25 September 2026 (Friday) - Birthdays

I slept reasonably well. It was a shame that when Bailey relocated in the small hours she chose to trample over me rather than over any of the other dogs, but she’s only small and not that heavy really.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there, and the squabbles were as pathetic as ever. Someone had posted a tribute to Arthur C Clarke on one of the sci-fi Facebook groups. Someone else claimed that it had been plagiarised from a Doctor Who episode and it had all kicked off. I read some of the bickering, wondering since when had “clown” and “ding-a-ling” been fighting-talk insults.

No one had anything bad to say about last night’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” but several people had spotted the bods to the 70s animated series (like I had).

I Munzed, Wordled from “clown” to “copse” in three goes then went to wake “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs. It was eight o’clock; how much longer did they want to sleep?

Once they’d had their brekkie we went out. As we drove the BBC wasted a lot of prime radio time. There was an article about how rogue artificial intelligences are not legally accountable for any of their misdemeanours. It was rather interesting, but the expert expert expert being being being interviewed interviewed interviewed was was was incredibly incredibly incredibly nervous and hesitant. And this was followed by something about how the wild gentian plant has quite possibly gone extinct in the UK. However the phone line to the expert went dead for about three quarters of what the chap was saying.

 

We got to the woods where we mostly did our standard walk. We did take a bit of a diversion to avoid a horse, which boiled my piss a little. Horses are allowed on the wide main gravelled tracks which we avoid as far as possible. These rarely have any hoofprints or horse dung. Horses aren’t allowed on the narrower non-gravelled tracks where we go on as far as possible. These always show hoofprints and have horse dung.

We walked four and a bit miles, then came home listening to more “Triffids”. Once home I made us a cuppa and the dogs all settled. Pogo settled on top of Bailey and both seemed content as they both slept.

 

I then had a pootle in the garden. I went round with the Bionic Burner, then trimmed back more of the stuff pouring over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. I trimmed quite a bit. I then had a look at booking a slot for a tip run. The nice people at the council had been fiddling with the app so that there’s a whole new way of booking. I wonder how much that cost… they bang on about being short of money.

With slot booked I loaded up the car with rubbish then watched another episode of “Cranford”. Starring Mr Carson from Downton Abbey it’s a rather good show. In today’s episode the railway was being built, and the shock of the news made one of the old biddies drop dead.

 

I then went on the tip run I’d booked. For once the staff didn’t watch me like a hawk checking where each scrap of rubbish went.

From there I went on to the Home Bargains shop. I need some sleepers to repair the planter that the rats had, but they didn’t have any of the right size. It was then that my phone beeped. I had orders from “er indoors ^TM” to get some sweet and sour sauce. Home Bargains had some at one pound sixty-nine pence. Is that good or bad? I have no idea, but when I paid, the self-service machine only wanted eighty-nine pence. I saw that as a result. It’s the little victories.

From there I went on to Dobbies. They didn’t have any sleepers at all. Whilst I was there I popped into the aquatic section. I wanted some pots to anchor the plants in the fish tank. They didn’t have any, but they had lengths of metal tape which you wrap round the plants and it weighs them down. I got some of that.

 

I came home and had a go with the metal tape. I used maybe ten centimetres of the stuff, and put the rest into the pond-odds-and-sods drawer in the shed. If any of my loyal readers want to weigh down some fish tank plants, I’ve got close on three metres of the stuff spare.

I’d like to put the weighted plants into some small pots just to make them look pretty; I shall keep my eye out for something suitable.

I then wasted time until Gold Radio made their phone call. One lucky listener was going to win a million quid. I wasn’t expecting to win, and (of course) I didn’t. But it would have been nice. It was with something of a sulk that I put a load of washing in to scrub…

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a decent bit of dinner out of that cheapo sweet and sour sauce which we scoffed whilst watching the first episode of the new series of “Bake Off”. It’s got Nigella Lawson as a judge now.

Woof!!

 

And in closing, today is Pogo and Treacle’s tenth birthday. And it’s “My Boy ^TM”‘s birthday too. He's a bit older.

24 September 2026 (Thursday) - Siphoning

I found myself feeling somewhat prophetic as I peered into the Internet this morning. The other day I whinged about how easy it is to lose touch with people. One of the people on my Facebook list had a birthday today. I first met this chap about thirty years ago. We did so much together, so many pubs and beer festivals. So many weekends away and shared holidays. I’ve seen the chap twice since lockdown…

And  two weeks ago I was in a local coffee shop about which I said “The only negative was having to pay the thick end of eight quid for a rather mediocre cup of coffee and three bite-sized pastry things (which were on the burned side)”. This morning I saw that they are closing down this weekend. It’s not just pubs that can’t attract customers.

I Munzed; opening a qrate then Wordled from “found” to “messy” in five goes..

I spent a little while downloading bank statements. Again the bank has been fiddling with the way the app works. I *really* don’t see why they can’t just leave the thing alone rather than continually messing about with it.

 

I got the dogs onto their leads and we drove up to Kings Wood Despite the charges the car park was heaving. The bit around the car park was full of foragers swarming, and there was an organised group of normal people having a guided tour found the field by the car park too. But once we were away from them we had a good walk. I thought the pups might like a drink from the dew pond. They did, but Pogo charged with so much enthusiasm he couldn’t stop and skidded straight in. I didn’t laugh much. Bailey went rogue about a mile later, and we had a near-miss with some woman who was far too small to have quite such a big dog in a lead. Her dog only wanted to play; I hate to think what would have happened if her dog turned wilful.

 

We came home listening to more “Triffids”. I made us a cuppa, then had another look at the fish tank. On Monday I’d made a serious start on it. I continued today by hoiking out all of the live plants. On Monday I’d dinged out a lot of the stuff that had gone wild and had bunched up the remaining stuff. It seemed I’d missed a *lot* so I sorted that again, then siphoned out muck and topped up the water. I let it settle and siphoned again. And again.

The mucky water went onto the plants. Having been emptying the muck from the pond filter onto the Monkey Puzzle tree for a couple of years it has only just occurred to me that I’ve been chucking fishy goodness down the toilet (literally). Maybe it will do the plants some good; the Monkey Puzzle tree is doing well with the koi poop I’ve been pumping onto it.

As I siphoned I found a surprising number of dead snails. For all that the things have bred impressively they don’t seem to have much of a lifespan.

As the water settled between siphonings I looked at the monthly accounts. They were the same as ever. They could be a whole lot worse. I really shouldn’t grumble, but I can’t help but think that they could be a whole lot better.

With accounts accounted I also did some CPD in between siphoning. It was at that point that I remembered that I’d intended to put a load of shirts in to wash before I started so that they would be ready to iron when I was done with the fish tank. Woops. I put them in, and Meowdoku-ed until the washing machine was done.

 

As I ironed shirts I watched something on Netflix. “Cranford” was rather good. It was not unlike “Pride and Prejudice”; a gentle period drama in which several old biddies blew every trivial incident out of all proportion. I found myself thinking of my old mum…

 

I set about washing and tumble-drying the undercrackers whilst “er indoors ^TM” boiled up burgers. We scoffed them whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” which was rather good with several nods to that which had gone before.. not that hose who will be finding fault on the Internet tomorrow would realise that.

23 September 2026 (Wednesday) - Before Another Late Shift

I slept reasonably well… bearing in mind backache from sleeping on my back, carpel tunnel pain, tinnitus ringing in my ears and the CPAP machine blowing up my nose…Perhaps the biggest issue was lack of bed space though. At night some dogs curl up tightly and some sprawl out. During the day Bailey is the smallest dog in the world. At night she is huge.

As I got up I saw that Prime Human had plenty of bed space, it was only Spare Human that was being pushed off the edge…

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Someone or other had posted up a link to a work-related text book in e-format. These appear from time to time. These things aren’t cheap so when the opportunity arises I not only have it, but share it on the works WhatsApp group. I probably won’t ever read the thing, but being seen to share this sort of thing gives a good impression with my colleagues. Otherwise they would think my life is an endless round of dog walking and beer drinking. They would be right in thinking that, but I’d rather they had a good impression rather than the right one.

Friends were posting photos from holiday in Greece and Poland, and from a coach trip. Yesterday a friend had organised a coach trip round the churches of the Romney Marsh. Admittedly you got a packed lunch thrown in, but fifty quid to go round the churches of the Romney Marsh? All the seats on the trip sold out. Each to their own …

And there was petty bickering on-line too. There usually is.

I Munzed, Wordled from “slept” to “forth” in five goes, and in doing so double my daily streak.

As I farted about so Pogo shouted at the world. I wish he wouldn’t.

 

I took the dogs out. We had quite a walk to where I’d parked last night. The major issue with the late shifts is the parking when I get home. We walked through the clouds of cannabis smoke. No matter where you go these days, the foul smell of that stuff pervades everywhere. Particularly around allotments, I’ve noticed.

As we drove to Orlestone the pundits on the radio were simply wasting the licence fee. They were talking about an obscure TV show which only features on Apple TV, and consequently no one had heard of. And to make matters worse they were interviewing of the stars who was quite incapable of stringing a coherent sentence together.

We got to the woods. There were some normal people in the car park so Pogo screamed at them. I really wish he wouldn’t. As we walked our usual circuit so we met one other person and her dog; that encounter passed off without incident which was probably for the best. We chased squirrels, rolled in the leaves, paddled in the puddles… A great time was seemingly had by all.

 

We came home and once I got a clean shirt I set off to work listening to more "Triffids". I like John Wyndham's books, but they are things of their time and oh-so-obviously written by someone "posh". 

I stopped off in Sainsburys to get lunch where a pair of half-wits were totally oblivious to the fact that they were inadvertently blockading the door. Some rather dumpy dopey looking woman was shouting "CHICKEN KIEV, CHICKEN KIEV" at a rather stupid looking chap whose jeans were three sizes too big for him and were only kept up by a pair of the sort of braces that my grandfather used to wear.  The more she shouted, the more confused he appeared to be. The poor chap clearly had less sense than teeth, and he didn't have many teeth. After a few minutes I loudly shouted "excuse me" and barged through. The pair of them suddenly realised where they were, and bustled off looking suitably embarrassed.

I wonder what that was all about.

 

I went in to work and did my bit.  Today included an anti-factor Xa assay. I'd not done one of those before; it turned out to be something of a disappointment. I don't know what I had been expecting, but I had been expecting more. 

Rather allegorical of life, really.

22 September 2026 (Tuesday) - Before the Late Shift

 As I scoffed toast I found myself thinking.  Facebook told me that three years ago we were in Bukhara having a feast with twenty-five other people on an expedition round Uzbekistan. For two weeks we had the adventure of a lifetime and (I thought) we all became firm friends. Since we came back we’ve heard from one of them. One.

Facebook also told me that today was a Facebook friend birthday.  Someone from the Southampton area we used to see very regularly through a mutual interest in kite flying. Kite flying was a big part of my life for over ten years. We went to kite festivals (involving weekend camping holidays) several times a year. We went to all sorts of events and activities; even to France and Germany.

We’ve only seen two of our kite-flying friends in the last ten years.

Back in the day we used to have twenty friends round on Tuesday evenings to watch Star Trek episodes. We’re still in touch with some of these people; we’ve seen half a dozen this year.

And then there was the people at the snake club, the Lego club, scouting, six years of college, years of Open University, no end of people with whom I worked (some for over twenty years)… It is *so* easy to lose touch with people.

 

I Munzed, then started another Wordle streak (one day so far) by getting from “feast” to “stoke” in four goes. All these apps have streaks which you maintain by doing them daily. Munzee, Wordle, Kindle, Meowdoku… why do I worry so much about maintaining these streaks?

 

I got four (!) dogs onto their leads, and with time pressing drove down to Orlestone. Bearing in mind the road works on the old A2070 I went cross country, and again Church Lane was awash with litter. There is a mile of that road which really does look as though people just empty bin bags full of rubbish as they drive along. I’d organise a geocaching litter-pick to sort it, but it would involve having people on the side of a road, and cars fly down that lane.

We got to the woods and had a good walk. We saw some woman and a Labrador, but nor before they’d seen us and gone the other way. And about three quarters of the way round we met a “very nice man” mincing through the woods with two bundles of fluff on leads. I loudly ordered “Straight Past” and my lot just went straight past without bothering his dogs. “Straight Past” is a new trick which we are working on. It has varying levels of success, but over time the success rate is getting better. When it works (like today) it does look impressive; especially to those who don’t dare let their own dogs off of the lead.

 

We came home. I didn’t have a cuppa. When I have a cuppa before work I then drive to work desperate for a tiddle. Instead I used some of that amount of energy having Microsoft Copilot cooking up today’s picture. And having Microsoft Copilot make it rather than me, someone else paid for the electricity used. Result !!

And then I spent a few minutes checking my figures… yesterday I said “the whole process of creating an A.I. image … used less electricity than running an electric kettle to make a cuppa”. It turns out that making an A.I. caricature actually takes about one seventh of the leccie needed to boil a kettle, and I can make over fifty such piccies for the energy needed to tumble-dry my undercrackers. And you don’t see any tree-hugging hippies complaining about my undercrackers, do you?

 

I set off to work. I stopped off at the Repton centre. There's a new chap running the show and I've been getting loads of mixed third-hand messages about just what the Repton people want from the Dog Club, so I thought it best to talk to them directly. It turns out they are very happy with the Dog Club, but there's some confusion about how they recognise payments form us. People can pay their subs in three ways. They can pay directly by BACS or they can put cash into the pot which I collect then send a payment by BACS. BACS has a reference on it, and if people put "Dog Club" as the reference then all is heigh ho, pip and dandy.  However the Repton people have set up a system by which you pay them by texting a certain number on your mobile. The trouble with that is that when they get a payment by text they have no idea who has sent it. Table tennis, Karate, Pilates... it could be from anyone. I've suggested that they have a dedicated text number for Dog Club payments. They are looking into it.

 

From there I went up the motorway to work listening to more of  my "Day of the Triffids" audiobook. It's streets ahead of "All Quiet on the Western Front" as the bloke reading it is putting effort and feeling into his narration and doesn't some over as being utterly morose.

 

Work was work. I did my bit and came home listening to more "Triffids". I got home to find the new Hoover has arrived and is sucking like a thing possessed. Which is a result if you like that sort of thing. Personally I'm not averse...

21 September 2026 (Monday) - Busy, Busy...

I slept well… or as well as I could. My carpal tunnel nonsense *really* hurts if I sleep on my side, and my back *really* hurts if I sleep on my back. But the pain kicks in over different timescales. I get an hour on my back before that pain kicks off,  whereas my arm gives me (at most) two minutes on my side.

 

I got up at half past six, made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Again it was one big squabble with people posting rants based on factually incorrect premises.

I posted a few more A.I. piccies to Facebook last night… and that had caused offence. It is common knowledge that the data centres that house the A.I. systems are massively energy-intensive and are going to cause irreversible environmental damage…

The trouble with “common knowledge” is that for all that everyone knows these things, it is usually factually incorrect. I did a little finding out… the whole process of creating an A.I. image like the ones I posted up last night used less electricity than running an electric kettle to make a cuppa. On the other hand moving data around the internet (like when reading this blog) has a much larger environmental impact than generating a few images. Creating a few caricatures of me and my dogs has a tiny fraction of the carbon footprint of the phone or computer people are viewing them on. But is it about the (totally exaggerated) energy costs? I found myself thinking back to when I used to do oil painting in the style of Bob Ross. At the time there were several people finding fault and criticising. Most of whom were established artists who felt that the entire problem with the Bob Ross style of painting is that with a little practise anyone can make a half-decent painting. A.I. generated pictures are much the same.

And people were banging on about “Saint Princess Diana”… her brother has released a book which is very critical of the King, and everyone was posting fond memories of the “Queen of Hearts” (which bore little relationship to reality)… Anyone who’s familiar with Alice in Wonderland would know that the Queen of Hearts wasn’t a particularly likable character. Personally I don’t know very much about the late Princess Diana but it’s a matter of public record that when she died in a car crash she’d not seen her children in the preceding six weeks.

 

I Munzed. I Wordled. Starting with “could” I didn’t actually get to “pager”. That’s a three-month streak down the toilet.

I then loudly asked who wanted to go to the woods. Bailey was there like a shot. She loves her walks in the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were broadcasting from the annual conference of the Liberal Democrat party. The Dribbling Democraps apparently are rather concerned that despite having over seventy MPs, no one seems to know what their policies are, or what they stand for. Historically this was always their position – to be non-committal on everything. Like them or loathe them, the other parties tell you where they stand.

 

We got to the woods. The areas near the car park were thick with foragers all shouting at each other. Once we were past them we had a near miss with the idiot with the boxer dogs. We’ve met them before. The dogs are fine, but the idiot demands on a hundred metres exclusion zone round his dogs and gets arsey when no one gives him that. He shouted at Morgan, then nearly shat himself in terror as I came round the corner asking if there was a problem. I’m told I can do a good impression of a scary tattoo-ed skinhead…

A hundred yards later we met the dogs with bells tied to their collars (poor things), but with them behind us we then had a good walk. Squirrels abounded (which the dogs chased) and the deer were out (which the dogs completely missed).

As we walked I ran my birdsong app. Being up the woods an hour and a half earlier than usual the birds were making a lot more noise than they have recently. My app said it had heard a red-eyed vireo. Had it? Somehow I doubt it.

 

We came home to an empty house. With “er indoors ^TM” having a day in the office we’d been left home alone. I made myself a cuppa, put a load of washing in then cracked on in the garden.

I harvested quite a bit of dog dung. I mowed the lawn. I cleaned out both ponds’ filters. And whilst I was having a filtration session I put the new filter into the fish tank.  

I had a spot of lunch and watched an episode of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” whilst looking at the fish tank. A few months ago I put live plants in there. A few days ago I pruned those plants. But that was nowhere near enough pruning; I gave them a serious trimming, and syphoned out a lot of the muck which was across the bottom of the tank. Once I’d topped up the water it didn’t take more than a minute or so for the muck to settle again. So I syphoned another load of muck and topped up again… and did this four more times.

 

And then I wasn’t so much worn out as in serious arm pain, so I made myself a cuppa and had a little sit down. I wrote up some CPD,  watched more “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” and then it was five o’clock.

 

I loaded the dogs into the car and we drove up to Wye Downs where we joined in with a particularly good meet-up of the local geocaching community. A mini kitchen was set up. Hot chocolate and hot dogs all round (and sausages for the dogs), and we chatted until sunset. As we chatted “er indoors ^TM” and Pogo joined us. Pogey is staying with us whilst “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM”‘s landlord has the mortgage advisors in. (No, I can’t see why Pogo needs to go on a little holiday either).

 

We came home. “er indoors ^TM” fed us all then went bowling. I scoffed second dinner whilst watching the last episodes of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story”. The show started well, but had clearly been dragged out for about three more episodes than it needed to have been.

 

I’ve had a rather busy day today…

20 September 2026 (Sunday) - Early Shift

There’s no denying that I scoffed far too much of the Chinese take-away we had last night. It would probably have fed four people, but that didn’t stop me getting stuck in. The stuff didn’t sit well overnight.

I got up at five o’clock and wondered if some toast might settle my innards. It didn’t.

 

I watched another episode of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” on Netflix which was rather interesting. The practicalities of killing someone with an axe probably isn’t something that many have considered, but if you are going to do for someone with an axe you might want to think it through before going bat-shit-psycho.

 

As I drove off to work I tried listening to the radio. Early Sunday morning radio is usually dire, and today's was dire in the extreme.  I caught the end of some utter drivel about the religious convictions of some amateur poets,  and this was followed by a potted biography of some farmer. After ten minutes I gave up and listened to more "All Quiet on the Western Front" in which our hero had ended up in a rather dire field hospital, got better, and got shot right at the end of the war. I’ve got to the end of that audiobook now. I probably won’t listen to it again. The story is depressing enough, and it was read in the most miserable tone of voice. I’m now on “Day of the Triffids” which (so far) is much better.

 

I got to work. Back in the day I would have started a weekend early shift with the cooked breakfast. Back in the day I was three stones heavier. 

I sent the night shift home and made a start on the day's work.  When I first started this job Sunday was for dire emergencies and in-patients only. Today things are different. 

I did my bit; today contending with the E and the Kidd blood groups and was glad when home time came.

 

I came home to an empty house. Following an epic battle with the Hoover “er indoors ^TM” had claimed a victory and had taken the dogs for a walk. However every epic battle has a loser, and the Hoover has gone the way of the hero of "All Quiet on the Western Front".

I rather thought that washing the innards of the Hoover was a mistake, but nil desperandum (as the dead Romans say). The new Hoover arrives is a few days’ time.

I’m just glad it wasn’t me that poggered it.

 

I put a load of washing in to scrub, then fell asleep on the sofa underneath a pile of dogs. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Young Sheldon”.

Today has been dull, and I’m feeling rather worn out… 

19 September 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Litter Picking

I woke far too early, so I got up and turned the telly on. Last night I started watching “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” on Netflix. I’ve watched two episodes so far, and so far it’s not bad.

I hoofed “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs out of bed, and as they pootled I had a look at the Internet as I do. That carpal tunnel Facebook group featured more recipes. Last night I posted on there asking what all the recipes were about, and quite a few people had echoed the sentiment.

Friends were on holiday in Greece and Estonia.

Friends had been to Dover Castle.

Friends had been to dog agility competitions.

Facebook was showing me that people had been doing things; not the usual tripe it comes up with. That was a result.

 

As I fiddled on-line so Steve was on the radio doing the Guess The Lyrics competition. “One of those nights when you feel the world stop turning”. No? E.L.O. – Last Train to London. I got it right away, and was unbearably smug about it.

We got ourselves organised and went round to Repton and Dog Club where we had a rather good morning. I counted sixteen dogs, and all played and chased and had treats and got “fruity”. One of our number returned after a few months away; she’d had a baby. Littlun was cute, and enjoyed watching the antics of the dogs.

 

From Dog Club we headed westwards.  As we drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. V.A.T. was introduced and Sweet sang about the Ballroom Blitz. No? 1973.

The radio signal gave out at Bethersden which was odd. In the past it’s been good for another ten miles out as far as Goudhurst, but it wasn’t having it today.

We got to Frittenden where the eastern part of the Kent geocaching community was helping with the village’s litter picking. Me and “er indoors ^TM” were assigned the local playpark. We started gathering litter and found there wasn’t much. And then a local busybody bustled over and told us that we were wasting our time as he picks the litter every day… and then he started a rant about two black sacks of litter which have been laying by the fence for months. We took the black sacks… and the credit too.

We then wandered the local roads seeing what litter we might find. There wasn’t much, but it was good to wander about doing something useful. This was only my twelfth C.I.T.O (geo-speak for litter picking) event. I could and should do more.

We found our way back to the control point which was outside the local pub where we met up with the other geocachers and had quite a good catch-up… right until the pub opened. It would have been nice to have had a pint there, but everyone had places to be and people to see. And (quite frankly) we could (and did) have had two rounds of rather decent beer at home and change out of what one round of rather mediocre stuff would have cost us in the pub.

 

We came home and had a rather good few hours in the garden. Freshly baked bread with decent stout, and “er indoors ^TM” played with her resin modelling. It got cold perhaps a couple of hours earlier than it might have done, but there it is.

 

“er indoors ^TM” popped down the road to the new Chinese take-away and took away the set meal for two. It was rather good. We scoffed it whilst playing “Ticket To Ride”… I won all three games; That’s completely unheard of.