20 September 2026 (Sunday) - Early Shift

There’s no denying that I scoffed far too much of the Chinese take-away we had last night. It would probably have fed four people, but that didn’t stop me getting stuck in. The stuff didn’t sit well overnight.

I got up at five o’clock and wondered if some toast might settle my innards. It didn’t.

 

I watched another episode of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” on Netflix which was rather interesting. The practicalities of killing someone with an axe probably isn’t something that many have considered, but if you are going to do for someone with an axe you might want to think it through before going bat-shit-psycho.

 

As I drove off to work I tried listening to the radio. Early Sunday morning radio is usually dire, and today's was dire in the extreme.  I caught the end of some utter drivel about the religious convictions of some amateur poets,  and this was followed by a potted biography of some farmer. After ten minutes I gave up and listened to more "All Quiet on the Western Front" in which our hero had ended up in a rather dire field hospital, got better, and got shot right at the end of the war. I’ve got to the end of that audiobook now. I probably won’t listen to it again. The story is depressing enough, and it was read in the most miserable tone of voice. I’m now on “Day of the Triffids” which (so far) is much better.

 

I got to work. Back in the day I would have started a weekend early shift with the cooked breakfast. Back in the day I was three stones heavier. 

I sent the night shift home and made a start on the day's work.  When I first started this job Sunday was for dire emergencies and in-patients only. Today things are different. 

I did my bit; today contending with the E and the Kidd blood groups and was glad when home time came.

 

I came home to an empty house. Following an epic battle with the Hoover “er indoors ^TM” had claimed a victory and had taken the dogs for a walk. However every epic battle has a loser, and the Hoover has gone the way of the hero of "All Quiet on the Western Front".

I rather thought that washing the innards of the Hoover was a mistake, but nil desperandum (as the dead Romans say). The new Hoover arrives is a few days’ time.

I’m just glad it wasn’t me that poggered it.

 

I put a load of washing in to scrub, then fell asleep on the sofa underneath a pile of dogs. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Young Sheldon”.

Today has been dull, and I’m feeling rather worn out… 

19 September 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Litter Picking

I woke far too early, so I got up and turned the telly on. Last night I started watching “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” on Netflix. I’ve watched two episodes so far, and so far it’s not bad.

I hoofed “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs out of bed, and as they pootled I had a look at the Internet as I do. That carpal tunnel Facebook group featured more recipes. Last night I posted on there asking what all the recipes were about, and quite a few people had echoed the sentiment.

Friends were on holiday in Greece and Estonia.

Friends had been to Dover Castle.

Friends had been to dog agility competitions.

Facebook was showing me that people had been doing things; not the usual tripe it comes up with. That was a result.

 

As I fiddled on-line so Steve was on the radio doing the Guess The Lyrics competition. “One of those nights when you feel the world stop turning”. No? E.L.O. – Last Train to London. I got it right away, and was unbearably smug about it.

We got ourselves organised and went round to Repton and Dog Club where we had a rather good morning. I counted sixteen dogs, and all played and chased and had treats and got “fruity”. One of our number returned after a few months away; she’d had a baby. Littlun was cute, and enjoyed watching the antics of the dogs.

 

From Dog Club we headed westwards.  As we drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. V.A.T. was introduced and Sweet sang about the Ballroom Blitz. No? 1973.

The radio signal gave out at Bethersden which was odd. In the past it’s been good for another ten miles out as far as Goudhurst, but it wasn’t having it today.

We got to Frittenden where the eastern part of the Kent geocaching community was helping with the village’s litter picking. Me and “er indoors ^TM” were assigned the local playpark. We started gathering litter and found there wasn’t much. And then a local busybody bustled over and told us that we were wasting our time as he picks the litter every day… and then he started a rant about two black sacks of litter which have been laying by the fence for months. We took the black sacks… and the credit too.

We then wandered the local roads seeing what litter we might find. There wasn’t much, but it was good to wander about doing something useful. This was only my twelfth C.I.T.O (geo-speak for litter picking) event. I could and should do more.

We found our way back to the control point which was outside the local pub where we met up with the other geocachers and had quite a good catch-up… right until the pub opened. It would have been nice to have had a pint there, but everyone had places to be and people to see. And (quite frankly) we could (and did) have had two rounds of rather decent beer at home and change out of what one round of rather mediocre stuff would have cost us in the pub.

 

We came home and had a rather good few hours in the garden. Freshly baked bread with decent stout, and “er indoors ^TM” played with her resin modelling. It got cold perhaps a couple of hours earlier than it might have done, but there it is.

 

“er indoors ^TM” popped down the road to the new Chinese take-away and took away the set meal for two. It was rather good. We scoffed it whilst playing “Ticket To Ride”… I won all three games; That’s completely unheard of.

18 September 2026 (Friday) - Another Day Off

I slept well. I got up just after eight o’clock with a sore hand (as well as the carpal tunnel nonsense) and found a rather large splinter in my thumb. It must have been in there snice I did the gardening yesterday afternoon.

I made toast and had a look at the internet. It was still there. This morning’s squabble was about a video of someone rescuing a cuttlefish stranded on a rock and putting it back into the sea. Some (like me) felt it was a kind thing to do. Others were ranting about the thing being generated by A.I. and were being rather nasty about it… as if there wasn’t enough else to bicker about.

And last night’s episode of Star Trek got quite a lot of hate too.

 

In a novel break with tradition Bailey ate all of her brekkie this morning. And with that scoffed we drove up to the woods. The woods was rather busy today. Horses and cars. Normal people with nervous dogs. Treacle had a wallow in a swamp. And the skin-tight lycra-clad young mothers' running club were there too.

We found an injured little bird, but it hopped off into the undergrowth before I could capture it. I expect a fox had it fairly promptly.

We took a bit of a different route today. I took several turns to try to avoid everyone else, and every turn added to our journey. We’d covered over five miles by the time we got back to the car, and once I’d got some petrol on the way back it was after mid-day before I made our cuppa.

 

I sparked up the lap-top and told the geocaching community about tomorrow’s geo-events. There’s a litter pick in nearby Frittenden tomorrow morning, and a meet-up in a pub in Edenbridge at lunchtime. Back in the day I would have showed up for both.

I Munzed, and Wordled. Starting from “eight” (which didn’t help at all) I started again with “found”. This didn’t help as much as I’d like in that the “o” was in the wrong place. Can you think of a five letter word with “o” anywhere but in the second position? Eventually I came up with “brook” which showed me where the “o” was, but didn’t have the “n” which I knew (from my second go) was in there somewhere. In desperation I tried “sloan” (is that even a word?) and that left “snowy” as the only word I could think of.

Wordle strains my poor brain.

I wrote up some CPD, then had a little pootle in the garden. I cut back more of the overgrowth from not-so-nice-next-door’s trees. It comes to something when after torrential rain my flower pots are bone dry as their bushes are that far over the fence. Then I took the back off of the planter I was having issues with a few days ago.

And then I pulled out some of the plants in the living room fish tank. Earlier in the year I was having issues with how mucky the fish tank was. A combination of live plants and snails have worked wonders, but the plants had gone mad. Whilst I was at it I cleaned out the filter… which seems to have had it. I’ve ordered a new one from Amazon. I had various options for delivery. I could have it delivered tomorrow for free, or I could have it delivered tomorrow for one pound ninety-nine.

I used to work with a chap who really would have paid that one pound ninety-nine.

 

By then my carpal tunnel nonsense was too painful to continue. It’s odd – my arm has got incredibly worse ever since I got told that I’ve got carpal tunnel syndrome. Is that some psychological thing?

I sat on the sofa with Bailey and put the finishing touches to the register sheet I’ve drawn up for Dog Club. Personally I’d rather we didn’t bother, but the paddock owners feel we should have one, and they’ve probably got a point. Take the money for example – last week the cash payments were what we would expect for twelve point seven dogs. And at the end of the last session are we completely sure that everyone is out before the gate gets locked? We once got locked in at Old Wardour Castle… I defy anyone to jump over the fence at Dog Club.

And then I looked at joining some carpal tunnel Facebook groups. I found three, and the one with most members seemed to be little more than a repository for baking recipes all posted by the admin, so my hopes aren’t high. Bearing in mind my previous experience I suspect it will be one big argument, but hope springs eternal.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off out with her mates. I sprked up the telly and watched a film. ”East of Ipswich” was something I can distinctly remember watching some years ago. Written by Michael Palin I can remember it starred Miranda Richardson and it was rather good. I have no idea what I saw all those years ago, but it wasn’t what I watched this evening…

 

17 September 2026 (Thursday) - M.O.T.

I found a position in which I can sleep on my side without the carpal tunnel nonsense kicking off, and I slept till eight o’clock.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do every morning. It was still there, and much the same as ever. One thing on Facebook made me think. Several pages had posts about influencer claiming her holiday had been ruined after paying a Cornish local good money for directions to a secret beach which didn’t exist.

However for all that the world and his wife were queuing up to rip into this idiot, I tried to look a little deeper. All the articles on line said that “Surrey-based content creator Chardonnay Skye, known online as ChardOnTour, had been searching for somewhere to film on Cornwall’s north coast…” so I Googled. All that came up were links to the story on various social media platforms. There was nothing that I could find about “Chardonnay Skye” or “ChardOnTour”. Was it all made-up bollox? Clearly everyone is seeing it and spreading the story without checking anything.

 

It was raining… well, drizzle. We went for our walk anyway. Despite the wet day there were two other cars in the car park at Orlestone, but fortunately the twit who sits in his car giving a running commentary of the world wasn’t there. We went for a little walk, and suddenly there was a commotion. One of the normal people had come out of a path about fifty yards behind us and Morgan and Bailey had gone to shout at him. I whistled and they both came running. Their recall is rather impressive when it works.

I’d told the dogs they weren’t to roll in fox poo. To be fair to them I didn’t say anything about not eating the stuff and so Bailey had a mouthful. And then Morgan had a roll anyway. Treacle didn’t wade into the huge puddle at the top of the woods so I shall be grateful for small mercies.

We came home through Shadoxhurst avoiding the ongoing traffic hold-ups at Magpie Hall Road. I usually forget those, and spend an age sitting at a red light.

 

Once home we had a bath. Fox poo notwithstanding, paws and bellies were grubby. The dogs then had a late brekkie and Bailey ate all of hers; proving the theory that she doesn’t eat when faced with the prospect of going for a walk.

I Munzed, Wordled from “found” to “theta” (stupid word) in five goes, then took the car to Halfords for its MOT.

 

I left the car with the nice people and went for a little walk. I went round all of the garages looking at cars. As I’d driven to the woods earlier so the car’s odometer went over ninety thousand miles. Who’s going to buy a car with that mileage? I will be running this car into the ground, but what will I get when it is time for a replacement? I have one criterion for the next car (and only one); the boot opening must be low enough for the dogs to be able to jump in and out. Sat nav would be nice as would a reversing camera, but they are optional. A low opening boot is a must.

I certainly looked at over a hundred cars. As I looked only one salesman approached me. If I had worn a shirt and tie they would have been all over me. I said as much to the one salesman who spoke to me; he agreed. The chap didn’t actually laugh at what I felt was my priority; he said everyone has what is important to them. But he said that most cars don’t have those low backs any more. From what I saw today he was right. The Skoda dealer had some… the same model as my current car. And the Toyota dealer had two (at twice the price of the Skodas). A trip to Big Motoring World might be in order when the time comes.

As I wandered from one car dealership to another so my watch wobbled and told me that I’d walked four miles going here and there. Four miles just looking at cars – and I’ve no interest in cars(!)

 

I popped into McDonalds for lunch as I was in the area. Back in the day I was always in McDonalds. Back in the day I was three stones heavier. A decent bit of McScran set me back nearly four times the price of a Sainsbury’s meal deal.

 

I collected my car. It had one minor advisory; the light over the number plate needs replacing. That can wait till the car next needs a service. And since I’m a member of the Halfords Motoring Club I got the MOT for free.

This Halfords Motoring Club is something of a result. I joined a few weeks ago when I needed a new car battery. The nice lady said that if I joined there and then (for fifty quid) they would give me sixty quid off of the price of the battery. And then they made all sorts of reductions on the service earlier in the month. What with today’s buckshee MOT, according to my account with them I’ve saved over a hundred and fifty quid so far. I don’t usually give out adverts on here, but you’d be daft not to take up Halfords’ offer.

 

I came home and spent an hour hacking back more of the overgrowth coming over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. I really gave it some welly… part of me felt guilty, but I’ve asked her to sort it and she’s done nothing. And bearing in mind I was standing two feet away from the fence as I pruned, it certainly needed doing.

 

I made us a cuppa and then sat down. I was worn out from today’s exertions. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good curry which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”.

I won’t give any spoilers (maybe just one that I couldn’t resist…) but again it was a really good episode that the fans who are new to the genre will hate…

 

And I’ve been pondering for much of today. Several people I know have (relatively) recently jacked it all in and emigrated (is that the right word?) to Scotland. The chap who took over from me at work when I came home last night told me that he’s working his notice. He’s been offered a job at the labs at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow where he will get five hundred quid a month more than he gets now for doing exactly the same job.

Have I left it too late to go north of the border?

16 September 2026 (Wednesday) - Before The Late Shift

 I slept well again, and “er indoors ^TM” had turned her alarm off too. Bonus.

I made toast and had a look at the internet. One of the sci-fi pages I follow on Facebook had a picture of a compilation of lots of robots from various science fiction films and shows. You wouldn’t believe the squabbling it provoked about whether or not a dalek is or isn’t a robot. And one of the local Facebook pages featured photos of cats crapping on someone’s lawn. Some local idiot was fed up with cat turds and had decided to shame his neighbours. As if a cat would give a shit (figuratively; we know they do literally).

I Munzed, unlocking a Qrate as one does. I Wordled from “turds” through “spank” and “copse” before ending with “wispy” (for the simple reason that it was the only word that I could think of).

 

As I Munzed so “er indoors ^TM” stood over Bailey trying to get her to eat. We’ve realized that when I’m at work she eats her all of brekkie, but when I’m home she doesn’t. She’s too preoccupied with the thought of going out.

Today she ate maybe half of her brekkie before going into the hallway (where the leads are kept) where she quite openly started the queue for walkies.

 

As I drove the dogs down to Orlestone so the pundits on the radio were interviewing Rick Wakeman about the late David Bowie. The claim was made that David Bowie was the first person to ask if there was life on Mars… and this was presented as a serious proposition.

 

We got to Orlestone where there were quite a few cars in the car park. The frankly odd bloke was again sitting in his car shouting a running commentary into his phone. We left him to it. Foragers were foraging, and there were quite a few dogs being walked. A mile into the woods and they were still on their leads. One woman gave us the evil glare as we walked past. People like her boil my piss. If you won’t let your dogs run and you aren’t happy watching other dogs doing what dogs do, why not walk the streets of the town where dogs *will* be on leads.

Winter must be coming – I wore a jumper as we walked for the first time in months.

 

We came home where I showered the fox poo off of Bailey. I wrote up some CPD, and set off to the late shift. As I drove I listened to more of the audiobook of “All Quiet on the Western Front”. I’ve seen the film a few times relatively recently but have not read the book for years. I’d forgotten how profoundly depressing it was. I’m tempted to give up with it.

 

And the day was effectively done by the time I rolled into work at mid day…

15 September 2026 (Tuesday) - A Bit Of Whinging

I slept well… once I got to sleep. What with this carpal tunnel nonsense my arm seriously hurts unless I lay on my back.

I got up earlier than I might have done and watched an episode of “Alley Cats”; Ricky Gervais’s latest thing. It was rather good.

 

The internet was rather quiet at six o’clock this morning so I Munzed, Wordled from “hurts” through “tribe”, “metal” and “leapt” to “dealt”. I got ready for work and set off for work.

 

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were saying that Donald Trump has announced that any possibility of artificial intelligence taking over the world is a hoax. That's nice. We can all sleep safely following this latest pronouncement from the world's most powerful and most feeble-minded simpleton. I really don't understand why the American congress doesn't just give him a colouring-in book to keep him occupied whilst someone who isn't demonstrably senile is found to take command.

Meanwhile one of Vladimir Putin's cronies has paid for Donald Trump's son's wedding... would any other world leader allow that? Quod erat demonstrandum as they used to say in ancient Rome...

 

I went into Sainsburys to get lunch. I thought about taking in cakes to celebrate yesterday's anniversary... but thought better of it. There have been many changes in the workplace over the years; both in the technicalities of what we do and in the culture. And perhaps one of the worst changes is the reduction in people bringing in cakes. For the most part it really is a thing of the past

And I had a message from “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM”. She’d been taking Pogo for a walk when he’d gone rogue and whipped a homeless chap’s lunch. He’s done similar things when I’ve taken him out before. Twice. It’s rather amusing all the time someone else is walking him and all the time he’s having someone else’ lunch.

 

Being on an early shift I got out of work promptly. As time goes by I’m finding the early starts to be getting more like hard work. But I like the early finish. I came home and spent much of the early evening dozing. The constant pain of this carpal tunnel nonsense is rather wearing. As is the constant whistling of the tinnitus.

I really don’t like whinging about it almost as much as I don’t like the ongoing pain and whistling.

There’s talk of a bottle of plonk with dinner later…

14 September 2026 (Monday) - Rostered Day Off

I slept like a log last night. The road trip to the Midlands, Nepalese curry, family party and late shift over a very busy weekend had taken its toll.

 

I made toast and (being back to the usual routine) had a look at the Internet. Someone with whom I went to college many years ago was posting climate change denial propaganda. That winds me up. Climate change is real – you can see it happening. Where there used to be cod in the English Channel there’s now dolphins and tuna. When did we last have enough snow for a sledge? When did we last have a proper summer like we had when I was a lad when every day *wasn’t* ridiculously hot?

And I found out that the world is ending in a couple of months.

One lives and learns.

And (for once) I saw the sort of thing that I have Facebook for. A friend had been to Finland to take part in the Nordic Walking World Championship. That’s what I want to see as I scoff my toast.

I Munzed, Wordled and went to wake “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs. If I have a lie-in she has an alarm set. If I don’t, she doesn’t either.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. Sadly it is now foraging season. For the next few weeks all of the thickets within a quarter of a mile will be heaving with all sorts of people desperately seeking chestnuts and mushrooms and whatever it is that people forage for.  What none of them realise is that by this afternoon everything forage-able would have been foraged, but that won’t stop them. If any of them would walk for more than five minutes they would find an entire forest full of stuff worth having, but hardly anyone seems to forage out of sight of the car park.

If nothing else it gives the dogs something to bark at.

We had a good walk. We did our usual circuit. We didn’t see any deer, but something big was crashing about at the far end of the woods, and we chased a few squirrels.

 

We came home. I made us both a cuppa and we had one of the cakes that “er indoors ^TM” had made, and then I had a look in the garden. There was a load of soil round the bottom of one of the planters and the conifer pot. That mess wasn’t there yesterday. I had hoped the conifer pot had rusted through. I hoped in vain. A rat had chewed its way into the back of the planter. I emptied it all out and tided up. As I did so the back of the planter fell apart. I shall fix that another time.

I put shirts in to wash. I harvested dog turds. And seeing the lawn was long enough to hide the turds I ran round with the lawn mower. And whilst I was at it I hacked back more of the brambles coming over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. As I hacked I saw she’d had a go at the brambles on her side, so that has got to be a result. Hint taken, perhaps?

 

No day off work is complete without ironing. And with ironing done I tried to quietly sneak outside, but it was “that time” and I was being watched like a pork (to coin a phrase). So I made the announcement “I’M GOING TO FEED THE FISH” and the dogs flew to the pond, with Treacle squealing in excitement.

I then carried on solving geo-puzzles and I had a message. The Dog Club squabble seems to be over for now, and the later group have asked if we’d like to hang on later this weekend as they’ve got a photographer coming. It’s a kind thought but to my mind the days of a professional photographer are numbered. Trying to get a dog to pose takes some doing, and I can’t help but think that I get every bit as good a photo off of the camera on my phone as from a fancy camera. I’m not keen on shelling out a tenner (per dog) for photos of my three which I can get buckshee.

 

By late afternoon the undercrackers were washed and dried (never a dull moment!). I put another load of washing in to scrub and “er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza and chips then went bowling.

I settled down and watched the last episode of “Upstairs Downstairs”. What can I watch next?

 

And in closing, today marks forty-five years since I first started work in blood testing. Let’s just say that I’ve been in my current place of work for nine and a half years and they’ve been the happiest nine and a half years of my working life. Being happy in your work is important – for a *very* long time I wasn’t.