I
had something of a traumatic start to the day – I went for a tiddle at 6am and
trod in dog sick. That is the second time the puppy has blown after being
allowed to finish off the fish batter. I didn’t really get back to sleep again
after that.
I
got up and had a look at the Internet. Overnight Jerry Pournelle had died.
Perhaps not a household name, but he co-wrote one of my all-time favourite
books
as well as several others. “The Mote in
God’s Eye”, “Footfall”, “Lucifer’s Hammer”, “The Legacy of Heorot”… It is because of him that every fishing and
canoeing trip I take has me looking at the water just wondering if a Grendel will
come flying out at me.
The
corners of Facebook in which I lurk were full of praise for Sparks’ latest
album (which I mentioned yesterday), but
not a lot else was going on in cyberspace.
I
then spent a couple of hours in the garden. The lawn needed attention. Firstly
the dog turds had to be cleared, then I strimmed the edges and mowed the rest.
I then wasted half an hour hacking at the overgrowth from not-so-nice-next
door’s jungle. I stopped her in the street the other day and complained about
the jungle, but she looked at me like I was the shit on her shoe.
I
wonder if I might squirt weed killer over her fence?
I
then spent the best part of an hour scrubbing out the fish pond filter. It is a
simple enough job, but it has the drawback that (no matter how hard I scrub) my hands smell of fish turds for the
next day or so.
"er
indoors TM"
came up with cake for lunch and then went off to take "Daddy’s Little
Angel TM" and Sid to the vet. He’s hurt his leg. I did say
to "Daddy’s Little Angel TM" that setting up with a
vet on the other side of town wasn’t a good idea.
Whilst
she was out I got some spare house keys cut (just in case).
We
got the dogs (and ourselves)
organised and set off to Shorne where we met Karl, Tracey and Charlotte, and we
went for a six-mile walk. It was a rather good walk along well-marked footpaths
along a variety of paths and roads. As we walked we heard parakeets and saw a
possible UFO landing site. We lost the dogs a couple of times as they flew off
investigating the sort of imaginary things that inhabit canine heads. We saw
sheep wearing hoods for no apparent reason. Karl nearly fell in a river. We saw
a warship sailing up the Thames towards London; we hoped it was one of ours.
Cache-wise
this was a perfect walk. Well-maintained and easy-to-find caches with useful
concise hints and clear directions. If only more cache series were like this.
After
six miles we were back at the cars. We walked a hundred yards to the nearby
pub. It looked a tad posh, but they let us bring the dogs in. As well as decent
ale they had flavoured pork scratchings. Flavoured pork scratchings - -have you
ever heard of such wonders? It was only a shame that two of the three flavours
were awful. But three pints of Otter ale slipped down nicely.
I
took a
few photos as we walked. Once home I transmitted then to a waiting world.
With "er indoors TM" off out watching films I might
just watch one myself…
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