13 Movember 2025 (Thursday) - We Had KFC

There was sad news on Facebook this morning. The Ghost Train in Dymchurch closed a couple of weeks ago and has now been demolished. I can remember going on there in the late 70s on a day trip from Boys Brigade camp when one of our number (known to all as “Killer”) had a go and was terrified. There was someone asking for advice about keeping terrapins on one of the Facebook pond-related pages, and people were being polite and helpful. That’s a novel break with tradition; let’s hope it continues. And there was talk about a supposedly upcoming government announcement about the pension age rising. Let’s hope not for a while, eh?
Some new geocaches had gone live; a series of six challenge caches. To claim a find on the first one you have to have found two geocache types in two countries, for the third three geocache types in three countries, and so on… We are good up to four icon types in four different countries (Belgium, Uzbekistan, France and Spain). Some people thrive on that sort of thing; everyone plays the game differently. Each to their own, I suppose… as long as people are playing nicely and not squabbling.
I Munzed, got Wordle (tinge) on the second go, and got ready for the off.
 
We drove up to Kings Wood where we walked three and a half miles. Walking about an hour and a half later than usual there were a lot more people in the woods. We didn’t see any deer but there was plenty of evidence of them (turds), and quite a few squirrels too. I ran my bird-detecting app twice; the first time it found a Bonapart’s Gull; a rare visitor to the UK and which is the only gull to nest in trees. There’s plenty of those in King’s Wood.
 
We came home for a cuppa and an out-of-date Bakewell tart. After I’d scoffed it I told my diet app about it and found that it was over four hundred calories. Back in the day what with it being a week past it’s sell-by I would have scoffed two just to use them up, and that would be half my day’s calorie allowance in one hit. And whilst I’m calorie counting, a three and a half mile walk round the woods equates to just over one and a half Bakewell tarts. I did some chess puzzles; you can do three a day (for free) on chess dot com.
 
I then drove down to Folkestone. “Daddies’ Little Angel TM had a video meeting which was the culmination of this week’s meetings. I sat with her… I won’t elaborate today. One day I might. Let’s just say that it’s become something of a family tradition that when there’s major family disaster we have KFC, and (sod the calories) that’s what we scoffed this evening for tea.
 
In a week’s time it’s Black Friday… to cheer us up a tad, bearing in mind what fun our monthly games nights are, I might just get an Infinity Table if there’s any going cheap…
 
Oh – and if you give a bung of twenty quid or more to the stupid moustache thingy, the nice people at Pringles will match your donation.
If you want to give a donation to it, here’s the links (again)…

12 Movember 2025 (Wednesday) - Another Dull Day

I slept reasonably well, but could have done with an hour’s more kip. I made toast and watched the second half of the episode of “The Witcher” that I started yesterday morning. It would seem that a lot of what I’ve been watching was a retrospective… which would explain why it didn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
I sparked up my lap-top. According to the local Facebook pages it would seem that the local media are trying to stir it all up about our local county councilor. Elected last May and given the job of deputy head honcho of the environment portfolio he’s now sitting as a county council back bencher with no explanation for his departure from the environment post. I can’t pretend to be Reform UK’s greatest fan, but I’ve messaged the chap about Operation Brock and the flooding river, and he took the trouble to reply himself (rather than having some lackey do it like our MP did). The chap was in the news recently for getting involved with the plight of the homeless problem. He’s only been in post for six months; it would be a shame to have someone who looks like they are doing something hounded out of office.
 
“Daddies’ Little Angel TM had another day of it in Canterbury today, so I drove down to collect her and Pogo. As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing someone or other from the union that looks after professional football players. Apparently those who hoof a ball round a field once a week (for a weekly pay packet which is far in advance of what I get a year) have got the arse about their workload. What with football league and various knockout cups and the Euros their workload (if you can call it that) is increasing, and they feel that having to hoof a ball round a field any more than once a week is unreasonable.
Here’s an offer for those who pay their wages. I’ll quite happily hoof a ball round a field once a day for five days a week, and I’ll take their weekly wage as my yearly wage.
Seriously.
 
I collected the most recent fruit of my loin, deposited her where she had to be, and took four dogs to Kings Wood. We had a minor incident… we sometimes have this minor incident when Pogo is along. Being a very small dog, Bailey generally keeps herself to herself. But when Pogo is with us she knows that he’s got her back, so she sometimes gets gobby with other dogs safe in the knowledge that if it all kicks off, Pogo will back her up (and Pogo is quite a lump). I wish she wouldn’t…
 
We came home, and what with “Daddies’ Little Angel TM being finished earlier than expected I left “er indoors TM washing Morgan and took Pogo to collect her.
With her deposited home I came home for a late lunch. I had a vague plan to go for another outing, but by the time I’d done an anticlockwise circuit of half the county, a walk round the woods and a clockwise circuit of half the county I had less than two hours of daylight left. Instead I munzed, got Wordle (deuce) on the fourth attempt, wrote up some CPD, then challenged the chess bots (and lost).
 
“er indoors TM boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a new thing on telly featuring Sandi Toksvig doing archeology. Have you ever watched archeology on the telly? It’s a lie. It looks so interesting, but I know the truth.
About fifteen years ago we were regulars at the archeology club. They would organize digs in which I would be expected to do all the digging. It was hours of back-breaking work, but the moment I unearthed anything remotely interesting I would be unceremoniously hoiked out of the trench I’d dug so’s that the self-appointed experts could take over. We even had some pompous and pretentious archeology undergraduate who would sit and watch me dig who actually said that he was too important to do the menial grunt work of digging. His face was a picture when I got out of the trench, gave him the shovel and told him that I was more important than he was.
Apparently the archology club has since been subsumed by the Lenham Heritage Society. Probably for the best.
 
Oh – and Facebook would seem to have had a funny turn.

11 Movember 2025 (Tuesday) - Drizzle

With the dogs settled and no snoring I had a good night which was a result. I made toast, watched half an episode of “The Witcher” then had a look at the Internet as I do most mornings. It was still there. Some friends were at the airport going on holiday. Some were in Scotland on holiday. I felt a twinge of jealousy, but every time I go on a foreign holiday I always get homesick. I don’t like leaving the dogs.
 
“Daddies’ Little Angel TM still had business in Canterbury, so I drove down to collect her. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how new laws are coming in which should reduce the amount of animals used for research and in the production of new drugs. And it’s about time too. In 1983 I wrote a dissertation for my HNC entitled “The Ethics and Science of Animal Experimentation”. When I wrote that I was rather horrified to find out that much of the testing of new drugs performed on animals had little (if any) basis in science, but were legal requirements. Take for example the LD50 value. Wikipedia says that The value of LD50 for a substance is the dose required to kill half the members of a tested population after a specified test duration”. When I wrote my dissertation in 1983 it was widely known that the LD50 values produced on populations of rats had very little application to humanity, but every drug had to have a known LD50 value before it could be marketed, and this was the case until 1999. It bothers me that what I knew forty-two years ago is only now being brought into law.
And there was talk about what changes people might want to make to the rules of football. Football star Gary Linekar has things to say on the matter, as has the head coach of Manchester City, but rather than inviting them onto the radio, they did an outside broadcast asking the opinions of nine year old schoolchildren.
 
With “Daddies’ Little Angel TM collected and delivered I drove on to Kings Wood with a bootful of dogs. Yesterday our walk was rained off. This morning when I left home there was supposedly a zero per cent chance of rain for the morning… to be fair the drizzle had eased up by the time we got to the woods car park.
We walked a shorter version our usual walk… one which last year was our standard walk. And probably will be our standard walk for the coming winter as it bypasses much of the mud.
As we walked we met some normal people, and a professional dog walker we see from time to time. His dog played really nicely with Morgan and Pogo, which was something of a result.
 
We came home. The boys had their bellies washed; the girls were surprisingly clean. I made us both a cuppa then perused the geo-map. More geocaching Treasures had been released this morning. After a little brain-straining I planned some geo-missions for us. Collecting Origami Animals in Southend, gathering Dog Figurines in Folkestone, and getting some Snow Globes in Sandwich will probably feature in future diary entries.
 
I then drove Pogo over to collect his mummy and took the pair of them home.
“er indoors TM boiled up a pasta bake which we scoffed whilst watching the second episode of “Game of Wool”; a strangely captivating show.
 
Today has been rather dull…

10 Movember 2025 (Monday) - Rain Stopped Play

What with restless dogs and all the snoring I had a terrible night. I gave up trying to sleep, made toast and watched half an episode of “The Witcher”. It’s a good show, but you have to wonder why they made the episodes an hour and ten minutes long.
I had my usual look at the Internet and saw something that made me think… Amongst the various Reform UK councilors that have been given the heave-ho from Reform UK are five members of the Kent and Medway Fire Authority. And with them being out on their arses means that spending money on the local fire brigade is rather problematic (i.e. no one can spend anything). The fire brigade union aren’t at all happy… and I can’t say that I am either. There’s no denying that our (relatively) new Labour MP has turned out to be something of a disappointment, and sadly the bunch that set up because of the public’s disillusionment with the government haven’t lived up to their promise either.
The trouble with Reform UK is that they are currently riding on the public’s being (understandably) hacked off with the current and previous governments. Pretty much everyone advocating for them on-line is doing so because they are perceived as a change from political parties who’ve been something of a disappointment in the past. But the current and previous governments were formed by people in political parties which have a stated ideology and principles. Reform UK is running on the ticket of “vote for us; we aren’t as crap as them”, and that only ever works as a political standpoint if you *aren’t* demonstrably “as crap as them”.
 
“Daddies’ Little Angel TM needed a lift to Canterbury, so I drove down to her flat and once I’d walked the dogs up the leas we set off. The roads were rather busy and we were only ten minutes late getting to where we needed to be. The drive was rather fraught – Pogo has taken a visceral dislike to umbrellas and there were quite a few being brandished today.
Bearing in mind the weather forecast said the rain would stop by mid-morning I’d taken the dogs with the idea that we would come home via Kings Wood and have a walk with Pogo… Sadly, rather than stopping, the rain got heavier. We got to Kings Wood and I thought we’d try a walk (as we were driving past anyway) but after five minutes it was obvious that we were wasting our time, so we abandoned. Morgan wasn’t happy though. He had to be put on the lead and dragged back to the car.
 
Once home I made us both a cuppa, and having had my plans for the morning washed out I was at a bit of a loose end. My usual fallback position is to do some CPD, and I did. And also when at a loose end I look at geo-puzzles. I looked at about a dozen or so which are probably within an hour’s drive of home… and solved five.
I had a spicy rib flavoured pot noodle for lunch. It was something of a disappointment both in flavour and in it being over five hundred calories. And then it was time to collect “Daddies’ Little Angel TM. I loaded Pogo into the car, we collected the most recent fruit of my loin, and drove back to her flat through the dark and through frankly awful rain.
 
Being Monday, “er indoors TM went bowling. I settled in front of the telly and watched a couple of episodes of “The Witcher” whilst rubbing the irritating beard that I will shave into shape in a day or so. So many people have beards… I hate the thing. Still, a third of its time has now passed.
If you want to give a donation to it, here’s the links (again)…

9 November 2025 (Sunday) - Bit Dull

We were rather late getting up this morning… can’t imagine why. I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. There was no end of talk about the new Star Trek Lego set that was released a few days ago. The long-awaited Enterprise-D model has come out. Costing several hundred pounds, personally I think the thing looks dreadful. But everyone was all a-twitch about the typos in the set’s stickers.  Leaving aside the hyphen between NCC and 1701 that shouldn’t be there, the word boldly” is mis-spelt. I suspect that future versions will be corrected, and the mis-spelling will just add to the value of the first edition sets. Some people pay far too much for Lego, and also for Star Trek memorabilia, and first editions of this set will be worth thousands in a few short years… unless I buy one as an investment in which case it won’t be worth anything…
 
“er indoors TM set off up to town to meet friends for brekkie. I didn’t. I scoffed quite a few calories last night, and I find that all the cafes in the town centre echo so much that I can’t hear a word that is being said. So I Munzed, Wordled (fugue on the fourth attempt) and read my Kindle for a bit before walking the dogs up to town to meet her.
 
There were quite a few people in town this morning. I saw a load of people round the war memorial. Back in the day I used to take the cubs up to that ceremony. These days I probably wouldn’t; it’s all got a little bit too political…
We took a circuitous walk home past the park and round the local roads. The dogs needed their outing, and we Munzed as we walked, opening Qrates and freeing cubimals as you do. As we walked, a passing cyclist boiled my piss. I used to cycle to and from work for years; I’m not unsympathetic to them. But more and more they are just accidents waiting to happen, and when the accidents happen everyone loudly claims it isn’t the cyclist’s fault. Take this morning’s half-wit. Both hands on his phone and not one on the handlebars, cycling down the wrong side of the road looking down at his phone and being unable to hear anything at all because of the ear-buds.
 
We got home, had a cuppa, then I had a pootle in the garden. It was probably too wet to mow the lawn, but I mowed it anyway. It wasn’t going to get any drier if I’d left it, and the shorter the grass, the easier it is to find dog turds. Whilst I was at it I pruned the potted shrubs. I might plant them in the ground next spring; I might leave them in the tubs, We shall see. And whilst I was at it I cleaned out the big pond’s filter. I topped up the bird feeder, and seeing how well the bird seed I’d planted in the lawn had sprouted, I planted some more seeds in the bare patches of the lawn. And then I made a point of stopping. Over the last year I’ve overdone it in the garden too many times and hurt for several days afterwards.
 
I made us both a cuppa, then had a little look at the Internet. My Lego pirate ship is missing one latticed window. I can’t find a spare anywhere, so I ordered one… finding the exact part took some doing, but I eventually found it. And I ordered a Lego tulip petal too as we’d managed to lose one of those as well.
I found myself watching what was on the telly – the last of the Harry Potter films. I couldn’t believe that was made fourteen years ago. And we followed this with the first episode of “Game of Wool” which is basically “Bake Off” but with knitting rather than cooking. It was strangely captivating…
 
Yesterday was rather full-on. In comparison, today has been rather dull.

8 Movember 2025 (Saturday) - Rather Busy

I wasn’t really paying attention to the Internet this morning as I scoffed my toast. Having struggled to get the Alexa to put the radio on I found myself in a rather thoughtful mood this morning. I do YouGov surveys (for the simple reason that they give me money to do so) and last night the survey was about how much I use the Alexa (and similar devices). One of the questions was about would I support a setting in which the Alexa would recognize children’s voices and only take certain orders from them.
And there it was… the end of the world.
Seriously.
Fifty years ago Isaac Asimov wrote a fictional story about a possible problem with the Second Law of Robotics. To the uninitiated, this law states that a robot has to obey all orders given to it by a human. But when faced with multiple conflicting instructions from various people, what should the robot do? Clearly it should prioritize the legitimate orders of those qualified to give legitimate orders, and ignore the whims of half-wits. But how could the robot tell the difference?  A prototype robot was designed in such a way that it could learn to decide who it should obey, and who it should ignore… and George-10 concluded that what with the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of humanity, the only people in any way qualified to give orders to robots would be other robots.
This is the very reason why I always make a point of thanking the Alexa whenever I ask anything of it.
 
I Munzed, and got Wordle (arise) on the fourth attempt. That took some doing this morning. I then strained my brain on Steve’s “Guess the Lyrics” radio competition. “Let’s do the milk shake, Sell it like a hot cake”. No? I’d no idea either. “er indoors TM said it sounded familiar… not to me it didn’t. As we drove round to Dog Club Steve gave out the answer - it was Pop Muzik by the one-hit-wonder M.
Of course it was.
 
Dog Club was rather good. We all stood chatting in a field whilst fifteen (I think) dogs ran round playing. Treacle lost two tennis balls… Treacle insists she has a tennis ball for Dog Club and seems to lose at least one every time. The only real problem we had today was that something or other had had a profoundly laxative effect on the dogs; there was certainly a pot of “unloading” going on.
 
As we drove away Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. Cyndi Lauper – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” – 1983. Well… her first version of that song was. She did another version in 1994.
Rather than going home we got petrol and drove up to Knatt’s Valley where there was a geo-event going on. Our plan was (what with having the dogs along) to make a flying visit, and that’s what we did. We were there long enough to say hello; it is always good to catch up with old friends.
 
We came home for a spot of lunch. I did the Dog Club Money and then, having been emailed the work rota, had a look at the next quarter’s work shifts. I did a little CPD, handed the chess bots their arses on a plate, then we had a minor tidy-up.
 
Chris arrived with the Infinity Table, and Steve and Sarah were hot on his heels. We had a very good evening, A game of Game of Life in which I didn’t score that highly. A game of Sorry in which I was nearly (but not quite) last. And a game of Ticket to Ride… I think it fair to say that my average score was fourth out of five.
I suspect the five pints of stout probably didn’t help…

7 Movember 2025 (Friday) - Folkestone and Back (Twice)

For the third day running I peered into Facebook expecting to see all sorts of posts about the final of the TV show we’d watched the night before only to see nothing at all on the subject. Had we not made a point of watching the shows live then I’m sure we would have seen spoilers. But watching the shows live meant we saw the adverts… it’s the first week of November and the Christmas adverts are out. There are those that go mad for Christmas; I would like to be one of them, but by starting it all two months in advance means that by the time Christmas comes I’m rather fed up with hearing about it.
There was talk about the upcoming Lego model of the USS Enterprise-D (from Star Trek). Personally I feel the thing looks awful, but as usual I am in the minority for thinking that.
I Munzed and Wordled, and fed the dogs. Treacle turned her nose up at her brekkie this morning. That’s unlike her.
 
Pogo (and “Daddies’ Little Angel TM) arrived, and Pogo joined me and the other dogs on our morning walk. We went to Orlestone… As we parked up I saw someone just sitting in his car in the car park. There’s often people sitting in their cars in the car park there. I can’t help but wonder what they are up to.
We walked a rather truncated walk to avoid the mud we found earlier in the week, but we still covered over two miles.
 
We came home. No one needed a bath, which was a result. I drove “Daddies’ Little Angel TM and Pogo home… only to find they’d lost their keys. A quick phone call and we located the keys… fifteen miles away back in Ashford.
It didn’t take that long to go back to get them.
I came home via the Folkestone Sainsburys where I picked up some odds and ends and a Victoria sponge muffin for our lunch. Have you ever had a Sainsburys Taste The Difference Victoria sponge muffin? Don’t bother… To be fair, it wasn’t bad. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was expecting much more. It was a rather disappointing way to scoff nearly a third of my daily calorie allowance.
 
The plan for the afternoon was to mow the lawn, but the lawn was a tad wet. So I settled in front of the telly and watched a couple of episodes of “The Witcher” in which the foxy one flopped them out, which was a tad unmoral of her.
 
“er indoors TM boiled up fajitas for dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the first episode of “Celebrity Race Across The Worldwhich in a novel break with tradition featured some (but not all) celebrities of whom I’d heard. When I watch people in that show struggling to book transport in bus and train stations, I always remember the young couple we met a few times in Uzbekistan. Following pretty much the same itinerary are us, it was so much easier for us being on an organized trip rather than trying to sort it all out for ourselves as we went along. It seems hard enough to find the bus or train station, and when you do, no one understands you.
 
My phone beeped – we’ve hit the first of this month’s three Munzee clan targets. That’s a result. And I’m now one week into MoVember. It seemed such a good idea after a few beers last Friday.
There’s still time to give a bung for it…