31 May 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club and a Dog Walk

I went to bed with stomach ache last night. It was still there at four o’clock when I went to the loo (and put washing in to scrub) and at quarter to seven as I hung the washing out on the line.

I made toast and saw a new geocache had gone live. Less than a mile away, but with only an hour until we had to be going to Dog Club I didn’t really have time to go hunt for it. Instead I carried on scoffing my toast and peering into the Internet. I saw a Facebook friend had a birthday today. The husband of one of my ex-trainees; I would have said he was in his mid to late twenties; he was forty-one today. Where do the years go?

Irene had posted up photos from Samarkand. It’s a rather pretty place.

And then I saw that the First to Find on the new geocache went less than twenty minutes after I received the email. That was keen. I could have got it… I’ve already had a First to Find this month though.

I munzed, got Wordle on the third attempt, and got ready for the off.

 

There was a minor disaster today as Steve wasn’t on the radio, and no stand-in had been deployed. There was music and adverts, but no “Guess the Lyrics” competition as we went to Dog Club.

Dog Club was fun. We probably had about twenty dogs along. Treacle found a couple of girls who fussed her and she was happy. Morgan watched the bigger dogs having rough and tumble but didn’t get involved. He did get a bit boisterous with one of the smaller dogs, but he soon got told off, which is what he needs.

 

From Dog Club “er indoors ^TM” went straight to craft club. I took the pups home, made myself a cuppa and watched a bit of telly until I got bored of the telly. I pootled in the garden until “er indoors ^TM” came home. We had a lunch of hot cross buns then I got bored again.

Yesterday I pressure-washed the fence. This afternoon I painted it until the heat of the day passed, and then we took the dogs for a walk.

I looked at the geo-map and worked out a little walk that we might do whilst collecting two geocaches on the way. We drove out to Pennypot Wood and walked a circular walk of about three miles. It was a rather good walk which was only marred by Bailey trying to vanish down a rabbit hole – you can see some photos I took by clicking here.

 

We came home where “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good dinner which we washed down with a bottle of red Cabernet Sauvignon. Red? I thought the stuff only came in white. The white Cabernet Sauvignon is generally mildly inferior to vinegar; the red version was possibly one of the best red wines I’ve ever had. Apparently you can get it in Aldi as one of their bargain wines for less than three quid.

If anyone fancies a bottle of red wine… or wants to get me a pressie…

I wonder if it will give me a headache in the morning?

As we scoffed and drank we watched the last episode of the current season of Doctor Who. It was rather good; such a shame that they’ve given Ncuti Gatwa the heave-ho. As for his replacement… I won’t give spoilers but I will say I didn’t see that one coming. 

30 May 2025 (Friday) - Disappointment

For some reason my Facebook feed this morning was filled with stuff about Jeremy Clarkson. There’s lots of people who love his shows; I’m not one of them. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in his antics. So why was I told about him, his car-related shows, his farm, his pub, the bloke who works with him, and some girl who joined his show only to leave?

And there were two new geocaches locally… which showed me a problem in my in-box. The emails telling me about them weren’t in my in-box at twenty to eight. But at ten to eight they were, and were timed at half past seven. So what is the time of the email all about? It clearly isn’t the time that I get it.

 

I Munzee-ed and in getting over a thousand points I was awarded ten Zeds. Zeds is a crypto-currency used in Munzee and is worth about seven pence, so that was a result. I got Wordle on the fourth attempt (idiom), and then my phone beeped to tell me that someone had attempted to scam me yesterday, and that I’d been in touch with the bank about it.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. We went there yesterday to replace a missing geocache; today we went to replace a broken one. The thing was where I’d left in back in February, and it was broken. I put out a new one, and we carried on with our walk. We walked ninety per cent of the walk we did yesterday in the hope of finding Bailey’s lead. We didn’t. But I did detect a woodpecker with my birdsong app. Bailey detected something foul and had to be bathed when we got home.

 

“Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” had been staying for the night. I drove her home, and as I came back I listened to the new album from Sparks that I had downloaded. Despite it being #1 in the charts, it was something of a disappointment. I’ve always considered myself to be a fan of Sparks, but in retrospect they released three very good albums in 1974-75, and after a little lapse there were another three good ones in 1981 – 83. I can’t say I’ve liked any of their albums since “Plagiarism” in 1997. I suppose that they are going to change their stye over time… I just hanker for the good old days.

 

I scoffed a hot cross bun for dinner, then had a look in the garden. Before thinking about painting the fence I really needed to shift the green lichen, so I spent an hour zapping the fence with the little pressure washer until the battery went flat.

I then made a cuppa and spent a while looking at geo-puzzles. I solved two…

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted dinner then went off out on the razz with her mates. I settled on the sofa with the dogs and watched “Orange is the New Black” and scoffed a bag of peanuts which went out of date a month ago.

I’ve got guts ache now…

29 May 2025 (Thursday) - Fraud

When I went to bed last night the weather forecast said there was zero per cent chance of rain this morning. I woke needing the loo at three o’clock so I had this idea that if I put a load of washing in, it would be ready to hang out on the line when I got up. I got up at seven o’clock to find it was raining.

I hung the wet washing round the radiators, and put the undercrackers in to wash.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. Not much had happened overnight really. It rarely does.

I had a text from the bank. Overnight someone had tried to take twenty quid from my account from a card I rarely use. Being mean I account for every penny I spend, and so knew that I’d not spent that.

The bank has cancelled that card and will send me a new one.

I munzed. The requirements for next month’s munzing Clan War was out. Each month we group together with other munzers and we get prizes depending on how many bar codes stuck to lamp posts we scan. There’s six levels of prizes; level three is easy whilst level four is nigh-on impossible. We tend to go for level three.

I worrdled… how many words start with “qua”? Loads.

 

With the rain easing up I took the dogs up to the woods. We got to the car park and only saw two other cars. The rain had certainly put people off.

Having had reports of a missing geocache I planned our walk around that one. We got there to find it was missing. It didn’t take long to replace, we were in the woods anyway, and the rules do say that it is up to me (as the person who hid it) to replace it. But if it were me I would have messaged the one supposedly responsible for the maintenance before I set off. Was there any maintenance to be done? Did they want any missing caches replaced? I’d have welcomed someone helping out.

We carried on with our walk. We didn’t see many other people in the woods, but we saw three Forestry England vans driving about.

As we walked I had my birdsong app going. It detected two goldcrests, and didn’t think that either was rare (unlike it did on Monday), but it did detect two new birds (nuthatch and marsh tit). However it claimed to have detected a swan and totally failed to detect the crow that was squawking. I can’t help but wonder just how reliable that app is.

It was only a shame that when we got back to the car (after five and a quarter miles) Bailey’s lead wasn’t round my neck. I wasn’t going to back-track. Hopefully someone else will find it and add it to the pile of lost property that is gathering at the car park. Failing that we’ll just use one of the spare leads.

 

We came home. I made us a cuppa, then mowed the lawn. And with the lawn mowed I voomed round with the bionic burner. That thing does sort the weeds, but you’ve got to be regular with it. The adverts imply you wave it about once and that’s it. It certainly isn’t.

I then cracked on with the ironing. As I ironed so there was a knock at the door. The shirts I’d ordered from Amazon had arrived. And they are going back. They look cheap and dreadful. I ordered two more of the ones I got from eBay; I like those ones.

Sending the crap shirts back to Amazon was painless. I told them I didn’t like them. They emailed me a bar code. I took the shirts to the post office, showed the nice man the bar code on my phone, and that was it.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted fish and chips which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Race Across the World”. The race has become rather exciting; having spent last week’s episode pathetically grizzling, the young girl has got her arse in gear and made great strides.

 

And I’ve just had an email. The chap who reported the missing geocache this morning has now announced that one of my geocaches is broken and needs replacing… one I walked straight past this morning whilst on my way to replace the missing one. Such a shame he couldn’t have reported all the issues at once…

28 May 2025 (Wednesday) - Dull

I slept well, which was something of a result, but was still wide awake a couple of hours earlier than I might have been.

Over toast I watched the first episode of the new series of “Big Mouth” then had a quick look at the Internet just in case I’d missed anything overnight. I always check it every morning; there’s rarely much of note. There wasn’t this morning. I munzed, but on my new shirt (which had arrived via eBay yesterday) and got ready for work.

 

I wandered off down the road to find my car.  I'd parked it a couple of streets away yesterday for the simple reason that I couldn't park any closer to home.

As I walked so a driving school car came by... rather slowly. Was someone seriously having a driving lesson at quarter to seven?

 

I drove round to the co-op where I spent a few minutes fighting with the self-service checkout. I eventually realised that the problem was me. What I thought was a five pence piece was a Canadian ten cent piece; the self service machine knew the difference and wasn't having any of it.

 

I drove up the motorway - the Operation Brock stupidity had gone. The thing had been in place for less than a week, and had cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. If the county council claim to be skint, that's an economy they could make.

There was then talk about how the new German premier is looking to be seen to be leading NATO as the general consensus is that America isn't keen to do so.

And there was talk about legalising cannabis. Personally I hope it doesn't happen - the stuff stinks.

The news today was on the dull side.

 

I got to work and did my bit; albeit in a bit of a sulk. Having spent much of my day yesterday at a loose end as it had been raining, today was bright and dry. there was so much I could have done at home. I spent the day showing one of the trainees what's what. I quite like doing that. However so that he gained experience, he did all the work and I just stood and watched that he didn’t stuff it up. That was a tad dull too.

 

Today was dull…

27 May 2025 (Tuesday) - It Rained

I had a rather good night. I find that getting up when I need the loo helps. When I got up at four o clock this morning I put a load of washing in. Admittedly I did have to battle for bed space when I went back to my pit but I then got three more hours asleep which I wouldn’t have had if I’d just been tossing and turning resisting the call of the loo.

I got up at seven o’clock and hung the washing out.

 

I found myself thinking as I peered into Facebook this morning. There was one of these little cartoons on Facebook in which a manager was asking a junior employee why they weren’t applying for promotion. Their reply was “I don’t want to become you”. I immediately thought of several people I’ve known over the years who are now in rather senior positions and are just shadows of their former selves. Their once bright and bubbly personalities are long gone; their every word now a well-rehearsed management catch-phrase. Singing the praises of that with which they clearly don’t agree; perhaps that’s why I never got on as a manager?

I munzed; our clan has now got all our monthly targets. And I got wordle (sport) on the third attempt.

 

I took the dogs out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing some windbag about how well Reform UK are doing in the opinion polls. I’m not sure who the windbag was, but he said that Nigel Farage has made a political career out of telling the public what they want to hear, secure in the knowledge that he will never have to deliver/ But now after their victory in the local elections they are going to have to deliver. The point was made that if they had this success on the run-up to a general election, Nigel Farage would be the next Prime Minister. But with four years to go, Reform UK has got a hill to climb. Will they climb it? I’m reminded of the Liberal Democrats who went into a coalition with the Conservatives some years ago and totally failed to live up to what they’d promised.

But time will tell. It always does.

 

We got to the woods where my birdsong app detected another goldcrest, but today it didn’t think it was rare. Maybe after yesterday’s diary entry it had read Wikipedia? We walked four and a half miles; the dogs were completely oblivious to the herd of deer that ran past at the half-way point.

We got back to the car just as the drizzle started (two hours earlier than had been forecast). We came home where I had a look at my boots. At the weekend the sole of the heel of one of my boots had come adrift. Last night I glued it back in place, and it seemed to survive today’s walk. Let’s hope that’s fixed; the expense of a new pair of boots is an expense I can do without.

Seeing the drizzle was getting heavier I got all the damp washing off of the line, and hung it round the house. What are radiators for if not for drying wet washing?

 

I popped to the garden centre. One of the plants in the little pond has become rather top-heavy. It needs re-potting. I got a bigger pond pot, but when I got home the rain had got even heavier. Re-potting will keep until the rain stops.

I wrote up CPD, then played the bots at chess with varying degrees of success. And with the rain showing no sign of abating I considered re-vamping one of my old Wherigo series and re-launching it… if I could only find somewhere to put it. Dering Wood is owned by Woodland Trust who want me to apply for formal permission for each and every geocache I hide there. That’s too much like arse-ache. Perry Wood would have been a good place *if* it wasn’t already full of caches. Ripper’s Wood is somewhere I’ve hidden caches before, but there’s no easy nearby parking and it involves going through a field of sheep, which isn’t easy with three dogs. Much the same could be said of the Godinton estate.

I eventually struck on somewhere that I might use, and spent an hour or so re-writing the old Wherigo cartridge. It’s proved popular in the past; you never know – people might like to play it a fourth time. And if they don’t, they don’t have to. No one is forcing them.

 

Once we finished our morning walk, the rest of the day has been rather dull. A shame about the rain…

26 May 2025 (Monday) - Bank Holiday

Despite the longest walk for some time yesterday I didn’t sleep very well last night. I peered into the Internet as I scoffed my morning toast. It was still there. According to social media very little had happened yesterday. I suspect things happened; just no one chose to tell the world about it. Such a shame when you are a very nosey person like I am.
I had a message though. Someone had contacted me via the Dog Club Facebook page. They have a lurcher that wants to play with other dogs…  All the details about Dog Club are on the page. No one reads them. Everyone asks the same questions and I spend ages messaging to and fro with people. Maybe one in ten of these people every pluck up the courage to actually turn up at Dog Club…
 
I wandered off down the road to find my car. After all these years I still walk past not-so-nice-next-door's front door with a sense of dread. For years he would lie in wait for me, and as I walked past he would burst out shouting "I say! I say!" and then regale me with a list of petty triviality about whichever of the locals he felt had slighted him recently, and whatever aspect of my life he had decided to disapprove of.  How I mowed my lawn, the colour I painted my shed, my choice of garden décor, who I spoke with in the street... he found fault with everything I did and felt it his duty to put me right with annoying regularity. If I didn't listen to him ranting on, he would take offence and start ranting about that.
I wonder whatever happened to him?
 
I found my car and wet off to work. I drove up the motorway through the Operation Brock stupidity in which I was tail-ended by a Belgian lorry who clearly felt I wasn't going fast enough. I just slowed until he got the message, overtook me and then drove off at speed. I've heard it said that the speed penalties incurred in the Operation Brock only apply to UK drivers. Apparently they now do apply to foreign drivers, but it is difficult to enforce... or so those that can't be bothered to enforce it claim.
As I drove I listened to the pundits on the radio. This morning I was amazed by the quality of the so-called experts they were interviewing. One spoke with the most boring nasal drone and totally failed to grip my attention. Another had endless phones and message beeps going off in the background. I've said before, you'd think that there would be some vetting about who they are going to bring on to live national radio, wouldn't you?  
 
As I pulled into the works car park so my phone beeped. A new geocache at Lenham station. I could have got it on the way to work had I been starting just a little later.
I got on with work. There's been three Bank Holiday Mondays this year... I've worked two of them. I don't mind working Bank Holidays when the weather is iffy, but the morning was rather glorious as I looked out of the window. The forecast rain hadn't happened. I looked out of the window a few times as I worked. As the morning wore on so the clouds gathered. It was raining by the time I came home. Fortunately whilst it was raining in Maidstone, it was still bright at home.
 
We took the dogs to Orlestone for a little walk. The dogs were mostly well behaved, but we had a minor episode when Bailey ran into a thicket and came out with a bloody head. She’d obviously caught herself on one of the bigger brambles. Silly dog.
As we walked I tried out my birdsong app. I told me that it had detected a goldcrest which was “rare”. Mind you, Wikipedia doesn’t think that goldcrests are “rare”. And if my faith in my app hadn’t been absolute, I might just be a tad suspicious when it told me that it had detected a swan.
I shall test it in Kings Wood tomorrow…

25 May 2025 (Sunday) - Ashdown Forest

Nearly two months ago I bought a clock which projects the time on to the ceiling, and every time I looked at it I was trying to puzzle out what it said because it was projecting at right angles to the way I was looking at it. Last night before I went to kip I turned the thing through ninety degrees so I could tell the time at a glance, and I slept much better… until three o’clock when I popped to the loo and in doing so ceded my bed space to an alliance of dogs who weren’t giving up their captured territory without a fight.

 

Despite it being a Bank Holiday weekend we were up at six o’clock, scoffing toast and peering into the Internet. It was rather dull; I suppose everyone was still in bed? Mind you quite a few people had been posting late last night and in to the small hours. One thing made me think – a friend had commented that he’d been driving on autopilot and found himself wondering exactly where he was on his journey home. I was reminded of a time back in the day before night shifts when we would be called in to the hospital from home when needed; often several times after midnight. After one such call I woke up and found I was driving past the KFC at four o'clock in the morning. Emergency stop... that woke me up.

 

I munzed and got Wordle on the fourth attempt. “Grift” no? – I only got it as it was seemingly the only word that would fit. I looked it up. It means engage in petty or small-scale swindling apparently. One lives and learns.

As I Munzed and wordled so Morgan sneaked back upstairs to bed. We had a rather early start this morning and in the same way that some people aren’t “morning people”, Morgan isn’t a “morning dog”.

 

We got ourselves organized, and with dogs out of bed we drove off at half past seven. We made good time and were in the car park at Hindleap by nine o’clock. Karl and Tracey were already there, and it wasn’t long before we were off on our walk. The weather forecast for the day was for good weather, and after a miserable first hour (with a few rain showers) the weather soon chirped up. A geo-friend had put out a series of fifty geocaches and following them led us on a rather good guided walk. Footpaths and quiet lanes, fields and woodlands. We met some friendly cows, and a puddle full of tadpoles. We clambered under bridges and up trees. We crossed fords. We crossed the Greenwich meridian, and went from hunting geocaches with “east” in their co-ordinates to hunting ones with “west”.

At about the half-way point we found we were walking past a pub. So we stopped walking and had a pint. Or two. And at about seven and a half miles in we stopped and had a little picnic. And two more pints. It was at this point when little Bailey fell asleep in the dog water bowl.

I sparked up my birdsong app a few times; I was amazed at how disappointing the thing was. At most it only found four birds at once, and nothing more adventurous than a robin.

 

Geocache-wise this was a rather good walk. We found all of the caches in the series. There was one cache that was off to one side along a little footpath. Out on its own, hid by someone who has never actually found a geocache, my GPS felt the thing was ten yards the other side of a barbed wire fence. That got the DNF.

But this is a series I could recommend to anyone starting the honorable and ancient art of hunting film pots under rocks. Loads of caches, all easy finds along a well-marked route.

I took a few photos as we walked.

 

After eleven and a half miles we were back at the car. We said our goodbyes and headed homewards. I slept much of the way. I’ve walked more, but not for a long time. And I think that twenty-six thousand steps is my highest that I’ve ever recorded. It is certainly the longest walk that Morgan and Bailey have done.

The dogs seemed shattered, but they rallied enough to do the “Feed the Fish” ritual once we were home. It was rather late by the time we got home so we had a kebab for tea.

 

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow…

24 May 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Garden Centres

I woke to the sound of rain on the window. Much as the garden needs the rain, it could have rained yesterday when I was at work (!)

I got up, made toast, and had a look at the Internet. Five people were having a birthday today; I sent out birthday wishes, then had a look at Facebook. My professional institute was advocating people write to their MP to tell them about biomedical science day. I’ve written to my MP a few times recently. Having stood for election saying that he’s full of energy and looking for change for the people of Ashford, I’ve sadly formed the opinion that he is very much one who does what his party tells him. Like his predecessor he’s all about getting his photo taken and seemingly being in the limelight when someone else has actually done something. Am I being unfair to him? Possibly. But I won’t be bothering him about biomedical science day. Instead I chivvied him up about the flooding at the Adsa underpass.

 

Despite the rain we set off to Dog Club. As we drove Steve was on the radio. The “Guess the Lyrics” competition was tricky. “Oh, won't you sign up your name? We'd like to feel you're acceptable”. No – I had no idea either. It was the Logical Song by Supertramp. He then played a rather good cover version of Itchycoo Park. I must ask him who sang it.

Dog Cub was fun. Attendance seemed to be down, but we had sixteen dogs along for the usual mayhem. And the rain dried up after the first ten minutes. It was a shame we completely missed the Mystery Year competition on the radio as we were late getting away… Maybe one day Steve might do an outside broadcast from Dog Club?

 

We came home via the co-op for cake. You can’t beat a co-op Belgian bun even if it is four hundred calories. As I scoffed it I looked at the monthly accounts. They’ve been worse. They could be better.

We then went on a little outing. First of all to Bybrook Barn where they had a garden table at bargain price. I very nearly snapped it up… until I realized that the table was entirely the wrong shape and size for our garden. We had a little chat with Tracy in the shoe department, then went on to Ham Street garden centre to have a look at their garden tables.

They didn’t have any.

The garden centre at Tenterden had a sign outside saying it had a large garden furniture department. It didn’t.

“er indoors ^TM” then remembered a little place in Lenham that specialized in garden furniture. I suppose you could have taken what they were selling and put it in the garden, but I’d say they specialized in massively overpriced tat.

You know when you are old when you spend a weekend day going to the garden centres.

 

We came home and had a look on Amazon where they had garden tables at about a quarter of the price of local garden centres. As I’ve said before many times, the days of the traditional shops are numbered.

Over a cuppa and a late lunch I spent a little while geo-puzzling. I messaged Gordon to ask his opinion on one puzzle, and we had a very confusing few minutes where both of us thought we were trying to solve the same puzzle… even though we were looking at different ones.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good curry which we scoffed whilst watching tonight’s episode of “Doctor Who”. It was one of the best episodes for years. It’s such a shame that Ncuti Gatwa is getting the heave-ho.

 

Hannah (my GPS unit) is programmed for tomorrow. We’ve got an early start in the morning; I really should have an early night… I’ll just play a bot or two at chess…

23 May 2025 (Friday) - Back to Work

I didn't have the best night's sleep; I got the impression there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing going on, to say nothing of dogs being told off. I gave up trying to sleep and got up before half past five.

I made toast and watched the last episode of "Black Mirror". What would you do if you find yourself porking your hitherto platonic best mate in a virtual reality world?

I liked "Black Mirror"; sadly so far there's no talk of another season.

 

I set off to find my car; in the past I've commented that the bin men had left the emptied bins strewn all over the pavement. This morning they'd made an effort to leave the pavement passable. That was kind of them. 

I set off to work and set the cruise control for forty-nine miles per hour and drove through the stupidity that is Operation Brock. No lorries were being held in the coast-bound lane, but (as always) there were several cars that had mistakenly driven into it.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the Israeli Prime Minister has got the arse. Perhaps I don't listen to the right news channels? Perhaps the BBC are totally biased? But it strikes me that no matter what atrocities the  Israelis claim have been done to them, they feel it is quite acceptable for them to do exactly the same thing to others.

There was a lot of talk about the Chagos Islands. Originally a British overseas territory, the UK has handed the place over to Mauritius and is leasing back a military base on the understanding that any military operations being launched from there are first cleared with the Mauritian government -   that’s the government that's best of buddies with the Russians, the Chinese, and pretty much anyone the UK might be picking a fight with.

And there was talk about the Hay Festival which got me thinking. When we were in Uzbekistan last year we got rather chummy with a Welsh couple who often spoke about the Hay Festival and how they enjoyed it and went every year. For two weeks we were very friendly with these people... until we stepped off the plane and have never seen or heard from them since.

There were twenty-seven of us on that holiday trip. One is still on my Facebook list; the others went from being best of mates to complete strangers at the drop of a hat. Such a shame. I suppose this is what happens on these holiday tours? I suppose if (when) we go on others the same will happen again?

 

I went to the Aylesford Sainsburys to get petrol (as it is cheaper than Ashford) and there was a minor issue when I came to pay. The card reader wouldn't accept the contactless payment and I had to stick my card in the slot to pay. As I drove off, my watch beeped with a message that my contactless limit had been reached.

But there was no problem with the contactless payments when I paid for some shopping in Sainsburys, or when I topped up my pre-payment at the works car park. What was that all about?

 

Work was work. I was tempted to get myself a cheese scone before I started. A year ago I used to have one of those every day with a cuppa as a second brekkie. Similarly I would pop into the works branch of M&S on my way out​ and get a bag of chocolate covered Brazil nuts to scoff on my way home. I've worked out that these two treats accounted for half my daily calorie allowance... 

Calorie counting can be scary.

 

I did my bit and came home (without a bag of chocolate covered Brazil nuts) and drove down the Operation Brock bit, taking rather longer to get home for no apparent reason; there couldn’t have been more than half a dozen vehicles driving down the lane reserved for Operation Brock.

By the time I got home there wasn’t really time for a walk in the woods…Instead we had an evening of watching drivel on the telly…

22 May 2025 (Thursday) - Longbeech Woods, Shirts

I slept for at least three hours longer than usual last night which was a result. I got up and stood on the scales and saw I’d put on a pound, which wasn’t quite so much the result.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. I had an email. Our new county councilor has been appointed deputy cabinet member for the Environment, and he claims he’s on the case about the flooding at the Asda underpass. He’s also said that the council is overspent and that he “will need to at times think outside the box” but he also says “thankfully, I'm up for the challenge”. Maybe he is. He certainly replies to emails in a fraction of the time his predecessor took. To my mind he’s got two things to do. Stop Operation Brock, and stop the floods. Will he do it? Time will tell. It always does.

 

I Munzed and Wordled. There was a minor episode as Morgan wouldn’t get out of bed for his brekkie, and then I took the dogs out.

We drove up to Kings Wood only to find the road from the A251 to the woods was closed. I could have taken a serious diversion to come in to White Hill from the other end. It was as well that I didn’t – the entire road was closed. Instead we kept going. As we drove I thought about Perry Wood, but the trouble with that place is that the car park is right in the middle, and wherever you walk you aren’t far from a road. And there’s a lot of hills involved.

Instead we went to Longbeech Woods where we walked for nearly three miles and my birdsong app detected a dozen birds including a duck and four tits(!)

 

With walk walked we came home for a cuppa, then I went shopping. I need some shirts for work. Long sleeved casual ones with a breast pocket. Tesco had none, and neither did Asda. I had a look in the outlet centre. They had some… but even at their bargain reduction price they were still about for times the price I’d be prepared to pay.

 

I came home, went on eBay and got two shirts for a third of the price the shops in the outlet centre wanted for one, wrote up some CPD, then had a little look in the garden. I cleaned out the little pond’s filter then gave the little cupboard and seat by the big pond a lick of paint.

I could have carried on pootling, but over the last few weeks and months I’ve rather overdone it, so I came in and spent an hour or so playing bots at chess. I’ve been doing this quite a bit recently; a week or so ago I started playing a bot which is supposedly better than the one I’d been playing previously; it doesn’t seem to be.

 

We had planned a little walk this evening, but the rain put us off. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up some dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the latest episode of “Race Across the World” in which the contestants crossed northern India with varying degrees of success.

 

Today’s been a rather good day off work, but I’m going to work for a rest tomorrow.

21 May 2025 (Wednesday) - Ham Street Woods

I slept reasonably well, but was still wide awake at five o’clock. I watched the last episode of “Back” then sparked up my lap-top. I had a message from the Facebook feds. On Monday I was presented with a posting of a picture of a close-up of full-on lady bits. I reported it, but apparently it didn’t go against their Community Standards. One lives and learns. There wasn’t much else of note happening on-line this morning really.

I sent out some birthday wishes to people on my Friends list who were having a birthday today as sending birthday wishes to anyone else would be silly, and got ready for work.

 

As I walked up the road I listened to the most beautiful dawn chorus... sung by sparrows. Who would have thought that such common plain little things could sing so wonderfully. I'm rather taken with my birdsong app.

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were talking about how the co-op's supply chain has been comprehensively poggered by the recent cyber-attack. That would explain why the local co-op looked like the locusts had just swarmed through. Apparently the attack was done by "scattered spider" - a  bunch of teenagers.  I'd send them to bed with no supper and take their phones off of them, but what do I know?

The co-op’s sandwiches aisle was pretty much empty, so I went to Sainsbury's instead. If nothing else, Sainsbury's do coronation chicken.

 

I got to work and had rather a full-on day. But as I worked I got a reply to the email I sent to the county councillor.  I emailed him about Operation Brock last night and he replied this morning. Apparently he don't actually start counciling until tomorrow, but he assures me he's on the case, and is looking to stockpile all the lorries on Lyddon Hill race course. I can't say I like his party, but he's replied quicker than his predecessor did, and he's come up with a concrete proposal.

That's a step in the right direction. I wonder if he can sort the flooding by Asda? I’ve asked him if he might have a go.

 

Another early start made for another early finish. It’s only a shame that the roads are so busy at early shift kick-out. It took twice as long to drive the two miles from work to the motorway as it did to drive the seventeen miles down the motorway.

 

We took the dogs out. For a change we tried Ham Street Woods. The drizzle probably didn’t help but it was rather muddy in places. But on the plus side the dogs were well-behaved. There’s something about Orlestone Woods which sets them off; they are willful and take an age to come when called when we are there. But they were as good as gold this evening. It’s just a shame that Ham Street Woods are so small.

As we walked the Red Route of a mile and a quarter I tried out my bird song app. I detected nine birds this evening including two new ones. A jackdaw and a mistle thrush. Or “Missile thrush” as it was known to the more simple-minded of the Red Lake Primary School bird club. I was a member of my primary school’s bird club. We had great times – we’d go out for a walk one lunchtime every week under the gimlet eye of Mrs. Wright, and pretty much every week we had one reported sighting of a golden eagle.

We came home where all the dogs had a bath.

 

I’ve only done ten thousand steps today… that’s the lowest step count for some time …

20 May 2025 (Tuesday) - Twitching

I had a reasonable night's sleep; better than many I've had recently. But I was still wide awake at five o'clock. I got up, and stood on the scales as I'd forgotten to do so yesterday, and was rather chuffed to see that I'd lost some weight... which was surprising bearing in mind Saturday night's pig-out.

As I watched telly I could hear that not-so-nice-next-door was also up. She's something of an early bird, and some mornings she shouts "Oi!-Oi!-Oi!" for ten minutes like she did today at quarter past six. Not especially loud, but loud enough to be heard over the drivel I was watching on the telly. Was she doing some sort of exercises?

With telly watched I had a quick look at the Internet as I do. Not much had happened overnight. I sent birthday wishes to Gordon, and pondered over my emails. My Credit Karma score has gone up by eleven points whilst my Experian score has fallen by nineteen. Bearing in mind that both effectively measure the same thing, I have to wonder how does that work?

 

I set off to work. As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about some bill in the House of Lords which is supposed to make sure that singers and actors get their bit when recordings of them are used by AI generators. A rather obscure point took up a lot of air-time; the most surprising bit of which was the discovery that him who played "Gay Colin" in Eastenders is now a lord. Whilst playing one of the first openly gay characters on TV was rather ground-breaking, I found myself wondering if that warranted being made a lord? It turns out the chap has been rather (very) active in political circles. A bit like him who played Baldrick in Blackadder.

Perhaps I should get all political and I might be a sir or a lord.

 

I got to work and as I walked  through the car park I brandished my phone. Last night I'd downloaded a bird song recognition app. It detected robins and blackbirds in the garden, and this morning it identified wrens in the works car park. Mind you for all that I've seen blackbirds and robins in the back garden, I have absolutely no idea whether there really are wrens in the works car park. I'm taking the app entirely on trust,

I did my bit at work, and being on an early we had time to take the dogs to Orlestone this evening. While we were there my bird song app detected blue tits and chiff-chaffs and blackcaps and haddock and rhododendrons… nine different species of bird including a goldcrest which is apparently “uncommon”.

 

And in closing today I'll make the observation that Operation Brock is being brought back tomorrow. So much for the new Reform UK county council doing away with it. To quote our new county councilor “A promise made is a promise kept” and since he never actually promised anything I suppose I might be being a tad harsh. I’ll send him an email, but to my mind he’s already fallen at the first hurdle.

19 May 2025 (Monday) - Treacle's "Stick"

For once I had a reasonable night’s sleep. I did have Bailey dabbing the back of my head several times, but nothing that kept me wide awake for hours. I saw that as a result.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. The weekend’s big reveal had not gone down overly well on many of the Doctor Who related Facebook pages; on balance there are probably more people posting on the Doctor Who related Facebook pages who hate the show than who like the show. It’s a shame; it was the fan reaction which pretty much killed Star Trek for years when “Enterprise” was cancelled.

I Munzed. Got Wordle (pitch) on the fourth attempt, then heard a crashing sound. Pogo was coming downstairs “quietly”. Him and his mummy had had a little sleepover last night.

All the other dogs followed, and went into the garden like dogs do.

 

Yesterday I’d loaded up a carful of tip stuff. I drove it round to the tip. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about driverless cars. Apparently they will be on the streets in two years’ time. It was claimed that the things are on the streets already. The law says that they can be used *if* someone is actually sitting in the driver’s seat poised to take control at a moment’s notice. The woman presenting the article was broadcasting from one such car. Will they be in place in two years’ time? I suspect they will be like electric cars; on the streets, but in a vast minority.

 

I got to the tip and unloaded. The tip was rather (very) busy, and things weren’t helped by one of the tip operatives insisting that he personally inspected every scrap of tat. He made a point of snatching a broken fishing pole from me and spending far too long scrutinizing it before confirming what I’d told him (that it wasn’t metal) and telling me I could throw it in the general tat bin. I replied that he could throw it in the general tat bin; I had loads of other stuff to shift, and left him holding it.

 

I came home, mowed the lawn, cleaned out the pond filters, topped up the ponds, watered the plants, and watched an episode of “Black Mirror”, and wrote up some CPD until “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” had finished her appointment. I then ran her and Pogo home.

 

With a bootful of dogs we came home via Kings Wood for a somewhat later walk than usual. As we walked into the woods so a gaggle of young mothers were having a little picnic with their toddlers. One of the mothers shrieked “it’s a sausage dog” and without a word of “can we ?” or “is it all right ?” called to Morgan.

He trotted over and I had flashbacks. In years gone by people who were having a little picnic in the co-op field once called to Pogo who charged over and devoured their entire spread in less than five seconds. I didn’t want that so I called Morgan back and warned the picnicers that he would scoff all of their sandwiches. The one who’d called him looked rather taken aback, so I assured her that he wouldn’t pinch one or two sandwiches; he would have the lot given a moment’s opportunity. Fortunately he came when called and followed me into the woods.

We carried on with our walk. As we went so Treacle found a stick. You know - one of those with a hoof on one end and a bone coming out of the other. That’s at least the third deer leg she’s found this year. I would say that you have to wonder where they are coming from, but the answer is obvious. Deer. Something is clearly getting through the deer in the woods at quite a rate. I’m seeing this as more supporting evidence for my theory about there being one or more large cats in the area. After all, I’m convinced I saw a black panther in Hawkhurst twenty years ago.

As we came back toward the car the picnicers were still scoffing. They smiled in a semi-embarrassed sort of way as we walked past.

 

We came home and I cracked on with the ironing, fed the fish, and “er indoors ^TM” returned from a day at the office. She boiled up pizza then went bowling. I settled in front of the telly for more Netflix.

Today’s been busy…

18 May 2025 (Sunday) - Early Shift

It was after midnight before I got to bed last night. I always know when I'm having a late night when one or more of the dogs comes up with me. I woke just before three o'clock, went to the loo, and didn't really get back to sleep again after that.

I gave up trying to sleep and got up at half past five. I watched an episode of "Back", then loaded that which I could into the dishwasher, and scrubbed that which wouldn't fit. Taking care not to wake anyone I got ready for work, set the dishwasher going, and set off.

Not-so-nice-next -door was outside washing her car at half past six this morning. I gave her a cheery "Good Morning"; she replied with a grunt. I don't know what I can do about her; despite my best efforts she's just hard work. The last time I had any dealings with her she was claiming that I was throwing shitted nappies and cans of Red Bull over the fence. 

 

As I drove up the motorway the "Farming Today" program was on the radio. Today's was rather different to the usual thing they put on. They were broadcasting from a potato farm in Northumberland. This farm nearly went bankrupt a few years ago, and it came to light that the chip shop down the road was getting their chips from Egypt. Not spuds. Chips. The chip shop didn't want potatoes. They wanted chips which were ready to go into the fryer. It turns out that few people want spuds any more; most people seem to want them already chipped or baked or roasted or Jenga-ed (Did you know that Jenga fries are a thing?) or just ready to scoff.

And so the potato farmer built a huge factory to turn his spuds into whatever the punters want, and now he's laughing all the way to the bank.

 

I had a dodgy five minutes on the motorway. As you come up to junction six on the M20 there's a little slip lane for traffic wanting junctions six or five. Someone had come into that lane, realized he should have stayed on the main motorway, and was reversing back straight at me. As I swerved round the idiot, he had the cheek to give me the V-sign.

 

I got to work and did my bit. I wasn't supposed to be working today, but my colleague who was on had called in sick yesterday. As I have said many times before, if I had my time again I'd work somewhere that periodically puts up a "closed" sign. But it was rather grey and overcast as I worked. I don't mind working if I'm not missing much.

 

The weather stayed grey, but perked up a little when I got home. “er indoors ^TM” and I took the dogs down to Orlestone where we had a good walk. Once away from the car park we walked for over two miles without being bothered by anyone else.

There was a minor hiccup when we got back to the car. Some chap asked if we’d seen a little black and white dog. We hadn’t. His dog had gone missing this morning, and he was off to look round the woods again. I once lost Morgan and Bailey in those woods for twenty minutes and was panic stricken. But this dog had been missing for over six hours. I didn’t say anything but he could have run to Ashford or to the coast in that time.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching yesterday’s episode of “Doctor Who”. Last week’s episode was something of a disappointment, but the one we watched today was excellent. Sadly unless you are a sad anorak like me, the references to episodes of Doctor Who from sixty and forty years ago wouldn’t have meant much.

But they did to me…

17 May 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Hinxhill, Games NIght

I was again awake too early this morning. I got up, watched a bit of telly, then peered into the Internet wondering if much had happened overnight. It hadn’t really. Not much of note had happened, but bickering and trivia abounded in social media.

I rolled my eyes as I read one of the work-related Facebook pages in which youngsters were bemoaning that they had picked the wrong career having read some made-up rubbish about artificial blood, and reports that blood banks would soon be unnecessary. I made the observation that on my first week in a blood bank I was told that there were dogs in Japan being kept alive on artificial blood, and that I should choose another career as blood banking would soon be a thing of the past.

That was September 1981...

I had an email. One of my geocaches in Kings Wood is cracked. Oh well… replacing that will be Monday’s project. We’ll be walking past it anyway.

I looked at booking a tip slot. There were appointments available today – but only at eight o’clock in t he morning. The rest of the day was booked up. I decided against an eight o’clock slot – I needed more than a few minutes to load the car and I wouldn’t have had time this morning. I’ve booked eight o’clock on Monday morning instead.

I Munzed, capping the Tree House only a minute after “er indoors ^TM” had (which was something of a pain in the glass), and got Wordle on the third attempt (grown) and then the dogs came down.

 

I let them out, and chased after them with a bucket and trowel. You wouldn’t believe how much dung three small dogs generate. Whilst they had brekkie I sorted the undercrackers that I’d washed and tumble-dried, and we set off to Dog Club. As we drove Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. “And if you see her please let her know that I'm well”. No – I’ve no idea either.

Dog Club was rather good. We arrived at the same time as Smudge and Lilly and Morgan tiddled himself in excitement. Attendance was down somewhat, but we still had at least fourteen dogs charging about and playing. They really do love it.

 

As we drove away from Dog Club Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. “Is Vic There” by Department S. 1982? I was one year out.

Rather than coming home we took the dogs for a little walk. We drove out to the church at Hinxhill where we had a little wander round the graveyard collecting clues to find a geocache, then walked half a mile across the fields to another geocache. And with a little walk walked we drove up to Naccolt where we didn’t find a geocache (but I stung my head on a stinging nettle) and went on to Wye. There’s a co-op there where we got pastries.

 

And so home where we scoffed the pastries and had a cuppa. The pastry was sixty calories more than what we’d walked off this morning.

“er indoors ^TM” went shopping; I went into the garden and had another look at the disassembled garden table. It was too big to go in my car to take to the tip, but the council wanted over forty quid to take it away. I sawed it into pieces of more manageable size; it *will* fit into the car now. I then re-arranged the rockery so that the alpine plants look a tad better, then got out the watering can and had a go at the plants.

“er indoors ^TM” returned with the shopping. By then I was aching so I challenged the bots on chess dot com and did rather well. I’ve been playing a bot with rating two hundred and fifty recently; today I’ve taken on one with a rating of four hundred. I wonder what my rating is?

 

Steve, Sarah and Chris came round, and we had a rather good evening playing games on the Infinity table. I might not have won, but tonight’s round of “Game of Life” declared that I had been voted “Nicest Person Ever” which was something of a result.

As we played so we had the Eurovision Song Contest playing in the background. Am I being cynical in suggesting that there was a direct correlation between how crap a song was and the amount of chest being brandished by the singer?

16 May 2025 (Friday) - Guacamole Dip

I woke at the sound of a dog jumping off the bed in the small hours. I assumed it was Morgan. He needs chasing in the night. He jumps off the bed and goes to the back garden to do that which dogs do *if* I open the door in time. But when he finds the back door is locked he then does the best he can in less than ideal circumstances and craps on the doormat. But it wasn't Morgan last night. Treacle had fallen off the bed and in my hurry to chase downstairs I tripped over her. She just wanted help to get back onto the bed. She's getting old. She can't get on the bed any more. She struggles to get into the car before our walks, and she needs lifting into the car after a walk.

 

I didn't get back to sleep after that. I got up earlier than I might have done, and as I scoffed toast I watched an episode of "Black Mirror" on Netflix. What would you do if the latest big TV show was seemingly based on every detail of your life - including that which you'd rather no one else knew about?

 

Taking care not to wake anyone I got ready for work and set off. As I drove up the motorway the pundits were talking about the assisted dying bill which is going through Parliament.

At the risk of simplifying a rather complex issue, you'd be prosecuted for allowing a dog to suffer, but you'd also be prosecuted for preventing a person suffering in the same way. Am I missing something here?

I drove to the Sainsbury's petrol station in Aylesford as their petrol is consistently cheaper than in Ashford. But I forgot that they don't get stocked up until mid-morning. So for all that I saved about a quid on the petrol I then had to make a separate journey into the supermarket to get lunch. I got myself a beef and horseradish sandwich and a little pot of guacamole and some nachos. The little pot and nachos were good for one hundred and sixty-eight calories. In the past I'd get a big bag of Doritos and a pot of the Pringles guac dip and scoff the lot for lunch; totally oblivious to the three thousand four hundred calories that was going down my neck.

 

I went in to work and had a cuppa, and had my morning's root around the Internet rather later than usual. Irene was posting piccies from Uzbekistan.  She's got to Khiva. I liked Khiva; I bought a rather sexy jacket there that I have still to wear.

And there was quite the argument in the Facebook group about big cat sightings in the UK. Someone had found what they claimed was a big cat's skull.  Others were claiming it was a dead badger. All were adamant that they were right.

Our Munzee clan has reached the second of our monthly goals.

I had loads of emails that needed to be deleted unread.

 

I cracked on with the early shift, and at lunchtime I scoffed my nachos and guac dip. In future I shall get the carrots and houmous dip - half the calories and it tastes better.

We had a sweepstake at work for tomorrow's Eurovision Song Contest. I got Luxembourg; I was told that was good. I had no idea, so I did some research. Apparently Luxembourg has a one in two hundred and fifty chance of winning. Even worse than the UK’s chance.

 

An early start made for an early finish. The journey home took fifty minutes. Seventeen miles down the motorway took twenty minutes; two miles from work to motorway, and two miles from motorway to home took a total of half an hour.

 

Once home I ran round gathering dog turds, then ran round with the watering can, and once “er indoors ^TM” had finished work we took the dogs to Orlestone for a short (two miles) walk.

As we drove down we saw two red kites. We saw two smaller hawks in the woods, and a buzzard sitting on the telegraph wires as we came home. Back in the day we rarely, if ever, saw a bird of prey. Now they are more and more common. Which got me thinking… If there’s more birds of prey, there’s got to be more food for them. Bearing in mind they scoff small animals there’s got to be more food and habitat for small birds and mice and the like. But the news keeps telling us about habitat destruction?