31 December 2016 (Saturday) - New Year's Eve

I slept really well last night – eight hours – can you believe it? It was nearly 8am by the time I hauled my carcass out of my pit. In fact "er indoors TM" had got up first and that *never* happens.
Over brekkie I had a look-see on-line. Several people were moaning on one of the local Facebook groups about the waiting times in the local hospitals A&E departments. The gist of the moaners arguments was that they were *really* ill and everyone else was time-wasting and should piss off. I suppose it was good that they were squabbling amongst themselves and not having nasty digs at the hospital staff.

We got the leads on the dogs and made our way to Faversham. We’d arranged to meet Aleta and have a little geo-wander round the town. It was a good idea in theory… in practice we rather wandered further afield than we might have done. All of us went expecting to be “urban” and the muddy fields rather caught us by surprise.
Cache-wise the walk wasn’t quite the success we were hoping for. We found eight of the ten we went for, and pretty much all of the eight we found were in dire need of maintenance. Of the two we didn’t find one was clearly missing, and the other had had a fence go up between it and the edge of the field some time ago. And then the fence had been smothered in anti-climb paint (much to my disgust).

Having scraped off most of the mud (and anti-climb paint) we drove into Tenyham to the Dover Castle where the hunters of Tupperware were gathering for a New Year’s Eve convocation. A rather good bit of dinner and a couple of pints slipped down in very good company.
We came home, and I took myself off to bed for a couple of hours in readiness for later.

Steve and Sarah came round and we set off to the Hosey’s in a minute for the traditional New Year thing… “Name that film” and “Name that advert” games, far too much to eat…
Happy New Year !!!

And with that in mind I suppose I should really take stock of the year that has just ended. For me it has not been a bad year really. What a difference a few years make… For all that I’ve not done any beer festivals or camped out at any kite festivals, I’ve had holidays in Cornwall and Oxfordshire and a weekend at BatCamp too.
I’ve been to the theatre twice (Spamalot and Joseph) and seen the new Star Trek film at the cinema.
I’ve had excellent days on the Western Heights, canoeing, at the Imperial War Museum, and at PugFest.
I went to the wedding of my mate that I’ve known for over thirty years.
I’ve had countless midweek walks with "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM".
In addition to excellent geo-walks most weekends I’ve been on two caching trips to London, had fun in rivers, rescued a bat and been on a twenty-four hour geo-rally.
I’ve had a new phone and a new lap-top, and become a published author.
I’ve spent a fortune on sorting the garden pond filter and on re-vamping the back garden.
I’ve taken over as secretary of the astro club and the club’s been to Downe House twice, got rained off in Shadoxhurst and I’ve sorted a program for the club for the next year.
I’ve had a rather good birthday meal at the New Chimneys; my mum’s recovered from heart surgery and my dad’s recovered from a hip replacement.
I’ve formally studied astrophysics and canine psychology.
I’ve got a new puppy.
I’ve discovered the fun to transmitting to the world with Facebook Live, and set up mankybadger.co.uk
I’ve taken up fishing again and been loads of times with "My Boy TM".
And I’ve resigned from my employer of thirty-odd years.

I wonder what the future holds…

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