20 March 2026 (Friday) - A Day Off (?)

I slept through till half past four last night which was something of a result. And once I’d tiddled I went back to kip and slept through till after eight o’clock which was even better.

I got up and made toast. Whenever I make toast when it isn’t silly-early the dogs listen for the sound of the toast popping up then come charging down needing to immediately go outside. It’s not so bad now that it is getting warmer outside; I can leave the back door open. But over the winter I have to fart around with them and I get cold toast. “er indoors ^TM” says that they don’t do it deliberately (they are only dogs!) but they really do wait for the toast to pop up every single time.

 

I had my usual look at the Internet. The local pages were all incensed at the county council where all of the opposition councillors walked out of some debate or other when they weren’t getting their own way. Looking at the details of the mater, they were probably right to do so… but this is how our (so-called) democracy works, isn’t it. If there is a majority which agrees, then the minority’s viewpoint doesn’t get a look in. This obviously raises the questions of who elected the majority, and was that electorate competent to do so… but no one is asking those questions.

And there was a post on the Dog Club’s Facebook page asking if we only meet on Saturdays. Maybe someone could tell me where I’m going wrong with that Facebook page. When you call it up there is a pinned post saying where we meet, when we meet and how much it costs. But (apart from me posting photos of the weekly meets) ninety-nine per cent of the posts on that page are from people (who have never been to Dog Club and will never go) asking where we meet, when we meet and how much it costs.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. Quite often Morgan isn’t keen to go; he’s not a “morning dog” but he was up for it today. We started our walk and my heart sank when we met some of the normal people. Some old woman (probably about five years younger than me!) was having near-hysterics because her dog had found a dead squirrel and wouldn’t put it down. I suggested that she just let her dog carry the squirrel. I told her that Treacle often picks up dead squirrels and carries them for miles, and when we get back to the car she drops it. The old woman didn’t actually call me a liar, but it was quite plain that she didn’t believe that anyone would let their dog carry a dead squirrel about.

Am I wrong to let Treacle carry one when she finds one. She clearly enjoys it.

We met a young mother jogging along with her baby in a push chair. She said she’d not been to the woods before. I explained that if she stayed on the track she was on it goes in a big circle and after four miles she’d be back where she’d started from. She seemed keen; I explained the importance of staying on the track… I hope she didn’t wander off of it.

And at the furthest point of our walk from the car park we saw the first bluebells of the year.

 

After four and a bit miles we were back at the car. We came home where we didn’t really need a bath (result!) I made us a cuppa and I played with Microsoft Copilot. For nearly twenty years every blog entry I’ve made had had a picture with it. Photos I’ve taken are easy enough to get, but it isn’t always so simple if I want something vaguely related to whatever I’m ranting about. Like today. ChatGPT was good, but will only allow me five images a day. Microsoft Copilot seems to have less limitation, but… I suppose I just need to specify what I want of it. This morning as I walked round the woods I took some photos, and when I got home I asked Microsoft Copilot to work its magic. You can see the results here. It looks OK, but that post had one or two issues behind the scenes:

• I needed to start from scratch whenever I wanted it to do a second photo as if I didn’t, it would just do another version of the first.
• It would randomly add toys and butterflies to pictures.
• It would randomly add cartoon people to pictures.
• It would randomly add extra dogs to pictures.

But it got there in the end. Mostly. Like with ChatGPT’s images, if you look closely you’ll find inaccuracies and errors. But I’m quite pleased with what I got. Not bad for a first attempt.

 

I then remembered I hadn’t Munzed or Wordled. Munzing was easy enough; I opened a gold qrate and got another. And then I Wordled. Bearing in mind what I’d just been doing I started with “image” and worked through “paint” and “radio” to “oasis”.

And I remembered that I had trainees’ work to mark as well. That took a while. I put some shirts in to scrub and whilst that scrubbed I took Treacle and Bailey to the Doggy Dentist

 

Doggy dentist went well… or as well as it could. Treacle’s got a chipped back tooth, and Bailey’s teeth needed serious attention. It’s quite clear that she’s gone off of the chicken’s feet she gets offered (and turns down) every night.

I shall have to pin them down every evening and get busy with the toothbrush. I keep saying that.

 

We came home and I got on with the ironing. Dull, but it needed doing. As I ironed I watched drivel on the UK Gold channel… or U and Gold as it is now called. I wrote up some CPD, and programmed Hannah (my GPS unit) for tomorrow.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up fish and chips which we scoffed whilst watching the latest episode of “Danny Dyer’s Caravan Park”. I’m still in two minds as to whether I want to get a chalet in Leysdown. And then, starting as we mean to continue, we brushed the dogs’ teeth.

 

I’ve had four days at work this week and for all that it was perhaps a bit much (!) today was hardly restful.

And in closing today I’ll just whinge that my shoulder still hurts. It went crunch when I took my coat out of my locker at work yesterday, and it’s been really painful ever since.

19 March 2026 (Thursday) - Microsoft Copilot

I woke feeling full of energy and ready for the day… at twenty to two. I then dozed on and off for the rest of the night. Unlike last night the dogs were settled, but I wasn’t.

I got up at five o’clock and watched more of the Netflix dinosaur documentary. It is very entertaining but a lot of what it presents as fact can only be speculation at best… how would anyone know details of the courtship rituals of animals that went extinct two hundred million years ago? And on a purely personal note, I might try listening to it before bed rather than after it; Morgan Freeman’s narration is rather soporific, isn’t it?

 

I had a little look at the Internet as I do. There was all sorts of bickering about all sorts of subjects. One argument particularly caught my eye… a day or so I accepted an invitation to a pubs-related group. It would seem that the chap who invited me has invited loads of other people in the hope of getting elected onto the ruling committee of the Campaign for Real Ale. I was a CAMRA member many years ago. Back then the local branch was very clearly a little clique of mates with no interest of having anyone joining in with their little gang. I packed up CAMRA as at the time it was quite plain that they had no interest in the opinions of their membership. “Pubs ot the Year” would be voted for by a committee who would announce the decision after it was made… the committees would announce their own elections after it had happened. It would seem this sort of thing is still going on. I got involved years ago, but now… not my circus, not my monkeys.

 

As I drove to work I listened to the pundits on the radio who were talking about yesterday's Prime Minister's question time in the House of Commons. Quite a bit of footage from it was played on the radio; it sounded as though it had been an utter debacle. Some MP or other would ask the Prime Minister a question about something or other. Members of his own party would ask him about his recent triumphs, and the Prime Minister would thank that person for their question, and there would be mutual congratulations all round. And then members of opposition parties would try to embarrass the Prime Minister by asking about recent balls-ups, and rather than replying about the balls-up in question, the Prime Minister would then embark on either a personal attack on the questioner or a more general attack on the questioner's political party, and drag up all sorts of their historical balls-ups.

At no point was anything on any matter ever seen as a good or bad idea; everything discussed had become a party political matter. This is entirely what is wrong with politics, isn't it? One party will say "we like cheese and onion crisps", and no other political party will ever again eat a crisp of any flavour, let alone cheese and onion.

 

Work was work; again I was doing extra helping out with the new computer system. I had a productive morning, but reached a sensible stopping point so slipped out a tad earlier than I might have done.

I came home, bundled up the dogs and took them to Orlestone which was again heaving with butterfly hunters. I *think* I might have seen one or two of the large tortoiseshell butterflies. I say *think*; I’m not sure, but there were very large things fluttering about at the bottom of the woods. They were the wrong shape and size for birds, and were changing direction far too rapidly to be a bird. Had it been at dusk I would have said they were bats, but it was three o’clock in the afternoon.

 

We came home and did “FEED THE FISH”. I fiddled about on-line looking at the price of paying for CharGPT… Would I use it enough to warrant seven quid a month? Only getting five free piccies a day with ChatGPT is a tad restrictive… but then I realised that Microsoft Copilot does pictures and I pay for that already… Having spent a few weeks learning ChatGPT I’ve now got to learn something new, but I’ll (hopefully) be able to do more with it…

18 March 2026 (Wednesday) - This N That

I didn’t have the best of nights. The dogs were fidgety and restless and with an alarm set I spent much of the night looking at the clock as I so often do.

I made toast and had a look at the telly. I started watching a new thing on Netflix – a documentary about dinosaurs. It was rather good, but… many years ago when I kept snakes I read up a lot on reptiles and it would seem that much of what we know about dinosaurs is really best guesses based on fossiled bones. But it was a good TV show.

I then had my usual rummage round the Internet. As well as people proudly showing off their ignorance about meningitis on Facebook there were quite a few people talking about St Patrick’s Day yesterday. As happens every year no end of people who’ve never been any closer to the Emerald Isle than the M25 were claiming Irish heritage and professing a love of Guinness. Guinness boils my piss. It’s not a bad pint, but when you look at just how many dark beers are readily available in supermarkets, it’s probably at the bottom of the range for quality. As I’ve said before (endlessly!) Guinness is a triumph of marketing.

It would seem I missed a geo-meet-up in Frittenden last night. Whenever I stage a geocaching meet I make a point of contacting all the hunters of Tupperware within a twenty-mile radius to let them know and I usually get a decent turn out.  Many other people make the effort to put on a meet but don’t tell anyone… and no one knows there is a get-together happening. Ho hum…

 

As I drove to work I listened to the pundits on the radio spouting their morning nonsense. The Scottish Parliament has thrown out the assisted dying bill. Apparently the whole idea of letting terminally ill people choose to pull their own plug is fraught with problems in that people might feel pressured to pull their own plugs and it would be better to force people to carry on suffering instead.

Can't see it myself. 

And there was an interview with some businesswoman about how there's a new boss at the Disney corporation. When asked about how this new bloke would affect the company this woman (in between her hesitation) effectively spoke in a foreign language. She really did say "erm... meaningless catch-phrase... er... management buzz-word... erm... more meaningless catch-phrases... um..." and ended by saying that it was all sixty-forty.

Why do they have these people on the radio?

 

As I drove I popped in to the co-op to get a sandwich.  I'd not had much luck on Monday but I wondered if they had just been left with the dregs from the weekend and they might have been re-stocked by the middle of the week... I got there to find a woman in co-op uniform standing on a step fiddling about inside the fridge. They had some sandwiches, but none of the snacks that make up the meal deal. I asked the woman in the co-op uniform if they had any. She apologised and said that she didn't work there; she was only doing a stock-take(!)

I then had a stroke of genius - Waitrose would only be a short diversion as I drove past Repton... I got there to find the place didn't open for another hour.

I tried the works branch of M&S. A rather manky sandwich and a rather empty bag of crisps (and a bottle of water) were up for sale at over two quid more than Sainsburys were knocking out (rather better) meal deals. 

I got something from the hospital's league of friends shop. I shall go back to Sainsburys next time.

 

Being on flexible extra hours to help out today I got to escape earlier than I might usually have done. I came home, and seeing a rather lovely afternoon I took the dogs out. It was perhaps a tad late for four miles round Kings Wood so we had two miles round Orlestone instead.

We got to the car park to find only one space free. I’ve never seen the place so busy. As we walked into the woods so some chap came the other way with binoculars and a seriously impressive zoom lens on his camera. He announced that I must be one of the locals who goes to the woods all the time, and he apologized. Apparently there have been several sightings of the large tortoiseshell butterfly in Orlestone over the last week or so. These things grow to three inches across; supposedly extinct in the UK, it isn’t extinct any more, and people have travelled across the country to see them. I didn’t see any myself, but my new-found friend had seen some and was only too happy to share his photograph. And I was only too happy to take the credit.

In between exchanging pleasantries with several other butterfly-spotters we had an episode…

 

Some idiot woman came past on a pedal bike with two large dogs in tow. One of them chased Bailey who sprinted off into the woods screaming in terror (like she does). The idiot woman started laughing but before I could react, Morgan flew off in pursuit. About two seconds later so idiot woman’s dog came sprinting back with Morgan in hot pursuit and with a clump of idiot woman’s dog’s fur in his mouth. I didn’t say anything; I didn’t feel that I needed to, but in all honesty I don’t think that idiot woman had noticed anything..

I whistled to my dogs, and we walked off leaving her and her dogs behind.

 

I had hoped we wouldn’t have needed a bath when we got home, but (as she always does) Treacle had wallowed in a swamp in the way back to the car.

With bellies and paws washed we did “FEED THE FISH” and I made us both a cuppa with a lump of coffee and walnut cake. I then asked ChatGPT to make a picture of Mickey Mouse chairing a business meeting which I was planning on using for today’s blog photo, but after a few seconds it told me “We’re so sorry, but the image we created may violate our guardrails concerning similarity to third-party content”. I suppose it is right… I suppose Mickey Mouse is copyrighted by the Disney corporation. So I tried to get the picture above. I got it to make a picture on the fourth attempt – it kept giving me the reply “We’re so sorry, but the prompt may violate our content policies”. I’d given it a picture of Bailey and had asked for a picture of her chasing a butterfly whilst being chased by a big scary dog herself. Eventually I think I found that the problem was that ChatGPT doesn’t like the word “scary”.

In the week or so that I’ve been playing with ChatGPT I must admit I’m rather impressed with the thing.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and chips which we scoffed whilst watching The Great Pottery Throw Down… I’ve not messed about with clay since primary school. I wouldn’t mind having another go…

17 March 2026 (Tuesday) - Three Years Later...

Being wide awake far too early I watched the last episode of “Pride and Prejudice” and found myself thinking. In much of the show getting a letter was a big thing. Sending a letter was the only way of communicating over any distance. You would take an age composing a letter, the thing would then be sent and take a couple of days to get where it was intended to go, and you wouldn’t expect a reply for a week at best. It is so easy to take today’s instant communication for granted.

 

And talking of instant communication I sparked up the lap-top. Back in the day I used to have a newspaper instead which would give me a snapshot of the state of the world as it had been late the day before. These days the Internet allows instant updates and the ability to comment and reply… and we just use this to argue and squabble,

This morning’s squabbles were rather embarrassing. There’s been an outbreak of meningitis locally, and so many people were posting about it on local Facebook groups seemingly only to demonstrate their ignorance. Just because one of the victims was of school age doesn’t mean that schools give you meningitis. Just because people with meningitis are in hospital doesn’t mean that you can contract meningitis by being in the hospital’s general vicinity.

Vaccinations do *not* cause autism…

It bothers me that not only are so many people so thick, they also clearly take great pride in showing it.

 

As I drove to work so the pundits on the radio were again talking about the war in the Middle East. They were interviewing the head honcho of Hays Travel. Can you believe that holiday bookings for destinations in the Middle East are seriously down? The obvious question would be who would be so dumb as to book a holiday in a war zone, but it would seem that quite a few people have done so, and quite a few aren’t cancelling their arrangements.

And Donald Trump has got the arse. Having slapped financial tariffs on all of his allies and then having been incredibly rude about them in public, he’s now acting surprised when no one wants to help to put him out of the hole he’s dug for himself.

 

I popped in to Sainsburys for a sandwich then went on to work for another day fighting with the new computer. I say “fighting”; I made rather good progress with it. Today I was testing out the instruction manual to see if there’s any areas where the instructions might be bettered. I found a couple.

And then I came home.

 

I did have a plan to take the dogs out, but “er indoors ^TM” had taken them round the block earlier. And I’d had to park a ridiculously long way away from the house. Instead we did “FEED THE FISH”.

I had a little doze, and then I had a message. Apparently my mum and dad’s old house is up for sale. Looking at the photos, the chap we sold it to has done a load of work on it including replacing all the windows and putting in patio doors, a new kitchen and bathroom, and decorating throughout… with that in mind , looking at the asking price and comparing that to what we sold it for, the chap who bought if off us hasn’t made quite the profit you might think he might have made. 

16 March 2026 (Monday) - New Computer, Dead Squirrel

I was up far too early this morning. I stood on the scales… my weight is slowly creeping up again. Back to calorie counting I suppose.

I made toast and coffee and watched another episode of “Pride and Prejudice” in which Miss Elizabeth Bennett commented “The more I see of the world the more I am dissatisfied with it”. She’s probably got a point.

I then had a quick look at the Internet. It was still there. There were one or two things posted from friends and one or two snippets from groups and pages I follow, but more and more I find my Facebook feed to be filled with adverts about stuff in which I have absolutely no interest whatsoever.

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

 

I drove round to the co-op to get a sandwich. Their meal deal is twenty pence cheaper than Sainsbury's, but the selection is rather poorer. I shall go to Sainsbury's next time.

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were interviewing a retired general about he situation in the Middle East. Apparently President Trump is demanding that his NATO allies should get involved in the war he's started, and is threatening dire consequences for anyone who doesn't help him out. The general being interviewed seemed to be of the opinion that he would be surprised if anyone would help Trump out. NATO is supposed to be all about mutual defence; not jumping in to help so-called allies who've unilaterally picked a fight of their own making and found that they've bitten off more than they can chew.

And there was talk about oil theft... with the price of oil going through the roof it would seem that anyone who heats their house using oil is at risk of having organised gangs turning up and nicking the stuff.

 

I got to work. I wasn't supposed to be in today, but I'd offered to do extra hours this morning to help out testing the new computer system that we are getting in a few months' time. It didn't help that the chap who was going to show me what was what with the new system was off sick, so. I had a Teams session with one of the IT people from Dartford instead. I’ve got to grips with how the system works. Sort of. I’m having another go tomorrow.

 

I came home and took the dogs to the woods. We got to the car park at Kings Wood just before two o’clock to find there wasn’t any other cars in the car park.

We walked for just over four miles according to my phone. According to my watch it was just under five miles. Treacle found a dead squirrel in the first hundred yards and carried it the whole way. Bailey found some fox poo, and I went base over apex in the mud. No harm done, but I need to be a tad more careful. It won’t be that long before I will be too old to have falls.

Today’s route took us past a geocache of mine that two people had reported that they couldn’t find. I found it - the cache was clearly there…

 

We came home. Mud was washed from bellies, fox poo was washed from backs. We fed the fish, and I then made a cuppa for “er indoors ^TM” and me, and did us a slice of coffee and walnut cake each too. I put a load of washing in to scrub and had a little doze, then “er indoors ^TM” went bowling and I watched more “Pride and Prejudice” in which Mr Wickham meddled with tradesmen’s daughters.

 

I’m quite worn out…

15 March 2026 (Sunday) - Geo-Meet, Maidstone, Telly

I slept well, but woke just before seven o’clock with something of a guts ache. I lay there wondering if it was only a fart… I decided to take no chances and got up.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. It was much the same as it ever is.

 

Taking care not to disturb anyone I got dressed and once I’d scraped the ice off the car I drove up to Maidstone. There was a breakfast geo-meet today, and there are some geo-puzzles in the area which involve finding where a particular photos was taken. I thought I might have a little walk solving those puzzles before the meet.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing some Christians who live in a war zone somewhere or other. Rather than seeing the senseless violence and massacre as being tragic, these crackpots somehow thought it all evidence of their god’s love. How on Earth did that work?

I almost fell at the first hurdle when I got to Maidstone. The car park I found wasn’t a RingGo one. It was Apcoa which meant downloading and setting up their app. Back in the day you could just put some money into the machine. Nowadays everything has its own individual app, and you have to waste fifteen minutes setting up something you will never use again. I’ve seen RingGo everywhere; I’ve never seen Apcoa anywhere.

 

With car eventually parked I went for a little wander. I found three of the locations I was seeking and got the information I needed. Three eluded me though. I still need to find a ruined church, “the year of the bird” (?)  and a church with a square belfry with an odd turret on one side.

Feeling a bit peckish I thought I might go to where we were having the geo-meet and have brekkie before everyone else arrived. We were meeting in the local Wetherspoons…

Wetherspoons aren’t bad in that they are cheap and cheerful and you know what you are getting… Well… let me rephrase that.

Wetherspoons are bad.

OK, they are cheap (if far from cheerful), and you know what you are getting… You are getting ignored by the surly and disinterested schoolchildren who work there, and eventually you will get rather substandard food not so much served up by them as slapped down in front of you by them. It’s a sad look-out when they can’t fry an egg, isn’t it.

 

With a very poor massively over-priced brekkie scoffed everyone else arrived, and we had a rather good half an hour chatting. It seemed I missed a rather good walk round London on Friday…but with my mates having walked forty-five thousand steps I’m rather glad I hadn’t joined them.

It would have been good to have stayed longer, but I had to get home.

 

As I drove home,  heart surgeon Stephen Westaby was on Desert Island Discs. He was surprisingly interesting. Apparently he was a very quiet and shy chap until he sustained a serious head injury after which he was very loud and outgoing. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

He made a very interesting point about the surgical league tables that the government is so keen on. He doesn’t do that well on those league tables… because he’s doing open heart surgery on patients who are critically ill. Comparing him with someone who specialises in ingrowing toenails is hardly fair, is it?

 

I got home and “er indoors ^TM” went out to a Mother’s Day bash with “My Boy ^TM” and his tribe. I took the dogs out. Bearing in mind how many normal people had been swarming round Scadbury Park yesterday I decided against Kings Wood today. Instead we walked round the block. One of my Wherigos had a “did not find” reported last week. We walked round to it and saw it was where it was supposed to be.

 

We came home, and once I’d been round the garden with a bucket gathering turds I got the lawn mower out. After two minutes I turned the lawn mower off and went and got the turd bucket again. I started mowing; I went and got the turd bucket again. You’d be amazed at how much dung three small dogs can generate.

 

I made myself a cuppa, then had a look at the clues I’d gathered whilst walking round Maidstone earlier. I came up with some locations which look sensible on Google street view… 

I Munzed, then Wordled. “Music” gave me nothing, but amazingly “trade” gave me four correct letters in the correct places, and so with only one possibility I got it on the third attempt with “grade”.

I then settled underneath a pile of dogs and watched a couple of episodes of “Pride and Prejudice” until five past three. That was when ChatGPT said that I could again ask it to make some pictures. I got it to make more dog pictures. I’ve made quite a few of these… I wonder when the novelty will wear off.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home with left-over dinner meat for the dogs and a chocolate éclair for me. Result all round. She sorted a pizza for tea and we watched more of the TV show about Jon Richardson helping to restore a derelict pub in Yorkshire.

For all that there’s a massive fundraising campaign to do the place up, and loads of people volunteering to help, I can’t help wonder why the place closed. The answer has to be something I’m forever ranting about…

Out of interest I’ve done some sums…

The village where Jon Richardson’s pub is in has (about) one hundred and sixty-six residents.

Last year (2025) the average UK pub (that didn’t go bust) had a turnover of ten thousand pounds per week.

So either everyone in the village needs to spend sixty quid a week in the pub or they need to get loads of tourists in. But look on a map – the place is miles from anywhere.

I wish them well…

14 March 2026 (Saturday) - Scadbury Park

I woke shortly after at four o’clock in a cold sweat following a nightmare in which I’d been seconded to take over the medical laboratory at my old primary school which wasn’t making a profit. I wasn’t at all sure that anyone could make a profit by performing blood tests (for free) on small children, but what do I know?

 

I got up at seven o’clock, made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there, and was much the same as ever. This morning the political squabbles were rather bitter as people who are staunch Reform and Conservative supporters were now dead against the war in the Middle East which only a few days ago they’d been supporting. The reason for their change of heart? – the leaders of their chosen political partes had changed their minds. Politics winds me up. So many people choose a political party and then go along with what that party says rather than forming an opinion of their own.

I saw my brother was off to see the football. Having driven to Brighton to get on the coach at some silly hour he was on his way to Sunderland.

I Munzed, got Wordle (ankle) on the fifth attempt, and strained my brain as Steve did the “Guess the Lyrics” competition on the radio. “Baby baby, when I lay with you there’s no place I’d rather be”? No? It was “I Feel For You” by Chaka Khan. If it’s any consolation I had no idea either.

 

We drove round to Repton and Dog Club where I wasn’t happy to see that the people at the later sessions had forgotten to shift last week’s dog poo bag (again). But other than that we had a (mostly) good session. It was a shame that Bailey escaped, but apart from that, a couple of minor quarrels and some humping a good time was had by all.

It probably helped by having all the humans standing in the sun where it was warmer. For some reason we always seem to stand in the shadows.

 

From Dog Club we drove off for a little walk. AS we drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. When did the SAS storm the QE2? 1972.

We listened to Steve as far as Leeds castle which was where the radio signal gave out. From there we listened to my MP3 player until we got to Sidcup and Scadbury park. There were geocaching souvenirs for finding fourteen puzzle geocaches today, and with eighteen in the park, Scadbury seemed to be the place to go to.

We’ve been there before (not that I can remember the place) and I would certainly go back… but perhaps not at the weekend. It was heaving with normal people. But for the most part they did their thing and we did ours. It was only a shame that we dropped Pogo’s lead and had to back-track a few hundred yards.

After a couple of hours we were back at the car. We’d had a good walk, and as a geocaching walk I can’t recommend it highly enough. About as many caches as it would be possible to get, mostly straightforward finds…

I took quite a few photos whilst we were out.

 

We took a little diversion on the way home to drop Pogo home after his little holiday. We met up with his mummy at the playpark where she was having some time with little Jake. Little Jake isn’t so little anymore; he’s taller than his grandmother. We’d not seen him for far too long, and after a little ice-breaker with the dogs today we will definitely meet up again. Soon.

We came home via Repton where I was pleased to see that the dog poo bag had gone. I don’t know who took it, and (in all honesty) I don’t much care. It has been sorted and so that is one less thing for me to do.

 

Once home we had a cuppa. I did the geo-admin to get the e-souvenirs, had the obligatory go on ChatGPT then went back out to my car. As we’d driven my car had whinged that the tyre pressures were low so I pumped them up. I’ve not done that for four months. Is that bad? I never used to pump up the tyres on previous cars. Partly because they never whinged at me about low tyre pressure, partly because no one else checks tyre pressures, but mostly because the nice man in the garage had told me that tyre pressures are a servicing thing. Was he wrong?

 

We had a little doze, then got the Infinity table out and played “Ticket to Ride” pretty much all the way around the world… we had a little drinkie or two as we played. It was all rather vague by the time the amaretto came out. I thought I had three bottles of the stuff,,, I could only find one,