10 April 2026 (Friday) - More Dull

Yesterday I woke at quarter past two… it was something of a relief when I woke and saw the clock this morning - ten to four. Still far too early, but a minor result. I lay awake for an hour before giving up and getting up.

I made toast and watched another episode of “The Man In The High Castle”, then had my usual rummage round the Internet. This morning it was on the dull side. I sent out one birthday wish, Munzed, and got ready for work.

 

I made my way to my car, picking my way through the bins that the bin men had strewn across the pavement. They've stopped hollering swear words up the streets at half past six on a Friday morning, but they still won't put the bins back where they find them.

As I drove off so Kyle's mum was walking the streets again.  Kyle was one of the stranger of my cub scouts many years ago (and that was up against some pretty stiff competition). He could speak, but for the most part chose not to. He used to communicate by pulling strange grimaces and he seriously expected everyone would know what he wanted and what he meant from the faces he pulled. After a few weeks of his nonsense I used to deal with him by replying to his strange gurning by pulling faces back at him. If what he wanted was important he would eventually communicate with words, and if he didn't speak I would assume that what he wanted was trivial and could be ignored. 

Was that harsh of me?

I often see his mother when I'm out and about. She lives just down the road, and for years has spent pretty much all of her life walking round Ashford. I've seen her in all parts of the town and at all times of day. This morning she was going past Pets at Home at half past six. Does she just like walking? Is she claustrophobic? Or is there maybe an issue at home and should I be saying something to someone in authority? If I had any confidence at all in social services I might just do so. But I haven't. And so I won't. 

 

I went round to the petrol station to fill up. Petrol ain't cheap these days. I also got a sandwich for lunch. Again being there before the morning's shelf-filling I had to choose from yesterday's leftovers, and again there was precious little that didn't have bacon in them.

I then headed west-wards through the -hursts and the -dens.  It can be a rather pretty drive when I'm not having to worry about idiots tail-ending me. There were none today. I stopped off in Goudhurst on my way. I've got a geocache there which went missing and which I replaced a couple of months ago. It had gone missing again. I've put out another, but if this one goes I shall archive it.

I then spent a few minutes admiring the view. For all that I love my walks round the woods there's no panoramic views to be had there so I made the most of the opportunity this morning. Several people in cars slowed down to see what I was doing. 

And then it was on to work.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about bird feeders. I always thought that we were doing a good thing by topping up the bird feeder, but apparently this contributes to the spread of trichomonosis.

Maybe cleaning out the bird feeder might help? Or giving them a bowl of seed rather than a feeder which harbours germs and scatters the food all over the place?

And there was more talk about the current war in the Middle East. Mind you when I say "current war" I really mean "ongoing and perpetual war". This morning there was discussion on the radio about Lebanon's involvement in the war.  Some Lebanese government official was being interviewed who pretty much admitted that the Lebanese government have no control over what the Hezbollah rebels are doing (at the moment they would seem to be the biggest problem in that part of the world). And then the chap went on to show why there will never be peace in the Middle East. He started banging on about some grievances concerning some incident that happened in 1949, and then moved on to another incident from the early seventies...  It was quite clear that griping about historical episodes was far more important to him than dealing with tangible current issues.

 

I got to Pembury where I should have filled up with petrol. Normally eight pence per litre more expensive, this morning the petrol in Pembury was seven pence per litre cheaper than what I'd paid in Ashford. If I'd topped up there I'd have saved nearly three quid, and when you are as mean as me, that's not to be sniffed at. It's the price of a bottle of decent beer from the corner shop.

 

Work was work. I came home and we had a rather good dinner of scampi and chips which we scoffed whilst watching the first two episodes of “Race Across The World” which was streets ahead of “The Hunt” that we watched recently for the simple reason that I didn’t actively despise all of the contestants.

 

I’ve got another early start tomorrow – I wonder just how early…

 

And it’s a year since I’ve seen my granddaughter. It’s her fourth birthday today. If I’m lucky I might see her again in fourteen years.

The country’s judicial system leaves a lot to be desired…

 

9 April 2026 (Thursday) - Dull

I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go… at quarter past two. As I so often do when I’ve got an alarm set. I gave up trying to sleep at five o’clock, got up and watched an episode of “The Man in the High Castle” then had my usual look at the Internet as I do every morning. There was an interesting post from a friend from long ago. The chap is a lawyer specialising in intellectual property, and he’s started his own firm. Billed as a UK and European patent attorney he’s operating out of Sydney Australia. I must admit that the words mean pretty much nothing at all to me, but I wish him well. You never know – one day I might go out and visit him.

I sent out birthday wishes to the three friends having birthdays today.  I Munzed, and got ready for work.

 

I walked up the road for some more Munzing before I drove off. There was a Celtic salmon and a Celtic cat in Christchurch Road. You'd never know, would you?  As I went back to my car I noticed that it was just before seven o'clock and there were a couple of pensioners standing by the corner shop waiting for it to open. There's o #ne of the local pensioners who is often litter-picking along the road at six o'clock. You'd think they'd not be up quite so early, wouldn't you? Perhaps it's not just me who can't sleep?

 

I headed west-wards along roads which were quieter than usual, but I'd still rather go up the motorway. If the idiot in the car behind me thinks I'm not going fast enough up the motorway there is plenty of space for them to overtake. As you drive up the A-roads there's little opportunity for overtaking and so the idiot drivers just get closer and closer up my rear end. I'm not going to go at the breakneck speeds at which they want to drive, which sadly clearly winds them up. I let them pass where I can, and then send snarky emails to their bosses and write about them on rate-driver dot internet when I can (which is most of the time). As I have said before, driving like an idiot is best done in a car that doesn't have your company's logo emblazoned all over it.

 

As I drove I listened to the pundits on the radio who were talking about the increased sales of electric cars. Apparently those in the motor industry are surprised at just how well Chinese cars are selling in the UK. The implication was made that buying Chinese was somehow unpatriotic whereas buying from a European or Japanese company isn't... There's not many car manufacturing companies which are UK-owned, are there? 

And it would seem that the Middle East cease-fire that came into effect yesterday is already looking iffy as yet again the Israelis are going out of their way to alienate themselves.

 

I went in to Tesco to get a sandwich, and then went on to work where I did my bit. And with my bit done I came home again to find that not only had the delivery of fish food arrived, but “er indoors ^TM” had rescued the screwdriver I dropped in the pond a week or so ago.

We had pie and chips and watched the last episodes of “The Other Bennet Sister” which were rather good.

I’ve got another early start tomorrow and so I doubt I’ll be asleep much after two o’clock tomorrow morning. An early start might be a plan.

 

Days like today when I’m at work are often the dull ones.

8 April 2026 (Wednesday) - Rostered Day Off

I slept well, but woke aching at seven o’clock. I got up, made toast and saw the world was still there. There had been some uncertainty overnight as President Trump had been threatening to unleash hell on Iran.

He didn’t.

As I scoffed my toast I saw that the current Middle East war is having a cease fire and the Strait of Hormuz has opened. Well, a cease-fire and open strait for the next two weeks or until it all kicks off again. At the risk of appearing cynical it won’t be long.

And there was a lot of talk about yesterday evening’s fire. As I’d driven home last night there was a load of smoke coming from a recycling plant on the other side of town. Fire engines came from miles around to sort it.

I Munzed, and went to wake the dogs. They sleep so lightly during the day, and so deeply at night.

 

I put a load of washing in to scrub and took the dogs out. As we drove up Brookfield Road it was clear that the petrol station up there hadn’t heard the morning news; their petrol had gone up in price by two pence per litre overnight. And as I drove up Chart Road there was a definite haze in the air. From yesterday’s fire?

 

The roads up to the woods were a lot quieter than usual; the woods a lot busier. The car park was heaving, but as is always the way, once you get half a mile from the car park you get the woods to yourself. Mostly. We did have a minor issue with some idiot woman and her dog. We changed direction several times to avoid her, and in the end I just gave up. If her dog and mine had a set-to it wasn’t from my trying to keep away from her. Fortunately for us she took one of the paths that leads north out of the woods through a field with horses in it. And about twenty seconds after we lost sight of her we could hear a frantic neighing, a frantic barking, and lots of shouting. My three dogs looked at me as if to say “F.F.S.”, and ignored the commotion. I couldn’t have done anything to help without involving my three in whatever was going on so I thought I could best help by staying away. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

As we walked we saw the bluebells which are coming into full bloom, and my birdsong app detected sixteen different bird species.

We took a slightly different route to our usual one. Over the weekend we’d had reports that four of my geocaches in the woods were missing so I called in to each location and in a novel break with tradition all really were missing. I replaced them all, but did wonder where they’d gone. Had people done a litter-pick and tidied them up? Had people taken them home to show their mums? (that really does happen!)

 

After five miles we were back at the car. We came home where the washing machine had finished. I hung the wet stuff on the line (for the first time this year), and harvested a massive crop of dog turds. I’ve mentioned before that I can’t believe that three small dogs can generate so much dung.

I got all the rubbish that we’d been hoarding out the shed and loaded it into my car. Back in the day I could then have taken it straight to the tip, but these days you have to book a time, and there was an hour and a half to go until it was my turn.

 

I used the time to record the geo-maintenance that I’d done earlier, and I archived two geocaches I hid at Singleton lake a couple of years ago. Both were clearly missing and I’d been meaning to replace them for months and had never got round to it. Best to get shot of them before I get the geo-feds on my case.

I did a You-Gov survey, Wordled from “miles” through “illier” to “inlet”, wrote up some CPD, then went round to the tip.

It was rather busy.

 

I came home. No day not at work is complete without ironing. As I ironed I watched a film on the Disney Channel. “Starship Troopers” is an old favourite of mine, but more and more these days I’m finding I don’t have the attention span for films.

We did “FEED THE FISH”, I watered the plants. And had a little look in the small pond. At the weekend we got some goldfish for that pond. Either they are hiding or the seagulls have had them.

And I got the shears out and gave myself a quick haircut. That saved over a tenner.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza and went out for the evening. I settled in front of the telly and sparked up Netflix. I’ve been meaning to watch “The Man In The High Castle” for over ten years, and finally made a start this evening. Set in an alternate version of America some fifteen years after the Allies were defeated in the Second World War, so far the program shows promise…

 

Today was a rostered day off. I’m going in to work for a rest tomorrow…

7 April 2026 (Tuesday) - More I.T.

For once I had a bit of an early night last night and managed seven hours asleep. I was still up before six o’clock though. I made toast and watched an episode of “Derek” then had my usual look at the Internet. It was rather dull this morning; nothing but adverts for stuff in which I had absolutely no interest.

I had a load of emails – people had been round Kings Wood hunting for the geocaches I’d hidden there. Several people couldn’t find certain ones; that’s tomorrow’s dog walk planned for me.

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

 

What with it effectively still being the Easter holidays the roads were rather quiet as I drove up the "Operation Brock" nonsense. I *really* can't see the point of it; there's the same amount of traffic there always is, just going twenty miles per hour slower. Perhaps that's the point? I did see four cars and a van going along the bit that cars and vans shouldn't be in; there's often cars and vans in that bit.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about Kanye West. Apparently he's some big music star who's seriously upset the Jewish community. At the risk of stirring up a hornet’s nest, it strikes me that the entire "Jewish community" is a subject no one dares to mention. It strikes me that cries of antisemitism are thrown up at the slightest provocation, and the world and his wife live in terror of such accusations. Meanwhile Israel demands that America join it in (from what I can see) an unprovoked war and no one says a word. I'd love to know just what I'm missing here.

And the astronauts are on their way back from the Moon. Not that they actually went to the Moon; just round it. For all that I'm a great fan of the space program, it does strike me that they went a long way to do not very much. Maybe going into a lunar orbit and then leaving it after a few orbits might have been something? Mind you their previously poggered toilet has now been fixed... you know you've got troubles when you are a week away from the nearest functional chodbin (or even tree to tiddle up).

 

I popped in to Sainsburys to get a sandwich as I do. They had quite a few plants; I thought about getting some, but I've done that in the past. They don't survive a day in the car.

And I went on to work. Originally I wasn't scheduled to be at work today, but I'd been asked if I might help with doing more testing on the new IT system.  I had a go... there's no denying I had quite a bit of "Operator Error". The thing would have worked far better had it done what I wanted it to do rather that what I'd been telling it to do but that's what completer systems are all about, isn't it? No? - well, that's the line I'm taking. 

I spent much of the day telling management that if I stuff it up in the testing scenarios then we can see how to avoid subsequent stuff-ups in the future. I'm not convinced that management subscribe to this school of thought, but management rarely does. I never used to when I was a manager.

 

As I drove home down the motorway so I saw a horse bolting across one of the bridges that crosses the M20…

 

We cracked open a bottle of plonk and then finished off the amaretto whilst watching the last episode of “The Hunt: Prey vs Predator”. It was a good show, but would have been better had any of the contestants been likeable.  We followed this with a couple of episodes of “The Other Bennett Sister” in which Mr Ryder turned out to be quite the beast. Men often are…

6 April 2026 (Easter Monday) - Working, Rolvenden

I felt rather rough when I woke this morning, but what could I do? Sulk or get on with it. I got on with it. “It” being laying wide awake far too early hoping and failing to get back to sleep.

I gave up, got up, put a load of washing in to scrub, made toast and watched an episode of “Derek” which was entertaining. I then had my usual peer into the Internet.

 

Our local MP had posted to his Facebook page (or a member of his staff had). Our local MP’s Facebook page has two sorts of posts. Either he’s trying to share in the limelight of that which someone local has achieved, or he’s making personal attacks on the opposition. Having spent years hoping for a Labour MP, this chap has turned out to be something of a disappointment. 

Other than that, hardly anything that wasn’t an advert was in my Facebook feed this morning. And of the adverts, pretty much none of them were of any interest to me.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “rough” to “story” and “score” to “sworn”.

 

With the washing hung out I set off up the motorway where the "Operation Brock" stupidity was still in place. But what with it being a rather quiet Bank Holiday morning I just set the cruise control and keep going. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the ongoing war in the Middle East. On the one hand is the American President who is ranting and raving, and on the other hand is the Iranian bunch who (from what I can see) haven't actually done much to warrant being attacked in the first place.

Trump is threatening dire retribution if the Strait of Hormuz isn't opened to shipping. However everyone knows T.A.C.O.  and consequently those he threatens are taking no notice. Meanwhile the rest of the world have realized that they can get oil out if they pay the Iranians not to shoot at them and so have started paying.  I suspect that when this all blows over (this time) the Iranians will carry on charging people not to shoot at their oil tankers and will have found themselves a nice little earner. Maybe the Prime Minister might learn from this and start threatening to take pot-shots at anything going through the strait of Dover unless they give the UK a bung.

 

I got to work. I popped into the canteen in the hope that they might have a hot cross bun. They did, and so I had one with a cuppa before I started. I'd rather not have been working today, but it was only for the morning, and unlike how it used to be when I worked elsewhere, I did what I did secure and content in the knowledge that every single thing I did today wouldn't be revisited and inspected tomorrow by a bullying manager determined to find fault everywhere he possibly could.  

And with my bit done I came home.

 

Having spent the entire Bank Holiday weekend so far maintaining geocaches we continued the theme. We drove out to Rolvenden where people who’ve found hundreds of other people’s geocaches but couldn’t be bothered to put out any of their own were finding fault with that which “er indoors ^TM” had done. As with pretty much everything in life it is not what is said but how it is said. “I’m sorry but the thing is rather damp” doesn’t give the offence that “yet another in desperate need of attention” does.

But we had a good walk. It was a shame that the dogs had to be on the leads for much of the way, but there were pheasants shouting seemingly constantly and the dogs seriously had the red mist.

I took a few photos as we went.

With walk walked we popped into the pub at the end of the route. I’ve not been in there for some time… eleven years.to be precise. We had a rather good (and well-deserved) pint, but… a pint of Harveys, half a cider shandy, two bags of crisps… nearly twelve quid. I know I’m getting mean in my old age but that’s about double what I’d pay in the shop over the road, and drinking it in my back garden means I wouldn’t have to put up with all the normal people shouting profanities at each other. Like they do.  

 

Seeing how it was the last day of the Easter holiday today “er indoors ^TM” sorted KFC which we scoffed whilst watching two more episodes of “The Hunt: Prey vs Predator”. Mind you when I say “watching”, I slept through much of the second one. I wonder if I missed much?

5 April 2026 (Sunday) - A Walk, Gardening...

Morgan had got off the bed in the night. When I came back from the loo at five o’clock he was looking hopeful so I lifted him up past Treacle’s glare.

Back in the day I would have got up at five o’clock on Easter Sunday. I would have gone to our local church (just down the road) and set up all the tables and chairs. Friends of the time would then have got the kitchen orgnised and I and others would walk up to North’s Seat; the highest point for miles around. We Methodists used to organise a “Son-Rise” outdoor church service where we would sing and pray. We’d be joined by the local C of E congregation, the local Catholics and the Baptists. The Jehovah’s Witnesses would always be invited to join with us. Every year they sent a little delegation who never joined in, but stood and watched from fifty yards away.

And once the sun had risen we’d take everyone back to our Methodist church where we’d give everyone brekkie. Everyone except the Jehovah’s Witnesses who flatly refused to have anything to do with us.

I wonder if that still goes on in Hastings.

 

But I didn’t get up at five o’clock today. I went back to bed and stayed there until half past seven. I got up, made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was much the same as ever… but I chuckled at the adverts in my feed. Yesterday I mentioned the iffy fence panels and that we’d bought some bedding plants. This morning I was inundated with adverts for fence repair kits and plant seeds.

 

 #There wasn’t much we could really do today. Pretty much everything closes for Easter Sunday. Supposedly it is so the staff can have a rest. What a load of tosh. Let’s see how the public react when they turn up at the hospital and get told to shove off because the place is closed so that the staff can have a rest. Why don’t shops and supermarkets and the like open from six in the morning until midnight (or even operate continuously). They could do this by actively looking for people who want to start work very early in the morning, or want to work late into the evening. Or want to do night work. Rather than having the existing staff working more hours, just take on more staff. After all what’s the point of a shop being open when all its potential customers are at work themselves? 

 

I Wordled, and Munzed from “night” to “knave” and got it with “envoy” on the third attempt. I rather impressed myself with that.

I went into the garden for a bit. I cleared yet more dog turds, laid one of the stepping stones that the first fruit of my loin gave me yesterday, cleaned out the filter of the small pond, and gave up on the pansies I planted a few weeks ago. They’ve come to nothing so I dinged their compost into one of the planters, and by then “er indoors ^TM” was ready. Some of her geocaches along the Greensand Way needed attention. We’d sorted some on Friday; we sorted more today. And with caches sorted we had something of a failed experiment. The series of geocaches runs in a straight line. We thought we might add a return loop to make a circular walk… There is a footpath which goes parallel to the geo-series which would be an ideal route in theory…

In practice it was a disaster. The path had half a dozen stiles which were poggered and all but impassable. We got over them but it took some doing. I shall contact the rights of way people… it would be a good walk if you could actually get along it. A mile and a quarter took us over an hour.

 

We came home for a cuppa and the last of the lemon cake, and I went back into the garden. I planted out those bedding plants we got yesterday. I discovered that I’d got a dozen snapdragons rather than six – that was a result. I tested all the water features – the big one isn’t quite flowing like it might. I expect I’ll sort it eventually. Or I won’t. We got a load of rubbish ready for a tip run. And when I finished pootling I took a few photos of the garden.  

We had a cuppa by the pond. Now it’s getting warmer we can sit by the pond. But when I say “pond” I can’t help but feel I mean “big dog water bowl”; Treacle does love guzzling out of it.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up chicken and chips. Once that was scoffed we played the Infinity Table over the Internet against Chris. That thing’s internet connection is odd. “Game of Life”, “Sorry” and “Trouble” all work fine, but “Ticket to Ride” simply won’t play remotely.

 

I’ve got to go to work in the morning…

4 April 2026 (Saturday) - Rather Busy

I slept reasonably well… for the last year or so I seem to have been plagued with very vivid dreams of finding myself at Open University summer schools with no reason to be there… I wonder what that’s all about?

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Yesterday I mentioned that a local councillor was using Facebook to launch personal attacks on another. I made the comment “It is such a shame that local government has sunk to the level of personal attacks on social media” and amazingly no one wanted to quibble with me, and several people had agreed. Another local councilor commented that she agreed with me, and went on to say what a thankless task local government can be. No matter what you do, there will be people (who’ve never actually got off their arses themselves) waiting to find fault.

It was the same back in the day with the county-wide Star Trek club, the snake club and the astro club. Everyone would say “why don’t you…” and never “why don’t we…”. Everything that was done was wrong, but there were never any ideas or suggestions for what might actually be done.

Maybe if the people who run local councils were appointed by lot (in much the same way that people get called up for jury service) then those finding fault would have some understanding of that with which they are finding fault.

And I found out that the actress who played Private Godfrey’s sister in Dad’s Army was in real life the wife of him who played Captain Mainwaring. One lives and learns.

 

I Munzed and Wordled from “hurts” through “scale”, “sappy” and “savvy” to get “sandy” on the fifth attempt.

Steve was doing the Guess The Lyrics competition on the radio as I pootled. “This is a song to all of my friends, they take the challenge to their hearts”. No? – I had no idea either. It was “New Song” by Howard Jones.

 

I drove round to Dog Club and got set up. “er indoors ^TM” followed with the dogs. Dog Club went rather well; we had quite a few new dogs along. The new dogs were a bit overwhelmed at first, but within a few minutes they were all running and playing and scoffing treats with all the other dogs. And the new dogs’ humans were also a bit overwhelmed at first, but within a few minutes were chatting with everyone else and enjoying the fun. We had (I think) twenty-three dogs along today, and we all had a great time.

If only more dog owners could see how dogs can get on so well.

 

All too soon it was time to go. “er indoors ^TM” was off to craft club. The dogs would just keep looking for her, so I took them home when she went.

As we drove Steve was on the radio doing the Mystery Year competition. When did Freddie Laker get knighted? When was Mr. Blue Sky in the charts? The embarrassingly named Cloppa Castle was on the telly… and there was some cricket match in which someone or other took eight wickets. Or “winnets” as Steve said. He got away with it but I did chuckle… It was 1978.

 

Once home the dogs soon settled. I made myself a cuppa and made some AI photos for the Dog Club’s Facebook page. Then I got busy… I did the dogs’ flea treatments then ran out the lawnmower… and after about five seconds turned it off to harvest more dog dung. I’d cleared it all before I started, but between getting shot of all the turds and getting the lawnmower out, one of them had added a late offering.

With the lawn eventually mowed I had a preliminary zoom round with the garden vacuum. And then I ran out the pond hose and cleaned out the pond’s pressure filter. You really can see how the thing flows faster after a cleaning.

I had a look at the cordyline (it’s a plant). It don’t look too clever. I don’t think it’s dead though. Not yet anyway. I’ll see what a dose of plant food does for it. I had some in the shed and doshed some out to the potted plants which had survived the winter. There were also some weeds in the plant pots. They got chucked… though to be honest it was tricky to see what was wanted plant and what was unwanted weed.

I had a look at the fence panels. They look shabby. I keep talking about replacing them. Mind you when I say “replacing them” I really mean “paying someone to replace them for me”. The actual replacing isn’t an issue; it’s the having the new ones delivered and getting shot of the old ones that would be arse-ache.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home from craft club and sorted us a cuppa and a hot cross bun. We had some Morrison’s hot cross buns… they aren’t very nice.

We then took the dogs out plant shopping. We went to Bybrook Barn where maybe one person in twenty realised that they were in a busy garden centre. Pretty much everyone was blundering about totally oblivious to everyone else around them. We got some bedding plants, but no polyanthus. Apparently they are now out of season. We went on to Dobbies where we got some polyanthus in the “reduced” section. And some little goldfish for the small pond.

 

“My Boy ^TM” and ”Auntie Chel ^TM” called round. They’d been tidying up their garden and had some statues that were surplus to requirement. Did I want them? Yes please!!!  We got them into the garden; I shall do something with them tomorrow.

 

And then, with the Infinity Table not having been put away since last night, “er indoors ^TM” and I had another go at various maps of “Ticket to Ride” which I eventually won (four games to three).

If any of my loyal readers fancy an evening of drinking beer whilst laying virtual train tracks round various maps of Europe, America and Asia, you’d be very welcome…