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September 2016 (Thursday) - Late Shift
Another
restless night. No matter how tired I get and despite the best efforts of my
CPAP machine I simply cannot sleep for long enough because I cannot breathe.
I lay awake for much of the night and when I should be up and about and doing
things during the day time I find myself falling asleep. I *really*
hate that. And everyone takes photos of me asleep and plasters them all over
Facebook as though it is some great joke. Would people do the same if I was
having an epileptic fit or a diabetic coma? Hopefully
more surgery up the nose will cure the problem; even if only temporarily. The
appointment with the ENT specialist can’t come soon enough. Over
brekkie I had a look-see on-line. Lots of people were posting pictures of
children in school uniforms getting ready to go back to school. I glossed
over them as quickly as I could before I started experiencing “Swadelands flashbacks”; I had one or two
letters of complaint about "My Boy TM" over the
years (including one when he was snogging when he should have been doing
lessons) and "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" was
never the ideal pupil. I
had hoped for an email telling me of a new geocache on the way to work but my
morning haul of emails was rather dull. So I checked out the news – The
Crystal Maze is to come back to the
telly;
this time with David Tennant running the show. Personally I always liked Ed
Tudor-Pole in that role, but doesn’t this just sum up what is wrong with TV
at the moment? With Star Trek and Red Dwarf due for new series soon and
Poldark coming back on Sunday (to say nothing of Are You Being Served),
there are so many re-makes. Let the old stuff go. Make new programmes! I
took "Furry Face TM" for a quick walk round the
park. He humped a small fluffy dog to the consternation of some silly old
woman who wasn’t at all impressed by my telling her that he had been “done”
three years ago. She could tell he hadn’t been “done” because of the
expression on his face. I tried to show her his lack of “flowers and
frolics” but she was having none of it. Apparently you can tell if a dog
has been done because it has a chubbier happier expression. One lives and
learns. I suppose my little dog has lost a lot of weight recently after his
illness, but he still doesn’t have any “flowers and frolics”. We
also saw a very odd jogger. Her legs seemed to be outracing the rest of her,
and were a good foot (if not two) in front of her top half. She didn’t
look to be at all comfortable. As I
walked my phone beeped with an email from the pet insurance people. They
weren’t happy that I hadn’t filled in their questionnaire which they claimed
they’d emailed me last week. So once home I had a look on-line. I’d asked the
insurance people to pay the money from my claim (after "Furry Face TM"’s stay in dog hospital) into my
bank account. No payments had been made. I felt physically sick and,
expecting the worst, I gave them a ring. I *need* that six hundred
pounds. I
got through to a really helpful chap who looked up my details and said they’d
only received the claim form yesterday. He went through the details and saw a
lot of information (that the vets were supposed to supply) was
missing. He said he’d need to contact the vet before he could even begin to
look at the claim. And furthermore it usually takes twenty-five days between
receiving the claim and paying up (or telling the client to get knotted). The
nice man was at a loss to explain why I’d been sent the questionnaire. I
filled it in; entering “don’t know” for most of the answers. I
then spent a few minutes on my latest project. In September 1998 a gaggle of
us spent a weekend camping at a certain farm in Smarden.
Over the years we’ve camped there a few times and I for one took photos. I
did have a website of memories of those camps, but when mankybadger
dot com was wiped (cheers EE!) they all went west. However that
website hadn’t been updated for years and so it’s prompted me to re-make that website. It is still all
in the early stages; in fact so far I’ve only got the camp from 1988 done. If
any of my loyal readers have any photos or memories from any of those camps
please do email them to me. In the meantime I’m ransacking everyone’s
Facebook photos. I’ve made the decision that any photo I can find on-line is
fair game to use. From personal experience I’m pretty sure I have the legal
right to do this, but if anyone objects… don’t make your photos public (dur!) I’m
off to work now. I’d rather not have done the late shift today; there is a
session of watching bats at Singleton Lake this evening. I suppose I could
have got myself organised and swapped my shifts, but I never got round to it… |
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2
September 2016 (Friday) - Sevenoaks, Fishing
I
was wide awake and breathless after only three hours sleep, and so was
sitting up watching “South Park” ay 3am.
After a couple of rather lame episodes I was able to breathe relatively
easily so I went back to bed only to find my side of the bed had been
hijacked by a small dog. I worked myself around him, and slept until 6am. Over
brekkie I watched this week’s episode of “Dark Matter”. For all that I
like the show I have absolutely no idea of which character is what, and have
no idea what is going on. Perhaps I need to watch the lot again from the
beginning. I
then had a look on-line. There was something on Facebook which made me sigh.
Apparently research has now found that smacking children when they are
badly behaved actually makes them better people. This is something I’ve been
saying for years; it has always been my experience that those who advocate
against corporal punishment either have no experience of children or have the
most ill-behaved brats. I
watched one such ill-behaved brat shove its small sister over in the park the
other day. The father tried to reason with the brat and explained how the
smaller one’s feelings had been hurt. The one that had done the shoving just
did it again. A crack on the arse would have been far more effective; and
would only need to be applied once. I
then spent a little while going through photos of myself which people had
posted onto Facebook in which I was asleep. I’m sure my habit of nodding off
at inopportune moments is really amusing to some; to me it is a matter of
extreme frustration. I’ve untagged myself in all the photos I can find. I
then popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and we
drove up to Sevenoaks Weald where seven of us (and two dogs) had a
rather good walk round the beautiful Kentish countryside. Some rather
wonderful views, pretty woodlands… it was only a shame that I had to finish
off the rabbit that one of our pups didn’t quite kill cleanly. But that is
survival of the fittest for you. And I even took a few photos as we walked.
Today we wandered for about four hours. We covered a shade over five miles
and made twenty five geo-finds; finishing just as the rain started. I do
like the mid-week walks. I find a geo-series that I haven’t done that looks
as though it will fill a few hours, solve the nearby puzzles just in case we
might be walking past them, then I just ask who fancies going for a walk.
Sometimes no one is free, and other days (like today) there are
several of us. Someone else has done the hard work in organising the route;
all I do is ask who wants to go for a walk with me
and my dog. We
made our way home, and arrived home just as "er
indoors TM" was pulling up. I helped her load her car (she’s
off to geo-camp with Fudge) and I loaded my fishing gear into my car and
went round for "My Boy TM". We then had three
hours tiddler-bashing at Singleton Lake. We soon lost count of the amount of
fish we’d caught (but both agreed I’d had most) so we decided to have
a competition based on who caught the most species of fish. I won – Dan
didn’t catch any bream. By
seven o’clock the light was failing and we were both rather cold so we gave
up. I dropped "My Boy TM" home, then I got myself
a kebab and chips for dinner, and settled down in front of the telly. “Game
of Thrones” doesn’t watch itself… |
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3
September 2016 (Saturday) - Blasts from the Past
Another
restless night; I woke feeling rather lonely. With both "er indoors TM" and "Furry
Face TM" at geo-camp the house seemed rather empty. I
made some brekkie and was scoffing it whilst watching “Killjoys”
before seven o’clock. I
then thought I might do some laundry. I’ve been unable to locate any tea
towels recently. I found them all in the washing basket. So I set the washing
machine loose on them and had a go at emptying my letter rack. First
of all was bank statements. I knew they wouldn’t be
pretty, and they weren’t. The bank has also sent me a contactless credit
card. I’ve not had one of these before. I wonder if I will ever use it. I
then had the 2016 Federation of Astronomical Societies handbook. A rather
well-produced booklet. It doesn’t look as though it was cheap to make, I
doubt anyone will ever actually read the thing, and it had the wrong contact
details for our astro club. Having
heard the washing machine was done I hung out all the tea towels and ran out
of pegs. I’d had this plan to mow the lawn, but heavy rain overnight meant
the grass was soaking so I carried on sorting the contents of the letter rack. Car
insurance renewal documents, house insurance renewal documents, dog insurance
renewal documents. And I found two dog insurance claim forms. I’d been
waiting for those and having given up waiting in the end I’d downloaded one.
The claim forms were partly filled in for me; they said Fudge’s birthday was
28 August 2010. I wonder if that is right? I
had an offer of insurance on the water pipes coming in and out of the house.
I’m hoping that is covered on the house building insurance; it was last time.
And I had a voucher for fifteen pounds off of the next car service. I could
have used that last week (!) I
had a letter from the Halifax building society telling me of changes to an
account that I don’t think I have. And
there were three Ordnance Survey maps in the letter rack. I wonder what they
were doing there. With
the letter rack sorted and once again empty I then cracked on with the
Bat-Camp archive. I must admit I’m finding it rather hard work. The more
recent years will be easier as I’ve kept regular diaries since 2006, but so
far I’ve done the first three camps. Admittedly they are now over sixteen
years ago, but surely someone must remember something from way back when. It
would be good if they did because I don’t. Which is why I
started writing this diary. Mind
you I did find something of a treasure trove; loads of photos from the August
2000 camp, but all in .cam format. With a little fiddling about I turned them
into .jpeg and then I posted the lot up to
Facebook.
I shall use some of those later. I then had a rummage and also found a hoard
of piccies from 1998 and another from 1999. "Daddy’s
Little Angel TM" phoned. Did I want to drive her out to Headcorn to watch s friend doing a parachute jump? To be
honest I didn’t. I’ve had this annoying cough and cold for a day or so and a
morning spent slobbing about was what I had in
mind. My
laptop then asked if I would mind if it had a little updating session.
Bearing in mind that it was nice to be asked I said it would be fine. It was
at this point that it told me the update might take an hour and a half, so I
left it to get on with it, and despite the grass being damp I mowed the lawn
and watched another episode of “Killjoys”. The show is somewhat like “Dark
Matter” in that although I quite like it, I have no idea who is what, and
what is happening. I
then spent the afternoon in bed. The original plan had been to go to
geo-camp, and the backup plan had been the beer festival at the rugby club.
But a colleague needed to swap his shifts so’s he
could get married and so I felt I ought to oblige. After
three hours sleep I got the washing in, had some scoff, watched a documentary
about the Kray twins, and now I’m off to work… |
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4
September 2016 (Sunday) - End of an Era
I
had a rather busy night shift. I must admit I was looking forward to
listening to the radio on the way home. For all that I’m hardly the most
pious of heathens I do like listening to the church services on the radio on
a Sunday morning. Sometimes… However today was not one of those days. Today’s service was a celebration of the Great Fire
of London (why would anyone celebrate that?) and rather than having
uplifting hymns they just had awful caterwauling and howling instead.
Apparently such wailing passed for music in the seventeenth century. Mind
you talking of things ecclesiastical I see my old church is up for sale. When I was a lad
I went to the Boys Brigade at St Helens Methodist in Hastings, and for a
while I got quite wrapped up in that church. We got married there, the children got christened there… I’d heard it had
closed. But to see it up for sale is rather sad. I can remember we had a
rather major fundraising bash to rebuild the place some thirty-odd years ago.
We raised tens of thousands of pounds (in the 1970s!) I
wonder if it is too late to get a refund? I
had planned to go to geo-camp for brekkie, but it would have added nearly an
hour on to my drive, and if I’d gone I would have got chatting and involved
in whatever was going on, and I’d already been up all night. So I was
sensible and I came home. I stuck some whites into the washing machine, and
over a spot of brekkie I had a look at the geo-map. I’ve sorted out a little walk for in the
week.
If any of my loyal readers would like to join in, you’d be very welcome.
Especially if you know who Soter, Hyginus, Anacletus, Linus, Telephorus and Eleuterus are.
The names feature in a puzzle and I’m pretty sure they were Popes. With
washing hung on the line I went to bed at 10am. I slept thought till shortly
before 4.30pm. I
had a late brekkie, and wrestled with some geo-puzzles as I slowly woke up.
Usually I wake raring to go, but I’m often a little groggy when I wake up at
4.30pm. I got the washing in, and "er
indoors TM" and "Furry Face TM"
came home from their adventures. And
I missed an anniversary – yesterday was five years since we first met my
little dog… I’m
off to the night shift now. |
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5
September 2016 (Monday) - After the Night Shift
After
a rather busy night I was rather disappointed to see it was raining this
morning. I’d planned to take "Furry Face TM",
"Daddy’s Little Angel TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM"
for a little walk round Great Chart this morning. Geocaches don’t maintain
themselves you know. But where I had in mind is liable to flood, so we
abandoned that idea and walked round the park and out to Singleton Lake
instead. We got some bread and flung it to the ducks. I say “to”,
little Jake was trying to throw it “at” the ducks. The ducks were entertaining;
each duck that actually got any bread immediately got bitten on the backside
by all the other ducks that didn’t get bread. Ducks can be rather nasty to
each other. As
we walked the fine rain persisted. The annoying fine ran that doesn’t look as
though it is enough to worry about, but after five minutes leaves you
absolutely soaked. We
came home, and I set an alarm for a few hours and went to bed. I woke shortly
before that alarm was due to go off because someone’s car alarm was going off
outside. So I had a late lunch (whilst watching South Park”) then had
a look-see on-line. There were a lot of posts on social media about people “going
back to work” today. Sometimes teachers boil my piss. They get *very*
touchy whenever it is implied that they work less than twenty-five hours
every day, but have made great show of having just had six weeks paid holiday
over the summer. Do they realise that this one holiday is far more time off
work than most people get all year? I
also saw there had been absolutely no takers whatsoever for the astro club’s event which is planned for this Saturday.
The astro club’s been asked to help out with a
stargazing event at Dungeness. Admittedly I’ve got other plans, but the
membership has been asked if they might like to take part. No one’s replied.
On the one hand this might seem discouraging. On the other hand should we
expect people to be getting involved. When they join
the club what exactly are people signing up for? I’m fast coming to the
conclusion that all the punters want is a once-a-month show. That is
something we do very well. Maybe we shouldn’t be trying to do any more than
the monthly meets? As
is always the case after a couple of night shifts I found myself feeling
rather tired, so I sat quietly and carried on working on the Batcamp Archives. I got stuff about
three more camps up, including another archive of photos, this lot from 2005. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of dinner, and with her bowling I managed to stay awake
through some of yesterday’s TV that the SkyPlus had
recorded for me. “The Last Ship” was OK, and I quite liked “Poldark”. And
in closing today, did you know that as well as this diary, I write another blog. For professional
reasons I am legally obliged to keep a record of all the ongoing
extra-curricular studies I do which are work-related. I have to read
journals, reflect on case studies, read professional newsletters… it is all
rather dull really but every year one out of every twenty registered
biomedical scientists is required to prove they are actually doing continuing
professional development. I find writing what I do as a blog works for me. Every time I do something worthy of note (which
is three or four times a week) I make a few notes, then every so often I
write up my notes and publish them. I’ve made the blog public; when I first
started the thing I did so as an example to the trainees. Now things are
rather different (I don’t supervise the trainees any more) but I’ve
never bothered to change the privacy settings. And over the years the thing
has developed a cult following. I published a few entries on Saturday, and
yesterday ninety-eight people logged on to read them. I
wonder what people expect to get from that blog; it is rather dull. |
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September 2016 (Tuesday) – Bidborough
The
aftermath of two night shifts is that I do sleep well. I woke to find "Furry
Face TM" fast asleep on my bed. He looked comfortable so
I left him be. Hence the expression “let sleeping dogs lie”. Yesterday
I mentioned my work-related blog. In total ninety-eight people looked at it
on Sunday, and a further seventy-four yesterday. It seems popular. I might do
more with it if my heart were in it… I’ve
had a message from one of the avid readers of that site asking how best to
progress as a professional bloodologist. How should
I respond? Like all jobs it’s not a bad one but being extremely specialised
and with opportunities so few and far apart, unless you are prepared to up
sticks and move half way across the country for a job it it
is difficult to progress. And by the time you’ve made friends and settled
somewhere who *really* wants to abandon everything for a job? Over
brekkie I had a look-see on-line. Apparently the end of the world is coming next
summer. That will be nice. I remember the first “end of the world”
that I lived through in 1980. It was something of a disappointment as have
been all the subsequent ones. We
eventually persuaded "Furry Face TM" to eat some
brekkie, then as "er indoors TM"
went off to work me and my dog went for a walk. I’d been looking on the
geo-map to find a short(ish) walk, but that
map is quickly filling up with places I’ve been. But a few days ago I
realised that with a little creativity and map-reading I could cobble a route
starting at Bidborough church down into
Southborough and back in a rather pissed circle. I’d posted on the local
geocaching page to ask if anyone fancied a stroll. Most people were working
today, but not everyone. I arrived at where we’d agreed to meet to find Dick
rummaging in a hedge. Gordon and “Norton- scourge of rabbit-kind” soon
arrived, and we set off for a little walk. Bearing
in mind we weren’t following a specific geo-trail but were effectively making
it up as we went along we were rather dependent on the GPS units. There’s no
denying they were all playing about somewhat today. I had a theory about a
Tonbridge geo-magnetic anomaly. Everyone else had a theory about power cables
and tree cover. But we navigated our route without too much difficulty Mind
you there was a *lot* of upping and downing involved, and it was a
humid day; I was glad for the bottle of water I was carrying. Geocache-wise
it was an odd walk. Usually these geo-series are all put out by the same
hider and you soon get into that person’s way of hiding Tupperware in the
forest. Being a route we’d bodged together the caches were hidden by various
different people. Some were in excellent repair. Some were in a right old
state. We
got back to the cars having been out for three hours; “Hannah” said
we’d been walking for two hours and stood still for one hour, and had covered
a shade over five miles. That sounded about right. I took a few photos as we walked. I do
that sometimes… Once
home my little dog took himself off to his basket. It is easy to forget he’s
not long out of dog hospital and he shouldn’t be overdoing it. Over a lunch
of a stale cheese sandwich and Tizer (haute
cuisine!) I watched last night’s episode of “Dark Matter”. It was
very entertaining but I had no real idea what was going on. When the season
ends (which it will soon) I shall watch the lot again from the boxed
sets section of my SkyPlus box to see if I can make
any sense out of it. With
a little time on my hands I then sorted out the Batcamp
archive for 2006. My Batcamp archive is slowly coming together; I managed to
find quote a few photos for this one. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good omelette for dinner, and the clans gathered. We bandied a few
insults, then watched an episode of “Supergirl”. Have you ever seen the show? It is
quite good, but as super-heroes go, she is rather crap… |
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September 2016 (Wednesday) - Before the Late Shift
I
slept through the night, which wasn’t a bad thing. Even though my sleep was
plagued with odd vivid dreams. I woke to a nose bleed; I’ve not had one of those
for a while. It does make shaving tricky. Over
brekkie I watched an episode of “Dad’s Army”. Private Pike had been
called up to join the RAF but was turned down because of a rare blood group.
The episode was somewhat spoiled for me by the trivial detail that “rare
blood groups” hadn’t been discovered in the time in which the show was
set; to say nothing that a rare blood group is generally no obstacle to
having a transfusion. I
took "Furry Face TM" for a walk round the park. I
did snigger; just lately the Internet has been awash with pictures of
schoolkids looking immaculate in their new school uniforms. As we walked we
saw many schoolkids, all of whom looked as though they’d slept in their
school uniforms having worn them for three weeks and having climbed through a
hedge in them. Mind
you for all that the mothers on social media are grumbling about school
uniforms, they do serve a purpose. I see that a local headmaster is
in trouble
for insisting on a standard for school uniforms. I think he’s right to do so.
I can remember the “fun” we had at cubs with uniforms. All the time
kids stuck to the uniform, all was fine. However the moment we eased up on
the insistence on cub uniform the kids immediately started coming in the most
expensive designer clothes, and there would be a competition to see who was
in the most fashionable clothes each week. And those kids from the poorer
families who couldn’t afford to spend a week’s wages on a T-shirt were made
to know just what paupers they were by the other kids. A
school uniform has its uses. Remembering
the trouble I had getting to work when on the late shift last week, I left
home rather early this morning. Having failed to find a geocache in
Kennington I then drove out to the pond shop in Challock.
I’ve found them to be rather arrogant in the past but I needed flocculant. Bearing in mind their arrogance I suppose it
is no surprise that they’ve now closed. I
then set off work-wards, but seeing I still had a little time I stopped off
at the garden centre in Chartham. You can’t beat a
cup of coffee and a slice of cake… After
cake the rest of the day was a tad dull. |
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8
September 2016 (Thursday) - Bit Bored
My
piss boiled somewhat when I had a look-see on-line over brekkie this morning.
The official
geocaching blog
made a howler of an admission. When
I go geocaching I use third-party software on my GPS unit and then use more
third-party software to do my geo-admin. Or I use an app on my phone which a
private individual developed. I *don’t* use the official app because
it is not fir for purpose. I go
out looking for sandwich boxes which were put out by the public, and were
reviewed by volunteers. Just recently a decision was made to only allow
challenges on the geocaching website which were administered by other
volunteers. Today geocaching dot com’s official blog admits that the app they
have made to do the hobby they own isn’t anywhere near as good as apps made
by other people. And have you seen their website; I leaves a *lot* to
be desired. I
can’t help but wonder what goes on at geocaching HQ; they are entirely
dependent on volunteers and third-party hobbyists to keep going, but they
seem to have loads of paid staff, What do these people do with our money? I
popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and we set
off out early. The idea was to get to Badlesmere before
the rush hour traffic picked up, and to be finished with our walk before the
heat of the day set in. Just as we were leaving the phone rang. "Daddy’s
Little Angel TM" wondered what we were up to. She wanted
to come on the walk, so we drove round and waited about for her and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM".
We
eventually got to Badlesmere, but only got fifty
yards into the planned walk before giving up. I blame myself; I should have
paid more attention to what they were wearing. Flimsy shorts and T shirts
don’t stand up to stinging nettles. Being totally unprepared we abandoned and
came home. The plan was to get long trousers and try again, but as we drove
she got a better offer. We arrived back in Ashford at about the sort of time
I’d actually planned to be finishing the walk, so I just took "Furry
Face TM" round the park and sulked a bit. With
nothing else to do I went up into town to have a look around. I only look
round Ashford once every few months. Today I came to the conclusion that the
town now is nothing but tattooists, hairdressers and charity shops. I’d got a
two-hour parking ticket; I was on my way home after half an hour. I
came home via the vets. They’d sent me a letter saying that I should pick up
flea treatment and worming treatment for Fudge. I got there to be met by
blank faces; he wasn’t due for either. Apparently their system
randomly tell people treatments are due when they are not. Ironically
I then got two texts from the vets during the afternoon asking me to collect
flea and worming medicines… Over
a spot of lunch I watched one of the episodes of “Game of Thrones”
that my SkyPlus box recorded yesterday, then ironed for three hours before spending an hour or so
dozing on the sofa. I don’t like doing that, so I forced myself awake, and
spent a little while looking at my
website.
When mankybadger dot com died (actually was
killed by EE) a lot of stuff went with it. Although most was backed up,
some of it was probably best left to die… I spent an hour this afternoon
bringing back the most relevant stuff (although I’m still working on the batcamp bits). But I’m in two minds about the kite
and the snakes and the bike ride stuff. That was from ages ago; it isn’t
really relevant anymore is it? On rummaging I found *loads* of stuff
from way back when. Once I’ve sorted the batcamp
archives I might put up some of the old stuff just for fun. "er indoors TM" came home
and boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we devoured whilst watching “Tattoo
Fixers”. I’ve decided exactly what I want for my new tattoo… when I can
afford it. |
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9
September 2016 (Friday) - Seeing My Mum (and Dad)
After
a surprisingly long time spent asleep I watched an episode of “South Park”
over brekkie. Randy was being laughed at by all and sundry because he’d
bought a branch of the once-popular video store “Blockbusters”. For
all that I sniggered it made me think. Hiring videos
was all the rage once. I
then found myself embroiled in a petty squabble on Facebook. These petty
squabbles all go the same way: ·
Me posting in a discussion: “I disagree with you for the following reasons” ·
So many other people posting in a discussion: “You are wrong and you are
stupid and I will give you personal abuse for
having an opinion different to mine” It
is getting a little bit tiresome now… Sill on the plus side I see that “Yonderland”’s third season is starting soon. "er indoors TM" set off to
work. "Furry Face TM" and I drove round to
collect "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM",
and we went down to Hastings to visit my Mum and Dad. They like seeing the littlun. I’m not sure why, he comprehensively destroyed
everything he could, and had a very good go at that which he either couldn’t
or was stopped from destroying. Mum and Dad seemed well; they fed us to
bursting with coffee and cakes. The plan had originally to come home via
McDonalds, but I was too stuffed for that. We
got home shortly after mid-day, and as is so often the case before the night
shift I was really tired, so I went to bed for the afternoon. Sleep would
have been nice but between the phone ringing and my dog woofing it was a
rather noisy afternoon. I dozed off and on, and finally gave up and sat
through this week’s second episode of “Game of Thrones” before setting
off for the night shift. I’d
rather have stayed at home though… |
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10
September 2016 (Saturday) - Steam, Cake, Stuff
I
made my way home after a surprisingly quiet night shift and was surprised to
find I was driving home behind our nutty neighbour. What was she doing in
Canterbury at 8am this morning? If we were on speaking terms I would ask her.
He got home and I made a point of laughing at her attempt to park her car.
She is an odd woman; she seems utterly unable to learn. She simply cannot
park her car to save her life. When parallel parking she often has he car at
(quite literally) right angles to the pavement. And her piano playing
is abysmal. She has been playing the piano and parking her car for over ten
years, and she is as bad at both today as on the first time she tried either. I
was rather pleased to see my little dog sitting on the back of the sofa when
I got home. For all that he’s getting better he still is reluctant to jump.
I’m taking his having jumped onto the back of the sofa to be a good sign.
Mind you on seeing me he wouldn’t stop barking until we went for a walk. We
went round the park. As we walked I got talking with a Polish chap. He was
casing the river to find a good fishing spot. I think that river would be
difficult to fish; for him doubly so as he was using a sea fishing rod. (For
those of my loyal readers who are not of a piscatorial bent, a river fishing
rod is a gentle thing of elegance. A sea fishing rod looks like a broomstick
with a rope tied to the end). I’d
forgotten about the Saturday jog-a-thon round the park but we seemed to have
been early enough to miss most of it. As the joggers started we adjourned to
the co-op field where we narrowly missed OrangeHead. We
came home to find next door was clanging her piano. I scoffed a bit of toast,
then took myself off to bed for the morning. After a couple of hours I got
up, we had cake and coffee then we took "Furry Face TM"
out. "er indoors TM"
had some geo-maintenance to do, and me and my dog came along for the ride.
Whilst we were out we popped in to visit Cheryl and Lacey. Cheryl wasn’t
happy – they’d been swimming at Ashford International Hotel’s pool. It was
cheaper than the sports centre, they had the place to themselves, but they’d
left in a hurry when they found a turd floating in the Jacuzzi. We
then went round to spend the afternoon with Drew and Anita. They were having
a garden party to raise money for some charity or other. We had a good
afternoon chatting with friends, eating cake, and playing with small model
steam engines. Small model steam engines are surprisingly good fun. "er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of tea, then shoved off to the Saturday film night. I stayed
home and polished walking boots and programmed “Hannah” whilst
watching “Star Trek: Insurrection”. I’d not seen that film for a
while, it was rather good. “Alien” is on now. I shall go to bed; that
film frightens me… |
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11
September 2016 (Sunday) - Crawley Down
I
slept well; I do for a few days after a night shift. Over brekkie I spent a
few minutes working on the 2008 entry for my Bat-Camp archive. I say “a few
minutes”; it was the best part of an hour. It is amazing how long these
things take. I then had quick look-see on-line. Not much had changed
overnight, which was probably for the best. I
then hung the washing on the line, and pausing only briefly to collect
Suzy-pup we set off for Surrey. We would have got there quicker had there not
been fifty cyclists in the way; all of whom thought they were cars. As a
nation we need more cycle paths; it would be better for everyone. We
soon met up with Karl and Tracey and the girls, and we walked up the road a
little to find Dave, and nine of us and two small dogs set off on the Crawley
Down Crawl which was billed as a series of twenty-four geocaches over six and
a half miles. We
had a rather good walk; the weather was glorious. Our route went through
woodlands and bridleways and footpaths. Mostly clearly marked; we didn’t take
too many wrong turns. We saw horses and buzzards, and had a rather good
picnic. I even got to try out my new stool; ideal for picnic-ing. And we finally decided the definitive difference
between a cottage and a bungalow and a house. We
picked up a couple of extra caches as we walked, and at the end we tried for
a couple of mulitis. Bother were missing. We’d got
permission to replace one of them (and we did). We replaced the other
one and sent the C.O. an email telling him we’d been helpful. Some people
appreciate the help; others don’t. Let’s hope we were appreciated. We
got back to the cars to have “Hannah” tell me we’d walked about ten
miles. We
then drove for a mile or so to “The Curious Pig in the Parlour”. It is a rather
good pub. We found ourselves a table in the garden and had a couple of drinks
and then had some dinner. I had pizza; I’d certainly have it again. The
burgers looked excellent; the child’s portion burger looked to have been more
than enough for me. And "er indoors TM"
had a rather good plate of fish and chips. I
slept most of the way home… I took a few photos whilst we were
out. I do that. And
in closing, yesterday was something of an anniversary. It marked ten years of
my continuous blogging. You can read all of it here as the first three
years were recorded on the now-defunct Yahoo360. Ten
years… I suspect in years to come "Stormageddon
- Bringer of Destruction TM" will wonder what his Grandad
did for his first forty-two years. |
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12
September 2016 (Monday) – Squirrel
I
slept like a log last night; I think I rather caught the sun a little on
yesterday’s walk. Over brekkie I had a look-see on-line. I had an email from the
chap whose geocache we replaced yesterday; perhaps I’m being over-sensitive
but I got the distinct impression he wasn’t happy about our being helpful. I
also saw the BBC are in the throes of making an
animated version of the lost Doctor Who story “The Power of the
Daleks”.
It looks rather good; they did something similar with a lost Cyberman story. It is only a shame that the BBC require
you to register before sharing any more details. I popped
the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and we went for a
little walk round the park. The cycle path from Bowens Field to Viccie Park was heaving with schoolkids, but once we got
to Viccie park we hardly saw anyone. Mind you there
was a dodgy five minutes with a squirrel; as we walked into the Chinese
garden I heard an odd sound. For a moment I thought a duck was stuck up a
tree. But it was a squirrel who was quite obviously shouting abuse at Fudge.
My dog got quite stressed trying to get to the squirrel, but the tree rat was
quite safe up the tree. I’ve not seen squirrels do that before: I wonder what
that was all about. I
went to work via Matalan this morning; I wondered if they had any trousers
that I liked. They did. In the past I've always got my trousers from them.
But just lately I've gone to Go Outdoors. On reflection I don't really know
why I've made this change. I shall go back to Matalan for trousers from
now on. They have decent trousers that aren't either so thin that they split
after a good fart, or cost the Earth. Go Outdoors have had their chance in
the trouser department and blown it. I
also had a look in Morrisons. I got some apples
from them. They aren't cheap. As I
drove the radio was spewing its usual drivel. This morning was "Women's
Hour". They started off by interviewing schoolchildren who were
taking up apprenticeships rather than going to university. As one girl said
"if you aren't doing what you love, what's the point?" She
seemed a very wise young lady, unlike the next interviewee. They
then wheeled on some mad Welsh hippy who was saying what a wonderful language
Welsh was, even though she admitted that no one in her circles actually spoke
it. She was saying how poetic it was, and then burst into song. In English. I
wish she hadn't; she sounded awful. I
got to work, my heart wasn't in it as I did my bit.
I found myself constantly hearing the words of the young girl on the radio
this morning. A very wise young lady. And
with my bit done I came home. The nights are drawing in; it is now dark when
the late shift finishes… |
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13
September 2016 (Tuesday) - Bit Dull Really
I
went to the loo shortly after 4am this morning; as I was about to get back
into bed I tripped over my little dog who was sleeping on the bedroom floor.
Just as I dozed off he started coughing. I say "coughing"; it was
more like a duck's quacking. I was about to take him for a drink of water
when "er indoors TM"
leapt up, grabbed him and unceremoniously dumped him on me. We
both lay in terrified silence after that. Over
brekkie I watched Sunday's episode of "Poldark". It was
rather good. I can remember my Grandmother and various aunts watching a
version of the show in the 1970s and thinking it was utter rubbish. Either
this version is far better, or I'm just getting older. With
neither "er indoors TM"
or "Furry Face TM" moving from their pit I left
them both and set off to work. As I drove I caught up with the news. there is talk of shaking up Parliament by getting rid of
sixty MPs and re-arranging the constituencies so that they all have about the same sized
electorate.
A sensible idea... if you believe in democracy. Apparently
Jeremy Corbyn is one MP whose seat would disappear.
That might solve a problem or two. And
there is going to be a by-election as David Cameron is to
resign
as a Member of Parliament. It will be interesting to see where he goes and
what he does. What does a deposed Prime Minister do once given the heave-ho? And
I was rather amazed to hear that one of my favourite TV shows; The Great
British Bake-Off will no longer be on the
BBC
after the current series. Apparently the BBC can't afford the show and it
will be moving to Channel Four. The pundits discussing this said the BBC
offered fifteen million quid to the makers of the show, but they wanted
twenty-five million. Will
it work on Channel Four? Here’s a thought - the BBC does not run adverts.
Channel Four does. Will each episode now be twenty minutes shorter? I
got to work, and came home again. Once home I took "Furry Face TM"
round the park for a walk. Fortunately for my nerves he didn’t misbehave at
all. "er indoors TM"
boiled up a rather good bit of dinner. And hen we
went round to deepest Willesborough where the clans
gathered, and I nearly (but not quite) stayed awake for an episode of
“The Flash” |
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14
September 2016 (Wednesday) - An Anniversary?
Yesterday
was the hottest day of the year and the hottest September day for over a
hundred years. Consequently it was a rather hot night; I didn’t sleep as well
as I might have done. Over
brekkie I watched Monday’s episode of “Dark Matter”; now the show is
coming to the end of the season it is getting rather good. I then checked out
the Internet to see what had happened overnight. Not a lot, it would seem. As I
drove to work the pundits on the radio were saying how the House of Commons
Foreign Affairs Committee has decided to blame David
Cameron
for the terrible state of affairs in Libya. Following a military intervention
of a few years ago things have gone seriously tits-up in Libya, and David
Cameron now seems to be a rather good scapegoat. Isn’t it a sign of our times
that people are more interested in assigning blame than solving problems. And
so to work. Today was something of an anniversary. It is thirty-five years to
the day since I first started working for the NHS. During that time I’ve
worked in a variety of positions in seven different hospitals. I’ve had good
times and bad. (And some which even now I gloss over…) I’ve seen some
changes, some for the better, some not so. I used to quite enjoy it, and
after thirty-five years I can only say that it is not a bad job. There are a
*lot* worse things I could be doing. But
I can’t help but wonder “what if”. I
did my bit, and came home. Once home I took my little dog round the park. I
took a photo as we walked, and when I went to post it to Facebook (as I do)
my phone didn’t choose Viccie Park as the default
location. Instead it chose “Pure Pleasure Zone”. It does that a lot. I
did a little looking, and it turns out that “Pure Pleasure Zone” is a
random house along Jemmett Road. It is listed on
Google as a “gift shop”. However it is lacking in any customer
reviews. I can’t help but wonder what “gifts” it supplies. I
did notice "Furry Face TM" seemed rather subdued
as we walked. I do hope he’s not sickening for anything again. Bake-off’s
on in a minute…. |
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15
September 2016 (Thursday) - Up The Creek (well - Medway)
One
of the “features” of my new lap-top is that it automatically backs up
my data to some unknown place on cyber-space. A good idea in theory; in
practice it does that at the expense of everything else it is supposed to be
doing, so for the first half-hour after boot-up the thing Is practically
unusable. I’ve turned this “feature” off. Why do I.T.
types insist on calling such troublesome ideas “features”? “Disadvantage”
might be a better description. Over
brekkie I read the news with a sense of “WTF”. The Secretary of State
for exiting the European Union has told the House of Lords EU select
committee “I may not be able to tell you everything, even in private
hearings” when referring to the negotiations he will be conducting on the
nation’s behalf. He’s told members of parliament (on Monday afternoon)
that full transparency would not be in the country’s best interests. Now
why are all those who voted to leave the EU because they felt that the
European Parliament was forcing rules onto the UK (supposedly without our
say-so) happy with this? "Furry
Face TM" seemed a little excitable, so I took him for a
walk round the park. On the way he tried to pick a fight with a bus, and he
had a respectable attempt at humping a Red Setter and a Labrador. I put him
on the lead as OrangeHead hove into view. She is an
odd woman. When I met her when he is on her own (as I did today) she
is polite, civil and friendly. However when surrounded by her little gang she
doesn’t even deign to acknowledge my existence. She asked if I’d seen Lynne.
Presumably Lynne is her Chunky Little Friend; I hadn’t seen any of her posse
this morning. Once
home we settled the pup in his basket, and "er
indoors TM" drove us out to Teapot Island. We’d both
taken a day off work today to go out in the canoe. We soon parked near the
water’s edge and got the canoe inflated. There was another group getting
ready to go sailing. We said hello, and I politely and jokingly told their
four-year-old (named “Bloomer” apparently) that the golden rule of
sailing was to watch out for the sharks. Oh
dear. I
didn’t know she’d spent the last few weeks in terror of actually being on the
receiving end of a shark attack in the Medway… Leaving
“Bloomer” to her family we set off. It was a lovely day for a sail up
the river; partly because of the wonderful weather and partly because no one
else was sailing up the river. I don’t know what happened to “Bloomer”’s crew (perhaps a shark *did* have
them?) but we only saw two other sailors all day. We
went up the river; the first half was easy enough but suddenly something
changed. Where once all really was plain sailing, suddenly we were all over
the place and spinning in circles. We eventually got to the lock where we
came ashore for a picnic, and we pulled the canoe out of the water and we
gave it a once-over. Disaster! The skeg had gone missing. (For
those of my loyal readers who are not of a nautical disposition the skeg is a sort of fixed rudder. For those of my loyal
readers who are *really* not of a nautical disposition, if you haven’t got a skeg then the canoe just keeps going in circles). The
idea was that we would paddle upstream to begin with, then
paddling back to the car would be going with the current and would be easy.
Without the skeg it wasn’t as easy as it might have
been. Once we’d got back to the car I consulted my GPS unit “Hannah”;
we’d done a total of five miles sailing. A
day out isn’t a day out unless we hunt for geocaches – we found three along
the river. There were others we didn’t find. One such failure may well have
been responsible for the loss of the skeg. Mind
you I quite liked the sailing, but there is no denying that it did nothing
for my tennis elbow. There is talk of taking "Furry Face TM"
canoeing. We’ve got a life jacket for him, but I think he’d get bored, and
then do a “dog overboard” chasing ducks. I took a few photos as we sailed. Once
home I posted them on-line as I so often do, and then once "er indoors TM" had showered off the
river water (I didn’t bother) we drove round to McDonalds. We soon met
Steve and Steve and Sarah and Jimbo and had a
rather good McDinner. "er indoors TM" then went
crafting, and the rest of us went round to visit Denver for a meeting of the astro-committee. Lots talked about, lots planned, maybe
changes, maybe not… all good stuff. I’m
off to bed now. I’m worn out. Today was a holiday? |
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16
August 2016 (Friday) - This n That
Yesterday
was a rather demanding day and with a rather cooler night that we have had
recently I slept like a log. It was only a shame that my dog had to start
shouting at the dustmen at 6am. I didn’t get back to sleep after that. Over
brekkie I got another year sorted on my Bat-Camp archive. So far the thing
seems rather biased toward my recollections simply because no one else has
offered any. I then made a start on writing up the minutes of last night’s
committee meeting, but soon got bored so I updated the astro
club’s website a little instead. There has been a few changes to the program
for the next few months; some at rather short notice. And the list of astro events (which was my idea) was now a little
out of date. But the website is now current. For a while. My
laptop then decided it wanted to have a little updating session so I took
"Furry Face TM" for his morning constitutional.
As we walked up the park we met a rather strange child. He insisted on making
a fuss on Fudge, and told the world at large that this small dog was his
cousin. His mother didn’t seem at all fazed by this announcement; one wonders
what goes on in that family. We
also had another run-in with a squirrel in the Chinese garden. At almost
exactly the same place where we were on Monday, a squirrel was squeaking
abuse at my dog. I wonder if it was the same squirrel. Shortly after that it
started raining. As
we walked my phone rang. "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
phoned with a torrent of abuse and profanity because she had left the baby’s
car seat in my car. It was as well that I was on a late start today. I
spent a few minute having a look-see on-line, then
set off to deliver the car seat. Littlun seemed
pleased to see me, but soon got irate when he realised that I was just paying
a flying visit and he wasn't having a ride in granddad's blue car. (He
calls my car "blue car") I
then carried on to work; as I drove "Women's Hour" was on
the radio. That show annoys me. It so often features aggressive man-hating
harridans shrieking about how women are brilliant and all men everywhere are
conspiring to piss on women's chips by portraying them as bimbos who should
stay at home and do housework. And so today the show completely undermined
itself by wasting twenty minutes whilst the presenters clucked about the
latest clothing fashions. I
stopped off at Morrisons to use the cashpoint
machine. I was pleasantly surprised to find I had forty quid in my wallet
where I thought I only had a tenner. Result! I
then got petrol, and popped into "Go Outdoors". My shooting
jacket has been wearing thin. Looking back the thing is now six years old; I
got it from a rather dodgy market at Portland Bill on 3 May 2010 (a diary
is a wonderful thing!), so I've had my money's worth out of it.
I've treated myself to a new one - I wonder how long this one will last. As I
left the place the rain started. I
got to work just as the torrential rain started, and I spent most of the day
listening to the rain against the window, and watching it out of that same
window. I had a wry smile about "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
and "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM". They'd gone on a day trip to Bodiam Castle. I did tell them that they would get wet,
but "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" was insistent that
all the attractions were inside. I bet she was cursing... The
plan had been to go out this evening after work but by the time I’d navigated
the detours because of the closed A28 I couldn’t be bothered… Maybe
next time… |
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17
September 2016 (Saturday) - Ryarsh to Trosley
I
didn’t sleep that well last night. I’d parked my car round the side road but
there are parking restrictions there – I can only leave it until 8am. So I
lay awake for much of the night listening out just in case one of the cars
parked outside my house might drive off. None had by 7.50am, so I moved the
car a lot further away than I would have liked. In
retrospect I should have bought a house with a drive. I
then had a look-see on-line. Alan Rubins has asked me to add him to my LinkedIn
network. I have absolutely no idea who this chap is. Have I ever met him? Do
we have mutual friends? If any of my loyal readers know who he is, please let
me know. Annabella
Richard wanted me to forward her all my banking details so she could carry
out some elaborate scam. Do people still fall for that old rubbish? Amazon
were recommending books I’ve already bought from
them. I
popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and set off.
"er indoors TM"
was off to a CITO event in Rye. That involves
physical labour, and my elbow was still painful from the canoeing on Thursday
so I thought I’d give that a miss. Instead I set off for Ryarsh.
There are three series of geocaches up there. Last year in a fit of bravado I
thought we might do all three circuits in one day. We didn’t. We sort of did
part of each of three circuits. It turns out Matt had done something similar
and was going back to do those he hadn’t and had asked if anyone would like
to join him. With no better offer at the time I’d said I’d go along, and
despite the drizzle we set off hoping for the best. The
rain soon stopped as we were soon in Ryarsh. It
wasn’t long before we were all together, and we set off on a rather good
stroll. There was a dodgy five minutes with Fudge; I let him off the lead and
he flew at a cat. However the cat stood its ground and just sat and glared at
him. My dog didn’t know what to make of this, and just barked at the cat until
I chivvied him away. In comparison the three squirrels he chased later paled
into insignificance. We
had a good walk; beautiful scenery and views with excellent company. It
turned out that all of us had done varying parts of the geocaches in the
area; we probably visited about sixty. Thirty were ones I’d not done before.
And as time was pressing we ended up cutting our walk shorter than it might
have been. Bearing in mind we ended up having walked over twelve miles that’s
rather good going. I took a few photos as we walked. Once
home and showered I popped them on-line then we went out for a birthday
celebration, Charlotte is now twenty-one, and so a meal at the Riverside was
in order. Wonderful food with wonderful friends; I really should go round to
the Riverside inn more often. Mind
you that fourth pint might have been one too many… |
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18
September 2016 (Sunday) - Hanningfield Reservoir
A
combination of having walked twelve miles yesterday together with that fourth
pint last night made getting up at 5.30am seem to be not the best idea I’d
ever had. As I
scoffed my brekkie I checked out my emails. I had another scamming email;
this one from Mrs. Fadhilah Hassan who was writing
to me “with tears and pain in her heart”. She can get stuffed. I spent
a few minutes writing up more minutes of last Thursday’s astro
club meeting, then got myself ready for the rigours of the day. We
collected Suzy and her entourage. Apparently Suzy had disgraced herself
overnight as only a dog can. We then set off for Hanningfield
in deepest Essex where we soon met up with Jo, Sam, Mark and Martin. Boots
were put on, loins girded and we set off on a geo-stroll. The NoCMoC (Nuisance of Cats - Murder of Crows) walk
was billed as a series of seventy geocaches over fourteen miles. We knew time
might be tight so we’d arranged to start walking at 8.30am. And walk we did.
Near Hanningfield there is a humungous reservoir –
this walk follows around the reservoir. But not closely enough so you’d see
much of it We
had a rather good walk. Beautiful scenery, and we
even saw a hare. You don’t see many of those. And
we all laughed when Suzy-pup jumped into the smelliest and most stagnant
water I’ve ever smelt. And the church with the floral depiction of the
burning of Joan of Arc was really impressive. However
after a mile or so I had to stop. My boot felt uncomfortable. I took it off
to find an AA-size battery in it. How did that get there? And
it was shortly after that when I became slightly miffed. On Friday I bought a
new jacket, and in Friday’s instalment of this drivel I actually wrote (about
this new jacket) “I wonder how long this one will last”. It lasted
about two and a half hours. The stitching on one of the pockets had
unravelled before 11am. That will go back to the shop tomorrow. And
we did have a dodgy five minutes at the Hanningfield
reservoir visitor centre. We’d parked at the north of the lake so the visitor
centre would be about half way round. Ideal for an ice cream we
thought. And it was. Having had an ice cream at the café at the easterly part
of the centre we then walked through the grounds of the visitor centre. There
were some wonderful forests. A couple of miles, an hour or so. The *ideal*
place to walk a dog. The two dogs in our party seemed to think so. But now I
come to think of it we didn’t see any other dogs there. It was only when we
got to the gift shop at the westerly extreme of the forests that some irate
old biddy told us in no uncertain terms that dogs were banned from the Hanningfield reservoir visitor centre’s grounds. And we
found ourselves being thrown out. It was probably as well that we were thrown
out just as we were leaving. Despite
the hound problem, geocache-wise this is a walk I would recommend. Billed as
seventy caches over fourteen miles I ended the day with a total of
seventy-two finds. There was one DNF, but we could
probably have squeezed in another half dozen caches without too much
diversion. Billed as fourteen miles, “Hannah” measured it at 15.8
miles. Mind you none of our sat-navs agreed that
closely on the distance walked, and I have always said that the lengths of
these geo-series are always under-estimated. (I myself have three such
series which are always reported as being far longer than I think they are).
Having read fourteen miles on the route descriptions I actually went out
expecting to walk eighteen miles. There
was a variety of cache types and hides. Some fun ones, some rather more
challenging. There was a chirp cache on the route; these are really rare. In
over seven thousand geo-finds I’ve only seen three of them. This would have
been the fourth - it was a shame none of our
GPS units picked up the chirp. I suspect the batteries of the thing need
changing. This happen from time to time (or so I’m told). Mind
you Sam did hit a milestone – she got her eight thousandth find. After
ten hours (nine hours fifty-three minutes to be precise) we were back
at the cars. Boots were pulled off; goodbyes said. Within
half an hour of setting off homewards it was getting dark. I took a few photos as we walked. Once
home I posted them on-line. I do this a lot. Being home rather earlier than
anticipated "er indoors TM"
set off bowling. I didn’t. I collapsed in front of the telly and scoffed
pizza whilst watching “Dad’s Army” as my dog snored. It
wasn’t that long ago he was in dog hospital.. |
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19
September 2016 (Monday) - Before the Night Shift
A
good night’s sleep; hardly surprising having walked nearly thirty miles this
weekend. I set the washing machine loose on lots of trousers, then had a look-see on-line. The astro club has had an email asking us to talk about stars
to a bunch of brownies. I’m not sure this is something we can (or should)
realistically do. As a one-off it might be fun. But word gets out in
those circles that people are doing star talks and the requests from
brownies, rainbows, guides, scouts, cubs, beavers, woodcraft folk, schools et
cetera become endless. It involves taking time off work, time in loading
equipment into the car, and unloading after the event. Many years ago I once
took a sack load of snakes to a scout group. Before long I was asked to turn
out once a week to all sorts of places, some as far away as Gatwick airport.
It was expected that I would show up at the most inconvenient times, and
great umbrage was taken whenever I said no. And to add insult to injury I was
giving up lots of time and effort for a load of kids most of whom openly
showed utter boredom and contempt with what I was trying to do for them. I
then finished writing up the minutes from last Thursday’s committee meeting. It
took a while to do. Now they are finished I just need to proof-read them, and
have someone check that what I wrote reflects what actually happened. I
also had a message about my geo-series in Bethersden.
Apparently someone has had yet another run in with a landowner down there.
However this is in an part of the series where we’ve
not had a run in before. There are also (apparently) electric fences
blocking footpaths. It
always amazes me that people present me with a list of complaints and
criticisms and problems about that Bethersden
series but seem oblivious to the fact that other people get round it fine.
Yesterday there were supposedly endless problems. Two weeks ago a group
complemented me on how good and trouble-free the route was. Interestingly
all the complaints are on the southern half of the walk. I might just see if
I can’t re-work it. I’ve got some time off work coming up. I
popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and we
walked round to see "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" and
"Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM". We walked out through the farm in South Willesborough to the playpark where the littlun ran riot on the swings and slide. He quite liked
the roundabout too, though it is just possible I might have spun it too fast. With
walk done I came home. I should really have mowed the lawn, but I decided
against that. My now the washing machine was on to its third load of the
morning, so whilst it did that I watched an episode of “Game of Thrones”
as I scoffed a bite of dinner. I spent the afternoon asleep, then watched “Poldark” and “South Park” over
a spot of dinner. I’m
off to the night shift now. Via “Go Outdoors”. I wonder what they will
say about this jacket that only lasted a couple of hours. |
|
20
September 2016 (Tuesday) - Between the Night Shifts
Last
Friday I bought a jacket from "Go Outdoors"; I took it back to them
last night. I was rather nervous about taking it back but they were brilliant
- they didn't quibble at all. The nice man agreed that It should have lasted
more than two hours and I was offered a replacement immediately. It was only
a shame that they didn't have any more in my size so I was given a refund. I
got to work, did my bit, and came home again. I didn't really want to do the
night shift last night but it wasn't that bad really. I like the time off
work mid-week that the night shifts give me; I just don’t like doing the
work. I
had planned to go out for a dog walk with "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
and "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM" this morning, but they had had a bad
night so it was just me and "Furry Face TM". He
was his usual troublesome self, causing mayhem as we went. The
funfair was setting up in the park as we walked. They come to the park a few
times every year; I really should go to see it at some point. I’ve not been
to a funfair in years. Over
a spot of brekkie I realised that I'd missed something. Yesterday was "Talk Like a Pirate
Day".
It was a fun thing once, but realistically it is now something which has had
its day. A shame perhaps? I
then had a little look on social media. There have been a lot of memes
circulating recently about ridding your life of the toxic people who bring
you down. There were a few too many of those on my Facebook friends list so I
thought I'd have a clear-out. However the very moaning minnies I'd decided to
de-friend this morning had already de-friended me when I hadn't been paying
attention. I
suppose that is no loss on either side. I
spent the rest of the day asleep despite my dog’s barking at every little
thing, and I’m off to another night shift now. The
day between two night shifts is usually rather dull, and today was no
exception... |
|
21
September 2016 (Wednesday) - Bit Tired
I
bought a packet of wasabi nuts to eat with my scoff last night. I say “scoff”
- I often have this lunch/dinner argument, but
what do you begin to call the two meals you have on the night shift (one
at 11pm and one at 4.30am)? I like wasabi nuts, but they gave me stomach
ache which lasted all night until the relief arrived at 8am. I
came home and saw "er indoors TM"
fleetingly as she left for work. My little dog seemed happy to see me, and we
went for a walk round the park. He was rather taken aback when a small ball
of fluff tried to do to him what he tries to do to most other dogs. I did
laugh. I
had all sorts of things to do this morning, but instead of doing any of them
once our walk was done I went to bed for a few hours. I
woke shortly after 2pm, and popped down to the fishing tackle shop. I needed
maggots, and I had this idea that they might sell shooting jackets. With all
their pockets I do find them to be really useful. The shop had none. The nice
man there was of the opinion that no one makes the things any more. I find
that difficult to believe. “Go Outdoors” has them even if they fall
apart. I
came home, nd ordered one from eBay at half the
price of “Go Outdoors”. I
then scoffed some dinner whilst watching “Game of Thrones”. In this
episode there was not a single willy or tit to be seen; quite a rarity. I
then spent a few minutes fixing the DVD player. It hasn’t been working
properly recently so I pulled out all the plugs and put them back in again
and now it seems to be working fine. I tested it out by playing “Little
Shop of Horrors” as I did some ironing. I
should really have then mowed the lawn. It is getting rather long. But I was
tired. It is strange – on Saturday I walked over twelve miles. On Sunday I
walked nearly sixteen miles. Neither of those were
as physically draining as doing a night shift. So instead I carried on with
updating the Bat-Camp
archive.
I’ve now got as far as 2010. I did the 2010 entry this afternoon. You can read
it in about two minutes; it took about an hour to prepare. I thought about
cracking on and doing the 2011 entry as well, but that will keep till another
time. "er indoors TM" came home
and boiled up a rather good bit of dinner; lamb chops washed down with a
bottle of red wine. We devoured it whilst watching “Bake Off”.
Sometimes I think I could be on that show… if only I could cook. |
|
22
September 2016 (Thursday) – Fishing
I
slept like a log last night and was busy in the midst of a nightmare about
our mortgage provider becoming a political party (what was that about?)
when the alarm woke me. I scoffed some toast whilst watching “South Park”
then had a quick look-see on-line. Other
than more scamming emails from allegedly deposed African royalty needing my
help to regain their fortunes, and more emails from Amazon trying to sell me
what I’d already bought from them, not a lot had changed. I
drove round to collect "My Boy TM" and we went on
to The Foundry for a spot of brekkie. You can’t beat a fry-up. And suitably
replete we made our way to the Royal Military Canal at Appledore.
We’d been thinking of going fishing for a while, and the canal would be
somewhere different. We’d not fished there since "My Boy TM"
was about eight years old. We
weren’t entirely sure who owned the fishing rights so we parked by a sign
that said “Day Tickets Available” and thought we’d get a day ticket *if*
the bailiff came round. If he didn’t we wouldn’t. We
were soon fishing; I had a dace within seconds of setting up. We had a rather
good time. The sun was out, we heard frogs, we
watched a kingfisher fly by. We even saw a small grass snake. We even caught
fish. To be honest the fishing wasn’t that good. In fairness it was sporadic.
We’d catch several then go half an hour without a bite. Just
as the wind was picking up to make fishing a chore Dan coughed and I looked
up. We had a visitor. A chap with an “Environment Agency” T-shirt. We
both looked at each other – it was as well we’d both bought rod-and-line
licences. But the nice man from the Environment Agency wasn’t interested in
seeing our licences. He just sat and chatted with us for half an hour and
told us of a stretch of the canal where you don’t need day tickets. Bearing
in mind how the wind was against us we packed up and relocated five miles up
the canal to Warehorne. We
soon found the canal, and after two minutes we found a far better spot to
fish. The fishing itself wasn’t any better than it had been near Appledore, but it wasn’t any worse. But there was no wind
and there was no bulrushes in our way. After
an hour or so "My Boy TM" asked me to get the
landing net. He had a rather large rudd. He
declared it was his “P.B. rudd.” I smiled sweetly; thinking it rather nice that
he’d named the fish “Paddington Bear”. After a few minutes I found out
that a “P.B.” is a “personal best”. One
lives and learns. Eventually
it was time to come home. The fish had stopped biting; the sun was going
down. It was noticeably colder. So I took "My Boy TM"
home and came home to a very excitable little dog. I immediately took him for
his walk. We went through the wetlands park. I would have carried on into Viccie Park butu I’d forgotten
the funfair was in town. "Furry Face TM" barked
at it to tell it off. I took some photos whilst we were out
fishing earlier. While "er indoors TM"
boiled up a rather good bit of dinner I posted them on-line. We then had
gammon steaks. Not too shabby… |
|
23
September 2016 (Friday) - Wye to Boughton Aluph
Yesterday
I had an early start (what with the fishing) so I set an alarm.
However I forgot to turn it off. I wasn’t impressed when it went off at
5.30am this morning when I could have slept a lot longer. I
didn’t really get back to sleep after that. I
checked out the Internet over a spot of brekkie. Little had changed really.
So with a little time on my hands I mowed the lawn. It hadn’t been done for a
couple of weeks and was rather out of hand. As is all the overgrowth pouring
over the fence from next door. I shall deal with that another time. I
then carried on updating the website of the various bat-camps we’ve had over the
years. I’m not that far from completion now – until next year’s camp. With
the lead popped onto my dog we stood outside and waited for the arrival of
Gordon and Norton, and then we all drove out to Wye where we soon met Mark.
Three of us (and two dogs) then walked a series of geocaches from Wye
up into Boughton Aluph
and back again. It was a glorious day for a walk; we saw lapwings and a
woodpecker. There were fish in the rivers; there were spectacular
views. Norton did disgrace himself by wallowing in some rather stagnant
water, but that is what dogs do. There
were two pubs on our walk; at the half way point we had a pint of “Trout
Pout” at Boughton Aluph’s
Flying Horse. We had our sandwiches there too. I’m not sure if we were
allowed to scoff sandwiches in the pub’s garden, but no one said we couldn’t.
And we had a pint of “mad cat red ale” at the end of the walk at the
Tickled Trout. It was good to sit in the beer garden at the water’s edge and
watch the dogs playing in the river. Mind you we did get a few odd looks from
an old biddy in the beer garden. It was only as we were leaving that we saw
the notice about dogs having to be on leads. I took a few photos whilst we walked.
It was somewhere I’d certainly walk again. And being very close to home I may
well do again. Geoaching-wise… I’m sorry to
be critical but… The geocaches were excellent. Straight-forward hides, and
mostly large caches big enough for travel bugs and stuff. But in all honesty
I personally felt there were nowhere near enough of them. The rules say that
the caches can’t be closer than one tenth of a mile apart. In new money that
is one hundred and sixty one metres. I’ve put out five similar geo-series (two
since archived) and I realise that sometimes things like open fields stop
you putting caches out. But on average I aim to have caches about every two
hundred to two hundred and fifty metres (or so). Much as I really enjoyed today’s
walk I personally feel that caches half a mile apart is too far apart.
Today’s walk was a series of fourteen caches over six (or so) miles.
It could have had thirty or more caches. I
noticed that our group was only the third finders of one of today’s caches;
the thing had been out for a month. Is it its isolation which has put people
off of going for it? - my series in Challock (not
five miles away) which went live at about the same time has had three
times as many hits. Having
said that, some people prefer them more spaced out. Each to their own… We
came home, and I spent an hour slobbing in front of
the telly watching “Game of Thrones”. It is a good show; it really
doesn’t need the amount of graphic nudity which its makers put into it.
Sometimes I really feel I’m watching a porno version of “Lord of the Rings”. "er indoors TM" came home
and boiled up fish and chips for dinner. Not too shabby if you like fish and
chips (which I do). I
should really have an early night. I’ve got to work tomorrow… |
|
24
September 2016 (Saturday) - A Day at Work
I
watched last night’s “all-new” episode of South Park over brekkie. It
was entertaining enough but I didn’t think it was *that* funny.
Perhaps after twenty seasons it has run out of steam? I
then spent a few minutes advertising the upcoming meeting of the astro club on social media. I would also have added
it to the upcoming events on “Town Talk – Ashford” and “My Tenterden” but both websites seemed to be broken. I
must admit I’m not entirely sure that we achieve much with this advertising,
but it doesn’t hurt to be seen to be doing something. As I
drove to work the pundits on the radio were discussing the day's news. There
was an interesting discussion about the UK's decision to leave the EU. The decision to
leave was made by a small majority, so leave it is. However no one really
seems to be in agreement as to exactly how amicable this separation will be.
On one extreme there are those who advocate sticking two fingers up at
Brussels and waving our arses in their general direction. The other extreme
favours desperately sucking up to Brussels in the desperate hope we will be
able to maintain the relatively favourable trading position we currently
have. And there are all sorts of positions being suggested between these two
radical positions. Personally
I think it is a bit late in the day to start worrying about this sort of
detail. Surely this should have been thought about months ago? Another
failure of democracy? Meanwhile
Facebook's boss Mark Zuckerberg, Russian millionaire Yuri Milner and
physicist Stephen Hawking are listening out
for aliens.
They have an idea there might be aliens on Proxima
b. Personally I doubt it, but Proxima b has the
advantage of being the closest rocky extra-solar planet to home which might
have the right conditions to harbour life I
can't help but wonder how these three got together in the first place. I
got to work and I sulked. It was a lovely day outside. For all that I had a
really good day's fishing on Thursday and an excellent walk yesterday, the
flip side is that I had to work today. There's no denying I would rather have
gone to the monthly geo-meet today. Instead I was at work. Until such
time as I can retire I'm not going to be master of my calendar. As I
worked my phone pinged intermittently with polite (and not so polite)
thanks-but-no-thanks messages. I've
planned a little walk for Tuesday and I've invited the world and his wife
along. If any of my loyal readers fancy a walk on Tuesday everyone is
welcome. However most people will be working. I realise that but I make my
movements known anyway. Because if I don't I get all sorts of people saying
they would have liked to have joined in with whatever I was doing that they
didn't know about. Mind
you we had a rather good surprise at mid-day. We had a visitor. Someone with
whom we used to work a few years ago called in to say hello. It was good to
catch up with Uju - I'd not seen her for a while. She
brought pizza with her. That went down very nicely. Pizza
went a long way toward cheering me up… |
|
25
September 2016 (Sunday) – Stuff
I
had a frankly awful night’s sleep. Despite a relatively early night I found
myself wide awake and struggling to breathe at 3am, and couldn’t get back to
sleep. So I put the finishing touches to the first draft of my archive of memories from Bat-Camps then watched “Dad’s
Army” over brekkie. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were
talking about a thinly-veiled attempt to re-write history. The current Prime
Minister has effectively one task; to lead the country out of the European
Union. However it has been questioned if she is right for the job as
she was never actually in favour of leaving. Or so we were once told. Now stories are emerging that the previous Prime Minister was not at all impressed with Mrs May's commitment to the "leave"
camp. It is now claimed that she let the "leave" side
down over a dozen times by refusing to speak out in public on the matter. Was
she a Brexiteer all along? I doubt it, but this is
what we are now supposed to think. Just wait - give it a week or so and history will
say she was in favour of leaving all along.
I'm sure he means well, but the media have decided
against him. And what about this "Momentum" political party
within a political party of his?
Is this idiocy on one side or conspiracy on the
other?
And I then did my bit. As I often do I found myself
looking out of the window and thinking about what I was missing.
Today is "My
Boy TM"'s birthday. The
family were getting together and going out for Sunday roast dinner. And a
beer or two. Still, we'd had a good day's fishing together on Thursday. I
really should organise another day on the canal… |
|
26
September 2016 (Monday) - Rostered Day Off
I
slept like a log, but woke with a rather painful elbow. What on Earth could
have set off my tennis elbow whilst I was fast asleep? Over
brekkie I had a look-see on-line (as I do). Not much had happened on
Facebook for once. I had an email from Amazon which made me wonder what that
company is playing at. For a successful world-wide business selling pretty
much everything, their I.T. leaves a lot to be
desired. Not only do they try to sell me stuff I’ve already bought from them,
they are now asking me to review e-books that I have already reviewed on
their site. I
popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM" and we went
for a little walk. "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" had
a better offer today, so instead I took my little dog out to Great Chart
where we walked along my geo-series for a couple of miles. I'd h’d reports that two geocaches I’d put out there were
missing so we went to have a look. Sure enough they were missing, so I
replaced them. Great
chart is a good place for a walk. My Patagonian Tripe-Hound was off the lead
for over a mile without getting into mischief, we saw a wren and a buzzard,
we had a good walk. Once
home I fixed the washing line. "er
indoors TM" had broken it a little while ago. And with
the washing line fixed I hung out washing. I then trimmed back more of the
jungle which pours over the fence from next door. I really should have a word
with him about his fixation on roses and clematis, but in all honesty I’m not
sure he wouldn’t physically attack me if I did. With
more washing put on the line I then had a look at the monthly accounts. Oh
dear… I have had a small pay rise and the mortgage payments have gone down by
a pound each month. And there’s no denying that the finances are *far*
better than they were a couple of years ago. But they are still a lot worse
than they were a couple of years before that. Perhaps Is should start
actively job-hunting again? Over
lunch I watched an episode of “Game of Thrones”. My SkyPlus box is odd. When I watch “South Park” it
makes me type in a secret code before it plays the show. It feels that an
animated show with all the swearing bleeped out shouldn’t be watched by just
anyone. However it makes no such restrictions when I want to watch “Game
of Thrones” which is in many ways little more than a pornographic
bloodbath. As I
watched nudey-dragon-girl incinerating her victim I
polished up my walking boots. They positively gleam now. I
then watched “Poldark” – another series which I am sure would be
better if I knew what was going on, and with the tumble drier having done its
best with my smalls I then folded up my undercrackers
whilst watching “Upstairs Downstairs”. "er indoors TM" came home
and boiled up a rather good bit of dinner, and once she’s gone bowling I did
a bit of sewing before programming “Hannah” for tomorrow. For
all that I need a job that pays more, I like having a job which gives me so
much free time… |
|
27
August 2016 (Tuesday) – Matfield
I
slept like a log; eight hours sleep last night. How about that!! Over brekkie
I was pleased to see (via Facebook) that a colleague was having a
birthday today; I could post up my new You-Tube birthday video that I’ve
made. The previous one was over six years old. I shan’t post a link to the
new one here; it will be a nice surprise when a birthday comes along. My
little dog wouldn’t eat his brekkie today; he always knows when I’ve got a
walk planned for him. So eventually I gave up trying and told him he could go
hungry. We got in the car and set off to Matfield.
I arrived early, but Dick was already there. Aleta
and Gordon soon arrived, and we set off hunting geocaches. We do that from
time to time. We
had a really good walk. The weather was nowhere near as cold as I thought it
might be; I took my fleece off right at the start. The walk was a tad hilly
though. But just over six miles was just right for today. It
was a good first outing for my new shooting jacket. After the last one fell
apart after a couple of hours use I actually got a far better one (at half
the price) from eBay and I did the trick today. And
I think I might be getting used to geocaching in imperial units. I’ve always
liked to measure smaller distances in metres, but longer distances in miles.
“Hannah” (my sat-nav) does either/or.
I took a few photos as we walked. If
nothing else my mum likes to see them. Cache-wise
it was an odd walk. I’d seen the geo-map and had suggested we make the walk
up as we went along, and that was pretty much what we did. There didn’t seem
to be any logical order or sequence to where we were going, and despite
having worked out what seemed to be a “best route” there was still a
lot of back-tracking. The individual caches were in reasonable order (because
previous finders had done all the required maintenance), but the GPS
co-ordinates were up to twenty metres out. And there is no denying that we
could just have done with some instruction or guidance from whoever it was
that had hidden them. It
turns out that they were hidden by a scout group some two years ago. They
were put out under a geo-profile which has never logged a find, and which
hasn’t been active in over a year. The series was *far* better than
that put out by some local scouts, but even so could have been so much
better. Once
home I slobbed in front of the telly catching up on
what the SkyPlus box had recorded. Sunday’s
episode of “The Last Ship” was rather good. However (as I’ve said
before) the show does suffer from most of the action happening quite a
bit away form that ship. And
yesterday’s episode of “Dark Matter” was quite good; it was the end of
season cliff-hanger in which all of our heroes were blown up on an exploding
space station. Apparently there will be another season of the show so I’ll be
interested to see how they get out of that one. Being
Tuesday the clans gathered. This evening in Arden Drive. Insults were
bandied, news swapped, and an episode of “Gotham” watched. I’d
forgotten how good that show was. And
my lego advent calendar has arrived… |
|
28
September 2016 (Wednesday) - Before the Night Shift
I
wouldn’t say I slept well last night. I slept for quite some time, but was
plagued with rather vivid and troublesome dreams. So much so that I was quite
unsettled for most of the day. Over
brekkie I had a look-see on line. Not much had really changed overnight. In
the news politicians continued doing what they do, on social media various
pots continued to accuse kettles of being black. In my inbox was an email
from LinkedIn suggesting I might apply for various jobs in Manchester and
there was an email from Amazon suggesting I buy that which I’ve already
bought from them. Some things never change. I
did see that someone had posted (on Facebook) that old chestnut about
not responding to letters through the door about parcel deliveries and 0906
phone numbers. Whilst it was once an active scam, it was shut down eleven years
ago. I thought about pointing this out but thought better of doing so;
I’m sure that someone along the line would make a point of taking offence if
I did so. Bearing
in mind that Wednesday is Brat Club (or “Mother & Toddlers” in the
more select circles) we didn’t go out with "Daddy’s Little Angel TM"
and "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM" for our walk today. Instead me and "Furry Face TM" made a
quick circuit of the park. As we walked my dog tried to hump another dog.
Unfortunately it was the dog of the silly old bat who thinks that neutered
dogs have a happy chubby smile. She started shrieking before Fudge had got
within ten yards of her dog. I felt rather sorry for her dog; he was
straining at the lead and obviously wanted to play. I suggested the dog be
allowed off the lead; she looked at me as though that was the weirdest thing
she’d ever heard. After
that even exchanging pleasantries with OrangeHead
paled into insignificance. We
came home. I hung the washing out, mowed the lawn, had a rake-up, and cleaned
out the fish pond filter. How easy it is to type that out… it took two hours
to do and left me smelling of fish poo. I
then slobbed in front of the telly watching stuff
from the SkyPlus box. I do this – it has the
advantage of being able to fast-forward through the adverts. Does anyone
actually watch adverts any more? I
then spent the afternoon in bed. I
would have liked to have slept longer, but that wasn’t happening so instead I
watched more telly. And now I’m off to the night shift… still bothered
by the nightmares *and* smelling of fish poo… |
|
29
September 2016 (Thursday) - A Day Asleep
Last
night’s shift was surprisingly quiet. Odd that I should have been more tired
than usual after a night shift. I came home just as "er indoors TM" was going out, and I
put on my new shoes and took my dog for a walk. I got some new shoes from Go
Outdoors last night. They are summery walking shoes. Perhaps this might not
be the right season for them, but they were half price. I took a photo of the
shoes on the table and posted it to Facebook. "er indoors TM" has this idea
that shoes on the table is unlucky, so I often put shoes on the table to wind
her up. As
we set off on our walk so the rain started. I think everyone else must have
seen the weather forecast; other than Orangehead
and her Chunky Little Friend, we didn’t see anyone as we walked. Once
home I poured dangerous chemicals down the bath’s plug hole. I’m pretty sure
I flushed out all the gunge from the pond’s filter, but it never hurts to
pour dangerous chemicals down the plug hole just to be sure. And
I put a different load of dangerous chemicals into the dishwasher to give
that a good scrubbing out; I thought it was a bit whiffy yesterday. I
then went to bed. Six hours later I got up and watched an episode of “Game
of Thrones”; and now I’m off to work again… |
|
30
September 2016 (Friday) - Astro Club
I
did my bit on the night shift; I was glad when the relief arrived at 8am.
However I was rather dismayed as I drove home. For some years there has been two scarecrows in a field near the A28 in Chilham. These two regularly change their clothes. Once
they were done up as a bride and groom; sometimes they are in in hunting
garb. At Christmas they are Santa and an elf. This
morning they were gone. I hope they are coming back. Once
home I took "Furry Face TM" round the park. He
was a good dog; only trying to hump one other dog as we walked. It was only a
shame that it was OrangeHead’s dog that he tried to
hump. We
came home and I then went to bed for a few hours. I would have slept longer
but for someone from Mumbai phoning claiming to want to claim PPI refunds on
my behalf. I swore at him quite vigorously but he didn’t take the hint, so I
explained in works of one syllable exactly what “F- you and F- the horse
you rode in on” meant until he took the hint and hung up. I
have always maintained that when insulting someone if you insult their horse
then they know you mean business. Over
a late brekkie I watched the most recent episode of “Game of Thrones”
that my SkyPlus box had recorded. I think the
machine made some sort of mistake; there was no jugs
or willies to be seen. I
looked at the housekeeping bank account. Not only has Fudge’s medical policy
monthly payments doubled, but the insurance people still haven’t paid up for
his recent illness. I phoned the insurance people. Apparently they sometimes
take two months’ money in one go (!), and they are still waiting to
hear back from the vet about why the policy documents show a recent change of
address. I explained (again) that the dog’s change of address was
three years ago and it has taken the vets three years to finally update the
records, but they wanted to hear this from the vets. They’ve only been
waiting for a reply for three weeks… In
the meantime I’m still six hundred pounds out of pocket. And
so to McDonalds where I met up with Stevey. Steve,
Sarah and "er indoors TM"
soon joined us, and we had a rather good McDinner.
And with that scoffed we went on to Woodchurch for
Astro club. With our speaker stuck on a Eurostar somewhere near Lille the
evening could have been somewhat disastrous, but Ibouight
along a backup lecture just in case he couldn’t make it. In the end the chap
did arrive. We had a very good meeting. One or two I.T.
hiccups, but to my mind that was all part of the fun. The
club has had its ups and downs but with over sixty people along tonight I
think it might be back on track. It’s now moving away from being an austere
polished professional business and back towards being a fun club to which all
are welcome. A move for the better. Now
to watch bake-off… once "er indoors TM"
comes home with the shopping. |
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