2 October 2026 (Friday) - Off to Cheltenham

It’s Friday, the bin lorry woke me as it crashed up the road at six o’clock. I got up, make toast and had a look at the Internet. Two of my Facebook friends had birthdays today. One with whom I work. One with whom I used to work fifteen or more years ago. I sent them birthday wishes and then rolled my eyes at some nonsensical posting about how I should repent and “Pwaise De Laawd” because only “De Lawwd” could save me. As an ex-Steward of the Methodist Church I know quite a bit more about religious things than many of those posting on Facebook seem to; again what I needed to be saved from was “De Lawwd”’s temper. Back in the day I used to go to bible study club. Every Thursday evening we’d go round to Mervyn’s house and read various bits out of the bible all of which basically said that god loved us all very much, but if we didn’t do what god said, then we’d face eternal punishment. It never fails to amaze me how so many people don’t see the contradiction here.

But my religious days were forty years ago. Been there, done that. I go on social media to be social, and see what my friends are getting up to. It’s such a shame that I just seem to be presented with nonsensical bollox.

I Munzed, and Wordled. Starting with “today” I got it on the fourth go with “usury” as that was the only word I could think of that had the letter “u” but not in the second place.

 

I went upstairs, made loads of noise, and once everyone else was up I got on with the packing. It wasn’t *that* long before we were off on our way.

 

We made good time to Cobham where once tiddled we wandered round the car park. Treacle had been whinging on the way up, and after twenty-five minutes she eventually dumped. As we walked round waiting for that to emerge we did a couple of geocaching adventure labs. Did you know there’s a garden and huge fish pond round the back of Cobham services? No – we didn’t either.

 

From there we drove on the Cheltenham where we found the place we’d booked. We just dumped our stuff into the hallway of our flat and moved on.

Big mistake !!!

 

We wandered down the road thinking we might have a pint. We found “The Swan” which had a rather good beer menu. Irene soon joined us; it was good to catch up. We had another pint. And another. And seeing the place specialised in curries we had a very good bit of dinner.

We then had a little walk through Cheltenham to make sure Irene got home safely then we came back to our base.

 

Perhaps I got off on the wrong foot with the place because we came in to find it was hotter than the summer’s heatwave, and once we finally turned off the heating and forced the windows open, the world’s worst Bavarian Oompah band was leading the Oktoberfest in the ale house next door.

I tried looking round for alternate accommodation, but it was rather late and these days everything is “book on-line” and I needed to speak to someone to ensure we weren’t going to move to somewhere equally crappy, if not crappier (if that was even possible). “er indoors ^TM” insisted that it was too much arse-ache to move to another place; I was all for going home, but the dreadful music from next door eventually stopped.

It’s not quite as hot as it was, but the place is poky… I’ll see if I can find somewhere better tomorrow…

1 October 2026 (Thursday) - How Far?

I woke in the middle of the night, said “White Rabbits, White Rabbits, White Rabbits” and went back to sleep. My mother was adamant that having said that as the first thing you say on the first day of the month brings you luck. Does it? Of course it doesn’t, but these superstitions persist, don’t they?

 

I made toast and rolled my eyes at the tripe and drivel that was on social media this morning. Some religious crackpot was spamming one of the work-related Facebook groups I follow.

And my piss boiled when I read that the local hospital has issued an apology about “avoidable stillbirths”. It has been claimed that eight babies died unnecessarily. Did they? I don’t know. 

It’s the thing at the moment in public bodies to have a duty of candour, which is all very well. No one should cover up mistakes, but publicly flaunting them can be rather counterproductive. No one goes to work in a hospital planning to stuff up someone’ else’s life. When these mistakes happen the ones responsible are up before the professional regulator and that never ends well.

And I’ll make the observation that public opinion is fickle. The same keyboard warriors who were baying for blood this morning were the same ones who were on the same Facebook pages last week grumbling about how there’s not enough staff to run as many hospital services as they’d like. And a few short years ago they were all on the doorstep every Thursday night clapping like demented sealions in praise of hospital workers.

 

I got the leads onto the dogs and we went up to the woods. As we walked we met the nice Forestry England man. The dogs were pleased to see him, and as he fussed them so they got mud up his trousers and Morgan then tiddled on his tyres. And we found an ant hill. A huge one. It must have been about four feet high.

We walked five miles; I was rather tired at the end. Once back at the car I had a little nosey. I’ve joined Forestry England for the free car parking. And to get that I have to display their badge in my car window. I couldn’t see another badge in any of the dozen other cars parked there. Are they all RingGo-ing, or just not paying?

 

We came home. I made myself a cuppa and saw I had an email. Back in January I joined the “You vs The Year 2026” challenge in which I had to walk one thousand and twenty-six kilometres (an odd number?) during the course of the year. I logged my first kilometre on the second of January and completed it today. That was nine months; I wonder if the challenge counter will keep going to the end of the year. I also wonder why the challenge was in kilometres when the challenge website’s mapping app records my walks in miles.

 

I chucked everyone out of our Munzee Guild in readiness for next month’s Guild Games. Back in the day Munzee had a monthly “Clan War”. Now we have “Guild Games” as that is more politically correct (you couldn’t make this up, could you?) I then Munzed, and had a look at Wordle. Starting with “white” was a better start than some I’ve made. “Tiara” was a little bit more helpful, and I got it on the third go with “ritzy” for the simple reason that Karl had mentioned that it was a stupid word.

 

I spent a little while fiddling with the geocaching map and Meowdoku, and fell asleep with Bailey snuggling up to me. I woke after a while and did “FEED THE FISH” to Treacle’s obvious delight.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good chili which we washed down with a bottle of the red stuff, and once that was gone we set about the amaretto. As we scoffed and swilled we watched more “Lego Masters” and then the first episode of the ne series of “Celebrity Traitors”. I say “celebrity”; I knew Romesh Ranganathan and Rob Beckett by name. There was someone off of Eastenders (from years ago),  him off of “Sewing Bee”, and someone I thought was Moxey off of "Auf Weidersehn Pet", but wasn’t. The other twenty could have been absolutely anyone. It was rather entertaining though.

 

The plan was to have done my packing this evening… I’ll do it in the morning, eh?

30 September 2026 (Wednesday) - World Postcard Day

I went to the loo at half past four and noticed all the lights on next door. She always gets up silly-early. I went back to bed where I fought a minor battle with some small dogs to eventually secure a small strip down the side of the bed. I eventually got back to sleep.

I got up, made toast and had a look at the Internet. Someone was claiming that NASA had inadvertently provided incontrovertible proof of the bible’s account of the crucifixion of Jesus… or that is incontrovertible to those who can’t tell the difference between the sun and the moon. It never fails to amaze me how  truly stupid are so keen to show off their stupidity.

And I saw an old colleague had died. Like me, he too fell foul of a management who did the dirty on him. I can’t pretend I was best of mates with him; I’d not seen him in twenty years, but in later life he became a bailiff for a local fishing club, and when checking “My Boy ^TM”’s fishing licence he remembered me and asked after me.

I Munzed. We reached our Munzee Guild monthly target today… I thought some in our team had left it a tad late, but we got there. I Wordled. Starting with “light” which gave me the “i”. “Minor” helped a bit more, and “wiper” got me closer still. “Cider” had me marking time, and I got it with “river” on the last attempt.

As I Wordled so Bailey sat with me on the sofa, and she ate all of her brekkie, which was a result.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. Yesterday I finished my audiobook of “Day of the Triffids”. I’ve now started “The Chrysalids” by the same author. I first read this book at school which (along with many others) our English teacher did his level best to kill stone dead by insisting that we tried to pretend that various parts of the storyline were allegorical of things that they weren’t.

 

We got to the woods where the drizzle eased up, and we walked our usual circuit round the woods. The foragers were out in force, but yet again they were scouring the area within sight of the car park which had already been picked clean. There’s loads of mushrooms and chestnuts to be had deeper in the woods, but few people ever go there.

As we walked the dogs wallowed in puddles and rolled (rather impressively) in fox poo.

We came home for baths.

 

I made us both a cuppa, and after I’d had a fight with the software I wrote up some CPD. When I find anything interesting at work I make a few notes in a draft email, then use those notes for when I write things up properly. However every link I tried to open from the draft email went through some security protocol which was probably a wonder of technology in every way but one. That one being that it didn’t actually open the link. Copying and pasting directly into the browser did though.

I then fought with some geo-puzzles in the Cheltenham area. There weren’t many, and those that there were strained my brain somewhat. So I tried my trick of feeding the puzzle into Microsoft CoPilot, and the right answers came out. Eventually. It was interesting that asking the same question gave two different answers.

I got the ironing board out and set about that which I’ve been washing over the last few days. As I ironed I watched a couple of episodes of “Lost in Space” (the recent Netflix remake, not the original).

 

Pausing only briefly to drop Pogo back with “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” we drove on to Kearsney Abbey where a dozen or so fellow geocachers were meeting up in honour of World Postcard Day. After a little while we realised that the constant dripping on our heads was from the trees above; it had actually stopped raining. So we came out from under the trees, stood in the open and began to dry out.

It was rather good to catch up with like-minded friends.

On the way home we stopped off to pick up a geocache in Alkham which qualified for one of the new geocaching Treasures, and seeing we were the first people to have found that one in over a year it was a resuscitation too, which gave us bragging rights.

 

We came home. Having been out for the evening we got KFC for dinner, and we scoffed it whilst watching last night’s episode of “Bake Off”. The irritating one got the heave-ho, which was a result as far as I’m concerned. 

29 September 2026 (Tuesday) - Before the Late Shift

This morning’s ranting on Facebook reached new heights of pathetic. Apparently it is a “thing” amongst those who go on cruises to hide plastic ducks on the cruise ships (a bit like painted rocks). Some of the cruise operators want to put a stop to it. You wouldn’t believe the arguments about plastic ducks…

There was then an interesting posting from the parent of an autistic child. One of the normal people had been trying to video a steam train (yes, I know…) and had the arse because the child had been constantly screaming his head off. The child wasn’t upset or frightened. Apparently he always screams constantly because he likes doing so “because he is autistic”. The parent wondered why the world is so unaccepting of a child which constantly screams because it wants to, and felt he and his child were being bullied by a world which doesn’t want to hear a child constantly screaming…

I was reminded of a friend of “My Boy ^TM” from thirty years ago who was the world’s worst brat and would get away with murder at home “because he had ADHD”. The first time he visited I told him firmly “we don’t have any of your bollox here”. The child looked rather embarrassed, apologised for no reason, and then was as good as gold whenever he visited.

I saw I had a comment on a blog entry from a year ago. Some spammer wanted me to advertise gym equipment. I reported it for the scam that it was.

I Munzed, and Wordled starting with “thing” which gave me nothing. I started again with “ducks” which was a bit better. I got it on the third go with “scuba” which I didn’t think was actually a word.

We did dog breakfast which can be rather fraught at times. Bailey is all too quick to eat fox turds when we are out, but is really fussy over eating proper dog food.

 

I took the dogs out. We went to Orlestone via Shodohurst to avoid the road works. In the past I’ve whinged about the litter along Church Lane. This morning someone was out clearing it. In full hi-vis clothing he must have been either from the council or on community service (we see community service going on in Kings Wood from time to time).

We got to the woods and immediately put the wind up the normal people. Or (to be precise) Pogo did. Much as I love him, he can’t go back to his mummy quickly enough as far as I’m concerned. He’s a lovely dog but when we are out he sometimes feels the need to defend the pack, and he does that by screaming at anyone he considers to be a threat. And there is absolutely no reason or method in his threat detection system.

We put the wind up several normal people today; they were out in force.

As we came up one of the forest tracks we met a very sweet young couple who oh-so-politely asked where the track went to. Personally when I go hiking (which I do quite a bit) I look at a map before I go, take the map with me and check the map as I go to ensure I’m on course. This pair subscribed to the “pot luck” school of navigation and had just blundered off out hoping they wouldn’t get too lost. I suppose they were within a couple of miles of a bus stop and a railway station so things could have been a lot worse for them… it was a shame that they had no idea where the bus stop or railway station were, but I suppose in their world that was just a piddling detail.

 

We came home. I did wonder if we’d need to have a bath, but the dogs were surprisingly clean bearing in mind how wet and muddy the woods had been after the overnight rain. I had a quick Meowdoku then got ready for work.

 

Work was rather troublesome today and it was ten o’clock when I got home…

28 September 2026 (Monday) - Rather Busy

As I scoffed my toast I saw on one of the local Facebook pages that one of the local coffee shops has been bought out, had a refit costing three hundred thousand pounds and re-opened. They clearly aren’t bothered by the coffee shop in Repton going out of business at the weekend. Meanwhile one of the nearby village pubs is launching an incredibly cheap lunchtime menu. With meals starting at a fiver a go, that’s probably the way to stay in business.

Quite a few people were posting photos from various businesses offering price reductions for customers paying in cash. The “Cash is King” brigade was out in force. Personally I see the “Cash is King” brigade as being synonymous with tax dodgers, but what do I know?

And the nation would seem to be facing a hunk shortage with only seven people having signed up for the Mr England competition.

 

I had over a hundred and thirty emails. People had been round Kings Wood yesterday finding the geocaches I’d hidden there. But not finding all of them. One of them had both “Found it” and “Didn’t Find It” logs from yesterday.

I Munzed, and Wordled. Starting with “refit” I then tried “stray” and got it with “trunk” on the third go. Usually we would then go to the woods, but with a dentist appointment at the most awkward time we didn’t. I got the strimmer out instead. I voomed round the garden with that, and followed up with the lawn mower. And with a few minutes spare I then pulled weeds, putting my back out whilst I did. But I carried on regardless.

 

And then it was time for the dentist. I walked down the road and signed myself in to their self-service machine. But then the question – was to be in the upstairs or downstairs waiting room? I went to the counter where there were three surly, miserable and utterly disinterested receptionists all of who pointedly ignored me for as long as they could. I’ve said before I only go to my current dentist as it is very convenient being just down the road. And in all likelihood each of the three surly, miserable and utterly disinterested receptionists will have resigned and be replaced by the next time I am there.

I was told to sit downstairs for the hygienist, and when she was done to go upstairs for the dentist. It wasn’t long before I was in the hygienist’s chair and had her rooting in my gob. The worst part was the pain in my arm; carpal tunnel nonsense didn’t like dentist chairs.

With my gob cleaned I moved to the upstairs waiting room where some idiot (with his arse hanging out of the top of his trousers) was ranting at the world about how it isn’t possible to cook egg and chips in an air fryer. I would bet good money that no one else in the world had ever had to smile politely whilst some idiot (with his arse hanging out of the top of his trousers) ranted about eggs, chips and air fryers. How do I attract these looneys?

I went in to the dentist and he gave my gob a thumbs-up. That was a result.

 

I came home, and took the dogs out. We went to Orlestone. As we walked into the woods so one of the normal people was walking out. He seemed rather scared of Morgan and Bailey, and was absolutely terrified when Treacle and Pogo came bowling round the corner. But once he’d bustled off we walked a couple of miles without seeing anyone else (which was a result).

 

We then drove out to one of the garages where the “er indoors ^TM”-mobile was having its M.O.T. The plan had been to go to Halfords, but they’d blown her out this morning on account of their M.O.T. machine being broken. I didn’t realise there was an M.O.T. machine. One lives and learns.

 

With the “er indoors ^TM”-mobile dropped off we came home again. A cheese and pickle sarnie made for lunch then I went back to the garden. It doesn’t pootle in itself.  I put new liner into the planter I started fixing yesterday, and then put the back onto it. It looks a tad scratty round the base at the back, but you can’t see that.

I filled it with soil. I say “filled”; what I put in will settle in a few days and will need topping up. I trimmed back more of the stuff pouring over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door, I voomed round with a watering can. Hopefully now I’ve trimmed back all the stuff hanging over the fence the potted plants might get some of the rain; they’ve been completely sheltered this last year (and more).

As I trimmed back the overgrowth so I popped it into my garden waste dustbin which I then carried through to the green recycling bin in the front garden… where not-so-nice-next-door’s roses had overgrown the fence so much they were banging against our upstairs window. They got trimmed too.

 

I made us both a cuppa as by then I was all in. As I slurped mine I saw I had an email. In the spring I lent Kanen in Ecuador fifteen quid to help her set up a goat farm. She’s paid back a fiver (not that I want it) so I’ve lent that (and a bit more) to Lucia in the Philippines who’s trying to make a go of farming pigs. What I blew on a couple of drinks and some crisps in the pub yesterday is a big deal to Lucia. She aims to repay me by next April; I don’t want the money back. I shall just lend it to someone else.

I then dozed off.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza and then went bowling. I settled in front of the telly and watched the last episode of “Cranford”. I wonder what I will watch next…

I’ve not stopped today.

27 September 2026 (Sunday) - Bilsington

 

I came back from the loo in the small hours and tripped over a cable that “er indoors ^TM” had left trailing over the floor. Whatever it was came crashing off of her chest of drawers bringing all sorts of clutter with it. Deciding that she could clear it later I went back to bed where I was plagued by vivid dreams in which I’d been seconded to a laboratory which specialised in selling kites to Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiasts.

I’d been asked to work today; I declined the offer and eventually got up about an hour after I would have started.

 

Squabbles abounded on Facebook this morning. As I scoffed my toast one of the “Lads Mags” pages posted a new theory of cosmology which gave an alternate explanation for creation doing away with the big bang. It sounded plausible from what I could understand, but I’ve got several post-graduate qualifications and didn’t really understand it. However several thickos who’d clearly failed the kindergarten entrance exam were pontificating on the matter and loudly dismissing the theories of other who were equally clueless.

And someone else was asking why churches needed to have parking spaces reserved for the disabled. I thought it a valid point (but decided not to comment). Those that disagreed were unable to explain why.

 

I spent an age struggling to glove a geo-puzzle, then Wordled. Starting with “solve” I got it right with “sloop” on the second go. I Munzed, and we got ready for an outing.

We drove out via Shadoxhurst where we paused for geocachical reasons, and then (after a quick DNF at Blilbby as you do) we went on to Bilsington. We wandered round the churchyard getting clues to find a nearby geocache, then walked along the canal to Ruckinge following a geocaching adventure lab series. The ad-lab was rather good; the footpath was a bit awkward to traverse. So once we’d got to the furthest point of our walk we came back over the fields. It was a shame that this took us past the most rancid swamp ever, but the dogs loved it.

Once back at where we started we walked up to the bin to dispose of the dog dung bags and saw the White Horse pub. We deserved a pint. Or two. Late Red and Ruddles best, and the Kicking Goat’s Fresh Berries cider too. Can’t be bad. Mind you, a pint of ale, half a pint of cider, two bags of crisps and two bags of cheddars was fifteen quid. And this was followed by a pint of ale and a bag of crisps for six quid twenty. Am I *really* being mean in thinking this a tad excessive? I know it’s probably about the going rate, but it’s a bit much, isn’t it?

We had hoped to get some of the new geocaching Treasures that came out in the week. There’s seven to be had; we got two. And I took a few photos as we walked (pretty much all were taken on the way back).

 

We came home where we had a serious scrubbing session in the bath. The dogs stank. After an intense wash (with soap!) they weren’t *quite* as rancid as they had been.

We did “FEED THE FISH”, and with that done it wasn’t long before all the dogs were snoring. We had a cuppa and an out-of-date cake.

I then had a pootle in the garden. Yesterday I found some old planks of wood that I could use to bodge the planter the rats had a month or so ago. I sawed them to the right size, and screwed them onto the planter. And then the rain started. I’ll finish that job tomorrow. Possibly.

 

I put some washing and in solved a few more geo-puzzles whilst “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching “Lego Masters Australia” which I found randomly. The Sky-Q box was sold to me on the understanding that it records stuff I want to see. It totally misses all of the Lego Masters and the Bake-Offs, and records all sorts of other tosh with which I have no interest whatsoever.

Maybe I need a new Sky-Q box which lives up to expectations?

26 September 2026 (Saturday) - Games Night

 

I woke in a cold sweat following a nightmare in which a colleague was had set up a business selling yellow things, and was quite insistent that I buy everything and anything that was yellow in colour from her. She was quite forceful...

I got up, made toast and watched an episode of Cranford in which Mr Holbrook croaked. Having the protagonists peg out seems to be a theme in this show.

As I watched telly so I got my phone to do a major update and restart. The thing keeps locking up. Maybe this will help, maybe it won't.

 

I then took a deep breath and set off to work. I'd rather not work on Saturday mornings as I was missing Dog Club. And being part-time I did wonder if having worked twelve out of the last fourteen weekends was a tad excessive, but there it was.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about paid paternity leave. It was never a thing back in the day, and apparently the UK's paid paternity leave is peanuts compared to what the rest of the world gets. But I really can't help but think that if I didn't get it, why should anyone else... which is incredibly selfish of me, isn't it?

This was followed by the Thought for the Day in which some vicar (quite frankly) talked out of his arse.  Today is the European Day of Languages and this vicar was banging on about giving thanks to his god for the variety of languages in the world. He seemed blissfully unaware that according to his bible humans originally all spoke the same language, and that his god smited humanity by giving us all different languages as a punishment for the Tower of Babel debacle. It's there in Genesis chapter 11 verses 1 to nine if you believe that sort of thing. Which a vicar should. So did I once upon a time before I saw the darkness... you've be amazed how few so-called Christians have any idea what is in the bible whilst so may atheists know the thing inside-out.

I turned the radio off and listened to more of my Triffids audiobook instead.

 

I got to work. Sometimes I have the cooked brekkie. I didn't fancy it today, so I went into the works branch of M&S and got a croissant instead. At fifty pence more than the corner shop up the road charges, the thing was smaller and nowhere near as good. Back in the day M&S had a reputation for rather good food. They are living off of past glories; everything I've had from them recently has been something of a disappointment

 

As I scoffed my croissant in the rest room so “er indoors ^TM” sent a text. Steve was doing the "Guess the Lyrics" competition on the radio. "Throw me a line I'm sinking fast. Clutching at Straws Can't make it." No? - Roxy Music - Virginia Plain.

I then went into work and did my bit. I managed to tune in to Radio Ashford and heard the start of Steve's Mystery Year quiz. When was the Sinclair C5 launched? I knew that one.  I can remember watching one nearly going under the front of a bus near Folkestone railway station when we lived near there. That would have put it in the mid-eighties. Add to that "from the very very young to the very very old" and Dogtanian... 1985. I heard my name getting mentioned on the radio saying I was among those with the right answer, but things then got a tad busier so I got on with work. I'd rather not, but there it was.

As I worked I had a bit of a chuckle... Many years ago (about forty) the boss at the time sent a circular round to all of the wards and clinics. On one particular day we'd had six clotting investigations to perform and the boss felt that was a massively excessive and totally unreasonable workload, and told everyone who sent in such blood samples. This morning (just the morning) I had twenty-seven of the things as well as loads of other stuff to do whereas on that day forty years ago the person doing the six clotting investigations did that and that alone, and had all day to do it.

How times have changed.

 

I came home listening to more “Triffids”. Once home I counted up the Dog Club money that “er indoors ^TM” had brought home from this morning’s meeting. I must admit that I was rather loathe to make any changes to how we do the money with Dog Club, but something needs sorting. Some days we get over twenty quid in the pot. Today we had three quid, but with pretty much the usual amount of dogs along.

“er indoors ^TM” went shopping. I made myself some toast. I woke up an hour later, and pootled in the garden.

“er indoors ^TM” returned, and we spent a little while solving geo-puzzles.

 

Steve Sarah and Chris arrived. We sparked up the Infinity table and I came second in “Game of Life” which was frankly amazing and I nearly went bust early on. Glossing over a last place in “Sorry” I then managed a second place in “Ticket to Ride” about which no one was more surprised than me.

I do like our monthly games nights…