6 June 2019 (Thursday) - D Day Remembered

I woke in the night to find myself rather tangled in my CPAP’s hose. I was rather amazed at just what a knot I’d tied the thing into. Mind you I soon dozed off again, and slept right through until my alarm went off. That rarely happens.

Over a bowl of granola I watched an episode of “Bonding”. My Netflix app says that was that last one, but it didn’t seem like an end-of-season. Have I caught up with Netflix only releasing one episode per week perhaps?

I then have my morning trawl of the Internet. It was much the same as I’d left it last night. Mind you I did have a friend request on Facebook from “Toby Norris”. Do any of my loyal readers know who he is? His photo doesn’t look familiar. I don’t think I’ll add him to the elite group of people who actually want to know me on social media just yet.

I had a look at my emails. With less than a day and a half having passed since the virtual awards were announced on Tuesday, another twenty-seven new virtual geocaches had been published. Bearing in mind people have got a year to sort them out, some people don’t hang about. Having said that, mine is all but ready to go. But I think I shall wait until I’m back from holiday.

And I saw that my rantings of last Wednesday had attracted the attention of a handbag salesman from Zurich who posted a comment in a rather shallow attempt to get me to advertise his wares. I decided not to do so.

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were broadcasting live from the D-Day remembrance events at Gold Beach in Normandy as well as from the London studio. Veterans from the day, currently serving soldiers, and various world leaders were giving speeches. It was quite good to be able to feel a part of what was going on as I drove up the motorway. Just as one of the old soldiers was giving a speech I noticed a load of poppies growing on the side of the motorway.

Mind you the broadcast was marred by one or other of the presenters who would occasionally talk over one of the speeches because their microphones hadn't been disabled. You can understand it happening once.. but several times? I personally would have expected better from the BBC

Work was work; I did my bit and came home. "er indoors ^TM" went out with her mates and I was left “home alone”. I foraged for my dinner (at the KFC) then scoffed diner whilst watching the second episode of “Gentleman Jack” before having a little fight with my phone...

My phone has gone west.

The GMX (email) app has packed up, as has Google Play. Oh well… they might miraculously come back to life. Or they might not. If they don’t I shall have to get a new phone. I’ll do that after next week’s holiday.

At the moment I am thinking Samsung Galaxy S10 from Vodafone because I like Samsung and Vodafone are doing it for fifteen quid cheaper than my current mobile provider. I’ll see it I can get a price match deal… after I’ve had a holiday.

I think its fair to say that pretty much everything is going on hold for a week or so…

5 June 2019 (Wednesday) - D Day Fly By

I woke with a very sore nose this morning. For all that my CPAP machine helps me sleep, it gives me such a sore nose.

I got up and once I’d fussed Fudge I watched an episode of “Bonding”, then peered into the Internet. Not much had happened overnight which was probably for the best. I did see that there is to be a re-make of that old TV favourite "Worzel Gummidge" starring Mackenzie Crook. That might actually be rather good.

I checked my emails. Bearing in mind that the new virtual geocaches were only awarded yesterday afternoon, seven of them had already been published. Some people don’t hang about.

And then I read an email which made me roll my eyes. Last week I had a petty squabble. One of the geocaches that I hid in Kings Wood had issues. I sorted the problem by putting out a new cache. This morning I was told that there was a big hole in that cache. A hole? How? The thing has only been there for a week.

What with holidays it’s going to be two weeks before I can do anything.

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were again talking about President Trump's state visit to the UK. Yesterday the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was making great show of being at anti-Trump rallies having turned down an interview to have dinner with the President and the Queen on Monday evening. This morning Mr Trump revealed that Mr Corbyn had asked him for a meeting, and had been turned down. Good for Donald Trump (!)

I got to work; I did my bit. At tea break I gave up with my current e-book. I was then faced with a dilemma. Should I give it a review on Amazon? If I did it would be entitled "Crap!" and would say about how the plot was convoluted, jumping to and fro between rather confused scenarios featuring characters about which I didn't really care at all. However from what I can work out (from following various authors on Facebook) the etiquette is to only say nice things about books on Amazon. Bearing in mind that anything less than glowing praise is just potential for another argument, I kept quiet.

Instead I downloaded another e-book which (so far) seems far better.

At half past two we all peered out of the window. A squadron of various planes was flying over Maidstone on its way to the D-Day remembrance events. By quarter to three we were wondering what had happened. We had a look at the Internet and found the flight had been delayed. Eventually they came over shortly after four o’clock. Several of us took a late tea break I took a few photos as the planes flew over. It was a surprisingly good little spectacle.

I came home. We didn’t take the dogs out. It was raining and I didn’t feel very well. I spent a little while fiddling about preparing my geo-virtual until "er indoors ^TM" said dinner was ready. We scoffed a rather good bit of scran whilst watching the last episodes of “Ghosts” and “Young Sheldon”.

I really should have an early night… I’m feeling a bit iffy…

4 June 2019 (Tuesday) - Virtually Rewarded

For once I slept right through until the alarm went off. Over a bowl of granola I watched another episode of “Bonding” then had a look to see what the Internet had done overnight.

I had a friend request on Facebook from “Sam Angling Baits”. Now I can’t help but wonder why Mr Baits wants to be my pal. Surely it isn’t a thinly veiled ruse to try to sell me something? I’m also wondering why this chap is clearly allowed to use a fake name when other people aren’t. I’ve not accepted the request – I have quite enough people with whom I can argue already.

My eyes then rolled when I was reading some of the comments about the death of Paul Darrow (who played “Avon” in “Blake’s Seven”). Those who’d met the chap were posting on various Facebook pages about their experiences of him. Those who’d openly admitted they’d never met him were trying to call everyone else racist for no reason that anyone could determine.

Social media is so often just one big fight. Such a shame.

I had a look at my emails – a new geocache had gone live. But it was on the drive to Pembury, not Maidstone. And it was a long way down a private drive. I will have a look-see there on another day.

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were again talking about President Trump's state visit to the UK. Apparently the Queen told him off at some posh dinner last night?  It would seem that this state visit that has been put on for his benefit is turning out to be more trouble than it is worth. Pretty much nothing else (at all) was mentioned on the radio. If nothing else it made a welcome change from Brexit drivel.

I did my bit at work. Half way through the afternoon I volunteered to go move some stuff about. No one else wanted to do it, I could take my time and have a bit of a skive (I made no secret of that), and I could check my emails. This afternoon at four o’clock geocaching HQ were going to announce who’d been lucky enough to win the chance to hide a virtual geocache. The last time they did this was something of a debacle, and I sulked. I’d determined that if I was one of the lucky winners this time, then that would be nice. And if I was unlucky then I would accept it with good grace.

Four o’clock came and went. I had no email, and had a serious moody.

Mind you as I walked to my car an hour and a half later my phone beeped. I had been lucky – I had got a virtual reward. To coin a phrase, I was like a cat with two cocks.

I came home, and together with "er indoors ^TM" we went for a little walk to have a first recce at where I’m going to site my virtual reward. I’m rather over-excited about it. I must admit I’m a tad miffed that "er indoors ^TM" didn’t get one, but she says that she is *very* pleased that I got one; I’m told that if I’d not been lucky the sulking would have been unbearable…

Where’s that bottle of wine…