26 October 2026 (Monday) - This N That

I slept well… I woke about seven o’clock which bearing in mind clocks going back was eight o’clock in the old money. I made toast and had my usual peer into the Internet. Some complete idiot was posting to one of the Romney Marsh Facebook groups demanding that supermarkets, data centres, coffee shops, solar farms and pretty much the entire twenty-first century be banned from the Romney Marsh. The chap had no answer when it was pointed out that he clearly felt there was no contradiction between using a mass social media platform which relies on data centres and huge amounts of energy and still wanting to keep his own area looking like it did in the Middle Ages.

And another friend had posted about clothing scams appearing on Facebook…  I was glad she did. I’d made a note of a couple which I was going to get as Christmas pressies for “er indoors ^TM” .

 

I got the leads onto the dogs and we went to find the car. We made our way to the woods listening to the pundits on the radio spouting their usual drivel. This morning they were talking about French politics (as if the British stuff isn’t tedious enough).

 

We got to the woods where the drizzle was still drizzling, but we carried on and walked our usual circuit of the woods. The weekend’s rain had made the ground rather wet, and the hoof prints were clearly visible along the paths marked “no horses”. As we walked there was a minor commotion. Morgan flew off like a bullet from a gun, hotly pursued by the girls. There was a bit of a scuffle and some screaming… and then Morgan jumped back and a squirrel flew up a tree. Had he caught it and then let it go?

As we walked I gathered rubbish. Lager cans, biscuit wrappers… there’s far more litter in the woods these days than there ever used to be.

 

We came home where the dogs had a warm shower. Their paws and bellies were a tad grubby. For the next few months they will be going into the shower after walks. I know so many friends who tell me their dogs don’t go into the bath from one month to the next. My three get so mucky on one walk round the woods.

I made us a cuppa, then Munzed and Wordled. Starring with “mucky” I went to “risky” and then found myself stuck as I couldn’t think of any words that ended in “ky” that didn’t end in “cky” or “sky”. Eventually I struck on “hanky” (as in “Mr Hanky the Christmas Poo”) but it wasn’t that. After a lot of brain straining I came up with “geeky” which was the answer. That one was hard work.

 

I then popped out. I went to Morrisons over at Singleton to get some ales and ciders. The Morrisons at Canterbury yesterday had an excellent selection. The Morrisons at Singleton didn’t have any.

Whilst I was in the area I popped into Singleton Barn. There’s been a lot of talk about a geocaching meet intended for a get-together for solving geo-puzzles. There’s a corner in Singleton Barn we’ve used for meets in the past. I thought we might use it again. In the meantime they’ve put a dartboard right in the middle of where I had in mind. Ho hum…

I drove round to the New Chimneys and had a chat with the nice man there. He seemed very keen for us to have a meet, and I’ve arranged for us to go in a couple of weeks’ time. I shall now spend the next two weeks worrying… I’ve organised geo-meets before only to have the venue let us down at the last minute.

Here’s hoping for the best.

 

I came home where I set the washing machine loose on some laundry, and whilst it did its thing I wrote up the verbals for geocaching puzzle club. With that done I ironed shirts (and watched more “Lost in Space”) as the washing machine had a go at the undercrackers. And with telly watched I wrote up some CPD.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went shopping and came back with pizza. I saw that as a result, and we scoffed that whilst watching “Lego Masters: New Zealand”. It was rather good.

 

And in closing, Walter Koenig has died. He was Alfred Bester in Babylon 5 and Pavel Chekov in Star Trek. He was rather big on the sci-fi circuit.

25 October 2026 (Sunday) - Canterbury

I had a good night’s sleep waking at nine o’clock… or eight o’clock what with this daylight saving and clocks-going-back nonsense. Why do we still mess around changing the clocks twice a year? No daylight is actually saved; it is just a little light earlier in the mornings, but gets dark earlier in the afternoon. But for all that I had a good night’s sleep I woke feeling rather morose. What was that all about?

I made toast and had a look at Facebook as I so often do. A colleague was having a birthday. A friend had posted a memory from sixteen years ago when we went to see the alpacas, another was posting pictures of her hamsters, and another was (like me) whinging about daylight saving. The morning’s argument was on one of the tattoo-related pages where some Americans seemed surprised that there was an entire world outside of America.

And there was a *lot* of adverts that didn’t interest me in the slightest.

I Munzed, Wordled from “light” to “dress” in four goes and got ready to go out.

 

The plan had been to go to Greatstone and walk down the beach to the Pilot for a plate of whitebait, but the heavy winds would have made that walk a misery. So instead we thought of geocaching ad-labs in Canterbury. There’s a couple in the grounds of the cathedral. But you have to pay to get into the grounds of the cathedral. Twenty quid. Each. Stuff that.

We saw another geocaching adventure lab on the map in Canterbury though so we drove out and did that. Parking a little way out of the town we walked into the town centre and visited five places which were supposed to be haunted. From there we had a go at the virtual geocache at the cathedral. This one involved taking selfies from various points with the cathedral in the background, and didn’t involve shelling out loads of money.

 

There’s no denying that my piss boiled as we walked, As always Canterbury was heaving with tourists, and as always not one in a hundred was looking at where they were going. Several people walked straight into me as they weren’t paying attention, and I had lost count of how many times I had to stop suddenly to avoid crashing into the idiot who had blundered right in front of me and had then stopped.

Morrisons was much the same as well. We stopped off there on the way home for supplies, and the place was full of people who clearly had no idea that there were other customers in the place. Not least of which was the idiot assistant who I sent off to get me a shopping basket. There were none in the foyer of the place, and when I asked the idiot assistant he told me they were all under the tills where people had left them when paying for their shopping. I told him they were no good there; he simpered at me. In the end I had to actually tell him that if he wanted my money he had to go and get me a basket. He did. He got one basket. I thanked him for it, and suggested he go get a load more for all the other people who were also waiting.

We hadn’t intended to go to Morrisons. Our plan was to go to the off-licence in Wincheap Road. I used to drive past that when I worked in Canterbury… it wasn’t there any more. It must have closed down years ago.

 

We came home and spent he afternoon on the Infinity Table playing seven games of Ticket To Ride. In an amazing triumph of pot luck over skill I won. I came top in four games, one was a draw, and I lost two.

As we played I had a beer or two. “Krush” and “Inferno” from the Oakham brewery were rather good, and the salted caramel porter from Theakston’s was very good.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pork chops which we scoffed whilst watching the final of “Lego Masters”. My choice didn’t win, but there it is…

For all that I stared feeling rather hacked off, the day turned out to be a good ‘un.

24 October 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Late Shift

I slept quite well really, not waking until nearly seven o’clock. I got up and (as it was Saturday) I told the Alexa to play Radio Ashford. It played Magic Radio. I told it to stop, and we tried again. The Alexa wasn’t having any of it. Eventually after a bit of an argument it did what it was told. It wasn’t that long ago when a voice-controlled machine was firmly in the realms of science-fiction. Now we whinge when the things don’t work perfectly.

As I scoffed my toast I downloaded bank statements and had my monthly look at the accounts. Again I could be a lot worse off, but I’m nowhere near as rich as I’d like to be. But then, is anyone?

 

I then had a little look at the Internet as I do. It was the same as it ever is really. As I rummaged through the drivel on-line so Steve was on the radio. The “Guess the Lyrics” competition. Today it was “Thought I could have my cake and eat it too”. I had no idea. It was “Working My Way Back To You” by the Four Seasons. I also had no idea that Shakin’ Stevens was Welsh until Steve told us. One lives and learns.

As Steve was playing “Crazy Horses” by the Osmonds I Munzed, and Wordled from “crazy” to “holey” in five goes, then got ready for Dog Club. I found myself thinking back to over fifty years ago when I was in the Osmonds fan club. In retrospect that was money down the drain, wasn’t it?

 

Dog Club was its usual mayhem. In the week I’d bought a bag of sprats for the dogs as some of them have allergies to beef and cheese. The sprats were rather popular, but there were a couple of pups that didn’t seem to like them.

We came home via the corner shop where I got a pain au chocolat and an almond croissant. As we scoffed them Steve was coming to the end of the Mystery Year competition. I knew that the various songs and historical events were from the mid-seventies, but which year?. Did Steve realise I was struggling? He then announced that Jon Pertwee left Doctor Who in that year, and played “Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth” by Sparks. That clinched it. 1974.

 

I set off to work. I listened to Radio Ashford as far as I could... which wasn't fat up the M20 this morning. I turned over to Sir Stephen Fry reading the first Harry Potter book. Having read the thing myself many times it has to be said that Sir Stephen reads much slower than I do.

 

I got to work and did my bit. With a Met Office formal warning of severe weather I didn't (really) mind going in to work even if this was the fifteenth of the last nineteen weekends when I've been at work. Having said that, when I left home this same Met Office was predicting a ninety-five per cent chance of heavy rain and it wasn't raining.  As I went up the motorway there was a bit of drizzle, but not much really.  As I worked I kept a weather eye (quite literally) out of the window. I suppose the rain would have put me off taking the dogs to the woods, but was it bad enough to warrant a formal weather warning? 

When I started working my watch told me I'd already walked three thousand two hundred steps today. When the night shift came in I was up to nine thousand nine hundred and ten steps. Bearing in mind that from many walks round Kings Wood I average two thousand two hundred steps per mile, I walked a shade over three miles just going round the laboratory today. 

 

I’ve worked four days this week. I’m worn out.

23 October 2026 (Friday) - Early Shift

With an alarm set I didn’t sleep well. I was awake far too early so I got up, made toast and watched an episode of “Lost In Space”. I must admit I haven’t a clue about what is going on in that show. The writers would seem to have made it all mysterious and enigmatic rather than actually having a plot.

I had a little look at the internet. This morning there were no end of vaccine denying lies on some of the political pages on Facebook. It never fails to amaze me that so many people honestly believe that having misunderstood a factually incorrect video on You-Tube (presented by someone even more ignorant than they are) they know more with people with PhD-level qualifications who have studied immunology for twenty years.

There wasn’t a lot else going on on-line so I had a quick Munz and set off to work.

 

As I drove up the motorway there was something rather worrying on the news. The pundits on the radio were talking about how the Ukrainians have now had their access to the defensive Starlink system restored to them... by Elon Musk. I would have (admittedly naively) thought that such a decision would have been made by politicians in consultation with senior generals. Apparently not. A rich man has decided.

Not that I've any confidence in the entire concept of democracy, but if a society is going to pretend to be run by a democratically elected government, then that is who should be deciding things, isn't it?

The time will come when the rich say that enough is enough, and that us proles need to learn our places. We're not quite there yet, but this is obviously one step closer.

 

As I drove I was constantly being dazzled by the headlights of the car behind me. As I drove away from Sainsburys the head honcho of the R.A.C. was wheeled on. He claimed that a quarter of all drivers are looking to seriously curtail their driving over the winter as they are getting sick of the glare from oncoming vehicles. The R.A.C. are calling for changes in the way that car's headlights operate, and at M.O.T. inspections have them angled out of the eyes of oncoming drivers.

I can remember there being talk about this in the past. But talk is cheap. I was dazzled in the past and expect I will be dazzled again.

 

I got to work and did my bit. As I worked I saw a poster in the rest room. One of my younger colleagues is raising money for charity by doing a sponsored read. She is planning to spend a few minutes every day reading a book and expects to be sponsored for doing so. The implication was that the reading for which she is seeking sponsorship is a rather arduous activity.  I bit my tongue and tried not to actually laugh out loud at this. But she is serious... 

I can remember going geocaching once before - we had a nine mile walk and a chap coming with us had arranged sponsorship for himself that morning because of the frankly epic distance being covered (or so he felt).

 

An early start made for an early finish. I came home via the works branch of M&S as “er indoors ^TM” had sent instructions for me to get some milk. Did you know that M&S sell the world’s most responsibly sourced milk? You learn something new every day… even if this does beg the question of how one might source milk irresponsibly.

 

I played a little Meowdoku until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up egg and chips which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Young Sheldon” and then tonight’s episode of “Celebrity Traitors” which (if nothing else) proved that the Faithfuls haven’t got a clue about what is going on.

 

I’m wondering if I’m going down with the lurgy; I’m feeling rather grim.

22 October 2026 (Thursday) - Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

With no alarm set I had a far better night. I went to the loo in the small hours and listened to the noise of the rain thundering on the roof, then went back to bed. I stayed there until eight o’clock when it has stopped raining. Result.

 

I got up and did my usual root around the Internet. This morning’s petty bickering was on one of the Hastings-related Facebook pages where people were bemoaning the loss of the old cricket ground (even though it has been a shopping centre for thirty years). Those who were old enough to remember the cricket ground were adamant that they missed the place, and that losing it was a serious loss for the town. The same people also were admitting that they never actually went there to play or watch cricket. I found myself thinking the same about the Eurostar terminal just up the road. People regularly whinge about what a loss it is for the town that the international trains don’t stop there any more…the same people who never once caught an international train.

I had a look at my emails. A friend had been round Kings Wood yesterday and couldn’t find one of the geocaches that I’d hidden there. That set our walk for today.

I got dressed, squirted my armpits, and had a spray round with the smelly stuff. I use Adidas Ice spray as I like the smell, but I’ve discovered something. For ages I’ve been getting the fifty millilitre bottle which costs nearly a tenner. I’ve just discovered that a bottle of the same stuff which is twice the size costs three quid less. It pays to pay attention.

 

As we drove to the woods so there was a documentary on the radio about Ishtar (the Mesopotamian goddess of love, sex and war). Wasting half an hour of air-time like this, is it any wonder why the BBC’s radio budgets are being cut back?

We went to the lower car park at Kings Wood and walked out to where the supposedly missing geocache was. I couldn’t find it so I popped out a replacement. I had intended to then walk all of the stretch of the Pilgrim’s Way that goes through Kings Wood, but it is at the extreme east side. Much of it is alongside a fence, and just on the other side of that fence were pheasants. Loads of pheasants. The dogs went just the teensiest bit psycho. I wasn’t going to risk them getting on the other side of that fence so we diverted up past the dew pond… and Treacle went for a spuddle. Still, better a wet dog than an errant dog. To be fair to the dogs for all that they went sprinting after the pheasants they all came straight back what called.

As we walked I spotted something. Just in front of us was a stag. Right on the path and clearly watching us. I slowed down and got my phone's camera on the case. The dogs had seen the stag and were just quietly watching him. We carried on walking slowly, and got to about fifty yards away from him when he slowly turned and trotted into the trees. I thought the dogs might have given chase, but they just carried on following the path we usually take.

 

We came home where the dogs had their bellies rinsed off. After the rain of the last couple of days the woods had been muddy.

When shopping last night “er indoors ^TM” had come home with Whitby buns. We had them with a cuppa. Very nice. I then beefed up one of the photos I’d taken of the stag. I cropped out the edges of the photo to concentrate on Morgan and the stag, and sharpened it. When I posted up the photo, Facebook said that it had to have the label of “AI content”. Seriously?

I Munzed. I Wordled from “meant” to “reset”. I wrote up some CPD, then set off for the afternoon’s adventure.

 

I drove over to Canterbury. I popped into Go Outdoors to look at their walking boots. They’ve certainly dropped in price.

From there I went up to the hospital where I had an appointment for nerve conductivity tests to assess how bad my carpal tunnel syndrome was. The nice lady rigged me up to loads of electrodes and zapped me for fifteen minutes then announced that my nerve conductivity was fine and I didn’t have carpal tunnel syndrome. She seemed happy about that, but seemed rather miffed when I told her that my hand still hurt, and that as we spoke my left thumb was completely numb.

We decided that going back to the GP might be a plan, but the nice lady said that as we get older we get these aches and pains which don’t seem to have any definite diagnosis. Ho hum…

 

I came home and we did “FEED THE FISH” which is always popular with the dogs… well, with the girls. Morgan tends to give it a miss. I made us both a cuppa, and got stuck into Meowdoku for far too long.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of Malbec whilst watching this evening’s episode of “Celebrity Traitors” in which Jerry Hall ended up “redder than a fox’s are at gooseberry time” (to coin a phrase).

I won’t say who got banished, but I will say I was glad to see the back of them.

21 October 2026 (Wednesday) - Cheeky FTF

With an alarm set I had a poor night. I gave up trying to sleep, got up and watched an episode of "Lost In Space". I can remember reading on Facebook about how Irwin Allen (the creator of the original series) once tried to get scientists from NASA involved in the show.  Apparently the scientists didn't want to touch the show with a barge pole as Irwin Allen was more interested in dramatic effect than scientific accuracy. Much the same must be true of the creators of the most recent remake; the plot of this morning's episode involved decontaminating drinking water by bubbling ammonia through it.

I Wordled from "early" via "peony" to "penny", then set off to work.

As I walked to my car so my phone beeped. There was a new geocache quite literally down the road. A mile down the road, but down the road. A two-minute drive, a rummage round a street sign and I soon had the thing in hand. And I was First to Find too. Happy dance.

 

I drove on to work. As I went up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about the most recent round of peace talks over the conflict in Ukraine. I'm rather confused with the whole thing. It is being alleged that Donald Trump is the Russian President's puppet. If so, why are the Americans still funding the Ukraine war effort? Perhaps that's what these talks are all about? Perhaps the American involvement is coming to an end?

And there was talk about the Jackdaw oil field in the North Sea. Controversial? Maybe. On the one hand carrying on with oil and gas isn't very environmentally friendly. On the other hand widespread take-up of electric cars won't be practical for some years, and what with two loads of madmen squabbling in the Strait of Hormuz it is quite plain that the UK needs fuel security.

And in any event whatever the UK does or doesn't burn is just pissing in the wind compared to the world's total use of fossil fuels.

 

I went into Sainsburys where the shelf fillers were quietly doing their jobs. There was no shrieking and pointed glances at any of the customers today. Had someone said something to them?

I got my lunch, some tennis balls for Treacle for Dog Club, and whilst I was at it I got some dried sprats. That will be a special treat for Dog Club; I just hope the dogs like them.

I then had something of a fight with the self-service till. Eventually an assistant that I hadn't seen before came over, gave the till a hefty clout and the thing started working again. There's nothing quite like getting technical with it, is there?

 

I went into work. We had cake. Lots of cake. A colleague was leaving today and had brought quite a bit I will be sad to see him leave; if only because that means more late shifts and night shifts for me to cover.

And one of the bosses is going as well. She applied for the mutually agreed redundancy scheme whereby she gets a year’s money and goes… on the understanding she can’t have another NHS job in the next year. She intends to take the money and retire. Personally I don’t think I’d like that – I quite enjoy part time working… for now.

 

Having gone to work I came home again. “er indoors ^TM” went off out with her mates. I put shirts in to wash, and whilst they scrubbed I cooked up a pizza. I scoffed that, then ironed shirts as I watched more episodes of “Lost In Space”.

“er indoors ^TM” came home with a trifle. Very nice…

20 October 2026 (Tuesday) - Early Shift

With an alarm set I had a bad night. I barely slept. I eventually gave up with laying awake, got up and watched another episode of “Lost In Space” (which has improved quite a bit) before having my usual root around the Internet.

Having been looking at pond supplies over the weekend pretty much every advert I saw on Facebook and Google were pond and fish related. Loads of these adverts were for stuff on Temu… I’ve never shopped on Temu before and will probably do so. One particular advert made me sit up and take notice. There was a particularly nice little fish tank featuring a bowl with an oriental scene featuring a temple, bridge, a little garden with trees… when you read the reviews it turned out that the advert was actually just for the models of the temple and bridge (which were in reality only four inches long) and none of the rest of the stuff in the advert were part of what was actually being sold.

It pays to pay close attention.

 

I managed to get dressed without disturbing anyone, and set off to find my car. For once I remembered where I'd parked it, and I was soon on my way up the motorway. As I drove I again got cross with the pundits on the radio. They always have live interviews with people who simply aren't prepared for being interviewed live on national radio. This morning  some chap was deliberately surprised with a question he clearly hadn't been expecting. The poor fellow tried to reply with "I -  I -  I... think that-that-that... we might-might-might..." as he desperately tried to think about that which he might actually do. About half of the interview time was spent with the chap nervously stuttering because he had no idea of how to reply to questions which he obviously wasn't expecting. You'd think that with years of experience of surprising  people with awkward questions, the pundits on the radio would have eventually realised that doing so only serves to embarrass them and waste time. As I've said before the presenters of the morning's radio show would do far better with either pre-recording their interviews or not interviewing people who are terrified of being interviewed on live radio.

Unless it is their intention to embarrass people. (It probably is). 

Meanwhile the Japanese are sending a probe to one of the moons of Mars where it will gather a few rocks and then bring them back to Earth (Australia, not, Japan).

  

I stopped off in Aylesford where I got some petrol. the petrol was three pence per litre cheaper than at home, but the diesel was more expensive. But as my car runs on petrol I wasn't fussed about that (I'm all right, thank you for asking!) And I then popped into Sainsbury s to get a sandwich. I stood back for a few moments and watched three shelf-fillers who were chatting amongst themselves openly laughing at the customers. I thought about complaining... but that would have been petty of me.  Instead I contented myself by filling the self-service till with loose change which annoyed the till guardians who glared at me as I did so. 

 

I went into work where someone with whom I used to work (twenty years ago) had arrived to do a bit of training on the new computer system we are getting in a few weeks' time. It was good to catch up. 

I did the training, and then cracked on with the day's work... sadly with the theme tune to the "Police Academy" films stuck in my head.

 

I came home listening to Sir Stephen Fry reading the first of the Harry Potter books. Once home I had a little kip, then “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the latest episode of “Lego Masters” which by coincidence was Harry Potter week.

We’re now watching this week’s “Bake Off”…