3 May 2023 (Wednesday) - So Dull

I slept like a log, but still woke aching. I made toast and had a look at a rather dull Internet. On seeing no one had anything much to say I turned to the Munzee map and planned my route to work. Today was the start of May’s Clan War, and being the third of the month I could do Qrewzees (as one does). Not that there looked like many on the way to Pembury.

There were three in Orlestone Woods though…

 

I drove the dogs down to Orlestone. As we drove the defence minister was talking about security precautions for Saturday’s coronation. He seemed to be more concerned about foreign terrorists causing problems to highlight issues which are nothing at all to do with the UK. I must admit I would have been more impressed with him had he not talked about foreign nationals’ domestic disputes “hundreds of thousands of miles away”. When you bear in mind that there is nowhere on Earth which is as much as thirteen thousand miles from where the coronation is happening, I wonder where the defence minister thinks these foreign terrorists are coming from. Mars, perhaps?

 

We got to the woods and did our usual walk. As we went we chased squirrels and ate rabbit poo. Bailey and Morgan avoided the swamps, but Treacle just stomped straight through them.

We met one other dog-walker today; she seemed more bothered by the puppies than her dogs were. Sadly she didn’t seem to be the usual sort of dog-walker that walks dogs in the woods. I’ve often wondered why people have their dogs on leads in the depths of a wood. If there was anywhere where you would let the dogs run, it is in the middle of a wood. If you don’t want your dog mixing with other dogs, why not walk your dog round the streets where every dog is on a lead?

 

We came home, and as Treacle barked at absolutely nothing at all I worked on my current Wherigo project. Just putting GC codes and final co-ordinates into pictures took an hour. I then spent ten minutes on the phone to solicitors and estate agents, then set off to work.

 

Yesterday I had a fairly decent run to work; today I found myself behind every slow-arse on the planet, and had quite the delay at Goudhurst. A lorry far too big to negotiate the chicane had just scraped its way through the narrow corners, and was then followed by about fifteen minutes' worth of traffic who had been following hot on its heels. The seemingly continual delay at Goudhurst isn't just the huge lorries which get physically stuck; it is all the arrogant drivers behind the lorry who won't give way to oncoming traffic.

And then to add insult to injury there was a five minute delay two miles further on. Another huge lorry had ignored the signs and was heading up to Goudhurst, and the chap several cars in front of me had driven his car over to the centre of the road forcing the huge lorry to stop. He'd then got out of the car and was shouting abuse at the driver who was on his way to get stuck.

It was all rather embarrassing.

Had the shouty idiot said "you should turn your lorry round at the earliest opportunity as it won't get through the corner two miles ahead" everyone would have been happy. Instead the chap was just bellowing personal abuse, and the lorry driver (quite understandably) had wound up his windows and was waiting for the shouty idiot to go away.

 

I got to work and got one Qrewzee. I would have got three in Orlestone earlier had there been any phone signal.

As I worked “er indoors ^TM” sent me the message that the razor blades had arrived. She'd had to tell the delivery chap her year of birth before he handed them over. No one's ever asked me that whenever I've bought razor blades.

And the vets sent a message. The pups' vaccinations are due. I booked an appointment for them... they won't like it.

 

Having had a bad drive in to work, the drive home was even worse. I found myself stuck behind a tractor pulling a load of hay bales for five miles. What’s a tractor doing on the A28 at ten o’clock at night?

Some days in my life are rather eventful. Some are fun... to be honest the best part of today was all over by nine o'clock as the dog walk ended. Today was dull.

 

2 May 2023 (Tuesday) - Oh, I Ache...

I slept like a log last night, but woke in pain. I really overdid the gardening on Sunday and probably did too much clearing out the shed yesterday.

I had my usual look at Facebook as I scoffed brekkie and saw that yesterday we’d missed “Jack In The Green” in Hastings. Again. Back in the day it was a very good day out. These days… whilst we enjoyed being there in the past, the place was heaving with about (quite literally) fifty thousand tourists too many. And it was never a cheap day out either, by the time I’d called in to every pub there was.

There wasn’t much else happening on-line so once the dogs had scoffed brekkie we went for our walk.

 

As we drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing the leader of the opposition Sir Kier Starmer. Like all leaders of the opposition he was very quick to point out the government’s failings, but was less forthcoming with specific details of how his bunch would do things better.

We got to the car park, and had a rather good stomp round Orlestone Woods. The mud has noticeably receded since last week, and we did our usual circuit without any of the nonsense from Morgan that spoiled our walks last year.

In fact he only misbehaved once… I’ve noticed that on our recent trips to Orlestone as we come to the car, Morgan stops. They other two come to me to get their leads put on. Morgan doesn’t. He just looks at me. And when I blow the whistle he deliberately turns away. He never does anything like this after the (admittedly much longer) walks in Kings Wood. Is he saying he wants a longer walk?

 

We came home and had a quick bath. Being small, Morgan and Bailey get mud up their legs and bellies, and Treacle deliberately chooses to wade belly deep in the stagnant mire.

With baths bathed I got all the rubbish out of the shed that I’d bagged up yesterday and loaded it into the car. Much as I like my (had it for eighteen months now!) new car, it hasn't got the tip run capacity that the old car had.

I popped to the corner shop for a croissant and a pain au chocolat, then ordered some razor blades from Amazon. Have you ever done that? It takes some doing. I had to go through all sorts of verifications steps. Next time I shall just go to Sainsburys.

I instructed a solicitor (!) then got changed for work.

 

I popped round to the tip to get rid of the rubbish I'd sorted yesterday. I think that everyone had the same idea as I'd had yesterday about clearing out sheds; the tip was heaving with normal people today. The staff were telling anyone who would listen that they'd never had such a busy Tuesday.

One of the tip staff inspected one of my consignments of rubbish and told me I'd failed. Rather than dinging it all in the general waste I had to spread it out over half a dozen skips. I made a point of waiting until that chap was haranguing another customer before lobbing my bagfuls of rubbish into the general waste. Mind you it was only the one chap who was checking the rubbish. No one else seemed to care.

 

Despite the place being heaving it didn't take *that* long to unload and I was soon on my way westwards through the -hursts and the -dens singing along to Ivor Biggun as I went. As I got to the works car park so I had a message from “er indoors ^TM”.  My two old pond filters had been collected.

“er indoors ^TM” had this plan to sell the things via Facebook marketplace. I had this plan to fling them in the skip at the tip as no one in their right mind would give me money for them. To prove I was right I advertised the things on Facebook marketplace yesterday, and to prove me wrong some chap drove up from Deal and gave me (well, “er indoors ^TM”) eighty quid for them both. That's eighty quid more than I thought I'd get. Let's hope he realises the things won't work without a hundred quid's worth of pump (that I *wasn't* selling).

 

I got to work and felt rather worn out. What with a busy weekend, and then this morning's dog walk and tip run I think I rather overdid it this morning.

As I tried to skive at work I tried not to laugh out loud as I listened in on someone else's conversation in which someone who works down the corridor was adamant that gammon was a type of fish…

1 May 2023 (Monday) - May Day

Having spent years threatening to sell the tat we have hoarded around the house, “er indoors ^TM” was up at sparrow-fart this morning and (ably assisted by “My Boy ^TM” and Cheryl) off to the boot fair to unload it all onto an unsuspecting public.

Seeing the dogs had followed her downstairs I had this idea to walk them early before the woods filled with the sort of normal people who infest the place at the weekends and Bank Holidays. However the dogs had actually just moved from the upstairs bed to their downstairs beds. I turfed them out of bed, and we drove up to Kings Wood. It was rather pretty so early in the morning, and apart from a couple of people on their mountain bikes we didn’t see anyone at all as we walked.

We were on our way home by seven o’clock.

 

We got home, put washing in to scrub, and had brekkie before starting the ironing.  As I ironed and hung out washing I watched a film. I’d been meaning to watch “The Dark Knight Rises” ever since it was released over ten years ago and I have to say it was something of a disappointment. The premise of the film was that a mad villain was planning to blow up Gotham City for two reasons. Firstly because he was a villain, and secondly because he was mad. The film dragged on for over an hour longer than it needed to, and I watched the credits roll with something of a sense of relief that it was over. Sadly that was three hours of my life wasted… at least I got the ironing done as I watched it.

 

I then booked a slot at the tip for tomorrow morning, then went to the garden and had a look in the shed to see what I can take. Yesterday “er indoors ^TM” found two poggered camping tables and there was the broken pressure filter I’d found a few days ago. I found no end of other rubbish that needs dinging too.

As I sorted rubbish so “er indoors ^TM” returned from the boot fair. She seemed happy with her profits; I must admit I’d rather not go boot fairing at all… so I hadn’t.

 

Within minutes of “er indoors ^TM” returning so the rain started, which was probably for the best; it made me stop. I put everything into the shed to keep it dry, then sat on the sofa aching from my exertions. I’d seriously overdone it yesterday and working in the shed today hadn’t helped.

I spent a couple of hours working on my current Wherigo project. I’ve now done all the programming for the games of the Crystal Maze (Mark II), and just need to program the end game. That should only take a few hours…

 

We drove up to the town centre where we met “My Boy ^TM” and Cheryl and went to Aspendos for a bit of dinner. We went for the “bit of everything” option, and in having a bit of everything I had far too much.

I‘d not been to Aspendos before; I will certainly go again.

I’ve eaten far too much and have a belly ache…