25 June 2026 (Thursday) - Still Too Hot

Apart from Bailey having a coughing fit in the small hours I had a good night, sleeping through until eight o’clock despite the heat.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there, and much the same as ever. This morning my Facebook feed was seemingly filled with suggestions that I might follow the rantings of various Reform UK councillors. Most of the ones I was presented with had seemingly Polish or Asian names or were ex-Conservatives… Bearing in mind that many of the issues that Reform UK rant about can be traced back to the previous Conservative government and that they are making scapegoats of anyone who isn’t white British, what is it that I am missing here?

Not that the current government is a model of perfection. Nor are any of the other parties. More and more I find myself agreeing and disagreeing with all of the political parties in equal amounts. I’m reminded of an interview with David Steele (who was the leader of the Liberal party) in which he said that he only agreed with about twenty per cent of the Liberal party’s policies, but he agreed with more of their policies than those of any other party.

And I saw an advert for the London Craft Beer Festival. Apparently your ticket covers the cost of all the beer you can drink. At sixty-four quid a ticket that’s about twelve pints… I suppose they are talking London prices?

 

I took the dogs out before it got too hot. We went to Orlestone where we walked a rather short walk… the very same walk which used to be our standard walk when Fudge was with us. Oh that dog used to straggle behind. We took our time today, and even spending five minutes chatting with other dog walkers we were done in less than half an hour. Back in the day it used to take Fudge an hour to do that walk.

 

We came home where Treacle had a bath. She found a swamp and a water-filled ditch whist we were out. I hung out the laundry I’d put in to scrub, ironed a couple of shirts whilst they were still wet, and had a look at the monthly accounts. Every month I count up and account for every penny I’ve spent, and every month I end up mildly depressed about it. I’m far from skint, but could be a whole lot better off.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “until” through “unite” to “unity”. I made a rather good first choice there. I wrote up some CPD.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off visiting relatives. I settled in front of the telly and watched a film. I first saw “Breaking Glass” one afternoon in 1980 when I should have being doing games at school, but I bunked off and saw it with a friend (who now has a PhD). I can remember seeing it about twelve years ago when it prompted me to get a saxophone.

I then watched a fan-made Star Trek episode. Clearly a lot of time, effort and money had gone into the show. I hesitate to say it was tripe… but it wasn’t good.

 

We did “FEED THE FISH” and got the washing in, and those five minutes in the sun were quite enough. Yesterday had been the hottest June day in the UK, but today was hotter.

I played more Meowdoku until “er indoors ^TM” came home. Being rather late in the day she got some KFC which we scoffed whilst watching more “Canal Boat Diaries”. I can’t help but think that living on a canal boat right now would be ideal – I could just jump in. It’s gone nine o’clock and it is still ridiculously hot…

24 June 2026 (Wednesday) - The Heatwave Continues

It was a hot night; I didn’t sleep very well. I was awake for much of the night. I gave up trying to sleep, got up and watched a rather dull episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” in which pretty much nothing happened.

I Wordled from “early” to “queer” in four goes then had a little look at the Internet. It was still there. There wasn’t much kicking off; I was probably too early for any nonsense. I Munzed, got ready for work and set off wondering where I’d left my car last night.

I eventually found it in Christchurch Road.

 

As I drove off the car's thermometer was two and a half degrees up on what it had said at the same time yesterday.  I went up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio talking about how the Met Office had released a red warning about the heat. It was claimed that this was only the second red warning about heat that  the Met Office have ever issued. 

There was also talk about when (not if) Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister and how he’s planning to chuck the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves out on her arse. Is that unreasonable? A new Prime Minister really should choose his own team rather than take the team over from someone who has himself been hoiked out on his arse (shouldn't he?). 

Personally I can't help but think that a Prime Minister should be called "Andrew" rather than "Andy", but when you consider that (judging on recent performances) he too will be out on his arse in a year or so, does it really matter?

 

I stopped off at Sainsburys to get a sandwich. I had a minor episode with the self-service machine. As I filled it with loose change the machine rejected all the foreign coins that I'd fed into it. I didn't realise that I had quite so many foreign coins. They must come from the Dog Club pot. I count up the money in that pot, pocket it and pay that amount into the field owner's bank account. So once I've transferred the money and then found a foreign coin, it's me that's been swizzed. I shall look at the coins a bit more carefully this weekend.

 

I spent some time this morning doing training on the new blood transfusion computer system today. The chap doing the training knew I used to keep snakes... I wonder who told him that? And I spent much of the afternoon being trained on the latest developments in rivaroxiban and apixiban assays.

Back in the day the reps doing these training sessions used to bring cakes.

And an ex-trainee was visiting... it was odd. I can distinctly remember this chap being rather shorter than me; now he towers over me. In the fifteen years since I last saw him he has grown about nine inches... Or I’ve shrunk.

 

It was ridiculously hot as I came home. We did “FEED THE FISH” and I played Meowdoku until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and chips which we scoffed whilst watching the latest season of “Canal Boat Diaries”. And we had a decent bit of pudding too. As I came home the League of Fiends (!) shop at the hospital was selling punnets of raspberries.

I feel rather washed out – I blame the heat. Apparently today was the UK’s hottest ever June day.

23 June 2026 (Tuesday) - Via Lucem Continens

I thought I saw flashes of lighting as I shaved this morning. And I heard rumbles of thunder. And then the torrential rain hit.

I watched another episode of "The Handmaid's Tale" as I scoffed toast. This morning's episode was an improvement on the one I watched last night; perhaps I won't give up on it just yet. The trouble is that one of the major characters is utterly inconsistent in his behaviour. One minute he is an utter git; the next minute he's the hero of the day. Sometimes that sort of thing works... but not with Commander Lawrence. He really does come over as two different characters played by the same actor.

I rather thought that the flashes of lighting and booms of thunder would have bothered the dogs, but they slept right through it.  And slept through my getting ready for work too. 

 

I set off to work; a young lady jogger came past as I walked to my car. She'd got caught in a downpour and her white jogging kit had gone transparent. She might as well have been in the nip for all that she was keeping secret.

My car's thermometer said it was twenty degrees as I set off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the border processing area for car passengers going to Europe through Dover won't be ready in time for the summer holidays.

Why on Earth not? Bearing in mind it is ten years (to the day) since the Brexit vote when we as a country decided that this sort of thing was *exactly* what we wanted, how much longer is this going to take?

And there was endless talk about the Prime Minster; both the one that is going and the one that is coming. It seems to me that the recent spate of very short terms of premiership that we've been having lately can't be good for the country. 

 

I went to Sainsbury's to get a sandwich. The old bat who supervises the self-service tills was on duty, and wasn't at all happy as I emptied all of my loose change into the machine.

And so to work. I'd not been there for three weeks, but it didn't take long to get back into the swing of things.

 

I did my bit and came home. Once I’d run round the garden with a watering can “er indoors ^TM” boiled me up a pizza and I went up to the woods.

I’d organised a geo-meet in the woods at “Via lucem continens” (light walk). This is one of three remaining exhibits of the “Stour Valley Arts” project in Kings Wood. The brainchild of ­­Łukasz Skąpski (artist, professor, and head of the Department of Photography at the School of Painting and New Media of the Academy of Fine Arts in Szczecin), it is two avenues of yew trees which line a clearing which is about a hundred metres long. Standing at the stone at the eastern end (the one on which I frequently get the dogs to pose for photos), the twin avenues of yew trees supposedly frame the setting sun on midsummer’s eve.

Or that was the plan when it was planted in 1999. I wanted to find out if it really did.

 

The original plan was that it would be an evening dog walk, but it was far too hot, which was a shame. My car’s thermometer said it was thirty-eight degrees as I set off.  Leaving “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs I went up to the woods. I had a little walk about, and shortly after eight o’clock I made my way to the clearing.

Nine of us turned out and chatted… and (would you believe it) the sun did set at the end of the twin column of yew trees. It would have looked a lot better if the trees had been pruned somewhat… but we had a good meet up. I took a few photos.

We left at the point when the sun had gone below the tree line. I understand some people arrived after we’d gone…

22 July 2026 (Monday) - Too Hot

Another hot and restless night, but I managed to stay in my pit until seven o’clock which was a minor result. I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there.

This morning my Facebook feed was filled with adverts for pubs and beer festivals. Quite a few of them, but the closest being a hundred and twenty miles away. Getting adverts for shops and services half-way across the country is a regular occurrence on Facebook. Personally I’d never pay to advertise anything other than a mail-order business on there.

You’d think that the software would somehow be able to target the marketing a little better.

 

I Munzed; our guild had reached the second of our monthly targets. And we made an early start on our walk today. I had a plan to get out before it got too hot, but by the time we’d driven a mile the temperature on my car’s thermometer had gone up by two more degrees. We abandoned the idea of Kings Wood and went to Orlestone instead. We walked a shorter walk avoiding swamps and fox poo, but saw far more people than we usually do on our walks.

When we got home I couldn’t park. I couldn’t reverse into the space as the idiot driver from Clearabee was only inches from the back end of my car. I drove forward so he could pass… only he wouldn’t. He remained inches behind my car. And when I pulled up at the side of the road he too pulled up. I just sat and waited. Eventually he reversed and passed, whilst the chap in the passenger seat glared at me.

 

Once home I made us both a cuppa and heard the news that the Prime Minister has resigned. I can’t pretend to be a fan of the chap, but he’d achieved quite a bit in his short time in office. Sadly what he hadn’t done was to entertain and amuse the masses. As we’d driven to the woods this morning the pundits on the radio had been talking about how Prime Ministers don’t seem to last any length of time these days. The blame was put on the fickle electorate who want to be amused. Look at the success of that idiot Donald Trump who says black is white and good is bad, and when he can never deliver that which he’s promised he immediately finds a scapegoat to blame. Or consider the antics of Boris Johnson…

 

I Wordled from “guild” to “ovate” in five goes. “Ovate” means egg-shaped, and I got it randomly as it was the only word that fitted given the letters I had left.

I marked trainee’s work, I wrote up some CPD (not done that over the last two weeks’ holiday), and then went to have a look at just how hot it was in the garden.

 

It was hot. Too hot to be farting about putting the wishing well together. I didn’t want to be heaving and sawing in the heat, so I just contented myself by gently trimming back the jungles coming over the fences from next door. And with those trimmed I had a little doze, then played some more Meowdoku.

I then announced that it was time to “FEED THE FISH”, not that this came as any surprise to Treacle. She has a built-in timer when it comes to food. She knows that half past three is fish feeding time, and is rarely more than a minute or two off at dinner time and chicken foot time either.

 

I voomed round with the watering can, and then got the hair trimmer out and gave myself a haircut. Speaking with various people over the weekend it would seem that you pay over sixteen quid for a short back and slap at the barber’s these days. Stuff that !!

 

“er indoors ^TM” went bowling. I cracked on with the ironing whilst watching another episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Like so many other shows it started very well, but now that it’s got to the fourth season it is fast running out of steam.

 

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow. That will come as something of a shock…

21 July 2026 (Sunday) - Rather Dull

It was a hot night, not helped by the dogs all laying in a straight line only allowing me about eight inches along the edge of the bed. They all looked most indignant when I hoiked them over (several times).

I eventually gave in and got up at eight o’clock. I had a plan for an early dog walk, but it was already too hot.

I made toast and peered into the Internet. This morning’s petty squabble was on one of the pond-related Facebook groups in which quite a few people were bending over backwards to show they didn’t have the faintest idea about how to tell the difference between a tench and a goldfish.

And a friend got married yesterday. I say “a friend”; she’s on my Facebook friends list, but I don’t recognise the name or the face. I wonder who she is?

I Munzed, Wordled from “eight” to “alibi” via “spiny” and “flick”, and got dressed.

 

Last Sunday we went for a short walk round Frittenden following a geocaching Adventure Lab. I did have a vague plan to do one of those today – a little half-hour walk. Yesterday we met friends at a geo-meet; there was one of those in Sussex today. Yesterday we’d also had a great time at Dog Club and with friends round in the evening. But by the time I’d scoffed toast it was two degrees hotter than that in which I’d have been happy to take the dogs out. Being far too hot to do anything much we sat in the garden (under an umbrella) and had a rather dull day. I got a couple more coats of paint onto my tyres, and in between painting I alternated between crossword puzzles and my latest waste of time – “Meowduko” which is actually rather harder than you might think.

And “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good ploughman’s lunch so the day wasn’t a total write-off.. 

 

In between “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” sent messages and “My Boy ^TM” visited, both in honour of today being Father’s Day. Back in the day Father’s Day used to be a big thing…

I miss my dad…

20 June 2026 (Saturday) - Rather Busy

I had something of a restless night last night, and eventually nodded off just before the alarm went off. Being woken by the alarm - there’s a novelty.

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. This morning there was quite a bit of talk about the Geocaching Association of Great Britain (the GAGB).  Despite its rather impressive name, the GAGB has absolutely no formal standing with geocaching.com whatsoever and is pretty much unknown to the wider community of those who rummage under rocks for errant film pots.

Back in the days when the Internet was young the GAGB started its life as one of those internet forums in which people used to bicker constantly before Facebook was invented. It tried to make the transition to social media, but therein lay its problem. It was an internet forum and pretty much nothing else. Its membership is basically those who have subscribed to its newsletter. Over the years several friends have suggested that I stood for their committee, but what put me off was that during the fourteen years that I’ve been asking, no one (least of all other committee members) seemed to be able to tell me what they actually did, and I’ve only ever heard from them when they wanted votes in their committee elections. 

It would seem that they’ve now gone belly-up.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “night” to “drake” on the last attempt. Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. He said this one was easy: “Theres a rumour going round the town that you don’t want me around”. It might be easy for some… it wasn’t for me.

 

I got dressed – putting on the same clothes that I wore yesterday. They’d been washed yesterday evening and had dried in the heat overnight.

Being Saturday we went round to Dog Club where we had a rather good session. I counted eighteen dogs but it was difficult to be sure. Treats were shared, squabbles were squabbled, a typical Dog Club really.

“er indoors ^TM” went off to craft club, and as I drove home Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition… When did the Pope come to Canterbury, and when did Genesis release “Paper Lace”? I knew that one – 1982.

 

Once home I emptied the dishwasher. The thing has been playing up lately; the glass isn’t sparkling like it used to. I’d topped up the rinse aid and the salt, and used non-cheapo tablets, but still the glass needed a rinse under the tap afterwards. I suspect the dishy needs replacing.

I got another coat of paint onto those tyres. We’re on to the masonry paint now. The masonry paint seemed to go on rather quicker than the primer; despite a serious shaking-up it seemed to be rather thinner. And with the tyres painted I fiddled and farted about for the four hours it said to leave between coats. It was then that I struck on the genius idea of getting a stick and stirring the stuff. When you stirred it (as opposed to shaking) it was considerably thicker.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home from craft club and we drove down to Brookland where there was a meet-up of local geocachers going on. As we walked into the pub garden so the normal people’s dogs kicked off, and our three totally ignored them. I felt rather smug.

It was good to catch up with friends… even if we had met up with most of them only a week ago.

 

We came home, and were soon joined by Chris, Steve and Sarah. We sat in the garden for a while and got out the 3-D Blokus. I offered sage advice (!) for the first game, and then won the second.

We came inside where despite a rather promising start I came last in “Game of Life” and I amazed everyone (not least of which myself) with a rather impressive winning score in “Ticket To Ride”.

 

Today had been rather busy… and I’ve covered about half the steps that I’ve done every other day this week.

19 June 2026 (Friday) - Too Hot

As I scoffed my toast I saw that Ashford is to get a branch of Primark. Is that a good or bad thing? I don’t really know, but our MP was all over social media this morning trying to take the credit for it. As I have said so many times before, our Labour MP is pretty much indistinguishable from his Conservative predecessor in that all he is ever seen to do is to appear on social media somehow managing to take the credit for other people’s efforts.

Meanwhile the people of Makerfield have elected Andy Burnham to be their MP. He’ll be Prime Minister within a few months… and facing leadership challenges of his own within a year.

And I rolled my eyes as I read some of the snake-related Facebook groups. For some random reason Facebook has suggested I might follow pages about royal pythons. Lovely creatures. I've been following those groups with interest. I used to keep pythons thirty years ago, and helped run a local reptile club at the time. Back then reptile keeping was one big argument, and sadly nothing has changed. Snakes, fish, dogs, Star Trek, 70s bands, geocaching, walking in the woods and now pythons… no matter what the topic, people just want to argue.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “thing” to “emoji” in four goes. Did you know that today is Wordle’s birthday?

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. We walked our usual four-miles circuit and as we went we didn’t see anyone else at all. Treacle waded in several swamps… it was a tad warm when we started, and was far too hot when we ended. But we managed to walk most of the way in the shade, and Treacle found several puddles in which she cooled off.

 

We came home for a cuppa. I loaded up the car with a bootful of rubbish, then turned the tyres over and got another coat of primer onto them. And then I took my bootful of rubbish to the tip. It was rather hot as I drove.

Bearing in mind the local tip has been closed for redevelopment for months I was rather surprised to find it pretty much *exactly* the same as it ever was. The only discernible difference was that the various skips were rather more full than they ever used to be.

And with boot emptied I came home, I spent a little while pulling weeds, then settled by the pond and read my Kindle for a bit until it cooled down a bit. When it wasn’t roasting I ran round the garden with the lawn mower. The lawn had reached that length when it could conceal a smaller dog’s turd, and I’d rather see them than be navigating a potential minefield. And with lawn mowed I voomed round the gravelled areas with the garden vacuum. That made me sweat. I had a quick shower, and bunged a washload in.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up ribs and chips for dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Taskmaster”. Part of me wants to go out and paint those tyres. The instructions on the tin said to let the primer dry for six hours and it’s had seven…