8 May 2012 (Tuesday) - Bethersden

So much for a lie-in this morning. The most recent fruit of my loin woke us by hammering on the door. She'd somehow bent her front door key and couldn't get in. How on Earth can anyone bend a key? Over brekkie I got turned down for two more jobs, and (to add insult to injury) got told I couldn't claim expenses for last week's interview. But am I downhearted?

I spent a few minutes writing more novel. One of my protagonists has gone to a football match; the other to church. Which was nice for them both. And, feeling flushed with success after last Saturday's walk I thought I'd see about sorting out some more for the next few weeks and months. My initial thought was to lead a wander from Chilham to Godmersham, but for the contingents from Folkestone and Hastings, Chilham is just a little bit too far. So I got out my books of short walks. One of them: "Forty Circular Walks Around Kent Inns" is a good idea in theory; it lists short walks which start and finish at pubs in the Kent countryside. In practice the walks listed are a bit on the short side, and the directions are very "local" in parts - "turn left at the cottage with the green door". Bearing in mind the book is twenty years old I'm not convinced the directions will be much good now
Another book "Short Walks from East Kent Pubs" is equally dated; listing the landlords and beer selections from twenty five years ago. So I turned to the Internet which came up trumps. Mind you, I could probably devise my own walks. Perhaps I should.

Whilst I fiddled about, "er indoors TM" argued with the car insurance company. Having got us a super-cheap deal it turned out that journeys to and from work weren't insured by the policy. What's the good of that? After a bit of fiddling about we agreed to pay three quid a month more to insure what we actually wanted insured. "Daddies Little Angel TM" bustled about in the background whinging about her foot. Apparently she has lost half a toe somewhere. Personally I think that was careless of her, but what do I know? Perhaps she lost it when she bent her key?

The original plan for the day was a trip to Highclere Castle. But somehow or other this just didn't happen. So being at a loose end this afternoon we went out to check out one of the walks we found on the Internet this morning. We started off at Bethersden church and walked through a swamp up to a mud bath. There was a dodgy five minutes whilst we pondered a sign warning of low flying aircraft, before we encountered a rather savage-looking guard dog. And then we saw a kangaroo. Yes - a kangaroo. Well it was probably a wallaby, but the principle was the same. Big bouncy Australian animal. And reindeer too. I didn't realise that our route went through the reindeer farm. And from then on the rest of the walk was something of an anticlimax. But as walks go, it'll do. Four miles; taking a little under two hours. I've provisionally pencilled it in for a week on Saturday (May 19th), so if any of my loyal readers are at a loose end on that day, why not come along?
Mind you the ground was quite wet and muddy in parts today. If there is much rain in the meantime we'll abandon the walk and go to the George on our bikes instead.

Tonight was Tuesday - the clans gathered at our house for the beginning of Season three of "Being Human". Not bad - is it my imagination or is all of the BBC's output set in Wales these days?

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