30 September 2025 (Tuesday) - Another Walk, More Gardening

Apart from waking with a dead arm (where Treacle had been sleeping on it) I slept reasonably well. I made toast and peered into the Internet. No new geocaches this morning. That’s my streak of a First to Find every month ended.

Facebook was odd this morning. This morning I had seemingly endless posts about the 1980s TV show “Auf Wiedersehn Pet” for no reason that I could fathom. I also had quite a few posts from a new business that had recently started up in Hastings Old Town. The chap posting under the name of that business was being incredibly opinionated… I can see that in doing this he will attract some new customers and put off others. It’s always a good idea not to piss off your target audience.

I Munzed, got Wordle (geese) on the fourth attempt, and got ready for the off.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about a recent survey about the use of Smartphones by children. Schools don’t like them, but parents like than as they can keep in constant contact with their children. Do parents *really* need to be in such constant contact with their children? When I was a lad I’d shove off out for pretty much all of the entire daylight hours. The last thing I wanted was mum constantly fussing, and mum never seemed overly fussed about where I was anyway. And neither did the parents of any of my mates.

And there was talk about the classic 1960s TV show “Thunderbirds”; today marks the sixtieth anniversary of the first ever broadcast of the first episode.

 

We got to the woods and walked a different route to our usual one. Treacle found a muddy puddle and a dead squirrel, and we saw the deer again. I ran my bird app – we didn’t hear a siskin today, but the coal tits and goldcrest that the app said were rare yesterday weren’t rare any more.

After four and a half miles we were back at the car. We came home listening to the pundits on the radio talking about the film “American Psycho”. The implication was that everyone has seen this film. I haven’t; it sounded quite good from what was said.

 

Once home I sorted us both a cuppa. We had a mini-crunchie with it as a special treat. Back in the day I would have popped up to the corner shop for an almond croissant each. A mini-crunchie has one hundred and ten calories; an almond croissant more than four times that amount. Back in the day I was two and a half stone heavier.

This diet lark is all about being aware of just what it is that you shove down your neck.

 

Yesterday I drilled some holes in the rock-hard bald spot on the lawn. This morning I had a stroke of genius. The seed that the birds scatter from the feeder keeps sprouting. So I carefully plucked some of the sprouting grasses and carefully poked them into the holes. It didn’t take long for me to realise that this was a lot like farting about.

I then had another stroke of genius. I poked some of the bird seed into the drilled holes and covered them over. I watered the lot down. Either it will go some way to mending the poggered lawn or it won’t.

I then spent a while generally tidying up. There was no end of twigs and dead leaves that needed picking up. The end result of gardening is a pretty garden, but it is hard work and an ultimately futile exercise. You work really hard just to maintain the status quo.

 

Suddenly it was two o’clock. I had some peanut butter on toast for lunch, then cracked on in the garden again. First to the the pond. There was a surprising amount of dead plant floating in there. That came out. The aerating pump needed the green muck scraping off. I thought about pruning the bog filter… and decided not to.

I then moved to the small pond. The plants there needed serious pruning, the aerating pump there also needed green muck scraping off, and the water needed topping up a bit. I wonder if that pond could do with being deeper? It’s on a concrete base so going down isn’t an option. Putting another layer of sleepers round the top would be easy enough… Maybe next spring?

 

It was getting a tad cold so I came in. I updated my geocaching profile to include the badge I’d earned by showing up at last night’s geo-meet… I intended to update it; I trashed it. Putting it right only took an hour.

I wrote up some CPD.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Destination X” in which some of the contestants were stating to get rather competitive and others were surprised to find that their fellow contestants were contestants in a game and not their best buddies.

We’re now watching a celebrity version of “The Weakest Link” which is so obviously faked – people *can’t* be that stupid.

Can they?

29 September 2025 (Monday) - A Walk, Gardening, Geo-Meet

I stood on the scales this morning. I’ve lost three pounds this month – two and a half stone since the beginning of the year. That’s a result.

I made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. It was still there. I saw that My Boy ^TM” had shared an advert to his Facebook feed. A friend of his was selling his bivvy. A “bivvy” is a small tent used when fishing. You can get something which is virtually identical on Amazon brand new for twenty quid, but that would be a “tent”. A “bivvy” might look exactly the same to the uninitiated, but second-hand ones change hands for a hundred and fifty quid. You *really* don’t want to ask what a new one costs.

As I’ve said before, fishing isn’t a cheap hobby these days.

 

I Munzed… with one day to go we still haven’t hit out final target. And I got Wordle (civil) on the third attempt.

Bearing in mind the debacle of yesterday’s traffic I checked the traffic map. Yesterday one lane of the dual carriageways on the way to the woods was closed off for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Google said the roads were clear today, so I believed it and took the dogs out.

 

We went up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about downloading people to the cloud where they would live forever. As the radio show went on it became very clear that no one really knew what “downloading people to the cloud” actually meant; let alone how you might go about it.

We got to the woods; we had a good walk. My birdsong app told me that coal tits and goldcrest are now rare, and siskins are now uncommon. They weren’t the last time I detected any of them. And we saw deer; a herd of half a dozen who stood and watched us. The dogs watched them; it was only when the deer ran off that the dogs tried to chase them; and it was a half-hearted chase at best.

 

We came home for a cuppa, then I had a little look in the garden. I strimmed the edges and mowed the lawn. I cut back the jungle which was flowing over the fence. And I made a start at the bald spot on the lawn. Underneath the garden table is quite a large bald area which doesn’t look good. So I moved the table out of the way. The bald spot was rock hard so I got the drill out and drilled a few dozen holes into it. Hopefully rain and dew will get in and soften it all up and it will re-seed itself. Or it won’t…

I then bionically burned the sunburst pattern up by the pond. The weeds keep growing through it. I might lift the lot and put more anti-weed membrane there. And I replaced the battery in the garden clock. It had lasted six months; I was rather pleased with that, but to be honest I have no idea if that is good or bad.

 

I came I for a late lunch. But the time I sorted myself some peanut butter and marmalade it was after two o’clock. Despite supposedly being on leave I did some CPD, then played the bots at chess.

Suddenly the afternoon was all but gone. I stood up and loudly announced that I was going to “FEED THE FISH””. Dogs went from snoring to charging down the garden in the blink of an eye.

 

We had a quick pizza, then popped down to Folkestone for the geo-meet. It was a shame that Treacle felt the need to scoff the organiser’s chips, but there it is. Or was. It was a surprisingly well-attended meet-up; turning up gave us a Treasure and a Souvenir. It would have been good to have stayed longer, but “er indoors ^TM” had bowling.

She dropped me and the dogs home then went off to bowling. I sorted the dog’s dinners then cracked on with ironing shirts whilst watching the last episode of “Years and Years”. If you get a chance, do give it a watch. Bear in mind it was written in 2018 and predicted COVID, the rise of Reform UK, Trumpism…

28 September 2025 (Sunday) - Faversham

As I peered in to Facebook this morning (as I do) I found myself wasting time watching some inane video. In the caption that went with it the chap who’d posted the video was asking for financial contributions so’s he could carry on posting videos. Perhaps he’s destitute? Perhaps he needs the money? Perhaps I’m being a tad uncharitable? But it just seems to me that there are more and more walks of life like writing and sports/athletics and posting to social media (!) that aren’t hobbies any more but paid professions. Some people pay to watch others playing video games on You-Tube. And now someone wants to monetarise their Facebook feed.

If anyone wants to sponsor me whinging about Bailey rolling in fox poo…

I also saw a video posted by a colleague who was on holiday somewhere in the far east. Originally from Nepal, she travels all over the world and posts the most amazing videos from where she visits. Sometimes I think I should travel more… but then for all that I like being away somewhere different, I detest all the travelling and farting about in airports. And I get rather (very) homesick very easily.

And another colleague had posted up a video of Morecambe and Wise. Am I the only person in the world who doesn’t think them funny?

 

I Munzed… with only two days to go, one of the members of our Munzee clan still had quite a few Munzing things to do. Everyone else was done a week ago, but not this one. We’ve never not hit our monthly targets.

I shrugged, hung the washing out, and we got ready for an outing.

 

The dogs needed a walk, and so did I. There were a few geocaches near Faversham that met the specific requirements for the current load of e-souvenirs so we thought they might guide us on a little walk.

They did.

We walked a mile across some rather pretty fields. They probably won’t be pretty fields for long though; not at the rate that the nearby new houses were being built. We walked back to the car and drove to a little water mill in Faversham, and then to the other side of the town for another little walk.

Sadly the second little walk was nowhere near as pretty as the first. The route took us past some overgrown allotments. In some parts of the world there is a waiting list of years to get an allotment. There seems to be no shortage of the things in Faversham.

I found a dead mouse; fortunately none of the dogs noticed it. But we found everything geocachical that  we went looking for, and got our e-souvenirs too.

As we walked so my phone pinged. Our Munzee clan had reached our second monthly target. That was a result.

 

We came home. I got the washing in. I’d taken a few photos whilst we were out so I told the Internet about them, and with “er indoors ^TM” off shopping I played the bots at chess. Those bots are rather good.

I wrote up a little CPD, and then “er indoors ^TM” returned with chocolate eclairs for a late lunch.

I then looked at a little geo-challenge that I’d forgotten about. I actually qualify for it, so when I’m next in the vicinity of the Bluewater shopping centre I’ll hunt it out.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a good roast which we scoffed whilst watching “Lego Masters: Australia” in which the contestants were warned about “the curse of the butterfly” (apparently it’s a Lego thing!). Tonight was the semi-finals, and the woman I really don’t like is through to the finals…

 

And I’ll end today with something of a mystery. Today I’ve been quite active walking here, there and thither. Yesterday I was at work and did two thousand more steps.

27 September 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Late Shift, Dull...

This morning’s petty squabble on Facebook was whether you should use cash or cards to pay in a pub. Some chap was using the name of a pub in Cheshire as his Facebook identity and was being rather opinionated. Sadly (like many opinionated people) he was factually wrong on many points, and wasn’t at all happy when someone else claimed that his bank charges him to pay cash in, and that payments in cash and card cost him the same amount. I suppose this bloke was playing to what he saw as his target audience, but in doing so was alienating a lot of other people. I had a look at the Facebook profile of the pub whose name he was posting under… Oh dear. More St George’s flags than sense… Am I being judgemental?

 

We got Alexa to play Radio Ashford as we do every Saturday. I’d forgotten that Steve was away. His stand-in wasn’t the same. Whoever it was didn’t actually speak. I quite missed the “Guess The Lyrics” and the Mystery Year competitions.

I Munzed, got Wordle (fritz – seriously?) on the sixth attempt, and we got ready for Dog Club.

 

As we drove we came past the new McDonalds which has a banner outside saying that they are recruiting. Over the road is the Territorial Army who’ve also put up a banner saying that they are recruiting. But the Army’s banner says that their uniforms are better. They’ve probably got a point.

Dog club was much the same as ever. About fifteen (I tried to count; they wouldn’t stand still) dogs ran riot and chased balls and shared treats. It’s such a simple idea, but one which works so well. Bailey seemed to have a better time than she did last week. Last time she was cold so she wore her coat today. Morgan wore his coat but kept whimpering until we took it off. He perked up then.

 

We came home for a cuppa and to count up the dog club money. And I had a bit of a sulk. As I’d scoffed toast I’d seen a new geocache had gone live on the way to work. That would break my journey up this morning. But whilst we were at Dog Club someone else had beat me to it and got First to Find. It looks like my streak of getting a First to Find every month is about to come to a crashing end. There are two schools of thought about being First to Find. Personally I like to find one each month, and having found one I then ease up and give everyone else a chance. Sadly everyone else disagrees and sees nothing wrong in having the lot for themselves. Neither side is right or wrong… I suppose that it really is every man for himself.

But that doesn’t stop me sulking.

I did a few chess puzzles, played the bot at chess (with variable success), and got ready for work.

 

Bailey wasn't happy that I was going out without her. Despite a good session at Dog Club she was definitely asking to go out for a walk. I left “er indoors ^TM” with that task and set off work-wards.

I drove up the motorway listening to "From Our Own Correspondent" on the radio. "Our Own Correspondent" was corresponding from Palestine. It was alleged that for all that much of the world now recognizes Palestine as a state in its own right, the average Palestinian would much rather that much of the world just left them alone. I can sympathise with that. I turned the radio off and sang along with Ivor Biggun songs as I drove through the rain. Bearing in mind the weather forecast gave a zero per cent chance of rain, there was an awful lot of rain going on.

 

I got to work. I'd been sulking about going to work, but it was dull and overcast outside, and cold too. I don't mind working when it is like that. And for all that I was on my own for much of the shift, I quite like being able to crack on and do the job. Not that I’m going to be doing it for a little while – I’m now having a little holiday…

26 September 2025 (Friday) - Early Shift

Morgan jumped off the bed at three o’clock this morning. I got up to take him outside; he jumped back on the bed and into the warm spot I’d just left. And that was it for sleep for the night. I got up at five o’clock and watched an episode of “Years and Years” which was again oh so prophetic.

I had a quick Munz, then got ready for work.

 

I went to the co-op this morning to get a sandwich... Oh dear. The selection of sandwich wasn't good, the snack selection (as part of the meal deal) left a lot to be desired, and the till had very little change. Sainsburys do better food cheaper... Sadly smaller shops can't compete with the supermarkets.

 

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about the government's new scheme to bring in "digital ID" which will make things much harder for illegal immigrants to get cash in hand work. Personally I can't see how. All the thing does is show that someone has the right to work in the UK. If an employer doesn't want to pay over the odds for staff, they aren't going to fanny about asking for ID; they are going to go to the cheapest bidder. Aren't they? Employers are already obliged not to employ people who can't legally work in the UK (for what that’s worth!). What does this digital ID change?

Meanwhile the head honchos at Kent County Council and Ashford and Dartford borough councils are asking for the Eurostar to start calling at Ashford and Ebbsfleet again… which is all to impress the voters, isn’t it?. These councils have no power over the Eurostar. Who does have power over the Eurostar? Us. The people who make the service profitable (or not) and who never used it when we had the chance. I used it once, and even then, someone else was paying.

 

I got to work, and was very conscious that I spent a lot of time sitting at the microscope. My step count is noticeably down when I am at work; about a third of that of a day off when I take the dogs to the woods. So I did a few sums and worked out that in order to hit my step goal (what I effectively see at the bare minimum number of steps I should be doing) I needed to walk up and down the department one hundred and fifty times. I tried; it got a tad tedious.

And then I had a meeting. I won't dwell on the meeting; I'll just say that back in the day when I was a manager I used to have lots of them, and I don't miss them. I quite understand the importance of getting everybody’s opinions, forming a consensus and moving together as a team… but personally I’d rather just be given instructions.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up ribs and chips which we scoffed whilst watching another episode of “Destination X” in which thick people queued up to proudly show off their ignorance. How can anyone get to their mid-twenties and not know what a horseshoe is? Today’s episode might well have been from the German cabbage-growing region of Dummkopf Schweinhund for all that our heroes could determine. 

25 September 2025 (Thursday) - A Ninth Birthday

Apparently “er indoors ^TM” was up with the dogs at tree o’clock last night. I must have missed that.

As I peered into Facebook this morning I was presented with quite a few adverts… Last night I’d been idly speculating about having a couple of nights away for our wedding anniversary. This morning my Facebook feed was awash with adverts for dog-friendly cottages.

As I scoffed toast so the birthday girl got told off. It might be her ninth birthday, but she isn’t allowed to bark at passers-by. She knows that.

 

With “er indoors ^TM” off on some works volunteering day I took the dogs out. As we drove to the woods the pundits on the radio were spouting their usual drivel. Apparently only fifteen per cent of people have ever taken a child to an art gallery, and some gallery in Manchester was encouraging people to allow their brats to run riot in an attempt to increase visitor numbers.

Experts seem to think that girls born in the UK this year will have an average of less than one and a half children in their lifetime.

And Forestry England has felled a lot of timber in the Cheviots (somewhere up north) but not realised that the woodland tracks which allow the forestry workers in are too small for the lorries that take the timber out. And so the felled timber is just sitting there. Woops.

 

We got to the woods where some woman was walking would the car park making strange squawking noises at all the other dogs, which was winding them up. We hurried off before she could wind us up.

We saw a couple of foragers as we walked; foraging seems to be the thing to do in the woods at the moment. I suppose it is all very well all the time you know that which you can forage and safely eat and that which will kill you.

We saw a deer. It posed long enough to get a blurred photo. We met a couple of geocachers. And Bailey rolled in muck. I wish she wouldn’t.

We came home for a bath.

 

With Bailey bathed I made myself a cuppa and did the monthly accounts. They’ve certainly been better, but the planned long weekend away won’t be happening any time soon.

I watched another episode of “Years and Years” which predicted the repeal of the US “Roe V Wade” court decision years before it happened, then wrote up some CPD. I thought I’d spend a few minutes doing it; I spent all afternoon. I eventually stopped when the birthday girl became fractious. I’d been at it for so long I’d forgotten to do “Feed The Fish!”

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned and boiled up some rather good burgers which we scoffed whilst watching “Fawlty Towers: The Play”. I was disappointed.. I won’t say it was rubbish; it wasn’t. But it reminded me of all of the latest series of “Red Dwarf” in that for all that the show had been hyped up, there was absolutely nothing new about it at all.

24 September 2025 (Wednesday) - The World Didn't End

Well, the world didn’t end last night. It was supposed to. Mind you I’ve lived through the end of the world a few times now. I can clearly remember the first one. It was on the stroke of midnight on January 1^st 1980. Absolutely everyone knew the world was going to ends, and I can remember walking round Ore Village (the better part of Hastings) with my mate Douggie. The world hadn’t ended and both of us were at a complete loss as to what we should be doing.

There was another end of the world at the turn of the millennium. That too was a disappointment.

There’s been several over the years since; none of which have lived up to expectations.

 

I made toast and watched an episode of “Years and Years” which despite being six years old was amazingly prophetic.

I then had a quick look at the Internet. This morning’s petty squabble on Facebook was on the Rupert Bear Appreciation Society. Some people really will quarrel over anything.

I sent out birthday wishes. Only one Facebook friend was having a birthday today. Once a very close friend, I’ve not seen Chip to speak to for years. Such a shame.

I Munzed and then downloaded bank statements. I’ve had an email from the bank saying that they are stopping sending me paper statements whether I like it or not. I gave up asking them not to send paper statements years ago. It’s taken them long enough to listen to me. And taking care not to wake anyone I got ready for work rather earlier than I might have done.

I had a naive hope that a new geocache might have gone live in the general vicinity of work. Two had yesterday. They seem to go live near work when I’m not working, and go live near home when I am.

 

As I walked to my car I tried not to chuckle about the chap on the other side of the road. He was talking on his phone to someone or other, but he didn't really need the phone. His every utterance was shouted. Why do so many people feel the need to bellow into their phones?

I drove round to Sainsburys where I got petrol. The often miserable one behind the counter was making a point of filling shelves (that didn't need filling) this morning so the queue was growing. And growing.

And then I drove up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio.  President Trump was being mentioned by all and sundry. Having made up a story that paracetamol causes autism he then went on to call Russia a paper tiger and claim that Ukraine will win the ongoing war.

He can't really be as stupid as he seems, can he?

 

I got to work and treated myself to a cheese scone, then cracked on with my day.  I spent another day with the trainees; today waxing lyrical about malaria, babesiosis, trypanosomes and other frankly horrible micro-organisms that get into your blood and try to make a home there. They are truly yukky, and really put you off your dinner. Unless you do what I do for a living. Blood testers are made of stern stuff.

 

I came home. I do that. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we washed down with a decent bottle of plonk, then I shared some biscuits with the dogs. I had some stilton with mine. We had a ploughman’s lunch on August Bank Holiday, and I discovered the leftover cheese in the fridge. It was still good… mind you with stilton can you tell if it’s gone off?

23 September 2025 (Tuesday) - It Rained (A Lot)

 I had emails this morning… Yesterday I found there was an issue with one of the new geocaches I’d been planning. I thought I corrected the on-line listing but the geo-feds said I hadn’t. I tried to correct it again. And again. Despite saying that what I’d done had been saved the thing flatly refused to accept any update.

I created an entirely new listing and sent that in instead.

All of the new caches went live ten minutes later.

And after yesterday’s session, the dentist asked me to review them on Google. I didn’t but I drafted a reply to them… and thought better of sending it. They’d only take offence.

 

“er indoors ^TM” drove her car over to the garage for its MOT and service. I followed over with the dogs. As we drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing some minister or other about asylum seekers. They do that a lot. Whilst I feel for the poor people, the system doesn’t help them. For example the minister acknowledged that if any asylum seeker has an appointment with a doctor, they get given a taxi to take them. Surely that is something that could be stopped right now, isn’t it?

I fetched “er indoors ^TM” home, then took the dogs up to the woods for a walk. We walked pretty much our usual route, but as we went I decided to investigate a little clearing that we walk past. There was a little track leading out of it which we followed. We found another footpath in the woods. There really can’t be many more paths up there for us to find… can there?

 

We came home for a cuppa and a Belgian bun which put back pretty much all of the calories we’d walked off. That’s why I’m not losing weight…

I Munzed and Wordled and thought about cracking on in the garden, but it was raining. The forecast rain had arrived but was a couple of hours late. I wasn’t complaining though; we got round the woods without getting wet. Instead I wrote up some CPD until lunchtime when “er indoors ^TM” car was ready.

Again the weather forecast failed. The BBC’s forecast for out postcard said “light rain showers”; reality said “torrential rain”. But we set off to get her car.

 

We came home again. Again I wanted to crack on in the garden; again the rain was against me. So bearing in mind I’ve been asked to help with what the trainees see down the microscope I spent a little while updating that which I first wrote over twenty years ago until the rain stopped.

I then loudly announced that I was GOING TO FEED THE FISH and I’d never seen a dog move so fast as Treacle shifted. It was a shame that it was still raining, but the rain had certainly eased up on what it was.

 

I feel rather washed out… I’ve got to go to work tomorrow.

22 September 2025 (Monday) - Rather Busy

Every Monday morning I stand on the scales… my weight has been holding constant at one pound under fifteen stone for some time now. I suppose holding constant at a lot less than what it used to be is something of a result, but I’d rather more came off.

 

I made toast and peered into a dull Internet. Despite having left so many groups and “de-interested” myself from no end of nonsense on Facebook I was still being presented with a lot of utterly irrelevant drivel. I want to see what family and friends have been up to – that’s why I tune in every morning.

 

With “er indoors ^TM” fetching “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” (who had an errand to run) I tuned Alexa to Radio Four. The pundits on the radio were interviewing the head honcho of the co-op who was talking about how so many failing pubs and theatres are being bought up by local communities. But for all the talk there was no mention about whether these ventures made a go of that which they’d bought. I was reminded of “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” little shop in Margate when she found that the local Tesco was selling pretty much everything cheaper than she could get stuff wholesale from the cash and carry.

The UK has formally recognized the state of Palestine, and has asked the Israeli government not to go attacking innocents in retaliation. And there was talk of Gatwick airport for which permission has been given for a second runway.

There’s very rarely anything positive in the news, is there?

The radio then said there would be rain showers today in Kent… even though their own website’s weather forecast said there wouldn’t be.

 

I put a load of washing in and then went down the road to the dentist. Every time I go there I vow never again and say I will look at going elsewhere in future. The problem is that the local dentist has one overriding advantage over every other dentist in that it is local.

I got there and was told to fill in my car details. I asked why; apparently they need to know who is in the car park. I explained that I’d walked; the woman behind the counter asked me again to fill in my car details. Eventually after telling her three times that I had no car in the car park she moved on to the next frustration where I did a self-service check-in.

I was only quarter of an hour late getting in to see the dentist, who said that all was well with my gob. I was five minutes late with the hygienist. She apologised that she had no dental nurse to help her today, and said she’d be doubling up. She arranged the suction hose so that it didn’t need to be held by anyone, and managed to do her thing before she drowned me.

As I booked my next appointments so the receptionists were having a “dabbing at each other” fight. I shall let that pass – there will be an entirely new reception staff when I next visit; no one lasts at that place.

 

I came home, hung out the washing then ran round with the poo bucket before getting the lawn mower out. Running round with the poo bucket before getting the lawn mower out is the only way to do it. Trust me (!)

I then cleaned out the big pond’s pressure filter, pruned the plants in the little pond, and planted that conker I’d picked up on yesterday’s walk.

“Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” had run her errand by then so I drove her home. By the time I got back and made us both a cuppa the morning had gone.

 

Bailey was keen to go out, and when I picked up the leads so Morgan perked up. Treacle soon got the idea and we went off on a little adventure. As we walked to the car so not-so-nice next-door was coming up the road. Fortunately the dogs didn’t bark at her. She’s complained before that the dogs always bark at her; at the time I told her that was because the dogs don’t like her. She’s not the easiest of neighbours; I usually try to be civil but she really doesn’t want to know.

 

We drove out to where we went last week. Last week I planned out some possible locations for geocaches. The geo-feds had given the thumbs-up to the locations and this afternoon I put the pots out. Last week Bailey seriously ran amok in those woods so I watched her like a pork (to coin a phrase). She was better than she has been recently; only getting on the wrong side of one fence, and not disappearing at all.

As we walked I realised I’d made a total stuff-up of one of the geo-locations I’d found, but nothing that wasn’t soon put right.

 

We came home to find “er indoors ^TM” fighting with her new printer. As she struggled to get it to work I told the geo-feds all about those new geocaches. And with that done I got the washing in and spent an hour or so doing the ironing. Tedious, but a job that needed doing.

I fed the fish. We’d found some old boilies that “My Boy ^TM” had left in the freezer (many years ago). The fish didn’t like those; I didn’t try them on the dogs.

I wrote up some CPD, and had a look at a project I first started for the trainees where I used to work many years ago. I’ve been asked to help with the trainees… I wonder if I might dust that off?

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza then went bowling. I started watching something new on Netflix. “Years and Years” features him who was the werewolf in “Being Human” and “Budgie” in “Gavin and Stacey”. Made six years ago it tells the take of a dystopian Britain in what was then the near future. It isn’t entirely unlike what’s happening in the world today…

21 September 2025 (Sunday) - Badlesmere

I slept reasonably well I suppose; I seem to be taking longer and longer to doze off these days though.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. Having cleared my Facebook interest lists of all sorts of things that were on no interest to me, this morning I was presented with suggestions for groups and interests that were similarly of no interest to me. This AI has got to go a long way before it is ready to take over the world.

I had quite a few emails this morning. One hundred and seventeen “Found It” logs from one of the people who were at the geo-meet in Kings Wood yesterday. Bearing in mind that they started at seven o’clock yesterday, and one of them was sending me messages about my virtual cache in Viccie Park at twenty past five yesterday afternoon, that’s an average rate of just under twelve caches an hour. That’s a bit keen.

The new geocache that “er indoors ^TM” put out yesterday had gone live. I decided against chasing the First to Find. Bearing in mind I knew where it was, that would be cheating.

 

We got ourselves and the dogs together and wet off up the A251 to Badlesmere where we met Karl and Tracey. They’d had a flurry of “Needs Maintenance” logs on their geocaches and were doing a maintenance run, and we went along for the walk, even if Needs Maintenance” logs wind me up. A Needs Maintenance” log means there is something wrong with a geocache. Today there were twenty geocaches all with the same issue; the paper logs that you sign were getting full. But rather than doing the decent thing and popping a scrap of paper in each geocache, someone had just put out a load of Needs Maintenance” logs instead. From their perspective it is a lot less effort, I suppose. But a walk round Badlesmere is always good.

I wore wellies as we walked as I had been expecting loads of mud; there wasn’t any. As we walked there were loads of conkers on the floor; don’t kids play conkers any more? I brought one home to plant. It might grow into a tree for a big pot in the front garden.

As we walked we found loads of corrugated metal sheets laid out. I thought there might be snakes or lizards under them so I carefully had a look under each. No reptiles, but we did find a dormouse.

We had a good walk; a few drops of rain as we scoffed our picnic but that soon dried up. And we even took a little diversion to find a geocache too.

After four and a half miles we were back at the cars which by some strange coincidence were just over the road from the Red Lion in Badlesmere, so we popped in for a couple of pints and some pork scratchings for the dogs.

I took a few photos today… and slept much of the way home.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and chips which we scoffed whilst watching “Lego Masters: Australia”. Sadly one of the teams I quite liked got the heave-ho.

 

I’m thinking of an early night as I’ve got a belly ache… I’m also thinking of a late night as that way I might stay asleep longer.

Decisions, decisions…

20 September 2025 (Saturday) - Rather Busy (Actually!)

I was wide awake at three o’clock, and stayed wide awake. I got up at five, made some toast, and made a decision. Someone was staging a geo-meet at Kings Wood at half past six this morning. With nothing to do but wait for Steve to come on the radio and then go to Dog Club, faced with a dull couple of hours I thought we might go to that geo-meet.

The dogs weren’t at all impressed at getting up quite so early, and neither was “er indoors ^TM”.

 

We got to the car park at Kings Wood where we had a good little meet talking about hiding film pots under rocks. Clearly Forestry England is under new management. When I tried to have a meet there I was met with obstruction and resistance. The chap who arranged this morning’s meet said dealing with them had been painless.

I shall try again to organise a meet there myself.

And with meet met we then took the dogs on a short(ish) walk round the wood. I had hoped that being there early we would have had a better chance of seeing the deer. We didn’t see any, but the squirrels were active.

 

We got back to the car park at half past eight. I have never seen so many cars in the car park. As we walked we saw a lot of people foraging in the undergrowth for mushrooms. Was everyone foraging?

As we drove so I tuned the car radio to Radio Ashford. Last Saturday I mentioned that the radio signal reached twenty-one miles to Goudhurst. This morning the signal was seriously breaking up in Challock and that’s only five miles.

The plan was to go from Kings Wood to Dog Club. The plan was that the morning would stay dry, and the weather forecast had gone along with this plan up to the end of the walk. Sadly as we drove down from Challock to Ashford so the heavens opened. We got do Dog Club where a dozen dogs had a great (if very wet) time.

I took a few photos whilst we were out.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off to craft club. I took the dogs home for a hot shower to both warm them up and to wash the fox poo off of Bailey.

I made a cuppa, wrote up some CPD, then watched a bit of telly until “er indoors ^TM” came home. We had a bit of cheese on toast, gave ourselves bellyache, then took the dogs for a walk.

The geo-feds weren’t happy that one of “er indoors ^TM”’s geocaches has needed maintenance for a couple of months. The geo-feds let other people have six months, but there it is. Sorting it out made for a good dog walk.

 

We came home and then I did something I’ve been meaning to do for years. For some time my Facebook feed has been full of utterly irrelevant tripe and I rarely see anything of interest. I imagine that what is presented to me is based on some algorithm of my activity, and I’d noticed that I was following over a thousand different pages. So I went through that list… How on earth do things get on to your “following” list? I was (apparently) following pubs and hotels I’d visited ten years ago, pubs and businesses that had closed years ago, so-called celebrities from TV shows that were cancelled years ago, celebrities who had died years ago, random businesses and tradesmen from over a hundred miles away, several dozen cake manufacturers (none local), several young ladies in saucy undercrackers (!)… I unfollowed loads of irrelevant rubbish.

And then I looked at the groups that I was in. Six hundred and seven… So I left a few. “Rusty Stuff Appreciation Society”, “Classic Literature”, “Calvin and Hobbes Characters”, “East Midlands Koi Keepers”, “Save Swanscombe Peninsula SSSI”… I left over fifty groups that I had no idea why I might have ever joined in the first place.

I wonder if that will perk up my Facebook feed?

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off out with her mates for the evening. I sat in front of the telly and fell asleep…

I’ve had a rather busy and full-on day and walked over fourteen thousand steps. So why do I feel as though I’ve done nothing?

19 September 2025 (Friday) - Pirates, Biccies

I woke far too early as I do, and being totally unable to get back to sleep I got up, made toast and watched half of an episode of “Black Mirror” then had a look at the Internet. It was a tad early for the usual squabbles, but I had a message via the geocaching website. Someone was asking for a clue as to how I’d solved a particular puzzle. Sometimes I solve puzzles by a non-traditional technique (I swap answers for ones I’ve solved for ones I haven’t), but I can distinctly remember being very pleased with myself for solving this particular one. Sadly it was a while ago and can’t really remember how I did it. I really should keep my notes… I *think* it was something to do with prime numbers.

 

I set off to work through thick fog; taking care not to run over any bin men as I went. As I've said before the local bin men have something of an attitude about them. Not content with blocking traffic in every direction, they make a point of lunging in the way of any vehicles which are brave enough to try to move.

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about a job opportunity. MI6 (the bunch which James Bond supposedly works for) have vacancies for the post of "Russian Double Agent" and are inviting applications from any Russian spies who want to spill the dirt on what's going on inside the Kremlin.

How does that work as a career? Do you get a fixed salary and leave entitlement? How would you phone in sick if you felt a bit under the weather?

Meanwhile NASA has found extinct Martians. 

 

With a little time to spare I went to Sainsburys for a sandwich and some beer for a weekend walk. As always there was no one operating the tills so I went to the self-service tills. The machine didn't like that I was trying to buy beer and cider, and said that I had to wait for a human to verify me. I checked my watch and timed the delay. Six members of staff were within ten yards of me. Three were talking whilst supposed to be filling the shelves, two were trying to log a mobile phone onto Sainsbury's wi-fi, one was staring into space. Six minutes passed before I heard one of them (the one whose phone wasn't connecting to the wi-fi) say "we'd better sort that one out". She then walked over, waved a card at the self-service machine, and walked off again without saying a single word to me.

If there was another supermarket anywhere near work I wouldn't go to Sainsburys; I go there so often and they really couldn't care less about their customers.

 

I got to work for the early shift and cracked on. At tea break there were biccies. Home-made biccies. They were rather good.

Work was work. An early start made for an early finish. “er indoors ^TM” boiled me up a pizza then went off out with her mates. As I scoffed pizza and watched more “Black Mirror” so Treacle was snarling at the window. Half a dozen police were standing outside the house, and half a dozen others were standing on the other side of the road. What was that all about?

 

And in closing, today is National Talk Like A Pirate Day. Back in the day this was a thing... it has rather died out in the intervening years.

18 September 2025 (Thursday) - Bad Bailey !!!

I slept through till after eight o’clock this morning. I got up, made toast, and had a look at the Internet as I do. My piss boiled as I read one of the local Facebook pages. People were up in arms because the local hospital has shut its branch of Costa and is using the space as a makeshift ward.

Hospitals can’t win.

There’s ever increasing demand, ever decreasing resources, public pressure to send much of the workforce back to their countries of origin, consternation about people on beds in corridors, and now when they repurpose an area as a ward, that’s wrong too. What the self-appointed watchdogs don’t realise is that by creating this aura of public hostility to hospitals, no one wants to work in a hospital, and the situation just gets worse.

 

I Munzed, got Wordle (knife) on the third attempt, and got ready for our walk. A month or so ago a friend had archived all her geocaches in some (relatively) nearby woods. I had a vague plan to put out another series there; the idea was that if the woods were good for a dog walk then geo-maintenance could be combined with a dog walk.

We got to the car park of the woods to find a load of people clearing away their overnight camp. A lot of local woods are well known to tourists as somewhere that you can camp overnight for free.

I put on my wellies and we went for a walk. The woods are good for a walk in that they are flat, but… Bailey got on to the wrong side of barbed wire fences twice, disappeared down a rabbit hole, and just as I thought she was calming down she vanished for half an hour. She can be a sod…

In between Bailey playing silly beggars I found eleven hidey-holes for new caches, Maybe not a perfectly circular walk; maybe a tad too much back-tracking. But it would make a good semi-regular dog walk for me (even if Bailey has to go on the lead).

 

We came home. I ironed some shirts whilst watching a rather weak episode of “Black Mirror” in which some woman was running through a post-apocalyptic world trying to escape from killer robots. No explanation was ever given for either.

And with shirts ironed I made a start on preparing the web pages for the geocaches for which I’d found locations this morning. My plan was just to make a start… I got all of the admin done. The new geo-series is almost ready to go; all that remains if for me to actually put the pots under rocks at eleven specific locations. I thought about doing that this evening, but we would have been running out of daylight. It will keep until later… later probably being early next week.

 

Seeing the dogs were fast asleep I loudly announced “I’m Going To Feed The Fish”. It was mean of me, but they leapt up. They love the feeding the fish ritual as they get some of the food.

As I went into the garden I saw all the little jobs I was going to do. The big pond filter needs a clean. The little pond’s plants need pruning. The lawn needs mowing…

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good curry which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Bake Off” in which there are three distinct groups. Those wondering if they’ve one, those wondering if they are going home, and those making up the numbers.

 

I’ve got to go to work again tomorrow…

17 September 2025 (Wednesday) - Core Shift

I woke at half past one feeling like death warmed up. I popped to the loo, went back to bed and woke four hours later feeling a lot better. What was all that about?

I made toast with peanut butter - a jar had appeared in the cupboard (as if by magic).

As I scoffed brekkie I watched an episode of "Black Mirror". A world in which an automated system forces into endless awful relationships as a prelude to finding your perfect soulmate... what if that person is the first one you meet and the system says no?

 

Bearing in mind how bad the roads were last night I made an early start and drove through the rain. There was quite a bit of idiot driving going on today; so many people dangerously overtaking everyone else just to get to the red traffic light a split second earlier.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the state visit of President Trump. It was claimed that the British contingent is hoping for all sorts of preferential trade deals, whilst all Mr. Trump wants is photographs of him having tea with the King. All I know about the chap (Mr. Trump, not the King), is what I hear and see of him in the media, and I can hardly expect that to be impartial. But from what I see and hear he really does seem to be to be on a par with some of the more simple-minded cub scouts with whom I dealt all those years ago.

Meanwhile Science is about to clone a Dodo. That'll be nice...

 

The rain had eased up by the time I got up the motorway so I popped into Sainsburys for a sandwich. I could have got one from the works branch of M&S but Sainsburys costs less, and has bigger portions of better food. M&S seem to rely on a reputation which (in my experience) is very unwarranted.

I got to work early, and as I had a few minutes I treated myself to a couple of hundred calories of cheese scone. Last year I used to have one of those every day. Last year I was a lot heavier and three points off of a stroke.

 

Work was work. I came home (as I do) where “er indoors ^TM” had boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of plonk whilst watching Lego Masters: Australia.

 

And in closing today marks one year since we flew off to Uzbekistan. In some ways that has gone fast; in other ways Tashkent seems a lifetime ago.

16 September 2025 (Tuesday) - Late Shift

I got up shortly after seven o’clock, hung out the washing I’d put on in the night, put more in and looked at the Internet as I scoffed toast. More and more people were posting about last Saturday’s rally in London, claiming to have been there. More and more were claiming that it wasn’t about hatred and thuggery. But still no-one seemed to be able to say what it *was* about.

I Munzed, got Wordle (Lefty) on the fourth attempt, and got ready for the morning… making a point of waking everyone else up. How long can you stay in bed?

 

I took the dogs out for a walk. As we drove the pundits were talking about the ongoing situation in Gaza. With pretty much everyone seeming to be about to recognise Palestine as a state, the Israelis were getting more and more confrontational, and there were interviews with all sorts of prominent Jewish people who made a point of being unable to distinguish between disapproval of Israeli war crimes and anti-Semitism.

 

We got to Orlestone woods. My plan for today was to investigate a track I’ve been looking at for some time. A week or so ago a dog walker I’ve seen a few times told me that it was a lovely little track that eventually met up with the main path at the southern end of the wood.

What he actually meant was that the track fizzles out after twenty yards and becomes a poorly marked path following a rather deep ditch.

We followed the track and the path along the ditch. The ditch was deep, and there was a barbed wire fence along it, and it wasn’t long before Bailey was on the other side of both.

Not wanting total disaster I got Morgan and Treacle on their leads and tied them to a tree, then set off after Bailey. Over the barbed wire, down into the ditch and up the other side. Morgan and Treacle were very understanding; I only heard occasional whinges from them as I forced my way through thickets hunting for Bailey.

After what seemed an eternity (but was probably less than three minutes) Bailey appeared, and wasn’t at all impressed to be put on the lead.

Getting her back across the ditch and the barbed wire fence took some doing…

 

We (eventually) came home and I got a message from Gordon. A new geocache had gone live on the way to work. I set off in the hope of being First to Find. Had there not been endless temporary traffic lights up the A20 I might have been first…

Ho hum…

 

I got to work, did my bit and came home. You have to wonder what half-wit at Kent Highways decided to schedule road works on the A20 whilst closing the M20 at the same time…

15 September 2025 (Monday) - MOT, Chess, Dull

I woke up feeling rather grim. One of the girls at work on Friday had a cold; have I caught it? I got up and hung out the washing I’d put in during the night, put another load in, had a scrape and then stood on the scales. My weight is holding constant just under fifteen stones. It could do with being a lot lower, but it is slowly heading in the right direction.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. A colleague is in Bali for a traditional wedding, and I did chuckle at the photos. He’s got all the traditional Balinese clothing… except for the Nike trainers.

Hatred and rhetoric still abounded on Facebook following Saturday’s rallies in London. Those who didn’t march were accusing those who did march of racism and hatred. Those who didn’t march were accusing everyone else of not understanding the problem. Even though they were unable to state what the “problem” actually was.

I Munzed, Wordled, and explained to the dogs that walk would be later. They didn’t understand.

 

I drove the car over to the garage for its MOT.  As I drove so the pundits on the radio were talking about the recent Israeli attack on Qatar. And as is so often the case, rather than discussing current issues, the one being interviewed started harping back to grievances from over thirty years ago. As I have said before, no one in the Middle East is prepared to let bygones be bygones and move on.

A bit like me, I suppose.

The plan for the morning was that I would sit and wait for half an hour or so whilst the nice man in the garage worked his magic on my car, then come home and do dog walk. The nice man said that I would have to sit and wait until mid-day as they were busy. So I drove back home, collected the dogs, drove the car back to the garage and walked the dogs back home. Two and a bit miles in less than forty minutes; that was good going.

 

Once home I got out the lawn mower and gave the lawn a once-over, and then voomed round with the bionic burner. As I bionically burned so a passer-by asked what I was doing. She commented that she’d seen me with the thing in the past, and thought it must be something to do with the weeds as she’d noticed that my garden had very few weeds when compared to other gardens up and down the road. I felt rather smug about that.

And then my phone rang. It was the garage. The car had passed its MOT but only just. The brakes really needed new discs and pads. Personally I’d rather have reliable brakes in the thing, and seeing how the car was in the garage and they could do it today I asked them to sort it out. After all, what is money for if not to squander foolishly?

 

I made us both a cuppa and thought about what else I might have spent six hundred quid on. But I can’t complain really. That car does a lot of miles; a round trip to work is fifty quid. And I do put money aside for this sort of thing. I’d just rather spend it on something more fun, or tiddle it up a wall.

Whilst I wated for the phone call saying the car was ready I wrote up a little CPD, I did a YouGov survey about banking, then logged on to chess dot com. It gave me a free tutorial on queens (woof!) and three puzzles, then I played chess with bots with varying degrees of success.

 

The garage called; the car was ready. Leaving Treacle at home I just took the little ones. Treacle had a good walk earlier and she’s an old lady.

Having walked home along the river earlier we walked back to the garage through Newtown. Using the “Map My Walk” app I could find out which was the quicker route. The quicker route was through Newtown – five minutes faster and quarter of a mile shorter. Not that I will remember that next time I need to walk to or from the garage. But regardless of which way we walked, driving home was certainly quicker than walking.

 

I sat by the pond with the dogs for a bit reading my Kindle. I seem to do that quite a bit these days. And as it got colder I came inside and slept on the sofa for a couple of hours.

 

After a bit pf pizza “er indoors ^TM” went bowling. I sparked up the telly and watched a surprisingly disappointing episode of “Black Mirror” in which having been the passenger in a car involved in a hit and run, some woman went on a psychopathic killing spree for no adequately explored reason.

 

Today has been relatively dull, and I’ve got to go to work tomorrow…