The puppy woke me when
she decided to walk all over me at two o’clock this morning. I didn’t really
get back to sleep after that. I gave up trying just before seven o’clock, and
once I’d had my morning ablutions I had a go on the scales. I was rather
chuffed to see I’d shifted another three pounds. That’s over a stone shifted in
the last few weeks. Weight loss is easy… *if*
you can put up with feeling permanently hungry.
I had a little look-see
at Facebook as I do most mornings. I’ve mentioned before that the site is
nowhere near as busy as once it was. This morning I was reminded of the fact.
On one of the professional groups an American blood-tester whose name I’ve seen
from time to time was bemoaning how nasty one particular work-related group had
become. And then on one of the geocaching groups someone else was crowing that
they’d denied a geo-find having deconstructed the exif data on a photo and
found the photo was supposedly taken at a different time from when the geo-find
was claimed. Why are people always looking to stir squabbles?
I had an email from the
BBC. A little while ago I complained to them that the weather forecasts on
their website, TV and radio bear no relation to each other. They sent a generic
response a few days ago, so I complained that they hadn’t read the complaint.
This morning they sent another email which again didn’t address the issued I’d
raised. I *could* complain again; I
can’t be arsed.
We got ourselves
organized, and set off to Fordcombe. There is a series of geocaches there which
I’d not done. I first thought about walking round them a few weeks ago, and had
posted on “Geocaching in Kent” to see
if anyone fancied a walk. Sometimes people are free; sometimes they aren’t.
Today seven of us (and four dogs) set
off on a rather good wander. Beautiful scenery; even if it was a tad squelchy
underfoot in places. Unfortunately “squelchy”
is relative; what is a tad damp to me is chest deep to a small dog. Fudge was
soon covered in black mud. I can cope with the black mud; it was a shame he had
to do his trademark move of rolling in fox poo as well.
On the plus side we saw
tadpoles swimming in the squelchy bits.
The walk was good; we
had some beautiful views. It was very pretty walking along by the river. At one
stage Fudge hurt his leg and was hobbling very badly. I had half a mind to
carry him, but decided to just watch and wait. I know what that dog is like; he
plays for sympathy. Within five minutes he’d forgotten the injury and ran up a
five-feet almost vertical bank.
It was really good that
the dogs were able to be off of their leads for much of the way. However we did
smile when it came time to put the leads back on when we came to a road. Where
was Norton’s lead? Gordon had put it down several hundred yards behind. Woops!
After four (and a bit) miles we were back at where
we’d started, and (would you believe it?)
there was a pub. So we had a pint and reviewed the situation. I did have a
vague plan to go on for a second walk in the afternoon, but everyone else
couldn’t be *too* late back, and it
was getting rather warm. (Bearing in mind
how awful the weather has been this year, today was excellent.)
So we had a little look
at the geo-map and decided to go to Toad Rock instead.
At Toad Rock we did an
Earthcache. For those uninitiated into the ways of hunting Tupperware, an
Earthcache is basically doing your geology homework. You look at a rock,
pretend you can see whatever feature that whoever set the homework pretended
they could see. You then take a selfie at that rock, and copy and paste from
what you desperately hope is the right page on Wikipedia, then submit it as
your answer and hope for the best. All the time bearing in mind that no matter
what drivel you write, the etiquette is that you always get a pass mark for
simply having a go.
I was reliably informed
that the answer today was "blah blah
blah sandstone".
After the Earthcache we
did a nearby virtual cache. They are rather obscure; this one was quite good
fun. It has us scrambling all over the rocks looking for carvings. As we
scrambled we got in the way of a young lad flying his mini-drone round an obstacle
course he’d set up. And there’s no denying that the young lady sunbathing just
by the third place where we needed to go hurried to put more clothes on as we
arrived.
And on the way home we
saw a pair of buzzards perching on the branches over Pot Kiln Lane.
Not a bad day out,
really…
Once home the dogs got
a bath. Partly to help them cool off; partly to remove the fox poo. We then
spent a little while by the garden pond; at the moment it is rather pretty. I
couldn’t help but notice that the gravel round the pond needs a little attention,
the lawn edges need strimming, weeds need pulling, the acer has died, and I
need to have a good tidy-up round the yard. I’ve got some time off work in a
few weeks; I shall have a working day (or
two) in the garden then.
"Daddy’s
Little Angel TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of
Destruction TM" came to visit. SPOD (as he is known in his abbreviated state) got out the Ker-Plunk whilst
announcing he wanted to “play plunk”.
With “plunk” bits strewn everywhere
he then attempted to make off with dog toys to take home to his Pogo.
"er indoors TM" boiled up a
rather good bit of dinner and we watched some stuff that the SkyPlus box had
recorded for us, including the worst attempt at “The Crystal Maze” that has ever been made.
I just wish that
someone other than Richard Ayoade was hosting the show…
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