31 December 2025 (Wednesday) - New Year's Eve

Another rough night. I went to the loo shortly after four o’clock, and then took each dog in turn out. Treacle must have been half asleep when it was her turn; two turds dropped out when she came back in. Have I ever mentioned what delightful creatures dogs can be?

I wasn’t going to get back to sleep after that so I made toast and watched an episode of “The Young Ones” then had a look at the Internet. With less than a day to go, we finally reached our monthly Munzee Clan target. Next month’s Munzee Clan War will be a cause for a squabble. Each month up to ten of us club together to form a clan, and together we have various Munzing to do. The more we Munz, the more in-game rewards we get.

There are various levels for which we can aim in which as well as group challenges, we all have individual targets to reach. Every month everyone regularly achieves all their goals by day fourteen… except one particular player. Every month this one eventually finishes with only hours to spare and doesn’t communicate with anyone at all during the month. And everyone else gets twitchy and worried.

There’s moves to have her hoiked out of the Clan…

 

I set off to work and spent five minutes scraping the ice off of the car. It was a cold one this morning. Flushed with success at yesterday's lunch I went to the co-op again and got more satay sticks, and a chicken salad sandwich.

I then set off up the motorway to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the Eurostar services were resuming. The channel tunnel trains had packed up yesterday with issues with their power. Needless to say everyone who was stranded was kicking off, but as the chap on the radio said, there really isn't any backup to public transport. It was pointed out that the amount of customers who would fill one Eurostar would fill eighteen coaches, and there simply isn't that amount of coaches sitting about just in case they might be needed.

Ironically my cousin had been in Paris over the weekend and had found herself stuck there, and had things to say on Facebook about it.

 

There was also talk about the new Archbishop of Canterbury who will be taking up her post soon. She's only a couple of years older than me, and has already been the country's chief nurse. 

Appointments like this bother me. What possible transferrable skills can a boss nurse have that might be useful to an archbishop? I suspect that (like so many others these days) she is a professional manager whose skill is in bossing around those who actually do the job. I could be doing her a disservice... perhaps I am. But from the country's boss nurse to the country's boss vicar? To do both would be something of a meteoric career.

Interestingly she is the first woman to be Archbishop of Canterbury... and theologians are bending over backwards to gloss over that the bit in the Bible (1 Corinthians 14:34-35) which actually says "Women should remain silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church".

Personally I'm all up for equal rights for all, but when you actually take the time to read it, the Bible isn't. 

Don't take my word for it - go read it for yourself. You’ll be surprised…

 

I got to work and bashed on the door. I'd forgotten to pick up my pass card this morning. Eventually I got let in. I did my bit, and at mid-morning “er indoors ^TM” sent a message to say that the snails (for the fish tank) that I'd ordered on Amazon had arrived.

Back in the day New Year's Eve would have been an incredibly quiet day... Not any more. Back in the day we would all have been going home at least a couple of hours early. I actually stayed late this evening.

 

I came home and had a look at my new pets. I’d paid for five little snails; I got six. Hopefully they will clean up the fish tank. Time will tell; it always does.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of scran which we devoured whilst watching another episode of “Motherland” then had a little go on the Infinity Table before joining friends on a New Year’s Zoom meet. Back in the day we always used to spend New Year with Jose and Maria, but over the last few years since lockdown we’ve started having New Year Zoom meets. If nothing else it’s a lot less work for Maria.

 

And that's it for another year. I've lost three stone in weight. I've had a very good holiday in the New Forest. We’ve started a monthly games night which I rather (very much) enjoy. it's not been *all* bad. But a lot of it has been… shall I say “less than ideal”.

I describe this diary as “recording history as I see it” and consequently I can choose not to record the bits I don’t want to dwell on. And so I suspect many of my loyal readers will be surprised to find out that 2025 was something of a pisser.

It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to realise that I’ve not once mentioned my favourite little girl since April 9^th when I was rather cryptic. She remains my favourite person. It’s time to say something on the matter…

 

To cut a very long and very painful story short, the state in its infinite wisdom has decreed that she should go for adoption. This was decided in April, and much of the year has been spent unsuccessfully fighting the system.

Obviously I (together with our family and some of the social workers) disagree entirely but I shall gloss over the specifics for fear of finding myself accused of libel. Talking totally hypothetically of course, having seen the British justice system in action I can imagine myself being found guilty in a libel case in which what I have said would have been the actual truth, and in which those who have lied to my face and to others (and have been caught out doing so) would continue to do so with impunity. Talking totally hypothetically of course…

If anyone disagrees with my cynicism, here’s a few examples of British justice. And if you’d like to stand me a pint or two I’ll regale you the stories of two dear friends of mine who both went to prison for a year when they shouldn’t have done. Or the tale of the fraudster who despite being as guilty as sin was let off with a “not guilty” verdict.

British justice, eh…

In the meantime I’ve been told that as a grandparent I have absolutely no right to see my smallest grandchild whatsoever. From here on in I will have “indirect contact” once a year. Which means I shall get a letter on her birthday, and realistically the next time I can hope to see her will be when she comes of age… in April 2040… *if* she wants to see her birth family.

It would seem that I’ve got a better than even chance (about sixty-six per cent) of living till then, but I’ve written her a letter just in case. I shall add to it as time goes by.

I would also make the observation that if you or anyone you know is finding parenting hard, under no circumstances whatsoever would I ever recommend asking for (so-called) professional help.

 

That’s all rather depressing, isn’t it? One of the things that *seriously* boils my piss is when the sententious tell me off for being intolerant because I don’t know what battles others might be fighting… Up till now I’ve avoided getting into a “my life is shittier than yours” argument, but were I to do so I suspect I would win hands-down against most people right now.

Well, that was my battle of the last year. Christmas has been particularly hard, but I shall put my smiley face back on… and move onward and upward.

I don’t do miserable very well. I’ve sulked enough.

30 December 2025 (Tuesday) - Satay Sticks, Toilet Ghosts

I slept through till half past four which, bearing in mind I had an alarm set, wasn’t bad at all. I was wide awake, so I got up, made toast and watched an episode of “The Young Ones”. As I watched I sorted the undercrackers which I’d washed and dried last night. “er indoors ^TM” sorts dinner, I sort the undercrackers. It suits me just fine.

 

I had a look at the internet to see if I’d missed much. I hadn’t really. There was a bit of a squabble on one of the Facebook pages I follow which is about the Poldark books. Someone claiming to be the biggest fan of the series had never actually read any of the books, but had the TV show on DVD…

I sent birthday wishes to my brother – he was the first one to get next year’s birthday video. I wonder if the card we posted yesterday arrived.

I Munzed, and got ready for work. Some people don’t go back for another week… To be honest I’d rather have time off work when it suits me, not when it is cold and it is dark by mid-afternoon.

 

I set off to work through the rain. The weather forecast had been for a dry morning. Ho hum... I stopped off at the co-op to get lunch. Getting lunch at the co-op is something of an adventure in that if I go to Sainsburys they are far better stocked, and I get what I want and consequently I have the same thing every day (coronation chicken sandwich followed by carrot batons with humous dip). The co-op is never well-stocked at half past six, and so I have to have what they've got, and so I get something different each time. This morning it was a cheese and ham sandwich with chicken satay sticks.

 

I drove up the motorway listening to the morning's business news. The business news always amazes me; I really should formally study economics to understand how it all works. Every time I listen to the business news they talk about the share prices and market confidence and the personality of the head honchos of the various firms. They never (and I seriously mean *never*) talk about the actual quality of the products of the companies that are doing well or going under. What these companies sell would seem to be utterly unconnected to their commercial success.

Take Guinness for example. Type "Is the Guinness company doing well?" into Google and you will see that they are laughing all the way to the bank. However over the last few weeks I've tried about ten different stouts, and Guinness is by far the worst of the bunch.  Don't get me wrong - it's not a bad drop. But pints like the Badger brewery's Master Stoat, Hobgoblin's Dark Stout or ever Sainsburys own Taste the Difference Chocolate Orange stout are far better. I've done blind taste tests on Guinness fans recently (last week) who were very surprised to realise just how poor their preferred drink compares to its competitors. However the makers of those competing stouts are clearly doing something wrong as a far better product clearly doesn't make far better profits.

 

And there was a lot of talk about toilet ghosts which would seem to be a big thing in Japan. Apparently Japanese children regularly bang three times on the door of the third toilet stall from the wall in any public lavatory, and chant “Are you there Hanako-san?"... and desperately hope that no one replies. Because if she answers, Hanako-san will ask them to play and will kill them as part of the game. However if she doesn't answer then the children run the risk of being eaten by a three-headed lizard.

Personally I would keep quiet, but what do I know? Harry Potter never had that problem with Moaning Myrtle.

 

And it would seem that the UK hedgehog population is in serious decline.

 

I went in to the early shift and did my thing. We were far busier than we used to be back in the day between Christmas and the New Year, but still nowhere near as busy as usual. A lot of people really do hold off going to see the doctor when it doesn't suit them. I'm reminded of a GP's biography I once read in which a GP with many years of experience claimed that ninety per cent of the patients who came to him would get better anyway regardless of anything he might do.

 

At lunch break I scoffed what I'd bought earlier. It was rather good. And it was then that I had a message from the geo-feds. I thought there would be issues with setting up an EarthCache at Camber Castle... The first hurdle is that the place is a scheduled ancient monument and as such I will need formal permission from English Heritage. It's rather silly because anyone doing the EarthCache would be doing so as they walked along a public footpath. Loads of people do that every day already and don't need any formal permission, but rules is rules. I've sent the nice people at English Heritage an email. I got an automated reply... I didn't expect to get anything back from them properly until the New Year, but when I came home I had a reply saying that my query had been forwarded to the appropriate department, so that’s a step in the right direction. 

 

I’ve got a sore throat… hope I’m not sickening for something…

29 December 2025 (Monday) - Dog Walk, EarthCache

Is it so unreasonable to hope for a decent night’s kip? “er indoors ^TM” took the dogs for a tiddle in the small hours and they all made enough noise to wake the dead. Once I finally nodded off again so the bin men came up the road. They could probably have been noisier if they’d tried, but it would have taken some doing. I eventually got back to sleep only to be woken from a blood-curdling scream from Bailey as one of the other dogs trod on her.

 

I gave up trying to sleep at eight o’clock, got up and made toast. I had my usual look at the Internet.

Yesterday we walked round Beckley Woods. I’m sure I walked round there many years ago. Back in my schooldays one afternoon a week was devoted to sports. We were divided into five sets with the really sporty types being in Set One… I was in Set Five, and after a while it became apparent that there were two distinct types in Set Five. Those who liked sports but were rubbish at it, and those with no interest in sport whatsoever. Together with the rest of the apathetic I was demoted to Set Six and the Latin teacher would take us for walks in the countryside. The boss P.E. teacher clearly saw this as a punishment for not being sporty but I loved it. I can remember some of the routes we took. I can remember walking in Coghurst Woods and over the Firehills as that was where I would play as a child. But we would mostly walk round parts of Sussex countryside that at the time I didn’t know. It would be lovely to know the old routes; if only for somewhere different to take the dogs. Last night I asked on the Facebook page for the school’s old boys to see if anyone remembered the exact routes. Several people had vague ideas, but no one seemed to know exactly where we went.

My cousin was in Paris having a little holiday; I quite liked seeing her photos.

 

We got the dogs organised and went up to the woods. “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” had been visiting friends and so Pogo joined us for our morning walk. We went up to Kings Wood where he screamed at quite a few of the normal people. I wish he wouldn’t do that. But Pogo seemed to like the walk; Bailey certainly likes him being along – she gets particularly gobby with other dogs when in Pogo’s company as she knows he’s got her back.

Being between Christmas and the New Year loads of people were off work, and there were loads of people in the woods… I prefer it when it is quieter up there.

 

After four and a half miles we were back at the car. We came home, Munzed and had a go at Wordle. “Along” gave me nothing at all. “Wreck” gave me the “r”. And then I was stuck. Eventually I tried “brush” which turned out to be a step in the right direction. “Druid” got me a bit closer… it was “fruit”. Obvious when you know the answer.

I had a message from the vet telling me it was time for flea and worm treatments so I ordered some. I can collect those tomorrow. The vet’s are odd… if you just walk in and ask for the flea and worm stuff they hand it over there and them. If you phone and ask, they want a whole day’s heads-up to sort it.

 

I then spent the afternoon sitting on the sofa trying to create an Earthcache. A couple of weeks ago we went to Camber Castle. It was a rather interesting place. Putting a geocache there would just be arse-ache for having to go to do maintenance, but I had this plan that I might put an Earthcache based on the geology of the rocks out of which the castle is made…

It kept me quiet for the afternoon… I suspect the geo-feds will find something wrong. The geo-feds who look after the Earthcaches can be difficult, but here’s hoping.

 

I finished up my birthday video for next year. I ordered some snails which (hopefully) will clean up the fish tank. I had a go at chess dot com.

“er indoors ^TM” took “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and Pogo home. I slobbed on the sofa watching episodes of “Red Dwarf” until “er indoors ^TM” came home with pizza which we scoffed whilst watching another episode of “Amandaland”.

 

And I’ll end today with a whinge that I have done to death many times before… At the moment there’s a lot of people on social media banging on about it being that time of year when one day blends into another and you have no idea what day it is… I know what day it is. It’s Day Three of my Christmas break (and I’m part-time) and I’m back at work tomorrow…

28 December 2025 (Sunday) - Beckley Woods

I slept well… again apart from rather vivid dreams which gain might well be down to the “Ticket to Ride” game. Last night I found myself in a rather dubious Eastern European prison for daring to use public transport.

 

I made toast and had a little look at the Internet. There were again endless political rants. As time goes by it is becoming apparent that the biggest problem our government has is the Prime Minister himself. I’m not saying he’s bad. His problem is that he is neither a showman nor an entertainer. Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Donald Trump all entertain the masses. Sir Kier is just dull. If he were to smile a bit and throw in a few jokes, his popularity would soar.

I also saw that yesterday some old friends had gone to an afternoon of live Irish folk music. One of them has had a rough time lately; I was glad he’d had a good time. But personally I can’t imagine much worse than an afternoon of live Irish folk music. Each to their own, I suppose.

 

We got ourselves and the dogs organised and set off for a little adventure. A week ago a new series of geocaches had gone live near Beckley and all of them qualified for the latest series of geocaching Treasures, so we thought that might be today’s walk. It was a shame that the sat-nav took us along a rather stupid route through Rye when it would have been quicker to go through Tenterden, but that’s sat nav for you. We got there eventually.

 

We had a very good stroll through woods I think I used to walk some fifty years ago. Some kids used to play football in school games, some played hockey, some played rugby. I was in the group that went for country walks.

Despite it being mid-winter there wasn’t too much mud, and we saw buzzards and robins. We covered just under three miles in just over two hours and would have got round much quicker had the dogs not chased off on missions of their own… three times. When we are in Kings Wood the dogs are as good as gold. When we go somewhere new so they play up. Bailey especially.

Geocache-wise it was an excellent walk with decent sized caches with very good co-ordinates. There was one point where the instructions would have helped us if they’d said to backtrack, but they didn’t so I stomped a straight line through the woods. It was a shame that two of the caches were already damaged. The bag containing one had split,  and someone had been heavy-handed with a 3-d printed Yule Log and snapped it. So we sent a message to the friend who’d hidden it to tell them. Normally I’m only too happy to repair and replace as I go round, but these two needed rather specialized replacements.

We stopped off on the way home to pick up a cache on the way home… and that one was rather special too. Based on a local trig point it was a 3-d printed model in the shape of a trig point.

I took a few photos as we walked.

 

We came home. We decided against stopping off at either of the tap rooms we were passing. We had a cuppa and a cheese roll instead and saved thirty quid.

I spent an hour or so slobbing on the sofa reding my Kindle, then we had a light tea of pizza and chips which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Amandaland”; a spin-off of “Motherland” which I loved. How did I miss this spin-off.

And then we played more “Ticket to Ride” in which I got a shade too ambitious.

 

Oh – and today would have been my mum’s ninetieth birthday…

27 December 2025 (Saturday) - A Birthday

I slept reasonably well if not for a particularly vivid dream in which I was trying to get along the south coast by train and finding my journey was constantly hampered by the lack of concessions and propellors. I blame the UK “Ticket to Ride” game we were playing last night.

I made toast and peered into the Internet. Again not much had happened overnight. There were a few people ranting about fox hunting. Whilst it is illegal to hunt foxes with packs of dogs, until recently it has been quite legal to charge round the countryside with packs of dogs supposedly following a pre-laid scent trail and to then act surprised when the dogs “accidentally” catch a fox and rip it to pieces. The law has changed. There are those who feel that it is their god-given right to charge round the countryside and if a fox gets cruelly slaughtered then that’s a shame. There are those who see this for the wanton cruelty that it is and are concerned that the police will continue to refuse to enforce the law. Either way the poor fox remains the loser.

 

I Munzed, then got ready for the morning. As we fiddled about, Steve’s new stand-in was on the radio. He wasn’t the same, but this chap was streets ahead of the previous stand-in.

We drove round to Repton and Dog Club. Admittedly it was cold and it was the Christmas weekend, but I was rather disappointed that there was only one other person (and two other dogs) along. But we had a good time chatting and playing fetch and chase and scoffing treats.

Just as we were leaving so Purdy arrived. I got the distinct impression that Purdy’s mum had made a point of arriving very late to prove a point to her small daughter who had apparently taken a ridiculously long time to get her arse in gear this morning. Some people do take ages in the morning. One thing I’ve learned at camping holidays and taking cubs and scouts away is that not many people can wake up and immediately get on with life like I seem to do. Some people really do seem to need up to an hour to wake up, and they walk round in a trance in the mornings, seeming to be trying to stay asleep even though they are clearly up.

 

We came home, and seeing it was a tad nippy outside we had something of a lazy day. I slobbed on the sofa reading my Kindle for a bit, then we watched a DVD. We’ve seen “The Lady In The Van” before, but I can’t say that I remembered much (if anything) of it. It was rather good.

As I watched I scoffed most of a tub of Cadbury’s Heroes and gave myself a belly ache.

 

We scoffed the last of the leftover Christmas dinner, and then set about the Infinity Table again. Yesterday we played “Ticket to Ride” on the UK maps, and this evening we tried the Europe maps. As well as ferries, this one has tunnels. As we played we set about the port and cheese. I didn’t have *too* much port (only about a third of a bottle) but the half a pound of cheese was arguably a tad keen. It did nothing for the belly ache, and bearing in mind last night’s vivid dreams that might have been a mistake.

 

Oh – and today is a birthday. Our little mis-matched twins are four today. Not that they were any the wiser…

26 December 2025 (Friday) - Boxing Day

I woke to find it was five o’clock. That was over four hours asleep which was something of a result. I got up, went to the loo and spent quite a while in there…

I went back to bed where after a few minutes I managed to shift enough dogs to get myself some bed space, and I went back to sleep until “er indoors ^TM” ‘s alarm went off at half past seven. And then again five minutes later. The universe conspires to not let me sleep.

 

I got up and spent a few more minutes farting before making toast and peering into the internet. Surprisingly few people had posted much about their Christmases, which was a shame. Being a nosey person I like to see what’s going on. But there was one minor disaster; our little dog-friend Smudge had been taken poorly and had been in the vet’s at half past one this morning.

 

We got the dogs onto their leads and drove up to Kings Wood for a little walk. I rarely (if ever) go there at the weekends, and effectively today was a weekend day. The place was heaving with people and dogs who only get out once a week and they can be hard work. There are those who take the phrase “a walk in the woods”  literally and blunder through the undergrowth. There are those who march along clinging to their dog’s collar seemingly terrified that the dog might enjoy itself. Where we rarely see more than three or for other people, today we saw dozens.

I saw a deer; “er indoors ^TM” scared it off as she shouted at Treacle for eating horse poo.

 

We came home where the dogs had a scrub; they’d all been rolling in poo (presumably fox). We had a cuppa and cracked open the shortbread. Very nice.

 

We settled the dogs and went out for the afternoon. I don’t like leaving them, but sometimes it has to be done. We had a rather good afternoon playing cards, scoffing far too much and having a few beers.

We’d left the dogs for three hours and came home to find they’d escaped the dog-proofing which was supposed to keep them contained in the kitchen and they were running riot in the living room. I have this theory that if they can’t look out the front window they won’t see things to bark at, but fundamental to that theory is keeping them away from the front window.

 

We had a little pressie-opening session. I’ve done alright. Sweeties, bottles of plonk, port and amaretto. Lego, DVDs, new pants and a rather sweet gnome tree ornament.

We had a very good plate of leftovers for dinner and spent the evening playing “Ticket to Ride” on the Infinity Table. I got my highest score ever, and then we played the UK version and it’s got another level of rules and cards and game-playing…

 

I’ve got such a belly ache…

25 December 2025 (Thursday) - Christmas Day

I slept through till five o’clock this morning which was something of a result compared to the last two days. I got up and made a cuppa; I skipped toast. Last night I’d scoffed some old frozen curry I’d found in the freezer and it wasn’t sitting well this morning. I watched an episode of “The Young Ones” then had a little look at the Internet.

There were disappointingly few photos of families in Christmas pyjamas. Someone was trying to spam the local geocaching Facebook page. They didn’t succeed. And there was an amazing argument taking place on a Facebook page about the 1970s. Someone had posted a photos of the group Slade with their cars. All of them had a Rolls Royce. Back then having a Rolls Royce was a sign of success. But there was loads of bitterness being vented by people who didn’t have a Rolls Royce. You’d think people would have had better things to be doing at half past six on a Christmas morning, wouldn’t you?

I Munzed and captured two radius boosters. I wonder how they work. And I nearly failed Wordle. Starting with “group” I finally got “prism” on the last attempt.

 

Trying to not wake anyone I got ready for work. I’ve only had one of the last twelve Christmases off work. I’ve worked on nine of the last twelve Christmas Days, one Boxing Day and pretty much all the non-weekend Christmas Eves.

 

I set off to work. Bearing in mind it was before seven o'clock on Christmas Day there was a lot of traffic on the roads. I can remember working the night of Christmas Eve in 1985 and my Dad picking me up from work Christmas morning. On the drive from Ashford to Hastings we saw perhaps a dozen cars back then.

As I drove I listened to the morning service from Leeds Cathedral. Billed as carols and lessons, it was dreadful howling and platitudes. I soon gave up with it and sang along to Ivor Biggun instead.

 

I got to work a little early and treated myself to the cooked breakfast. It was OK... nothing special, but then (sadly) it rarely is. The dinners in the works canteen are really good, but the brekkies leave a little to be desired.

I got on with work. Back in the day Christmas used to be a time for dire emergencies only; this morning wasn't unlike a routine weekend day. The work was constant. One thing made me sit up and take notice though. One of the tests we do is to measure the amount of vitamin B12 in a patient's blood When I first started in 1981 we would save these tests up and un a batch of maybe thirty tests once a week (or less often) as it as a specialized and unusual test. Over the holidays the very few we might have had would have been stockpiled and tested in the New Year. 

This morning I checked and authorised the results of forty such tests that had been done overnight last night on Christmas Eve. 

 

With work worked I came home down a motorway which was far busier that you might expect. Being at a bit of a loose end Chris came round and we had a rather good bit of dinner, then spent a while playing on various games consoles as the day got more and more vague…

24 December 2025 (Wednesday) - Christmas Eve

I managed a bit more sleep last night but was still wide awake at three o’clock. I gave it an hour before giving up, getting up and watching a bit of telly over an early brekkie.

I watched an episode of “The Young Ones”, then with a bit of time on my hands I had a look at the monthly accounts. They could be a whole lot better… but they could also be a whole lot worse. Perhaps I worry too much about money? After all, what is it for if not to squander foolishly?

 

It was very dark as I left home this morning. Not so nice next door had parked her car ridiculously close to mine, which made me chuckle. Bearing in mind  the obvious difficulty she has when moving her car about you'd have thought she'd have left a decent amount of space, wouldn't you?

I didn't fancy the scrum at Sainsbury's this morning so I  popped in to the co-op where I got pretty much the same lunch as Sainsbury's do, but twenty pence cheaper. It pays to shop about. I had hoped to get a coronation chicken sandwich as earlier in the year the chap behind the counter had adamantly assured me that they only do those at Christmas, but either they had sold out or he was talking rubbish. Either way I roughed it with a cheese and ham sandwich. It wasn't the same.

As I paid, the co op staff were loudly discussing the price of pouches of tobacco. Apparently the cheapest place to get the stuff locally is from Deliveroo. I always thought they just delivered the stuff; I didn't think they sourced it. Perhaps the delivery driver is flogging hooky stuff as a sideline?

 

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about how the King has recorded his fourth Christmas speech. Four... the late Queen died the day after my father died, so this will be my fourth Christmas as an orphan. For all that the drive to Hastings is something of a pain in the glass, I'd like to go see my mum and dad for Christmas again.

 

And so to work. A colleague had made some cookies and cakes for today, and one of the bosses had brought in some sweeties too. It was good to get fed. Back in the day there used to be loads of stuff brought in over the festive period, and this was the first I'd seen this year (not that I show up much these days). When I was manager I used to bring in a tub of sweeties every day in December. I've often said that in retrospect I think I did being a manager wrongly.

Mind you I probably overdid the sweeties; I had something of a bellyache for most of the day today. And it was a surprisingly busy day. 

 

I can distinctly remember the first ever Christmas Eve I worked… forty-four years ago in 1981. Things were very different back then. The old Royal East Sussex Hospital probably had about a hundred and fifty beds, and back in the day the hospital effectively closed for Christmas with pretty much every patient that could possibly be sent home going home for Christmas. Maybe a dozen remained over the holiday. No outpatients or GP patients had blood samples taken. And consequently our day’s work was done by eleven o’clock. We all set off to the pub at quarter to twelve (leaving the boss running the show) and we drank ourselves silly until the boss came down the pub at about two o’clock having been relieved by the night shift (who had come in shortly after two o’clock). The boss got more beers in, and after a few more drinks we all suddenly felt sorry for the poor night shift person on their own so we all went back to help them. I say “help them”; there was nothing to help them with, so having made our offer of help we all sat in the reception area drinking whiskey until none was left. We then all staggered to the bus station; a five minute walk which took us half an hour, and we then all made our various ways home on the bus. Happy days.

 

I can remember Christmas Eves in the mid-nineties. Back then we got the day off after a night shift… not that there was much to do at night back then. With a dedicated bedroom for us in the nurses home we’d be asleep by one o’clock and be called out if needed. We weren’t needed much back then, and call-outs lasted half an hour at most. Getting up more than twice was pretty much unheard of. Consequently we wouldn’t be needing to spend the day after a night shift fast asleep like we do these days.

I used to do the night of December 23^rd so that I would be off on Christmas Eve. “er indoors ^TM”,  “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and “My Boy ^TM” would already be at my mum’s house in Hastings. I’d get the mid-morning train on Christmas Eve and my brother would meet me as the train pulled into Hastings. We’d stage an epic booze-up, then go to Sainsbury’s for the last ten minutes that they were opened to snap up bargains. I say “bargains”; we’d just buy reduced tat. The store staff would announce random reductions and the masses would fight for stuff they would never otherwise buy.

My mum never seemed to want the bargains we took home for her…

Fast forward to today… Which was just like any other day at work…

And I’ve got to work tomorrow as well… 

23 December 2025 (Tuesday) - Early Shift

I had an early(ish) night last night, but with an alarm set the insomnia returned with a vengeance. I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go at two minutes past midnight then lay awake for hours. I eventually gave up trying to sleep as I watched the clock pass four.

I got up, made toast (properly this morning) and watched an episode of “This is England 90”, then sparked up the lap-top and as I peered into Facebook this morning I despaired. I don’t remember Apollo 11 and the first Moon landing, but I do remember the disaster hitting Apollo 13. I remember the next four Moon landings, and Skylab going up. I remember the Apollo and Soyuz docking in orbit. I remember the Channel Tunnel being dug, the introduction of mobile phones…When I was younger there were some momentous things going on. The future looked so bright and was full of possibilities. But look how it turned out. The world is full of half-wits. So many people really do still think the world is flat. Add to that the half-witted vaccine deniers, crackpot religions… this isn’t the future I was expecting.

 

Two Facebook friends were having birthdays today so I sent birthday wishes. One was an old mate I’ve known for over fifty years, the other… I think I might have worked with him at some point. To be honest I have no idea who he is. I suppose I should find out if I actually know him. Periodically I have a look through my Facebook friends list. There’s several people on there who I have no idea who they are. There’s one chap on there who often comments on what I post as though he is my best mate… I must have known the chap at some point. But I’m hopeless with people like that. It wasn’t that long ago that I met some chap in the town centre who said he remembered me as I was the scout leader with the snakes… I clearly made an impression on him as it’s fifteen years since I was a scout leader and twenty years since I had a snake. I wonder who he was.

 

It was dark as I left home - over an hour before sunrise, but still the birds were singing like things possessed.

I drove off up the motorway; I was glad to see that the "Operation Brock" stupidity had been taken down, but having been in place it had cost the taxpayer (i.e. me) a quarter of a million quid. 

The motorway was quiet this morning at quarter past six; quieter than it often is. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the American Navy is kitting itself out with a new type of battleship which will be called "Trump class".

I know he's not my president, but it bothers me that someone who has been elected to the most powerful position in the world doesn't seem to realise just how much the rest of the world is laughing at him.

 

I got some petrol - again my Nectar voucher thing got turned down. They always seem to get turned down. And from getting petrol I went into the Aylesford Sainsburys. Usually at half past six there may be two or three other customers. It was rammed this morning. The pre-Christmas panic had set it. But clearly this was why the motorway had been so quiet; everyone was in Sainsbury's.

 

I went in to work and did my bit. At lunchtime a colleague told me about the Komoot app. It took a while to download, but it might be good for finding some dog walks.

 

And with my bit done I came home. “er indoors ^TM” went off delivering Christmas pressies. I put laundry in to scrub and more “This is England 90” on the telly and cracked on with the ironing until “er indoors ^TM” came home with KFC.

 

I’ve got another early start tomorrow… hopefully not *quite* so early…

22 December 2025 (Monday) - Not At Work

I was asleep for nine hours last night. That was something of a result.

I made toast as I do… and somehow stuck both slices in the same slot of the toaster so I ended up with two bits of toast each with one burnt side and one uncooked bread side. I scoffed it anyway.

As I scoffed I peered into the Internet. More and more people are now off work for the holidays. Quite a few have compulsory holiday at this time of year as their firms shut down. Quite a few were rather resentful about it, and understandably so. With only about eight hours of daylight and that being cold (at best) it is a rather crap time of year to have a holiday.

I checked my emails. Someone had been round my geocaches in Kings Wood and had reported two of them to be missing, so that immediately planned our morning walk.

I had a quick Munz, and as “er indoors ^TM” did Dog Brekkie I got ready for out walk.

 

As we drove there was some utter drivel on the radio about poetry. Apparently you could get all sorts of insights into the writer’s mind from the poems… I was reminded of our old English teacher who spouted the same sort of tosh and made amazing leaps of (so-called) logic. I can remember him being adamant that it was far better to call a peacock a “blue umbrella” rather than a peacock, and I can remember him being incredibly angry when he’d waxed loquacious about the mother and baby bond forged from their blood mixing only to be told about what the placenta does.

 

We got to the woods and went for a little stroll. It started well or badly (depending on your personal perspective) as a young lady jogged by. With leggings two sizes to small and a bra that almost (but not quite) covered her jubblies, she might as well have run round in the nip.

Our route followed the southern edge of the woods today (as that’s where the supposedly missing geocaches were). Along that edge of the woods is a tall fence that has little spaces underneath that dogs could get through, and about half a mile the other side of that fence was continuous squawking of pheasants and continuous gunshots. There was clearly a hunting party going on, and the dogs were going mad trying to get to the pheasants. I was glad when our route turned away from the fence.

We saw a deer (just one). Being the start of the holidays we saw quite a few people taking their dogs out because it was holidays. Holiday dog walkers are a pain in the glass. They are utterly oblivious to the world around them until I get to within five yards of them. By then their dog is quite happy sniffing and playing with my pack, but they still go absolutely berserk and demand all dogs go on to the leads but are utterly unable to explain why. We had this twice today.

We’d had reports that two geocaches were missing; I couldn’t find them so I put new ones out.

It was only a shame that I didn’t realise that my “Map My Walk” app had stopped about ten yards after I’d started it…

 

We came home where seriously muddy bellies were hosed in the bath. This time of year the dogs get a bath after pretty much every walk. I know several people who say their dogs hardly ever get a bath. They must be ripe.

I made up both a cuppa, put the first load of washing in to scrub, opened the Advent Calendar, then looked at Wordle. Starting with “bloke” I then went through “round” and “conic” to get “conch” on the fourth attempt.

I had a go at chess dot com and didn’t do very well.

I wrote up some CPD, and made a start on next year’s birthday video before hanging out the first load of laundry and starting on the next..

 

I spent the afternoon slobbing on the sofa watching episodes of “Four In A Bed”. The first place visited was a rather average B&B. The second was a massively overpriced place which catered to people who like paying over the odds. The third place was a grim pub up north run by a chap who delighted in telling everyone else how bad they were, and took great offence whenever anyone found fault with his place (and there was a lot of fault to find), and the fourth place was a rather grubby cottage with bedrooms run as a bit of a hobby by a pair of retired teachers. As is always the case the first place to go on won as being first none of the contestants had had time to fall out.

 

I followed this with The Two Ronnies Christmas Special from yonks ago, the Carry On Christmas special and Top of the Pops 1978. All were sadly rather lame; none had stood the test of time.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up bacon and egg rolls which we scoffed whilst watching the final of “Game of Wool”. I could do knitting…

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow…

21 December 2025 (Sunday) - Family Meal

It was something of a late night last night. I got four hours sleep then woke for a tiddle in the small hours… and that was it for sleep for the night. I then lay awake from four more hours before finally giving up and getting up.

 

I made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. There was some seriously nasty bickering about the Operation Brock debacle between supporters of the Labour and Reform UK parties, and this was attracting comments from people who clearly didn’t understand what was going on. All were delighting in showing their complete ignorance. The local Labour MP said that he was trying to come to a long-term answer to the entire Operation Brock thing. The local Reform UK county councillor claimed that the Labour chap was blaming the county council (he wasn’t), and so the squabble gathered momentum rather akin to children in a playground shouting “fight, fight, fight”.

I seriously despair for the future – we have a political system which elects leaders on the whim of a majority who simply don’t understand what they’ve voted in. I’m not saying that the county council are good or bad, just that they have been elected by a load of people who have absolutely no understanding of what the policies and issues are.

In this instance Operation Brock is activated and shut down by the Kent Resilience Forum. This is a rather large group consisting of pretty much anyone who wants to get involved. But the main protagonists are Kent County Council, Kent Police and Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue service… and who is it that appoints the head honchos of Kent Police and Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue service? Kent County Council.

No one seemed to know this, or care about this piddling detail.

 

I took the dogs round the block for a walk. Time was pressing and we didn’t have long enough for a long walk and the subsequent bath. Half a mile round the block was enough to remind me why I’d rather not take them any distance on the leads. Perhaps I should do more lead practice?

I Munzed and Wordled as I do, and wrote up a little CPD, and had a go at chess dot com.

 

“My Boy ^TM” and ”Auntie Chel ^TM” came round, and we all walked round to the Riverside Inn where my brother was waiting for us. We had a good dinner there… but it wasn’t cheap. We all skipped the dessert course and came home (through the rain) to have puddings at home. We scoffed far too much puddings, shifted a lot more beer, and played on the Infinity Table for a couple of hours until everyone had to go.

And then as it was out, we played a few games on it, and played a couple of games across the Internet with Chris. It was a shame that the thing kept stopping, but that’s the Internet for you…

 

And today is the solstice. The shortest day. The days start getting longer now. I see that as a good thing…

20 December 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Camber Castle, Games Night

Yesterday I mentioned about the bad night I’d had previously, and so it was hardly surprising that I spent three hours fast asleep on the sofa yesterday evening. And so having had some sleep I lay awake for most of the night (again). 

I eventually gave up trying to sleep, got up, made toast and watched an episode of “The Young Ones” then had a little look at the Internet. It was still there, and was the same as ever. For the last few weeks my Facebook feed has been filled with geometric puzzles based on Pythagoras’s theorem, and idiotically simplistic questions being posted to work-related groups. Yesterday I made a pointed reply to one such question suggesting that acute leukaemia *wasn’t* best treated with ointment, and followed it with” FFS”. That comment had garnered quite a few “likes” overnight.

Steve was on the radio – he’d got a new jingle with goats singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” – it was rather good. I Munzed, and Wordled my way from “ghost” to “white” via “thank” and “chute”. The “Guess the Lyrics” competition came on the radio – “It’s an occupation, we’re a dancing nation, we keep the pressure on every night”. No? – I had no idea either. It was “Respectable” by Mel and Kim.

 

Being Saturday we drove round to Repton where we had a rather chilly Dog Club. But despite it being the last weekend before Christmas we had a dozen dogs along, and a great time was had by all.

From Dog Club we drove off towards Winchelsea Beach. As we drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. Jockey Harvey Smith giving the judges the V-sign and Spaghetti Junction opening. It wasn’t 1973 like I thought it was. It was 1971, and Benny Hill had the Christmas No 1.

 

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been collecting Origami Animals by finding particular geocaches, and having found thirteen out of fourteen we had only one left to find. There was a qualifying geocache at Camber Castle so parking up at Winchelsea Beach would give us a nice dog walk out to it.

We parked up at a layby on the coast road and had a rather good little (three or so miles) walk along quiet lanes and footpaths across the Rye Harbour nature reserve. It was a shame there was quite so much cow dung everywhere, but you can’t have everything.

We soon found the geocache we were looking for – it was near a memorial stone for a young lad who’d died during the war. And finding it have us an origami crane and an e-souvenir for finding a geocache over the winter solstice.

I took a few photos as we walked.

 

We came home via the farm shop where we got some sausage rolls for lunch and some stout for later, then came home. The dogs got scrubbed, as did our trousers. And half a dozen tennis balls. There’s quite a collection of filthy tennis balls at the Dog Club field. More and more of the dogs are turning their noses up at the grubby ones and are squabbling over the one clean one I bring along. So I harvested some grubby tennis balls, brought them home and chucked them in the washing machine with our trousers.

We scoffed the sausage rolls then I had a little think about today’s Advent story, hung out the washing and fell asleep.

 

I woke to the sound of someone at the door. Martin had called round. We had a cuppa and put the world to rights, then I got out the hoover and voomed round with it. You’d be amazed how much muck it generated. I blame the dogs.

 

Chris arrived with the big Infinity table, and Steve and Sarah soon followed. We had a rather good evening and I won some of the games. Result !!

19 December 2025 (Friday) - A Day At Work

I had a relatively early night last night and got an hour’s sleep before “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs came up. There was a minor squabble with the dogs, then just as everyone was getting settled someone trod on Bailey.

I then saw every twenty minutes from then on. I gave up trying to sleep at half past four, got up, made toast and watched an episode of “This is England”. It was a Christmas one, and was thoroughly depressing.

 

I had a little look at the Internet. It was still there. Nothing much had happened overnight… or by six o’clock anyway. But I was slightly surprised. Usually every time I look up anything on the Internet I am then inundated with adverts for whatever it was. Infinity tables, Lego, DVD boxed sets… I was expecting endless adverts for fish tank plants and snails, but nothing.

I Munzed. I wordled from “short” through “hairy” to getting it with “myrrh” on the third go. But, to be honest, what other words have a y in them but not at the end?

I opened my Advent Calendar and got ready for work.

 

I got into my car and sat and waited for the bin lorry to get out of the way so that I could drive off... and the very second it moved a few yards up the road, some idiot drove his car to where the bin lorry had been. He then sat and glared at me as though it was my fault that the bin lorry was blocking the road. I smiled sweetly as I watched this chap's blood pressure go through the roof. He clearly wasn't happy about having to wait for the bin lorry to get out of the way.

 

I drove up the motorway through the Operation Brock stupidity. There's talking of moving Operation Brock to the bit of the motorway between Ashford and Folkestone.  That would suit me just fine... all the time I am going to work and not going to Folkestone.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the EU is going to lend the Ukrainian government ninety billion Euros. I say "lend" - apparently no money will be repaid until the Ukrainian government gets reparations from the invading Russians... that ain't going to happen, is it? Apparently the Europeans weren't brave enough to give the Ukrainians the two hundred billion Euros of Russian assets that they've frozen. I can't say I blame them.  I must admit that if I were Mr. Putin I'd be seeing this European funding of the war against him as tantamount to a declaration of war in itself.  

 

I drove up to Sainsburys to get some lunch and some supplies. I was rather surprised to smell "funny fags" as I got out of the car. For all that it is supposedly still illegal, I'm smelling the stuff pretty much everywhere I go.

 

I got to work. I did my bit. Bearing in mind how wet it had been for much of yesterday I looked out of the window and sulked. In between working I did my e-learning. I learned about CPR...  apparently if you are trying to resuscitate "a person with breasts" you are allowed to touch "the breasts" whilst performing chest compressions.  One lives and learns. I must admit that if someone was about to croak, allegations about goosing up the jubbllies would be rather lower down the list of concerns than having them croaking. Also I thought everyone had breasts; just some people's (women's) were a tad jubblier than others (men's), but what do I know. 

 

With work worked I came home through Operation Brock again. Once home as a special treat we had KFC for tea. Their Gravy Box was rather good, and only (!) eight hundred calories.

 

I’ve spent much of today thinking about an old friend. I first met Phil at primary school when I was five years old. We went through school together, we were in the Boys Brigade together. In my Advent Calendar today I had Frosty the Snowman. Whenever it snowed he would sing his song about Frosty the Snowman:

 

“Frosty the Snowman

Lost his left ball in a fight

Then by a strange coincidence

The same happened to the right

 

Frosty the Snowman

A happy little soul

Give the f…er any lip 

He’ll kick you up the a… hole”

 

He would sing this, barely pausing for breath, for three miles through the snow on our way to school, and for three miles through the snow on the way home after.

He moved to Sweden about forty years ago. There’s a lot of snow there, and presumably lots of snowmen.

18 December 2025 (Thursday) - Elhampark Woods

I woke up shivering in the small hours because an alliance of “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs had captured all of the duvet. As I was awake I headed to the loo and tripped over most of the bedding which was on the floor. Once I’d done my thing I reorganized the bed.

 

Over brekkie Morgan and Pogo had a minor quarrel. It sounded quite vicious, but stopped as quickly as it started. What was that all about?

As I scoffed toast I referee-ed a minor squabble on the Upstairs Downstairs. Someone wasn’t happy that someone else had posted something about what one of the characters had done in another show. It wasn’t offensive, or irrelevant, but some people really do want to argue about anything.

And there was talk about how the local Reform UK county council wants to appoint “political assistants” who will advise on party political matters and promote those policies to the public… for an annual salary of more than what I get. To be fair to Reform UK they’ve suggested that all the parties at the council get a bit of the pie, but bearing in mind that they got into power on the promise of cutting waste they seem to be quite good at generating waste.

 

Despite the drizzle I took the dogs out. As I drove “In Our Time” was on the radio and was talking about Charles Dickens. It was rather interesting; I found myself thinking back to my time at school when we read some of his books for English Literature “O” level when Mr Delaney seemed to do his level best to kill the books stone dead. I’m sure that wasn’t his intention…

We went to Elhampark Wood for our walk today. It wasn’t the best of places to walk in that, like Longbeech Woods (near Charing), most of the paths are straight lines going from the road, and so it is difficult to make a circular walk which allows the dogs to be off the leads the whole time. But we had a decent walk really. The dogs seemed to enjoy it, and no one ran off or got into mischief. Bailey rolled in fox muck, but that is a given, isn’t it?

Our main reason for trying somewhere new today was that a new geocache had gone live there three days ago. I mentioned that I’d solved the puzzle yesterday but had decided against chasing the FTF… This morning as I scoffed toast I’d seen that it was still not found but had three watchers. Had people had a go and not logged DNFs?

I spent ten minutes searching… and gave up.

We had our dog walk, and on the way back to the car as we were walking past I spent another ten minutes to no avail. As we walked away I saw the tree where I would have hidden a cache. And there it was… My phone made the co-ords fifty feet out, but to be honest my phone isn’t the most accurate.

I took co-ords and posted them to the chap who’d hidden the thing, but I was First One to Find It… and that’s always worth having. The trouble is I’ve now started another FTF streak. I wonder how long this one will last.

 

As we drove home “The Infinite Monkey Cage” was on the radio talking about the Dunbar Number; which is “a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships”. Or in English “the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar”. It’s supposedly about a hundred and fifty, and apparently that is the average amount of Facebook friends that anyone has.

I’ve got over six hundred…

 

We got home just as the rain started with a vengeance. The drizzle that was drizzling as we left home had soon stopped. We’d had a dry walk, and had been lucky with the timing

The dogs had a bath. Muddy bellies and poo-ey backs all got sorted. The dogs were soon asleep and I made us both a cuppa.

I did a little more marking of trainee work, I Munzed and Wordled, fixed the hole in my pocket, read my Kindle for a bit and had a little sleep.

 

I put some laundry in, wrote a reference for a colleague with whom I used to work, and thought about water snails. The fish seem to have stopped eating the plants; maybe some snails will clear up the algae.

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow…