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1 September 2025
(Monday) - Week Off Day One
I
had a rather restless night. When I got up I stood
on the scales as I do every Monday. My weight is holding constant at about the
fifteen stone mark. Today it was under; tomorrow it will be over. Holding
constant is OK I suppose; I just wish it would drop. Being
the first of the month I got out a fresh razor blade and had a scrape. As I
scoffed toast I saw there was a new
geocache not a mile north of home. I got the dogs onto their leads and we went out earlier than usual in the hopes of a
First to Find. I couldn’t find anything; I’d been beaten to the First to Find
by twenty minutes and the chap who got there first said “We are not sure how long this cache will survive and evade passing
muggles as it is quite exposed”. As I hunted
for the thing I lost count of the amount of people walking past. If it was
exposed someone would probably have tidied it up. We went up to the woods. Now the holidays are over the woods were back to
normal. We only saw two other groups today; both within a few hundred yards
of the car park. We walked to the far end of the woods and back in the hope
of seeing deer. We saw two; for about five seconds as they ran across the
path. If you blinked you would have missed them;
they were certainly too fast for me to get the phone camera out. As
we walked I tried my birdsong app. It found six
varieties of bird today which was a vast increase on just the pigeons it has
been finding recently. We had a good walk; it was only a shame that Treacle
had to wallow in a puddle, but there it is. As
we came home there was something on the radio that I
immediately thought was drivel, but soon found myself hooked by the program.
It was talking about how the average new building looks dreadful, and how
seemingly anything gets through planning applications these days. The claim
was made that for all that planning applications have to
be advertised and made public, the advertising only
ever reaches (at best) three per cent of its target audience. That
could well be true; we found out about the removal of parking spaces up our
road after they went; we never saw any of the notices about it happening. I
munzed; being the first of the month I kicked
everyone out of the Munzee Clan with a view to all starting again in a couple
of days (as we do every month) and then had a go at Wordle; getting it
on the fourth attempt. And
I had a message about that geocache I couldn’t find. The thing was called “Lucky
Mendip” and the hint was “touching wood”
so I’d assumed it was on the “Mendip” road sign which had a wooden
backing. Apparently it wasn’t. Apparently
it was at the bottom of the hedge a couple of yards away. I went back and
found it right away. Had the hint been “randomly chucked in hedge” I might
have been more successful. From there I popped to the garden centre to have a
look. Had I been thinking I would have taken a bucket or a bowl or something
for transporting pond plants about in. But I wasn’t thinking. The
forecast for the afternoon was heavy rain, so with that in mind I started
updating a little project I originally started a few years ago. A guide
to how to do geocaching. It kept me quiet
for a little bit, and then I wrote up some CPD. And I then claimed
tax relief on my professional registration. I might get a bung, I might not. “er
indoors TM” boiled up dinner then
went bowling. I washed the undercrackers whilst watching an episode of “Black
Mirror” - imagine a world in which every interaction you have with anyone
else is rated and your social standing depends on your rating. And one bad
day can wipe you out… The
first day of a week off work… Rather dull really. Let’s hope this rain stops. |
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2 September 2025
(Tuesday) - Chestnuts
I
slept through till half past seven this morning. I got out of bed this
morning later than I took the dogs out yesterday. I
made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do most mornings. I moderate a
Facebook group about a rather obscure series of books, and on that group
someone has taken to putting up pictures of what he thinks the major
characters look like. It’s good that he’s making an effort;
it’s a shame that his pictures look nothing like how I imagine the characters
to look. And
there was some interesting postings on the Hastings
Old Town Facebook group. When I was a lad “Hastings Old Town” was a
small area a few hundred yards across. These days it is *the* place to
be and more and more people and businesses are
claiming to be a part of the old town even though they are at least a mile
from the place. And
I had a notification about a new Wherigo… in Boulogne. I
Munzed and Wordled (might)
and looked at the glorious sunshine outside. The weather forecast for today
was for rain showers. If I cowered inside every time a drop of rain was forecast I’d never go anywhere so I hoped for the best and
got myself and the dogs ready. We
drove up to the woods. As we went there was something on the radio from the
Edinburgh festival about Virgil’s Aeneid. I can remember
reading that at school in the original Latin. I can vaguely remember the
story being rather good, but far too much emphasis was put on my dubious
translating ability rather than on the actual plot. We
got to the woods and had a good walk. As we went I
gathered a few chestnuts; every year there’s a bumper crop of chestnuts to be
had up there, and every year most of it is left on the ground. I suppose the
squirrels scoff them. At about the two and a bit
miles mark so the rain started. Just drizzle, but wetter than I would have
liked. We
came home where I did the monthly dog flea treatments. I simply popped a drop
of jollop on the back of their necks; the girls were fine
but Morgan seemed terrified. I
did us both a cuppa, and looked out of the window.
As we’d driven home so the drizzle had got heavier. I
piddled about with car insurance and sorting the hours I’ve worked on my
rotas. Tedious and dull, but needs doing. And with
the rain showing no sign of letting up I started vaguely planning another
geo-project. “er
indoors TM” boiled up beefburgers which we scoffed whilst
watching the latest episode of “Lego Masters: Australia”. Tonight’s
episode was an elimination and there were tears. The judge “BrickMan” was obviously wearing make-up –
apparently he’d been
in a serious accident before filming. Those
chestnuts are currently in the shed. I expect I will throw them out in a
couple of weeks… |
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3 September 2025
(Wednesday) - Still Raining
I chuckled as I peered into the Internet this
morning. Last night there had been talk of aurora visible in Ashford, but
last night there was heavy cloud covering the entire sky. A chap I know (who
is a notorious wind-up merchant) posted photos of the aurora from last
time and claimed he’d seen it in Viccie Park last
night. And dozens of other people believed him. I munzed; crowbar-ing two qrates as one does, and
Wordled my way from ”tired”
to “fetch” in four goes. With heavy rain forecast for mid-morning I took the dogs out. “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and Pogo had been up for a sleepover, so Pogo joined us for our
morning walk. We only had a short one today; less
than half of yesterday’s. As we went Pogo screamed
at the normal people, and I screamed at Pogo. He simply wouldn’t stop
screaming at another dog no matter what I said or did, and when I finally
lost my temper and bellowed at him he looked at me
as though he really was saying “keep your hair on”. Sadly the rain started
when we were at about the furthest point from the car
so I cut the walk short (a bit). I had this idea that the dogs behave
better when Pogo is with us so I left them off the
lead right up to the point where they jump in the car boot. It was then when I realized I was missing one dog. Morgan was standing
about twenty yards away with a recalcitrant expression. He refuses to go back
to the car if we’ve walked less than three miles, and he wasn’t keen to end
the walk today; even if it was raining. As we drove home so the pundits on the radio
were talking about secret societies and things hidden in plain sight that no
one ever notices. Bearing in mind that’s what I do with the whole geocaching
silliness I had a little smile. And then the rain turned torrential. We’d got a tad damp in our walk. We got thoroughly soaked in the ten yards
from the car to the house. We towelled the dogs off,
I made us both a cuppa and I looked at my emails. My Credit Karma score has
gone down; my Experian score has gone up. How does that work? I then ran “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” and Pogo back home and went on a little shopping mission… or
tried to. I needed a new light switch. As I was in Folkestone I went to their
branch of B&Q… only to find it had closed in 2017. So
I tried Homebase… which had closed last year. I gave up with Folkestone and drove through the rain up to Ashford
where I went to Wickes. They didn’t have the light switches I wanted, and
their buckets were fifteen quid more expensive than
B&Q. So against my better judgement I went to
B&Q. They only had bog-standard light switches,
but by that time I was past caring. I got a light switch and a bucket. I came home as it was only round the corner. After a bit of dinner
I saw that the torrential rain had gone and bright
sunshine had taken its place so I popped over to Bybrook Barn to get the one pond plant I needed. We had a
spare planter in the pond. I got a pretty blue
plant; it might survive, it might not. I got the thing in the pond and the fish fed
just before the rain started again. Not being able to continue outside I made
us both a cuppa and did a little CPD and sulked
about this rain. With little else to do I sat on the sofa and
had my arse handed to me on a plate by the bots at chess dot com. “er indoors TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching
the first episode of the new series of Bake Off. It was on last night, but by
watching the recording we were able to fast-forward through half an hour’s
worth of adverts. I’ve taken a serious dislike to
one of the contestants, but judging by his
performance I can’t see him lasting very long. Oh and my Lego Advent
Calendar has arrived. I ordered it from Amazon yesterday as then it was four
quid cheaper than the official Lego store. Today they are the same price (!) This will be the sixteenth year that I’ve
done my little Advent story. I wonder what this
year’s will be about? I really should open the thing
now and give myself a few months to plan something, but I never do. I open it
on the morning of the given day and spend the day desperately wondering what
I might say about it… I’m getting rather hacked off with this
seemingly constant rain… |
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4 September 2025
(Thursday) - And the Rain Keeps Coming
I
slept reasonably well, despite rather vivid dreams about two fish ponds that had appeared in what was once my Dad’s back garden. Why would anyone think I’d go over
thirty miles out of my way (and quite a bit of expense) to create
ponds? My subconscious certainly thought I might… Rain
was again forecast for all day, but seeing it was dry I bolted my toast and
took the dogs out. As we drove to the woods the pundits on the radio were
talking about the deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner who is facing all sorts of accusations about the stamp
duty that was or wasn’t paid on a house she either bought or sold. From what
I can work out she was wrongly advised, and has
referred the matter to the official investigator herself. I can’t see what
more she can do. And
there was all sorts of talk about “Martha’s Rule”. In theory it is a
good idea and will give patient and families an automatic right to a second
opinion should they want one. In practice a worrying number of patients and
families feel that over twenty years of medical training and experience is
worth nothing when compared to five minutes misunderstanding of a You-Tube
video which had been posted by a half-witted conspiracy theorist. We
took an age to get to the woods. With the holidays over and the schools back,
the idiots at Kent Highways department thought that today would be the ideal
day to cone off half the roads in Ashford. Once
at the woods we walked our usual route. Rain had been forecast, and it came
when we were about half a mile in. We kept going, and by the two mile point
we were completely soaked. Ironically the sun came out when we had half a
mile to go. My
“Map My Walk” app had another funny little episode. At four miles the
screen showed that we’d been walking for one hour and eighteen minutes. But
at that point it loudly announced that my average speed had been twenty
minutes and fifteen seconds per hour… which would have meant that we should
have been walking for two minutes longer than we had (I’ve got a degree in
maths, you know!) A trivial point, but if my phone is getting that wrong,
what else is it ballsing up? We
came home where the dogs had a hot shower to shift the mud and warm them up,
and I put all my wet clothes in the washing machine. I had a cuppa, and looked at the glorious sunshine outside. The
glorious sunshine lasted for half an hour then it started hossing
down again. I
did the ironing whit watching an episode of “Black Mirror”; if someone
hacks your lap-top and videos you having a crafty joddrell
and then blackmails you, would you go along with their demands? The episode
was rather good, starring him from “The End Of The Fxxxing World” and him
from “Soldier Soldier” who’s been in
everything. The
rain eventually stopped so we went into the garden and did the “Feed The Fish” ritual, then I had a little think. “My Boy TM” gave me a box which would be ideal as a planter, but there’s
nowhere suitable for it to be. I had a few plants where the thing is at the moment, and they baked in the constant sunshine. And then I had a stroke of absolute genius (I
have those from time to time!) I could paint it up, use
off-cuts of wood and leftover trellis to make a shelf high up inside it, and
I could put some spare cobblestones on it. The whole lot could then go
against the fence and I could put garden gnomes on
it; you can never have too many garden gnomes, can you? I’m keen to do this project on the cheap… not
because I’m mean (which I am) but because I’ve saved so many odds and
sods from other garden projects that they are taking up too much space and
need using up. “er
indoors TM” came home from work and boiled up a very good
couple of platefuls of tacos which we washed down with a bottle of
Sainsbury’s Malbec. And we scoffed and guzzled we watched the latest episode
of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” which was very good… even
if it was an total rip-off of something from forty-five
years ago. Once
dinner was scoffed I cracked out the port and cheesy
biccies. Both me and the dogs are fans of cheesy biccies…. |
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5 September 2025
(Friday) - Stopped Raining
Sometimes
I worry about what goes on in my head – I woke in a cold sweat at four
o’clock this morning following a very vivid dream in which I’d been sent to
rescue the Baptist minister of Minehead (who is in reality an old school
friend of mine) from a very camp policeman who wanted to take him on an
Open University Summer School. What
was that all about? I
completely forgot to put the washing machine on, made toast and had a look at
the Internet. It was dull but I had several emails exhorting me to buy the
latest Harry Potter Lego sets. Have you seen the price of them? I
took the dogs out. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how
it is becoming more and more likely that the odious Nigel Farage will be
the next Prime Minister. Not because of any
of his policies, but because the average voter feels that they know what he
stands for whether or not they agree with him. Apparently people would rather vote for someone with whom
they totally disagree rather than for someone with no clear agenda.
Democracy, eh? And
there was an interview with Tottenham Hotspur football club’s director of
football. Apparently some head honcho there has left
or got the sack or something. This director of football bloke wasn’t happy
because everyone seems to judge Tottenham Hotspur football club on the
results of the football team (or lack of results). This bloke seemed
to be rather miffed that no one takes any notice of how profitable the
Tottenham Hotspur football club business is. From the way he was speaking he
was of the impression that professional football clubs are money-making
businesses (what with all the merchandising and season tickets and stuff)
and should be rated like any other business. Clearly hoofing a ball round a
field was very low down the list of his priorities. We
got to the woods and had a good dry walk. Treacle found a big puddle to
paddle in. Morgan and Bailey found a herd of deer to chase. We saw a cyclist;
we rarely see those in Kings Wood. Morgan didn’t get run over but it was
close. We
met a fellow dog walker we see from time to time. We exchanged pleasantries
and as we walked away I overheard her saying to her mate that she loves my
three dogs as they are such an unlikely combination. I
suppose they are. We
came home and I put the washing in to scrub. After a
quick cuppa I cracked on in the garden. It was good to get into the garden;
what with all the rain I’ve been going stir-crazy this week. I had a look at
that planter that “My Boy TM” gave me. I sawed some off-cuts to shape
and built an internal shelf for the thing then got a first coat of paint onto
it, hung out the washing then had a bit of peanut butter and marmalade on
toast for lunch. I got another coat of paint onto the planter, then
realized that my plan to use white cobbles in it wouldn’t work. The colours just wouldn’t contrast, so I popped over to the
garden centre to see what they had. As always they
were doing three bags of aggregates for the price of two… I only need one and
a half bags so if anyone wants some plum slate… Whilst I was at it I got
another pond plant. It was only a couple of quid and its picture looked
pretty. I came home and heaved the bags of stone into the
back garden, and got a third coat of paint on to the planter… I must stop
calling it a planter. It is going to be a gnome platform. By the time I’d got
the washing in I was worn out. But I felt so much happier that I was able to actually do something today. “er
indoors TM” boiled up fish and chips which we scoffed
whilst watching drivel on telly as we do. I
might have overdone the gnome platform… I ache. |
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6 September 2025
(Saturday) - Hic !
I
had a plan to paint the underside of the gnome platform this morning but I ached too much when I got up. I made toast
and had a look at the Internet instead. Several
people were being rather disparaging about Angela Rayner. Three days ago the news mentioned that the deputy Prime Minister was
in all sorts of trouble because of irregularities in the stamp duty she did
or didn’t pay when buying or selling a house. A couple of days ago she
claimed she paid the amount that her solicitors advised her. Two days ago her solicitors claimed they hadn’t advised anything
and claimed they were being scapegoated. And yesterday it would seem she resigned. To
get on in politics you’ve either got to be utterly squeaky-clean or not give
a sh*t about what the public think of you. But
what amazed me most was that (in broad terms) she’s not really done
anything that any other disgraced politician hasn’t, but the people on my
Facebook list who were ripping into her were totally denying that anyone in
their favourite political party had ever done anything wrong in the history
of politics. I’ve always thought that you should make a political decision on
the strength of policies offered, but so many people I know chose a favourite
political party in their youth (at the same time that they chose a
favourite football team) and have stuck with that party through thick and
thin regardless of what the party stands for or their own personal beliefs. I
was reminded of the most left-wing woman I ever met who always voted
Conservative (and even distributed election leaflets for the Tories),
always have a “Vote Conservative” poster up at election time even
though she was constantly spouting what was actually pure
Labour party propaganda. Apparently her father once
commented that she was a “True Blue”, and she supported the party ever
since even though she disagreed with everything they stood for. And
then I sniggered as I checked my emails. I’ve an alert set up on the
geocaches we visited when in Uzbekistan last year; I’m nosey and I like
seeing where people are coming from for their Uzbek holiday. When you sign up
for a geocaching account you get to choose an alias. Someone had chosen the
sobriquet “Shart”. Morgan
came down obviously wanting something. He didn’t want to go outside, he went
back upstairs, then came back to me. Twice. I followed him upstairs to see
that he wanted to jump on the bed, but Treacle was on the bed guarding it and
wouldn’t let him come up. Treacle can be quite mean to the little ones. As
I was upstairs anyway I got dressed, and once
dressed I went into the garden. Aching or not that gnome platform needed
another coat of paint. As
Treacle glared out of the window growling at every passer-by, Steve was on
the radio. The guess the lyrics competition today was “Well you’re built
like a car”. No? – it was T. Rex – Get It On (Bang a Gong). No – I’d never
heard of it either. I was only eight at the time… We
drove round to Dog Club where we had a rather good session. I lost count of
the amount of dogs that were along today. All was
going fine until the very end when two new dogs arrived… and then things got
“rather frisky”…
there’s not a lot you can do when the urge is on dogs to start humping each
other. As
we drove off we caught the end of Steve’s mystery
year competition on the radio. Yazoo – The Only Way Is Up… I was eight years
out. We
drove up to Challock listening to the Ying Tong
Song on the “Junior Choice” part of the radio show, then went on a
rather good little walk. Back in the day I had a series of geocaches around
North Challock. Last year someone put out a new
series up there. It was a good little walk; only a shame that the caches
clearly need a little maintenance. Some were old and tired,
some were quite a bit off of the given co-ordinates. And
with walk walked in a novel break with tradition we didn’t go to out usual pub in Badlesmere. Instead we tried the Wagon and Horses in Charing.
I’m glad we did. They had some rather good beer and some very good food. We
were at table twenty-five… if you can find a sign with “25” on it and
take a selfie you can log this
year’s locationless geocache. Those
things are rather obscure – this is only the third I’ve ever found. We
were only at the pub for four hours. I slept most of the way home… I
took a few photos of our adventure today. It was as well that I
painted my gnome platform this morning; it would have been a tad ambitious
this afternoon… |
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7 September 2025
(Sunday) - Not In Edenbridge
I
slept well, made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. Again people were up in arms about the state of the
boating lake on Hastings sea front. The thing is a
bit of a mess, but sadly it is in private ownership
and the owners don’t seem to be able to make money from it. As always there
was no end of people willing to find fault, and no one willing to actually help or do anything about it. I
then did a little research. Yesterday I was a bit dubious about where we
chose to park for our walk… and then I saw the Village Post Office in Challock had been converted into a house. Apparently they
closed for the last time three years ago. It’s amazing what you
miss if you don’t pay attention. I
checked the weather forecast. The plan for today had been a big walk round Edenbridge,
but we cancelled than because the weather forecast up until Friday gave heavy
rain all day today at Edenbridge. Today the weather forecast was sun with no
chance of rain all day, Ho hum… I
Munzed, Wordled, and got
on with painting the gnome platform… then remembered that the first thing I
should have done this morning was to put washing on. Woops… We
took the dogs out for a little Munzing round the local roads. We went up
through Bowens Field where I used to walk Fudge all the time. The place had
changed beyond recognition – an entire boardwalk had gone. We went up into
the town and along Godinton road to the Godinton estate and home via Singleton Lake. When we went
out I thought it might have been maybe three miles;
it was six and a half. As we went we Munzed like things possessed, capping over seventy
Greenies (which was quite a result if you go round scanning bar codes
stuck to lamp posts). And I archived half a dozen of my Munzees – since I put them out the life belt holders,
lamp posts and road signs to which I’d stuck them had been taken away. As
we walked we didn’t find two geocaches. One was
particularly overgrown with brambles, and someone had been taken short and
had done a crap very close to where the other one was supposedly hidden. How
delightful. We
came home. I hung out the washing then ran round with the lawn mower and the
garden vacuum cleaner. I then sat by the pond thinking about cracking on with
the gnome platform… but only thinking about it. “er
indoors TM” boiled up some toad in the hole which we
scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Lego Masters;
Australia”. There’s a fine line between unreasoning national pride
and xenophobia; sadly one of the contestants is
seemingly continually on the wrong side. Hopefully
she will get thrown out in the next episode… And
it is now three years since my dad died. |
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8 September 2025
(Monday) - Gnome Platform Done
I
rolled my eyes as I peered into Facebook this morning. I follow a Facebook
page which is all about supposed sightings of big cat in Kent. But unlike a
lot of other Facebook pages, this one actively exposes the crackpot
conspiracy theorists. There was one such post today about a chap claiming he
had been mauled by a leopard in nearby
Surrey. The lacerations on the chap looked nothing like those left by real
leopards (evidenced by attacks in India). And suspicions are always
raised when the one being attacked is reluctant to give their name. And
Kent County Council were getting some stick. They’ve published a consultation
asking what people what them to spend their money on. The bew Reform UK council has made a great show of their
Department of Local Government Efficiency so you would think they’d sorted
the finances, wouldn’t you. They might
make a go of it, they might not. But for a political movement that has for
many years (under different names) just sat on the sidelines throwing
rocks, the worst thing that could ever happen to them has happened. They've
now got to do something... Will they? It’s three months since I wrote to my
new county councilor about the flooding at the Asda underpass… I
took the dogs down to Orlestone for today’s walk. In the past I’ve mentioned
that their behaviour is worse there than in Kings Wood. They weren’t *that*
bad really but were certainly slower to come back than they usually are. We
saw a huge bird of prey as we walked. It flew a few yards over our heads, but was gone by the time I’d pulled out the camera. We
came home. I did a little heavy lifting in the garden getting the gnome
platform into place, then made us both a cuppa, Munzed
a bit and took the girls to the doggy dentist. Both were surprisingly well
behaved there – Doggy Dentist lady said she could see that the chicken’s feet
they crunch every evening were doing some good. We
came home again, and I went into the garden and started painting up those
gnomes I bought on my last trip to Whelan’s. I got them half done before the
rain started. The rain that wasn’t forecast, and the rain that came when both
the BBC and the Met Office said less than ten per cent chance of rain. I
retreated inside for a bit of dinner and a Wordle session until the rain
stopped. I
got Wordle on the second go – I was impressed. With
the rain stopped I got the gnomes finished, then got the slate into the gnome
platform, and got the gnomes in place. That was supposedly this week’s
project… I’d better find something else to do for the rest of the week. I
have something in mind… |
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9 September 2025
(Tuesday) - Garden Lamp Post
I
got up in the night (as I do) and so being up I put a load of washing
in to scrub so that when I got up properly I could
hang it out to dry. There’s not that many people organised enough to be
hanging washing out at seven o’clock, is there? With
washing pegged out I put another load in, then made my toast. In
the series “Star Trek: Picard” if you pause the show at the exact
right spot you might catch a glimpse of the USS
Saratoga. It takes some doing to get the right spot. This morning as I peered
into Facebook people are arguing (quite heatedly) about a screenshot
of that fictional spaceship taken at the vital moment. Quite sadly most of
the arguments could have been settled had anyone read the caption that went
with the picture causing the arguments, but some people do like to quarrel. And
a friend had watched some filming in Rye. Apparently
there’s to be yet another remake of “Pride and Prejudice”. There’s
quite a few remakes and reboots coming up; I
suppose those making the TV shows and films are guaranteed an audience and so
are confident they will make money. But
the biggest squabble today was about the new local secondary school that opened
this week. On the A28 about a mile or so out of Ashford there’s no way to get
to it unless you walk down the busy A28. Amazingly no one realised this until
the school opened. I
munzed, got Wordle on the second go (again),
hung the second load of washing out and thought about getting ready for the
day. As
we drove up to the woods the pundits on the radio were interviewing Mark O’Shea about his
fascination with snakes. I found myself thinking back to the days when I
had more snakes than sense. And I found myself
thinking back to the old snake club. Like so many things over the years that
sadly went from an excellent start to being one big argument. Just like
Facebook, really. We
got to the woods and walked our usual circuit. As we went Treacle picked up a bone, Bailey rolled in something disgusting, and I
was asked (by a “very nice man” who was mincing by) if Morgan was
safe. And
we chased two herds of deer too. I
came home to find the postman had been with the reminder for the car’s road
tax. It was only twenty quid for the year, but still twenty quid I’d rather
not have to shell out. And whilst I was at it I
signed up to the NHS organ donor register. Personally
I can’t help but think that acceptance of organ donation should be taken as
read and people should opt out rather than opt in, but what do I know? I
went into the garden and harvested dog turds. So often I find myself
wondering how three small dogs can generate so much dung. I then sorted the
fish dung; cleaning the pressure filter is so much easier than cleaning those
old green box filters I used to use. And
then I made a start on the next garden project. I assembled the garden lamp
post that Chris gave us, then had a measure up. It wasn’t quite tall enough
for where I had in mind so it needed a little
podium. I thought I could lay one of the spare slabs which is laying round
the garden, get a sleeper and chop it into four, and make a little pedestal. I
went to B&Q… Will
I never learn? According
to the dictionary, Brownian Motion is “random movement of particles suspended in liquids or gases resulting
from the impact of molecules of the surrounding medium”. A rather good example of this was all the people in
B&Q who were bouncing off of each other as not
one of them was either watching where they going or
aware that there was anyone else in the shop. I pushed my way out to the timber yard where I found
the sleeper I wanted… for twenty-one quid. I announced “sod that” out
loud, and several heads turned. I explained that the same thing was available
in Wickes for eleven quid, pushed my way back through the milling throng and
drove round to Wickes where I got a sleeper and all the fixings for what
B&Q wanted for just the sleeper. It pays to shop about. I
did myself a bit of toast for lunch, then cracked on with sawing the sleeper
to shape. In retrospect I might have exaggerated a little. I suppose the saw
probably was sharper than my arse. But probably not by much. So there was a brief hiatus whilst I popped back to the
shops to get a saw that was definitely sharper than
my arse. Suitably
armed with a saw I cut the sleeper into four sections, screwed them together
into a little podium and put some paint on it. And while the paint dried I watered the plants, and
got the laundry in before dobbing out a second coat of paint. The
finished lamp post looks rather good. “er
indoors TM” finished work, and we took the dogs down to
Orlestone for a brief two-mile walk. It would have been better had Bailey not
disappeared. She was only gone for about two minutes, but if you look on the “Map
My Walk” tracks from today you can definitely see
where I was back-tracking and going here and there looking for her. We
had a couple of rather good lamb burgers for dinner which we scoffed whilst
watching the second episode of “Destination
X” in which the woman I couldn’t stand got the heave-ho. I was
pleased about that – is that wrong of me? It’s
dark outside – the lamp post has lit up. It’s rather pretty. And
I’ve walked over twenty-one thousand steps today… |
|
10 September 2025
(Wednesday) - Rain Stopped Play
With
a forecast of thundery showers starting mid-morning I
got out promptly. As we drove to the woods the pundits on the radio were
interviewing the head honcho of some union or other. The train drivers are
all out on strike again wanting more for doing less. I suppose you can’t
blame them really. We all want more for doing less, and if they are prepared
to go on strike until they get it, then they will probably get their way. I
suppose that in this day and age what with health and safety what happened a
hundred years ago would be a non-starter, but the general strike of 1926 failed in no
small part because a whole load of volunteers went out and did the jobs of
those on strike. It
is the dream of so many people to drive trains about; I wonder if anyone is
game to be a passenger for them? We
got to the woods and walked pretty much our usual route. We didn’t see any
deer today; I blame one particular woman for that.
At the furthest point from the car so I could hear bells clanging and frantic
shouting. Some idiot woman had attached cow bells to
her dogs’ collars and was constantly bellowing at them. Why do so many people
feel the need to be always hollering at their dogs? We walked for just under
five miles today and I only had to call out to my dogs once (when they set
off after a squirrel). As
we walked we took a path I’d never walked before. I
knew where the path went; it just cuts a corner. But as we walked it so we found another of those lookout platforms and a
sink hole too. That’s twenty-eight sink holes I’ve found up in Kings
Wood. We
came home. I had a cuppa and Munzed. Our Munzee
clan has reached the first of our monthly goals, which was a minor result.
And I got Wordle (pouty) on the third attempt. I
went into the garden and hacked back the stuff pouring over the fence from
not-so-nice-next-door until the drizzle got to be too heavy, so I came in
and wrote up some CPD. And
then the drizzle stopped and the sun came out so I went back into the garden. I got another dustbin full
of stuff shifted before the rain returned and I came back in again. As
the rain hossed down I started working on
creating a new puzzle geocache. When we walked on Sunday I found what I thought might be a good place for a
puzzle. I worked out a puzzle to lead people to it, and
then drove out to hide the final cache. And whilst I was at it I put out another one as well. As
I drove so the weather had perked up, so I went and had a look in the garden.
I got maybe half an hour’s hedge trimming done before the rain beat me. I
wrote up some more CPD; my CPD blog has been read over twenty thousand times
this last week. Mind you this one has had a quarter of a million hits this
week. It’s got to be automated bots, hasn’t it? My life is on the dull side
at best. I’ve re-installed the hit counting software to see if that makes a
difference. We
did have a vague plan to take the dogs to Orlestone this evening, but the
drizzle had become full-on heavy rain. We
had a rather good (meat-free!) pasta bake whilst watching last night’s
episode of “Bake Off”. Am I being mean in feeling that I’m not really
warming to any of the contestants? And
those geocaches I set up earlier have just gone live. |
|
11 September 2025
(Thursday) - More Rain
I slept well – up until four o’clock. But
after a quick pop to the loo I couldn’t get back to sleep.
I dozed on and off up until half past seven then gave up and got up. I *really*
hate this; I spend much of the evening falling asleep in front of the telly
when I want to be awake, and then I’m wide awake when I should be asleep. I made toast and peered into the Internet in
the desperate hope that something interesting or amazing might have happened.
It hadn’t. Social media was quiet. I had no emails worth
having. Neither of the two geocaches I’d hidden yesterday had been found. I munzed, and as
the dogs scoffed their brekkie I got ready for the
off. As we drove the pundits on the radio were
interviewing Ben Proud; an Olympic swimmer
who has signed up for the Enhanced Games; a proposed sporting
event in which contestants are allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs if
they want to. Mr Proud was saying that he’s coming to the end of his swimming
career and this is his last chance to make big
bucks. He claimed that these enhanced games will allow him to make more money
in one year than he made in the last thirteen. There was then a strange
conversation about how professional athletes are paid and how they should be
paid more. Should they? Is swimming fast a career or a hobby? Should I get paid for taking my dogs for a
walk or for going geocaching or doing gardening or any other hobby? We got to the woods in bright sunshine, but
the rain started about a mile into the walk, and it continued for two more
miles. We had a good (if damp) walk, and the rain stopped about half a
mile before we got back to the car. We came home for a cuppa. Treacle barked at
the bin men emptying the garden waste bin (and got in trouble for doing so),
and I did the ironing As I ironed I watched an
episode of “Black Mirror”. Imagine realising that reality is actually one big simulation and you are at the mercy of
the passing whim of a sadist… Seeing the rain had cleared I went into the
back garden and carried on trimming back the roses and vines and brambles and
trees flowing over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. How tall is it
reasonable for the plants, trees and shrubs along her fence to be? It’s
difficult for me to be impartial but I’d say that they are about six to eight
feet above what I’d consider to be too tall. I’ve mentioned it to her in the
past, but the last time I tried she just started ranting and pretended not to
understand me; hysterically shouting “don’t you understand English”? I then had a little doze on the sofa. Having
sat with me by the pond for a while, Treacle then sat on my lap as I slept. I
hope she’s OK – she has been very clingy today. “er indoors TM” boiled up a rather
good curry which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of the current
season of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” which sadly was
perhaps the weakest episode for a long time. One of the geocaches I hid yesterday has been
found – the one with the tricky puzzle, The really easy
one remains unfound. Seriously? I’ve got to go to work in the morning… |
|
12 September 2025
(Friday) - Back to Work
I
had the worst night's sleep I've had for a very long time. I finally got to
sleep about ten minutes before the dogs came up, and they then stomped about
and wriggled and scratted. When they finally settled
I eventually nodded off only to wake at half past midnight. I then just dozed
on and off. I eventually gave up laying awake at
half past four and went downstairs where I watched an episode of "Black
Mirror". It wasn't the best one - ones set in people's homes
don't really work that well when the home in question is American. My UK home
has a *lot* of differences to something in the USA, and I
can't really relate to it. Taking
care not to wake those who'd woken me I set off to work. I went via the
petrol station at Sainsburys where I took a deep breath. There was some idiot
at the checkout. Once he'd paid for his petrol he then paid for some of his
shopping. Then he paid for the cup of coffee he'd bought. Then he
paid for more of his shopping... It really didn't occur to him to pay for
everything in one go. As
I drove westwards through the -hursts and the -dens the pundits on the radio
were talking about how the UK’s ambassador to the USA has been sacked on
account of his being matey with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and
had various university
honours withdrawn. And
on the strength of this, the Prime Minister is getting a load of
stick too. Bearing
in mind that Epstein has been dead for six years isn’t this all a little bit
too late? I
got to Pembury. Having had a week off last week, and my working days
this week being today and tomorrow I've had quite a break from working.
There’s no denying that I wasn’t keen on it today. But it has
to be said that I’d far rather work where I am these days than where I
was ten years ago. But
an early start made for an early finish. I came home and “er indoors TM” boiled
up fish and chips which we scoffed whilst watching the third episode of “Destination
X”. It’s an entertaining enough show, but… At
the end of each episode the contestants have to mark
where they think they are on a map of Europe. It doesn’t matter how many
clues you get hinting at the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the CERN nuclear
facility or Venice if you have no idea where those places actually
are on a map of Europe. Today
is the first time in two weeks I’ve not logged a few miles on “Map My Walk”… I’ve
got to go to work again tomorrow. Today
has been dull… but I’ve learned how to measure my stress levels with my
watch. A day when you learn nothing is a day wasted… |
|
13 September 2025
(Saturday) - Before the Late Shift
I slept for a few hours… there is something
profoundly depressing about waking to the sound of heavy rain. I lay awake
for a while listening to it hammering on the bedroom window. I got up and made toast. As I scoffed I peered into the Internet as I do. It would seem
that Apple TV have renewed “Foundation” for a fourth season,
and there was a lot of arguments about the show on Facebook. As a
visualisation of Isaac Asimov’s classic books it is
crap as the only thing it has in common with the books are a few of the
characters’ names. As a stand-alone TV show it
isn’t *that* bad, but its overriding disadvantage is that it is on
Apple TV. Who watches Apple TV? By the time you’ve
spent out on Sky and Netflix and Paramount Plus there’s only so many
streaming platforms you can waste your money on. I munzed and wordled and hoped the rain might clear up,
but took no chances and wore wellies to Dog Club. I could tell that
winter is on the way as the wellies came out for the first time. Steve was on the radio – the Guess the Lyrics
competition was to identify the song which has the lyrics ”These
are my salad days – slowly being eaten away”. No? - Gold by Spandau
Ballet – as I said to Steve arguably their worst song ever. Dog Club started rather badly for Morgan. To
begin with the emphasis was on playing fetch. Balls were being thrown and
retrieved, and Morgan was crying. He soon perked up when the treats came out
though. For him (and many of his furry friends) Dog Club is “Second
Breakfast Club”, not “Playing Fetch Club”. Despite the rain we had
a good time – fourteen dogs turned up and braved the elements. Sadly the elements got more harsh
as Dog Club wore on, and was torrential as we left.
We gave Skye and her mum a lift home – they’d walked the mile (or so)
up to Dog Club in the drizzle but it wouldn’t be
fair to let them walk home in the downpour. We got home and caught the end of the Mystery
Year competition on the radio. “How Bizarre” and “Killing Me Softly”?
1996. We had a cuppa. Back in the day we would have
had a cake of some sort with it. Back in the day my blood pressure was three
points off of a stroke. I looked at the geo-map and
planned a short little walk for tomorrow, and then
got ready for work. When our work rota came out I’d
stuffed up and hadn’t realised I was working this weekend. I only found my
mistake a couple of days ago when a colleague asked if I might swap my
rota-ed shift tomorrow for this afternoon’s. I can’t say I want to work at
the weekends, but if I’ve got to work at the weekend
I mind it a lot less if the rain is hossing down. I ran down the road through the rain to my
car and set off west-wards. As I drove
I carried on listening to Steve on the radio. When I work at Maidstone on a
Saturday late shift the radio reception normally gives up as I drive past
Lenham. Today heading to Tonbridge Wells it lasted
as far as Goudhurst which is over twice as far (twenty-one miles as
opposed to ten). That's odd. And rather than generally fizzling out like
it does when I go up the motorway, the radio cut off rather sharply and was
rather abruptly taken over by Capital Xtra as I crested the rise at Goudhurst
church and headed downhill. Capital Xtra wasn't the same
so I turned it off and sang along to Ivor Biggun for the last ten miles of my
trip. Sadly as I drove so the
weather perked up a bit, and I started my shift with a bit of a sulk. But as
the skies clouded over and the rain started, so I cheered up. That was rather
mean of me, wasn't it? I went in to work and did my bit. Today’s shift could have gone a lot worse,
but I was still glad to see the night shift arrive. |
|
14 September 2025
(Sunday) - Biddenden
Yesterday
I wore my wellies for the first time this autumn. This morning as I had a shave I realised that the central heating had kicked in.
Summer is definitely on the way out. As
I scoffed toast I peered into Facebook and saw quite a few posts about
the “Unite the Kingdom” rally that took place
in London yesterday involving a hundred thousand people. Some were exercising
their democratic right to protest about the scale of immigration to the UK.
Some just wanted to march round London shouting hate. Fear of the foreigner
is human nature, but yesterday’s rally was a tad extreme. What many of those
marching failed to realise is that once they have had the fist fight for
which they are so clearly looking. they will have to wait longer and longer
in A&E to be stitched back together as more and more
of the immigrant workers doing the skilled jobs in the UK are going back to
their countries of origin as they no longer feel safe here. (A colleague
of over twenty years left for this very reason last week). I
also can’t help but wonder why the chap who organised the rally has to use so many aliases. I’m
not saying that this rally didn’t have a point. Uncontrolled immigration
needs to be addressed, and no government of the last twenty years has
achieved much. I suppose it is yet another failure of democracy in that we
get the leadership we vote for, and who’s going to be stupid enough to stand
for public office? “er
indoors TM” and the dogs got up and we went into the
garden. Treacle has to be supervised in the garden
now. She found a frog out there the other day and now we don’t so much have a
back garden as a frog hunting zone. So gets a tad obsessive. I
Munzed. Wordled, and planned for the day. We
had vaguely planned a walk round Faversham yesterday, but instead we thought
we’d try some woods near Biddenden. There were a few challenge
geocaches there. I can’t say I’m a fan of challenge geocaches – some are easy
enough to do, but others involve having found silly amounts of obscure
geocaches. But we found a series of five for which we qualified for three.
And it made for a decent dog walk. It was a shame that I clouted my head
rather badly on a low tree, and that the actual footpaths in the woods bore
little (if any) relation to those marked on the Ordnance Survey maps.
But the dogs had a good walk. From
the woods we drove past two more caches – 3-D printed gadgets which took a
little brain-straining to open. We
then went on to the tap
room of the McCann’s brewery. I’ve seen signposts to the place as I’ve
driven to Tunbridge Wells, and eventually we got round to calling in today.
We had a couple of pints of rather good beer, and a pizza too. I took a few photos as we went here
and there. We
came home where Bailey went straight into the bath; she was filthy. Despite
the earlier pizza we still had a Sunday roast (diet? – what diet?) I’ve
now got a lazy evening sitting in front of the telly having forgotten all
those silly jobs that need doing. There’s a ton of things that I need to do,
and I could do when I am otherwise bored and wasting time sitting in front of
the telly. I always remember them when I’m at work or in the car… I
know I’ve a ton of things to do… I just can’t remember any of them… |
|
15 September 2025
(Monday) - MOT, Chess, Dull
I
woke up feeling rather grim. One of the girls at work on Friday had a cold; have
I caught it? I got up and hung out the washing I’d put in during the night,
put another load in, had a scrape and then stood on the scales. My weight is
holding constant just under fifteen stones. It could do with being a lot
lower, but it is slowly heading in the right direction. I
made toast and had a look at the Internet. A colleague is in Bali for a
traditional wedding, and I did chuckle at the photos. He’s got all the
traditional Balinese clothing… except for the Nike trainers. Hatred
and rhetoric still abounded on Facebook following Saturday’s rallies in
London. Those who didn’t march were accusing those who did march of racism
and hatred. Those who didn’t march were accusing everyone else of not
understanding the problem. Even though they were unable to state what the “problem”
actually was. I
Munzed, Wordled, and
explained to the dogs that walk would be later. They didn’t understand. I
drove the car over to the garage for its MOT. As I drove so the pundits
on the radio were talking about the recent Israeli attack on Qatar. And as is so often
the case, rather than discussing current issues, the one being interviewed
started harping back to grievances from over thirty years ago. As I have said
before, no one in the Middle East is prepared to let bygones be bygones and
move on. A
bit like me, I suppose. The
plan for the morning was that I would sit and wait for half an hour or so
whilst the nice man in the garage worked his magic on my car, then come home
and do dog walk. The nice man said that I would have to sit and wait until
mid-day as they were busy. So I drove back home,
collected the dogs, drove the car back to the garage and walked the dogs back
home. Two and a bit miles in less than forty
minutes; that was good going. Once
home I got out the lawn mower and gave the lawn a once-over, and then voomed round with the bionic burner. As I bionically burned so a passer-by asked what I was doing.
She commented that she’d seen me with the thing in the past,
and thought it must be something to do with the weeds as she’d noticed
that my garden had very few weeds when compared to other gardens up and down
the road. I felt rather smug about that. And
then my phone rang. It was the garage. The car had passed its MOT but only
just. The brakes really needed new discs and pads. Personally
I’d rather have reliable brakes in the thing, and seeing how the car was in
the garage and they could do it today I asked them
to sort it out. After all, what is money for if not to squander foolishly? I
made us both a cuppa and thought about what else I might have spent six
hundred quid on. But I can’t complain really. That car does a lot of miles; a
round trip to work is fifty quid. And I do put money aside for this sort of
thing. I’d just rather spend it on something more fun, or tiddle it up a
wall. Whilst
I wated for the phone call saying the car was ready I wrote up a little CPD, I did a YouGov survey about banking,
then logged on to chess dot com. It gave me a free tutorial on queens (woof!)
and three puzzles, then I played chess with bots with varying degrees of
success. The
garage called; the car was ready. Leaving Treacle at home I just took the
little ones. Treacle had a good walk earlier and she’s an old lady. Having
walked home along the river earlier we walked back to the garage through
Newtown. Using the “Map My Walk” app I could find out which was the
quicker route. The quicker route was through Newtown – five minutes faster
and quarter of a mile shorter. Not that I will remember that next time I need
to walk to or from the garage. But regardless of which way we walked, driving
home was certainly quicker than walking. I
sat by the pond with the dogs for a bit reading my Kindle. I seem to do that
quite a bit these days. And as it got colder I came inside and slept on the
sofa for a couple of hours. After
a bit pf pizza “er indoors TM” went
bowling. I sparked up the telly and watched a surprisingly disappointing
episode of “Black Mirror” in which having been the passenger in a car
involved in a hit and run, some woman went on a psychopathic killing spree
for no adequately explored reason. Today
has been relatively dull, and I’ve got to go to work tomorrow… |
|
16 September 2025
(Tuesday) - Late Shift
I
got up shortly after seven o’clock, hung out the washing I’d put on in the
night, put more in and looked at the Internet as I scoffed toast. More and more people were posting about last Saturday’s
rally in London, claiming to have been there. More and more
were claiming that it wasn’t about hatred and thuggery. But still no-one
seemed to be able to say what it *was* about. I
Munzed, got Wordle (Lefty) on the fourth
attempt, and got ready for the morning… making a point of waking everyone
else up. How long can you stay in bed? I
took the dogs out for a walk. As we drove the pundits were talking about the
ongoing situation in Gaza. With pretty much everyone seeming to be about to
recognise Palestine as a state, the Israelis were getting more
and more confrontational, and there were interviews with all sorts of
prominent Jewish people who made a point of being unable to distinguish
between disapproval of Israeli war crimes and anti-Semitism. We
got to Orlestone woods. My plan for today was to investigate a track I’ve
been looking at for some time. A week or so ago a dog walker I’ve seen a few
times told me that it was a lovely little track that eventually met up with
the main path at the southern end of the wood. What
he actually meant was that the track fizzles out
after twenty yards and becomes a poorly marked path following a rather deep
ditch. We
followed the track and the path along the ditch. The ditch was deep, and
there was a barbed wire fence along it, and it wasn’t long before Bailey was
on the other side of both. Not
wanting total disaster I got Morgan and Treacle on
their leads and tied them to a tree, then set off after Bailey. Over the
barbed wire, down into the ditch and up the other side. Morgan and Treacle
were very understanding; I only heard occasional whinges from them as I forced
my way through thickets hunting for Bailey. After
what seemed an eternity (but was probably less than three minutes)
Bailey appeared, and wasn’t at all impressed to be
put on the lead. Getting
her back across the ditch and the barbed wire fence took some doing… We
(eventually) came home and I got a message
from Gordon. A new geocache had gone live on the way to work. I set off in
the hope of being First to Find. Had there not been endless temporary traffic
lights up the A20 I might have been first… Ho
hum… I
got to work, did my bit and came home. You have to wonder
what half-wit at Kent Highways decided to schedule road works on the A20
whilst closing the M20 at the same time… |
|
17 September 2025
(Wednesday) - Core Shift
I woke at half past one feeling like death
warmed up. I popped to the loo, went back to bed and woke four hours later
feeling a lot better. What was all that about? I made toast with peanut butter - a jar had
appeared in the cupboard (as if by magic). As I scoffed brekkie
I watched an episode of "Black Mirror". A world in which an
automated system forces into endless awful relationships as a prelude to
finding your perfect soulmate... what if that person
is the first one you meet and the system says no? Bearing in mind how bad the roads were last
night I made an early start and drove through the rain. There was quite a bit
of idiot driving going on today; so many people dangerously overtaking
everyone else just to get to the red traffic light a split second earlier. As I drove the pundits on the radio were
talking about the state
visit of President Trump. It was claimed that the British contingent is
hoping for all sorts of preferential trade deals, whilst all Mr. Trump wants
is photographs of him having tea with the King. All I know about the chap (Mr.
Trump, not the King), is what I hear and see of him in the media, and I
can hardly expect that to be impartial. But from what I see and hear he
really does seem to be to be on a par with some of the more simple-minded cub
scouts with whom I dealt all those years ago. Meanwhile Science is about to clone
a Dodo. That'll be nice... The rain had eased up by the time I got up
the motorway so I popped into Sainsburys for a
sandwich. I could have got one from the works branch of M&S but
Sainsburys costs less, and has bigger portions of
better food. M&S seem to rely on a reputation which (in my
experience) is very unwarranted. I got to work early, and as I had a few minutes
I treated myself to a couple of hundred calories of cheese scone. Last year I
used to have one of those every day. Last year I was a lot heavier and three
points off of a stroke. Work was work. I came home (as I do)
where “er indoors TM” had
boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of
plonk whilst watching Lego Masters: Australia. And in closing today marks one year since we
flew off to Uzbekistan. In some ways that has gone fast;
in other ways Tashkent seems a lifetime ago. |
|
18 September 2025
(Thursday) - Bad Bailey !!!
I
slept through till after eight o’clock this morning. I got up, made toast,
and had a look at the Internet as I do. My piss boiled as I read one of the
local Facebook pages. People were up in arms because the local hospital has
shut its branch of Costa and is using the space as a makeshift ward. Hospitals
can’t win. There’s
ever increasing demand, ever decreasing resources, public pressure to send
much of the workforce back to their countries of origin, consternation about
people on beds in corridors, and now when they repurpose an area as a ward,
that’s wrong too. What the self-appointed watchdogs don’t realise is that by
creating this aura of public hostility to hospitals, no one wants to work in
a hospital, and the situation just gets worse. I
Munzed, got Wordle (knife) on the third
attempt, and got ready for our walk. A month or so ago a friend had archived
all her geocaches in some (relatively) nearby woods. I had a vague
plan to put out another series there; the idea was that if the woods were
good for a dog walk then geo-maintenance could be combined with a dog walk. We
got to the car park of the woods to find a load of people clearing away their
overnight camp. A lot of local woods are well known to tourists as somewhere
that you can camp overnight for free. I
put on my wellies and we went for a walk. The woods
are good for a walk in that they are flat, but… Bailey got on to the wrong
side of barbed wire fences twice, disappeared down a rabbit hole, and just as
I thought she was calming down she vanished for half an hour. She can be a
sod… In
between Bailey playing silly beggars I found eleven
hidey-holes for new caches, Maybe not a perfectly
circular walk; maybe a tad too much back-tracking. But it would make a good semi-regular dog
walk for me (even if Bailey has to go on the lead). We
came home. I ironed some shirts whilst watching a rather weak episode of “Black
Mirror” in which some woman was running through a post-apocalyptic world
trying to escape from killer robots. No explanation was ever given for
either. And
with shirts ironed I made a start on preparing the web pages for the
geocaches for which I’d found locations this morning. My plan was just to
make a start… I got all of the admin
done. The new geo-series is almost ready to go; all that remains if for me to
actually put the pots under rocks at eleven specific
locations. I thought about doing that this evening, but we would have been
running out of daylight. It will keep until later… later probably being early
next week. Seeing
the dogs were fast asleep I loudly announced “I’m
Going To Feed The Fish”.
It was mean of me, but they leapt up. They love the feeding the fish ritual
as they get some of the food. As
I went into the garden I saw all the little jobs I
was going to do. The big pond filter needs a clean. The little pond’s plants
need pruning. The lawn needs mowing… “er
indoors TM” boiled up a very good curry which we scoffed
whilst watching this week’s episode of “Bake Off” in which there
are three distinct groups. Those wondering if they’ve one, those wondering if
they are going home, and those making up the numbers. I’ve
got to go to work again tomorrow… |
|
19 September 2025
(Friday) - Pirates, Biccies
I woke far too early as I do, and being
totally unable to get back to sleep I got up, made toast and watched half of
an episode of “Black Mirror” then had a look at the Internet. It was a
tad early for the usual squabbles, but I had a message via the geocaching
website. Someone was asking for a clue as to how I’d solved a particular puzzle. Sometimes I solve
puzzles by a non-traditional technique (I swap answers for ones I’ve
solved for ones I haven’t), but I can distinctly remember being very
pleased with myself for solving this particular one.
Sadly it was a while ago and can’t really remember
how I did it. I really should keep my notes… I *think* it was
something to do with prime numbers. I set off to work through thick fog; taking
care not to run over any bin men as I went. As I've said before the local bin
men have something of an attitude about them. Not content with blocking
traffic in every direction, they make a point of lunging in the way of any
vehicles which are brave enough to try to move. As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the
radio were talking about a job opportunity. MI6 (the bunch which James
Bond supposedly works for) have vacancies for the post of "Russian
Double Agent" and are inviting
applications from any Russian spies who want to spill the dirt on
what's going on inside the Kremlin. How does that work as a career? Do you
get a fixed salary and leave entitlement? How would you phone in sick if you
felt a bit under the weather? Meanwhile NASA has found extinct
Martians. With a little time to spare I went to
Sainsburys for a sandwich and some beer for a weekend walk. As always there
was no one operating the tills so I went to the
self-service tills. The machine didn't like that I was trying to buy beer and
cider, and said that I had to wait for a human to
verify me. I checked my watch and timed the delay. Six members of staff
were within ten yards of me. Three were talking whilst supposed to be filling
the shelves, two were trying to log a mobile phone onto Sainsbury's wi-fi,
one was staring into space. Six minutes passed before I heard one of them (the
one whose phone wasn't connecting to the wi-fi) say "we'd better
sort that one out". She then walked over, waved a card at the
self-service machine, and walked off again without saying a single word to
me. If there was another supermarket anywhere
near work I wouldn't go to Sainsburys; I go there so often
and they really couldn't care less about their customers. I got to work for the early shift and cracked
on. At tea break there were biccies. Home-made biccies. They were rather good. Work was work. An early start made for an
early finish. “er
indoors TM” boiled me up a pizza
then went off out with her mates. As I scoffed pizza and watched more “Black
Mirror” so Treacle was snarling at the window.
Half a dozen police were standing outside the house, and half a dozen others
were standing on the other side of the road. What was that all about? And in closing, today is National
Talk Like A Pirate Day. Back in the day this was a thing... it has rather
died out in the intervening years. |
|
20 September 2025
(Saturday) - Rather Busy (Actually!)
I
was wide awake at three o’clock, and stayed wide
awake. I got up at five, made some toast, and made a
decision. Someone was staging a geo-meet at Kings Wood at half past
six this morning. With nothing to do but wait for Steve to come on the radio
and then go to Dog Club, faced with a dull couple of hours I thought we might
go to that geo-meet. The
dogs weren’t at all impressed at getting up quite so early, and neither
was “er indoors TM”. We
got to the car park at Kings Wood where we had a good little meet talking
about hiding film pots under rocks. Clearly Forestry England is under new
management. When I tried to have a meet there I was
met with obstruction and resistance. The chap who arranged this morning’s
meet said dealing with them had been painless. I
shall try again to organise a meet there myself. And
with meet met we then took the dogs on a short(ish)
walk round the wood. I had hoped that being there early we would have had a
better chance of seeing the deer. We didn’t see any, but the squirrels were
active. We
got back to the car park at half past eight. I have never seen so many cars
in the car park. As we walked we saw a lot of people
foraging in the undergrowth for mushrooms. Was everyone foraging? As
we drove so I tuned the car radio to Radio Ashford. Last Saturday I mentioned
that the radio signal reached twenty-one miles to Goudhurst. This morning the
signal was seriously breaking up in Challock and
that’s only five miles. The
plan was to go from Kings Wood to Dog Club. The plan was that the morning
would stay dry, and the weather forecast had gone along with this plan up to
the end of the walk. Sadly as we drove down from Challock to Ashford so the
heavens opened. We got do Dog Club where a dozen dogs had a great (if very
wet) time. I took a few photos whilst
we were out. “er
indoors TM” went off to craft
club. I took the dogs home for a hot shower to both warm them up and to wash
the fox poo off of Bailey. I
made a cuppa, wrote up
some CPD, then watched a bit of telly until “er indoors TM” came home. We had a bit of cheese on
toast, gave ourselves bellyache, then took the dogs for a walk. The
geo-feds weren’t happy that one of “er indoors TM”’s geocaches
has needed maintenance for a couple of months. The geo-feds let other people
have six months, but there it is. Sorting it out made for a good dog walk. We
came home and then I did something I’ve been meaning to do for years. For
some time my Facebook feed has been full of utterly
irrelevant tripe and I rarely see anything of
interest. I imagine that what is presented to me is based on some algorithm
of my activity, and I’d noticed that I was following over a thousand
different pages. So I went through that list… How on
earth do things get on to your “following” list? I was (apparently)
following pubs and hotels I’d visited ten years ago, pubs and businesses that
had closed years ago, so-called celebrities from TV shows that were cancelled
years ago, celebrities who had died years ago, random businesses and
tradesmen from over a hundred miles away, several dozen cake manufacturers (none local), several young ladies in saucy
undercrackers (!)… I unfollowed loads of irrelevant rubbish. And
then I looked at the groups that I was in. Six hundred and seven… So I left a few. “Rusty Stuff Appreciation Society”,
“Classic Literature”, “Calvin and Hobbes Characters”, “East
Midlands Koi Keepers”, “Save Swanscombe Peninsula SSSI”… I left over fifty groups that
I had no idea why I might have ever joined in the first place. I
wonder if that will perk up my Facebook feed? “er
indoors TM” went off out with her mates for the evening. I sat in front of the
telly and fell asleep… I’ve had a rather busy and full-on day and walked
over fourteen thousand steps. So why do I feel as though I’ve done nothing? |
|
21 September 2025
(Sunday) - Badlesmere
I
slept reasonably well I suppose; I seem to be taking longer and longer to
doze off these days though. I
made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. Having cleared my Facebook
interest lists of all sorts of things that were on no interest to me, this
morning I was presented with suggestions for groups and interests that were
similarly of no interest to me. This AI has got to go a long way before it is
ready to take over the world. I
had quite a few emails this morning. One hundred and seventeen “Found It”
logs from one of the people who were at the geo-meet in Kings Wood yesterday.
Bearing in mind that they started at seven o’clock yesterday, and one of them
was sending me messages about my virtual cache in Viccie
Park at twenty past five yesterday afternoon, that’s an average rate of just
under twelve caches an hour. That’s a bit keen. The
new geocache that “er indoors TM” put
out yesterday had gone live. I decided against chasing the First to Find.
Bearing in mind I knew where it was, that would be cheating. We
got ourselves and the dogs together and wet off up the A251 to Badlesmere where we met Karl and Tracey. They’d had a
flurry of “Needs Maintenance” logs on their geocaches and were doing a
maintenance run, and we went along for the walk, even if Needs
Maintenance” logs wind me up. A Needs Maintenance” log means
there is something wrong with a geocache. Today there were twenty geocaches
all with the same issue; the paper logs that you sign were getting full. But
rather than doing the decent thing and popping a scrap of paper in each
geocache, someone had just put out a load of Needs Maintenance”
logs instead. From their perspective it is a lot less effort, I suppose. But
a walk round Badlesmere is always good. I
wore wellies as we walked as I had been expecting loads of mud; there wasn’t
any. As we walked there were loads of conkers on the floor; don’t kids play
conkers any more? I
brought one home to plant. It might grow into a tree for a big pot in the
front garden. As
we walked we found loads of corrugated metal sheets
laid out. I thought there might be snakes or lizards under them
so I carefully had a look under each. No reptiles, but we did find a
dormouse. We
had a good walk; a few drops of rain as we scoffed our picnic but that soon
dried up. And we even took a little diversion to find a geocache too. After
four and a half miles we were back at the cars which by some strange coincidence were just over the road from the Red Lion in Badlesmere, so we popped in for a couple of pints and
some pork scratchings for the dogs. I took a few photos today…
and slept much of the way home. “er
indoors TM” boiled up sausages
and chips which we scoffed whilst watching “Lego Masters: Australia”. Sadly one of the teams I quite liked got the heave-ho. I’m
thinking of an early night as I’ve got a belly ache… I’m also thinking of a
late night as that way I might stay asleep longer. Decisions,
decisions… |
|
22 September 2025
(Monday) - Rather Busy
Every
Monday morning I stand on the scales… my weight has
been holding constant at one pound under fifteen stone for some time now. I
suppose holding constant at a lot less than what it used to be is something
of a result, but I’d rather more came off. I
made toast and peered into a dull Internet. Despite having left so many
groups and “de-interested” myself from no end of nonsense on Facebook
I was still being presented with a lot of utterly irrelevant drivel. I want
to see what family and friends have been up to – that’s why I tune in every
morning. With “er indoors TM” fetching “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” (who
had an errand to run) I tuned Alexa to Radio Four. The pundits on the
radio were interviewing the head honcho of the co-op who was talking about
how so many failing pubs and theatres are being bought up by local
communities. But for all the talk there was no mention about whether these
ventures made a go of that which they’d bought. I was reminded of “Daddies’
Little Angel TM” little shop in Margate when she
found that the local Tesco was selling pretty much everything cheaper than
she could get stuff wholesale from the cash and carry. The UK has formally
recognized the state of Palestine, and has asked the Israeli
government not to go attacking innocents in retaliation. And there was
talk of Gatwick airport for which permission has been given for
a second runway. There’s very rarely anything positive in the news,
is there? The
radio then said there would be rain showers today in Kent… even though their
own website’s weather forecast said there wouldn’t be. I
put a load of washing in and then went down the road to the dentist. Every
time I go there I vow never again and say I will
look at going elsewhere in future. The problem is that the local dentist has
one overriding advantage over every other dentist in that it is local. I
got there and was told to fill in my car details. I asked why; apparently they need to know who is in the car park. I explained
that I’d walked; the woman behind the counter asked me again to fill in my
car details. Eventually after telling her three times that I had no car in
the car park she moved on to the next frustration where I did a self-service
check-in. I
was only quarter of an hour late getting in to see the dentist, who said that
all was well with my gob. I was five minutes late with the hygienist. She
apologised that she had no dental nurse to help her today, and said she’d be
doubling up. She arranged the suction hose so that it didn’t need to be held
by anyone, and managed to do her thing before she
drowned me. As
I booked my next appointments so the receptionists
were having a “dabbing at each other” fight. I shall let that pass –
there will be an entirely new reception staff when I next visit; no one lasts
at that place. I
came home, hung out the washing then ran round with the poo bucket before
getting the lawn mower out. Running round with the poo bucket before getting
the lawn mower out is the only way to do it. Trust me (!) I
then cleaned out the big pond’s pressure filter, pruned the plants in the
little pond, and planted that conker I’d picked up on yesterday’s walk. “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” had run her errand by
then so I drove her home. By the time I got back and made us both a cuppa the
morning had gone. Bailey
was keen to go out, and when I picked up the leads
so Morgan perked up. Treacle soon got the idea and
we went off on a little adventure. As we walked to the car so not-so-nice
next-door was coming up the road. Fortunately
the dogs didn’t bark at her. She’s complained before that the dogs always
bark at her; at the time I told her that was because the dogs don’t like her.
She’s not the easiest of neighbours; I usually try to be civil
but she really doesn’t want to know. We
drove out to where we went last week. Last week I planned out some possible
locations for geocaches. The geo-feds had given the thumbs-up to the
locations and this afternoon I put the pots out. Last week Bailey seriously
ran amok in those woods so I watched her like a pork
(to coin a phrase). She was better than she has been recently; only
getting on the wrong side of one fence, and not
disappearing at all. As
we walked I realised I’d made a total stuff-up of
one of the geo-locations I’d found, but nothing that wasn’t soon put right. We
came home to find “er indoors TM” fighting
with her new printer. As she struggled to get it to work
I told the geo-feds all about those new geocaches. And with that done I got
the washing in and spent an hour or so doing the ironing. Tedious, but a job
that needed doing. I
fed the fish. We’d found some old boilies that “My Boy TM” had left in the freezer (many years ago). The fish didn’t
like those; I didn’t try them on the dogs. I wrote up some CPD, and had a look at a project I first started
for the trainees where I used to work many years ago. I’ve been asked to help
with the trainees… I wonder if I might dust that off? “er
indoors TM” boiled up pizza then went
bowling. I started watching something new on Netflix. “Years and
Years” features him who was the werewolf in “Being Human” and
“Budgie” in “Gavin and Stacey”. Made six years ago it tells the
take of a dystopian Britain in what was then the near future. It isn’t entirely unlike what’s
happening in the world today… |
|
23 September 2025
(Tuesday) - It Rained (A Lot)
I created an entirely new listing and sent
that in instead. All of the new caches went
live ten minutes later. And after yesterday’s session, the dentist
asked me to review them on Google. I didn’t but I drafted a reply to them…
and thought better of sending it. They’d only take offence. “er indoors TM” drove her car over to
the garage for its MOT and service. I followed over with the dogs. As we
drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing some minister
or other about asylum seekers. They do that a lot. Whilst I feel for the poor
people, the system doesn’t help them. For example
the minister acknowledged that if any asylum seeker has an appointment with a
doctor, they get given a taxi to take them. Surely that is something that
could be stopped right now, isn’t it? I fetched “er indoors TM” home,
then took the dogs up to the woods for a walk. We walked pretty much our
usual route, but as we went I decided to investigate
a little clearing that we walk past. There was a little track leading out of
it which we followed. We found another footpath in the woods. There really
can’t be many more paths up there for us to find… can there? We came home for a cuppa and a Belgian bun
which put back pretty much all of the calories we’d
walked off. That’s why I’m not losing weight… I Munzed and Wordled and thought about cracking on in the garden, but
it was raining. The forecast rain had arrived but was a couple of hours late.
I wasn’t complaining though; we got round the woods without getting wet. Instead I wrote up some CPD until lunchtime
when “er indoors TM” car
was ready. Again the weather forecast
failed. The BBC’s forecast for out postcard said “light
rain showers”; reality said “torrential rain”.
But we set off to get her car. We came home again. Again
I wanted to crack on in the garden; again the rain
was against me. So bearing in mind I’ve been asked to help with what the
trainees see down the microscope I spent a little while updating that which I first wrote over twenty
years ago until the rain stopped. I then loudly announced that I was GOING TO
FEED THE FISH and I’d never seen a dog move so fast
as Treacle shifted. It was a shame that it was still raining, but the rain
had certainly eased up on what it was. I feel rather washed out… I’ve got to go to
work tomorrow. |
|
24 September 2025
(Wednesday) - The World Didn't End
Well,
the world didn’t end last night. It was supposed to. Mind you I’ve lived
through the end of the world a few times now. I can clearly remember the
first one. It was on the stroke of midnight on January 1st 1980. Absolutely everyone knew the world was going
to ends, and I can remember walking round Ore Village (the better part of
Hastings) with my mate Douggie. The world hadn’t ended and both of us
were at a complete loss as to what we should be doing. There
was another end of the world at the turn of the millennium. That too was a
disappointment. There’s
been several over the years since; none of
which have lived up to expectations. I
made toast and watched an episode of “Years and Years” which despite being
six years old was amazingly prophetic. I
then had a quick look at the Internet. This morning’s petty squabble on
Facebook was on the Rupert Bear Appreciation Society. Some people really will
quarrel over anything. I
sent out birthday wishes. Only one Facebook friend was having a birthday
today. Once a very close friend, I’ve not seen Chip to speak to for years.
Such a shame. I
Munzed and then downloaded bank statements. I’ve
had an email from the bank saying that they are stopping sending me paper
statements whether I like it or not. I gave up asking them not to send paper
statements years ago. It’s taken them long enough to listen to me. And taking
care not to wake anyone I got ready for work rather earlier than I might have
done. I
had a naive hope that a new geocache might have gone live in the general
vicinity of work. Two had yesterday. They seem to go live near work when I’m
not working, and go live near home when I am. As
I walked to my car I tried not to chuckle about the chap on the other side of
the road. He was talking on his phone to someone or other, but he didn't
really need the phone. His every utterance was shouted. Why do so many people
feel the need to bellow into their phones? I
drove round to Sainsburys where I got petrol. The often miserable one behind
the counter was making a point of filling shelves (that didn't need
filling) this morning so the queue was growing. And growing. And
then I drove up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio.
President Trump was being mentioned by all and sundry. Having made up a story that
paracetamol causes autism he then went on to call Russia a paper tiger and claim that
Ukraine will win the ongoing war. He
can't really be as stupid as he seems, can he? I
got to work and treated myself to a cheese scone, then cracked on with my
day. I spent another day with the trainees; today waxing lyrical about
malaria, babesiosis, trypanosomes and other frankly horrible micro-organisms
that get into your blood and try to make a home there. They are truly yukky, and really put you off your dinner. Unless you do what I do for a living. Blood testers are made of stern
stuff. I
came home. I do that. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a rather
good bit of dinner which we washed down with a decent bottle of plonk, then I
shared some biscuits with the dogs. I had some stilton with mine. We had a
ploughman’s lunch on August Bank Holiday, and I discovered the leftover
cheese in the fridge. It was still good… mind you with stilton can you tell
if it’s gone off? |
|
25 September 2025
(Thursday) - A Ninth Birthday
Apparently “er indoors TM” was
up with the dogs at tree o’clock last night. I must have missed that. As
I peered into Facebook this morning I was presented
with quite a few adverts… Last night I’d been idly speculating about having a
couple of nights away for our wedding anniversary. This morning my Facebook
feed was awash with adverts for dog-friendly cottages. As
I scoffed toast so the birthday girl got told off.
It might be her ninth birthday, but she isn’t allowed to bark at passers-by.
She knows that. With “er indoors TM” off
on some works volunteering day I took the dogs out. As we drove to the woods
the pundits on the radio were spouting their usual drivel. Apparently only
fifteen per cent of people have ever taken a child to an art gallery,
and some gallery in Manchester was encouraging
people to allow their brats to run riot in an attempt to increase visitor
numbers. Experts
seem to think that girls born in the UK this
year will have an average of less than one and a half children in their
lifetime. And
Forestry England has felled a lot of timber in the Cheviots (somewhere up
north) but not realised that the woodland tracks which allow the forestry
workers in are too small for the lorries that take the timber out. And so the felled timber is just sitting there. Woops. We
got to the woods where some woman was walking would the car park making
strange squawking noises at all the other dogs, which was winding them up. We
hurried off before she could wind us up. We
saw a couple of foragers as we walked; foraging seems to be the thing to do
in the woods at the moment. I suppose it is all very
well all the time you know that which you can forage and safely eat and that
which will kill you. We
saw a deer. It posed long enough to get a blurred photo. We met a couple of geocachers.
And Bailey rolled in muck. I wish she wouldn’t. We
came home for a bath. With
Bailey bathed I made myself a cuppa and did the monthly accounts. They’ve
certainly been better, but the planned long weekend away won’t be happening
any time soon. I
watched another episode of “Years and Years” which predicted the
repeal of the US “Roe V Wade” court decision years
before it happened, then wrote up some CPD. I thought I’d spend
a few minutes doing it; I spent all afternoon. I eventually stopped when the
birthday girl became fractious. I’d been at it for so long I’d forgotten to
do “Feed The Fish!” “er indoors TM” returned
and boiled up some rather good burgers which we scoffed whilst watching “Fawlty Towers:
The Play”. I was disappointed.. I won’t say
it was rubbish; it wasn’t. But it reminded me of all of
the latest series of “Red Dwarf” in that for all that the show had
been hyped up, there was absolutely nothing new about it at all. |
|
26 September 2025
(Friday) - Early Shift
Morgan
jumped off the bed at three o’clock this morning. I got up to take him
outside; he jumped back on the bed and into the warm spot I’d just left. And
that was it for sleep for the night. I got up at five o’clock and watched an
episode of “Years and Years” which was again oh so prophetic. I
had a quick Munz, then got ready for work. I
went to the co-op this morning to get a sandwich... Oh dear. The selection of
sandwich wasn't good, the snack selection (as part of the meal deal) left a
lot to be desired, and the till had very little change. Sainsburys do better
food cheaper... Sadly smaller shops can't compete with the supermarkets. As
I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about the
government's new scheme to bring in "digital ID" which will make
things much harder for illegal immigrants to get cash in hand work. Personally I can't see how. All the thing does is show
that someone has the right to work in the UK. If an employer doesn't want to
pay over the odds for staff, they aren't going to fanny about asking for ID;
they are going to go to the cheapest bidder. Aren't they? Employers are
already obliged not to employ people who can't legally work in the UK (for
what that’s worth!). What does this digital ID change? Meanwhile
the head honchos at Kent County Council and Ashford and Dartford borough
councils are asking for the Eurostar to start calling at Ashford and
Ebbsfleet again… which is all to impress the voters, isn’t it?. These
councils have no power over the Eurostar. Who does have power over the
Eurostar? Us. The people who make the service profitable (or not) and
who never used it when we had the chance. I used it once, and even then,
someone else was paying. I
got to work, and was very conscious that I spent a
lot of time sitting at the microscope. My step count is noticeably down when
I am at work; about a third of that of a day off when I take the dogs to the
woods. So I did a few sums and worked out that in order to hit my step goal (what I effectively see at
the bare minimum number of steps I should be doing) I needed to walk up
and down the department one hundred and fifty times. I tried; it got a tad
tedious. And
then I had a meeting. I won't dwell on the meeting; I'll just say that back
in the day when I was a manager I used to have lots
of them, and I don't miss them. I quite understand the importance of getting
everybody’s opinions, forming a consensus and moving together as a team… but
personally I’d rather just be given instructions. “er
indoors TM” boiled up ribs and chips which we scoffed whilst watching another
episode of “Destination X” in which thick people queued up
to proudly show off their ignorance. How can anyone get to their mid-twenties
and not know what a horseshoe is? Today’s episode might well have been from
the German cabbage-growing region of Dummkopf Schweinhund
for all that our heroes could determine. |
|
27 September 2025
(Saturday) - Dog Club, Late Shift, Dull...
This
morning’s petty squabble on Facebook was whether you should use cash or cards
to pay in a pub. Some chap was using the name of a pub in Cheshire as his
Facebook identity and was being rather opinionated. Sadly (like many
opinionated people) he was factually wrong on many points,
and wasn’t at all happy when someone else claimed that his bank
charges him to pay cash in, and that payments in cash and card cost him the
same amount. I suppose this bloke was playing to what he saw as his target
audience, but in doing so was alienating a lot of other people. I had a look
at the Facebook profile of the pub whose name he was posting under… Oh dear.
More St George’s flags than sense… Am I being judgemental? We
got Alexa to play Radio Ashford as we do every Saturday. I’d forgotten that
Steve was away. His stand-in wasn’t the same. Whoever it was didn’t actually speak. I quite missed the “Guess The Lyrics” and the Mystery Year competitions. I
Munzed, got Wordle (fritz – seriously?) on
the sixth attempt, and we got ready for Dog Club. As
we drove we came past the new McDonalds which has a
banner outside saying that they are recruiting. Over the road is the
Territorial Army who’ve also put up a banner saying that they are recruiting.
But the Army’s banner says that their uniforms are
better.
They’ve probably got a point. Dog
club was much the same as ever. About fifteen (I tried to count; they
wouldn’t stand still) dogs ran riot and chased balls and shared treats.
It’s such a simple idea, but one which works so well. Bailey seemed to have a
better time than she did last week. Last time she was cold
so she wore her coat today. Morgan wore his coat but kept whimpering until we
took it off. He perked up then. We
came home for a cuppa and to count up the dog club
money. And I had a bit of a sulk. As I’d scoffed toast
I’d seen a new geocache had gone live on the way to work. That would break my
journey up this morning. But whilst we were at Dog Club someone else had beat
me to it and got First to Find. It looks like my streak of getting a First to
Find every month is about to come to a crashing end. There are two schools of
thought about being First to Find. Personally I like
to find one each month, and having found one I then
ease up and give everyone else a chance. Sadly
everyone else disagrees and sees nothing wrong in having the lot for
themselves. Neither side is right or wrong… I suppose that it really is every
man for himself. But
that doesn’t stop me sulking. I
did a few chess puzzles, played the bot at chess (with variable success),
and got ready for work. Bailey
wasn't happy that I was going out without her. Despite a good session at Dog Club she was definitely asking to
go out for a walk. I left “er
indoors TM” with that task and
set off work-wards. I
drove up the motorway listening to "From Our Own Correspondent"
on the radio. "Our Own Correspondent" was corresponding from
Palestine. It was alleged that for all that much of the world now
recognizes Palestine as a state in its own right, the average
Palestinian would much rather that much of the world just left them alone. I
can sympathise with that. I turned the radio off and sang along with Ivor
Biggun songs as I drove through the rain. Bearing in mind the weather
forecast gave a zero per cent chance of rain, there was an awful lot of rain
going on. I
got to work. I'd been sulking about going to work, but it was dull and
overcast outside, and cold too. I don't mind working when it is like that.
And for all that I was on my own for much of the shift, I quite like being
able to crack on and do the job. Not that I’m going to be doing it for a
little while – I’m now having a little holiday… |
|
28 September 2025
(Sunday) - Faversham
As
I peered in to Facebook this morning (as I do) I found myself wasting
time watching some inane video. In the caption that went with it the chap
who’d posted the video was asking for financial contributions so’s he could
carry on posting videos. Perhaps he’s destitute?
Perhaps he needs the money? Perhaps I’m being a tad uncharitable? But it just
seems to me that there are more and more walks of
life like writing and sports/athletics and posting to social media (!)
that aren’t hobbies any more but paid professions.
Some people pay to watch others playing video games on You-Tube. And now
someone wants to monetarise their Facebook feed. If
anyone wants to sponsor me whinging about Bailey rolling in fox poo… I
also saw a video posted by a colleague who was on holiday somewhere in the
far east. Originally from Nepal, she travels all over the world and posts the
most amazing videos from where she visits. Sometimes I think I should travel
more… but then for all that I like being away somewhere different, I detest
all the travelling and farting about in airports. And I get rather (very)
homesick very easily. And
another colleague had posted up a video of Morecambe and Wise. Am I the only
person in the world who doesn’t think them funny? I
Munzed… with only two days to go, one of the
members of our Munzee clan still had quite a few Munzing things to do.
Everyone else was done a week ago, but not this one. We’ve never not hit our
monthly targets. I
shrugged, hung the washing out, and we got ready for an outing. The
dogs needed a walk, and so did I. There were a few geocaches near Faversham
that met the specific requirements for the current load of e-souvenirs so we
thought they might guide us on a little walk. They
did. We
walked a mile across some rather pretty fields. They probably won’t be pretty
fields for long though; not at the rate that the nearby new houses were being
built. We walked back to the car and drove to a little water mill in
Faversham, and then to the other side of the town for another little walk. Sadly the second little walk was nowhere
near as pretty as the first. The route took us past
some overgrown allotments. In some parts of the world there is a waiting list
of years to get an allotment. There seems to be no shortage of the things in
Faversham. I
found a dead mouse; fortunately none of the dogs
noticed it. But we found everything geocachical that we went looking for, and
got our e-souvenirs too. As
we walked so my phone pinged. Our Munzee clan had reached our second monthly
target. That was a result. We
came home. I got the washing in. I’d taken a few photos whilst we were
out so I told the Internet about them, and with “er indoors TM” off shopping I played the bots at chess. Those bots are rather
good. I
wrote up a little CPD,
and then “er indoors TM” returned
with chocolate eclairs for a late lunch. I
then looked at a little geo-challenge that I’d forgotten about. I actually qualify for it, so when I’m next in the vicinity
of the Bluewater shopping centre I’ll hunt it out. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a good roast which we scoffed
whilst watching “Lego Masters: Australia” in which the
contestants were warned about “the curse of the butterfly” (apparently it’s a Lego thing!). Tonight was the
semi-finals, and the woman I really don’t like is through to the finals… And
I’ll end today with something of a mystery. Today I’ve been quite active
walking here, there and thither. Yesterday I was at work and did two thousand
more steps. |
|
29 September 2025 (Monday)
- A Walk, Gardening, Geo-Meet
I
stood on the scales this morning. I’ve lost three pounds this month – two and
a half stone since the beginning of the year. That’s a result. I
made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. It was still there. I
saw that My Boy TM” had
shared an advert to his Facebook feed. A friend of his was selling his bivvy.
A “bivvy” is a small tent used when fishing. You can get something which is
virtually identical on Amazon brand new for twenty quid, but that would be a
“tent”. A “bivvy” might look exactly the same
to the uninitiated, but second-hand ones change hands for a hundred and fifty
quid. You *really* don’t want to ask what a new one costs. As
I’ve said before, fishing isn’t a cheap hobby these days. I
Munzed… with one day to go we still haven’t hit out
final target. And I got Wordle (civil) on the third attempt. Bearing
in mind the debacle of yesterday’s traffic I checked the traffic map.
Yesterday one lane of the dual carriageways on the way to the woods was
closed off for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Google said the roads were
clear today, so I believed it and took the dogs out. We
went up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about
downloading people to the cloud where they would live forever. As the radio
show went on it became very clear that no one really knew what “downloading
people to the cloud” actually meant; let alone
how you might go about it. We
got to the woods; we had a good walk. My birdsong app told me that coal tits
and goldcrest are now rare, and siskins are now uncommon. They weren’t the
last time I detected any of them. And we saw deer; a herd of half a dozen who
stood and watched us. The dogs watched them; it was only when the deer ran
off that the dogs tried to chase them; and it was a half-hearted chase at
best. We
came home for a cuppa, then I had a little look in the garden. I strimmed the edges and mowed the lawn. I cut back the
jungle which was flowing over the fence. And I made a start at the bald spot
on the lawn. Underneath the garden table is quite a large bald area which
doesn’t look good. So I moved the table out of the
way. The bald spot was rock hard so I got the drill
out and drilled a few dozen holes into it. Hopefully rain and dew will get in
and soften it all up and it will re-seed itself. Or it won’t… I
then bionically burned the sunburst pattern up by
the pond. The weeds keep growing through it. I might lift the lot and put
more anti-weed membrane there. And I replaced the battery in the garden
clock. It had lasted six months; I was rather pleased with that, but to be
honest I have no idea if that is good or bad. I
came I for a late lunch. But the time I sorted myself some peanut butter and
marmalade it was after two o’clock. Despite supposedly being on leave I did some CPD, then played the bots at chess. Suddenly
the afternoon was all but gone. I stood up and loudly announced that I was
going to “FEED THE FISH””. Dogs went from snoring to charging down the
garden in the blink of an eye. We
had a quick pizza, then popped down to Folkestone for the geo-meet. It was a
shame that Treacle felt the need to scoff the organiser’s chips, but there it
is. Or was. It was a surprisingly well-attended meet-up; turning up gave us a
Treasure and a Souvenir. It would have been good to have stayed longer,
but “er indoors TM” had bowling. She dropped me and the dogs
home then went off to bowling. I sorted the dog’s dinners then cracked on
with ironing shirts whilst watching the last episode of “Years and
Years”. If you get a chance, do give it a watch. Bear in mind it was
written in 2018 and predicted COVID, the rise of Reform UK, Trumpism… |
|
30 September 2025
(Tuesday) - Another Walk, More Gardening
Apart
from waking with a dead arm (where Treacle had been sleeping on it) I
slept reasonably well. I made toast and peered into the Internet. No new
geocaches this morning. That’s my streak of a First to Find every month
ended. Facebook was odd this morning. This morning I had seemingly endless posts about the 1980s TV
show “Auf Wiedersehn Pet” for no reason that
I could fathom. I also had quite a few posts from a new business that had
recently started up in Hastings Old Town. The chap posting under the name of
that business was being incredibly opinionated… I can see that in doing this
he will attract some new customers and put off others. It’s always a good
idea not to piss off your target audience. I Munzed, got Wordle (geese)
on the fourth attempt, and got ready for the off. I took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove the
pundits on the radio were talking about a recent survey about the use of
Smartphones by children. Schools don’t like them, but parents like than as
they can keep in constant contact with their children. Do parents *really*
need to be in such constant contact with their children? When I was a lad I’d shove off out for pretty much all
of the entire daylight hours. The last thing I wanted was mum
constantly fussing, and mum never seemed overly fussed about where I was
anyway. And neither did the parents of any of my mates. And there was talk about the classic 1960s TV show “Thunderbirds”;
today marks the
sixtieth anniversary of the first ever broadcast of the first
episode. We got to the woods and walked a different route to
our usual one. Treacle found a muddy puddle and a dead squirrel, and we saw
the deer again. I ran my bird app – we didn’t hear a siskin today, but the
coal tits and goldcrest that the app said were rare
yesterday weren’t rare any more. After four and a half miles we were back at the car. We came home listening to the pundits on the
radio talking about the film “American
Psycho”. The implication was that everyone has
seen this film. I haven’t; it sounded quite good from what was said. Once home I sorted us both a cuppa.
We had a mini-crunchie with it as a special treat.
Back in the day I would have popped up to the corner shop for an almond
croissant each. A mini-crunchie has one hundred and
ten calories; an almond croissant more than four times that amount. Back in
the day I was two and a half stone heavier. This diet lark is all about being aware of just what
it is that you shove down your neck. Yesterday I drilled some holes in the rock-hard bald
spot on the lawn. This morning I had a stroke of
genius. The seed that the birds scatter from the feeder keeps sprouting. So I carefully plucked some of the sprouting grasses and
carefully poked them into the holes. It didn’t take long for me to realise that this was a lot like farting about. I then had another stroke of genius. I poked some of
the bird seed into the drilled holes and covered them over. I watered the lot
down. Either it will go some way to mending the poggered
lawn or it won’t. I then spent a while generally tidying up. There was
no end of twigs and dead leaves that needed picking
up. The end result of gardening is a pretty garden,
but it is hard work and an ultimately futile exercise. You work really hard just to maintain the status quo. Suddenly it was two o’clock. I had some peanut
butter on toast for lunch, then cracked on in the garden again. First to the the pond. There was a
surprising amount of dead plant floating in there.
That came out. The aerating pump needed the green muck scraping off. I
thought about pruning the bog filter… and decided not to. I then moved to the small pond. The plants there
needed serious pruning, the aerating pump there also needed green muck
scraping off, and the water needed topping up a bit. I wonder if that pond
could do with being deeper? It’s on a concrete base
so going down isn’t an option. Putting another layer of sleepers round the
top would be easy enough… Maybe next spring? It was getting a tad cold so I came in. I
updated my geocaching profile to include the badge I’d earned by
showing up at last night’s geo-meet… I intended to update it; I trashed it.
Putting it right only took an hour. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a rather good dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Destination
X” in which some of the contestants were stating
to get rather competitive and others were surprised to find that their fellow
contestants were contestants in a game and not their best buddies. We’re now watching a celebrity version of “The
Weakest Link” which is so obviously faked – people *can’t* be that
stupid. Can they? |
