our holibobs we asked on the "Geocaching in East Anglia" Facebook group if there were any must-do caches in the area. The first place we were told about was the geo-walk around Castle Acre. We were told it was a walk of five and a half miles which would take about three hours, so we had our morning mapped out for us. We found the place and started walking. I made a minor navigation error initially, but I can throw the pair of us over barbed wire fences when the need arises. Despite our little diversion we had an excellent walk. We saw trout swimming in the river, we found friendly cows, and we even saw a grass snake. If only I had been quicker with the camera...

As we walked we found ourselves passing the entrance to the ruins of the Abbey, so we paid the nice lady from English Heritage and had a liittle diversion looking round the place before continuing with our walk.

As a geo-walk it was good; all of the cache hides had excellent GPS co-ordinates. Personally I would have put in a few more caches (but that's just me). But like all cache series the published distance was something of an underestimate. Billed as a stroll of five and a half miles, "Hannah" measured it as a tad under eight miles (and I did turn off the GPS as we took our abbey diversion).

Mind you for all that the walk was described as one of three hours, the same description did warn us that it was possible to spend all day in the area. We did spend quite some time looking round the Abbey and then at the end of our walk we had a look round the castle then had a cream tea. Our original plan was to visit Castle Acre in the morning and then go on to Sandringham in the afternoon. We finished our cream tea shortly before 5pm.

We abandoned our plans to visit Sandringham. We'll go there another time.

We'd had advice for where we might have dinner. The Ferry House in Surlingham is only a mile fom our guest house, but what with there being a river in the way it really is quicker to walk there from the guest house than it is to drive there. But we were coming from Castle Acre so we drove.

The place was welcoming; the staff friendly. the beer choice was good and the food excellent. I'd certainly go back again if the opportunity arose.

I took a few photos whilst we were out and once back to base I put them on-line. As I type this I'm feeling rather sorry for our host at the guest house. There is some big rugby game on the telly; he's been raving about it since the moment we arrived. He's been looking forward to it because tonight the guest house is full and he's been expecting to watch the match with a room full of like-minded rugby fans. Everyone else is currently cowering in their rooms, and I'm only in the lounge because I've paid good money to be here.

Periodically (when something rugby-ish happens on the telly) he's making noises of amaazement and wonderment. He simply doesn't understand that I have absolutely no interest in the rugby whatsoever and hasn't noticed I've spent the last hour messing on my lap-top...

Apparently England lost and "we" have got to do well against Australia next week... Speaking for myself I'm not going to make any effort against Australia at all...

27 September 2015 (Sunday) – Southwold

It was rather sad to find myself having my last brekkie at Colts Lodge this morning. As I admired the view there was a deer, bold as brass, right in the middle of the field outside the conservatory.

With brekkie scoffed we said our goodbyes to our hosts. If any of my loyal readers need a bed for the night in the Norwich area I can't recommend Colts Lodge highly enough.

We've had a good holiday. We've eaten well, seen some rather good views, had some good days out. However we didn't get to some of the places we were hoping to see, and we didn't get to visit friends that we would have liked to have seen.

I didn't realise just what a large place East Anglia is.

Today's plan was (basically) to come home and to do something or go somewhere on the way. Looking on the map it seemed that a trip to Southwold wouldn't be too much of a diversion. Southwold is where the nobs had a country house in "Upstairs Downstairs". It is where they make Adnam's beer. And there is a virtual geocache on the pier too. So we thought we'd spend some time there.

We got there.... I've spent a little time trying to be polite in my phrasing. But I can't. Southwold was a bitter disappointment. A few days ago I said that I was disappointed iin Great Yarmouth because it was little different to any other seaside town. Southwold is very different. On the sea front it has a pier, a crazy golf course, a boating lake and a stall that sells ice cream. And that's it. If you search out the back streets you might find the sweet shop but (frankly) I'm not sure it is worth the effort. I took a few photos of the place. It is very pretty but there really isn't much there.

Mind you there were thousands of peoople milling about the place. Perhaps the rest of Suffolk is even duller?

We then took a rather circuitous route home (via a geocache or two) and collected "Furry Face ^TM" from his holiday with "My Boy ^TM". I've missed that dog. He's currently now asleep in his basket having been walking for much of the afternoon.

"er indoors ^TM" has gone bowling and I'm left "home alone" yet again. It seems to be back to business as usual...

28 September 2015 (Monday) - Bethersden Again

There was a lunar eclipse last night. I had all good intentions of getting up and having a look but what with having come back from a busy hoiday I slept right through it all. Had anyone else been up for the thing I would have got up.

After all I had the day off work today just in case anyone had suggested an alll-nighter.

I had planned to rant about the eclipse today. But I don't really feel ranty.... I feel - I supposed "resigned to it" sums up my feelings. Earlier in the year there was a solar eclipse for which the astro club arranged nothing. On 23 May this year Saturn was at opposition which made for good viewing. The astro club did nothing for that either. on 24 May I whinged and suggested we might organise something for this eclipse. Nothing happened.... I realise I'm to blame. I should have sorted something. But part of me cynically can't help but wonder why are we trying to build a multi-million pound observatory when no one actually goes out and looks at stuff?

Over brekkie I looked at photos of the eclipse taken by people who did stay up. It looked rather pretty. I wish I had made a point of getting up now. And as I scoffed my toast "Furry Face ^TM" glared at me from his basket when he thought I wasn't looking at him, and made a point of looking away from me when he thought I was. Since collecting him from "My Boy ^TM" yesterday he had something of a sulk on.

When I was ready for the off I showed him his lead and he grudgingly got up. Usually he runs mental at the sight of the lead. Not today.

Today I decided to do phase three of my Bethersden geo-project. Having figured out where I wanted to have my geo-walk (after two reconnaissance missions) and having done all the geo-admin, today I went out and drop-kicked thirty-eight sandwich boxes into various hedges.

We got to Bethersden and had a good walk. Admittedly I would have got on faster had I not taken "Furry Face ^TM", but what is geocaching all about if not taking a dog for a walk. As we walked we acquired another dog; a sheep-dog joined us at one of the farms. He was very friendly and clearly had every intention to follow us on our way. I had to tell him "SIT!" as we left his farm and keep pointing at him to stop him following us.

A little way down the route we were crossing a field full of sheep. "Furry Face ^TM" started barking at them and the flock ran off. Or that is (to be precise) all but one of the flock ran off. One single sheep ran up to us and was every bit as friendly and affectionate as the dog we'd recently shaken off. I made a fuss of this sheep; my dog immediately started pulling away. I tried to get a photo of the two of them together. The sheep was up for it but Fudge seemed to be terrified of this sheep.

We left the sheep behind, and after a near miss involving a sandwich box and a river I saw one of the biggest birds I've ever seen outside of a zoo. It was about fifty yards away, circling. The closest thing I've ever seen to it was an eagle I saw when in Canada. I think this thing must have been a huge buzzard.

Andd just as we were on the home stretch we had a little entertainment. There is a part of the walk where the footpath goes rather close to someone's house. That someone was a nudey ladey without any clothes on who was sunbathing in the nip. I was shocked (!)

Unfortunately there are some people who shouldn't sunbathe in the nip, and this nudey lady was one of them.

We completed our walk; just over eight miles distance and just under five hours time. Once home someone had a bath. One of our number had been rolling in fox poo when the opportunity arose during our walk. I'm not naming names but I will say there were only two of us on the walk and it wasn't me rolling in the poo.

I fancied a sandwich for lunch so I popped up to the corner shop. There was a silly old bat in the shop who was loudly telling everyone that she hoped they'd all seen last night's eclipse as there won't be another for many years. I told her not to beleive what she read in the papers, but she loudly dismissed me. Eclipses are ten a penny she said, but last night's was special because it happened during a full moon. "How often do you think that happens?" she asked me with a self-satisfied smile. "Every single lunar eclipse - dur!!!" I replied, and before she could continue I launched into an ad-hoc lecture about the phases of the moon and eclipses using a can of Doctor Pepper to be the Sun, my sandwich to be the Earth and a lamb samosa to be the moon's stunt double.

As I concluded (to a minor round of applause from the assembled throng) the old biddy dismissed it all saying "well I've never heard any of that before and I'm interested in astromomy" (not astronomy!) By now I was getting hungry and was more than a little tetchy. So I told her that I had no doubt that she was interested in "astromomy", but if she was also interested in astronomy (as well) why had she never once shown her face at the local astronomy club which has been going for at least seven years. It was clear that this old biddy was not used to people telling her when she was talking out of her arse, and she tried to make out that there wasn't a local astronomy club.. I told her that as a founder member of the club and the club's current treasurer I could assure here there certainly was. I gave her the web address, details of the Facebook group and told her where to find us.

The old bat had a sudden change of attitude and then started treating me as though I was the Astronomer Royal and started telling me about her grandchildren who live in Cork.

It was at this point I realised I should have kept my mouth shut

I eventually shook her off, and then as the washing machine chewed on my smalls I finally got to scoff my sandwich. By now "Furry Face ^TM" had forgotten his sulk and he snored on my lap as I set about the final bits of geo-admin for the geo-project.

I had so much else I wanted to do this afternoon but by the time I'd fnished fannying about it was nearly 5.30pm.

With "er indoors ^TM" off bowling I found myself watching vintage Doctor Who on the horror channel whilst struggling with a geo-puzzle. If anyone can name the people in this picture I'd be grateful....

29 September 2015 (Tuesday) - It Has Arrived

I slept like a log again last night. For all that I liked the holiday it seems you can't beat your own bed. I came down to find "Furry Face ^TM" snoring. He wagged his tail and graciously allowed me to rub his belly. He seems to be over his sulking now.

I set the washinng machine loose on various assorted colours (as one does). The thing was making something of a grinding noise yesterday as it dried my smalls; let's hope this is not a terminal noise.

I hung out the washing and then wandered up into town; my new specs were ready for collection. But I couldn't just get them; I had to have an appointment. I arrived, some secretary-type say me down, handed them over, asked if they fitted and if I could see anything throught them and then sent me on my way.

What a waste of time. I could have done that at any time. Did I *really* need an appointment?

I then went on to Boots for an errand for "er indoors ^TM" and whillst there I got a dozen film pots for geo-purposes. On eBay you have to pay for the things; Boots give them away.

On the way home my phone pinged. Email. My new geo-series in Bethersden had gone live and my phone nearly exploded under the strain. For each sandwich box I'd hidden I had an email to say that the reviewer had published it, an email to say the reviewer had put on a note saying he'd published it, an email to tell me that my geocache haad received the official thumbs-up and an email to tell me there was a new cache in the area. All that lot - thirty eight times. Deleting one hundred and fifty two emails gave me something to do as I walked back from town.

Once home I popped the lead on to "Furry Face ^TM" and we went for a little stroll. Through the back roads to Singleton Lake and back home via the park. For once our walk was relatively uneventful. We met a few other dogs on the way, but little Fudge seems to be getting more and more wary of other dogs as time goes by. Whereas in the past he would cause mayhem, these days he shies away from them.

We were out for a couple of hours. Once back I got the lawnmower out and attacked the grass in the back garden. I'd not mowed for a couple of weeks and it showed. Ideally I should give the lawn a haircut every week, but it doesn't happen. I could have done a better job I suppose, but my tennis elbow started playing up. So I adjorned and watched the last episode of "The Last Ship" as I scoffed lunch.

I then had a look at the monthly accounts. Oh dear. New specs and new brakes on the "er indoors-mobile ^TM" had pretty much cleared the bank balance. Perhaps we shouldn't have gone away for the long weekend? But what is money for if not to squander foolishly?

It was at this point I got a message. A geo-astro-buddy had been out round my Bethersden geo-series and had located the lot. I was pleased about that. For all that we all get the same notifications and we all get the same chance for First to Find, locally it is *always* the same old chap who sprints out to get them. It was nice to see someone else getting a look-in.

Flushed with success I then looked at the geo-map with a view to putting out a smaller series for the Kent Cacher's New Year's Day walk. It's not easy finding anywhere nearby but I have one or two ideas. I'm back on nights in a couple of weeks time so I'll start hunting out specific locations then.

I got the washing in from the line, and with little else to do I spent a little while watching fan-made Star Trek episodes. I fell asleep.

Being Tuesday the clans gathered. Insults were bandied, the naughty bits of various mammals discussed, and we watched Saturday's episode of "Doctor Who" which I actually enjoyed.

Oh - and Matt brought my lego advent calendar. Not long now....

30 September 2015 (Wednesday) - Skint

A rather vivid nightmare woke me shortly after 3am. I didn't really get back to sleep after that, and was up watching "Toddlers and Tiaras" rather earlier than I would have liked. In this mornning's episode the children were all sporting false teeth and wigs, and the winner announced she was going to spend the prize money on turtles.

"Furry Face ^TM" got up to scrounge toast and have a little combing but he soon took himself back to bed.

As the toddlers did their things on the telly I had a look-see on the Internet. A chap with whom I once worked was jetting off across the world on business. For a minute or two I was just a little jealous; I spent two years trying to get into sales. I'd be far better at selling stuff than this bloke.

But then I wondered if I would actually like that sort of a life style. For all that jetting aabout on business might sound glamourous I have (in a previous life) been very lonely in hotel rooms in Milan and Paris and Brussels whilst away on business. My job quite suits me at the moment.

And talking of my job, I'd had a week off. It was time to go back to work. As I got the car going a warning light came up. A service is due. As I mentioned yesterday what with "er indoors ^TM" having had five hundred quid for new brakes and my having splashed out over two hundred quid on new specs I was rather looking to make some economies this month. Oh well...

As I drove to work the pundits were discussing the antics of the new leader of the Labour party Jeremy Corbyn. For all that the media paint him as a twit there is no denying he won the leadership election by a landslide. Mind you if he is half the idiot the media would have us beleive, I can't help but wonder if tens of thousands of Tory voters really did join the Labour party to nobble the leadership election and leave them effectively unelectable.

Someone else who came over equally idiotic was the woman wittering platitudes on the radio's "Thought for the Day". She started off commenting about how NASA has found water on Mars (they actually have). From here it was only a short leap to the fictional TV series "Life on Mars" featuring John Simm. And from there she said that because Lewis Carroll claimed it was patently obvious that God exists there could be no denying that God does exist (thank you, and goodnight).

I love listening carefully to sermons and religious waffle. The speakers are so used to no one actually paying any attention that they never feel any need to present any attempt at a reasoned argument and trot out any half-baked nonsense that takes their fancy.

I got to work where we had something of a cake-themed day. And then I came home. Parking was somewhat tight; I finally found somewhere to park three streets away.

"Furry Face ^TM" was pleased to see me; we went for our walk which passed off uneventfully. And then it was time for the semi-final of "Bake-Off"...