26 August 2026 (Wednesday) - Messages, Late Shift

I had a decent night’s sleep really despite a nightmare in which my (late) father was tying kites to the sails of windmills because he could.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. As again it was the same as ever. There was a lot of talk on fishing-related pages about how cruel keep nets can be. The idea of a keep net is that it is a huge cylindrical net in which you retain everything you catch so that at the end of the day you can see all your fish in one go. This is supposedly a rather nasty thing to do… whereas sticking a hook through a fish’s mouth and pulling it out of the water isn’t? It’s some time since I’ve been fishing… I’ve rather gone off the idea of it.

I had another look at the internet archives and downloaded two Jeeves and Wooster audiobooks. In the past I’ve always been rather scathing of audiobooks, but they do fill the hour-long journey to and from work.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “night” to “capon” in five goes, then had a text message. I had a code to use for NPERS PRD authentication. I wonder what that was all about. As I fiddled on my phone Bailey refused to eat her brekkie. For a dog that regularly scoffs turds, she can be rather picky about what she will and won’t eat.

 

I took the dogs out for a walk. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the yesterday’s death of Dolly Parton. The nation seems to have taken her passing to heart.

As we drove we found the road was closed. We took a diversion through Shadoxhurst. One of the lanes was something of an eye-opener; the place must act as the local tip’s stunt double. There was rubbish strewn along the roadside for at least half a mile. Including several discarded kitchen appliances.

Why can’t people ding their tat properly?

We got to Orlestone where we walked a slightly different route to usual. Bailey went off on her own little missions a couple of times, and Treacle straggled a bit, but generally a good time would seem to have been had by all. Mind you we had a minor incident half-way round. Something stank to high heaven. A dead deer? I chivvied the dogs on before they found it and rolled in it.

 

We came home where I had another odd message. Was I available to be interviewed on the radio this Sunday? Someone wanted to talk about geocaching. I’m not free, so they asked me to prime a friend that they told me they were going to ask.

 

I left for work a tad earlier than I might. A week or so a new geocache went live in the Marden area which involved solving a puzzle. That gave you a location to visit, but the instructions were rather cryptic about what you did next. So I drove out to Marden  where I found out what you did next... I won't say what I did, but if rummaging under rocks looking for film pots floats your boat, then if you drive out to Marden you won't be disappointed (and there's a film pot involved).

I drove on to Pembury where I stopped off at Tesco to get a sandwich. I went to Tesco as I had a couple of money off vouchers totalling a bargain reduction of five quid off of my shopping. It paid for dinner, which was a result.

 

I went in to work and did my bit. It could have been a whole lot worse; many shifts are.

I 'd driven in to work listening to Adrian Mole on my MP3 player, and went home doing the same. For all that I've got hundreds of songs on my MP3 stick, over the years I've heard them all so many times. The antics of Adrian Mole made a nice change. Even if (as I've said before) Sue Townsend (the writer) was particularly nasty to him. Having finally got a break, did she *really* have to saddle him with a psycho who burned his house down?

25 August 2026 (Tuesday) - Rather Dull

I woke in a cold sweat in which I’d been drafted back into the scouts to instruct the “Delivering Beer” badge. Crucial to the award of the badge was the ability to use a shotgun, ride a horse and perform various feats with a top hat. Sometimes I wonder just what is going through my head.

 

I got up, made toast and watched more “Stranger Things”. It was a shame that the continuity people didn’t do a better job. Some of our heroes were up to mischief in the middle of the night. Others (supposedly simultaneously) were in broad daylight.

I then had a little look at the Internet as I do. It was the same as it ever was. A friend had posted dashcam footage of children playing “Chicken” (deliberately running in front of cars) on the ring road. Rather than sorting the issue, people were asking for the footage to be taken down. And the local newspaper was trying to imply that picking blackberries is illegal (it isn’t).

I Munzed and Wordled and got ready to go to work.

 

As I drove west-wards the pundits on the radio were getting a tad twitchy about Russia's veiled threat to the UK. If the UK is going to supply Ukraine with weapons, then the UK shouldn't be surprised if "someone" attacks the factories making those weapons. I would. I for one am surprised that this hasn't happened already.

And there was talk about "affordable housing" to be built across the country; the implication quite rightly being that much of the housing being built is unaffordable. Which it is.  Apparently the Prime Minister wants local councils to go back to building council houses like they used to in the fifties and sixties. When I was a lad much of where I lived in Hastings was estates of council houses, pretty much all of which were then bought (at rock-bottom bargain prices) by the sitting tenants when Margaret Thatcher decided to sell them all off. 

Building council houses, nationalizing the water companies... why has it taken so long for anyone to realize that capitalising on naked greed was no way to run a country in the long term?

 

Pausing only briefly to get a sandwich from Tesco I went in to work. As I worked my phone pinged with a message from Amazon. Based on my recent purchases, the bots at Amazon thought I might be interested in buying electrolyte drinks. My recent purchases on Amazon have been audio CDs, e-books, fish food, walking shoes and tins of deodorant. How did they get electrolyte drinks from that?

I did my bit. I came home listening to more Adrian Mole on my MP3 stick.

 

I got home to an empty house. “er indoors ^TM” had taken the dogs round to the park. Back in the day I used to walk the dogs there a lot, but the place heaves with normal people, and these days it is more than my nerves can stand. It might be a little drive to the wood, but it is much less traumatic.

While I waited for them to come home I found an internet archive of audiobooks that are so old that they are out of copyright and so I could get them as free MP3 downloads. I got “Brideshead Revisited” and “Day of the Triffids”. I shall get some more after dinner…

 

Today was dull…

24 August 2026 (Monday) - Rostered Day Off

I slept like a log last night, which was something of a result. I got up, made toast and had my usual rummage round the internet as I do. It was much the same as ever with pettiness and trivia abounding as it does. One use of social media is that it is a good reminder of how stupid people are. An ex-soldier was posting to Facebook about the Fabian society are conspiring against him. American evangelists were asking for money for them to then had a word with the Almighty on your behalf. I see very little of what I actually want to see though, which is what friends are up to, which is a shame. But I did see that the archaeological dig at Bodiam Castle (which was open to the public) closed today. That was a shame - “er indoors ^TM” would have liked to have seen that.

 

We drove up to the woods. Over the weekend someone has been out and taken down all the tatty England flags around Kennington. They’ve replaced them with Union Jacks (which is an acceptable term!) but sadly half of them are one way up, and half the other. Still, two world cups and one world war!!! Ing-Ur-Lund!!!!, eh?

We got to the woods and walked a longer walk today. As we went we saw a few of the normal people, but none who had ventured more than half a mile from the car park. We saw a horse where it wasn’t supposed to be, and evidence (huge piles of it) of others too. The rules are quite clear where horses are and aren’t allowed. I didn’t say anything to the horse rider; life is too short.

 

I came home and made us both a cuppa. We had a choco-break biccie with it too. Have you ever had a choco-break? Aldi do them – they are basically a half-price kit-kat made with far better chocolate.

I organised a car service for next week, then had a look at the monthly accounts. As always they could be a whole lot worse.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “skint” to “runny” in three goes, then had a look at the little pond. I didn’t clean its filter last week; I did today. I then had a look at the big pond. Last week I put some rocket into a floating basket. It’s not done much, but I remain hopeful.

 

I had a sandwich as I wrote up some CPD. Some of it was about information governance and I found myself remembering someone I’d rather not remember. Back in the day one of the nastier people with whom I used to work regularly got her own way in pretty much every aspect of work. No matter what suggestions or ideas were being suggested, she would always demand that her way was the only way that would “obviate the obvious governance issues”. As no one was brave enough to challenge her (as no one was confident enough about what “governance” actually meant) she regularly got her way all the time. She was an evil old bat… sometimes I idly ponder on the possibility of driving round to where she lives with a catapult and a bucket of dog turds…

 

I got the ironing board out and ironed. As I did I watched the first episode of the fifth season of “Stranger Things”. We did “FEED THE FISH”, and once Treacle had calmed down I spent an hour struggling with geo-puzzles.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went bowling; I watched more “Stranger Things”. For a day off I’ve been quite busy.

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow.

23 August 2026 (Sunday) - Nonington, Geo-Meet

I had a bad night. My arm and shoulder were particularly painful. And when I went to the loo in the small hours I couldn’t find Bailey. She’s so small she tucks into the smallest of places.

I finally nodded off and was sparko when “er indoors ^TM” alarm went off at half past seven. I swore, and got up.

 

I put a load of washing in to scrub, made toast and fiddled about with my lap-top. I backed up a couple of weeks of photos (that I will never look at again). Back in the day photos were a big thing. We had to fart around buying film, and with only twenty-four shots on a reel of film we would be incredibly judicious about that which we would photograph. And then we had to take the film to the chemist and wait a few days to get the photos back.

Nowadays we have instant access to photos. Someone in America can see the picture of my dogs seconds after I took it. Sometimes we don’t realise just how amazing the technology is.

And sometimes the technology can be wanting. The blatant display of racial hatred that I reported to the Facebook feds the other day apparently didn’t breach their community standards. One lives and learns.

I had an email about a new virtual geocache – the one that “er indoors ^TM” set up at Bonnington on Thursday evening. I was rather cagey on here about what we’d been up to as some people have (in the past) tracked my movements following this diary just to get to be first on anything geocachical we might be creating.

The thing had gone live just after half past six this morning, and the first one to find it had been out at Bonnington at just about the time I was getting out of bed.

But for the most part this morning my Internet was crawling with adverts for goldfish bowls… ones that looked really pretty with a traditional Chinese diorama but on closer inspection were probably about a quarter of the size you would have thought they were.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “place” to “olden” in three goes, and harvested an epic crop of dog turds from the garden. I’ve said it before, but you wouldn’t believe how much dung three small dogs can generate.

I hung out the washing, checked that I’d programmed “Hannah” properly (last time I didn’t – woops!), Meowdolku-ed, and we set off on today’s mission.

 

We drove down to Nonington where  we waked for three miles picking up half a dozen geocaches as we went. It was a shame that Bailey went rogue towards the end of our walk, but that’s what she does. And (in all honesty) wouldn’t we all given half a chance.

As we walked we found half a dozen geocaches. It was a rather good walk.

From there we drove out to Sollys who operate a bar and an ice-cream parlour. We passed on the ice-cream but had an elegant sufficiency of the beer in the company of some very good friends. There’s no denying that the afternoon got more and more vague as it wore on; it was as well that I took a few photos.

 

We came home. I slept most of the way. And most of the evening too…

22 August 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Chartham, Ticket to Ride

 

I slept reasonably well… better than the night before. I got up, made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. I found myself laughing at a posting on one of the crackpot sites that Facebook thinks might interest me. Some religious nutter was banging on about the power of prayer. Someone else had pointed out that praying for something means that the one doing the praying had found a problem with God’s plan for the universe. And went on to say that if the prayers had been answered the God had admitted his plan was flawed in the first place. I stirred the pot a little by pointing out that the whole squabble was dependent on two unproven assumptions. Firstly that there actually is a God, and secondly that it listens to anything that we mere mortals might have to say. I know I shouldn’t engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent but the righteous wind me up sometimes.

 

I Munzed, and Wordled from “slate” through “drain” to “prawn”. As I did, Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. “Those were the times we had. Sharing the joy that we thought would last”. I had no idea at all. It was Forget Me Nots by Patrice Rushen. No? Me neither. Sometime I feel that my musical education is sadly lacking.

 

We drove round to Repton and Dog Club. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Treats were shared, chases chased, and mayhem generally ensued.

As we drove away so Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. When did Paul McCartney leave the Beatles? ! thought it was 1969, but I was a year too early.

We drove out to Chartham. Earlier in the year we’d had a rather good little walk around Chartham and we went back today. We parked up, walked through the village, over the hill, and back to the car via country lanes and fields. As we walked we found a geocache… well we would, wouldn’t we?

 

With walk walked we took a circuitous route home. There’s a Forestry England wood not that far from Chartham. Would it be any good for hiding a series of geocaches? Well… Yes, it would. *If* hidden by someone else. For all that those woods aren’t *that* far away it isn’t an easy drive to get there.

 

We got home where we had a cuppa and a cold cross bun for lunch. I counted up the Dog Club takings. In a novel break with tradition the money in the pot came to a multiple of one pound fifty. It rarely does. With money counted I added enough to the total to cover our three and transferred that amount to the bank. That’s over a hundred quid in the last month, and a lot of people choose to pay directly by text message from their phones. The people who own the field we use do OK out of the Dog Club…

 

I spent an hour or so fighting with geo-puzzles, then after another hot (cold) cross bun I sat in the garden with “er indoors ^TM”. She did her crafting; I read my Kindle.

I then had a stroke of genius… What with there being a geo-meet tomorrow afternoon I thought we might have a small walk before the meet. I perused the map and after a little brain-straining I came up with a little walk. In theory it should be on a par with today’s walk. In practice we will find out tomorrow.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted a couple of plates of chicken and chips and we scoffed them whilst having a few rounds of “Ticket To Ride” on the Infinity Table. Can you believe I won – three games to two.

21 August 2026 (Friday) - Feeling Worn Out

I couldn’t sleep last night. Having laid awake for seemingly ages I gave up and got up at four o’clock. I made toast and watched the last part of the episode of “Stranger Things” that I started watching yesterday.

This was the last episode of the fourth season of the show and sadly we’ve got to the stage that so many shows reach. It happened with the “Aliens” franchise and “Game of Thrones” and “The Last Ship”. The writers have effectively ran out of ideas and so five minutes of plot was padded out with an hour’s gratuitous violence and seemingly endless tedious fight scenes.

There’s one more season to go; it might perk up. I shall keep going with it; if only to see where Kate Bush made her money.

 

I had a quick look at the Internet and was rather amazed. A Reform UK councillor has had the heave-ho from Reform UK HQ for the simple reason that he’s not actually a member of Reform UK. Not only was councillor Robert Hanson elected under the Reform banner in May, he was the Reform spokesperson for Adult Health and Social Care in Sheffield council.

He’s now carrying on, but as an independent.

I would have thought that actually being a member of said party was a pre-requisite for standing as a candidate for that political party. You can’t make this up, can you?

 

And then it was time to set off for work. Yesterday was supposedly a day off. We walked over five miles round the woods I, got loads done in the garden, did ironing, had a serious fight with my old lap-top, took the dogs out again, watched Star Trek… by the time I went to bed last night I’d covered seventeen thousand steps. And then I had maybe two hours sleep at most.

I went off to work hoping for a bit of a rest. As I left Ashford there was a surprising amount of people walking dogs who were themselves only wearing their pyjamas.

 

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were all a-twitter about Prince Harry who is leaving America and coming back to live in the UK. There was also talk about how he lost his court case against Associated Newspapers (when he claimed they hacked his phone). Did they? During the court case some of his allegations were just abandoned “without any apology or even acknowledgment”. 

The claims of Prince Harry and his co-defendants were thrown out of court in their entirety several weeks ago, and together with six of his mates (including Elton John) he's got to stump up about ten million quid in court costs. And to add insult to injury the payments are due and it would seem their insurance won't cover it. That speaks volumes, doesn't it? If Prince Harry can't afford a court of law, what hope for the rest of us?

 

I stopped off in Sainsburys to get a sandwich. that place is always good for attitude. Some spotty oik who was employed to fill the shelves was making no secret of what he thought about the paying customers which he clearly felt were getting in his way. I just laughed; others would have had ample opportunity to make a formal complaint. I wonder if anyone did?

 

I went in to the early shift, did what I had to, and came home. “er indoors ^TM” had suggested an evening’s walk so we went to Orlestone. The walk passed off rather uneventfully, but I did think that the smaller two (Bailey in particular) were rather more wilful than usual. They know who panders to them whereas I will just keep going.

We came home. I spent a little while struggling on the on-line shops. I got the seventh Adrian Mole book on CD for about a fifth of the price I paid for the sixth. But I just can’t find the eight (and final) book on either MP3 or something that I could convert to MP3. But I did find a website offering all the Harry Potter books on MP3 for less than twenty quid the lot. Just like my seventh Adrian Mole CDs this is a rather good bargain *if* it arrives.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “Celebrity Hunted”. It’s a rather good show, but realistically it’s just “Hunted” when you’ve only ever heard of one of the twelve so-called celebrities.

 

I’m rather worn out… and it’s hossing down outside.

 

20 August 2026 (Thursday) - A Busy Day Off

I slept well. I got up to see there had been more rain overnight. That was something of a result. I made toast and had a look at Facebook as I do. It was still there and much the same as ever. Lies, disinformation and blather persisted as it always does. When you think that I’ve got over seven hundred people on my Facebook list I see posts from maybe twenty of them. Pretty much everything I see is either “you might be interested in” (which I never am) or adverts for small businesses hundreds of miles away.

But it keeps me occupied in the mornings.

I had an email. My car insurance was due. Thirty quid less than it was last year. I saw that as a result and snapped it up. Last year it went up and I wasted a morning shopping about only to find I couldn’t get it cheaper anywhere else.

 

I took the dogs out. Over the last few days with time pressing we’d been to Orlestone. We can put the leads on, go to Orlestone and be back home drinking our cuppa in just over an hour. Kings Wood is a shade under three hours if the traffic is good, but we had the time to spare today, so that’s where we went.

As we walked we met two other groups of dog walkers. One was chatty, one was not. We chased a few squirrels, we didn’t roll in anything… or anything that stained anyway.

 

We came home and had that cuppa two hours and fifty minutes after we’d set off. I Munzed, and Wordled. Google said the best starting word to use in Wordle was “slate”. It lied. It didn’t give me a single letter at all. So I tried again with “bruin” (as I couldn’t think of any other word). And then it was serious brain straining. “Rough” didn’t help me any more. “Furry” was a step in the right direction, and I got it on the fifth go with “murky”. As I’d Wordled so we had a torrential rain shower, but it went as quickly as it came so I decided to crack on in the garden.

 

Before I started I put a load of washing in to scrub. I then cleaned out the pond filter. I lined the two planters we got on Sunday, filled them with compost and potted the lilac and the thing we got from “My Boy ^TM” (must find out what that is). I weeded the pots. I planted the violas we bought on Sunday. I pootled and tidied. I voomed round with the bionic burner. The bionic burner is a rather good gadget. It’s not as good as the adverts claim: it doesn’t “permanently eliminate weed roots from the ground” but it certainly gets rid of the weeds for longer than just pulling them out by hand does.

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned from a shopping mission. Whilst out she got me a pressie – a bag of wild rocket. Ostensibly a salad condiment; I’ve chucked it into a floating pot in the pond. The water cress is doing famously, so the rocket might. Or might not. Time will tell; it always does.

 

I had some sausage rolls (with mustard – oh yus!) for lunch then set about ironing my shirts. They always iron better when still wet from the washing machine.

And then I tried to spark up my old lap-top. I’d spent an age trying to get the later Adrian Mole books on MP3. And failed. All I could find was audibles and spotifys and things which seem to depend on a decent internet connection, and my car doesn’t have one. So I got the sixth book on CD and thought I could copy them like I did the other week.

My old lap-top flatly refused to work. It spent two hours trying to do an update. Eventually I lost patience with it, and despite the warnings I pulled its plug. It then allowed me to log in… but that was as far as it would go. Oh, I got cross with it.

After a lot of stress I pulled its plug and we took the dogs to the marsh for a little outing then on our return I sparked up the old lap-top again. This time it worked fine and happily turned my new CDs into MP3s.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up fajitas and we scoffed them whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”. It was a rather good episode. One of the best, I expect most of the fans will hate it…