10 July 2026 (Friday) - Early Shift

I woke at four o’clock which with an alarm set was something of a result. I got up and spent an age trying to find something to watch on Netflix. I eventually settled on something called “Master of None” which was rather rubbish really.

I then had a little look t the internet which was rather quiet at half past five this morning. A friend was posting from his second Sicilian flat… He’s just bought another flat in Sicily. Holiday homes are all very well, but personally I’m not keen on the travelling to and fro. I sent out a birthday wish, and with not a lot else happening I got ready for work.

 

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were talking about the Bayeux tapestry which arrived at the British Museum in the small hours and will be in the UK for a year.

For years I thought the Bayeux tapestry and the Hastings Embroidery were the same thing mainly because our teachers at Red Lake Primary School told is that they were. Not that anyone who lives outside of Hastings would ever have heard of either before today. I can remember our teachers at school making such an issue about it/them.

And there was talk about Anne Widdecombe who died overnight. Everyone seems to think she was a wonderful old duck following her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing; no one seems to remember what she stood for. Her voting record in parliament showed she was against gay rights, consistently voted against allowing terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their life, always voted against measures to prevent climate change, and thought the unelected House of Lords was a good thing.

 

I stopped off at the petrol station in Pembury where the stuff was five pence per litre cheaper than it was at home. I saved myself over two quid... which I then blew in Tesco not realising that the berries snack pot was classed as a main meal and not a snack, and consequently wasn't included in the meal deal.

As I queued to find this out, so some idiot woman was holding up the queue by gossiping at anyone who came within shouting distance.

 

Work was work. We had the inspectors in. Perhaps I'm getting old, but the inspector who sat with me this morning looked as though he was about twelve years old. Back in the day the bulk of laboratory inspections were carried out by recently retired lab staff.  

 

Being on an early, home time came early (it does that). I drove home listening to the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy MP3s I downloaded. They were a tad fizzy in places, but something for nothing is always good. I can (vaguely) remember tuning in to them when they were on the radio nearly fifty years ago. I can also remember other things on the radio from back then. The Grumbleweeds (although incredibly dire on the telly) were rather funny on the radio, and Roy Castle used to have a very amusing radio show too. I wonder if I can get copies of those?

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “The Traitors USA”. It was entertaining enough…

9 July 2026 (Thursday) - FTF, Phone Games, Plonk, Too Hot

I woke at five o’clock to the sound of Treacle whimpering. She’d got off the bed and wanted to come back up but clearly couldn’t. I got up to help her… and she jumped straight back onto the bed. Ho hum…

 

As I made toast I noticed my coffee mug was still a tad grubby. A quick look at the dishwasher showed several of the rinsing nozzles were bunged up. “er indoors ^TM” took it to bits and had a full-on fight with it. You wouldn’t believe the amount of muck that came out.

Whilst she clouted the thing I scoffed toast and peered into the Internet as I do. The MP for Faversham was all over Facebook whinging about what a pain in the arse “Operation Brock” has been and will be. She talked a good fight, but seemed to draw a veil over how “Operation Brock” is one of the most obvious and tangible results of Brexit (which she was all in favour of). As I’ve mentioned before, our system of democracy is a stupid one. The masses don’t like foreigners so we vote for firm border controls. And part of firm border controls is taking time to control the borders and the masses don’t like that either. And we have politicians like this one cheering on both policies effectively saying black is white and right is wrong because she doesn’t dare alienate the electorate by telling them what they don’t want to hear.

I Munzed, Wordled and we got ready for the off.

 

On Sunday morning I saw a new geocache had gone live near the canal near Hythe. Someone had looked for it that morning and not found it. On Monday the chap who’d hidden it had updated the given co-ordinates, and on Tuesday he’d posted that he’d had a look and seen it was in place. But with no one having logged a First to Find I had a plan that this might make a little dog walk this morning before it got too hot.

We drove down to Hythe and despite the utterly meaningless hint “Take the path less noticed—look where nature stands guard” we found a tube hanging from some barbed wire about seven feet up. But we were first to find it, which was more than we’d achieved yesterday which was a result.

We carried on along the canal for a little walk. Treacle fell in but was soon hoiked out. And as we came to the bridge across the canal we found a little café. I got us an ice lolly each. There’s no denying that Soleros have shrunk massively since I last had one. Apparently it’s all about reducing the calories and not maximising the profits.

 

We got back to the car just as it was getting seriously hot. Once home, “er indoors ^TM” went off shopping and got herself a haircut. Personally I’ve a set of trimmers which I run over my head every couple of weeks or so, but she pays good money to have her hair looking pretty much the same as it was before she went for the short back and slap.

I spent a few minutes fiddling about on-line and found MP3 versions of the original broadcasts of “The Hitch Hiker’s guide to the Galaxy” which I’ve put on my MP3 stick. “er indoors ^TM” returned and sorted rather good tuna and cheese rolls and we sat in the garden for a bit. Having seen endless adverts for “Matching Story” I thought I’d give it a go. It was nothing like the adverts.

 

I had a little sleep until the dogs went mad. We’d had a delivery. A few days ago I mentioned I was trying to get the Adrian Mole books in audiobook format. I came up with a plan that if I could resurrect my old lap-top I could use the CD drive on that to rip the CDs to my MP3 stick. It was a good plan, thwarted only by eBay. Having bought the complete Adrian Mole collection on audiobook CDs, am I being hopelessly naïve in expecting something billed as “The complete collection” to have all eight books and not just the first three?

The first book was on five CDs… it only took an hour to convert them to MP3 format. I’ll do the next two later, and if any of my loyal readers have any of the last five Adrian Mole books on CDs… (he smiled hopefully).

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of that cheap plonk whilst we watched the latest series of “The Traitors US” in which a couple of dozen supposedly celebrities tried to out-overact each other.

 

I’ve set the dishy loose on the day’s crockery. Hopefully its overhaul of this morning will have sorted it out. We shall see.

8 July 2026 (Wednesday) - The Heatwave Continues

Despite the heat I slept well last night. Settled dogs make such a difference.

I got up and had a look at the potted plants in the garden. Every morning not-so-nice-next-door is out watering her plants, but the soil in my pots was still damp from yesterday so I didn’t give them another drenching. You can over-water… I think I might have don’t for my acers by doing that.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. All the talk on social media this morning was about that odious Nigel Farage who was playing silly beggars. Having been accused of all sorts of financial irregularities, rather than facing a proper investigation he’s resigned as an MP. He says he will stand in a by-election and the public can decide between him and “the establishment”. It’s a rather silly attention-seeking stunt that has blown up in his face as all of the other political parties have announced they aren’t going to stand in any by-election he might set off.

I really can’t understand why anyone would vote for him anyway. It’s nothing to do with his policies; it’s him. He’s never seen in his constituency, and his record as an MEP (back in the day). He was one of the top three most poorly attending MEPs and there were allegations of his diverting money even then. His stock in trade is to stand on the political sidelines and heckle. The last thing he ever wanted was to ever get elected to anything because he would then have to do something.

And there was talk about how many non-native invasive species are now living wild in the UK. I’ve seen scorpions, parakeets, wallabies and catfish all within twenty miles of home, and I think I’ve heard wild boar (and seen their turds) in Kings Wood.

 

I Munzed. I Wordled from “plant” to “demon” in five goes, and we took the dogs out before it got too hot. A couple of days ago a new geocache went live in Denge Wood (near Petham). There was still no find logged on it this morning. Looking at the maps it seemed as though it was a mile into the woods so we’d have shade.

We had a minor snag when the road there was closed, but we eventually got to where we needed to park. We had a good walk out to where the geocache was supposed to be. The hint was “nestled at the bottom of a tree” and with the difficulty set to the easiest rating possible it shouldn’t have been a difficult find.

We arrived to find the leaf litter had been brushed away from pretty much every tree within fifty feet of where the GPS said we needed to be. Someone else had obviously already been there and had a good look round before us.

We searched for twenty minutes before giving up. But having had a decent walk out we had a decent walk back to the car. And I took a few photos whilst we were out too.

 

We got home just as it was getting too hot.  “er indoors ^TM” sorted us iced coffee. I marked a trainee’s essay on the laboratory investigation of haemostatic abnormalities, then spent an afternoon slobbing in the garden. Reading my Kindle, playing Meowdoku, “FEEDING THE FISH”, watering the plants, having a little snooze…

 

We had a rather good dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a film. Despicable Me 4 was rather good…

7 July 2026 (Tuesday) - Too Hot (Again)

Everyone was settled last night. No one fidgeted or wanted to go shouting at seagulls and I slept through until seven o’clock.

I got up, made toast and had my little look at the Internet. It was still there, and was much the same as it ever was. This morning’s squabble was on a Facebook bird watching page where someone wanted people to identify the woodpecker he’d just photographed. The bird in question looked like a goldfinch to me (and a lot of other people too) but the chap who’d posted the photo knew a woodpecker when he saw one, or so he claimed.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods for an early walk. It didn’t seem as warm as yesterday. As we walked there was a buzzard flying low through the trees squawking like a thing possessed. I stood and watched it for a few minutes, and then realised that fifty yards away a herd of deer were also watching it too. The dogs were utterly oblivious to the deer.

We had a minor episode as we came back to the car park. As we walked up the hill I saw the old chap who’d taken a tumble a couple of months ago and who I’d helped up. I was about to explain that Pogo would probably scream at his dog, but he does that. Pogo gave a half-hearted squeak and the old bloke stamped and thrashed at Pogo and shouted at him to f… off. When I asked him if that was necessary; the old bloke got rather aggressive. When he’d finished ranting I reminded him that I’d helped him up a little while ago, and that the next time I see him lying on the ground I would leave him there. It was at that point that he pretended to be deaf, and his rather embarrassed wife tried to hurry him away.

Would I leave him laying on the ground next time? Probably not…

 

We came home. I Munzed, Wordled from “night” to “sling” which I got on the last go. I did a You-Gov survey and then wasted ages looking at audiobooks. Bearing in mind my utter inability to listen to the Adrian Mole diaries on Radio Four Extra at the weekend I had a plan to download them to my MP3 stick and play them in my car that way. Sadly the best I could find was to get them on a CD… CD – my car doesn’t have a CD player, and who has a CD drive on a laptop any more? The best I could find was some “audible” thing which would have me spending money each month. Not a lot of money, but I said that about the Sky TV. By the time I paid for Sky and the internet and Netflix and Paramount it soon added up to over a hundred quid a month.

I eventually got the Kindle app to start reading the Kindle book I’d bought ages ago, but all it would read was the copyright rubbish; not the actual story. I had this idea that I might play it from the BBC Sounds website directly on my phone, and I tried that as I set off to Folkestone, but for some reason the phone won’t play any sounds when in the car. Something to do with the Bluetooth I think?

 

I spent an hour or so running errands for “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and then took her and Pogey home. It was eight degrees cooler in Folkestone compared to Ashford.

I got home and scoffed some malt loaf for lunch as I marked a trainee’s essay on iron metabolism.

 

We did “FEED THE FISH”. If I haven’t made the announcement by about half past three all three dogs follow me around waiting for the announcement. The fish got fed, the dogs had a few scraps of dried rice. Everyone saw that as a result.

I watered the plants, played Meowdoku, and checked the car’s tyre pressures. As I drove home earlier it told me one of the tyres had a low pressure. All seemed OK to me when I checked, but I’d rather have a false alarm than no alarm.

 

We had a rather good dinner (with a chilled bottle of that cheapo plonk) whilst watching another episode of “MacDonald and Dodds”. I’d be rubbish at being a detective. And to think I once seriously considered being a rozzer…

6 July 2026 (Monday) - A House Guest, Too Hot (Again)

Pogo came up for a little sleepover last night… SLEEPover was supposedly the operative word. He was in the garden and shouting at the seagulls at three o’clock. Though to be fair the seagulls do squawk all night long. They’ve got a nest on our chimney; I wish they hadn’t.

I didn’t get back to sleep after that. The CPAP machine had made my nose rather sore and bed space was at a premium.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. Those who’ve never once had a lemon handed to them by life were advocating making lemonade from life’s lemons. I really should stop following the “Twee Memes” pages.

There were those who spent last week advocating covering the surfaces of their garden ponds with lilos who this morning were acting surprised when all the fish died. The more crap that goes on a pond’s surface, the less area there is for oxygen to get in to the water. Which is why my pond has splashy things.

I sent out birthday wishes to one of my ex cub scouts who was thirty-eight today. Thirty-eight !!

I Munzed, Wordled from “shout” to “toddy” in five goes, then took the dogs out earlier than usual.

 

We got to the car park in Kings Wood about an hour or so earlier than usual, and walked our usual route. As the walk wore on it was rather warmer in the sunshine, but most of the walk was in the shade, and with a breeze blowing it wasn’t too bad for the dogs. They seemed to like their outing.

 

We came home; the dogs were all soon asleep. I went round the garden with a bucket and trowel and harvested dog dung, then (once I’d washed my hands) made us both a cuppa. I wrote up some CPD, and spent a little while solving a set of geo-puzzles that went live this morning.

I spent most of the afternoon fiddling about playing Meowduko as it was too hot to do much else. Eventually it was tea time and “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner and went bowling. I sparked up Netflix and started watching a film. “Per Aspera Ad Astra” was a Chinese science fiction film.. or so it claimed. It was tripe. It’s not often that I give up with a film half-way through.

 

I hope Pogo is quieter tonight…

5 July 2026 (Sunday) - FTF, Early Shift, Pond Plants

I woke at three o'clock. Having an alarm set, sleeping till three o'clock was something of a result. I then dozed on and off, and eventually got up at six o'clock. I didn't fancy watching telly this morning so I sparked up my lap-top and tuned in to the local squabbles. There was a lot of consternation about the hose pipe ban. It was claimed that the issue isn't that there's no water (supposedly there's plenty), it was claimed that the issue is that there's insufficient infrastructure to get the water from the reservoirs to the houses. It was also claimed that while you can't use a hose to water your garden, you can use one to wash away the dust in a building site.

Is that true? I don't know, but whatever the issue it is clear that the incessant house-building needs to stop.  

As I read the various rants on the matter so not-so-nice-next-door was making racket as she watered her plants. She always seems to be up and about very early.

 

Originally I was supposed to have been working yesterday, but swapping shifts meant I could get to Dog Club, our walk, and the pub yesterday. It also meant that I had to work this morning, but there it was.

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about how there's moves afoot in the Church of England to turn over a lot of their land to leave it to grow wild to encourage nature and stuff. Or something. There was talk about how tenant farmers might or might not be evicted as part of this scheme, but I wasn't really sure what  they were talking about. Some vicar was wheeled on to explain what was happening, and she alternately whispered and cried, and (quite frankly) wasted ten minutes of air-time during which she was utterly incomprehensible.

I took a diversion on my way to work. A new Wherigo geocache had gone live not far off of Bluebell Hill as I was scoffing my toast. Being first to find a geocache gets bragging rights, but first to find a Wherigo... I've only been first to find one of those twice before.

I got to where I was supposed to be, fiddled about with my phone, and pausing only briefly to fall four feet off of a wall and into the undergrowth I soon had the cache in my hand. First to find. Go me.

 

I drove on to work listening to the morning's church service as I went. As a relapsed Christian I find myself with so many questions about the entire Christian religion. Fairly high up on that list is the question of why is the creator of the universe so insecure that it needs us to be constantly telling it how wonderfully marvellous it is? When I was religious, the whole "praising" element was just part of what happened. We sucked up to god because it was so brilliant and in comparison we were just crap. But does it really need us to be sucking up to it all the time?

 

I got to work and did my bit. And with my bit done I came home. Again I tried to listen to Adrian Mole on Radio Four Extra, and again the signal kept cutting out.

Once home I had a cheese sandwich (woof!) and went into the garden to do some pond maintenance. Some of the plants in the bog filter were looking a tad iffy so I got rid of the dead leaves. And whilst I was at work Matt had sent a present – some pond plants. I was rather grateful for those, and even more grateful to see that he’d sent them in pond pots. They are now in the bog filter. Water mint is good stuff. It grows fast, and smells lovely if you like mint, Which I do.

Whilst I was at it I cleaned out the pond filters and used the mucky water on the plants. They will like that (hopefully). I might need to top up the ponds before too much longer. Apparently I can use the hose pipe for that… That’s just as well because I would anyway. There’s only one person who would see me doing it anyway, and if she squealed me up I’d know who it was. Not that I could do much about it.

 

I played Meowdoku for a bit and dozed a bit. I think I might have overdone it in the sun this afternoon.

“er indoors ^TM” then raised the alarm – flying ants were crawling out of the lawn. Not that I could do much about those either.

 

I’m feeling washed out… and the torn muscle in my bum is starting to play up. It does that most evenings these days…

4 July 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club and Longbeech

I rolled my eyes as I read Facebook this morning. Someone who usually posts twee twaddle to one of the dachshund groups I follow was devastated that her dog had “done for” a neighbour’s chicken. This went completely against her world view of dewey-eyed soppy dogs. What did she expect? Treacle’s a lump and she’s caught (and killed) two rabbits and eaten a live mouse. Bailey is perhaps the smallest dog I’ve ever seen and she has had a squirrel. At the end of the day they are descended from wolves.

I read a post from someone who had the arse that their neighbour was getting work done on his house and wasn’t being asked for his opinion on which company should be given the work I found myself thinking about my ex-neighbour “Nutty Noodle” who once went ballistic at me because I didn't take time off work to supervise a roofer. When I refused to stay home to watch the work being done, he took time off work himself to supervise them, and tried to bill me for his time...

 

I put out a few Munzees. Wordled from “group” to “pizza” in four goes, and strained my brain at Steve’s “Guess the Lyrics” competition which was playing on the radio. “My love has taken a tumble oh but I’m still standing”. No? I had no idea either. According to Google it was “Sweet Little Mystery” by Wet Wet Wet.

 

We went to Dog Club where a good time was had by all… mostly. It was a shame that Morgan had to be put on his lead, but he simply doesn’t like Alsatians.

From Dog Club we drove up to Charing listening to Steve doing the Mystery Year on the radio. We had no idea, and sadly the signal gave out after ten minutes. I was disappointed – I like the Mystery Year competition; it’s a regular feature in my week.

 

We got to the Wagon and Horses. I’d phoned them yesterday and arranged for us to use their car park. We met Karl and Tracey and went for a little walk round the nearby woods. The woods at Longbeech North are a favourite walk of ours; the dogs behave do much better when they walk in an area that they know.

After three miles we were back at the pub’s car park (at opening time). We had a pint and some starters. Olives and bread are good, as is whitebait. And the main course arrived with the second pint. As I’ve said so many times before you really can’t beat a ploughman’s lunch.

And then it all got a tad vague…

There was definitely a third pint, and a double Sipsmith’s with tonic. I’m pretty sure there was a Bombay Saphire with tonic, and I think there was some Japanese gin as well…

I slept most of the way home.

I took a few photos whilst we were out.

 

We arrived home to find it was far hotter than it had been just five miles up the road. I had a little sleep, as did “er indoors ^TM”.

The plan had been to get the Infinity table out, but it was rather late by the time we woke up. Admittedly I’d been on the sauce, but I think I might have caught the sun too…