I’ve been sleeping better this last week. Fudge used to sleep at my feet and Pogo and Treacle would sleep near (or on) him. Whilst there wasn’t much of Fudge, Pogo and Treacle are lumps. Now my Fudge has gone, Treacle and Pogo sleep on top of er indoors TM” instead, and I have some space in the bed. Though I’d rather have my dog back and the restless nights that went with it.
I made some brekkie and had my usual peer into the Internet. It was still there. There was an interesting post on Facebook from the Royal Voluntary Service asking for donations to fund a free cup of coffee for NHS workers. That had generated quite a bit of comment. As a tight-arse I’m up for any freebie which is going, but as an NHS worker I’ve had quite a few freebies over the last year. However I’ve seen photos of *far* more freebies going to the same old departments. Those parts of the hospital which are in the public’s imagination have done far better than blood testing over the last year, and the freebies haven’t been equally divvied out (not that I’m in any way complaining). Mind you there are massive parts of society which have kept the nation going during lock-down who’ve not had a sniff of any thanks. When did those keeping the trains and lorries going, or those keeping the supermarkets going get anything?
And does a donation to cover the cost of a cup of coffee *really* have to be pounds and not pennies? This morning’s cup of “Happy Shopper” coffee (we’d run out and it was all the corner shop had) was just as good as anything that Costa serves up. Starbucks and the like are on to quite a money-spinner.
There was also some article singing the praises of Charlie Chaplin, saying how he had grown up in poverty, got rich and “was against the exploitation and abuse of the poor, vulnerable and the marginalised”. Some people were singing his praises, others were not. I must admit I’ve got something of a bee in my bonnet over Charlie Chaplin. As a young man he was best of friends with my grand-mother’s uncle, and I am told that my relatives helped him a lot during those years. I’m also told that they heard absolutely nothing from him when he was in a position to return the favour.
We missed little Fudge again this morning as er indoors TM” made sandwiches for today’s walk. In the past we couldn’t do anything at all to give the slightest hint that we were going on an adventure as Fudge would get incredibly over-excited and not eat his brekkie. Pogo and Treacle have never made the connection.
And so avoiding the usual commotion we got ourselves organised and set off towards Rolvenden. As we drove we struggled to avoid the myriad of cyclists (and their support checkpoints) who were infesting the A28. They were staging a cycle race: I though those were illegal?
We soon met up with Tracey, Karl and Charlotte and set off on a little walk. Up hills, down dales, through fields and woods. We saw sheep and goats, and some rather over-familiar cattle. The bluebells and buttercups were out in full bloom As we walked we met a rather odd chap out in the middle of nowhere dressed as a cowboy. We smiled sweetly, but what was that all about?
As always our route was set for us by a trail of geocaches, Today’s trail was one that er indoors TM” had put out last summer. Following a flurry of “Needs Maintenance” emails yesterday, er indoors TM” couldn’t help but wonder what had gone wrong on her “Den 2 Den” series of geocaches, so a maintenance run was the plan for today. With fully a quarter of the geocaches marked as needing attention we went along expecting the worst… Four caches really were missing – this was clear from new fences having been put out but anyone passing could have sorted that for her. Two had wet paper logs and again anyone passing could have sorted that for her. (Admittedly the formal rules of geocaching say that those who hide the specific caches have to deal with any issues. But is that realistic? Bearing in mind that for every one person who takes the trouble to go hide caches, probably fifty (at least) don’t contribute anything to the hobby… I’ve whinged this before – so many times)
And (quite frankly) I struggled to see the reason why many of the other caches were flagged as needing maintenance.
As always I took a photo or two of our adventure. Once home as I was posting photos to Facebook and doing all the on-line stuff that goes with rummaging for film pots under rocks I realised that (without trying) we’d got three quarters of the latest load of geo-souvenirs. I also realised that I had caught the sun today.
er indoors TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching various quiz shows on the telly which the Sky-Q box had recorded for us. All very entertaining even if I had no idea who most of the so-called celebrities on the shows were.
I’m really feeling the after-effects of today’s walk. I’m really thinking of an early night. Mind you I say that a lot…
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