7 March 2013 (Thursday) - Laundry

Up with the lark, and once the washing up was done I got Furry Face into the car and we set off. With the car being serviced and MOTed on the other side of town I had a plan to drive over there, drop the car off and we could walk home. I would be walking him anyway, so this plan killed two birds with one stone. And an added bonus was that a new geocache had gone live not two minutes’ walk from the garage. Nice!

With that cache found we hurried home. Or as fast as we could hurry an hour’s walk. Washing machine repair man was due to call today. Yesterday they told me that he would call between 8am and 6pm; which was helpful. I’d tried to get the fruits of my loin to be about whilst I was out sorting the car service, and most recent fruit had volunteered, despite it causing her some serious inconvenience. So it really came as no surprise that I then got a text message from washing machine repair man to say he would call between 4pm and 6pm. Why couldn’t he have said that yesterday?

Once I was home "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" set off to big girls skool, leaving Sid with us. And finding I had most of the day free I was at something of a loose end. I couldn’t do the laundry because I had no washing machine. I couldn’t do the work I planned in the garden as it was raining. I painted the insides of a dozen or so cheap sandwich boxes in preparation for when it stops raining and when I can lay my next geocache series. I had the leftovers of last night’s tea for lunch (very tasty!) and sat down in front of the telly with the dogs.

My mobile rang – the car was ready for collection. Did I want them to come and give me a lift? I turned down their offer, and despite the rain I walked both dogs over to collect the car. Two hundred and fifty quid, and an advisory for two new tyres soon. Ouch! Still, what is money for if not to squander foolishly? I popped both dogs in the back of the car and we were home by 2.30pm. In plenty of time for the washing machine repair man. Or so I thought – he arrived five minutes after we got home. So much for 4pm – 6pm (!)

Still, mustn’t grumble. He had the thing sorted in a few minutes, and sold me some amazing jollop which de-scales, de-gunges and disinfects the machine. The washing machine company recommend I use this stuff monthly. I got the distinct impression that if I didn’t go with their recommendation then they might not be quite so inclined to send the man out in future, so I bought two years’ worth to keep them sweet.

Once the man had gone I gave bunged some of this cleaner in the machine and switched it on. The chap said once I’d done the cleaning cycle I should muck out the trap because this jollop loosens all sorts of crud which then gets bunged up in the trap. After the wash cycle had finished the trap seemed incredibly clean, but there wasn’t any crud to be seen. I wonder if that stuff did any good?

I then spent the evening trying to shift two weeks’ worth of grubby laundry...

6 March 2013 (Wednesday) - Result!

Oh, how I laughed on my way to work. At a rather narrow part of a busy side road the chap in front of me had pulled up. He'd thrown his car door wide open blocking the way, so I had to stop. He got out of his car at a leisurely pace, had a bit of a stretch, put his jacket on, looked around, scratched his bum and then started fiddling with his phone. All the time he was oblivious to the fact that he was standing in the middle of the road. After five minutes or so I beeped my hooter at him and he spun round in obvious surprise. He then had another look around and it clearly came as a shock to him that not only was he standing in the middle of the road, but he was holding up the traffic too. He went red when he realised he wasn't the only person in the world.

I hadn't been delayed *too* much so I popped into Canterbury's cheapo shop. With Mars bars at thirty-six pence I was impressed. Mind you their Rich Tea biscuits were three times the price of those in Lidls. You have to watch these so-called bargain stores.

It was at this stage that I made a point of leaving the shop. As a child I could remember my Grandmother knowing the price of every item in every shop in town, and every trip to town would involve hourly regroupings of her gaggle of mates who would all update each other on recent price changes.

I am becoming my gran...

I then phoned the washing machine repair people to chivvy them along a little. My required part has arrived and they will fit it tomorrow. At some point between 8am and 6pm. They seriously expect me to sit in and wait for them. If I want to be able to wash my smalls I have little alternative.

And home to find a recorded delivery letter. From the leccie company. Periodically they give out random prizes to customers. I've won two tickets for the London Eye - worth over seventy quid. That's a result.

5 March 2013 (Tuesday) - This N That

Yesterday was a glorious day. So today it came as something of a shock this morning to find that the car was covered in ice. It soon scraped off though, and I was quickly off on my way to work. As I drove there was an interesting article on the radio by the country's most senior judge. Concerned about the spiralling costs of the legal system he was worried that "court justice" is no longer affordable to the man in the street.

He was concerned that as the legal system prices itself beyond the budget of the average person, then those people still using the legal system will represent themselves. Like I had to. Thereby doing expensive legal practitioners out of a job.

And he was also concerned that people might not even bother with courts any more; preferring to deliver their own brand of rough justice; taking the law into their own hands.

The only surprise here is that it's taken eminent judges so long to realise this.

As I drove through Bilting I had a smile as I drove past a new and gleaming poly tunnel. I felt rather proud and smug about my small part in putting that together. And as I drive to work in the mornings in future I can look over that hedge and feel proud.

I took a little diversion on my way to work. A few months ago I hid a Chinese puzzle box in a geocache. Easy to get to, difficult to open. I'd had a message that someone had been unable to find the cache so this morning I thought I'd have a little look-see to check that all was well. All wasn't well. The thing had gone. Entirely gone. That was five quid down the drain. I shall order a new one, but if that goes then the cache will be reduced in difficulty and replaced with a bog-standard sandwich box. It would be a shame to do this, especially as there are so few caches in the Canterbury area. I can't afford to lose too many puzzle boxes.

And so to work where I did my bit. And then home again. Stopping off at Somerset Road for the weekly gathering. Insults were bandied, and we picked holes in the historical inaccuracies of "Merlin". I can cope with supernatural beings, magic and wizards, but get really riled by the historical inaccuracies such as sixth century soldiers wearing tenth century armour, or lenses being bandied about some three hundred years earlier than when they were actually first invented.

And in closing I shall gloat. Our old friend science has predicted two glorious comets this year. It's no secret that I don't believe a word of it. Comets never live up to the hype. If there is a comet visible to the naked eye this year I shall eat the astro club's raffle.

And guess what - "However, it might be difficult to see the object without binoculars or a telescope. It's going to be in the twilight sky and not as bright as we had originally hoped" says the science correspondent of the Daily Telegraph about the comet which is supposed to be currently lighting up our skies..

4 March 2013 (Monday) - FTF

I was up a little earlier than I might have been today. I was expecting a visit from the most recent fruit of my loin, but she had other fish to fry. Which was a shame. Seeing I was up and raring to go I got a lift to town from my beloved. I needed some fruit for lunch in the week and have decided to stick with Tesco. In theory the farm shop sounds a better idea, but over the last few months I’m afraid that the quality of stuff in the farm shop leaves a lot to be desired.

I also got some cheap sandwich boxes (from the pound shop) to use as geocaches on a series I plan to plant out over the next few weeks. They’ve gone up in price – once three for a quid, now I only get two for a quid.

Home – where I did more homework. And checked my emails. I saw that Friday’s blog received a comment. Was I unfair to whinge about the amount of dog turds that I found whilst out geocaching the other day? I think I was fair in what I wrote. I didn’t actually say where the cache was, or which one it was, so I’m not putting anyone off. And geocaching amongst the dog turds in the mud was quite a memorable experience. What’s a diary for if not to record such memories?

Mind you I welcome comment. It shows (if nothing else) that I’m not just shouting into the ether. And it makes me revisit how and what I write. I may (just occasionally) be rather opinionated in my rantings, but I do try to be reasonable and fair in my rantings.

Henry from UK cyber club phoned. He wanted to speak to the cable or satellite TV subscriber. He had to settle for speaking with me. Did I know that after an initial subscription period had passed I would be responsible for any repairs that might be required on my Sky-Plus box? I did know, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. I have this theory that if I’m not too busy myself then by wasting his time I’m actually doing a public service. All the time I am stringing these people along they are not bothering anyone else.

So I told him that insuring the box is a waste of money. I told him that if and when it breaks I shall tell Sky TV to fix it for free or I will take my money to Virgin media. This clearly went beyond the limitations of his script, and rather flummoxed him. Which was probably for the best.

Furry Face needed a walk, and I knew where I wanted to take him. On Friday I’d looked at the map of local geocaches and seen that I’d found all but three of the two hundred and twelve that were within three miles of my house. On Friday afternoon I tried for two of them and got one. So today I thought I’d try for the one I didn’t go for last Friday.

I got the pestilential pup collared and leaded and we went off on our walk. I went the scenic way through the warren, and soon we were within striking distance of the cache we sought: “Around the Tees #1”.

With a bit of scrubbling about in the undergrowth I eventually found that cache, and we carried on with our walk. The plan was a circuit of the golf course and then home. We hadn’t got more than a hundred yards when my phone shouted that I had email. I couldn’t believe the messages – five new caches had gone live – three within a few hundred yards of where we were at that time. Amazingly from the map it looked like we’d walked straight past two of them on our way to where we were when we got this message, and a third new cache was directly ahead of us. So we carried on the route we were walking anyway and soon found the first of the new caches. “Around the Tees #4” was found for the first time by me and my Patagonian Tripe Hound at 1.50pm – an amazing nine minutes after it had been published.

We pushed on - “Around the Tees #3” was a cache we had walked past less than an hour previously, and after a very brief search me and Furry Face had another FTF at 1.55pm – fourteen minutes after publication this time.

Feeling particularly smug we followed our geocompass along a path we’d already walked once in the last hour as we made our way to “Around the Tees #2”. Was it too much to hope for three FTFs? Yes – it was. As we approached the cache we saw a familiar face was already there. “The Hurks” had also been caching in the general vicinity and, like us, had made the most of the opportunity.

I left home intending to give my dog a bit of a run, and possibly find a cache. I found four, had two FTFs, and got the dog exercised too. I was rather pleased about that.

I then came home and looked at disguising my sandwich boxes to turn them into geocaches. I don’t like the current fad of covering them in camouflage tape. I can’t explain why; I just don’t. I know a tame painter and decorator who told me that a dark gloss paint would do the trick. So having confirmed my theory about painting the insides of the boxes to make them more hidden in the shadows, I tried to find some dark paint. If any of my loyal readers have any dark gloss they don’t want…

3 March 2013 (Sunday) - Not Out

My alarm woke me at 6.30am this morning. What sort of time is that to be getting up on a Sunday? I had a quick bite of jam on toast (again!) and then we set off before 8am. To Essex for a change. Earlier in the week some caching friends had said they were going on a series of geocaches around Hornchurch and put out a general invite to anyone who would be interested.

We met up at the designated parking spot (eventually) and nine of us (and two small dogs) spent a little while looking for a cache that probably wasn't there. But it wasn't one of the series that we had planned for the day, so not finding it didn't really matter. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And then on to the main business of the day. The "Not Out" series is one of forty geocaches over eight miles of Essex countryside. It was one of the better walks in that there was no roads at all. It was all fields and footpaths. Along past rivers and across golf courses. Apart from eating poo and going in the river, Fudge behaved himself (mostly), and only barked occasionally at passing muggles.

At the second cache one of our number got his two thousand five hundredth cache, and as we went on there were quite a few other milestones passed, including my very own one thousand three hundredth cache find, and my most northerly find too.

We found a rather pleasant spot to have lunch, and I got busy. There were three puzzle caches on the way. I'd tried to solve them last night but had missed a vital clue. With that clue provided by a fellow cacher today I was able to get busy, and came up with some required co-ordinates. I had the same solutions as everyone else - it was a shame that all three of these puzzle caches were missing.

But despite that mishap we found all of the forty caches we'd targetted.

The "Not Out" series was good. Perhaps slightly longer that the usual caching walk; taking seven hours to complete. And the caches were rather more difficult to find than those on the average cache walk. And I did find that my gps was somewhat at odds with the cache hider. But with good clues, fine weather and good company we had a very good day out. Two small dogs slept well on the way home.

As always, there are piccies of our outing on-line.

And so home where one of those small dogs went straight into the bath where we washed the fox poo off of him. And then with "er indoors ^TM" off out bowling I settled down in front of the TV with a very tired Patagonian Tripe-Hound...

2 March 2013 (Saturday) - Poly Tunnel

It is commonly said that variety is the spice of life. So with that in mind in a novel break with tradition I had jam on my morning toast rather than peanut butter.

Leaving "er indoors ^TM" in her pit I went round to Queen Street (I still snigger about the name!) and from there we made our way to Bilting. Regular readers of this drivel may recall that on 27 April 2008 I helped effect repairs to Robert's poly tunnel. He'd obtained a second one for his garden, and he'd got the framework together. but putting the poly onto the tunnel isn't something that can be done single-handed. Half a dozen of us got stuck in and made very short work of the job. Even including stopping for coffee and home made cake we were done in a couple of hours. I got to affix the doors. I think we did a very good job. There's photos of our efforts on-line.

We stopped and had lunch with Robert. Uncut bread and home-made tomato soup. Very nice! And then home to find things hadn't quite gone to plan. The idea was that we would go to Bethersden for a bit of a stroll. But "er indoors ^TM" wasn't back from getting her car tyre fixed. And to add insult to injury the washing machine repair man hadn't been able to fix the washing machine either. Apparently a wire has broken in its loom. He's ordered a new part which should be with us for next week. Let's hope so - I'm running low on smalls.

"er indoors ^TM" returned and after a quick cuppa we took Furry Face far a walk. Whilst out he ate far too much dung of assorted other animals. Which probably explains why he was sick when we came home.

And with "er indoors ^TM" off out for the evening I settled down with Fudge. He seemed to have recovered from his throwing up, but I didn't want to take any chances so I wouldn't leave him alone.

I never wanted a dog...

1 March 2013 (Friday) - Out with Steve

Last night I slept a lot better than I usually do. Perhaps staying up till 2am had something to do with it? After a quick belt of brekkie I popped up to the town centre quickly. There were cheques to pay into the bank. And I wanted to have a look in the pound store.

None of that took very long, and I was soon back home. My plan had been to attack the laundry, but with the washing machine being bust I had to forego that pleasure. Instead I spent a few minutes doing my homework, and I then had a look at the monthly accounts. Could be better – could be a lot worse. And then I booked my car in for a service. That will make the accounts look a whole lot worse.

Steve called, and we got Fudge’s lead on him and drove round to South Willesborough. There was one (relatively) easy geocache to be found, one requiring a ladder to be got at, and one that someone (!) had deliberately thrown into a river to hide it. We found the lot, and I was able to do some maintenance on the one I’d hoiked in the river last week. Only one load of people have logged finding the thing (experienced cachers all) but the cache was in need of some serious maintenance.

We then went round to another relatively newly hidden cache. I won’t say that I wish we hadn’t, but we did nearly break our necks in the mud, we did nearly fall face first into the abundant dog dung that was everywhere, and the location did smell (really strongly) of tiddle.

On the way home we again failed to find the cache by the motorway, and leaving the car at home we took Furry Face round the park for a walk. Steve found half a dozen more caches whilst we were wandering.

By now batteries were flat and we were rather cold so we said our goodbyes. Furry Face has come to learn that after a good walk in the mud comes a bath, and I spent five minutes chasing him round the house before I was able to corner him.

And with "er indoors ^TM" off our with her mates, me and my dog had a rummage in the kitchen. We found chocolate sponge and fresh cream and ate far too much of it. I'm not sure that fresh cream is good for small dogs, but a little treat every so often won't hurt him...