4 April 2026 (Saturday) - Rather Busy

I slept reasonably well… for the last year or so I seem to have been plagued with very vivid dreams of finding myself at Open University summer schools with no reason to be there… I wonder what that’s all about?

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Yesterday I mentioned that a local councillor was using Facebook to launch personal attacks on another. I made the comment “It is such a shame that local government has sunk to the level of personal attacks on social media” and amazingly no one wanted to quibble with me, and several people had agreed. Another local councilor commented that she agreed with me, and went on to say what a thankless task local government can be. No matter what you do, there will be people (who’ve never actually got off their arses themselves) waiting to find fault.

It was the same back in the day with the county-wide Star Trek club, the snake club and the astro club. Everyone would say “why don’t you…” and never “why don’t we…”. Everything that was done was wrong, but there were never any ideas or suggestions for what might actually be done.

Maybe if the people who run local councils were appointed by lot (in much the same way that people get called up for jury service) then those finding fault would have some understanding of that with which they are finding fault.

And I found out that the actress who played Private Godfrey’s sister in Dad’s Army was in real life the wife of him who played Captain Mainwaring. One lives and learns.

 

I Munzed and Wordled from “hurts” through “scale”, “sappy” and “savvy” to get “sandy” on the fifth attempt.

Steve was doing the Guess The Lyrics competition on the radio as I pootled. “This is a song to all of my friends, they take the challenge to their hearts”. No? – I had no idea either. It was “New Song” by Howard Jones.

 

I drove round to Dog Club and got set up. “er indoors ^TM” followed with the dogs. Dog Club went rather well; we had quite a few new dogs along. The new dogs were a bit overwhelmed at first, but within a few minutes they were all running and playing and scoffing treats with all the other dogs. And the new dogs’ humans were also a bit overwhelmed at first, but within a few minutes were chatting with everyone else and enjoying the fun. We had (I think) twenty-three dogs along today, and we all had a great time.

If only more dog owners could see how dogs can get on so well.

 

All too soon it was time to go. “er indoors ^TM” was off to craft club. The dogs would just keep looking for her, so I took them home when she went.

As we drove Steve was on the radio doing the Mystery Year competition. When did Freddie Laker get knighted? When was Mr. Blue Sky in the charts? The embarrassingly named Cloppa Castle was on the telly… and there was some cricket match in which someone or other took eight wickets. Or “winnets” as Steve said. He got away with it but I did chuckle… It was 1978.

 

Once home the dogs soon settled. I made myself a cuppa and made some AI photos for the Dog Club’s Facebook page. Then I got busy… I did the dogs’ flea treatments then ran out the lawnmower… and after about five seconds turned it off to harvest more dog dung. I’d cleared it all before I started, but between getting shot of all the turds and getting the lawnmower out, one of them had added a late offering.

With the lawn eventually mowed I had a preliminary zoom round with the garden vacuum. And then I ran out the pond hose and cleaned out the pond’s pressure filter. You really can see how the thing flows faster after a cleaning.

I had a look at the cordyline (it’s a plant). It don’t look too clever. I don’t think it’s dead though. Not yet anyway. I’ll see what a dose of plant food does for it. I had some in the shed and doshed some out to the potted plants which had survived the winter. There were also some weeds in the plant pots. They got chucked… though to be honest it was tricky to see what was wanted plant and what was unwanted weed.

I had a look at the fence panels. They look shabby. I keep talking about replacing them. Mind you when I say “replacing them” I really mean “paying someone to replace them for me”. The actual replacing isn’t an issue; it’s the having the new ones delivered and getting shot of the old ones that would be arse-ache.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home from craft club and sorted us a cuppa and a hot cross bun. We had some Morrison’s hot cross buns… they aren’t very nice.

We then took the dogs out plant shopping. We went to Bybrook Barn where maybe one person in twenty realised that they were in a busy garden centre. Pretty much everyone was blundering about totally oblivious to everyone else around them. We got some bedding plants, but no polyanthus. Apparently they are now out of season. We went on to Dobbies where we got some polyanthus in the “reduced” section. And some little goldfish for the small pond.

 

“My Boy ^TM” and ”Auntie Chel ^TM” called round. They’d been tidying up their garden and had some statues that were surplus to requirement. Did I want them? Yes please!!!  We got them into the garden; I shall do something with them tomorrow.

 

And then, with the Infinity Table not having been put away since last night, “er indoors ^TM” and I had another go at various maps of “Ticket to Ride” which I eventually won (four games to three).

If any of my loyal readers fancy an evening of drinking beer whilst laying virtual train tracks round various maps of Europe, America and Asia, you’d be very welcome…

3 April 2026 (Friday) - Good Friday

I made the mistake of going to the loo in the small hours and came back to bed to find I’d got an eight-inch wide strip down the edge of the bed in which I could try to get back to sleep. I tried to push the dogs over, but there’s some strange feature of canine physiology by which a dog’s weight increases ten-fold when they are asleep.

I managed to get back to sleep, and despite the noise of the bin men I stayed in my pit until after eight o’clock.

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. What with it being Good Friday someone had gone onto one of the Lego-related Facebook pages and put up a picture of a Lego model of Jesus on the cross. That stirred up no end of arguments.

And there was (yet another) argument about… well to be honest on the one hand were “women born in the wrong bodies” and on the other hand were “men in dresses” depending on your personal perspective. Whatever you call a trans woman, should that person be allowed into women-only spaces? Various arguments were ranted on both sides, but as is always the way in life the ultimate decision will be made by the one who will make the effort to shout the loudest.

And on those lines a local councillor was on one of the local Facebook pages making a personal attack on another local councillor.

I had an email. PayPal have given Avast Software fifty quid for a lap-top tune-up package which I neither needed nor wanted. I asked for a refund… eventually. The PayPal website wasn’t the easiest to navigate through.

I also went through the Avast site where a bot offered to refund sixteen quid. I told it to get knotted and it offered twenty-seven quid. I told it to get knotted again and it eventually refunded the lot but would seem to have cancelled my antivirus package too.

 

I Munzed. The Munzee Clan War started today. I Wordled from “money” through “saner” and “sends” to “singe”, and we got ready for the off.

“er indoors ^TM” had reports of issues with her geocaches in Hamstreet woods, so we took the dogs there for a look-see. The dogs were mostly well behaved but there were a few issues with rolling in fox poo and eating horse poo. Geocaching-wise we sorted the issues, but as usual there wasn’t anything wrong that couldn’t have been put right in less time than it took to whinge that there was an issue.

We came home via the garden centre at Hamstreet. They didn’t have any polyanthuses. What was that all about?

 

We had a cuppa. “er indoors ^TM” wrote up the geo-admin stuff from the morning’s excursion. I wrote up some CPD, and looked at various options for antivirus software. Like with everything there were as many options as there were people to suggest them. But one bit of advice was useful – don’t go with the “auto-renew” option. Let the company prompt you at renewal time; threaten to go to a competitor and you’ll get a bargain. Like I’m hoping to get by not continuing with my current antivirus supplier.

We did “FEED THE FISH” and when I topped up the fish food tub I saw that I’d emptied our back-up supply. Good old Amazon will send some more in the week. Hopefully.

 

We got the infinity Table out and spent the evening playing “Ticket To Ride”. There was a minor hiatus for kebabs and dog dinner. At half past eleven the score was declared. Ten-nil. I lost…

 

“Good Friday”… it wasn’t bad really. Back in the day Good Friday would have been one big booze-up at the Chambers beer festival in Folkestone. Those were good days, but I would (quite literally) piss over a hundred quid up the wall every time. After a few years of doing this, Good Friday became a five mile geocaching walk with over forty friends followed by a few hours in the pub.

COVID and lockdowns put paid to the social side of geocaching (it is slowly recovering)

More recently Good Friday has been either working, a hike or gardening. The plan for today had been a hike, but with friends being unwell we postponed that plan. And it was too cold for gardening…  I might do some tomorrow.

2 April 2026 (Thursday) - Doing Overtime

Another bad night. I got to sleep quickly, but “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs came up shortly after. Treacle settled; sadly Morgan and Bailey decided to have a pitched battle. And once they finally shut up and I nodded off again I found myself in a nightmare in which I was trying to force-feed ham sandwiches to the American ambassador.

I got up at five o’clock, made toast, and once I’d watched an episode of “Derek” I sparked up my lap-top and peered into the Internet. The Artemis II took off last night and is now on its way. And not a lot had happened on Facebook overnight, which was probably for the best. I posted out birthday wishes to the two Facebook friends having birthdays and got ready for work.

 

I set off up the motorway only to find the "Operation Brock" stupidity was back. Here's a thought. Last year our Reform UK councillor said that Reform UK would be putting a stop to Operation Brock. I wrote to him and in his reply he was crystal clear that Operation Brock was a thing of the past. Hasn't happened, has it? And they put the council tax up when they said they wouldn't, but that's another rant.

As I drove (at about forty-three miles per hour) the pundits on the radio were talking about the Artemis II launch. For all that I'm excited about it, the rocket went up, and that was it (for the moment). It could be announced in about fifteen seconds; they did go on about it at length without actually saying anything.

I think there was some talk about how the world is lunging into economic disaster; the so-called expert brought on to talk about it couldn't speak very good English and so the five minute interview was frankly incomprehensible. 

And there was talk about ex-Prince Andrew who's still in trouble and is going to be interviewed by the rozzers again.

 

I stopped off in Sainsburys for a sandwich. I got a couple of bottles of beer whilst I was at it. The self-service till said I had to be age-checked. You'd think the machine's camera which films the entire process would be able to tell I was old enough to buy a bottle of beer, wouldn't you? The moody old bat who had to get off her arse and come over to press the "he's old enough" button made no secret of her displeasure at having to get off of her arse. I've mentioned her before. She really shouldn't work in any customer-facing role. She clearly hates the general public and never speaks, though occasionally there's a bad-tempered grunt *if* she's in a particularly good mood.

I went on to work. Today was an extra day - I'd offered to help out with the new IT system.  In order to test the thing we need to have created various dummy patients on the system. Personally I use "KIRK - Captain" as my test patient. Others use "FROG - Kermit The" or "POTTER - Harry"... Occasionally someone will use "PATIENT – Test”, but I don’t hold with such normality There's probably something that a good psychologist might make of this.

 

For all that I whinge about Operation Brock, my journey home today was easier than yesterday’s. Yesterday I had to emergency stop to avoid the cars reversing (without looking) out of farm tracks, the cars coming head-on at me on the wrong side of the A262, and the cyclists randomly blundering all over the A28. Today I just set the cruise control and kept going in a (more or less) straight line.

 

One home I gathered up the dogs and took them down to Orlestone where we had a good walk. We didn’t roll in anything, or wallow in anything. We did find a dead squirrel, but it was that rank that no one wanted to carry it.

And with walk walked we came back home where we did “FEED THE FISH”. I harvested another bumper crop of dog dung, and had a fight with Microsoft Copilot. I asked it to make a picture of Captain Kirk, Kermit the Frog and Harry Potter sitting in a hospital waiting room. It refused because that would be a breach of copyright. So I asked it to make a picture of a man in a Star Trek uniform, a frog and a boy with glasses sitting in a hospital waiting room and it produced the picture above. Go figure.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “The Hunt: Prey vs Predator” which has taken a novel twist. For all that it is effectively a game of chase, there’s only one in the chasing team capable of speeds in advance of a brisk walk.

I’ve got a day off tomorrow (it’s a Bank Holiday). I’m not liking working these extra days…

1 April 2026 (Wednesday) - Early Shift

I was sleeping like a log when my phone went absolutely mental in the small hours with no end of notifications despite its internet connections being switched off. Just as I was nodding off again so “er indoors ^TM” took Treacle for a “quiet” tiddle. I wasn’t getting back to sleep after that.

I got up, made toast and had watched an episode of “Derek” before having a look at the Internet. Nothing much had changed overnight. I had some emails… people had been out in Kings Wood looking for my geocaches. I’d replaced a missing one a couple of weeks ago – these people had found the original.

There wasn’t much else happening on-line at half past five this morning so I got ready for work and set off.

 

I drove west-wards through the -hursts and the -dens. It was rather dark and rather foggy this morning. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the war in the Middle East which Donald Trump now claims will be over in a couple of weeks. That bloke says a lot of things… sadly much of which turns out not to be the truth.  Is he bending the truth to suit his agenda? Is he deliberately lying? I realised that my experience of the bloke is purely that which I see of him in the news, but he reminds me of the more feeble-minded cub scouts with which I dealt with as a scout leader many years ago. The rather simple children would just spout the first things that came into their heads. It can be rather endearing in an immature eight year old, but it is rather worrying in a world leader.

I suppose (if nothing else) it is yet another example of the ultimate futility of democracy.

There was also talk about the Artemis II which is supposedly going up later. I hope it does. There was someone on the radio from the Open University being interviewed on the radio this morning who echoed what I said yesterday; the Americans are running scared that the Chinese will get to the Moon first (this time).

 

I stopped off at Tesco where I got a sandwich and filled the self-service machine with all the change from Saturday’s Dog Club. The staff didn’t care today, but the old biddy in the queue behind me wasn’t happy about it. She was giving a running commentary to anyone who would listen about how much change I was putting in the machine and how long she’d been waiting to use the machine herself. For no reason that I could work out it was (apparently) vital that she had to use the machine I was using; the other seven just weren’t good enough for her.

 

I got to work and had a very busy day. I’ve mentioned before that I wouldn’t recommend working anywhere that regularly has “Red Alert” declared. Unlike Captain Kirk’s our Red Alerts don’t involve coming under phaser fire from irate Klingons, but I’d still rather not have them.

I was glad when it was home time. And being on the early meant I got home much earlier than usual.

 

I had a vague idea of taking the dogs to the woods, bit once we’d done “FEED THE FISH” they all went back to sleep, so I didn’t bother.

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up Katsu chicken which we scoffed whilst watching “The Hunt: Prey vs Predator”. It’s a rather good show not entirely unlike the wide games I used to play with my mates in the sand quarry at Fairlight with my mates fifty years ago. And the kit they wear puts me in mind of the seventies sci-fi show “Logan’s Run”.

 

I’d like to stay up to watch the Artemis II launch, but I’m falling asleep and it don’t go up till nearly half past eleven…

31 March 2026 (Tuesday) - Artificial Intelligence

I was up early as I always am when there’s an alarm set. I turned the telly on as I made toast. I always do that  because for some odd reason the SkyQ box takes an age to boot up in the mornings. As I fiddled in the kitchen so the thing eventually came on and was playing a teleshopping advert for a cordless pressure washer. I’ve got the exact same thing in the shed; the advert on telly was misleading (to say the least). I suppose I should really complain to the advertising standards people…

As I scoffed toast I watched an episode of “Derek” and then had my little look at the Internet. It was still there. American blood bankers were posting to the work-related Facebook pages asking social media questions that are common knowledge to anyone who has worked for maybe half an hour in a UK blood bank… I’m sure there must be some competent American blood bankers but they are clearly making a point of not sharing their wisdom with their trainees.

And another friend was posting a six-year anniversary of his leaving a toxic workplace. I worked in one of those… you don’t really realise just how bad a workplace is until you go somewhere else.

 

I Munzed, and got ready for work… in a summer shirt. Now the clocks have gone forward the winter shirts are back in the cupboard and the summer shirts have come out. I’m told that most people don’t have summer and winter shirts. Most people don’t go hunting for Tupperware under rocks, have Star Trek tattoos and more dogs than sense so I’m again in the minority.

 

As I joined the motorway I narrowly avoided being run off the road by a lorry of the Napolitrans company. As I've said before it is a bit daft to drive like an idiot when you've got your company's name emblazoned over what you are driving. I would complain to their head office, but I doubt they'd take any notice.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the Artemis mission to the Moon which is supposedly blasting off tomorrow. It was mentioned that this should be a big thing for schools as the astronauts who will be on the first manned mission to Mars will currently be in those schools.

Will they?

I'd like to think so, but... I can remember getting very excited when the very same thing was said during the Apollo missions of the early seventies when I was at school. That sadly came to nothing, didn't it.  I can remember a few years after the Apollos when I was at the secondary school's astronomy club. Someone asked the physics teacher when he thought the first landing on Mars would be. The fellow was spot on with his reply. He said it would be when the Americans got worried that the Russians or Chinese might get there first. This was in the late seventies, and the teacher said (and was probably right) that the technology to get to Mars existed back then, but the financing didn't.

 

I stopped off in Sainsburys for some supplies for the weekend and a sandwich. In a novel break with tradition they'd opened one of the tills operated by a member of their staff. I smiled at the nice lady on the till. She didn't smile back; her face might have cracked if she had done so. Oh, she was miserable.

 

I went on to work and did my bit, and came home again. Once home I asked Microsoft Copilot to do something. “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” says that the A.I. knows too much about me and I should be careful what I tell it. So I asked it to make a caricature of me based on everything it knows about me and it came up with the photo above on the left. When I asked it how and why it had come up this picture it told me “I based the caricature on everything I’ve learned about your creative preferences and interests. You’ve shown a clear love for cartoon and caricature art styles, bright, happy moods, and playful, whimsical depictions of everyday life—especially when they involve pets, nature, or humorous takes on technology.

So, I imagined you surrounded by the things that spark your curiosity and joy: fantasy books, gaming dice, pop culture icons, and a touch of tech humor. The scene blends fantasy and sci‑fi elements with a cozy, creative workspace vibe—reflecting your mix of imagination, humor, and intellect.”.

 

Well… I like sci-fi and fantasy… but I’m not massively impressed with the Discworld books. I honestly think “Lord of the Rings” is one of the most tedious books I’ve ever read, and I’d never heard of “The Wheel Of Time”.

I’ve no real interest in films; most play for too long.

Star Wars is (at best) over-rated.

I’ve not played any dice games for over twenty years.

I’m a dog person, not a cat person.

I’ve absolutely no interest in collecting Bobbleheads.

And the person in the picture looks nothing like me…

 

I suggested it might try again. It had a go but stopped and told me “It looks like the image request was blocked because the system interpreted it as potentially involving copyrighted material. That can happen sometimes even when the request is totally innocent — it’s more of a protective misfire than anything you did wrong.

Here’s the good news: we can absolutely try again, and I can help you phrase it in a way that avoids triggering that filter.

If you’d like, you can simply say something like:

“Create a whimsical cartoon caricature of me based on my preferences.” “

 

So I asked it to “Create a whimsical cartoon caricature of me based on my preferences”.

 

This time it came up with the one on the right. It still looks nothing like me, but there’s a dog in there. And I suppose fox poo features in my life…

When I asked it what prompted it to come up with that picture it replied “the caricature wasn’t meant to be a literal likeness of your face or body. I don’t actually know what you look like, so I built the image around your personality and preferences instead.

Here’s what guided it:

• You enjoy whimsical, cartoonish art, so the style leaned playful and exaggerated.
• You like forest and nature settings, so I placed the scene outdoors with woodland creatures.
• You have a fondness for humorous, pet‑centric imagery, so the dogs and fox joined in.
• You appreciate creative, geeky touches — hence the dice, laptop stickers, and “NERD HQ” sign.

It’s more of a visual caricature of your vibe than your appearance — a portrait of your interests and energy rather than your face.”

 

I don’t think A.I. is going to take over the world just yet…

30 March 2026 (Monday) - A Day Off

This “clocks going forward” nonsense means I sleep a little longer than I might usually. Last night was a rather good one – I stayed asleep until nearly eight o’clock.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. There was a squabble about why society shouldn’t give anything at all to anyone who needed help… Some people can be very right-wing and very anti-commie-pinko social mindedness… right up to the point where they actually need some help themselves. I blame Margaret Thatcher who taught so many people that a house was a financial investment rather than something to live in.

And I found out tha the actor who played Young Mr Grace in “Are You Being Served” and Mr Blewitt in “Dad’s Army” came from my home town of Hastings. I never knew that.

I Munzed, and got ready for the off.

 

I took the dogs up to Kings Wood. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the Great Strike of 1926. It was rather interesting… so much of history would seem to have been interesting. Looking back the history teacher we had at school would seem to have done his level best to have killed the subject stone dead. His style of teaching was to read out the text book, and we would write down what he said. He could have made it interesting, but sadly didn’t seem to want to do so.

We got to the woods and waked our usual route. With my hiking boots on (rather than wellies) we went faster than usual with Map My Walk saying I was doing each mile in less than twenty minutes rather than in about twenty-two (or so) minutes. Not that it was a race.

As we walked we met three other groups and said hello nicely. We didn’t roll in anything, didn’t wallow in any swamps, and didn’t see off any rabbits or squirrels. In many ways an ideal (if dull) walk.

As we came home I saw that the petrol station up the road had put up the price of petrol by two pence per litre whilst we’d been out.

 

We came home for a cuppa, I put a load of shirts and undercrackers into the washing machine then I went into the garden. I gathered a bumper crop of dog turds. How can three small dogs generate so much dung?  I strimmed the lawn’s edges and mowed the lawn. It’s a shame our lawn looks such a state, but my attempts to re-seed to with bird seed over the winter have worked to an extent. I might try that some more next winter; the trouble is that poking each seed in one by one takes an age. I ran out the hose (now that the hose pipe ban is over!) and topped up both ponds and watered the plants which are coming back. The pansies I planted a few weeks ago have come to nothing, but last year’s polyanthus are blooming. I might well get some more of those. Pansies and violas are pretty but they don’t seem to last.

And then I packed up and came in. I was worn out, and it was rather cold outside.

 

I Wordled from “about” via “overt” and “onset” (even though I knew the “o” wasn’t at the start!) to get it right with “comet”. I wrote up some CPD. I tumble-dried the undercrackers, then set about the ironing.

As I ironed I watched episodes of “Four In A Bed” in which everyone was matey and friends right up until the last episode when the fussiest one was shown to be running far and away the poorest B&B.

I do far more on a day off than I ever do at work.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza then went bowling.  I sparked up Netflix and put on a film I’ve been meaning to watch for ages. Sadly “Borderlands” was a load of tripe, and I turned it off half-way through.

I’m going to work tomorrow – for a bit of a rest.

 

Oh – and today would have been my parents’ sixty-ninth wedding anniversary

29 March 2026 (Sunday) - Spring Forward

What with daylight saving it was nearly two o’clock before I went to bed last night. Again I popped to the loo while it was still dark, and again Morgan was on the floor wanting to get onto the bed but frightened of Treacle who was glaring at him. I lifted him up, and both dogs settled.

I got up shortly after nine o’clock which wasn’t really quite the lie-in it might have been. Yesterday that would have been eight o’clock.

 

I made toast and wondered what the Alexa was playing. We usually ask it to play Gold Radio which is quite entertaining. This morning it had decided to play EKR Gold which is some obscure European station.

As the radio played some rather grim tripe I rummaged round the Internet. It was much the same as ever. Had no one *really* been out and done anything yesterday? I’m nosey; I want to see what other people have been up to.

I sent out birthday wishes and had a look at my emails, Some new geocaches in Willesborough. They will make a walk for another day. And one in Hastings… Yesterday I whinged about the ones we found being far more tricky than the instructions would have had us believe. Another such went out in Hastings today. 

To find it you have to go to a given location and using a special torch look for a message written in paint that only becomes visible when you shine ultra-violet light on it. This message gives you another location to go to. You go there and use your phone to scan for a Bluetooth beacon. You then rummage in the technical data it gives you to get some information. You then do some sums with these numbers to get the final location that you are looking for. And this is rated difficulty two (out of five). There’s film pots stuck under rocks that have been rated more tricky.

I Munzed, and Wordled. “Rated” gave me nothing at all. “Clung” did a bit better, and “chuff” got me over half-way there, and I got it with “chump” on the fourth attempt.

 

I set the washing machine going and we took the dogs for a little walk. We’d looked at the map and seen two sets of geocaching Adventure Labs running along the canal near Hamstreet, so we walked along the canal and walked back again. We had one minor episode when some idiot took exception when Morgan growled at his dog. He got rather abusive and seemed to take offence that I’d been taking photos of my dogs… he even came back after the squabble to shout “dickhead” at me (albeit from a safe distance).

After that, Bailey’s rolling in fox poo and Treacle’s going in the canal were something of an anticlimax.

 

We came home where fox poo was washed off. I hung out the laundry on the clothes horse. I had hoped to stick it on the washing line, but the bright morning was becoming very overcast, and with rain forecast I didn’t want to bring laundry in wetter than it had gone out.

We had a cuppa with the last of yesterday’s coffee and walnut cake, then I had a little look at the geo-map. There’s a meet-up planned in early May near Wilmington. A drive out, a little geocaching in the village, a hike up the hill and a picnic with a view… Could be a plan.

 

And then I went into the garden. A few months ago I had a problem with algae in the fish tank. I popped six Ramshorn snails in last Christmas and the problem is gone… I started with six snails; I’ve now got twenty or more. Would they do a similar job in the small outdoor fish pond… I’ve tried every other algae cure. I took some of the weed from the fish tank with some snails on it and dropped it in the little pond. Will that work?

I then had a look at the big pond. The aerating pump was running very slowly so I took it apart, cleaned it all out, put it back together again and got the thing working perfectly. Sadly the screwdriver I used to fix it is now at the bottom of the pond… I need a magnet on a length of string to get it out.

Or a new screwdriver.

 

I came in and sat on the sofa. I read my Kindle app for a bit… then nodded off for an hour or so. I hate that. I lay wide awake in bed for hours on end, and when I am supposed to be awake I’m sparko.

Once awake I marked trainee work for an hour or so. It’s something I can do and it’s only fair on the trainees that they get feedback on their efforts. I can remember when I started trying to complete a specialist portfolio of my own some years ago, and gave up as it was taking about four months for me to get anything marked.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up bangers and mash which we scoffed whilst watching more “Throw Down”. It made me think - how do you do pottery as a hobby? The wheel and kiln and drying stuff is going to take up a *lot* of space.

I wonder if I could clear up the attic room and have a go?