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…

18 June 2026 (Thursday) - More Rain

Again I ached when I woke. I got up, made toast and had a look at Facebook. Someone who used to run a rather specialist shop in Folkestone had the arse with the government because no one was coming to buy surplus military stuff from him. I can see that only taking fifteen quid a day wasn’t a viable business model, but more and more the government is being blamed for every single failing of the world. Am I missing the point here? Would having a Reform UK government have the masses running out to Folkestone to dress up like Action Man? Somehow I doubt it.

 

With “er indoors ^TM” not working from home today we were up earlier than usual. We got to the woods a good hour and a half earlier than we did yesterday. We walked our usual shorter walk (what used to be our usual walk) of four and a half miles and in that time we only saw two other people. We did see a deer though. Again like the one we saw the other day it wasn’t particularly fazed by the dogs.

 

We came home. My Forestry England welcome pack had arrived together with the all-important car sticker which allows me free parking at the Kings Wood car park. I Munzed and opened a qrate. I Wordled from “today” through “butty” to “entry”, then cracked on in the garden.

As always I started by harvesting the dog dung. Strating with anything else usually leads to disaster. I then got a first coat of undercoat onto the tyres. The instructions said to allow at least six hours between coats so I got the spirit level and got the platform for the thing level, and that was all I could do on “Operation Wishing Well” for today. I don’t want to saw any wood into shape until I’ve figured out how far apart my uprights are going to be. That distance will be what it is once the uprights are actually in place, and will probably bear little (if any) relation to anything I might measure.

 

It was a bit warm so I came inside. I saw I had an email. I subscribe to a website called “Lablogatory”. Every so often there would be a work-related post appearing there which I could sometimes use in my personal continuing professional development. Naively I always thought the site was created by volunteers. It turns out that those producing material for the site were being paid to do so, and the money has dried up. My CPD blog is open to all, and a surprising amount of people seem to refer to it. Am I wrong in providing this for free? Personally I don’t think so.

 

I watched an episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” as I scoffed a Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle for lunch. Having been a tad egg-bound recently I hoped for great things. And then I went out to the shed and had a little tidy-up. I’ve booked a tip run for tomorrow to get rid of that which I tidied.

I could feel a few spots of rain so we quickly did “FEED THE FISH”; it was hossing down by the time the fish and the dogs had had a little scoff.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between trying to do the shed when it wasn’t raining, and reading my Kindle when it was. It rained quite a bit – I’m just hoping the paint on my tyres was mostly dry by then.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home and boiled up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a couple of episodes of “Taskmaster”, and that Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle has done the trick. I’m going to bed as I shall lay down there. It hurts to sit right now…

17 June 2026 (Wednesday) - Taking It Easy

I slept like a log last night. I did have an idea to go out into the garden and scrub those tyres when I woke far too early at five o’clock, but I slept through until eight o’clock which was something of a result.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. I’ve noticed something - more and more I’m seeing posts to Facebook starting with “please – no hate”. This speaks volumes about social media doesn’t it? There’s no denying I’d be lost without it, but when you consider how many people clearly just go on-line to spew their vitriol at people they’ve never met and never will, you can see why the government wants to keep children off of it, can’t you?

Meanwhile a Russian frigate sailing down the English Channel has taken a pot-shot at a passing yacht.

 

I Munzed, got Wordle on the fourth attempt, and at twenty to nine decided that “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs had been in bed for quite long enough. I hoiked them out of their pit, and once they’d had brekkie I took the dogs up to Kings Wood. I made a point of taking a shorter walk today… we did what used to be our standard walk. I need to go back to a shade under four miles. The recent five-and-a-bit miles is just a bit too much. But we had a good walk… even if Treacle found the mud and Morgan did come home covered in bird crap.

As we walked we met quite a few other dogs; the woods were rather busy today. And most of the encounters passed off well. They only real iffy one was with some woman with a Labrador and a Poodle who blanked us entirely. Generally there’s a polite greeting, and sometimes a bit of a chat with those we see regularly, but more and more there’s an element up there that is stand-offish to the point of rudeness. We saw one the other day – the idiot in the shirt and tie.

 

We came home. In a novel break with tradition Bailey escaped being bathed, and with the mud off of Treacle and the bird crap off of Morgan I made us both a cuppa. And then I cracked on in the garden.

I gave the tyres another scrubbing with soap and water, and got another coat of wood stain onto the wood bits. I voomed round with the bionic burner, and spent a little while looking for the roofing felt. I had this stroke of genius that roofing felt might make a good roof for the wishing well I’m going to make out of the tyres and timbers.  I can remember having loads of the stuff… It turns out I took it round to “My Boy ^TM” to help with his shed roof.

I drove round to fetch it back.

 

I stopped off at the co-op to get Belgian buns for lunch. The co-op do the best Belgian buns. Sadly they do the best annoying idiots too. How can so many people blunder around utterly oblivious of the world around them? At one point one old biddy grabbed her mate’s arm and dragged her away saying that she was in everyone’s way. The one being dragged looked around and was very obviously very surprised to see there was a whole world around her.

And with buns eventually bought I went on to the first fruit of my loin. He’s had his lawn replaced with artificial grass. It looks rather good at the moment, but will it last? We shall see.

I got the roof felt. And I blagged his white spirit too.

 

I came home and saw that the little pond’s aerator pump was struggling so I cleaned it out. As I did I found one of the grass carp was dead. Ho hum… That got flushed.

I had my Belgian bun then went back into the garden. I rubbed the tyres down with white spirit, then gave the timbers another coat of wood stain. Then rubbed the tyres with more white spirit. That stuff stinks. I had a little sleep by the pond and thought about painting the tyres but decided against it. Instead I pruned the hedge between us and not-so-nice-next-door. It needed pruning. I would say something to her about the jungle, but over the years I’ve sadly found that speaking to her is at best a futile endeavour.

I also pruned our no-longer-dead cordyline. I’ve pulled off all the dead leaves. Maybe that did it some good. Maybe it didn’t. Time will tell; it always does.

Meanwhile my new fuchsia is blooming.

 

I had a phone call from one of my old trainees (he was a trainee sixteen years ago!) He’s up before the beak facing allegations of… well, in many ways the allegations are immaterial. Having been up against the legal system myself a couple of times, and having seen friends contesting with it, my hopes for my old mucker aren’t high. It really has been my experience in courts of law that victory goes to those who know what phrases to say (regardless of their veracity) whilst keeping a straight face. Am I bitter? Yes.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled me up a pizza then she went off out with her old workmates. I settled in front of the telly underneath a pile of dogs and watched more episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. As I watched there were several commotions outside. We’ve put a tray under the bird feeders to catch the seeds chucked by the sparrows. The pigeons have taken to trying to get those seeds by getting into the tray and making the whole lot over-balance..

 

My plan for today was to take it somewhat easier… I’ve come in at under fourteen thousand steps so that’s somewhat better than the last two days, I suppose… I still ache though.

16 June 2026 (Tuesday) - Walk, Shopping, Gardening, Vets

I rather ached when I got up this morning. Last night when I went to bed my watch claimed I’d covered over seventeen thousand steps yesterday. Perhaps I overdid it a bit?

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. The other day I mentioned that a pub a few miles away, the Bonny Cravat, was closing down. There was a post about them on the local news site this morning. Despite having spent ninety thousand pounds of their own money on a Shepherd Neame pub they were only getting one or two customers a day and have knocked it on the head. For all that I keep saying that pubs have had their day, this one has always amazed me. The Bonny Cravat looks like a council house surrounded by a tarmac car park whilst the building next door is a traditional olde-worlde pub with oak beams and a rather pretty garden. The only surprise here is how the Bonny Cravat kept going for so long.

I saw a friend was off on a river cruise in Portugal. I quite liked the look of that… but I couldn’t leave my dogs behind.

And several people were posting to say that their children had left school for the last time.

However no one was posting pictures of fishing. Back in the day freshwater fishing would stop for three months in March so that the fish could spawn, and fishing would re-start on June 16^th. People would sit on the lakesides and cast out at the stroke of midnight. These days no one observes the close season.

I Munzed, Wordled from “ached” to “amaze” in four goes.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods where we had a good (if long) walk. As we walked I saw a deer on the path in front of us. The dogs missed it completely; it watched us approach, and it only ran off when I reached for my phone to take a photo of it.

We had a “near miss” with the normal people. Bailey disappeared for about ten seconds. I whistled for her and a voice on the other side of a thicket told me not to worry; he’d found my missing dog. I whistled again and the chap said he’d got her. I replied to let her go. This confused him. What – just let the dog run? Yes. He wasn’t happy about it but two seconds later Bailey came running round the tree and I could hear mumblings from the other side of the bushes. We carried on but never actually saw this bloke, which was probably for the best.

 

We came home for a cuppa, then I went out on a little mission. First of all to Brewer’s (the paint shop) to get something to prime my old car’s tyres before dobbing them with masonry paint. The internet said I should use oil based multipurpose primer. The specialist paint shop said they’d never heard of it, and after a quick look it would seem their suppliers hadn’t either.

I drove round to Wickes where I got a water-based multipurpose primer, several bits of wood, some screws, a chain and most of the ingredients for what I’m going to make those tyres into.

 

I came home again and potted the plants I got on Sunday. They look much better potted, and the purple plants give a nice contrast to the water buttercups round the bog filter. I scrubbed the tyres with warm soapy water (as it said to on the internet), painted up the wood with woodstain, and by then I was worn out. We did “FEED THE FISH” and then I sat by the pond for a while reading my Kindle as I had a late lunch of a bag of smoky bacon crisps and a tin of Doctor Pepper.

 

I took Morgan and Bailey to the vets for their annual check-up. For a dog that barely eats, Bailey has put on half a kilogram. Morgan’s weight remains constant, and both dogs passed their MOT with flying colours.

I came home, had a shower, and slobbed in front of the telly as I do in the early evening playing games on my phone whilst watching drivel on the UK Gold channel… There’s something odd with that channel. So often the program goes intermittently silent and the video pixelates. It doesn’t happen during the adverts and it doesn’t happen on any of the other (non-UK brand) channels. I shall hope that the issue is at their end and not with our Sky-Q box.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of prosecco and a couple of G&Ts as we watched a couple of episodes of “Taskmaster”.

And for all that I might have overdone it yesterday, as I type this my watch is telling me I’ve covered twenty thousand and twenty-five steps and it hurts to move. I really should take it easier tomorrow.

15 June 2026 (Monday) - Another Day Off

 

I slept though till six o’clock this morning. I got up, did what I got up for, and put a load of washing in to scrub. I went back to bed in the hope that I might get some more kip. I didn’t; I rarely do. Once I’m awake, generally that’s it.

I eventually got up at eight o’clock. After a shave I stood on the scales. Last week’s holiday has put half a stone on to me. Oh well; that’s what holidays do. I hung out the washing, made toast and had a little look at the Internet as I do most mornings. There was quite a lot of consternation in the Facebook pages about the Romney Marsh as some asylum-seekers have been housed in the area. Apparently these asylum seekers have been bothering local children… Apparently. Everyone’s heard the tales but no one has actually seen anything; let alone reported it to the police. No end of hatred and vitriol was being spouted. I originally wrote “racist hatred” but is it *really* racist? There’s also quite a lot of bad feeling in the Hastings Facebook pages from those who’ve never lived more than fifty yards from the house in which they were born. They really don’t like the “DFL”s. “DFL”s is a term used to describe the people moving into the area who are “down from London”.

I’m reminded of my days in the cubs (as a cub, not a leader) when the children there came from two different primary schools. The leaders tried and tried to get the kids to mix, but we stayed in two completely separate tribes. We simply wouldn’t even acknowledge the existence of a child who went to a different school.

So many people have a general animosity against anyone who hails from somewhere else, which is silly and a great shame. People you don’t know aren’t actually enemies looking to slit your throats; they are just friends you haven’t met yet.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “slept” to “broil” in five goes,  then took the dogs up to the woods. We walked one of our longer usual walks, but over the course of five and a half miles we only saw two other dog walkers. One said hello, the other looked down his nose at us whilst his poor dog (formally ordered to walk at heel) watched with a pang of sadness as my three ran riot in the thickets. I felt sorry for the poor dog; he really was with one of the normal people. Who else walks in the woods in mid-June in a shirt and tie with waistcoat, jacket and a coat on?

 

We got back to the car and came home. We arrived just as “er indoors ^TM” was making a cuppa, so that saved me a job. I updated my Facebook profile pictures with those piccies above, then charged into the garden to get the laundry in as it was raining.

And with that draped over the banister I popped over to the garden centre. Yesterday I’d got some new plants but we had no compost for potting them. I got some compost… at eight quid for a huge bag or twelve quid for two huge bags I bought two huge bags. And as I suddenly had loads of compost and the pots at home were small I got a couple of small troughs too.

 

I came home where I made myself some toast, and with that scoffed I got on with the post-holiday ironing. I’d got all the laundry washed and dried over the weekend, and it only took a couple of hours to get it ironed. As I ironed I watched more episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. And with ironing done and telly watched I then tried to get up quietly. But the dogs which had been so soundly asleep and snoring weren’t going to miss the possibility of “FEED THE FISH”, so that’s what we did. I then ran round with the watering can and had a look at that pile of tyres I saved from when I got new tyres for the car. I’ve got instructions for what I might do with them.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and chips then went bowling. I watched even more episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. The republic of Gilead seems to be a scary place, but with Reform UK councils seemingly repealing a *lot* of the legislation which stopped the alienation of the LGBT community and there insisting on prayers at council meetings, is it *that* unlikely that the UK could be reduced to that sort of religious crackpotism ?

 

I’m feeling rather worn out. Days off often do that to me.