16 November 2013 (Saturday) - Yalding

Yesterday I woke feeling a little under the weather. Today I got out of my pit feeling decidedly grim. But I carried on regardless. I decided against watching "Earth 2" over brekkie; instead I checked out a hunch I had about trackable logging.
For those of my loyal readers who have never logged a trackable, you should give it a go. Trackables are little plastic things that travel the world, from geocache to geocache and when you see one you log it. You can discover it, or if you are feeling brave you can grab it. Like a lot of things in the geocaching world there is great kudos in having logged loads of trackables; the website proclaims how many trackables anyone has found. As I type this my trackable count is two hundred and eighty two.

A couple of weeks ago I staged an event for which Joe kindly organised trackable logging on the Tee Bees web site. A few days ago one of the "old faces" on the Kent caching scene had somehow used that facility to log my personal trackable even though that person wasn't at the event. At first I thought this was an honest mistake and emailed him. After all when (not if) I make this sort of boo-boo I like to be told. And when I have made this sort of mistake in the past I've put it right.
The bloke emailed back a day later to say "Sorry. Finger trouble. All sorted."

But then I got thinking... The automated system which was used requires a password. To get the password you had to be in attendance at that event for me to give you the password. He wasn't there. How did he get the password? To be honest it's not a difficult one to get; did he try a few combinations? Or was someone else complicit in this?
I checked the logs on the geocaching website this mornning. Not only is that log on my personal trackable still there, this chap has also used the same system to log over forty other trackables at an event which he did not attend.
This is cheating, pure and simple.
Should I make a fuss about this? On the one hand does it maatter? Who cares about how many silly plastic world-travelling toys someone has seen? On the other hand cheating is wrong; regardless of the circumstances.
I think I will content myself with he thought that what else can one expect from a fellow who quibbles about pennies and pays with an American Express card.

I put "Furry Face TM"'s lead on him and we went for a little stroll out to the Swan centree and baack home thorugh Frog's Island. On the way he woofed at several buses, a few mopeds and three juggernauts. Whilst doing whistlle training another dog wised on to how whistle training worked. Every time the whilstle blew Fudge got a biscuit. We nearly came home with an extra dog.

Once home I had time for a quick change and set the laptop onto a disc defragment. We left it doing its thing whilst we went to the monthly county cacher's meeting. We soon found the place, and after a quick First to Find on a nearby Munzee it was good to catch up with like-minded people and have a pint with a spot of lunch. And then after lunch we went for a stroll. Yesterday I'd solved six puzzles which were in the area, and half a dozen new caches had gone out too. I made a general announcement that we were going for a walk; did anyone want to join us... eleven of us went on a mission.
It was a really good walk; chatting with new and old friends as we went. We only failed to find one of the new caches, but to make up for that we actually got a cache with an extremely high terrain rating which was intended only to be done by canoe. And we didn't fall in the river whilst getting it either. I was quite pleased about that.
We got back to the pub where we had a crafty pint wiith those left at the meet. Much as I like a pint I must admit I wasn't keen on the beer in that place. Three ales, all tasting just the teenseyest bit off. But it was good to again chat with friends; one of whom had found his twelve thousandth cache at today's meeet-up.

We left just as the light was failing. We'd got the clues to the bonus cache and wanted to find that before it became totally dark. We found it in the dark; meeting our new friends there. They'd left a litle while before us; but hadn't taken torches. And then there was another nearby cache we'd stuffed up some months ago that we wanted to go back for. We got it this time.

Once home we found tha the regular Saturday evening film night had been cancelled. After a little phoning about er indoors TM" set off to watch films elsewhere. I could have gone, but the day's exertions had rather taken it out of me and the cold I have was taking its toll. So I settled down in front of the telly and watched the film "Goodbye Mr Chips"; a particular favourite of mine...


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