13 July 2026 (Monday) - Rather Busy

I slept through till five o’clock this morning which was something of a result. I then made the schoolboy error of going to the loo only to come back to find dogs in what had been my warm space. I eventually folded myself around then and dozed on and off for another hour or so.

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet as I do. It was rather quiet this morning. No one was picking fights over trivia, no one was demanding that their imaginary god could have another person’s imaginary god in a fight. No one was having a birthday…

I had some emails. People had been looking for my geocaches in Kings Wood and elsewhere yesterday. Those who’ve not been playing the game for that long were rather effusive in their written logs. Those who are amongst the country’s top finders weren’t quite so. I’d like to think they didn’t mean to be quite as rude as they appeared to be in what they’d written.

I thought about sending then a snarky message, but thought better of doing so.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the Falklands war of 1982. Apparently the next game that the England football team will play in the ongoing World Cup is against the Argentinian team, and a whole load of bad feeling has been stirred up.

We got to the woods and had a good walk. We didn’t see any normal people, we didn’t go in any swamps.

We replaced two geocaches that had been reported as being missing (as they were). We took a different route to our usual one. Being a warmer day I deliberately took the dogs on a shorter route… it was only about a quarter of a mile shorter according to my mapping app. I would have said a whole mile shorter – shows what I know.

 

I came home and harvested an epic crop of dog dung, cleaned out the fish pond filter, voomed round with the bionic burner, then had a little look at some of my Wherigos. A Wherigo is a special sort of geocache in which you play a little game on your phone (which I write) before being told where to find the actual geocache. Sadly a lot of people use cheat software to rip into the coding of what I’ve written to get the location without playing the game. So I’ve started writing Wherigos containing pictures giving fake locations. These pictures never appear when playing the actual game properly, but do appear when you use the cheat software.

I’ve had several people messaging me saying that they can’t find my Wherigos, and when I ask what co-ordinates they’ve got they give me the fake co-ordinates that I’ve set to catch them out. And then they try to pretend they haven’t been cheating…

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “cheat” to “stout” in four goes, and then sat by the pond reading “The Kraken Wakes”. Or I tried to. I found myself rather engrossed in the antics of the pigeons. Having spent a load of time, effort and money setting up a splash-aerator-ornamental-fish thingy it would seem that the pigeons are using it as a water fountain so that they can get a drink. I’m not complaining though; they do far less damage when they stand and drink from that than when they try to stand on the floating baskets and capsize the lot. Which they also tried to do this afternoon.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza and chips and then went bowling. I cracked on with the ironing whilst watching something on Netflix. “Unchosen” is about a young woman struggling with being a part of a crackpot religious sect.

Being very wrapped up in crackpot religion when younger, that could so easily have been me.

12 July 2026 (Sunday) - Early Shift

I woke seriously early this morning. Rather than laying awake I made toast and watched the last episode of "Earth Abides".  I watched five episodes last night and watched the last one this morning. Having seen that a TV adaptation had been made of one of my favourite books I had been intrigued to see what had been done... To be honest it wasn't bad. Compared to the absolute balls-ups that have been made of televising some books (The Foundation series immediately springs to mind) it could have been a whole lot worse. The writers had taken a few liberties with the plot, and had left out quite a few of the most important parts of the book. And (like with the Harry Potter films) if you hadn't read the book you'd be wondering about a few scenes which were otherwise inexplicable.  But all things considered, a lot better than I thought it might have been.

If you've not seen it, give it a go. It's free to watch on You-Tube.

 

I Wordled, and set off to work, listening to my newly acquired Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy MP3s. They were a bit fizzy in parts, but looking back to the late seventies, the original broadcasts were also bit fizzy in parts.

As I drove the roads were quiet, as well they should be early on a Sunday morning, but there was quite a bit of traffic in Sissinghurst. I couldn't work out why until I saw the signs. A boot fair. I was amazed at just how many people were already going round the boot fair at half past six. Boot fairs are truly a sign of our times, aren't they? Back in the day people gave their rubbish to the Boys Brigade and the Scouts who would hold a jumble sale to raise funds. These days people just have a stall at a boot fair and pocket the profits themselves.

Mind you back in the day when I used to be involved with the Boys Brigade and the Scouts it was clear that jumble sales had had their day. What with the poncey stalls that they attract  it's rather fashionable to go to the boot fairs. There's a certain air of almost snobbery showing off the trinket you snapped up when you found it at a boot fair. But who has ever boasted about going to a jumble sale, let alone admitted to actually buying something from one? 

 

I got to work and did my bit. In between doing my bit I read my Kindle. I've started re-reading "The Kraken Wakes" by John Wyndham. I've always said this was an old favourite of mine... but I'd forgotten the writing style. Ridiculously upper-class and pretentious.  I still like it though.

When the late shift arrived at mid-day I slipped off for a spot of lunch. Last night “er indoors ^TM” had brought home a job lot of sarnies from the family bash I'd missed last night. As I scoffed them I thought that it would have been good to have got along. Not only could I have caught up with friends and family I've not seen for ages, but I could also have met up with one of my most loyal readers too (waves 😊 ).

But Treacle goes mental and screams and shouts if left unsupervised for more than a few minutes, and I'd rather not upset the neighbours any more than I need to. Treacle don't care though.

 

Being on an early shift was something of a result (I like the early shifts). I again listened to the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy as I drove home.  Having left the crew of the Starship "Heart of Gold" facing certain death when I'd arrived at work, I drove home listening to their antics at the restaurant at the end of the universe. Did you know there's a restaurant at the end of the universe? It turns out that there's no judgement day waiting for us, just a rather posh restaurant. And if you stick one penny in a bank account today, by the time the end of the universe comes, compound interest will have paid for your meal. 

If you live that long...

Alternatively you could spend your time with a load of hairdressers and accountants on the “B” Ark.

 

As I drove home I felt myself wilting. I got home and once I’d watered he plants and done “FEED THE FISH” I had a little shut-eye in the garden. Again having been wide awake during the night when I should have been sparko I found myself struggling to stay awake during the afternoon (And it wasn’t as though I’d been on the sauce like yesterday)

 

We had a rather good bit of dinner, and I was falling asleep over that too. I really should have an early night…

11 July 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Dinner, Telly

Something odd was going on with not-so-nice-next-door this morning. Her back door was wide open. Her back door is never open for more than a second. She always has it locked, and it is open just long enough for her to jump through when she then locks it again. I wonder what was going on there this morning?

 

I made toast and looked at Facebook. It would seem that Anne Widdecombe (who I mentioned yesterday) was murdered. Whilst I realise that it is bad form to speak ill of the dead, it always amazed me that someone who was an active church-goer could have so strongly supported the policies that she did. Mind you our local Restore UK councillor is much the same. He goes to church, does such good work with the local homeless… and look at what his party advocates.

A new puzzle geocache went live. It didn’t take me long to solve it… or (to be precise) find its location. However when you get there, you’ve got a field puzzle involving a nine-volt battery. That sort of thing is all good fun, but it don’t last long before someone breaks it.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “locks” to “avian” in four goes, then strained my brain as Steve announced the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. “Oh so let her go don’t’ start spoiling the show”. I got it right away – “Livin’ Thing” by ELO.

I sat and listened for my mention on air, and having heard the world being told that I was the first one to get it we got ready for the morning.

 

We took the dogs round to Repton and Dog Club. We had over twenty dogs along and had a great time. Mostly. Morgan has got issues with one of the newer dogs, but every time he got a little feisty I shouted at him and he came back.

From Dog Club we drove off to Charing. We tried to do Steve’s Mystery Year competition on the radio, but as we set off so the news was starting, and by the time the news and the adverts had finished we were half way up Charing hill and the signal had all but given up.

 

We got to the car park of the Wagon and Horses where we met Karl and Tracey. We went for a little walk round Longbeech North. We walked the same woods last weekend; it was rather cooler this weekend.

And with walk walked we came back to the cars and then on to the Wagon and Horses where we had a rather good bit of dinner and a little drinkie too. Though not quite as much of a little drinkie as we had last weekend.

 

We came home. I watered the garden and counted up the Dog Club money. Bearing in mind we charge one pound fifty per dog per week, how could I possibly have ended up with an odd thirty-five pence?

We did “FEED THE FISH”, I watered the plants. “er indoors ^TM” went off to a family meal in Rye. I stayed on dog duty. Having downloaded some old favourite books and MP3s I discovered “Earth Abides” had been made into a TV show. Rather than paying good money for the MGM app I had a look on You-Tube. So far the show is rather good.

 

I’ve just had a little break to do dog dinner. Morgan has refused everything. Treacle has eaten hers and Bailey’s leftovers, and having had a couple of mouthfuls Bailey has just gone into the garden where she ate the turd that Treacle had just dropped…

I’m going to watch more “Earth Abides”…

10 July 2026 (Friday) - Early Shift

I woke at four o’clock which with an alarm set was something of a result. I got up and spent an age trying to find something to watch on Netflix. I eventually settled on something called “Master of None” which was rather rubbish really.

I then had a little look t the internet which was rather quiet at half past five this morning. A friend was posting from his second Sicilian flat… He’s just bought another flat in Sicily. Holiday homes are all very well, but personally I’m not keen on the travelling to and fro. I sent out a birthday wish, and with not a lot else happening I got ready for work.

 

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were talking about the Bayeux tapestry which arrived at the British Museum in the small hours and will be in the UK for a year.

For years I thought the Bayeux tapestry and the Hastings Embroidery were the same thing mainly because our teachers at Red Lake Primary School told is that they were. Not that anyone who lives outside of Hastings would ever have heard of either before today. I can remember our teachers at school making such an issue about it/them.

And there was talk about Anne Widdecombe who died overnight. Everyone seems to think she was a wonderful old duck following her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing; no one seems to remember what she stood for. Her voting record in parliament showed she was against gay rights, consistently voted against allowing terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their life, always voted against measures to prevent climate change, and thought the unelected House of Lords was a good thing.

 

I stopped off at the petrol station in Pembury where the stuff was five pence per litre cheaper than it was at home. I saved myself over two quid... which I then blew in Tesco not realising that the berries snack pot was classed as a main meal and not a snack, and consequently wasn't included in the meal deal.

As I queued to find this out, so some idiot woman was holding up the queue by gossiping at anyone who came within shouting distance.

 

Work was work. We had the inspectors in. Perhaps I'm getting old, but the inspector who sat with me this morning looked as though he was about twelve years old. Back in the day the bulk of laboratory inspections were carried out by recently retired lab staff.  

 

Being on an early, home time came early (it does that). I drove home listening to the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy MP3s I downloaded. They were a tad fizzy in places, but something for nothing is always good. I can (vaguely) remember tuning in to them when they were on the radio nearly fifty years ago. I can also remember other things on the radio from back then. The Grumbleweeds (although incredibly dire on the telly) were rather funny on the radio, and Roy Castle used to have a very amusing radio show too. I wonder if I can get copies of those?

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “The Traitors USA”. It was entertaining enough…

9 July 2026 (Thursday) - FTF, Phone Games, Plonk, Too Hot

I woke at five o’clock to the sound of Treacle whimpering. She’d got off the bed and wanted to come back up but clearly couldn’t. I got up to help her… and she jumped straight back onto the bed. Ho hum…

 

As I made toast I noticed my coffee mug was still a tad grubby. A quick look at the dishwasher showed several of the rinsing nozzles were bunged up. “er indoors ^TM” took it to bits and had a full-on fight with it. You wouldn’t believe the amount of muck that came out.

Whilst she clouted the thing I scoffed toast and peered into the Internet as I do. The MP for Faversham was all over Facebook whinging about what a pain in the arse “Operation Brock” has been and will be. She talked a good fight, but seemed to draw a veil over how “Operation Brock” is one of the most obvious and tangible results of Brexit (which she was all in favour of). As I’ve mentioned before, our system of democracy is a stupid one. The masses don’t like foreigners so we vote for firm border controls. And part of firm border controls is taking time to control the borders and the masses don’t like that either. And we have politicians like this one cheering on both policies effectively saying black is white and right is wrong because she doesn’t dare alienate the electorate by telling them what they don’t want to hear.

I Munzed, Wordled and we got ready for the off.

 

On Sunday morning I saw a new geocache had gone live near the canal near Hythe. Someone had looked for it that morning and not found it. On Monday the chap who’d hidden it had updated the given co-ordinates, and on Tuesday he’d posted that he’d had a look and seen it was in place. But with no one having logged a First to Find I had a plan that this might make a little dog walk this morning before it got too hot.

We drove down to Hythe and despite the utterly meaningless hint “Take the path less noticed—look where nature stands guard” we found a tube hanging from some barbed wire about seven feet up. But we were first to find it, which was more than we’d achieved yesterday which was a result.

We carried on along the canal for a little walk. Treacle fell in but was soon hoiked out. And as we came to the bridge across the canal we found a little café. I got us an ice lolly each. There’s no denying that Soleros have shrunk massively since I last had one. Apparently it’s all about reducing the calories and not maximising the profits.

 

We got back to the car just as it was getting seriously hot. Once home, “er indoors ^TM” went off shopping and got herself a haircut. Personally I’ve a set of trimmers which I run over my head every couple of weeks or so, but she pays good money to have her hair looking pretty much the same as it was before she went for the short back and slap.

I spent a few minutes fiddling about on-line and found MP3 versions of the original broadcasts of “The Hitch Hiker’s guide to the Galaxy” which I’ve put on my MP3 stick. “er indoors ^TM” returned and sorted rather good tuna and cheese rolls and we sat in the garden for a bit. Having seen endless adverts for “Matching Story” I thought I’d give it a go. It was nothing like the adverts.

 

I had a little sleep until the dogs went mad. We’d had a delivery. A few days ago I mentioned I was trying to get the Adrian Mole books in audiobook format. I came up with a plan that if I could resurrect my old lap-top I could use the CD drive on that to rip the CDs to my MP3 stick. It was a good plan, thwarted only by eBay. Having bought the complete Adrian Mole collection on audiobook CDs, am I being hopelessly naïve in expecting something billed as “The complete collection” to have all eight books and not just the first three?

The first book was on five CDs… it only took an hour to convert them to MP3 format. I’ll do the next two later, and if any of my loyal readers have any of the last five Adrian Mole books on CDs… (he smiled hopefully).

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of that cheap plonk whilst we watched the latest series of “The Traitors US” in which a couple of dozen supposedly celebrities tried to out-overact each other.

 

I’ve set the dishy loose on the day’s crockery. Hopefully its overhaul of this morning will have sorted it out. We shall see.

8 July 2026 (Wednesday) - The Heatwave Continues

Despite the heat I slept well last night. Settled dogs make such a difference.

I got up and had a look at the potted plants in the garden. Every morning not-so-nice-next-door is out watering her plants, but the soil in my pots was still damp from yesterday so I didn’t give them another drenching. You can over-water… I think I might have don’t for my acers by doing that.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. All the talk on social media this morning was about that odious Nigel Farage who was playing silly beggars. Having been accused of all sorts of financial irregularities, rather than facing a proper investigation he’s resigned as an MP. He says he will stand in a by-election and the public can decide between him and “the establishment”. It’s a rather silly attention-seeking stunt that has blown up in his face as all of the other political parties have announced they aren’t going to stand in any by-election he might set off.

I really can’t understand why anyone would vote for him anyway. It’s nothing to do with his policies; it’s him. He’s never seen in his constituency, and his record as an MEP (back in the day). He was one of the top three most poorly attending MEPs and there were allegations of his diverting money even then. His stock in trade is to stand on the political sidelines and heckle. The last thing he ever wanted was to ever get elected to anything because he would then have to do something.

And there was talk about how many non-native invasive species are now living wild in the UK. I’ve seen scorpions, parakeets, wallabies and catfish all within twenty miles of home, and I think I’ve heard wild boar (and seen their turds) in Kings Wood.

 

I Munzed. I Wordled from “plant” to “demon” in five goes, and we took the dogs out before it got too hot. A couple of days ago a new geocache went live in Denge Wood (near Petham). There was still no find logged on it this morning. Looking at the maps it seemed as though it was a mile into the woods so we’d have shade.

We had a minor snag when the road there was closed, but we eventually got to where we needed to park. We had a good walk out to where the geocache was supposed to be. The hint was “nestled at the bottom of a tree” and with the difficulty set to the easiest rating possible it shouldn’t have been a difficult find.

We arrived to find the leaf litter had been brushed away from pretty much every tree within fifty feet of where the GPS said we needed to be. Someone else had obviously already been there and had a good look round before us.

We searched for twenty minutes before giving up. But having had a decent walk out we had a decent walk back to the car. And I took a few photos whilst we were out too.

 

We got home just as it was getting too hot.  “er indoors ^TM” sorted us iced coffee. I marked a trainee’s essay on the laboratory investigation of haemostatic abnormalities, then spent an afternoon slobbing in the garden. Reading my Kindle, playing Meowdoku, “FEEDING THE FISH”, watering the plants, having a little snooze…

 

We had a rather good dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a film. Despicable Me 4 was rather good…

7 July 2026 (Tuesday) - Too Hot (Again)

Everyone was settled last night. No one fidgeted or wanted to go shouting at seagulls and I slept through until seven o’clock.

I got up, made toast and had my little look at the Internet. It was still there, and was much the same as it ever was. This morning’s squabble was on a Facebook bird watching page where someone wanted people to identify the woodpecker he’d just photographed. The bird in question looked like a goldfinch to me (and a lot of other people too) but the chap who’d posted the photo knew a woodpecker when he saw one, or so he claimed.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods for an early walk. It didn’t seem as warm as yesterday. As we walked there was a buzzard flying low through the trees squawking like a thing possessed. I stood and watched it for a few minutes, and then realised that fifty yards away a herd of deer were also watching it too. The dogs were utterly oblivious to the deer.

We had a minor episode as we came back to the car park. As we walked up the hill I saw the old chap who’d taken a tumble a couple of months ago and who I’d helped up. I was about to explain that Pogo would probably scream at his dog, but he does that. Pogo gave a half-hearted squeak and the old bloke stamped and thrashed at Pogo and shouted at him to f… off. When I asked him if that was necessary; the old bloke got rather aggressive. When he’d finished ranting I reminded him that I’d helped him up a little while ago, and that the next time I see him lying on the ground I would leave him there. It was at that point that he pretended to be deaf, and his rather embarrassed wife tried to hurry him away.

Would I leave him laying on the ground next time? Probably not…

 

We came home. I Munzed, Wordled from “night” to “sling” which I got on the last go. I did a You-Gov survey and then wasted ages looking at audiobooks. Bearing in mind my utter inability to listen to the Adrian Mole diaries on Radio Four Extra at the weekend I had a plan to download them to my MP3 stick and play them in my car that way. Sadly the best I could find was to get them on a CD… CD – my car doesn’t have a CD player, and who has a CD drive on a laptop any more? The best I could find was some “audible” thing which would have me spending money each month. Not a lot of money, but I said that about the Sky TV. By the time I paid for Sky and the internet and Netflix and Paramount it soon added up to over a hundred quid a month.

I eventually got the Kindle app to start reading the Kindle book I’d bought ages ago, but all it would read was the copyright rubbish; not the actual story. I had this idea that I might play it from the BBC Sounds website directly on my phone, and I tried that as I set off to Folkestone, but for some reason the phone won’t play any sounds when in the car. Something to do with the Bluetooth I think?

 

I spent an hour or so running errands for “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and then took her and Pogey home. It was eight degrees cooler in Folkestone compared to Ashford.

I got home and scoffed some malt loaf for lunch as I marked a trainee’s essay on iron metabolism.

 

We did “FEED THE FISH”. If I haven’t made the announcement by about half past three all three dogs follow me around waiting for the announcement. The fish got fed, the dogs had a few scraps of dried rice. Everyone saw that as a result.

I watered the plants, played Meowdoku, and checked the car’s tyre pressures. As I drove home earlier it told me one of the tyres had a low pressure. All seemed OK to me when I checked, but I’d rather have a false alarm than no alarm.

 

We had a rather good dinner (with a chilled bottle of that cheapo plonk) whilst watching another episode of “MacDonald and Dodds”. I’d be rubbish at being a detective. And to think I once seriously considered being a rozzer…