21 October 2013 (Mondaay) - Munzees

Last night saw a return to insomnia, with me waking after only three hours sleep. I was up and washing up at 5am. To pass the time I watched a couple of episodes of a show featuring Timothy Spall sailing round the British coast in a barge. I found the show quite entertaining, but couldn't help but remember my brother's dislike of the actor. Apparently the fellow wasn't too impressed with being raucously greeted by my brother at the boat show at Earls Court a few years ago. Personally I sympathise with Mr Spall.
And watching the show gave me a mild surprise - I never knew that Timothy Spall had leukaemia nearly twenty years ago. A lot of people do survive that terrible disease nowadays.

And so to work. In the dark and the rain. As I drove I listened (as always) to the news. The deputy Prime Minister was speaking out against his own government's education policies. The pundits on the radio felt that this was a sign of current political times; with the Con-servatives falling in the public's popularity, the dribbling democraps are angling for position in the next government in which (apparently) they plan to be in a coalition with the Labour party. To that end they are now sucking up to the Labour party.
You have to admire their obvious opportunism if nothing else.

There was also a feature on changes to legal aid. Legal aid is no longer available to people fighting for access to their children following divorce.
Instead of legal recourse, such people are to be offered "mediation". It would seem the public are treating "mediation" with the contempt it deserves and are representing themselves in court to the consternation of seasoned legal professionals. Apparently the legal profession don't want us mere mortals representing themselves in court because us mere mortals tend not to fart around with legal jargon; preferring to apply common sense to our arguments. This is not held in high esteem by those in legal professions. The implication was made on the radio that perhaps their gravy train was about to be de-railed.
I couldn't possibly comment other than observing that it's a shame that justice isn't something the average man in the street can afford any more.

As I drove into Wincheap there was talk on the radio about the amount of waste in supermarkets. I went to Morrisons today and bought two apples and two bananas. One each for today and one each for tomorrow. This morning's radio featured the revelation from Tesco that four out of every ten apples they sell is wasted. The same is true for one banana in ten, half their bakery output and most of their bagged salads.
They were rather vague about whether people bought it and wasted it at home, or whether it went manky in the shops. But either way it's a lot of waste. Which is why I count the fruit I buy, and buy what I need and no more.
On reflection my grandmother always had a bowl full of fruit in her living room which was going manky.

While I was parked in Morrisons I left the car in the car park and walked over the road to the park & ride. there was a Munzee there. Munzees are the latest "this week's novelty". They are a bit like geocaches in that they are secreted all over the place and you use GPS technology to find them. But rather than tupperware boxes, Munzees are QR codes. Often very obviously on public display (stuck to lamp posts or public bins) and ignored by all. Today's one was blatantly obvious from twenty yards away. When you find them you scan them with your phone, and then clear off to find the next one.
For some reason they aren't anywhere near as common (locally) as geocaches. There are hundreds of geocaches in Ashford. there are no Munzees at all. Yet. there's a few in Canterbury, but not many. I shall have a hunt round the map and see if it's worth carrying on with this game.

I did my bit at work and came home via a geocache I had hidden in Chilham some months ago. The word was that the cache had gone. The word was right - it had vanished. So I replaced it with a spare I'd brought along just in case.
I wonder if Munzees get muggled?


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