7 March 2025 (Friday) - This n That

I woke at one minute to four this morning feeling like death warmed up. I lay in bed for half an hour feeling like death warmed up, then had this idea that I might chirp up if I got up.

I made toast and scoffed it whilst watching an episode of “Star Trek: Discovery”, then had a little look at the internet in case anything had happened overnight. Not a lot seemed to have kicked off on social media really, but there were a lot of photos of yesterday’s “World Book Day” events in which children had gone to school dressed as their favourite fictional characters. Back in the day children were taught to read; now they are taught to get their mothers to dress them up as their favourite TV character and hope there's a book associated with it, safe in the knowledge that no one else knows whether there is or not.

It’s as well this never happened thirty years ago – my two would have gone to school in their usual attire and would be “the children whose daddy couldn’t be arsed”.

As an avid reader it bothers me that people don’t read books (or e-books) any more. Another thing along these lines which boils my piss is "graphic novels" - another word for "comic books".  People who can't be bothered to read a proper book pretend that comics are literature. These things were then largely superceded by audio books in which people actually read the story out so you didn't even have to pick up a book (comic or otherwise). 

World book day... this ain't helping my blood pressure, is it?

 

I set off to work via the petrol station. There was quite the queue in the kiosk. Only one till was open.  The miserable old bat was quite openly bimbling about straightening the price labels on the shelves and busying herself with similar trivia whilst sneering as the queue grew.

 

I listened to the pundits on the radio as I drove up the motorway. Again everyone seemed incensed at the antics of Donald Trump. Again everyone seemed to be missing the point. Previous American presidents have seen their role as being the leader of the western world. It's pretty plain that Mr Trump sees his role as being that to which he was elected; president of America. What he does which so incenses international commentators is being done to impress those who might vote for him. He don't care about international opinion, and why should he? There's no votes in that.

 

I got to work and did my bit. I helped one of the bosses set up her own CPD blog. And now she's recording her CPD on-line I shall shamelessly blag her efforts. And there was doughnuts at tea time... I had one - two hundred calories, and (at the risk of appearing ungrateful) it wasn't really anything special.

And I did some e-learning - Understanding sexual misconduct in the workplace. I got 100%. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up bangers and mash for tea which we scoffed whilst watching more of “The Traitors US” in which I was so pleased to see the stupid one getting voted out. Mind you when I say “the stupid one” I’m not narrowing it down much. This particular one didn’t so much converse with the other contestants as massively over-react and then pull stupid grimaces at the camera.

I must admit that I took an instant dislike to this one at the start and I’ve been watching it ever since pretty much waiting for her to get the heave-ho.

Now that she’s gone I’m not really fussed about the rest.

 

I might have an early night – that early start is certainly taking its toll…

6 March 2025 (Thursday) - Farm, Woods, Ironing

What with work-related disasters I didn’t get to bed till gone midnight last night, but I didn’t sleep well. I finally nodded off just before the alarm went off. I made toast and had a look at the Internet. I’m reluctant to jump on the bashing Donald Trump bandwagon for the simple reason that I’m not American, but apparently he’s been ranting about transgender mice. What he actually meant was transgenic mice. Completely different. You’d think someone in his position would take a little trouble to research what they are ranting about, and try to avoid making a tit of themselves, wouldn’t you?

 

I left home rather early to try to avoid the traffic. As I turned right at the end of the road I very nearly killed an idiot motorcyclist who overtook as I was turning.

I eventually got out of Ashford; the roads were mayhem. I got to Folkestone where I collected “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM”  and Darcie WaaWaa ^TM”. Littlun was rather excited and told me we were going to see some piggies.

We were.

Badger’s Hill Farm is the place I took Darcie the other week only to find they were closed. Having determined they would be open we went back today. We went there many years ago when grandson was small and I can remember having a good time. We had a good time today, but I can remember there being far more animals when we went there last time. My diary from the time mentions llamas and maras that weren’t there today.

Mind you, we couldn’t really complain as seeing the animals was free. And because it was free we felt we ought to spend some money in the café. That wasn’t free. An ice cream for littlun, coffee and cake for the bigguns gave us precious little change out of twenty quid, and I was asked how much of a tip I would like to leave them.

A tad cheeky…

 

I dropped the girls home, then came home, collected the dogs and took them for a walk rather later than we might usually go. Bearing in mind we had no time pressures and how muddy Orlestone had been this week, we went to Kings Wood. We had a good walk. We saw some idiot woman struggling to control her Alsatian. We’ve seen her before; she always has the dog on a really short lead and it pulls her all over the place whilst she shouts swear words at it. We gave them a wide berth.

We also saw a load of deer which Morgan and Bailey chased for maybe twenty yards before losing interest.

 

We came home again. No day not at work is complete without doing the ironing, so I ironed. As I cracked on I watched episodes of “Four In A Bed”. As always this show didn’t compare like with like. It started off in a bed and breakfast which looked like it was run by your favourite auntie. The next place was run by a pair of crackpot vegetarians (complete with frankly ridiculous beard) who made great show of only serving vegetarian food, but specialised in eggs (?). The third place was the sort of place my parents would have frequented many times – a Scottish hotel specialising in coach parties. And the last place was a restaurant which offered accommodation which was run by a chap who massively underpaid his competitors in a shallow attempt to win.

 

I munzed and wordled rather later than usual, then checked my emails. Disaster. Regular readers of this drivel will know that the title picture of this diary changes every few months. The background is always from photos of places that I’ve been, with the title and a favourite quote. I’m quite a fan of Jerome K Jerome – have you ever read his books? You should… I digress.

I make this little piccie using Microsoft publisher. But Microsoft are discontinuing publisher in the next few months. They told me that there wasn’t anything I could do in publisher that I couldn’t do in Word or PowerPoint.

I farted about and made the current piccie using PowerPoint. Back in the day I was rather good with PowerPoint; I seem to have forgotten all about it. But what I came up with wasn’t *that* bad for a first attempt.

And then I had a little realisation… the first piccie like that featuring as the title of this diary read ”… aged 42 1/2”

 

As “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner I put a third load of washing in to scrub. Dinner was rather good; we scoffed it whilst watching more of “The Traitors US” in which various wannabes competed for massive amounts of money presumably to pay for their next face-lifts.

 

I’ve had a rather busy day. I’m worn out…

5 March 2025 (Wednesday) - Another Late Shift

I had a good night’s sleep which was something of a result. I made toast and sent out birthday wishes to one of two Facebook friends having a birthday today. The other was a chap with whom I used to work who died five years ago. This morning social media was rather dull. No one was really arguing. There were a lot of rants about the traffic in Ashford though. The obvious answer is to formally contact the local county councillor and the local MP and ask them to identify the manager of the individuals responsible for the traffic balls-up and have them dismiss the incompetent, but people would rather rant on social media than talk with anyone who might be able to prevent a reoccurrence. There was also a lot of shouting about American politics. Again it probably needs shouting about, but in the right quarters.

 

I munzed, wordled, and went to wake “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs who had overslept. Once they were all up and about and had scoffed their brekkie I took the dogs out. We went to Orlestone again as it is easier when I’m pressed for time. Mind you there’s two issues with Orlestone Woods. Yesterday I mentioned the first problem; the mud. The second problem is the dogs’ behaviour. There’s something about Orlestone Woods which makes them willful. Not naughty, or seriously disobedient. But wilful. If they find something foul in a hedge they simply won’t come when called. If they chase a bird or a squirrel, they won’t come back. They vanished for a full five minutes this morning. Their behavior is far better in Kings Wood.

 

As we drove home the pundits on the radio were talking about a school in Lincolnshire where the head teacher has had all the mirrors removed. Apparently mirrors encourage the kids to spend too long in the toilets and make them late for lessons. But what boiled my piss was the announcement by some psychologist who said that although schools have a right to institute rules, children should be part of decisions. And that is where society has gone wrong. Children should shut their rattle, do as they are told, and fear the consequences. And then maybe decent people wouldn’t be scared to walk the streets.

 

Pausing only briefly for a quick cuppa I set off to work and in a moment of absent-mindedness I drove straight past the co-op. I kept going - there was (and is) another a mile further along the road. Or so I thought. The shop I went to had the same co-op name and what looked like the same signs. But they wouldn't accept my co-op card. It turns out there's two shops in Ashford operating under the name of "co-op" but far from being co-operative, they are actually in competition.

 

As I drove up the motorway I spent far more time in the fast lane than I would have liked. What with caravans being towed and mobile homes and speedboats being transported there was a lot needing space today.

Unlike yesterday the tyre pressure warning didn't kick off. I'm hoping yesterday's pumping did the trick. Having said that, something is periodically rattling underneath the car. 

 

I got to work and did my thing. Another late shift, and not a bad one either right up until going home time. And then there was one of those things that make hospital work so interesting (!) and I was an hour and a half late getting out.

It would happen when I’ve got an early start in the morning.

4 March 2025 (Tuesday) - Late Shift

I had something of a restless night. When Treacle sleeps at the bottom of the bed there is room for all. When she sleeps between us there isn’t room for anyone. Morgan and Bailey both curl up into a tight ball when they sleep; Treacle sprawls out to take more space that would ever seem possible.

 

Over brekkie I peered into the Internet. It was still there. Today’s petty squabble was on one of the aquarium-related Facebook pages in which some people were advocating spending an awful lot of time and money buying all sorts of chemicals and testing kits to get your fish-tank water to be what they considered perfect. And having done that they felt that after a week you should chuck out half the water, top up from the tap and start again with the chemicals and the testing. Others were saying they’ve never added a chemical or done a test ever, and just top up the tank when the water evaporates a little. People on both sides of the quarrel were getting really nasty with each other; and people on both sides seemed to be keeping rather impressive fish tanks.

I was reminded of my days in keeping snakes, Star Trek fandom, kite flying…many people would rather argue with others than learn anything from anyone else.

 

And not wanting more arguments I decided against posting anything to the local geocaching page. I had several emails from people who’d been out yesterday finding the geocaches I’d hidden in Kings Wood and had found some of the paper logs were damp. This could only happen by people not taking the time to do up the lids. A trivial point, but I will now have to replace those paper logs sooner rather than later.

 

I munzed and wordled then took the dogs out for a walk. Not having that much time today we went to Orlestone. On our morning walks we don’t get back from Kings Wood until half past eleven at the best of times, and Ashford is one huge road works at the moment. So many major thoroughfares in Ashford are either closed or subject to traffic lights. I’d like to think that there are valid reasons for the current traffic chaos which has been going on for some time. However I suspect that it is due to incompetence on whoever plans road works; if indeed there actually is any planning.

We got to the woods and had a good wander. Orlestone is good for a shorter walk; traffic allowing we can get there, walk for a couple of miles and be home again within the hour. It’s only a shame that for much of the year there are two unavoidable mud-swamps.

 

We came home for belly washes and removal of fox poo. I made a cuppa for me and “er indoors ^TM”, did some CPD, and set off for the late shift.

 

The roads were a lot quieter as I drove off to work than they had been when we went to the woods. Pausing only briefly at the co-op for a sandwich I was soon on my way up the motorway singing along to Ivor Biggun songs.  

Suddenly my car beeped at me. It had detected a loss of pressure in the front left tyre. It does that periodically. It means that either I've got a puncture, or it needs some air. I came off the motorway a bit early, found a car park, and checked the pressure. I checked all four tyres. The one that supposedly had the issue was actually the one with the highest pressure. What was that all about? I gave them all a bit of a pump, then drove on to the late shift which was nowhere near as bad as Sunday's had been. Though to be honest week-day late shifts are better than weekend ones as I have some company and assistance.

As I worked I had a message from the doggy dentist. Bailey is now booked in to have her cakehole serviced... whether she likes it or not.

 

My car beeped on the way home too, and panic set in. But nil desperandum – it wasn’t the tyres. The car was warning me it was cold. It does that as well.

3 March 2025 (Monday) - Rather Busy

I stood on the scales this morning as I’ve been doing every Monday morning for the last few weeks, and saw that I’d shifted two more pounds. The blood pressure remains pretty much unchanged though…

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. Again social media was alive with memes and posts about Donald Trump, and again there was pretty much nothing at all about yesterday’s summit meeting in which various other western leaders got together and decided how the war in Ukraine might be sorted. Sadly their plan to “sort” it was little more than continued support for a war which will just go on and on, and they too called for American help. And there was no mention at all about Mr Zelensky’s meeting with the King.

Someone with whom I used to work was having a birthday today. They’d told Facebook they were seven years younger than they actually were, What was that all about?

 

I took the dogs out. When we left home there were no end of parking spaces to be had. I sighed. We walked to where I’d parked when I came home last night (three streets away) and set off. We left Ashford in thick fog, but by the time we got to the woods the fog had lifted.

As we walked so Morgan dived into a bush and came out looking very pleased with himself and carrying something. Bailey ran up to him and took that something off of him and ran off. I eventually caught her. Morgan had found (and she had stolen) half a deer’s leg complete with fur and it still had some meat on it.

I found myself wondering where that had come from. A deer, obviously. But whether the deer had been taken down or died of natural causes, something had pulled the leg bone from the carcass, and pulled off the lower part. Could a fox do that?

I eventually got the bone off of Bailey and buried it as best I could. After the dogs had dug it up three times I threatened them that if they dug it up again they would go on their leads, and they left it. They clearly understood what I was saying.

Shortly after that I heard a commotion in the woods. Some live deer ran past, including a white one. There’s been reports of white deer in the woods before, and now I’ve seen one.

As we walked I looked at a couple of geocaches that I hid there a couple of weeks ago. One of them had acquired a “did not find” log. I found it. The other one… I’d been told that it was still there at the base of a tree, but the tree itself had been sawn down in ongoing forestry work. And it had. Most of the tree was gone, but the cache was still where I’d left it.

 

We came home for a cuppa. I munzed and wordled, then had a little pootle in the shed gathering up rubbish.

And then I drove Treacle to the dog dentist. The vet hadn’t been impressed with the state of her gob when she had her check-up the other week, and had suggested a dental scaling… for at least four hundred quid (and probably more) depending on what they found in her gob. I was reminded of poor Sid needing dental work doing and “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” getting quotes. As we’d driven the other day I saw a “Doggy Dentals” van. They offered “non-invasive ultrasound teeth cleaning” and ”anesthesia-free, effective plaque and tartar removal” for less than a quarter of what the vet wanted.

The dog dentist lady had a go at Treacle’s teeth with an ultrasonic toothbrush, then got out some metal implement and spent fifteen minutes scraping her teeth. Treacle was as good as gold and didn’t put up a fight.

I’ve booked her in for another session in six months time.

 

We came home. I loaded the car ready for the tip run, then got out the drill. One of the planters in the garden had flooded. It flooded last year as well. I’ve been meaning to drill a drainage hole in it for a year, and I finally got round to it.

I then drove to the tip, unloaded all the rubbish, then came home and spent a few minutes pruning in the garden before falling asleep on the sofa. I had intended to pressure-wash the front garden and do the ironing. Oh well; those jobs will keep.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner then went off bowling as she does. I settled in front of the telly.

Yesterday was a bit dull. Today wasn’t.

2 March 2025 (Sunday) - Late Shift

I was woken by Morgan trampling over me at four o’clock. He jumped off the bed and I chased downstairs after him to let him out. Dogs don’t understand baking it until the morning.

I got up properly at half past eight and had my usual rummage round the Internet as I scoffed toast. Several people were posting to Facebook pretending to be Welsh in honour of yesterday being St David’s Day. So many people claim to have some Celtic ancestry about which they say absolutely nothing until everyone else talks about theirs. Interestingly no one at all was posting about the Ukrainian President’s visit to London yesterday. You’d have thought that after all the groundswell of opinion in favour of him after the disastrous meeting with Donald Trump, people would be interested in him. Wouldn’t you?

I had quite a few emails too; people had been out looking for the geocaches I’d hidden in Kings Wood, and were saying nice things about them.

 

I tested out my new way of Munzing, and it worked rather well. I got Wordle on the fifth attempt, and then sighed. The plan for today had been hosting a brekkie meet with friends, but friends had double-booked themselves. Seeing the glorious weather outside, today would have been good for a long walk but I was on the late shift. Instead I put a load of washing in to scrub, wrote up some CPD, did the dogs’ flea treatments and then braced for a battle. Getting the worming tablets down the dogs’ necks isn’t always easy. Today it went very well. We broke the tablets into pieces, wrapped each piece in a slice of ham, and the dogs yummed them up.

 

I hung out the washing, and set off to work. I don’t work anywhere near as much as I used to, and I’m far happier in my work than I ever used to be. But I still resent working at the weekends; especially when it isn’t pouring down with rain.

As I drove to work the Archers Omnibus show was on the radio, The Archers? Seriously? Who listens to that these days. Amazingly a quick Google search showed me that the Archers has (on average) more than a million more listeners than Eastenders has viewers.

 

Work was hard work. Back in the day hospitals were effectively closed at the weekends, but not any more. It’s only a shame that the staffing levels haven’t remotely kept pace with workload.

And a shame I had to work today… the highlight of the day was giving the dogs a tablet each.

1 March 2025 (Saturday) - Rather Busy

I slept well. As always I peered into the Internet as I scoffed toast this morning. A few Facebook friends were having a birthday today so I sent out wishes. One of my mates having a birthday was an old school friend. We went to Boys Brigade together where he fell for all the religious indoctrination and he’s now a mad-keen Baptist minister in the West Country. Periodically we exchange messages; he seems quite happy, but I do feel a sense of guilt about how he’s ended up.

Quite a few people were ranting about Donald Trump as well. Mr Trump met with the Ukrainian President yesterday and the meeting didn’t go well.

I can’t help but feel that Mr. Trump didn’t say anything that really didn’t need saying. The trouble is that opinion about him is so polarised that he was totally the wrong person to say it. I’ve mentioned before about how ungrateful the Ukrainian president has been ever since the start of the war, and yesterday he was told some home truths. There’s an old proverb about not biting the hand that feeds you; it is rather apposite here. Mr Zelensky should really have done his homework, seen what he would be dealing with, gone along and sucked up. That would have worked in his favour.

 

I munzed and wordled, then went round to Dog Club. I was rather miffed to find that the poo bag from last week was still hanging on the fence from where I had tied it last week. The arrangement has always been that I open up and put up the poo bag. I leave the gate unlocked and the poo bag in place for the later groups and someone else locks up and takes the poo to the bin. It turned out that the lady who usually shifted the dung wasn’t along last week, and no one else could be bothered. Presumably someone locked up? I hope so.

But we had a rather good session; I counted twenty-two dogs at one point. Treacle was grumpy; Treacle often is. Morgan wasn’t happy though. With “er indoors ^TM” at craft club, Morgan spent the first half of the session watching the gate and crying.

As we drove home I caught the end of the Mystery Year competition on the radio. “Birdhouse in your Soul” by “They Might Be Giants”. I thought it was 1989. I was one year out. And then the news came on saying how President Zelensky has made all sorts of public announcements of gratitude to the people of America. Perhaps he’s listened?

Once home I made a cuppa and counted up the Dog Club money, pocketed the cash and transferred fifty quid to the Repton people’s bank account. I’ve now got another pocket of change.

 

I hoovered. As I hoovered so not-so-nice-next-door came out to her car which was parked outside. There were cars parked rather close in front and behind of it. She glared at them, glared at me (as though I was somehow responsible) and went back inside; not even attempting to move the car.

I then had a minor pootle round the garden. My peonie has croaked, and one of the large ceramic pots has started crumbling.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home and sorted us a spot of lunch, then we had a little look round the garden centres. The idea was to get some replacement large pots. Ideally a square one as that would fit the space of the broken one better.

I saw exactly what I needed in Bybrook Barn, but they weren’t giving them away so we thought we’d try the little flowerpot-selling place in Challock that was closed. Had we known that they were closed we wouldn’t have tried there. Dobbies had much the same as Bybrook Barn, but were charging more, and Ham Street garden centre didn’t really have much at all.

We came home, had a cuppa, and I went on Amazon and ordered some planters for half the price of the cheapest garden centre.

 

I then had a think about the Munzee map. You can munz a physical Munzee if it is within three hundred feet of you. So I had a look at the map, found two more places up the alley round the back of the houses over the road where I might stick a Munzee, and then created a PDF with piccies of all of them.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled a rather good bit of dinner which went down with a bottle of the red stuff as we watched more episodes of “The Traitors US” in which the traitors were at each other’s throats, and sadly her with the chest got the heave-ho.

Not the decision I might have made…

28 February 2025 (Friday) - Calories

What with “er indoors ^TM”, littlun and the dogs all up in the attic room I slept rather well, but was still wide awake at half past four.  I got up, made toast and scoffed it whilst watching an episode of "Star Trek: Discovery". I'd forgotten that I was a season behind with it. The show was rather good; it was only a shame that when watching stuff on the Paramount Plus app you can't fast-forward through the adverts. However you can make a mental note of what company the advert was for, and being sure not to use their products.  As I was once told by a boss many years ago, there's more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream.

I remember the chap who gave me that sage advice had just been told off by his boss for taking too long at a tea break. He gave me that advice, then went off early to his lunch break and came back (drunk) four hours later. 

 

I scraped the ice from the car then drove round to Sainsbury's to get petrol. Have you ever driven round Ashford at six o'clock? There's some very odd people on the roads at that time of day who seem to think that speed limits don't apply that early in the morning and get very cross whenever I drive at the speed limit. They always fly past me at the earliest opportunity and whizz off dangerously at breakneck speeds in what are residential areas.

I got my petrol, then headed west-wards through the -hursts and the -dens to Pembury.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the Prime Minister's meeting with Donald Trump yesterday. Apparently the Prime Minster is claiming that the talks went very well. The more cynical observers being interviewed think that the talks went well because the King invited Mr Trump over for an official state visit. It was claimed that Mr Trump goes for that sort of thing, and an example was cited from his first presidency when he apparently took more notice of an Australian golfer than of the Australian government.

There was also talk about how farmers aren't letting their sheep graze on Dartmoor as sheep theft has reached epic proportions.

All the country's meat suppliers are adamant that they check on where their meat comes from, but someone's shifting humongous proportions of hooky lamb.

 

I'd left for work early today. Usually the roads to Pembury aren't the easiest to get through,  but there were only three sets of temporary traffic lights today and I got there far too early. If nothing else it meant that I could park.

I did my bit. There as cake. However in a herculean effort of self-control I didn't scoff any. That was about five hundred calories I saved.  Another saving was getting a box of fruit with my meal deal lunch I got from the petrol station. That fruit box was two hundred and twenty calories less than the bag of crisps I usually get. 

I find this calorie counting is much easier when I've had a walk round the woods with the dogs as that usually gives me an extra six hundred calories to play with.

 

And here’s a thought… I’m doing this diet because on 10 January my GP randomly messaged me to say they would like me to go into the surgery to give them a blood pressure reading from their self-service machine. I did – it was 167 / 89.

Three days later they asked if I would get myself a monitor and give them blood pressure readings twice daily for a week. Over the week it averaged well into the stage two hypertension category.

Two weeks after I gave them the readings I had a telephone appointment with a pharmacist (i) who said everything about blood pressure that I’d read on Google and didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. She suggested blood tests and an ECG which were then done last week (a further two weeks later).

It’s now eight weeks since I found I’ve got high blood pressure and I’m still waiting to see a doctor.

27 February 2025 (Thursday) - More Pressure-Washing

I slept well until Treacle woke me with her barking at eight o’clock. “er indoors ^TM” had not taken her to the loo with her, and Treacle wasn’t happy about that.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. Consternation was being expressed this morning about the local council’s decision to demolish a large area of the town centre. Quite a few people were indignantly asking where they were going to go shopping now. I suspect they will go get their shopping from the same place where they were expressing their indignation. I don’t think I’ve bought anything from that shopping mall in years. There’s all sorts of twee maxims about supporting local businesses, but why should people pay way over the odds for things you can get delivered to your doorstep the very next day?

From what I can see the place has an endless succession of shops opening, not being able to afford the rent, and closing again. I can’t remember the last time I was there.

I was reminded of the Eurostar which stopped calling at Ashford. No one ever used it, but complained what the service stopped *because* no one used it.

A lot of people were blaming the local council. Admittedly they have made the decision to demolish, but as I’ve said before, we get the local council that we vote for. To paraphrase the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, anyone who is capable of getting themselves elected should on no account be allowed to do the job.

 

Once I’d Munzed and Wordled I took the dogs out. As I drove “In Our Time” was on the radio. Sometimes that is a really interesting and insightful program. Other times… today’s was about the historical interpretation of the Hindu goddess Kali. Whilst I am sure there are many people who would be enthralled, I wasn’t. I turned the radio off.

We had a good walk round the woods. It was a tad muddy, but we expected that. As we walked we rolled in fox poo, chewed on a bone of some sort, played with a dead frog… all the standard sort of thing we do.

We walked for four miles and came home for a bath. With soap.

 

I had a cuppa, then got out the mains-powered pressure washer. The battery-powered one is very quick to set up but is really not a heavy-duty thing. The mains-powered one takes quite a bit of setting up, but once it’s ready it is good to do large areas quickly. I went over what had taken me several hours with the battery-powered one in half an hour. Admittedly it did generate quite a flood, but it got the job done. Mind you when I say “half an hour”, that didn’t include running out the hose pipe, getting it all set up and tidying away again afterwards.

I just buffed up the patio and a few stepping stones and gave the drain a blast. I’m not going to give the garden a proper cleaning until all the bugs have finished hibernating.

 

I had planned to pootle until my back wouldn’t take any more; after an hour and a half I got a few twinges, so I packed up and had a little look at the fish tank. It’s been a week since I got shot of the undergravel filter (which wasn’t doing much) and replaced it with a filter on the side of the tank. It has done wonders, but every evening when I feed the fish they then dig up the gravel and stir up muck. But last night I realised that they were stirring up far less much than they had been doing. So I cleaned out the new filter. It was full of gunge. In the past when they’ve stirred up the muck it has obviously just gone straight back into the gravel. This new filter is getting the muck out. I should have got one years ago.

Feeling flushed with success I put a load of undercrackers in to scrub. As the washing machine did its thing I wrote up some CPD, then made some toast for dinner.

 

I tried watching some telly this afternoon. I turned to Netflix and gave “Sense8” a go. After an hour I turned it off. There was no plot that I could fathom, and I’ve no time for a show that takes several episodes to get going. It had its chance and blew it. Similarly “Vicious” was also crap. No end of canned laughter makes a show funny if it isn’t actually funny.

 

My favourite lady came home with her grandmother this evening. She’s having a sleepover with us. So far she’s eaten an orange pepper, bossed the dogs about (and snogged them all), accused me of wanting her crisps, and told her grandmother off for not giving me my dinner.

She’s currently giving out the orders to Morgan, Treacle and “er indoors ^TM”. Bailey is hiding on the sofa with me.

Littlun can be hard work sometimes…

26 February 2025 (Wednesday) - Early Shift, Telly, Fembots

I slept well, but was wide awake at four o’clock. I lay awake for a bit, then gave up trying to sleep, got up and watched another episode of “Sick Note” then had a little look at the Internet. Our new MP was posting more propaganda from the Labour party. He’s been in post for several months now, and I’m rather disappointed in him. The last chap did very little but post to social media attempting to take the credit for other people’s efforts. This new chap just posts Labour party propaganda to social media.

I don’t really know what I was expecting from a Labour party MP, but taking over from a Conservative who had been caught with porn on his computer I had been expecting more.

 

There wasn’t much else going on, so I got ready for work. It was starting to get light as I left home this morning, and the seagulls were squawking like things possessed. I wonder what had wound them up.

I walked to where I'd parked the car yesterday evening. It was quite a way away. I scraped off the ice and drove round to the co-op. Having loads of change from the Dog Club pot I asked if they'd be interested in having my pound coins in exchange for notes. 

They were.

 

I then set off up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio as I went.  As I went there was all sorts of talk about Donald Trump. He's said that America wants dibs on Ukrainian mineral deposits. Bearing in mind how much the Americans have done for the Ukrainians that's not unreasonable, is it?

And there was talk of how the UK is upping spending on the defence budget. Opinion was divided as to why. Some felt it was sucking up to Donald Trump, others felt that America has had enough of spending money on defending Europe and Europe needs to defend itself from now on. I suspect there's truth to both arguments.

 

I got to work and did my bit on the early shift. As I worked I had a message from the first fruit of my loin. Did I have a pressure washer? Yes, thank you I replied. I went on to say I have got two. He was asking because he’s not got any now. His one blew up this morning. Mind you I say “blew up”, it actually stopped working and loads of smoke came out of it, but the end result is the same.

He wants to borrow one of mine, though he is rather vague as to whether he wishes to pressure-wash with it or to blow it up. I expect I will find out eventually. I’ll just make the proviso that if (when) he blows it up he can take the remains to the tip.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off out to the Marlowe with Steve and Sarah to see some comedian or other. I sorted myself a pizza and sparked up Netflix. “Subservience” was a rather good film, but like many sci-fi ideas wasn’t a new story. Whilst Asimov’s TN-3 and JN-1 came to mind, I was mostly reminded of Edmund Cooper’s Marion-A. It was a shame that the robot in this evening’s film ended up being a total psycho, but that’s what most robots on the telly end up being, isn’t it? Robots of cheap sci-fi stories of seventy years ago were much better thought-out. And they didn’t walk round in saucy undercrackers doing the dirty deed either.

25 February 2025 (Tuesday) - Traffic, Axolotls

I didn’t have the best of nights last night. I woke in the small hours in desperate need of the loo, and rather than getting up, going and going back to kip (which would have taken about two minutes) I spent hours twisting and turning and trying to resist the urge to get up.

Eventually I rose, did that which I should have done hours before, made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. It was much the same as ever. This morning there was some chap ranting on one of the Facebook pages I follow. He was ranting about how he’s never used algebra in his life, and why should children be taught it? This is a rant which appears from time to time and is always ranted by the genuinely stupid. Everyone uses algebra every single day, and those who claim they don’t, don’t actually know what algebra is.

 

I munzed and wordled, and seeing the rain had stopped I took the dogs out. The traffic round Ashford was a nightmare this morning. Again there was gridlock at the Cows roundabout, and matters weren’t helped by people trying to randomly swap lanes but not using indicators to show where they wanted to go.

The trouble with Ashford’s traffic is that what with the motorway and the train lines the town is cut into sections between which it is rather difficult to move. It only takes one road to get a delay and the whole town stops.

 

We eventually got to the woods where we had a good walk. The same route of four miles as yesterday. Bailey found a bone and some fox poo, but nothing that a dunk in the bath (with soap!) couldn’t shift.

As the rain started again I went into the garden and did some more pressure-washing of the patio. The little hand-held pressure-washer is so much easier to use than the big one in the shed, but neither is much good for my back.

 

I then drove to the post office. Sky wanted the old router back. I would have thought that the obvious thing for them to have done would have been to have the bloke take away the old when he delivered the new, but what do I know.

From there I drove down to Folkestone to collect my favourite lady for an afternoon out. I’d been messaging with Badger’s Hill Farm about visiting there this afternoon. They told me that we should wear wellies as it would be muddy. Sadly they didn’t tell me not to bother going as the place would be closed.

Oh well… it was only an hour’s worth of wasted driving.

From there it wasn’t *that* far to Bybrook Bark to look at their fish. Sadly they were having a delivery of fish and so the aquarium was closed. I took a deep breath. But we got to see the pond fish, some angel fish and an axolotl too. Littlun seems to like axolotls. She was quite taken with the acers outside as well.

An acer is a far more practical proposition at the moment.

 

By then it was home time, and we had something of a reprise of this morning’s drive to the woods. What is usually a five-minute drive from the garden centre to the motorway took forty-five minutes. It took me four times as long to get to the motorway as it took to get from Ashford to Folkestone.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up fish and chips for tea which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of “Celebrity Hunted”. I won’t say what happened or who (if indeed anyone) won, but I must admit that having been convinced I would do OK on that show, now I’m not so sure. Mind you, when you realise the amount of CCTV that would seems to be across the country, some sort of a disguise would be a must. Wouldn’t it?

 

My back still hurts… Perhaps the four-mile walk, the hour with the pressure-washer and carrying littlun round the garden centre was a tad too much?

And the goldfish have stirred up the muck in their tank again.

24 February 2025 (Monday) - Hurt My Back

I had planned to take the dogs up to the woods this morning, but as I woke I heard heavy rain against the window. Ho Hum.

I made toast and peered into the internet and saw I’d been welcomed into a Facebook group – International Camping Adventures. I didn’t remember joining it; it looked to be a rather dull group (and that’s up against some pretty stiff competition) so I left it.

And Facebook sent me a message too. Yesterday something popped up in my Facebook feed which looked interesting. I clicked on it and it went straight to hard-core porn. I reported this, but (yet again) serious filth doesn’t go against their “community standards”.

 

With the rain showing no sign of letting up I had a look at my finances. The electrical issues of the last month came in a lot cheaper than they might have done, but still was an expense I didn’t need, and I’m seriously regretting having had the windows replaced. I hesitate to say the job was bodged, but I’m not at all happy with the finish, and we will probably have to pay someone else to put it right.

As I counted the pennies I remembered the Vex card that work gave me last year as a long service award. It’s in my Google wallet and is of no use to me whatsoever. It is supposedly worth fifty quid… I can use it to get fifty quid’s worth of stuff that I don’t want from a shop I would otherwise never go into.

On the plus side there’s no council tax or water bill this month, and all the mucking about with the broadband had reduced the Sky bill by a tenner a month.

 

As the rain continued I had this idea that the pressure washer generates loads of wet mess, so if I had a pressure wash round the garden the rain might wash away the muck. I got a little bit done before the battery went flat. That’s the trouble with a battery-powered pressure washer – you (I) need to remember to keep the batteries charged.

 

I Munzed and Wordled. I did a YouGov survey and wrote up CPD until the rain stopped. Finding myself getting rather restless I took the dogs to the woods where we walked for four miles. We did get rather muddy, but what did we expect really? It was a shame that Bailey had to roll in something disgusting, but that’s what she does.

We had baths when we returned, and I had a cup of coffee and a couple of biccies for lunch. I was tempted to have a pot noodle, but one of those contains two thirds of the calories I’d walked off round the woods earlier.

 

With one battery charged I went back out into the garden and blasted across the patio for a bit. Once blasted it is a rather nice pale sandy colour, but before blasting the patio is covered in a thick black gunge. It was clean not six months ago; where does all this muck come from?

The battery lasted about as long as my back did. When we were at the woods I slipped in the mud; I think I’ve pulled something.

I sat and played chess against the bots on chess dot com until I was able to move again.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off to bowling. I settled in front of the telly with the dogs and watched a film on Netflix. “Renfield” was billed as an action comedy horror. It was entertaining enough but could have done with a little (lot) less action and a little (any at all) more comedy.

 

And in closing I’ll mention that the goldfish are doing it again. Having spent loads of time and effort getting their tank pristine, they’ve developed an odd habit. Every evening they start digging in the gravel and the tank goes from beautifully clear to so murky you can’t see anything. Overnight they stop digging and the tank clears. They then swim about for the day, and in the evening start digging again. They seem happy; apparently it’s what goldfish do.

 

My back really hurts…

 

23 February 2025 (Sunday) - Tra La La !!!

With an alarm set I woke far too early. I gave up trying to sleep and was up watching more episodes of “Sick Note” at five o’clock. It’s a rather good show.

I had a look at the Internet. It was still there, but rather quiet so early on a Sunday morning. Trying not to disturb anyone I got ready for work.

 

I set off for work listening to the pundits on the radio as I do. This morning there was a surprisingly interesting article on the radio about men's undercrackers.  Apparently two fifths of adult men have their partners go buy their underwear for them, and a third have their mothers go get them. It was claimed that if left to his own devices, the average bloke only buys new pants once every five years,  and most men have at least one set of pants that is over twenty years old. It has to be said that some of mine are a tad threadbare, but twenty years? The elastic doesn't last that long... does it?

I can remember the last time I bought undercrackers. It was on Amazon... and now I think about it, that was three years ago... I suppose that when you get a good set of undercrackers you want to keep hold of them, don't you?

 

I got to work and did my bit. I must admit I hadn't been looking forward to having a Sunday shift at the end of a week off, but these days only doing half the hours I used to, most weeks seem like a week off. In the past I might have had a cheeky brekkie at the works canteen before going in, but I gave that a miss today.

Similarly in the past as I walked out I would often treat myself to a bag of chocolate coated Brazil nuts from the works branch of M&S...  but that's a thousand calories I neither need nor want. 

 

I came home to find the house in uproar. “er indoors ^TM” was having a tidy-up. As she moved piles of clutter about I made us both a cuppa after first chucking out the remains of the tea she’d made earlier. What is it with tea drinkers? I see this all the time at home, at work, and my mother and father were the same. Given a cup of coffee someone will drink the lot. Given a cup of tea someone will drink maybe three mouthfuls and leave the rest to get chucked away once it is cold.

 

I wrote up a little CPD. Every Saturday the American Society of Hematology post up a photo of something you might see down the microscope and you have to identify (if you want to). This weekend it was stomatocytes.

Perhaps I’m a bit daft and a bit sensitive, but seeing stomatocytes gives me flashbacks to when an eighteen year old me was peering down a microscope whilst a rather nasty and vindictive senior MLSO (who I later found out had once fallen out with my uncle) was almost hysterical in his ranting about how useless I was because I couldn’t identify stomatocytes despite never having seen them before and having at best only a few weeks’ experience of looking at blood films.

The Royal East Sussex Hospital was a truly delightful place to work all those years ago… but looking back I remember so many of those people with whom I worked and make a point of trying my hardest not to be like they were…

 

I had quite a few emails this evening. Friends had been up the woods hunting out the geocaches I’d hidden in the week, and had said nice things about them.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good chili which we scoffed whilst watching more “The Traitors US”. I’m finding myself more and more fascinated by one of the contestants who has spent a fortune on plastic surgery. Her head looks as though it has been stretched out and her mouth looks like she’s been smacked in the kisser with a cricket bat. I suspect she thinks she looks lovely. If it were me I’d be asking for a refund.

22 February 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Lego, Ironing, Telly

I didn’t hear Morgan getting up in the night but I heard my phone. The wi-fi and the mobile data were both turned off but it was still getting notifications about all sorts of things all night long. Does it get them through the Bluetooth? And if so, from where?

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. Yesterday I had birthday wishes from well over a hundred people. I was rather flattered and humbled… until I realized that I’ve got over six hundred people on my Facebook friends list. Which means that for every one that was kind enough to send a wish, five others couldn’t be arsed.

There was a post on the Dog Club Facebook page from someone who’d only been once before. Did we still meet if it was raining. I had a look outside and saw it was hossing down. There’s no denying that the bottle of port last night had been a tad overkill, and I didn’t relish the prospect of standing in the mud in a downpour with a hangover. But before I could officially cancel, others had posted that they were going.

 

I munzed and wordled, and we went off to go stand in the mud in a downpour. The rain soon stopped, but what we lacked in rain we made up for in mud. We all had a great time, but we all got filthy. The dogs all arrived looking clean, and within minutes all were sodden and dripping with mud. But the happy faces!!

As we drove home Steve was doing the mystery year competition on the radio. When was the first Lidl store opened in the UK? I thought it was 1993. I was only one year out.

 

We came home for serious dog washing. With soap. And dog coats, dog towels and our muddy trousers went into the washing machine. Then I had a stroke of genius and took the dog coats back out and pulled the lumps of mud off before they blocked up the washing machine.

“er indoors ^TM” sorted us both a cuppa and a hot cross bun, and I had a little look at the internet. I had some emails. A fellow hunter of Tupperware had been up to Kings Wood this morning and got First to Find on the last two unfound geocaches that I hid earlier in the week. I *think* that’s all of them found now, so I know they are all there and all is good with them. From here on in it should just be ongoing maintenance with them which I should be able to do on our regular dog walks.

Or that’s the plan.

 

“er indoors ^TM” spent the morning carrying with making a model kit she got a while back. I built one of my birthday pressies – a Lego bamboo. I do like the Lego botanical series. And with “er indoors ^TM” off visiting her mum for the afternoon I cracked on with the ironing. As I ironed I watched episodes of “Sick Note”; a rather entertaining series featuring him who played Ron Weasley in “Harry Potter”.

As I ironed my phone rang. It was nice-next-door. Did I have a plunger she could borrow as her toilet was blocked. I have two plungers which I popped round and left with her. I’m quite happy to supply plungers; I’m not so keen on unbunging chodbins.

The plungers came back (suitably cleaned) ten minutes later with an assurance that they had done the trick. I was rather pleased about that, and was pleased to have been of help. She’s the sixteenth neighbour who’s lived in that house in the thirty-four years we’ve lived here, and we’ve probably had more to do with her than with all the others combined.

 

And then with a little time on my hands I went into the garden, got out the pressure washer and had a go at the paved areas out the back. I made a point of not blasting into the nooks and crannies where things might be hibernating, but the area outside the back door isn’t black any more.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza for dinner which we scoffed whilst watching “The Traitors US”. The American show differs from the UK version in that the contestants in the American one have all been on various reality TV shows and if you aren’t up on American TV then the alliances and hatreds don’t make much sense, and there is a ridiculous amount of overacting.

 

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow… I hope my phone is quiet overnight.

 

21 February 2025 (Friday) - Happy Birthday To Me

I woke to the sound of Morgan jumping off the bed at four o’clock, so I hurried after him. He did the same a few minutes after I’d got back to bed; this time I heard him trying to be sick as I bundled him outside. I did catch him trying to chew on a dead deer’s carcass when we were at the woods yesterday. I wonder if he will learn the lesson?

We all eventually settled, and were then woken by the bin men coming up the road at six o’clock.

In the past on my birthday we’d be woken at twenty past seven by a phone call from my Mum. Not any more…

 

I nodded off again, and woke shortly after nine o’clock. I made toast and sent out birthday wishes to three of my Facebook friends who were also having birthdays today. Many years ago (about fifty-five) it came as a major revelation that my birthday wasn’t that special. Other people shared it. I had no idea that this was possible, and I can remember being incredibly surprised about it. There was a thing at Red Lake Primary School that when it was your birthday you stood at the front of the class and everyone else sang “Happy Birthday to You”. As I walked out to the front of the class I was amazed to see Leslie Marriott and Johnny Walker also walking out as well.

I really did go to school with Johnny Walker. It was years later (about ten) that I realized he’d been named after a bottle of whisky.

There were three of us who shared the birthday in my year at secondary school. Chris Sampson was one. It transpired that he and I were very distantly related. I can’t remember who the other lad was.

One of my trainees at work (the fifteenth that I took from starting through to qualification) also had her birthday today, but as we both agreed, it had been my birthday first.

A few celebrities share my birthday; the most famous being James Beck (Private Walker in Dad’s Army), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape from Harry Potter) and Charlotte Church.

Historically apart from an obscure species of parrot going extinct (in 1918) not much of note happened on this day.

 

As I scoffed toast I saw that the fish tank had become very clear overnight, but the new pagoda ornament I’d bought yesterday was listing at a very rakish angle. Bearing in mind the amount of muck that poor filter had probably shifted overnight I cleaned it out and put the pagoda straight. Doing that stirred up plenty more muck.

 

We got the dogs onto their leads, but didn’t go up to the woods. It had been grubby enough yesterday and had rained overnight so we walked into Ashford and wandered round the memorial gardens, the north park and once round the outlet centre. The mems has been done up rather well, and the outlet centre is amazingly dog friendly with the majority od shops welcoming dogs in. I wouldn’t dare take a dog into any of those shops though. I couldn’t afford an accident – not at those prices.

Our walk was guided by a couple of geocaching adventure labs, and we came home having added eleven more smiley faces to our scores (it’s a geo-thing).

 

We came home for a cuppa, and I spent a little while looking at the fish tank. The time and effort (and nearly fifty quid!) spent on it yesterday seems to have paid off. It looks a whole lot better, and the fish seem to be a bit more active.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of plonk and a bottle of port. The evening became rather vague…