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1 September 2026
(Tuesday) - Nominated
I
slept well. I got up at half past seven, made toast and had my usual peer
into the Internet. It was much the same as ever. Today’s conspiracy theory
was that space is fake. Moon, stars, planets, the whole lot… all fake
according to some half-wit called Judith when replying to an article about
the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which was launched over
the weekend and is hoped to spend years looking at planets, dark matter, dark
energy and all the other enormous questions humanity has been scratching its
head over since somebody first looked up and thought, “What the f… is all
that?” Well, Judith has given us the answer. And she seemed to be serious
even though she was unable to string together a sentence, let alone a
coherent argument. People
were posting to work-related Facebook groups. Some were discussing methods of
compatibility testing of donor blood… methods which were obsolete and
discontinued before I started in the field forty-five years ago. And others
were asking advice on how to test for certain conditions and how to perform
various tests that they’d heard about and wondered what they were. (People
claiming to be lab managers…) The more I follow blood testing on Facebook
the more convinced I am that whereas here in the UK we have national standards
of how to do things, the rest of the world makes it up as it goes along. I
Munzed, Wordled from “thing”
to “remix” on the fifth attempt. Wordle is hard work. Sometimes it is
obvious how I should proceed, other times not so. Like today – “remix”?
Seriously? We
went for our walk. As always Bailey was incredibly excited about going out, and did her usual thing of greeting the world with a
huge bark as we walked out of the door. She always does that. I wish she
wouldn’t. As
we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the new Prime
Minister is to address Parliament for the first time today. First time !?!?! How long has he been Prime
Minister… it turns out that Parliament shut up shop on July 17th and
only re-opened today. We
got to the woods where something odd was going on. The car park was all but
deserted. We were the third car in there. But we met loads of people in the
woods. Far more than we usually do. Have people found some obscure place to park
to avoid the parking fees (even though they aren’t in force yet). We
had a good walk. We saw deer. The huge fungus that was at the half-way point
last year has reappeared. We met the dog walkers we often meet; Bailey got a
fuss from them. We
came home via the lower car park which also has signs up about car park
charges coming. As
we drove I listened to more Adrian Mole MP3. He’s
now got nits. We
got home. I made us a cuppa with a choco-break bar
(far better than a kit-kat), then I had a two-hour pootle in the
garden. I bionically burned the weeds that had
taken advantage of the recent rain. I hacked back the plants which were
pouring over the fence from next door. I organised a new pole for the lilac.
And I have a theory about what did for the acers. Their pots were swimming
with water so I drilled some holes in the bottom to
drain out excess water. “er
indoors TM” boiled up some lunch, and with that scoffed I
did the ironing. As I ironed I watched the last episode
of “Stranger Things”. In keeping with the rest of the show the last episode
was good, but went on for far too long. I
wondered what I might watch next… What with various stuff on catch-up to say
nothing of Netflix, Paramount Plus, Disney, i-player
and Prime video there’s no shortage of things to watch. Back in the day we
had three channels. However did we cope then? And
in closing today I’ve been nominated for a geocaching
award in the “Outstanding Community Contribution”. Someone (I have
absolutely no idea who) has written about me “He is an amazing hider. His cache trails in KingsWood
are brilliant – he always maintains them and refreshes the trails every
couple of years so we get to explore different areas
of the woods. His mystery caches are fantastic – some are really
tricky (but he is always happy to give you a hint) and some are easier
but fun (perfect for newbies). He is always happy to give advice and help in
any way he can. He also organises lots of great
events and always brings along his three famous geodogs.
He is an all-round great guy and a credit to this wonderful game”. I’ve
very mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I am flattered and humbled to
be nominated. On the other hand I feel a bit of a
fraud. I
haven’t really done that much more than *lots* of other people have
done. I
wonder if there’s a prize? |
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2 September 2026
(Wednesday) - Dull
I
didn’t sleep well. I was cold and woke every half-hour. I really need to put
the duvet back on the bed. As
I scoffed toast I watched the first episode of the
re-make of “Upstairs Downstairs”. It was rather good. I
then had my usual rummage round the Internet as I do most mornings. Two
Facebook friends had birthdays today. Both people with whom I used to work.
Both were a large part of my daily life for years, I’ve not seen either in
over ten years now. There
wasn’t much else happening at half past six so I Munzed,
Wordled from “duvet” to “ruler” in
three goes, and got ready for work. No
one was walking their dogs in their jim-jams this morning as I headed to the
motorway. As I drove there was an interview with the head honcho of the
UK's republicans - some bunch who want the monarchy abolished. They had the
arse about the recent announcement that the government is spending a small fortune on the upkeep
of the royal palaces. What's
the alternative? Let them fall down? The interview
was (quite frankly) a waste of air-time. The
interviewer seemed reluctant to let this bloke speak, and when the bloke did
manage to get a word in, he flatly refused to answer the questions being
asked; preferring to shout his pre-planned script. Meanwhile
the Mayor of London's been scammed. He's been done for not paying road tax, but it turns out
that the car in question is nothing to do with him, and letters from the DVLA
letters addressed to him about the unpaid tax bill were sent to Gordon
Ramsay's east London restaurant. You
have to wonder what all that was about, don't you? I
went to Sainsburys and got a sandwich, then went in to work. It was
dull. It often is. I came home listening to my Adrian Mole MP3s and came home
to an empty house. “er
indoors TM” had taken the dogs
out. I also came home to find my eBay bargain had arrived. Two sets of all of the Harry Potter books in MP3 format… one read by
Jim Dale and one read by Stephen Fry. Change out of
eighteen quid, and a rather good Ginny Weasley USB stick too. It’s
on eBay so it can’t be hooky… can it? Today
was dull… |
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3 September 2026
(Thursday) - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
I put the duvet back on the bed last night
and was far too hot. Ho hum. I made toast and had a look at the internet
as I do. Several friends were posting about the latest pontifications of that
odious Nigel Farage. No one had a good word for the bloke. The general consensus was that he's an odious
little shit who has figured out that by saying any controversial old bollox
he can stay on the gravy train for life. He was on Radio Four yesterday whinging that the five million quid bung he was given was
to pay for personal security as he needs it. He probably does… however it is
strange that he didn’t use any of that bung to pay for security at the
hustings of his most recent election which he avoided for
“security reasons”. I sorted the Munzee Guild for the month’s “Gauntlet Games”
which were starting today, then got ready for the off. I drove round to Halfords
where the car was up for a service. Having come up
trumps when I needed a new battery a few weeks ago
I’m now a member of the Halfords club and I’m quids in. I left the car with them and took a little (three
miles) walk. Today was a Qrewzee day. It’s a
Munzee thing where Munzees that haven’t been Munzed for over a year are worth a lot more points. It’s actually even more sad than it sounds, but it scanning bar codes stuck to lamp posts is your thing, it can’t
be bettered. As well as load of normal Munzees I
got loads that hadn’t been done for a year, or two, and quite a few that
hadn’t been done for three years. I Munzed my way to
the doctor’s. Being a patient of Ashford Medical Partnership my GP can be
anywhere in town. Today it was in Willesborough (three
miles away). I went up to the counter and was rudely directed to the
self-service machine. I self-served, and sat and
listened to the receptionists telling an endless stream of patients that no matter
what their question, it wasn’t their problem. As loads of patients tried to
help each other struggle to book medical services on their phones the
receptionists chattered among themselves about holidays in Ibiza and Turkey,
about how Tom owes them all a hundred pounds, about which local schools are
the best and (ironically) how easy it was to get a dental appointment. I eventually got in to see the quack. Some time ago I mentioned
that my arm had been giving me gip. It would seem I’ve got carpal tunnel syndrome. I Munzed my way
back to the garage (two miles). As I went I
had a look at the used cars in the various showrooms on the way. I noticed
something odd – apart from the Skoda garage none of the used cars had a price
displayed. They all had signs about asking for finance deals. I got my car. A big service, new windscreen wiper
blades, new sparkplugs, various mechanical words that meant nothing to me and
the thick end of seven hundred quid. Still, as the nice Halfords man said,
being a member of the Halfords club meant I saved fifty quid. And it was
cheaper than what I’ve paid at where I used to go. I came home, made myself some toast, and took
the dogs to the woods about four hours later than usual. The woods were rather busy with people, but
the car park wasn’t busy at all. I got chatting with someone I see from time to
time who said that since the talk of car parking charges started, more and more people have taken to parking up in Challock village rather than joining Forestry England (at
two pounds per week). We walked our usual four and a half miles;
given the choice I’d rather stick to our early to mid-morning time slot. The
woods were full of the sort of people whose dogs are on the lead all day
every day and even in the house. They invariably initially look on my unleaded
dogs with terror, and as my wolf-pack walk past and keep going, the looks of
terror turn to looks on envy. Dogs take some training, but you’ve got to make
a start. We came home. We did “FEED THE FISH”,
I gathered dog turds. I made us a cuppa which we had with a Puffin bar. Have
you ever had a Puffin bar? It’s like a really good
Penguin bar but at a third of the price. An actual third (I worked it out!) I then got frustrated. This morning the quack
told me to go on to https://www.carpal-tunnel.net and use the website to refer
myself to the relevant clinic as they don’t like GPs referring. The GP had
tried to show me the website, but her PC said it was a dodgy website and we
shouldn’t go there. My lap-top agreed, but I told it to suck it up and go
there anyway. After a lot of farting about I eventually got a reply from the
carpal tunnel clinic which told me that they don’t do self-referrals, and
that I should get the GP to refer me. Oh, how I laughed. I’ve messaged my GP again… As I’ve mentioned
before I’m dealing with the fifty-second best NHS Trust in the country, and I
work at the fourth best… In the meantime I’ve
ordered a wrist support from Amazon which should be here tomorrow. “er indoors TM” boiled
up dinner which we shifted with a bottle of rather grim plonk whilst watching
this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”. Tomorrow
morning the episode will be truly hated on all of
the Star Trek related Facebook pages, but with nods to the original series,
the films, The Next Generation and Voyager I thought it was brilliant… I’m feeling worn out – I’ve walked over
twenty-two thousand steps today. Now I’ve got carpal tunnel syndrome perhaps
I should be taking it easier… |
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4 September 2026
(Friday) - Rain Before the Night Shift
I
slept amazingly well last night. Now that I know the pain in my arm
originates from an issue in my left wrist I spent the night holding that
wrist and it was pretty much pain free for the first time in months. I slept
through till eight o’clock. I
got up, made toast and peered into the Internet. There was a lot more talk
about Nigel Farage this morning. One of his leading lackeys was apparently filmed telling someone
with loads of money to give to Farage and Reform UK how best to do it in such
a way to get a bung of half a million quid round
electoral law. You’d think that what with all the furore about the iffy five
million Farage got given earlier in the year they wouldn’t be so silly.
Wouldn’t you? The entire thing is on YouTube… And
last night’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” was loved by
people who’ve been following Star Trek for years and was hated by those who
found it recently. I
took the dogs up to the woods. Today the place seemed to be heaving with
normal people but we eventually got away from them.
We had a good walk up to the three-quarter-of-the-way-round point where the
heavens opened. We got soaked, and we saw a couple of flashes of lightning
too. But I’d rather have that than the bone dry and heat we had over the
summer. The
rain stopped as we got within a couple of hundred yards of the car park; I
dried the dogs off with a chamois leather I keep in the boot just in case. We
drove home listening to more Adrian Mole MP3 who today has stopped doing the
dirty deed with Pamela Pigg and is now sniffing round the woman who runs the
creche in Safeway. We
got home. I made us both a cuppa… then threw them away and made ones with
milk that didn’t have lumps in it (call me fussy if you will). We had
cream cakes with them. Very nice. I
wrote up CPD, I Wordled from “cream” to “wager”,
getting it right on the last chance, and booked my MOT on the Halfords
website. It took some mucking about but I eventually
made the booking. I
had a shower and went to bed for the afternoon. Morgan and Bailey came with
me, and I slept for three hours with my hand merely tingling at worst. I’m
hoping “er indoors TM” will
boil up some dinner, and then I’m of to the night shift. Today’s
been rather dull. I don’t really dislike the night shifts. Generally
I quite enjoy just being trusted to get on with the night shift on my own.
But (as always) I have spent the day sulking and fretting that I’ve
got to go to work later… |
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5 September 2026 (Saturday)
- After the Night Shift
Last
night wasn’t a bad night shift but was a tad busier than I would have liked.
With nearly a hundred blood samples it was a far cry from how night shifts
used to be. I was rather pleased when the day shift showed up. I
drove home listening to the antics of Adrian Mole until I got near to Leeds
Castle. I switched over to Radio Ashford and the fizzy static slowly gave way
to Steve doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. “So many nights I
long to hold you. So many nights I looked and saw your face”. No? I had
no idea either. It was “Human” by The Human
League. Rather
than going home I went straight to the paddock at Repton and opened up for Dog Club. “er indoors TM” and
the dogs soon arrived, and were followed by loads of
other dogs. We had at least eighteen dogs along today. All were in high
spirits, and all played nicely. Morgan did get a tad over-excited, but these days
over-excited for him is an enthusiastic bout of dog-piggy-backs. “er
indoors TM” went off to craft
club. I took the dogs home listening to Steve doing the mystery year
competition on the radio – Kylie Minogue singing “On a Night Like This"?
– 2000. By
the time I’d had a shower and a spot of brekkie it was after half past ten.
If I went to bed that would be the entire day wasted. So
I sat on the sofa with the dogs listening to the radio… and woke just in time
to hear Steve saying goodbye. I
watched an episode of the (relatively) new “Upstairs Downstairs”
then as “er indoors TM” returned
I counted the Dog Club money. There wasn’t very much in the pot bearing on
mind how busy the last couple of weeks have been. Perhaps people are paying
on-line? We
had a vague idea to go out for a walk, but by the time we’d had a spot of lunch and I’d figured out how to wear my new carpal tunnel
wrist splint thingy, the postman had arrived with two magazines. “Viz”
will be read from cover to cover many times, and “Transfusion Medicine”
is already in the bin. Not that I don’t read it; the thing is available in an
on-line format to members of the British Blood Transfusion Society (bet
you didn’t know that among the letters after my name are MBBTS, did you…).
I suspect my membership fees would be less if I could opt out of getting a
hard copy every month. So
rather than going out we sat in the garden and I sniggered at Viz magazine. It
must be thirty years of more since I first discovered it, and it still makes
me giggle. Unlike
this new carpal tunnel wrist splint thingy. After
a few rather uncomfortable hours I had a look on Google to find out about it.
Apparently I should wear the thing at night, but
only during the day *if* I’m doing anything which puts strain on my
wrist. So I took it off. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a rather good curry which we
scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “Young Sheldon”. I’m
feeling tired – the night shift has taken its toll… |
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6 September 2026
(Sunday) - Bobbing
I
put that wrist brace thingy on last night and had a far better night’s sleep.
Mind you the previous night shift probably helped. I got up at eight o’clock,
put some washing in, had a shave, made toast and peered into the Internet. It
was the same as ever. No matter what the subject (this morning it included
amongst many others pond fish, pythons, the history of Folkestone, garden
birds, cafes in Hastings and the late Kenneth Williams) people were
bickering and squabbling. I
Munzed, and Wordled from
“brace” through “binge” and “bulge” to “beige”
and then the dogs came downstairs. The two smallest went out for a widdle,
and Treacle grabbed the first thing that she shouldn’t have and proudly
marched round showing off what she had taken. She’s always done that. She
doesn’t chew or damage anything; just walks round showing off what she’s got.
I retrieved that which she shouldn’t have, and she then jumped onto the sofa
and started a fight with me. I
won the fight (eventually) then voomed round
the garden harvesting turds. Some of the potted shrubs looked thirsty so I
gave them a slosh with the watering can. The plants would arguably do better
being planted directly into the ground, but they are far tidier in pots. We
set off for the day’s adventure. We went to Aldi where the beer selection was
frankly disappointing. So we drove round to
Sainsbury’s where the place wasn’t full of ill-behaved brats running riot. From
there we drove up to Bobbing where we met up with Karl and Tracey. Pausing
only briefly for Morgan to roll in hedgehog poo we went for a little walk
across to Newington and back. It was a rather good walk which had the
advantage of being rather flat and was only marred by “er indoors TM” coming
off second best in an altercation with a wasp. We
came back to Karl and Tracey’s and spent the afternoon sitting in the
sunshine… right up to the point where the rain started. It was then that
things became rather vague. I
took a few photos today – It’s amazing what happens when you don’t
pay attention… |
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7 September 2026
(Monday) - Rather Busy
I
had something of a bad night last night. It was rather hot and I didn’t sleep
well. I
made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. I had a message from
the Facebook feds. Over the past week I reported racist postings and postings
of cruelty to animals. Apparently neither went against their so-called “community
standards”. Meanwhile
it would seem that the reason no one’s discovered aliens yet is that we’ve
been tuning radio telescopes to the wrong frequencies. Astronomers have
since turned their radio telescopes to the right frequencies and not found
any aliens, but the astronomers aren’t in the slightest bit deterred by that. I
drove over to the hospital. As I drove ex Prime
Minister Gordon Brown was on the radio. He was duller than a dull thing so
after two minutes I turned over to my Adriam Mole MP3s. I
got to the hospital and parked right away. There were loads of spaces at the
bottom of the car park, but everyone else was driving round
and round the top bit desperate to park a few yards closer to the
hospital and to have to walk fifty yards less. I
went in and had a hearing test as a first step to sorting out this ongoing
tinnitus. I got sat in a soundproof booth with headphones and had to press a
button whenever I heard a sound. I heard some but (it transpired) not
as many as I might have done. It would seem that I’ve
got high frequency hearing loss. The results will go
to my ENT consultant, and he will decide how we proceed. There was talk of
hearing aids. Hearing aids? Seriously? Oh well… we’ll see what the expert has
to say. I
came home and collected the dogs (and Pogo who’s having a little holiday
with us) and we went up to Kings Wood. We saw some normal people near the
car park, including one who seemed incredibly embarrassed to be seen feeding
apples to her dog. She was rather shame-faced as she explained how her dog
likes apples, and was clearly very surprised what I
told her that dogs like fruit and vegetables. She had some strange idea that
they only ate meat, and apple was particularly bad for them, and fellow dog
walkers would look down on her. But
once we were more than a few hundred yards from the car park
we didn’t see anyone else. We
walked a different route to our usual one, and after four and a half miles we
were back at the car park. We met someone who recognised the dogs; she was about
to go geocaching. I wished her luck – for all that the woods are full of
geocaches (I put most of them there) we rarely see anyone playing that
game. We
came home. We
spent a little while pondering over a geo-puzzle. Yesterday when at Newington church
we had to go round the graveyard gathering information to solve a puzzle… We
tried and tried but couldn’t come up with a plausible location yesterday so
we gave up. We tried again today from the living room, but
still couldn’t come up with a sensible answer. I
went into the garden to have a little pootle. I mowed the lawn for the first
time in months. You know it needs mowing when it is long enough to hide the
dog turds. The roses and creepers from not-so-nice-next-door needed
hacking back, so I spent a while hacking it back. I ran round with the
watering can, and then realising that Treacle was watching me like a pork (to
coin a phrase) I announced that it was time to “FEED THE FISH”.
All the dogs ran to the pond, with Treacle leading the charge and squealing
in excitement. I
made us a cuppa, and saw I had a message from the GP. After last week’s
debacle with the carpal tunnel clinic I had a
message from the GP saying they’d sent in a referral so I should get an
appointment at the clinic soon. How soon remains to be seen. But
what with high frequency hearing loss, carpal tunnel syndrome, nasal polyps,
aching arthritic joints… this old body is slowly wearing out. I wrote up some CPD, and by then the
afternoon was all but done. As
the washing machine chewed on the undercrackers “er indoors TM” boiled
up pizza and chips, then she went bowling. I sparked up the telly and watched
more episodes of the (relatively) recent remake of “Upstairs
Downstairs”. It is rather good. The
undercrackers will be out of the tumble drier in a bit and I shall have to
sort them. There’s never a dull moment in my world, it there? Oh,
and today marks four years since
my dad died… |
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8 September 2026
(Tuesday) - At Work
I
had a rather bad night. Just as I finally nodded off so “er indoors TM” started
an argument with one of the dogs (possibly Bailey). I
got up at six o’clock, made toast and watched an episode of the remake of “Upstairs
Downstairs”. Being made by the BBC each of the episodes are of the same
length. This morning’s episode featured (in large part) the rise of
fascism in Europe in the 1930s, and struck several
chords with today’s political climate. I
set off to work through heavy rain. As I drove there was a lot of talk about
Prince Harry and precisely what he will and won’t be doing. The King has
announced that Harry will be a “non-working royal”. Some commentator
being interviewed this morning was talking about how his role is incredibly
vague and “lots of lines are being blurred”. It
would seem that he’s left America and come back to the UK where it is
somewhat easier to get on the gravy train, but what do I know? And
then the sports news came on. It dragged on and on. Surely there’s only so
many times anyone can say “blah blah sport”?
But only a few short weeks since the football world cup, the European football thing has started. I
wouldn’t mind if football wasn’t so tedious, but can anyone seriously say
that after watching ten minutes of a game of football you haven’t seen all
that the game has to offer? I
went to Sainsbury’s to get a sandwich and had to queue up. I like to empty
the change from Dog Club into the self-service machines, but there were *loads*
of schoolkids queueing up to use those cash only self-service machines. I
suppose they wouldn’t have cards, would they. I’d
left home half an hour later than usual when on a core shift. What with the
schoolkids in Sainsburys and the really busy roads
I’m going to go back to leaving silly-early for work. I’d rather have a far
less stressful drive and no waiting about to pay for dinner. And I quite like
a bit of peace and quiet before the aggro of
the day starts. I
got to work and cracked on with the aggro of the day. It was rather hard work
today, my carpal tunnel syndrome was playing up all
day long and the tinnitus meant that there was a constant buzzing sound too. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a rather good bit of Chinese which
we washed down with a bottle of plonk whilst watching more “Young
Sheldon”. Today’s
been a tad dull… my arm still hurts and my ears are still ringing. And
it is four years since the late Queen died… |
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9 September 2026
(Wednesday) - Late Shift
I
went to the loo in the small hours and Bailey wanted
to go downstairs with me. I thought she wanted a widdle; she just wanted to
play silly beggars in the dark garden. I eventually rounded her up but by the
time I got back to my pit most of the bed space had been commandeered by
other dogs. Conspiracy? Possibly. I
then dozed as best I could on the six inches of the edge of the bed. I
made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. There was a lot of talk
about the gangs of masked thugs who blockaded
Dover and Portsmouth last weekend. The various fascist political parties are
claiming that this was a legitimate protest against
illegal immigrants in small boats… So why blockade the ferries? Why not go to
the beaches (Pett Level for one) where they regularly come ashore? And
there was quite a bit of flat Earth bollox being posted. Some people really
do believe that the Earth is flat. I
took the dogs out. Being limited for time we went to Orlestone where there
was some odd bloke sitting in his car in the car park. He’s often there… you have to wonder what the attraction of sitting in the car
park is. Morgan rolled in something disgusting, Treacle and
Pogo went in a swamp, Bailey went rogue in the undergrowth and at the
three-quarters point Pogo ran in terror from a small spaniel. Some of our walks are more eventful than others. We came home. Over a cuppa
I Munzed, and Wordled
from “swamp” through “frisk” to “burst” on the third
attempt, and then I got ready for work. I can’t say I was keen on going to work today. The
carpal tunnel nonsense was sending tingling up my left forearm. Monday’s
gardening had done for my right elbow, and there was
a constant ringing of tinnitus in my ears. There are those who pull a sickie
if they so much as fart twice, but I’ve never been one for pulling a sickie. On
my way I popped into Sainsburys to get a sandwich. As I queued the chap in
front of me had a phone sim card in his shopping, and
was explaining to another shopper what a phone sim card was. He wasn't making
a very good job of explaining it, and a passing member of Sainsbury's staff
came over to explain. This chap loudly announced that a sim card was a
wonderful thing which gave your phone a different number to its usual one. He
went on so (rather proudly) say that he had a second sim card which he
used for making prank phone calls. I
went into work and did my bit. The carpal tunnel thingy which was giving me
grief earlier played up for pretty much all of the
shift. But at tea break I played some more Meowdoku…
and got to level two thousand. Perhaps I should find something more
constructive on which to waste my time? As
I’d driven in to work so I came to the end of my Adrian Mole MP3s. I've not
got the last book in MP3 format; it is on my wish list. So
I started listening to "Brideshead Revisited" read by Sir
John Gielgud on the way home. Ideally I would have
preferred Jeremy Irons, but I got this version for free, and something for
nothing is never a bad thing, or so I thought… The
audiobook I’ve got isn’t so much “abridged” as “edited highlights”;
there is so much that has been left out. I’m about half an hour into the
audiobook I’ve got. Knowing the story almost off by heart I think that I
would actually be over an hour in if listening to a
complete version. |
|
10 September 2026
(Thursday) - Insomnia, Walk, Meeting, Ironing
I
couldn’t sleep so I got up silly-early, made toast and watched an episode of
“Upstairs Downstairs” in which Alex Kingston got rather lesbidaceous. I then had a little look at the Internet.
It was rather depressing; the aftermath of the weekend’s hateful protests in
Dover and Portsmouth were still continuing with
members and supporters of the RNLI getting abuse (both verbal
and in some cases physical) from the neo-Nazis. We live in strange times…
there’s one part of the nation running round shouting about patriotism and
tying flags to lamp posts and painting the cross of St George on roads and
pavements. And there’s another part who have never been so ashamed to be
British. Meanwhile
that idiot Donal Trump is offering every American five thousand dollars if they vote for
his party at the upcoming elections. I
eventually felt a bit tired so I went back to bed at
half past four where I didn’t really sleep. I dozed on and off until I
finally got up for second breakfast at eight o’clock. As I scoffed it the bin
men came for the garden waste bin. In a novel break with tradition not only
did they actually empty it, they
put the thing back in the general vicinity of our house. As
the dogs got up (at half past eight) so I gathered their dung, Munzed and Wordled from “nasty”
to “dryly” in six moves. “Dryly” – what a stupid word. I
took the dogs up to Kings Wood where we had a good walk. Pogo screamed at the
normal people, but that’s what he does. As we went I
took a few photos and used the Map My Walk app… and my phone locked up.
Twice. It’s a few years old; maybe it is time to think about getting a new
one? We
came back to the car park to find several cars parked on the lane outside.
Now that the RingGo parking thingy is up and running, more
and more people are begrudging paying a couple of quid a week. As
we drove there and back I listened to more
Brideshead Revisited MP3. I’m not impressed with it; so much of the original
book has been missed out. I’m now about half-way
through the three-hour audiobook. The TV adaptation was twelve hours long. We
came home where I sorted a cuppa. I wrote up some CPD then went round to a
coffee shop in Repton where I had a meeting with the leading lights of the later
session of Dog Club. There’s no denying that I was expecting the worst. I
went fully expecting a fight, but we had a really
productive session. There was talk of increasing the subs and changing
the logistics of payments. There was talk of a working party to tidy up the
paddock… It
was all very positive. The only negative was having to pay the thick end of
eight quid for a rather mediocre cup of coffee and three bite-sized pastry
things (which were on the burned side). I don’t usually frequent coffee
shops… I
came home and put a load of washing in, then did the ironing whilst watching
an episode of “Upstairs Downstairs”. We did “FEED THE FISH”
then I had a little kip. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which
we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange
New Worlds”. It was rather good. |
|
11 September 2026
(Friday) - Off to Bletchley
I slept well, which was a result. I woke shortly
after six o’clock to the sound of rain on the window. The sound of rain is
one of the most depressing sounds there is. There are those that like rain;
those that sit inside and look out at it. I wanted to go out. I made toast and had a look at the Internet.
There was endless support for lifeboats, and the right wing
thugs that have been running them down have gone strangely quiet. Last
night’s episode of Star Trek got mediocre reviews. For all that it was a good
episode it was (very obviously) a remake of what had gone before in
the genre, and those that were determined to dislike the show were very quick
to point it out. And American blood bankers were discussing techniques that
have been redundant in the UK for at least fifty years. And there was a lot of talk about some local
café closing and how we should all support these small businesses. Why?
Yesterday I paid the thick end of eight quid for a rather mediocre cup of
coffee and three bite-sized pastry things (which were on the burned side)
from a local coffee shop. Why should I spend out on massively over-priced
things I don’t want just because someone’s decided to make their living from
selling massively over-priced things I don’t want? I Munzed, and Wordled from “sound” to “aster” in five
goes. Aster… it’s a sort of flower. I then took the
dogs to the woods. With time short we went to Orlestone where there was only
one other car in the car park (and that one left as we arrived). We
walked a short walk; the first park of the wood was muddy enough and the
lower part soon becomes a swamp. As we drove I
listened to more of my Brideshead Revisited MP3 audiobook… and decided to
give up with it. It’s left out major plot segments and major characters. I’ll
try something else. We came home for a bath. You’d be amazed how
much muck sticks to the belly of a small dog. And then I said goodbye to the household,
drove up to the station and collected my brother for a little road trip. Off
to Bletchley. We made good time up the M20, but there was
quite a hold-up at the Dartford crossing. There always is. South Mimms services was
something of a game – we had a Subway lunch which was massively overpriced.
Fow all that it was rather good I wouldn’t use it again simply because of the
self-service machines. From there it was a straight run to my
cousin’s house. I was impressed with the sat-nav. We met up with cousin
Karen, her husband Martin, and had a rather good afternoon with them and the
cat. Another cousin and her husband joined us for the evening. We went to a
Nepalese restaurant for dinner. I’d not had Nepalese before; I’d certainly
have it again. Things got progressively more
vague as the evening wore on… |
|
12 September 2026
(Saturday) - Family Party
My
cousin’s house is right next to a church. As well as ringing the hour the
chimes went off every quarter of an hour all night long. I think I heard the lot.
I got up at seven o’clock, put the en-suite through its paces and went
downstairs to make myself a cuppa. I eventually found the kitchen… seriously.
It took some finding. Each room in the house has a floor space bigger than
the entire downstairs of my house. And having found the kitchen, finding the
fridge took some doing. The
was blood on the kitchen tiles. The cat had had a mouse overnight. The fourth
in twenty-four hours. You
don’t get that with dogs… Rather than playing with them, Treacle just swallows
mice whole It
wasn’t long before we were all up. My cousin Karen asked if we had time for
brekkie and got out the makings of a fry-up. We
had time. We
had a very good brekkie. As we scoffed so a red kite flew over. And some
seagulls. Seagulls? We must stop calling them that. We were about as far from
the sea as it is possible to get in the UK, with the closest beaches being
pretty much equidistant at Southend and Weston Super Mare, and still gulls
were flying about. With
brekkie scoffed we said our goodbyes. Ideally we
would have stayed longer, but in my world everything
happens at once. The
sat-nav which had done so will getting up to the Midlands did just as good
getting us home (once we were on the M1 it was rather straightforward).
There’s no denying that I’m not keen on driving, but it was far quicker and
cheaper than the train. Trains are all very well for getting from A to B very
fast. However both A and B are very rarely in a
convenient place to get to or from. We
got home. The dogs went mad about the smell of cat. We did “FEED THE FISH”, “er indoors TM” had
made cakes. We had them with a cuppa then set off to Icklesham
for a family birthday party. We
had a rather good afternoon in the sunshine. My plan had been to stay for a
drink or two… we stayed for five as the littluns bossed the dogs about. We
came home where “er indoors TM” got a kebab and we played a few rounds of “Ticket To Ride”, but I was wilting. I gave up and did that which I always threaten but
rarely do. I had an early night. |
|
13 September 2026
(Sunday) - Late Shift
I didn’t sleep as well as I’d hoped I would.
Six pints of ale and far too much Nepalese curry hadn’t been sitting too well
yesterday when I then dumped five more pints and a kebab on top. I finally got settled when “er indoors TM” alarm
went off (for no reason) at half past seven. I got up, put a load of washing in, made toast,
and had a look at the Internet to see if I’d missed much. There was a rather
impressive squabble on the Dog Club WhatsApp group. No matter what the
subject (Star Trek fandom, keeping reptiles, fishing, pub crawls,
astronomy, 70s music, cookery garden ponds, astronomy, dachshunds,
geocaching, Lego…) eventually it just dissolves into quarrelling. I Munzed, Wordled and hung the washing out. Ideally
I would have taken the dogs out, but it was raining and there were
thunderstorms forecast. So I sat on the sofa (with
Bailey cuddled up to me) and solved geo-puzzles. A new lot had gone live
yesterday in the general vicinity of Edenbridge. As I solved them I saw that someone had got the First to Find on all
of them this morning. That someone lives just up the road. With an hour and a
quarter drive (according to Google and our previous experience) having
logged the first one at quarter to seven he would have left home at half past
five; an hour before dawn. He logged the last one at twenty to nine having
covered twenty-four caches over a four-mile route. He must have run from
cache to cache. In heavy rain. Some people love it. I paid my road tax. Twenty quid for the year.
That can’t be bad. But there is now this nonsensical thing that if I sell the
car, the road tax is non-transferrable. I would have to claim a refund, and
the buyer then shell out the tax again. And then it was time for work. I drove up the motorway listening to a new
audiobook. This time "All Quiet on the Western Front". It's
a book that (fifty years ago) English teachers did their level best to
ruin for me, but is actually
rather good. Sadly the audiobook is read in a
very dull Canadian accent, but it's better than the pompous voice of Sir John
Gielgud was in "Brideshead Revisited". I got to work and went into the works canteen
to get lunch. I quite like the hospital dinners; I usually get myself one
when on at a weekend. There was a "delightful lady"
doing her best to confuse the till staff in a very poorly disguised attempt
to a rather cheap meal even cheaper. I didn’t get involved… I cracked on with work. Back in the day
weekends at a hospital were emergencies only; these days there are clinics
running and with a reduced staff weekends are far busier than they ever used
to be. Back in the day we would be called in for one specific named patient, and would then wait for two or three hours to be called
again. Today my workload was constant and really didn’t stop. I only got a
break by walking out for five minutes. But it was raining for much of today. I don’t
mind working when it is raining. “er indoors TM” boiled up a late
dinner of chicken nuggets and chips which we scoffed whilst watching “Tipping Point”. I
love TV game shows - many of the contestants have no hesitation in showing
their ignorance. Has anyone honestly never heard of Pepe Le
Pew? |
|
14 September 2026
(Monday) - Rostered Day Off
I
slept like a log last night. The road trip to the Midlands, Nepalese curry,
family party and late shift over a very busy weekend had taken its toll. I
made toast and (being back to the usual routine) had a look at the
Internet. Someone with whom I went to college many years ago was posting
climate change denial propaganda. That winds me up. Climate change is real – you
can see it happening. Where there used to be cod in the English Channel
there’s now dolphins and tuna. When did we last
have enough snow for a sledge? When did we last have a proper summer like we
had when I was a lad when every day *wasn’t* ridiculously hot? And
I found out that the world is ending in a couple of months. One
lives and learns. And
(for once) I saw the sort of thing that I have Facebook for. A friend
had been to Finland to take part in the Nordic Walking World Championship. That’s what I want
to see as I scoff my toast. I
Munzed, Wordled and went
to wake “er indoors TM” and
the dogs. If I have a lie-in she has an alarm set. If I don’t, she doesn’t
either. I
took the dogs up to the woods. Sadly it is now
foraging season. For the next few weeks all of the
thickets within a quarter of a mile will be heaving with all sorts of people
desperately seeking chestnuts and mushrooms and whatever it is that people
forage for. What none of them realise is that by this afternoon
everything forage-able would have been foraged, but that won’t stop them. If
any of them would walk for more than five minutes they would find an entire
forest full of stuff worth having, but hardly anyone seems to forage out of
sight of the car park. If
nothing else it gives the dogs something to bark at. We
had a good walk. We did our usual circuit. We didn’t see any deer, but
something big was crashing about at the far end of the woods, and we chased a
few squirrels. We
came home. I made us both a cuppa and we had one of the cakes that “er indoors TM” had
made, and then I had a look in the garden. There was a load of soil round the
bottom of one of the planters and the conifer pot. That mess wasn’t there
yesterday. I had hoped the conifer pot had rusted through. I hoped in vain. A
rat had chewed its way into the back of the planter. I emptied it all out and
tided up. As I did so the back of the planter fell apart. I shall fix that
another time. I
put shirts in to wash. I harvested dog turds. And seeing the lawn was long
enough to hide the turds I ran round with the lawn mower. And whilst I was at
it I hacked back more of the brambles coming over
the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. As I hacked
I saw she’d had a go at the brambles on her side, so that has got to be a
result. Hint taken, perhaps? No
day off work is complete without ironing. And with ironing done I tried to
quietly sneak outside, but it was “that time” and I was being watched
like a pork (to coin a phrase). So I made the
announcement “I’M GOING TO FEED THE FISH” and the dogs flew to the
pond, with Treacle squealing in excitement. I
then carried on solving geo-puzzles and I had a message. The Dog Club
squabble seems to be over for now, and the later
group have asked if we’d like to hang on later this weekend as they’ve got a
photographer coming. It’s a kind thought but to my mind the days of a
professional photographer are numbered. Trying to get a dog to pose takes
some doing, and I can’t help but think that I get every bit as good a photo off of the camera on my phone as from a fancy camera. I’m
not keen on shelling out a tenner (per dog) for photos of my three
which I can get buckshee. By
late afternoon the undercrackers were washed and dried (never a dull
moment!). I put another load of washing in to
scrub and “er indoors TM” boiled
up pizza and chips then went bowling. I
settled down and watched the last episode of “Upstairs Downstairs”.
What can I watch next? And
in closing, today marks forty-five years since I first started work in blood
testing. Let’s just say that I’ve been in my current place of work for nine
and a half years and they’ve been the happiest nine and a half years of my
working life. Being happy in your work is important – for a *very*
long time I wasn’t. |
|
15 September 2026
(Tuesday) - A Bit Of Whinging
I
slept well… once I got to sleep. What with this carpal tunnel nonsense my arm
seriously hurts unless I lay on my back. I
got up earlier than I might have done and watched an episode of “Alley Cats”; Ricky Gervais’s
latest thing. It was rather good. The
internet was rather quiet at six o’clock this morning so I Munzed, Wordled from “hurts”
through “tribe”, “metal” and “leapt” to “dealt”.
I got ready for work and set off for work. As
I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were saying that Donald
Trump has announced that any possibility of artificial intelligence taking
over the world is a hoax. That's nice. We can
all sleep safely following this latest pronouncement from the world's most
powerful and most feeble-minded simpleton. I really don't understand why the
American congress doesn't just give him a colouring-in book to keep him
occupied whilst someone who isn't demonstrably senile is found to take
command. Meanwhile
one of Vladimir Putin's cronies has paid for Donald Trump's son's
wedding... would any other world leader allow that? Quod erat
demonstrandum as they used to say in ancient Rome... I
went into Sainsburys to get lunch. I thought about taking in cakes to
celebrate yesterday's anniversary... but thought better of it. There have
been many changes in the workplace over the years; both in the technicalities
of what we do and in the culture. And perhaps one of the worst changes is the
reduction in people bringing in cakes. For the most part it really is a thing
of the past And
I had a message from “Daddies’ Little
Angel TM”. She’d been taking
Pogo for a walk when he’d gone rogue and whipped a homeless chap’s lunch.
He’s done similar things when I’ve taken him out before. Twice. It’s rather
amusing all the time someone else is walking him and all the time he’s having
someone else’ lunch. Being on an early shift I got out of work promptly.
As time goes by I’m finding the early starts to be
getting more like hard work. But I like the early finish. I came home and
spent much of the early evening dozing. The constant pain of this carpal
tunnel nonsense is rather wearing. As is the constant whistling of the tinnitus. I really don’t like whinging
about it almost as much as I don’t like the ongoing pain and whistling. There’s
talk of a bottle of plonk with dinner later… |
|
16 September 2026
(Wednesday) - Before The Late Shift
I
slept well again, and “er indoors TM” had
turned her alarm off too. Bonus. I
made toast and had a look at the internet. One of the sci-fi pages I follow
on Facebook had a picture of a compilation of lots of robots from various
science fiction films and shows. You wouldn’t believe the squabbling it
provoked about whether or not a dalek is or isn’t a
robot. And one of the local Facebook pages featured photos of cats crapping
on someone’s lawn. Some local idiot was fed up with cat turds and had decided
to shame his neighbours. As if a cat would give a shit (figuratively; we
know they do literally). I
Munzed, unlocking a Qrate
as one does. I Wordled from “turds” through
“spank” and “copse” before ending
with “wispy” (for the simple reason that it was the only word that
I could think of). As
I Munzed so “er indoors TM” stood over Bailey trying to get her to eat. We’ve realized that
when I’m at work she eats her all of brekkie, but
when I’m home she doesn’t. She’s too preoccupied
with the thought of going out. Today she ate maybe half of her brekkie before going
into the hallway (where the leads are kept) where she quite openly
started the queue for walkies. As I drove the dogs down to Orlestone so the pundits
on the radio were interviewing Rick Wakeman about
the late David Bowie. The claim was made that David Bowie was the first
person to ask if there was life on Mars… and this was presented as a serious
proposition. We got to Orlestone where there were quite a few
cars in the car park. The frankly odd bloke was again sitting in his car
shouting a running commentary into his phone. We
left him to it. Foragers were foraging, and there were quite a few dogs being
walked. A mile into the woods and they were still on their leads. One woman
gave us the evil glare as we walked past. People like her boil my piss. If
you won’t let your dogs run and you aren’t happy
watching other dogs doing what dogs do, why not walk the streets of the town
where dogs *will* be on leads. Winter must be coming – I wore a jumper as we walked
for the first time in months. We came home where I showered the fox poo off of Bailey. I wrote up some CPD, and set
off to the late shift. As I drove I listened to more
of the audiobook of “All Quiet on the Western Front”. I’ve seen the
film a few times relatively recently but have not read the book for years.
I’d forgotten how profoundly depressing it was. I’m tempted to give up with it. And the day was effectively done by the time I
rolled into work at mid day… |
|
17 September 2026
(Thursday) - M.O.T.
I found a position in which I can sleep on my
side without the carpal tunnel nonsense kicking off, and I slept till eight
o’clock. I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do every morning. It
was still there, and much the same as ever. One thing on Facebook made me
think. Several pages had posts about influencer claiming her holiday had
been ruined after paying a Cornish local good money for directions to a
secret beach which didn’t exist. However for all that the
world and his wife were queuing up to rip into this idiot, I tried to look a
little deeper. All the articles on line said that “Surrey-based
content creator Chardonnay Skye, known online as ChardOnTour,
had been searching for somewhere to film on Cornwall’s north coast…” so I
Googled. All that came up were links to the story on various social media platforms.
There was nothing that I could find about “Chardonnay Skye” or “ChardOnTour”. Was it all made-up bollox? Clearly
everyone is seeing it and spreading the story without checking anything. It was raining… well, drizzle. We went for our walk anyway. Despite
the wet day there were two other cars in the car park at Orlestone, but
fortunately the twit who sits in his car giving a running commentary of the
world wasn’t there. We went for a little walk, and suddenly there was a commotion.
One of the normal people had come out of a path about fifty yards behind us
and Morgan and Bailey had gone to shout at him. I whistled and they both came
running. Their recall is rather impressive when it works. I’d told the dogs they weren’t to roll in fox poo.
To be fair to them I didn’t say anything about not eating the stuff and so
Bailey had a mouthful. And then Morgan had a roll anyway. Treacle didn’t wade
into the huge puddle at the top of the woods so I shall be grateful for small
mercies. We came home through Shadoxhurst avoiding
the ongoing traffic hold-ups at Magpie Hall Road. I usually forget those, and spend an age sitting at a red light. Once home we had a bath. Fox poo notwithstanding, paws and bellies
were grubby. The dogs then had a late brekkie and
Bailey ate all of hers; proving the theory that she doesn’t eat when faced
with the prospect of going for a walk. I Munzed, Wordled
from “found” to “theta” (stupid word) in five goes, then
took the car to Halfords for its MOT. I left the car with the nice people and went for a little walk. I went
round all of the garages looking at cars. As I’d
driven to the woods earlier so the car’s odometer
went over ninety thousand miles. Who’s going to buy a car with that mileage?
I will be running this car into the ground, but what will I get when it is
time for a replacement? I have one criterion for the next car (and only
one); the boot opening must be low enough for the dogs to be able to jump
in and out. Sat nav would be nice as would a reversing camera, but they are
optional. A low opening boot is a must. I certainly looked at over a hundred cars. As I looked only one
salesman approached me. If I had worn a shirt and tie
they would have been all over me. I said as much to the one salesman who
spoke to me; he agreed. The chap didn’t actually laugh
at what I felt was my priority; he said everyone has what is important to
them. But he said that most cars don’t have those low backs any more. From what I saw today he was right. The Skoda
dealer had some… the same model as my current car. And the Toyota dealer had
two (at twice the price of the Skodas). A
trip to Big Motoring World might be in order when the time comes. As I wandered from one car dealership to another
so my watch wobbled and told me that I’d walked four miles going here and
there. Four miles just looking at cars – and I’ve no interest in cars(!) I popped into McDonalds for lunch as I was in the area. Back in the day
I was always in McDonalds. Back in the day I was three stones heavier. A
decent bit of McScran set me back nearly four times
the price of a Sainsbury’s meal deal. I collected my car. It had one minor advisory; the light over the
number plate needs replacing. That can wait till the car
next needs a service. And since I’m a member of the Halfords Motoring Club I
got the MOT for free. This Halfords Motoring Club is something of a result. I joined a few
weeks ago when I needed a new car battery. The nice lady said that if I
joined there and then (for fifty quid) they would give me sixty quid off of the price of the battery. And then they made all
sorts of reductions on the service earlier in the month. What with today’s
buckshee MOT, according to my account with them I’ve saved over a hundred and
fifty quid so far. I don’t usually give out adverts on here, but you’d be daft
not to take up Halfords’ offer. I came home and spent an hour hacking back more of the overgrowth
coming over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. I really gave
it some welly… part of me felt guilty, but I’ve asked her to sort it and
she’s done nothing. And bearing in mind I was standing two feet away from the
fence as I pruned, it certainly needed doing. I made us a cuppa and then sat down. I was
worn out from today’s exertions. “er
indoors TM” boiled up a rather good curry which we scoffed
whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”. I won’t give any spoilers (maybe just one that I couldn’t resist…)
but again it was a really good episode that the fans
who are new to the genre will hate… And I’ve been pondering for much of today.
Several people I know have (relatively) recently jacked it all in and emigrated (is that the right word?) to Scotland.
The chap who took over from me at work when I came home last night told me
that he’s working his notice. He’s been offered a
job at the labs at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow where
he will get five hundred quid a month more than he gets now for doing exactly the same job. Have I left it too late to go north of the border? |
|
18 September 2026
(Friday) - Another Day Off
I
slept well. I got up just after eight o’clock with a sore hand (as well as
the carpal tunnel nonsense) and found a rather large splinter in my
thumb. It must have been in there snice I did the gardening
yesterday afternoon. I
made toast and had a look at the internet. It was still there. This morning’s
squabble was about a video of someone rescuing a cuttlefish stranded on a
rock and putting it back into the sea. Some (like me) felt it was a
kind thing to do. Others were ranting about the thing being generated by A.I.
and were being rather nasty about it… as if there wasn’t enough else to
bicker about. And
last night’s episode of Star Trek got quite a lot of hate too. In
a novel break with tradition Bailey ate all of her
brekkie this morning. And with that scoffed we drove up to the woods. The
woods was rather busy today. Horses and cars. Normal
people with nervous dogs. Treacle had a wallow in a swamp. And the skin-tight lycra-clad young mothers' running
club were there too. We found an injured little bird, but it hopped off
into the undergrowth before I could capture it. I expect a fox had it fairly promptly. We took a bit of a different route today. I took
several turns to try to avoid everyone else, and every turn added to our
journey. We’d covered over five miles by the time we got back to the car, and
once I’d got some petrol on the way back it was after mid-day
before I made our cuppa. I
sparked up the lap-top and told the geocaching community about tomorrow’s
geo-events. There’s a litter pick in nearby Frittenden
tomorrow morning, and a meet-up in a pub in Edenbridge at lunchtime. Back in
the day I would have showed up for both. I
Munzed, and Wordled.
Starting from “eight” (which didn’t help at all) I started
again with “found”. This didn’t help as much as I’d like in that the “o”
was in the wrong place. Can you think of a five letter
word with “o” anywhere but in the second position? Eventually I came
up with “brook” which showed me where the “o” was, but didn’t have the “n” which I knew (from
my second go) was in there somewhere. In desperation I tried “sloan” (is that even a word?) and that left
“snowy” as the only word I could think of. Wordle
strains my poor brain. I
wrote up some CPD, then had a little
pootle in the garden. I cut back more of the overgrowth from not-so-nice-next-door’s
trees. It comes to something when after torrential rain my flower
pots are bone dry as their bushes are that far over the fence. Then I
took the back off of the planter I was having issues
with a few days ago. And
then I pulled out some of the plants in the living room fish tank. Earlier in
the year I was having issues with how mucky the fish tank was. A combination
of live plants and snails have worked wonders, but the plants had gone mad.
Whilst I was at it I cleaned out the filter… which
seems to have had it. I’ve ordered a new one from Amazon. I had various
options for delivery. I could have it delivered tomorrow for free, or I could
have it delivered tomorrow for one pound ninety-nine. I
used to work with a chap who really would have paid that one pound
ninety-nine. By
then my carpal tunnel nonsense was too painful to continue. It’s odd – my arm
has got incredibly worse ever since I got told that I’ve got carpal tunnel
syndrome. Is that some psychological thing? I
sat on the sofa with Bailey and put the finishing touches to the register
sheet I’ve drawn up for Dog Club. Personally I’d
rather we didn’t bother, but the paddock owners feel we should have one, and
they’ve probably got a point. Take the money for example – last week the cash
payments were what we would expect for twelve point seven dogs. And at the
end of the last session are we completely sure that everyone is out before
the gate gets locked? We once got locked in at Old Wardour
Castle… I defy anyone to jump over the fence at Dog Club. And
then I looked at joining some carpal tunnel Facebook groups. I found three,
and the one with most members seemed to be little more than a repository for
baking recipes all posted by the admin, so my hopes aren’t high. Bearing in
mind my previous experience I suspect it will be one big argument, but hope
springs eternal. “er
indoors TM” went off out with her mates. I sprked
up the telly and watched a film. ”East of Ipswich” was
something I can distinctly remember watching some years ago. Written by Michael Palin I can remember it starred Miranda Richardson
and it was rather good. I have no idea what I saw all those years ago, but it
wasn’t what I watched this evening… |
|
19 September 2026
(Saturday) - Dog Club, Litter Picking
I woke far too early, so I got up and turned
the telly on. Last night I started watching “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story”
on Netflix. I’ve watched two episodes so far, and so far
it’s not bad. I hoofed “er indoors TM” and
the dogs out of bed, and as they pootled I had a
look at the Internet as I do. That carpal tunnel Facebook group featured more
recipes. Last night I posted on there asking what
all the recipes were about, and quite a few people had echoed the sentiment. Friends were on holiday in Greece and
Estonia. Friends had been to Dover Castle. Friends had been to dog agility competitions. Facebook was showing me that people had been doing
things; not the usual tripe it comes up with. That was a result. As I fiddled on-line so Steve was on the
radio doing the Guess The Lyrics competition. “One
of those nights when you feel the world stop turning”. No? E.L.O. – Last Train to London. I got it right away, and was unbearably smug about it. We got ourselves organised and went round to
Repton and Dog Club where we had a rather good morning. I counted sixteen dogs,
and all played and chased and had treats and got “fruity”. One of our
number returned after a few months away; she’d had a baby. Littlun was cute, and enjoyed watching the antics of the dogs. From Dog Club we headed westwards. As
we drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. V.A.T.
was introduced and Sweet sang about the Ballroom Blitz. No? 1973. The radio signal gave out at Bethersden which was odd. In the past it’s been good for another
ten miles out as far as Goudhurst, but it wasn’t having it today. We got to Frittenden
where the eastern part of the Kent geocaching community was helping with the
village’s litter picking. Me and “er indoors TM” were
assigned the local playpark. We started gathering litter and found there
wasn’t much. And then a local busybody bustled over and told us that we were
wasting our time as he picks the litter every day… and then he started a rant
about two black sacks of litter which have been laying by the fence for
months. We took the black sacks… and the credit too. We then wandered the local roads seeing what
litter we might find. There wasn’t much, but it was good to wander about
doing something useful. This was only my twelfth C.I.T.O (geo-speak for
litter picking) event. I could and should do more. We found our way back to the control point
which was outside the local pub where we met up with the other geocachers and
had quite a good catch-up… right until the pub opened. It would have been
nice to have had a pint there, but everyone had places to be and people to
see. And (quite frankly) we could (and did) have had two rounds
of rather decent beer at home and change out of what one round of rather
mediocre stuff would have cost us in the pub. We came home and had a rather good few hours
in the garden. Freshly baked bread with decent stout, and “er indoors TM” played with her resin modelling. It got cold perhaps a couple of
hours earlier than it might have done, but there it is. “er indoors TM” popped down the road
to the new Chinese take-away and took away the set meal for two. It was
rather good. We scoffed it whilst playing “Ticket To
Ride”… I won all three games; That’s completely
unheard of. |
|
20 September 2026
(Sunday) - Early Shift
There’s
no denying that I scoffed far too much of the Chinese take-away we had last
night. It would probably have fed four people, but that didn’t stop me
getting stuck in. The stuff didn’t sit well overnight. I
got up at five o’clock and wondered if some toast might settle my innards. It
didn’t. I
watched another episode of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story”
on
Netflix which was rather interesting. The practicalities of killing someone
with an axe probably isn’t something that many have considered, but if you
are going to do for someone with an axe you might want to think it through
before going bat-shit-psycho. As
I drove off to work I tried listening to the radio.
Early Sunday morning radio is usually dire, and today's
was dire in the extreme. I caught the end of some utter drivel about
the religious convictions of some amateur poets, and
this was followed by a potted biography of some farmer. After ten minutes I
gave up and listened to more "All Quiet on the Western Front"
in which our hero had ended up in a rather dire field hospital, got better,
and got shot right at the end of the war. I’ve got to the end of that
audiobook now. I probably won’t listen to it again. The story is depressing
enough, and it was read in the most miserable tone of voice. I’m now on “Day
of the Triffids” which (so far) is much better. I
got to work. Back in the day I would have started a weekend early shift with
the cooked breakfast. Back in the day I was three stones heavier. I
sent the night shift home and made a start on the day's work. When I
first started this job Sunday was for dire emergencies and in-patients only.
Today things are different. I
did my bit; today contending with the E and the Kidd blood groups and was
glad when home time came. I
came home to an empty house. Following an epic battle with the Hoover “er indoors TM” had claimed a victory and had taken the dogs for a walk. However every epic battle has a loser, and the Hoover has
gone the way of the hero of "All Quiet on the Western Front". I
rather thought that washing the innards of the Hoover was a mistake, but nil
desperandum (as the dead Romans say). The new Hoover arrives is a
few days’ time. I’m
just glad it wasn’t me that poggered it. I
put a load of washing in to scrub, then fell asleep
on the sofa underneath a pile of dogs. “er indoors TM” boiled
up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Young Sheldon”. Today
has been dull, and I’m feeling rather worn out… |
|
21 September 2026 (Monday)
- Busy, Busy...
I
slept well… or as well as I could. My carpal tunnel nonsense *really*
hurts if I sleep on my side, and my back *really* hurts if I sleep on
my back. But the pain kicks in over different timescales. I get an hour on my
back before that pain kicks off, whereas my
arm gives me (at most) two minutes on my side. I
got up at half past six, made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Again it was one big squabble with people posting rants based
on factually incorrect premises. I
posted a few more A.I. piccies to Facebook last
night… and that had caused offence. It is common knowledge that the data
centres that house the A.I. systems are massively energy-intensive and are
going to cause irreversible environmental damage… The
trouble with “common knowledge” is that for all that everyone knows
these things, it is usually factually incorrect. I did
a little finding out… the whole process of creating an A.I. image like the
ones I posted up last night used less electricity than running an electric
kettle to make a cuppa. On the other hand moving
data around the internet (like when reading this blog) has a much
larger environmental impact than generating a few images. Creating a few
caricatures of me and my dogs has a tiny fraction of the carbon footprint of
the phone or computer people are viewing them on. But is it about the (totally
exaggerated) energy costs? I found myself thinking back to when I used to
do oil painting in the style of Bob Ross. At the time there
were several people finding fault and criticising. Most of whom were
established artists who felt that the entire problem with the Bob Ross style
of painting is that with a little practise anyone can make a half-decent
painting. A.I. generated pictures are much the same. And
people were banging on about “Saint Princess Diana”… her brother has released a book which is very
critical of the King, and everyone was posting fond memories of the “Queen
of Hearts” (which bore little relationship to reality)… Anyone who’s familiar with
Alice in Wonderland would know that the Queen of Hearts wasn’t a particularly
likable character. Personally I don’t know very much
about the late Princess Diana but it’s a matter of public record that when
she died in a car crash she’d not seen her children
in the preceding six weeks. I
Munzed. I Wordled.
Starting with “could” I didn’t actually get
to “pager”. That’s a three-month streak down the toilet. I
then loudly asked who wanted to go to the woods. Bailey was there like a
shot. She loves her walks in the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio
were broadcasting from the annual conference of the Liberal Democrat party.
The Dribbling Democraps apparently are rather
concerned that despite having over seventy MPs, no one seems to know what
their policies are, or what they stand for. Historically this was always
their position – to be non-committal on everything. Like them or loathe them,
the other parties tell you where they stand. We
got to the woods. The areas near the car park were thick with foragers all
shouting at each other. Once we were past them we had
a near miss with the idiot with the boxer dogs. We’ve met them before. The
dogs are fine, but the idiot demands on a hundred metres exclusion zone round
his dogs and gets arsey when no one gives him that.
He shouted at Morgan, then nearly shat himself in terror as I came round the
corner asking if there was a problem. I’m told I can do a good impression of
a scary tattoo-ed skinhead… A
hundred yards later we met the dogs with bells tied to their collars (poor
things), but with them behind us we then had a good walk. Squirrels
abounded (which the dogs chased) and the deer were out (which the
dogs completely missed). As
we walked I ran my birdsong app. Being up the woods
an hour and a half earlier than usual the birds were making a lot more noise
than they have recently. My app said it had heard a red-eyed vireo. Had it? Somehow I doubt it. We
came home to an empty house. With “er indoors TM” having
a day in the office we’d been left home alone. I made myself a cuppa, put a
load of washing in then cracked on in the garden. I
harvested quite a bit of dog dung. I mowed the lawn. I cleaned out both
ponds’ filters. And whilst I was having a filtration session
I put the new filter into the fish tank. I
had a spot of lunch and watched an episode of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden
Story” whilst looking at the fish tank. A few months ago
I put live plants in there. A few days ago I pruned those
plants. But that was nowhere near enough pruning; I gave them a serious trimming, and syphoned out a lot of the muck which was
across the bottom of the tank. Once I’d topped up the water it didn’t take
more than a minute or so for the muck to settle again. So
I syphoned another load of muck and topped up again… and did this four more times. And
then I wasn’t so much worn out as in serious arm pain, so I made myself a
cuppa and had a little sit down. I wrote up some CPD, watched more
“Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” and then it was five o’clock. I
loaded the dogs into the car and we drove up to Wye
Downs where we joined in with a particularly good meet-up of the local
geocaching community. A mini kitchen was set up. Hot chocolate and hot dogs
all round (and sausages for the dogs), and we chatted until sunset. As
we chatted “er indoors TM” and
Pogo joined us. Pogey is staying with us whilst “Daddies’ Little Angel TM”‘s landlord has the mortgage
advisors in. (No, I can’t see why Pogo needs to go on a little holiday
either). We
came home. “er
indoors TM” fed us all then went
bowling. I scoffed second dinner whilst watching the last episodes of “Monster:
The Lizzie Borden Story”. The show started well, but
had clearly been dragged out for about three more episodes than it needed to
have been. I’ve
had a rather busy day today… |
|
22 September 2026
(Tuesday) - Before the Late Shift
As
I scoffed toast I found myself thinking. Facebook
told me that three years ago we were in Bukhara having a feast with
twenty-five other people on an expedition round Uzbekistan. For two weeks we
had the adventure of a lifetime and (I thought) we all became firm
friends. Since we came back we’ve heard from one of
them. One. Facebook
also told me that today was a Facebook friend birthday. Someone from
the Southampton area we used to see very regularly through a mutual interest in
kite flying. Kite flying was a big part of my life for over ten years. We
went to kite festivals (involving weekend camping holidays) several
times a year. We went to all sorts of events and activities; even to France
and Germany. We’ve
only seen two of our kite-flying friends in the last ten years. Back
in the day we used to have twenty friends round on
Tuesday evenings to watch Star Trek episodes. We’re still in touch with some
of these people; we’ve seen half a dozen this year. And
then there was the people at the snake club, the Lego club, scouting, six
years of college, years of Open University, no end of people with whom I
worked (some for over twenty years)… It is *so* easy to lose
touch with people. I
Munzed, then started another Wordle streak (one
day so far) by getting from “feast” to “stoke” in four
goes. All these apps have streaks which you maintain by doing them daily.
Munzee, Wordle, Kindle, Meowdoku… why do I worry so
much about maintaining these streaks? I
got four (!) dogs onto their leads, and with time pressing drove down
to Orlestone. Bearing in mind the road works on the old A2070 I went cross
country, and again Church Lane was awash with litter. There is a mile of that
road which really does look as though people just empty bin bags full of
rubbish as they drive along. I’d organise a geocaching
litter-pick to sort it, but it would involve having people on the side of
a road, and cars fly down that lane. We
got to the woods and had a good walk. We saw some woman and a Labrador, but
nor before they’d seen us and gone the other way. And about three quarters of
the way round we met a “very nice man” mincing through the woods with
two bundles of fluff on leads. I loudly ordered “Straight Past” and my lot just went straight past without bothering his
dogs. “Straight Past” is a new trick which we are working on. It has varying
levels of success, but over time the success rate is getting better. When it
works (like today) it does look impressive; especially to those who
don’t dare let their own dogs off of the lead. We
came home. I didn’t have a cuppa. When I have a cuppa before work I then
drive to work desperate for a tiddle. Instead I used
some of that amount of energy having Microsoft Copilot cooking up today’s
picture. And having Microsoft Copilot make it rather than me, someone else
paid for the electricity used. Result !! And
then I spent a few minutes checking my figures… yesterday I said “the whole process of
creating an A.I. image … used less electricity than running an electric
kettle to make a cuppa”. It turns out that making an A.I. caricature actually
takes about one seventh of the leccie needed
to boil a kettle, and I can make over fifty such piccies for the energy
needed to tumble-dry my undercrackers. And you don’t see any tree-hugging
hippies complaining about my undercrackers, do you? I
set off to work. I stopped off at the Repton centre. There's a new chap
running the show and I've been getting loads of mixed third-hand messages
about just what the Repton people want from the Dog Club, so I thought it
best to talk to them directly. It turns out they are very happy with the Dog
Club, but there's some confusion about how they recognise payments form us.
People can pay their subs in three ways. They can pay directly by BACS or they can put cash into the pot which I collect
then send a payment by BACS. BACS has a reference on it, and if people put
"Dog Club" as the reference then all is heigh ho, pip and dandy. However
the Repton people have set up a system by which you pay them by texting a
certain number on your mobile. The trouble with that is that when they get a
payment by text they have no idea who has sent it.
Table tennis, Karate, Pilates... it could be from anyone. I've suggested that
they have a dedicated text number for Dog Club payments. They are looking
into it. From
there I went up the motorway to work listening to more of
my "Day of the Triffids" audiobook. It's streets
ahead of "All Quiet on the Western Front" as the bloke reading it
is putting effort and feeling into his narration and doesn't some over as being utterly morose. Work
was work. I did my bit and came home listening to more "Triffids".
I got home to find the new Hoover has arrived and is sucking like a thing
possessed. Which is a result if you like that sort of thing. Personally I'm not averse... |
|
23 September 2026
(Wednesday) - Before Another Late Shift
I slept reasonably well… bearing in mind
backache from sleeping on my back, carpel tunnel pain, tinnitus ringing in my
ears and the CPAP machine blowing up my nose…Perhaps the biggest issue was
lack of bed space though. At night some dogs curl up tightly and some sprawl out.
During the day Bailey is the smallest dog in the world. At night she is huge. As I got up I saw
that Prime Human had plenty of bed space, it was only Spare Human that was
being pushed off the edge… I made toast and had my usual look at the
Internet. Someone or other had posted up a link to a work-related text book in e-format. These
appear from time to time. These things aren’t cheap
so when the opportunity arises I not only have it, but
share it on the works WhatsApp group. I probably won’t ever read the thing,
but being seen to share this sort of thing gives a good impression with my
colleagues. Otherwise they would think my life is an
endless round of dog walking and beer drinking. They would be right in
thinking that, but I’d rather they had a good impression rather than the
right one. Friends were posting photos from holiday in
Greece and Poland, and from a coach trip. Yesterday a friend had organised a coach
trip round the churches of the Romney Marsh. Admittedly you got a packed
lunch thrown in, but fifty quid to go round the churches of the Romney Marsh?
All the seats on the trip sold out. Each to their own … And there was petty bickering on-line too.
There usually is. I Munzed, Wordled from “slept” to “forth” in five
goes, and in doing so double my daily streak. As I farted about so Pogo shouted at the
world. I wish he wouldn’t. I took the dogs out. We had quite a walk to where
I’d parked last night. The major issue with the late shifts is the parking
when I get home. We walked through the clouds of cannabis smoke. No matter
where you go these days, the foul smell of that stuff pervades everywhere.
Particularly around allotments, I’ve noticed. As we drove to Orlestone the pundits on the
radio were simply wasting the licence fee. They were talking about an obscure TV show which only features on
Apple TV, and consequently no one had heard of. And to make matters worse
they were interviewing of the stars who was quite incapable of stringing a
coherent sentence together. We got to the woods. There were some normal
people in the car park so Pogo screamed at them. I really wish he wouldn’t.
As we walked our usual circuit so we met one other
person and her dog; that encounter passed off without incident which was
probably for the best. We chased squirrels, rolled in the leaves, paddled in
the puddles… A great time was seemingly had by all. We came home and once I got a clean shirt I
set off to work listening to more "Triffids". I like John
Wyndham's books, but they are things of their time and oh-so-obviously
written by someone "posh". I stopped off in Sainsburys to get lunch
where a pair of half-wits were totally oblivious to the fact that they were
inadvertently blockading the door. Some rather dumpy dopey looking woman was
shouting "CHICKEN KIEV, CHICKEN KIEV" at a rather stupid
looking chap whose jeans were three sizes too big for him and were only kept
up by a pair of the sort of braces that my grandfather used to wear.
The more she shouted, the more confused he appeared to be. The poor chap
clearly had less sense than teeth, and he didn't have many teeth. After a few
minutes I loudly shouted "excuse me"
and barged through. The pair of them suddenly realised where they were, and bustled off looking suitably embarrassed. I wonder what that was all about. I went in to work and did my bit. Today
included an anti-factor Xa assay. I'd not done one of those before; it turned
out to be something of a disappointment. I don't know what I had been
expecting, but I had been expecting more. Rather allegorical of life, really. |
|
24 September 2026
(Thursday) - Siphoning
I
found myself feeling somewhat prophetic as I peered into the Internet this
morning. The other day I whinged about how easy it is to lose touch with people.
One of the people on my Facebook list had a birthday today. I first met this
chap about thirty years ago. We did so much together, so many pubs and beer
festivals. So many weekends away and shared holidays. I’ve seen the chap
twice since lockdown… And
two weeks ago I was in a local coffee shop about which I said “The only negative
was having to pay the thick end of eight quid for a rather mediocre cup of
coffee and three bite-sized pastry things (which were on the burned side)”. This morning I saw that they are closing down
this weekend. It’s not just pubs that can’t attract customers. I Munzed; opening a qrate then Wordled from “found”
to “messy” in five goes.. I spent a little while downloading bank statements. Again the bank has been fiddling with the way the app
works. I *really* don’t see why they can’t just leave the thing alone
rather than continually messing about with it. I
got the dogs onto their leads and we drove up to
Kings Wood Despite the charges the car park was heaving. The bit around the
car park was full of foragers swarming, and there was an organised group of
normal people having a guided tour found the field by the car park too. But
once we were away from them we had a good walk. I
thought the pups might like a drink from the dew pond. They did, but Pogo
charged with so much enthusiasm he couldn’t stop and skidded straight in. I
didn’t laugh much. Bailey went rogue about a mile later, and we had a
near-miss with some woman who was far too small to have quite such a big dog
in a lead. Her dog only wanted to play; I hate to think what would have
happened if her dog turned wilful. We
came home listening to more “Triffids”. I made us a cuppa, then had another
look at the fish tank. On Monday I’d made a serious start on it. I continued
today by hoiking out all of
the live plants. On Monday I’d dinged out a lot of the stuff that had gone
wild and had bunched up the remaining stuff. It seemed I’d missed a *lot*
so I sorted that again, then siphoned out muck and topped up the water. I let
it settle and siphoned again. And again. The
mucky water went onto the plants. Having been emptying the muck from the pond
filter onto the Monkey Puzzle tree for a couple of years it has only just
occurred to me that I’ve been chucking fishy goodness down the toilet (literally).
Maybe it will do the plants some good; the Monkey Puzzle tree is doing well
with the koi poop I’ve been pumping onto it. As
I siphoned I found a surprising number of dead
snails. For all that the things have bred impressively they don’t seem to
have much of a lifespan. As
the water settled between siphonings I looked at the
monthly accounts. They were the same as ever. They could be a whole lot
worse. I really shouldn’t grumble, but I can’t help but think that they could
be a whole lot better. With
accounts accounted I also did some CPD in between siphoning. It was at that
point that I remembered that I’d intended to put a load of shirts in to wash
before I started so that they would be ready to iron when I was done with the
fish tank. Woops. I put them in, and Meowdoku-ed
until the washing machine was done. As
I ironed shirts I watched something on Netflix. “Cranford”
was rather good. It was not unlike “Pride and Prejudice”; a gentle
period drama in which several old biddies blew every trivial incident out of
all proportion. I found myself thinking of my old mum… I
set about washing and tumble-drying the undercrackers whilst “er indoors TM” boiled
up burgers. We scoffed them whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star
Trek: Strange New Worlds” which was rather good with several nods to that
which had gone before.. not that hose
who will be finding fault on the Internet tomorrow would realise that. |
|
25 September 2026
(Friday) - Birthdays
I
slept reasonably well. It was a shame that when Bailey relocated in the small
hours she chose to trample over me rather than over
any of the other dogs, but she’s only small and not that heavy really. I
made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there, and the
squabbles were as pathetic as ever. Someone had posted a tribute to Arthur C
Clarke on one of the sci-fi Facebook groups. Someone else claimed that it had
been plagiarised from a Doctor Who episode and it had all kicked off. I read
some of the bickering, wondering since when had “clown” and “ding-a-ling”
been fighting-talk insults. No
one had anything bad to say about last night’s episode of “Star Trek:
Strange New Worlds” but several people had spotted the bods to the 70s
animated series (like I had). I
Munzed, Wordled from “clown”
to “copse” in three goes then went to wake “er indoors TM” and
the dogs. It was eight o’clock; how much longer did they want to sleep? Once
they’d had their brekkie we went out. As we drove the BBC wasted a lot of
prime radio time. There was an article about how rogue artificial
intelligences are not legally accountable for any of their
misdemeanours. It was rather interesting, but the expert expert
expert being being being interviewed interviewed interviewed was was was incredibly incredibly incredibly nervous and hesitant. And this was followed by
something about how the wild gentian plant has quite possibly gone extinct in the UK. However
the phone line to the expert went dead for about three quarters of what the
chap was saying. We
got to the woods where we mostly did our standard walk. We did take a bit of a
diversion to avoid a horse, which boiled my piss a little. Horses are allowed
on the wide main gravelled tracks which we avoid as far as possible. These
rarely have any hoofprints or horse dung. Horses aren’t allowed on the
narrower non-gravelled tracks where we go on as far as possible. These always
show hoofprints and have horse dung. We
walked four and a bit miles, then came home
listening to more “Triffids”. Once home I made us a cuppa and the dogs
all settled. Pogo settled on top of Bailey and both seemed content as they
both slept. I
then had a pootle in the garden. I went round with the Bionic Burner, then
trimmed back more of the stuff pouring over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door.
I trimmed quite a bit. I then had a look at booking a slot for a tip run. The
nice people at the council had been fiddling with the app so that there’s a
whole new way of booking. I wonder how much that cost… they bang on about
being short of money. With
slot booked I loaded up the car with rubbish then watched another episode of
“Cranford”. Starring Mr Carson from Downton Abbey it’s a rather good
show. In today’s episode the railway was being built, and the shock of the
news made one of the old biddies drop dead. I
then went on the tip run I’d booked. For once the staff didn’t watch me like
a hawk checking where each scrap of rubbish went. From
there I went on to the Home Bargains shop. I need some sleepers to repair the
planter that the rats had, but they didn’t have any of the right size. It was
then that my phone beeped. I had orders from “er indoors TM” to
get some sweet and sour sauce. Home Bargains had some at one pound sixty-nine
pence. Is that good or bad? I have no idea, but when I paid, the self-service
machine only wanted eighty-nine pence. I saw that as a result. It’s the
little victories. From
there I went on to Dobbies. They didn’t have any sleepers at all. Whilst I
was there I popped into the aquatic section. I
wanted some pots to anchor the plants in the fish tank. They didn’t have any,
but they had lengths of metal tape which you wrap round the plants and it
weighs them down. I got some of that. I
came home and had a go with the metal tape. I used maybe ten centimetres of
the stuff, and put the rest into the pond-odds-and-sods
drawer in the shed. If any of my loyal readers want to weigh down some fish
tank plants, I’ve got close on three metres of the stuff spare. I’d
like to put the weighted plants into some small pots just to make them look
pretty; I shall keep my eye out for something suitable. I
then wasted time until Gold Radio made their phone call. One lucky listener
was going to win a million quid. I wasn’t expecting to win, and (of course)
I didn’t. But it would have been nice. It was with something of a sulk that I
put a load of washing in to scrub… “er
indoors TM” boiled up a decent bit of dinner out of that cheapo sweet
and sour sauce which we scoffed whilst watching the first episode of the new
series of “Bake Off”. It’s got Nigella Lawson as a judge now. Woof!! And
in closing, today is Pogo and Treacle’s tenth birthday. And it’s “My Boy TM”‘s birthday too. He's
a bit older. |
|
26 September 2026
(Saturday) - Games Night
I
woke in a cold sweat following a nightmare in which a colleague was had set
up a business selling yellow things, and was quite insistent
that I buy everything and anything that was yellow in colour from her. She
was quite forceful... I
got up, made toast and watched an episode of Cranford in which Mr Holbrook
croaked. Having the protagonists peg out seems to be a theme in this show. As
I watched telly so I got my phone to do a major
update and restart. The thing keeps locking up. Maybe this will help, maybe
it won't. I
then took a deep breath and set off to work. I'd rather not work on Saturday mornings
as I was missing Dog Club. And being part-time I did wonder if having worked
twelve out of the last fourteen weekends was a tad excessive, but there it
was. As
I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about paid paternity leave. It
was never a thing back in the day, and apparently the UK's paid paternity
leave is peanuts compared to what the rest of the world gets. But I really
can't help but think that if I didn't get it, why should anyone else... which
is incredibly selfish of me, isn't it? This
was followed by the Thought for the Day in which some vicar (quite
frankly) talked out of his arse. Today is the European Day of Languages
and this
vicar was banging on about giving thanks to his god for the variety of
languages in the world. He seemed blissfully unaware that according to his
bible humans originally all spoke the same language, and that his god smited humanity by giving us all different languages as a
punishment for the Tower of Babel debacle. It's there in Genesis chapter 11
verses 1 to nine if you believe that sort of thing. Which a vicar should. So
did I once upon a time before I saw the darkness... you've be amazed how few
so-called Christians have any idea what is in the bible whilst so may
atheists know the thing inside-out. I
turned the radio off and listened to more of my Triffids audiobook instead. I
got to work. Sometimes I have the cooked brekkie. I didn't fancy it today, so
I went into the works branch of M&S and got a croissant instead. At fifty
pence more than the corner shop up the road charges, the thing was smaller
and nowhere near as good. Back in the day M&S had a reputation for rather
good food. They are living off of past glories;
everything I've had from them recently has been something of a disappointment As
I scoffed my croissant in the rest room so “er indoors TM” sent
a text. Steve was doing the "Guess the Lyrics" competition
on the radio. "Throw me a line I'm sinking fast. Clutching at Straws
Can't make it." No? - Roxy Music - Virginia Plain. I
then went into work and did my bit. I managed to tune in to Radio Ashford and
heard the start of Steve's Mystery Year quiz. When was the Sinclair C5
launched? I knew that one. I can remember watching one nearly going under
the front of a bus near Folkestone railway station when we lived near there.
That would have put it in the mid-eighties. Add to that "from the
very very young to the very very
old" and Dogtanian... 1985. I heard my
name getting mentioned on the radio saying I was among those with the right
answer, but things then got a tad busier so I got on
with work. I'd rather not, but there it was. As
I worked I had a bit of a chuckle... Many years ago
(about forty) the boss at the time sent a circular round to all of the wards and clinics. On one particular
day we'd had six clotting investigations to perform
and the boss felt that was a massively excessive and totally unreasonable workload, and told everyone who sent in such blood
samples. This morning (just the morning) I had twenty-seven of the
things as well as loads of other stuff to do whereas on that day forty years
ago the person doing the six clotting investigations did that and that alone, and had all day to do it. How
times have changed. I
came home listening to more “Triffids”. Once home I counted
up the Dog Club money that “er indoors TM” had
brought home from this morning’s meeting. I must admit that I was rather loathe to make any changes to how we do the money with Dog
Club, but something needs sorting. Some days we get over twenty quid in the
pot. Today we had three quid, but with pretty much the usual amount of dogs along. “er
indoors TM” went shopping. I made
myself some toast. I woke up an hour later, and
pootled in the garden. “er indoors TM” returned, and we spent a little while solving geo-puzzles. Steve
Sarah and Chris arrived. We sparked up the Infinity table
and I came second in “Game of Life” which was frankly amazing and I
nearly went bust early on. Glossing over a last place in “Sorry” I
then managed a second place in “Ticket to Ride” about which no one was
more surprised than me. I
do like our monthly games nights… |
|
27 September 2026
(Sunday) - Bilsington
I
came back from the loo in the small hours and tripped over a cable that “er indoors TM” had
left trailing over the floor. Whatever it was came
crashing off of her chest of drawers bringing all
sorts of clutter with it. Deciding that she could clear it later I went back
to bed where I was plagued by vivid dreams in which I’d been seconded to a
laboratory which specialised in selling kites to Gilbert and Sullivan
enthusiasts. I’d
been asked to work today; I declined the offer and eventually got up about an
hour after I would have started. Squabbles
abounded on Facebook this morning. As I scoffed my toast one of the “Lads
Mags” pages posted a new theory of cosmology which gave an alternate
explanation for creation doing away with the big bang. It sounded plausible
from what I could understand, but I’ve got several post-graduate
qualifications and didn’t really understand it. However
several thickos who’d clearly failed the kindergarten entrance exam were
pontificating on the matter and loudly dismissing the theories of other who
were equally clueless. And
someone else was asking why churches needed to have parking spaces reserved
for the disabled. I thought it a valid point (but decided not to comment).
Those that disagreed were unable to explain why. I
spent an age struggling to glove a geo-puzzle, then Wordled.
Starting with “solve” I got it right with “sloop” on the second
go. I Munzed, and we got ready for an outing. We
drove out via Shadoxhurst where we paused for geocachical reasons, and then (after a quick DNF at Blilbby as you do) we went on to Bilsington.
We wandered round the churchyard getting clues to find a nearby geocache,
then walked along the canal to Ruckinge following a
geocaching adventure lab series. The ad-lab was rather good; the footpath was
a bit awkward to traverse. So once we’d got to the
furthest point of our walk we came back over the fields. It was a shame that
this took us past the most rancid swamp ever, but the dogs loved it. Once
back at where we started we walked up to the bin to
dispose of the dog dung bags and saw the White Horse pub. We deserved a pint.
Or two. Late Red and Ruddles best, and the Kicking Goat’s Fresh Berries cider
too. Can’t be bad. Mind you, a pint of ale, half a pint of cider, two bags of
crisps and two bags of cheddars was fifteen quid. And this was followed by a
pint of ale and a bag of crisps for six quid twenty. Am I *really*
being mean in thinking this a tad excessive? I know it’s probably about the going
rate, but it’s a bit much, isn’t it? We
had hoped to get some of the new geocaching Treasures that came out in the
week. There’s seven to be had; we got two. And I took a few photos as we walked (pretty
much all were taken on the way back). We
came home where we had a serious scrubbing session in the bath. The dogs
stank. After an intense wash (with soap!) they weren’t *quite*
as rancid as they had been. We
did “FEED THE FISH”, and with that done it wasn’t long before all the
dogs were snoring. We had a cuppa and an out-of-date cake. I
then had a pootle in the garden. Yesterday I found some old planks of wood
that I could use to bodge the planter the rats had a month or so ago. I sawed
them to the right size, and screwed them onto the
planter. And then the rain started. I’ll finish that job tomorrow. Possibly. I
put some washing and in solved a few more geo-puzzles whilst “er indoors TM” boiled
up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching “Lego Masters Australia”
which I found randomly. The Sky-Q box was sold to me on the understanding
that it records stuff I want to see. It totally misses all
of the Lego Masters and the Bake-Offs, and
records all sorts of other tosh with which I have no interest whatsoever. Maybe
I need a new Sky-Q box which lives up to expectations? |
|
28 September 2026
(Monday) - Rather Busy
As
I scoffed my toast I saw on one of the local Facebook pages that one of the local
coffee shops has been bought out, had a refit costing three hundred thousand
pounds and re-opened. They clearly aren’t bothered by the coffee shop in
Repton going out of business at the weekend. Meanwhile one of the nearby village pubs is launching an
incredibly cheap lunchtime menu. With meals starting at a fiver a go, that’s
probably the way to stay in business. Quite
a few people were posting photos from various businesses offering price
reductions for customers paying in cash. The “Cash is King” brigade
was out in force. Personally I see the “Cash is
King” brigade as being synonymous with tax dodgers, but what do I know? And
the nation would seem to be facing a hunk shortage with only seven people
having signed up for the Mr England competition. I
had over a hundred and thirty emails. People had been round Kings Wood
yesterday finding the geocaches I’d hidden there. But not finding all of
them. One of them had both “Found it” and “Didn’t Find It” logs from
yesterday. I
Munzed, and Wordled.
Starting with “refit” I then tried “stray” and got it with “trunk”
on the third go. Usually we would then go to the
woods, but with a dentist appointment at the most awkward time we didn’t. I
got the strimmer out instead. I voomed round the
garden with that, and followed up with the lawn
mower. And with a few minutes spare I then pulled weeds, putting my back out
whilst I did. But I carried on regardless. And
then it was time for the dentist. I walked down the road and signed myself in
to their self-service machine. But then the question – was to be in the
upstairs or downstairs waiting room? I went to the counter where there were
three surly, miserable and utterly disinterested receptionists all of who pointedly ignored me
for as long as they could. I’ve said before I only go to my current dentist
as it is very convenient being just down the road. And in all likelihood each of the three surly, miserable and utterly
disinterested receptionists will have resigned and be replaced by the next
time I am there. I
was told to sit downstairs for the hygienist, and when she was done to go
upstairs for the dentist. It wasn’t long before I was in the hygienist’s
chair and had her rooting in my gob. The worst part was the pain in my arm; carpal
tunnel nonsense didn’t like dentist chairs. With
my gob cleaned I moved to the upstairs waiting room where some idiot (with
his arse hanging out of the top of his trousers) was ranting at the world
about how it isn’t possible to cook egg and chips in an air fryer. I would
bet good money that no one else in the world had ever had to smile politely
whilst some idiot (with his arse hanging out of the top of his trousers)
ranted about eggs, chips and air fryers. How do I attract these looneys? I
went in to the dentist and he gave my gob a thumbs-up. That was a result. I
came home, and took the dogs out. We went to
Orlestone. As we walked into the woods so one of the normal people was
walking out. He seemed rather scared of Morgan and Bailey,
and was absolutely terrified when Treacle and
Pogo came bowling round the corner. But once he’d bustled off
we walked a couple of miles without seeing anyone else (which was a result). We
then drove out to one of the garages where the “er indoors TM”-mobile was having its M.O.T. The plan had
been to go to Halfords, but they’d blown her out this morning on account of
their M.O.T. machine being broken. I didn’t realise there was an M.O.T.
machine. One lives and learns. With
the “er indoors TM”-mobile dropped off we came
home again. A cheese and pickle sarnie made for lunch then I went back to the
garden. It doesn’t pootle in itself. I put new
liner into the planter I started fixing yesterday, and
then put the back onto it. It looks a tad scratty
round the base at the back, but you can’t see that. I
filled it with soil. I say “filled”; what I put in will settle in a
few days and will need topping up. I trimmed back more of the stuff pouring
over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door, I voomed
round with a watering can. Hopefully now I’ve trimmed back all the stuff
hanging over the fence the potted plants might get some of the rain; they’ve
been completely sheltered this last year (and more). As
I trimmed back the overgrowth so I popped it into my
garden waste dustbin which I then carried through to the green recycling bin
in the front garden… where not-so-nice-next-door’s roses had overgrown
the fence so much they were banging against our upstairs window. They got
trimmed too. I
made us both a cuppa as by then I was all in. As I slurped mine
I saw I had an email. In the spring I lent Kanen in Ecuador fifteen quid to help her set up a goat farm.
She’s paid back a fiver (not that I want it) so I’ve lent that (and
a bit more) to Lucia in the Philippines who’s trying to make a go of
farming pigs. What I blew on a couple of drinks and some crisps in the pub
yesterday is a big deal to Lucia. She aims to repay me by next April; I don’t
want the money back. I shall just lend it to someone else. I
then dozed off. “er
indoors TM” boiled up pizza and then went bowling. I settled in front
of the telly and watched the last episode of “Cranford”. I wonder what
I will watch next… I’ve
not stopped today. |
|
29 September 2026
(Tuesday) - Before the Late Shift
This
morning’s ranting on Facebook reached new heights of pathetic. Apparently it is a “thing” amongst those who go on
cruises to hide plastic ducks on the cruise ships (a bit like painted rocks). Some of the cruise
operators want to put a stop to it. You wouldn’t
believe the arguments about plastic ducks… There
was then an interesting posting from the parent of an autistic child. One of
the normal people had been trying to video a steam train (yes, I know…)
and had the arse because the child had been constantly screaming his head
off. The child wasn’t upset or frightened. Apparently
he always screams constantly because he likes doing so “because he is
autistic”. The parent wondered why the world is so unaccepting of a child
which constantly screams because it wants to, and felt he and his child were
being bullied by a world which doesn’t want to hear a child constantly
screaming… I
was reminded of a friend of “My Boy TM” from
thirty years ago who was the world’s worst brat and would get away with
murder at home “because he had ADHD”. The first time he visited I told
him firmly “we don’t have any of your bollox here”.
The child looked rather embarrassed, apologised for no reason, and then was as
good as gold whenever he visited. I
saw I had a comment on a blog entry from a year ago. Some spammer wanted me
to advertise gym equipment. I reported it for the scam that it was. I
Munzed, and Wordled
starting with “thing” which gave me nothing. I started again with “ducks”
which was a bit better. I got it on the third go with “scuba” which I
didn’t think was actually a word. We
did dog breakfast which can be rather fraught at times. Bailey is all too
quick to eat fox turds when we are out, but is really fussy
over eating proper dog food. I
took the dogs out. We went to Orlestone via Shodohurst
to avoid the road works. In the past I’ve whinged about the litter along
Church Lane. This morning someone was out clearing it. In full hi-vis
clothing he must have been either from the council or on community service (we
see community service going on in Kings Wood from time to time). We
got to the woods and immediately put the wind up the normal people. Or (to
be precise) Pogo did. Much as I love him, he can’t go back to his mummy
quickly enough as far as I’m concerned. He’s a lovely dog but when we are out he sometimes feels the need to defend the pack, and he
does that by screaming at anyone he considers to be a threat. And there is
absolutely no reason or method in his threat detection system. We
put the wind up several normal people today; they were out in force. As
we came up one of the forest tracks
we met a very sweet young couple who oh-so-politely asked where the track
went to. Personally when I go hiking (which I do
quite a bit) I look at a map before I go, take the map with me and check
the map as I go to ensure I’m on course. This pair subscribed to the “pot luck” school of navigation and had just
blundered off out hoping they wouldn’t get too lost. I suppose they were
within a couple of miles of a bus stop and a railway station so things could
have been a lot worse for them… it was a shame that they had no idea where the
bus stop or railway station were, but I suppose in their world that was just
a piddling detail. We
came home. I did wonder if we’d need to have a bath, but the dogs were
surprisingly clean bearing in mind how wet and muddy the woods had been after
the overnight rain. I had a quick Meowdoku then got
ready for work. Work
was rather troublesome today and it was ten o’clock when I got home… |
|
30 September 2026
(Wednesday) - World Postcard Day
I
went to the loo at half past four and noticed all the lights on next door.
She always gets up silly-early. I went back to bed where I fought a minor
battle with some small dogs to eventually secure a small strip down the side
of the bed. I eventually got back to sleep. I
got up, made toast and had a look at the Internet. Someone was claiming that
NASA had inadvertently provided incontrovertible proof of the bible’s account
of the crucifixion of Jesus… or that is
incontrovertible to those who can’t tell the difference between the sun and
the moon. It never fails to amaze me how truly
stupid are so keen to show off their stupidity. And
I saw an old colleague had died. Like me, he too fell foul
of a management who did the dirty on him. I can’t pretend I was best of mates
with him; I’d not seen him in twenty years, but in later life he became a
bailiff for a local fishing club, and when checking “My Boy TM”’s fishing licence he
remembered me and asked after me. I
Munzed. We reached our Munzee Guild monthly target
today… I thought some in our team had left it a tad late, but we got there. I
Wordled. Starting with “light” which gave me
the “i”. “Minor” helped a bit more,
and “wiper” got me closer still. “Cider” had me marking time,
and I got it with “river” on the last attempt. As
I Wordled so Bailey sat with me on the sofa, and
she ate all of her brekkie, which was a result. I
took the dogs up to the woods. Yesterday I finished my audiobook of “Day
of the Triffids”. I’ve now started “The Chrysalids” by the same author.
I first read this book at school which (along with many others) our
English teacher did his level best to kill stone dead by insisting that we
tried to pretend that various parts of the storyline were allegorical of
things that they weren’t. We
got to the woods where the drizzle eased up, and we walked our usual circuit
round the woods. The foragers were out in force, but yet
again they were scouring the area within sight of the car park which had
already been picked clean. There’s loads of
mushrooms and chestnuts to be had deeper in the woods, but few people ever go
there. As
we walked the dogs wallowed in puddles and rolled (rather impressively)
in fox poo. We
came home for baths. I
made us both a cuppa, and after I’d had a fight with the software I wrote up some CPD. When I find
anything interesting at work I make a few notes in a draft email, then use
those notes for when I write things up properly. However
every link I tried to open from the draft email went through some security
protocol which was probably a wonder of technology in every way but one. That
one being that it didn’t actually open the link.
Copying and pasting directly into the browser did though. I
then fought with some geo-puzzles in the Cheltenham area. There weren’t many,
and those that there were strained my brain somewhat. So
I tried my trick of feeding the puzzle into Microsoft CoPilot, and the right
answers came out. Eventually. It was interesting that asking the same
question gave two different answers. I
got the ironing board out and set about that which I’ve been washing over the
last few days. As I ironed I watched a couple of
episodes of “Lost in Space” (the recent Netflix remake, not the
original). Pausing
only briefly to drop Pogo back with “Daddies’ Little Angel TM” we
drove on to Kearsney Abbey where a dozen or so fellow geocachers were meeting
up in honour of World
Postcard Day. After a little while we realised that the constant dripping
on our heads was from the trees above; it had actually
stopped raining. So we came out from under
the trees, stood in the open and began to dry out. It
was rather good to catch up with like-minded friends. On
the way home we stopped off to pick up a geocache in Alkham
which qualified for one of the new geocaching Treasures, and seeing we were
the first people to have found that one in over a year it was a resuscitation
too, which gave us bragging rights. We
came home. Having been out for the evening we got KFC for dinner, and we
scoffed it whilst watching last night’s episode of “Bake Off”. The
irritating one got the heave-ho, which was a result as far as I’m
concerned. |
