31 July 2025 (Thursday) - Drizzle

I slept rather well last night for a change. I got up at about the same time that I was talking to a nice man about coffee in Tesco at Pembury yesterday, made toast and had a took at the Internet.

I had to do some moderating on the “Upstairs Downstairs” Facebook page that I help to run. Someone asked a perfectly reasonable question about hereditary peerages, and some keyboard warrior got needlessly offensive. He’s been suspended for a week. Suspended from the Facebook “Upstairs Downstairs” group… how sad is that.

I told everyone to play nicely. Unfortunately some people really do have to add a personal insult to everything they type. Where ideally someone might say “I disagree for the following reasons”, people are actually saying “you are wrong because you are stupid”. The trouble with social media is that no one ever has to face anyone else and so they get cocky.

 

I took the dogs out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were saying that more children are taking PE “A” level than “A” French, German and classical languages combined. And PE “A” level only counts for four per cent of the total “A” levels taken. Mind you, have you seen the PE “A” level paper? It ain’t easy.

 

We got to the woods just as the rain was starting. According to my Met Office weather app the rain was supposed to start at ten o’clock. It started at eight o’clock, and fizzled out after an hour.

But rain notwithstanding we went on with our walk. As we walked we didn’t see any slow worms, and there was only one deer and that was in the distance. It stood perfectly still until I zoomed in with my camera at which point it pissed off.

As we walked we saw what I thought was a geocacher. We saw some woman scrubbling in the undergrowth where I’ve hidden a geocache. When she saw us coming she got up and carried on walking past us. I smiled and said hello, but before I could say anything more she reacted as though I was an axe murderer and she couldn’t get away quick enough. I had a little look at where I’d hidden that geocache. Someone (presumably her) had been rummaging and there was no pot there. I’m hoping she took it and put it back after we were gone. If there’s no log registered on the thing by next week I’ll go out with a replacement.

I tested my new “Map My Walk” app as we went. It announced progress every mile, which made me jump. It seems to agree with my watch on the distance we walk, but it thinks I burn less calories than my “MyFitnessPal” app thinks.

 

We came home. The forecast rain hadn’t arrived so I voomed round the garden with the lawn mower. It’s only been three days since I mowed the lawn, but it had grown impressively in those three days. And then I had a go at the front garden with the garden burner. That’s the way to deal with weeds.

I made myself a cuppa and had a look at Amazon. Fish food and deodorants don’t buy themselves or have themselves delivered. I’ve mentioned before about how the days of the average shop must be numbered when you can sit on your own sofa, buy stuff and have it delivered cheaper than going to the shops.

As I shopped so the dogs kicked off. Someone was in the front garden having a go at the geocache there. I went out and said hello – it was a Spanish couple whose English was about as good as my Spanish. We all smiled at each other.

I came back in, and Munzed, then failed to get Wordle. I got to ?RILL on the second go… brill, grill, drill, trill, krill… It was frill.

 

I sulked, and wrote up some CPD, and looked out of the window at a rather bright day, and with CPD done I popped over the road for a Polish pot noodle for lunch which I scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Orange is the New Black”, and as I scoffed it so the rain started. Not particularly heavy, but enough to make me not want to continue in the garden.

With telly watched I then cleaned out the fish tank; it’s surprising how grubby that gets. And with fish tank cleaned I watched another episode of “Orange is the New Black” before having a go at my chair workout.

 

The rain had stopped and had started again, but fish don’t feed themselves. Treacle likes feeding the pond fish. She looks at me expectantly but won’t move until I say “I’m going to feed the fish”. Once I’ve said that she’s like a bullet out of a gun to get to the pond… but only once I’ve said that.

I cleaned out the fish tank filter again… and then watched more telly whilst glancing out of the window as the rain stopped.  

 

We had a yellow warning of thunderstorms and torrential rain today. We were told to brace for an entire month’s worth of rain in a few hours. We had a few showers.

Yesterday Gordon told me that the BBC are now getting their weather forecast from the Met Office… They want to ask for a better one than the one I had this morning.

30 July 2025 (Wednesday) - Early Shift

In a novel break with tradition I slept right through until ten minutes before my alarm was due to go off. That was a result. I got up, made toast, had a very quick look at a dull Internet and was in the car and on my way west-wards before six o'clock.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about a lot of things. About how the Israelis have got the arse because the UK government is threatening to formally recognize the state of Palestine if the Israelis don't improve their attitude. And there's no denying that it needs improving. The Israeli position is that the UK is rewarding terrorism... The UK probably is, but at the moment the way forward in Gaza seems to be to take the least crappy option, sure in the knowledge that no matter what happens will only result in a very temporary truce until they all find something else to fight about.

There's been a massive earthquake which has set off tsunamis at Hawaii and Japan. And there was talk about how the coffee giant Costa isn't the cash cow it once was.

That made me think... As I walked in to the Pembury branch of Tesco there was quite a queue at their coffee machine. I got chatting with a bloke who was waiting his turn. He said he needed his coffee fix every morning, and that a cup of coffee from that machine was three pounds fifty. That's seventy quid a month. You can get a jar of decent coffee for less than a fiver and that would last you for more than that month. And you can drink the stuff in the comfort of your own home too. Still, I suppose that being coffee it will get drunk. Unlike tea. What is it with tea drinkers? They never drink more than a couple of sips of tea, let it get cold, and then chuck it away. Watch any tea drinker - that's what they all do. My late great aunt Lily was always banging on about having a nice cup of tea; she would get her nice cup of tea, have one mouthful and the rest would get thrown away half an hour later.

 

I went in to the early shift. We'd all been dreading today as the inspector was coming. Fortunately for everyone (except him) he phoned in sick. Apparently the inspector was someone with whom I used to work many years ago... someone I once considered a friend, but someone who showed me the validity of the two hundred and eighty fifth Rule of Acquisition. No good deed ever does go unpunished. 

As I worked my bank app told me that there had been money going out of my account... to Tabeo Plans Ltd. Who are they? It turns out that this is the new name for my dentist. You'd think they'd have something dental-related in their name, wouldn't you?

 

I did my bit, but being on the early was good. I got to go home early. A shame I didn't get home as early as I do when doing an early shift at Maidstone, but early is as early does.

We did the “Feed The Fish” ritual, harvested a bumper crop of dog dung, put on our boots and went down to Orlestone. We had a rather good little wander round the woods. As we went I tried out my new Map My Walk app. It doesn’t seem to do much that my GPS unit doesn’t do, but I only take my GPS out when we’re on a geo-mission. I suspect it will be like my birdsong app – I will use it at every opportunity for a month or so until the novelty wears off, and then I will forget all about it until my phone says the app has been put into deep sleep as I haven’t used it for ages.

 

We came home; I did my chair fitness workout and wore myself out. For all that you don’t actually get off your arse the entire time, that workout is hard work. I suppose that’s the idea of it.

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of chicken curry which we washed down with a bottle of Asda’s finest whilst watching a couple of episodes of “Below Decks”.

I’d like to have enough money to charter a superyacht. If I had, I wouldn’t, but I’d like to have that much money.

 

29 July 2025 (Tuesday) - Here Come The Aliens

I spent another night under the duvet (as opposed to on it) and slept much better. But as Albert (Einstein) famously remarked, everything is relative. I was still wide awake by four o'clock. I got up at five o'clock and watched an episode of "Orange is the New Black" then got ready for work.

 

Yesterday I'd managed to park outside the house so I didn't have to go far to find the car. I drove round to Sainsbury's to get some petrol, then headed west-wards to Pembury. As I drove there was only one set of temporary traffic lights for me to negotiate. That was a result. Perhaps the people who do road works are on holiday for the summer, much like the government. The pundits on the radio were talking about how the Prime Minister has called a Cabinet meeting for today. Apparently this is unheard of when Parliament is in recess; they knocked it on the head last week, and don't intend to turn up for work for another five weeks.

Nice work if you can get it. One wonders exactly who runs the country until they roll back in. Personally I would have thought that the committee that is in charge of the UK would be meeting at least twice a week every week (as a bare minimum), but what do I know?

 

This morning the pundits on the radio were broadcasting from outside Buckingham Palace where the England women's football team were due to be staging a victory parade later today in honour of their having just won the Euros. With bands from the armed forces marching with them and providing a musical accompaniment, it sounded very much like the country was gearing up for the sort of celebrations that would normally go with winning a war. In fact the vicar who was wheeled on to blether the "Thought  for the Day" platitudes actually said that international sporting events were "war without casualties". Mind you she also said a lot of other stuff too; all seemingly made up on the spur of the moment. Why not give it a listen? You wouldn't believe how many nonsensical disjointed non-sequiturs were bodged together in such a short period of time this morning. It must be wonderful to be a vicar - you just spout drivel safe in the knowledge that no one actually listens to what you are saying.

Am I wrong? Have you *ever* paid attention when some religious-type starts pontificating?

 

There was also criticism of Nigel Farage who would seemingly have illegal immigrants drown rather than be picked up by the life boats.  Apparently since he made his claim that the RNLI was being used as a “taxi service” for illegal trafficking gangs, enquiries from potential lifeboat volunteers have quadrupled and donations to the RNLI have gone up thirty-fold. 

Mind you he's not alone in his dislike of the illegal immigrants. It wasn't that long ago that the lifeboat at Hastings was prevented from being launched to help them.

 

Meanwhile science has found aliens. Again. Not just conspiracy theory crackpot internet drivel, but proper scientists this time. It would seem they (the aliens, not the scientists) are on course to invade, with the actual invasion planned for some time in late November or early December. That will be something to look forward to, won't it? Borg or Daleks... Personally I'm hoping for Borg. Not that either would be an ideal outcome, but I'd rather be assimilated than exterminated. 

Either way, it would be a right pisser just before Christmas, wouldn't it? 

 

I did my bit at work. Originally I wasn't supposed to be in today, but what with one thing and another work was a tad short-handed today, and I was asked if I could step in to the breach. For all that I might whinge, I don't mind helping out really. It goes with hospital work. If you don't want to be asked to help out at odd times and short notice, you really need to go work somewhere that periodically puts up a "Closed" sign. 

 

And then I drove home again. I've always said that whilst I like working in Pembury I hate going there. Some see that as a contradiction, but it is a true statement. I quite like working there. But the journey to and fro is a pain in the glass. It is less than eight miles more than my journey to Maidstone, but even allowing for "Operation Brock" stupidity I can get to work in Maidstone half an hour quicker than it takes me to get to work at Tunbridge Wells. One journey is a simple drive up the motorway; the other endless stopping and starting along country lanes. But I get to listen to the news on the radio. It's as well that I quite like listening to the news, isn't it?

 

I spent much of the day in a reflective frame of mind. Having thought about it , why would any aliens invade? It would be quite a bit of arse-ache for them.

Presumably they would do so because they want our planet and all its resources. But you'd think that aliens ain't stupid; you'd think they could see we've got atom bombs and could put up a fight if they tried to invade. The sensible thing for aliens to do would be drop loads of rocks on Earth to stir up cloud cover, kill off loads of plants, and with the plants gone, animals (including humans) would soon follow. Aliens would be daft to turn up looking for a straight fight, wouldn't they?

But however it pans out, Object 3I/ATLAS (the aliens space ship or rock) is seven miles across. Science has seen it. It’s on a par with what put paid to the dinosaurs and it is travelling far faster than most comets, asteroids and other space-rock-thingies. Perhaps they are going to just drop a humungous rock on us...

I wonder if they will.

 

28 July 2025 (Monday) - Rostered Day Off

 

Over the last few weeks I’ve been sleeping on top of the duvet rather than under it, as I usually do in the summer. Last night I went under the duvet and slept a whole lot better.

 

It was all kicking off on Facebook as I scoffed toast this morning. Forestry England have removed permission for geocaching in seemingly random parts of the New Forest “due to the respective areas now being considered fragile to wildlife/plantlife and Forestry England wishing to restrict (where possible) access to these locations”. I can see their point; when we were there a couple of weeks ago many of the geocaches were ridiculously far from any footpaths and getting to them involved bushwacking through the undergrowth. Sadly the geo-Fed who’d had to enforce the ruling wasn’t quite as tactful as he might have been. Some people really do go out of their way to be obnoxious when on-line to people they know they will never have to face in person.

And I was presented with an advert for a company which specialises in the cleaning of horses’ willies. What on Earth was that all about?

 

I put a load of washing in to scrub, got the dogs on to their leads and took them out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were bringing the latest news from Gaza. The locals were saying that the Israelis have taken to dropping aid parcels from planes… the accusation was made that these aid parcels were being used as bombs being deliberately dropped directly on the settlements and tents of the people they are supposed to be helping.

Were they? I don’t know. All I know of the situation is what I hear in the news, but from what I hear, the UK is supporting the wrong side.

We went down to Orlestone for a little walk. We did a once-round-the-woods, and it was rather uneventful. We didn’t see anyone else, we didn’t roll in anything, we didn’t chase anything, no one vanished into a thicket… All rather good, if somewhat uneventful.

 

We came home where “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” had finished her business in Ashford, so once the washing was on the line we drove her and Pogo home.

The route back was somewhat circuitous… first of all to Pegwell Bay and home via Oad Street calling in on three very specific geocaches as we went. The first was one with a beautiful view over Pegwell Bay. From there it was a short hop to rummage round a fence in the general vicinity of Ramsgate. Having round both of those that left us with one more geo-Treasure to get. With not a lot on the agenda for today and very few qualifying geocaches I set sail for Oad Street. After quite a drive and quite a walk after half an hour’s fruitless searching I was ready to give up. But one last go came up trumps. And seeing how the thing’s last finder found it over a year ago I got to add to my list of geo-resuscitation, which was a result if you consider that sort of thing to be a result… which personally I do. Each to their own.

We’ve now got all the current load of geocaching Treasures… I wonder when the next lot will come out.

 

Pausing only for a cuppa and a cheese sandwich, I then mowed the lawn. What with the heavy rain of last week it needed some mowing. And with the lawn mowed I ran the hair trimmer over my head. I walked past the barber’s earlier; for the price of one and a half haircuts in there you can get a set of trimmers and save an absolute fortune. I got my current set four years ago; they do last and I’m probably about five hundred quid up on the deal on these trimmers alone. I don’t think I’ve paid for a haircut in twenty years.

I made us both a cuppa, did some CPD, and then had a go at my chair workout. I’ve skived on that over the weekend. I need to keep up with it.

And no day not at work is complete without a bout of ironing.

 

By the time “er indoors ^TM” set off to bowling I was all in… For a supposed day off I haven’t stopped.

27 July 2025 (Sunday) - Early Shift

I spent much of yesterday evening nodding off and struggling to stay awake… and I was wide awake and watching “Orange ins the New Black” before five o’clock this morning.

With telly watched I had a little look at the Internet. This morning my Facebook feed was telling me all about house prices in the Liverpool area. What was that all about? There wasn’t a lot else going on, so I sorted the undercrackers I’d washed and dried last night, set the dishwasher going, and got ready for work.

 

I wandered off up the road to find where I'd left my car, and set off to work. As I drove the farming program was on the radio - you always know when you are up far too early as that's when the farming program is on. This morning they were interviewing the head honcho of a leech farm. The chap started off by saying that in days gone by he was the farm manager. These days he is still doing exactly the same job, but he made a point of saying that he is now the "quality systems manager". I sighed and thought about turning the radio off. But I didn't. The program was surprisingly interesting. Apparently leeches are still used in the NHS in cases of plastic surgery and re-attachment of severed digits as they are really useful in restoring circulation.

And they are used to reduce red cell mass in cats and dogs with polycythaemia; something I deal with (in humans on a regular basis. It was only a shame that neither the chap being interviewed or the interviewer could pronounce "polycythaemia".

 

I found myself thinking of an old colleague who used to breed leeches. I can't remember why on Earth she bred them, but I can remember that she got a particularly nasty infection from one when she let it bite her. Shortly after that she moved to the Channel Islands where it was alleged that she was running sex parties on a superyacht, and the last I heard of her was that she was in a French prison charged with selling unlicensed and unproven drugs which would supposedly (but didn't) cure cancer.

 

I got to work and did that which I couldn't avoid, but an early start made for an early finish. I came home, and together with “er indoors ^TM” took the dogs down to Orlestone for a little walk. We went round the woods; again the woods were very quiet. Where were (and where are!) all the birds that my app used to find?

As we walked we found ourselves greeted by a couple of dogs. The woman with them was so apologetic and seemed very grateful that we weren’t angry. Like me, this woman has met several other dog owners who really don’t understand what dogs are like. Her dogs and our dogs all woofed at each other for a few seconds, and then all was fine. As it always is.

We had a good walk; it was only a shame that Treacle had to dive in the deep puddle just as we came to the end of our walk.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up lamb chops which we scoffed whilst watching another episode of “Quantum Leap”. I’ve got a theory… if I make a point of trying not to fall asleep in front of the telly this evening and don’t have an early night, I might not be wide awake from three o’clock tomorrow morning. It’s a good theory (I hope).

 

26 July 2025 (Saturday) - Harrietsham

I was sleeping so well when I bit my tongue in my sleep and woke up with a start at ten past three. I didn’t really get back to sleep after that.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. Facebook told me it was Terry’s birthday today. I miss Terry; it’s now four years since he went. We first met nearly twenty-five years ago through flying kites. He worked overseas a lot, and we’d only meet up a few times a year, but the times we met were always special. Camping holidays, beer festivals, pub crawls round London and Maidstone and Dover. He would always come back from abroad with a bandanna for me…

I miss Terry.

And my eyes rolled when I saw some of the posts on one of the work-related Facebook groups. Do people *seriously* ask such basic questions about very detailed technical matters on Facebook pages rather than asking senior colleagues or manufacturers of laboratory instrumentation? And if Facebook is their only resource, how do they distinguish between the one correct answer and the myriad of utterly wrong answers?

I munzed, got Wordle (haunt) on the fifth go, and got ready for the off.

 

As we drove round to Dog Club Steve was doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition on the radio, “I stop and stare at you walking on the shore”. No? – Peter Andre – “Mysterious Girl”. No? – Me neither.

We got to Dog Club and realising we’d left some vital stuff behind, I went in with the dogs and set up, and “er indoors ^TM” went back to get what we’d forgotten. I was doing fine with the dogs until they heard the barking of their friends arriving, and all three bolted out under the gate into the car park to meet their mates. Fortunately they were immediately captured by their mates’ owners.

As Dog Club went on I had a little chuckle. Treacle tiddled on the decking in the field. As the session went on pretty much every other dog had a sniff and tiddled in the same place.

 

We said our goodbyes, and as we drove off Steve was doing the mystery year competition on the radio. When did Prince Andrew get married? 1986.

We drove up to Harrietsham where we met Karl, Tracey, Charlotte and Jess. We went on a little walk all the way up to the top of the Downs and back again. It was quite a long way up, but the views from the top were spectacular. As we walked down a frankly epic hill we saw some people coming up. I suggested that as they came past we gloated about how we were going down and they were going up. We all chuckled, and one of them said “hello Dave”. I didn’t recognise her… it was my very first ever trainee with whom I worked nearly thirty years ago. We’d lost touch – it was good to have a little catch -up.

As we walked along one of the lanes so Bailey’s lead dropped. Her collar actually snapped from where she’d been pulling to be at the front of our group. I managed to bodge it round her neck. We’ve got a spare somewhere.

And as we scoffed our lunch I registered my bottle of beer on the Untappd app. I do that when we go on our walks. It gave me a little badge for having checked in four hundred and thirty-five bottles of beer on that app. Which is apparently more than anyone else on my Untappd friends list has done.

 

Our route was (as always) laid out for us by a series of geocaches. A guided walk is always good; it was only a shame that so much of this walk was on county lanes. Admittedly mostly quiet county lanes but there was one dodgy bit where we must have had to dodge a couple of dozen cars in the space of a few minutes. Mind you, I’m not complaining. Someone has taken the trouble to give me a guided walk through some rather pretty countryside, and I am very grateful for that.

 

I took a few photos whilst we were out. Once home I posted them to the Internet, and saw that we’d got one or two more geo-Treasures.

The dogs were soon snoring. Usually after Dog Club they are fast asleep by half past ten. They were worn out but by the time we came home today it was mid-afternoon.

And as we had a cuppa so the heavens opened. I was glad we had that rain whilst sitting on the sofa and not while we were out.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good chili which we scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “Transaction” – a very good ITV comedy featuring a particularly foxy trans character…

I’ve got to go to work again tomorrow…

25 July 2025 (Friday) - Dull

I had an early night... and woke before midnight feeling full of energy and raring to go as I do whenever I have an early night. I managed to nod off again and stayed asleep until er indoors ^TM” went to the loo an hour or so later. It wasn't her that woke me so much as as the dogs jumping off the bed to follow her. And when they all finally settled again I had maybe twenty minutes before little Bailey started licking my hand.

I gave up trying to sleep and was scoffing toast and watching "Orange is the New Black" by five o'clock.

 

It was as well I was on an early this morning; the dustmen make quite the racket when they drag the bins about, and the bin lorry that follows half an hour later makes a point of being sure that the road impassable. I got away before they showed up this morning.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking to a blackcurrant farmer.  Did you know that ninety per cent of the blackcurrants grown in the UK go into making Ribena? Makes you wonder where the stuff for the jam comes from, or exactly what the stuff in the jam is, doesn't it?

There was also a lot of talk about the strike by junior doctors which was starting today. Is it a good or bad thing? Do doctors get paid too much? I don't know, but they certainly aren't getting what they once were. And neither am I... Are you? Here's a challenge. Work out your hourly rate of pay in terms of how many chocolate frogs you could get for one hour's money. 

Then see how much your hourly rate of ten years ago would have got you.

Makes you think, doesn't it.

 

Today as I drove west-wards I only faced three sets of temporary traffic lights, which made for a better journey. Again I stopped off at Tesco for lunch and one or two other odds and sods. Lunch today featured another coronation chicken sandwich, and sweet chili houmous with breadstick dips.  The Tesco coronation chicken sandwich was twenty calories more than the Sainsbury's version, and the sweet chili houmous with breadstick dips was double the calories of the normal humous with carrots, and wasn't anywhere near so good either.

 

Work was work. I did my bit, and being on an early meant for an early finish. I came home and “er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza for dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the most recent episode of “Star Trek”. Both weren’t bad…

Today was dull and I’m rather tired…

24 July 2025 (Thursday) - Rostered Day Off

I slept reasonably well, which was a result. I popped out to the garden to check the pond. I had a theory about yesterday’s leak. Was it not so much a leak as plants bunging up the outflow? I unbunged the outflow last night and overnight the water level had remained unchanged. That was an easy fix.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. This morning Facebook presented me with several posts about snake keeping. Some idiot had posted a video of him feeding a dead rat to his boa constrictor. Having fed many dead rats to boa constrictors (I really have!), here’s a tip. Hold the dead rat in a very long pair of tongs and wear a glove. Snakes have heat detectors in their snouts – they “see” heat. If you offer the food in your hand they will smell the food but sense the warmth of your hand, and go for your hand rather than the dead rat. Been there, done that. Interestingly no end of other people considering themselves experts on the matter found no end of fault with the video of the idiot feeding his boa constrictor. The vivarium was the wrong shape, the water bowl was too small, the substrate was wrong… no one had any issue with holding the dead rat in his hand…

Like so many hobbies, snake-herding was (and clearly still is) one big argument.

 

We got the dogs on to their leads and went off to find the car. The forecast had been for rain, but we’ve had forecasts of rain recently (!)

We drove up to Kings Wood. As we drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing someone or other. I have no idea who it was, but judging from what was being said I would guess it was the Minister for Sending Them All Back On The Next Banana Boat; just lately there’s been no end of talk about sorting out the illegal immigrants. I got the distinct impression that the government chap being interviewed was scared that if the current Labour government doesn’t do something they will be out on their arses and replaced by whatever the Nigel Farage Club will be called in four years’ time.

 

We got to the woods, and first off we walked to the location of one of my geocaches which had been logged as not being there. Someone had logged “Got to the area and many trees now coppiced. Couldn't find it near the location”. We got to the location and couldn’t see a coppiced tree within fifty yards, and saw the cache laying in the open pretty much exactly where it was supposed to be. I covered the thing with a couple of sticks and we carried on with what turned out to be a dull walk. We walked for nearly for and a half miles and didn’t see anyone else at all. We didn’t chase anything, the swamps were only paw-deep, and what we rolled in was only dry mud which soon brushed off.

 

We came home. With “er indoors ^TM” in the office today I made a cuppa for just me and had a look at the monthly accounts. Time to make some economies, perhaps?

I wrote up some CPD, gathered dog turds and then had a go at my chair workout. My watch doesn’t seem to recognise that as exercise, but I certainly do. I thought about mowing the lawn, but the sky was getting rather black, so I had a pot noodle instead.

 

By the time I’d scoffed the pot noodle the rain had started. I put “Orange is the New Black” on Netflix and slobbed in front of the telly until the plumber arrived. He was early. He spotted the issue with the leaking radiator; it had rusted through. He disconnected it and drained it, measured it up and will be back next week with a new one. Hopefully. There was talk of problems with the boiler making the water be a mucky colour, but that’s an issue for later.

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned and boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of Celebrity Bake Off from ages ago.

I really should have an early night – I’ve got to leave home about six o’clock tomorrow morning.

23 July 2025 (Wednesday) - Leaks

I had a rather bad night’s sleep. Everyone else was restless. By the time everyone settled I realized I might as well get up. I watched the second half of an episode of “Orange is the New Black” then had a little look at the Internet. Ozzy Ozbourne died yesterday and I lost count of the amount of people who were posting tributes. There wasn’t much else happening on-line at six o’clock so I got ready for work.

 

I set off to work through the rain. The rain which had been forecast for the weekend (which never showed up) turned up a couple of days late yesterday and had an encore last night.

As I drove through the -hursts and the -dens the pundits on the radio were talking about how the government is working with Deliveroo and Just Eat and all the other delivery companies. Recently I've seen all sorts of things on-line about how illegal immigrants are working for the delivery companies. I thought it was just the standard hatred for anyone who looks remotely different to the archetypal Brit, but apparently I was wrong. It turns out that illegal immigrants are actively seeking jobs with the delivery companies as it has been claimed that it is rather easy to get a job there. The implication was that they would take on anyone and not ask any questions.

Those doing the hiring at the delivery companies have been told to sort out their hiring procedures or face up to five years in prison.

 

And there was a *very* misleading talk about the NHS's drive to get blood of the more obscure groups.  There was an interview with a medical student whose understanding of blood transfusions left a lot to be desired. When the NHS wants rare blood groups, it isn't talking about B Negative or AB. There are millions of people with those groups in the UK (do the sums!). The difficulty in matching blood isn't really to do with ABO groups (matching them is straightforward).  You would have thought that any talk about precision matching of blood might have mentioned the words Duffy, Kidd, Kell, Dombrock, Lutheran, or the letters c, C, D, e, E, M, N. S or U, wouldn't you? No? Well, I would have thought that.

I suppose when you are trying to compress a rather (incredibly) complicated matter into a twenty-second sound bite for someone who would prefer to be shouting at the football match on their telly, things are going to get simplified beyond recognition.

And (despite what you might read), blood will not be frozen.

 

Yesterday as I drove to Pembury I went through five sets of traffic light. I found six today. 

I stopped off at Tesco for a sandwich. Unlike the co-op, Tesco have followed Sainsbury's lead in providing coronation chicken sandwiches all year long. I got a portion of their carrots and houmous dip too. They didn't have Volvic flavoured water so I roughed it with Highland Spring.  Their meal deal came in ten pence more than the co-op's but fifteen pence less than what Sainsbury's want.

In the past whenever I would get lunch from Pembury's Tesco I would get a freshly baked croissant too, but that's two hundred and fifty calories that I don't really need. You would have thought that someone would have invented stuff that you can scoff that tastes good but doesn't have calories, wouldn't you?

 

I got to work, had a cuppa, and cracked on.  The coronation chicken sandwich lunch wasn't bad. I do find drinking far too much water at lunch time stops me being hungry... even if I do spend an inordinate amount of time going to and from the loo for much of the afternoon.

As I returned from the loo for the umpteenth time “er indoors ^TM” sent a message. The pond would seem to have developed a leak. That's handy... I have a naive hope that having cleaned out the pumps at the weekend the pressure of water returning to the top bog filter is a tad much, and the hose just needs sinking. I shall find out tomorrow when I get jiggy with it.

 

As I drove home “er indoors ^TM” sent a message. I’d done the dogs a disservice. The wet hall carpet wasn’t because of dog tiddle but because of a leaking radiator… I’ll contact Daisy to see if she can sort it.

And “er indoors ^TM” sent another message. There was a little mouse in the humane mouse trap.

 

Once home I took the humane mouse trap to the end of the garden to release the mouse safely, but before I could the stupid thing jumped and Treacle pounced… and ate it.

Her arse is rank enough without mouse flavoured farts…

22 July 2025 (Tuesday) - A Day At Work

I slept well. As I made toast I saw one sparrow was braving trying out the new feeder. It's a bit high for the pigeons, but I expect they will get the hang of it eventually.

As I scoffed toast I watched half an episode of "Orange is the New Black", then taking care not to wake anyone I got ready for work.

 

I drove off towards the petrol station where it was all kicking off. Some idiot was standing at the petrol pump brandishing the petrol nozzle as though it was a weapon; waving it at any passing cars or customers.   The petrol station staff were shouting over the Tannoy that he had to stick the nozzle into his car's petrol tank, and the more they told this bloke, the more he waved it around. I got my petrol and went in to pay where the staff were getting more and more frustrated with this chap. Another customer went out and told him to stick the nozzle into his car's petrol tank; he glared at the petrol station staff, put the nozzle back into its holder and drove off...

 

I headed off to work; being at Pembury today I drove west-wards through the -hursts and the -dens and through five sets of temporary lights. As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing some official of the Israeli government asking why they are shooting people who are simply trying to get food from the depots that they themselves have established. The fellow flatly refused to answer, and claimed that his side were the victims of the piece. They might have been at the start of this current bit of the ongoing decades of conflicts, but not any more. There comes a time when both sides have to make concessions, but sadly the chap being interviewed felt that it was totally reasonable for the Israeli government to demand whatever they like and to expect everyone else to kowtow to them.

And there was a lot of talk about Nigel Farage. He seems to be getting ever more popular; proof of the old adage that you really can fool all of the people all of the time so long as you talk loudly and confidently. He's put the wind up the Tories (again).

 

I got to work a bit earlier than I needed to. I do that so's I can have a cuppa before I start. As I cuppa-ed I had a look at the Internet through my phone. I had another dubious friend request on Facebook from someone who would seem to have more chest than sense. You'd think that Facebook would have algorithms to sort that sort of nonsense, wouldn't you? They have bots that spot key words in posts and ban you for using them, no matter what the context.

 

Work was work. I did my bit and came home again. Through all the temporary traffic lights.

Once home I had a quick blast through my chair workout. For all that I’ve been at it for over a week, I’m still finding it hard work, which is probably a good thing.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we washed down with a (sadly grim) bottle of Sauvignon Blanc whilst watching another episode of “Quantum Leap” which was rather good, and then an episode of “Below Deck” in which incredibly rich people pay far too much money to charter a yacht crewed by a bunch who are all amazingly far too immature to do the job for which they are being paid.

21 July 2025 (Monday) - This n That

I had an early night last night which was a mistake. It usually is; I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go at half past eleven. I did get back to sleep, but not realizing how high up I was in the bed I had a stretch an hour or so later and clouted my head on the bedroom wall.

I went to the loo at three o’clock and from then on lay awake pretty much all of the rest of the night until finally giving up and getting up at seven o’clock.

I had a go on the scales and saw weight had gone on. I’ve a naïve hope that this is actually muscle from all the exercises I’ve been doing. Muscle weighs more than blubber… or so I am telling myself.

 

I had a look at the Internet. It was still there. There wasn’t much going on really. A couple of people had had birthdays, and my cousin hadn’t had any more set-to with The Huge-Titted Woman, so all was well.

Mind you I did have a dubious friend request. “Jelena” has already got a few friends on there already, most of whom look old enough to know better. This is the first one of these I’ve had this year. I’d thought that the Facebook Feds had taken a moral stance. Clearly not…

My phone beeped; my banking app has a new feature in which you can ask for a balance forecast and it will deduct any standing orders and direct debits that will come out before your wages go in, and you can see just how much money you have to squander. This was presented as something revolutionary… I’ve been doing that with Excell spreadsheets for as long as I’ve had Excel spreadsheets, and on paper certainly as far back as the early 1980s. Doesn’t everyone?

 

I took the dogs for our walk. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about their recommendations for books to read over the summer. Mind you when I say “books to read”, someone or other on the radio was talking about how there is a selection of narrators to choose from, and how whichever actor is being paid to read the book out will influence many people’s choices of book.  Back in the day you would read a book yourself; these days someone reads it to you…

We got to the woods; the overnight rain had left them rather damp. But we had a good walk. Bailey was a tad willful though, disappearing into thickets a few times. At one point she was gone for nearly five minutes. A passing normal person asked if I was looking for a small white dog as she’d just seen one in hot pursuit of a rabbit.

We came home for a wash – the dogs had rather grubby tummies.

 

I ran “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and Pogo home, and seeing the forecast for a day of rain was again misleading (at best) I had a look at the garden. I cleaned out the fish pond filters and thought that the water flow in the big pond wasn’t what it might be. So I took the pumps apart and found the problem. The pumps were struggling to push water through as they were full of crud and muck. I’m rather keen on cleaning out the filters; clearly the pumps need a scrub from time to time. I shall have to remember that.

I had a spot of lunch, and had another look at the geo-map and spotted one or two potential targets for the latest “Treasures”, then went back into the garden where I put together the new support for the bird feeder.

I was half-way through disassembling the old one when the rain finally came, so I retreated inside until the rain stopped and did some CPD.

I eventually got the old bird feeder stand apart. The birds don’t seem to like the new feeder stand.

 

My delivery from Amazon arrived ten minutes after Amazon said it would. Last week I bought some dumbbells for my chair workout. I’ve now got some heavier ones, and I tried them out. They didn’t feel that heavy until I started thrashing about doing my chair workout with them. This twenty minute workout is hard work. It must be doing some good as I’m certainly feeling it.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner then went bowling. I put on an episode of “Orange is the New Black” and did the ironing.

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow…

 

20 July 2025 (Sunday) - Geo-Meet

I slept well, but got up reasonably early in the naïve hope that new geocaches would be going out in honour of today’s geo-meet up. The chap running the meet is notorious for setting fiendishly difficult puzzles so I thought I might allow myself some puzzle-solving time.

He didn’t put any out…

 

I made toast and had a look at Facebook. Some woman with whom I used to work was on holiday half the world away. She’d taken a pile of books to read. I can’t understand why people travel so far just to do so little. If you’ve going to travel why not see where you’ve travelled to? If you don’t want to travel, just take a week in the back garden (the weather’s good enough these days). I once worked with someone who had a week in Mexico every year, but never left the hotel in which she stayed.

People were arguing about whether a Facebook group called “Kids of the 70s” was for people who were children in the 1970s or people who were born in the 1970s. Some people really will argue about anything… and then someone had claimed to be a Facebook friend of Freddie “Parrot Face” Davies.. oh, that kicked off.

And it would seem we missed the Pirates Day in Hastings (again!) this weekend.

Meanwhile my cousin who is into swimming and paddleboarding in the sea off of the Sussex coast has found herself a nemesis. Superman has Lex Luthor, Batman has the Joker. My cousin has The Huge Titted Woman. Apparently The Huge Titted Woman has already fallen foul of the lifeguards.

 

I Munzed, got Worldle on the fifth attempt (blank), and had a go at my twenty minute chair workout. I then needed a little rest before a dunk in the shower. “er indoors ^TM” went shopping, and I pored over the geo-map. I’ve located one geocache in the Cranbrook area that would do for the latest Treasures thingy… but I can’t see anywhere sensible where we might park the car.

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned from shopping. She’d got some bargain grapefruits. Aldi had been knocking them out at twenty-nine pence a go. Is that cheap? I’ve not bought a grapefruit for years.

 

We got into the car and drove down to Dungeness for the monthly geo-meet where we all met up at the Pilot. The morning’s drizzle held off for a little, but the rain got a tad heavy so we retreated inside. The rain didn’t last long, but we were quite happy where we were. We’ve been to dog-friendly places before, but so many places aren’t so much “dog friendly” as “dog tolerant”. The Pilot was really “dog friendly” with at least one dog at every table. I bought some scampi fries and shared them with our dogs and many of the other dogs in the pub. And I bought some whitebait which our dogs loved. The other dogs didn’t get that.

The rain didn’t last that long; it was really good to catch up with friends.

We came home and I fell asleep. More beer than sense does that.

 

I woke to find “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and Pogo were in attendance. They boiled up dinner. It was rather good…

 

And following on from yesterday’s rant today was forecast to be thunderstorms all day long with formal weather warnings from the Met Office… we had a little drizze in the morning and quarter of an hour of rain at mid-day…

19 July 2025 (Saturday) - Two Resuscitations and an FTF

Between the heavy rain beating on the window (several times) and Treacle whinging to get back on the bed (several times) I didn’t have the best night’s sleep.

I made toast and saw I’d had a message overnight. A hint on that puzzle I’d been struggling with recently. And with that final hint I had the solution. There’s no denying that I’d needed one or two hints on this one. In retrospect I’d massively overthought the puzzle. I won’t give any spoilers, but let’s just say that having a degree in maths (which I have) gave me several completely wrong ideas.

 

As I scoffed toast Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. “You’ve been waiting much too long now. It looks like she’s not coming home”. No? – “Substitute” by “Clout” from the late 1970s.

Despite the weather forecast we got ourselves organized and drove over to Dog Club. Threats of thunderstorms had put people off, but we still had a dozen dogs in attendance and we all had a great time. We had maybe ten minutes of rain, but only ten minutes.

Seeing the rain was holding off I thought we might drive out to get that geocache whose puzzle I’d solved. We drove out to the back of beyond, had a little stroll, and soon had the thing in hand. And seeing how no one had found it in eighteen months that was one I could add to my list of resuscitations.

 

We came home. There was one shower as we drove, but it only lasted for a few minutes. We came home to glorious sunshine, and I had the hump. Having not planned anything for today because of supposed constant torrential rain we had the possibility of a wasted day.

So we went on a little outing.

Over brekkie I’d had an email about a new geocache just south of Canterbury. It still hadn’t been found. Could we be first? We loaded up the dogs and set off, and after half an hour we were on Stelling Minnis common by an oak tree with a blank geo-log in our hands. First to Find. Go us.

And with the weather still holding I reckoned it wasn’t *that* far to Margate and another geo-Treasure.

It wasn’t that far really (!) We parked up and started searching… And searching. Some geocaches are blindingly obvious. Some aren’t. After twenty-five minutes I messaged the friend who’d hidden it for a bit of a hint. We found it, but it took some finding; it blended in incredibly well with its surroundings. And it was another resuscitation for my list too.

As we drove home we had the third rain shower of the day. It was quite heavy but only lasted for five minutes at most.

 

We got home, fed the fish, gathered dog turds and had a late lunch which we scoffed whilst watching a film. We recorded “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” ages ago, and finally got round to watching it today. It was rather good.

I followed it up with my twenty minute chair workout which again left me a sweaty lump, and I looked out of the window at a glorious evening. We thought about taking the dogs to Orlestone, but they were all fast asleep.

 

When I checked the weather forecast yesterday evening it was for torrential rain all day today. That was the same forecast when we left home this morning for Dog Club.

In all we’ve seen three passing showers today. I counted them. Admittedly heavy showers, but none lasted for more than ten minutes at most. We’ve had a rather bright sunny day; I think I’ve caught the sun.

We cancelled a garden party planned for this afternoon because of meteorological incompetence.

If I was as good at my job as the weather forecasters, people would die… But we put up with it. No one expects the weather forecasters to get it right; we all laugh about them. And we pay them a ridiculous amount of money with no expectations of them ever getting it right.

Who do I get my money back from?

18 July 2025 (Friday) - Another Busy Day

My piss boiled (again) as I peered into the internet at toast-scoffing time. Our local MP has tabled an Early Day Motion to celebrate Victoria Park in Ashford which has received a Green Flag award. The Green Flag award being awarded because of other people’s efforts and having nothing to do with our local MP.

Like his predecessor our current MP seems to be very good at being seen to take credit for other people’s efforts.

Yesterday we saw a strange turd whilst on our walk. Could it possibly have been from the arse of one of those wild black cats that get seen from time to time? I asked on the Facebook page about sightings of those cats locally… This morning there were quite a few replies. As is always the way I got several stupid answers. Some from people trying to be clever, and some from those who couldn’t be clever if they tried. But it turns out that the most likely dropper of that turd was a wild boar. I’ve always known that Kent has one of the highest populations of wild boar in England, but I’ve never seen one in the woods. Mind you I’ve never seen a large black cat there either and I’m quite convinced there’s some up there. Could there be wild boar? I shall keep an eye out. For boar, as well as more turds.

And I saw a new geocache had gone live which would qualify for the new Treasures thingy. At just over twenty miles away that is on the list to be done soon.

 

I tried to Munz, but after a couple of caps I got kicked out of the app and couldn't log back in. Wass there an issue? I Wordled instead, but my phone wasn’t having it, so I pressed the re-boot button and got dressed.

 

I took the dogs to Orlestone woods for a walk. We did probably the longest walk we could do in those woods, and it came in at just under two and a half miles. As we walked we met the yummy mummy joggers. We’ve seen them before in their skin-tight lycra. Call me an old puritan if you will, but they might as well jog round the woods in the nip for all that their (so-called) clothes keep secret.

Their dogs and mine all played nicely as they do. And I realized that I’d done the yummy mummies a disservice. When I saw them I automatically thought they had far too many dogs. As we chatted I counted that between the two of them they had seven dogs… that’s three and a half each compared to me with four.

And I tried the birdsong app again. Having found nothing the last couple of times I tried it, it found birds today.

 

We came home for a cuppa and I tried the Munzee app again. It worked. As did Wordle; albeit with a rather stupid word (loris). I then had a little look at a geo-puzzle that Gordon said he was struggling with. After quite a bit of brain strain I wasn’t getting anywhere. I’d like to have the thumbs-up on that one as with that, this morning’s new geocache, and one at Cranbrook that I’d been planning on doing for a while this latest batch of geocaching Treasures would be looking a lot more possible than it originally was.

 

I drove “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and Pogo home, then set about some CPD. I got the garden ready for later, then did my chair fitness routine. Again I ended up as a sweaty mass at the end of it. I sat down for a little rest… and woke up an hour later as the Iceland man arrived with the shopping. I had a go against the chess bots, lost twice then went and had a shower.

 

Sadly many people weren’t able to join us this evening, but it was rather good to meet up with those that could. A few drinks, a little scoff… we had a very good evening catching up with friends in honour of Chris’s birthday. Admittedly his birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but the weather forecast is for thunderstorms all weekend.

Will we have thunderstorms all weekend? Time will tell – it always does…