19 July 2026 (Sunday) - Early Shift

I woke at four o'clock. The pain in my shoulder had returned with a vengeance. I couldn't get comfortable so I got up, made toast and watched an episode of "Stranger Things", then had a little look at the Internet. It was still there, and there wasn't much of note on there early on a Sunday morning. 

I tried not to disturb anyone as I got dressed, but as I did so “er indoors ^TM” had an attack of cramp and made enough noise to wake the dead. It you are wondering what woke you at quarter to six this morning, that was her.

 

I set off west-wards to work. I tried listening to the radio but the news was depressing. That idiot Donald Trump is pursuing his war in the Middle East for no other reason than that because he can (from what I can see).

And there was talk of the new Prime Minister looking to start drilling for oil in the North Sea (again). What with the state of the Middle East he'd be daft not to.

This was followed by what I can only describe as utter tripe, so I turned off the radio and listened to my Adriam Mole audiobooks. They were far clearer that the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy MP3s I've been listening to. I'll see if I can get better versions of those.

As I drove I was held up by two sets of traffic lights. No road works, just traffic lights. You'd think that whoever was responsible for traffic lights would take them down when there is quite obviously no need for them. I was also held up by a swarm of cyclists on the A262. You'd think they'd take the more scenic lanes, wouldn't you? I certainly used to back in the day when I had a bike.

 

I got to work and had a little chat with the girl who was finishing the night shift. She used to work where I used to work, and listening to her reminiscing made me remember just how unhappy I'd been working in that place for so long. It took me years to realise that a workplace didn't have to be hell on Earth, and that I didn't have to feel physically sick at the thought of going to work.

 

I did what I couldn't avoid and it wasn’t really that long until I was on my way home. But by the time I’d got home and had a little sleep (the very early start had caught up with me) it was too late to do very much.

I played Meowdoku whilst “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of stir-fry which we scoffed whilst watching the final of “The Traitors USA” which turned out to be something of a triumph of deception over decency. Much like life in general really… We followed this with a show in which all the contestants came back together and talked about how the show had gone. The reunion would have been a lot better had it featured the chap who’d hosted the show rather than wheeling on someone new. I couldn’t really concentrate on the reunion show itself… I’m not sure what was the most distracting; the host being cross eyed, the obvious over-acting, the ridiculous hats or the rampant brazen chest-brandishing of the lady contestants.

 

My shoulder still hurts.

18 July 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Games Night

I slept reasonably well. Somehow I’ve managed to pull a muscle in my shoulder and if I don’t get into just the right position it plays up. I managed to get comfortable and slept far better than I did yesterday.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. Some Reform UK councillor was posting videos on Facebook supposedly shaming non-Reform UK councillors who weren’t singing the National Anthem at the most recent council meeting. Sadly all he did was expose what a pathetic attempt the councillors had made at singing the National Anthem. For some reason my Facebook feed often presents me with posts from Reform UK councillors. All but one of them post nothing but personal attacks on their political opponents. The one that doesn’t is my local councillor who does seem to actually do stuff, but he’s now packed up with Reform UK and joined the breakaway Restore UK. But the masses lap it up… You wouldn’t believe the posts of support this lot get for doing nothing other than smearing their opponents.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “slept” through “track”, “dotty”, “month” and “tooth” to get it with “booth” on the last attempt.

Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition.  “I like Angela, Pamela, Sandra and Rita”. That one was easy. “Mambo Number Five” by Lou Bega.

 

We went round to Dog Club. We had a good turn-out with over sixteen dogs along. It was difficult to count as they all kept moving about but there were at least sixteen dogs. Morgan was in something of a “frisky” mood. I wish he would be a tad more moral.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off to craft club. I took the dogs to Tenterden. As we drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. When was the two-pound coin released? 1998. I drove all the way to Tenterden listening to the radio. The signal did far better on the way to Tenterden than it did going less than half the distance to Charing last week.

We got to the steam railway where there was a little geo-meet taking place. It was good to catch up with friends. We chatted for a bit, but the dogs eventually got bored and fractious.

We came home.

 

I made myself a cuppa and sparked up my old lap-top (the one with the CD Rom drive). Once it had booted up (about fifteen minutes) I carried on converting my new Adrian Mole audiobooks to MP3 format. Converting ten CDs took two hours. As I did that I watched the first two episodes of “Stranger Things”. There’s been a new series released (a few months ago) and having forgotten pretty much everything about the show I thought I’d be better off starting again. It was rather good.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home from craft club with raspberries and Belgian buns. Once we’d done “FEED THE FISH” I watered the plants, and then had a little look at the audiobooks… It looks to me as though the CDs has the first, second and fourth book… but not the third. I expect I shall find out.

 

Steve, Sarah and Chris came round, and we had a rather good evening on the Infinity table. “Game of Life”, “Sorry”, “Ticket to Ride”… 

I do like our games nights…

17 July 2026 (Friday) - Bonus Early Shift

“er indoors ^TM” and the dogs came to bed about an hour after me. By the time Bailey had finished licking my head and had settled I was wide awake, and I stayed that way. I gave up trying to sleep and got up at half past four. I made toast and sparked up Netflix.

“Parasyte – The Grey” was probably a decent show when made, but like other Korean shoes (Alice in Borderland, Squid Game…) it seems to have lost a lot in translation. It was a shame that they had pretty much exactly the same monster as the one that appeared in “Stranger Things”.

I won’t be watching the second episode.

 

I had a quick look at the Internet. There was an interesting post on the Facebook page about sightings of large cats in Kent. I'm sure I once saw one in Hawkhurst, and I often wonder if there's one or two in Kings Wood (something put a deer carcass up a tree a few years ago!). Was it one of those that made Morgan act so odd yesterday? Apparently one of the leading lights of the local "spotting large cats" fraternity had been asked to take part in a TV program... The filming has taken place and having signed to agree to appear on the telly the chap wasn't happy. He's had a screening of what will be broadcast and he claims that the TV show wasn't about looking for big cats in Kent. It was about laughing at people with unusual hobbies. The chap claimed that everything that he'd said to the cameras had been taken entirely out of context to make him look silly.

I suppose that at first sight anyone claiming that pumas and panthers run loose in Kent is going to seem to be a nutter... until you actually see one yourself.

I Wordled from “early” to “legal” in three goes, and got ready for work.

 

As I drove up the dual carriageway that once used to be the motorway I couldn't help but notice what a complete waste of time and money that "Operation Brock" nonsense is. There were two lanes supposedly with a fifty miles per hour speed limit with foreign lorries still trying to go at seventy, and the "Operation Brock" bit had maybe two dozen lorries (and two cars) coming down it over the entire fifteen miles.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the film that has been made of the classic book "The Odyssey". Apparently films are now being made with cinemas in mind. It was claimed that making films for the screening apps has all but done for the cinemas with attendances massively down on what they used to be. Back in the day there was only three channels on the telly. My aunts used to "go to the pictures" every Tuesday night regardless of what was being shown. When we lived in Folkestone we used to go on a Monday night. It was cheap, and warmer than our cold flat.

But these days I'm not interested in going to the cinema. I'd rather watch a film in the comfort of my own house, be able to pause or rewind it, and not have to put up with the Great Unwashed burping and farting and fiddling on their phones. I'd rather not go to a cinema and sit through endless adverts and pay more for one film than I'd pay for an entire month of any of the streaming apps.

And there was talk of how Donald Trump is banging on about election fraud in the 2020 Presidential election. The general consensus is that he and his party are going to do incredibly badly in the upcoming mid-term elections and he's getting his lame excuses ready.

 

I got to work and cracked on with the early shift. I'd been asked to do an extra shift today, and bearing in mind the thirty-third Rule of Acquisition (it never hurts to suck up to the boss) I obliged. I'd only have walked round the woods with the dogs and dozed by the pond if I hadn't gone in. I rather missed the walk round the woods, but just lately it's been too hot to do anything much in the garden. 

I did my bit in an air-conditioned laboratory 

 

Doing the early shift was a result. I got out early (dur!). I came home via Sainsburys as I was under orders to bring milk home. I also brought home some bottles of beer, and raspberries and cream too.

I got home… and had a little doze before dinner.

 

Dinner was good. As we scoffed we watched more “The Traitors USA”. I think I’ve finally figured out how that show could be a lot better. The show needs people to be aware of subtle nuances in people’s behaviour. However the contestants in the US version treat it as a popularity contest.

I quite like watching how the so-called celebrities are so quick to parade their stupidity and ignorance.

Is that wrong of me?

16 July 2026 (Thursday) - Something Scary In The Woods

I slept for nearly eight hours last night, but woke feeling like death warmed up. I made toast and peered into the internet. It would seem that “we” lost last night. That is the England football team lost. Personally I’m not fussed, but I’m rather concerned for my many friends, colleagues and acquaintances who are clearly not of a white Caucasian appearance. Many of such friends have told me that whenever the England football team loses an important match then they don’t feel safe for up to a week. Many have been verbally harassed in the street, and some even attacked purely because the England football team lost and the thicker element wanted someone on whom to take out their frustrations.

There wasn’t much else happening on the internet this morning. I Munzed, Wordled from “slept” (via “trace”, “white” and “quote”) to end up with “butte” as it was the only thing that worked when randomly trying the letters I had left. Apparently a butte is an isolated, steep-sided hill with a small, flat top. Formed by severe erosion of a mesa (a larger table-like landform), it is common in the American West. One lives and learns.

Wordle seems good for rather stupid words at the moment.

 

I went upstairs to wake “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs, and once they’d had their brekkie we went up to the woods. As we walked we met one other person – a young lady who looked to be heavily pregnant – several months overdue by the look of her. Call me old-fashioned if you will, but is wandering round the woods on your own at that stage of the pregnancy a sensible thing to do?

 

We had a minor episode as we walked. At about the three-mile point Morgan stopped walking and started growling. As I caught up with him so he went forward oh-so-slowly, staying about six feet from me with his ears back, and grumbling as he went. This carried on for about a hundred yards after which time he seemed to venture away from my side a little more, and after another hundred yards he was back to his old self. The other two didn’t seem at all fazed, and I couldn’t see any reason for him to be scared and defensive.

I wonder what that was all about..

 

We drove home listening to more Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Once home I made us a cuppa and used Microsoft Copilot to “enhance” the photos I’d taken when out on our walk earlier.

I had a pootle in the garden. I swept up the bird seed. A few months ago that seemed to be attracting rats. I’ve not seen any for a while… I cleared dog dung. I pulled weeds from the flower pots. I thought about trimming back the hedge from not-so-nice-next-door, but it was getting a tad too hot so I sat by the pond and alternately read my Kindle and had a doze.

 

I came in and spent a couple of hours watching telly. “Unchosen” was rather good… it was only as I got to the end that I realised that the boss religious crackpot was Christopher Eccleston (of Doctor Who fame). As I watched telly so Treacle was watching me. When telly was done I got up and she ran down the garden, then came back and looked at me clearly waiting for me to say the magic words. Which I did, to her delight. She ran back down the garden squealing in excitement. We did “FEED THE FISH” then I watered the plants, and then sat by the pond for a bit reading more Kindle.

I wrote up some CPD, I ordered another e-book for my Kindle. The e-book cost ninety-nine pence. Is that cheap? Bearing in mind when I was a lad I would regularly buy paperback books out of my pocket money I thought that ninety-nine pence was (relatively) what I used to spend on a book back in the day.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more of “The Traitors US” and whilst guzzling a bottle of plonk. And some amaretto too…

Hic !

15 July 2026 (Wednesday) - Stuff

I woke at half past two to the sound of distant barking. It sounded like Treacle. I got up to see Bailey standing on the edge of the bed looking worried. We hurried downstairs… to be followed by Treacle. I let the dogs out, but whoever had been barking had shut up.

We went back to bed where I slept through till half past seven when I woke with a headache.

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. There was an interesting post on one of the Munzee pages I follow… well not so much interesting as incomprehensible. So many people just type what they have to say and press the send button without re-reading what they’ve typed. If they did, they would see that they are writing gibberish. It would only take two seconds to check what they’ve written. Spell checkers are free.

There was a squabble on one of the local Facebook pages where someone had listed all the visitors she’d had to her house in the last month. A neighbour had been to social services with concerns that she’d had a *lot* of visitors recently and she wanted to be open about who had come to her house. It should be laughable, but some people really have nothing better to do with their time. It’s the sort of thing our nutty neighbour would have done. I wonder whatever happened to him?

And I saw a friend had been over from Australia on a flying visit. Had I known he was going to be within an hour’s drive…

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were dribbling on about… I have no idea what they were dribbling on about. Many years ago I realised just how out of touch I was with current affairs so I make a point of listening to the morning and evening news programs when driving. Sometimes there’s interesting stuff. Sometimes it boils my piss. But usually (like this morning) it is utter tripe that is forgotten by the time I’ve parked my car.

 

We got to the woods and set off on our walk. I tried to photograph the dogs but my phone had frozen up. I eventually forced it to re-start, and as we walked (apart from two people at the car park) we walked for an hour and a half and only saw one other person.

We found a pond though. Treacle had a paddle and a swim, but Morgan and Bailey wouldn’t even go close.

We saw two herds of deer, but they were gone before I got the camera out.

As we came home I listened to more of the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Did you know that John Le Mesurier played the part of the Wise Old Bird? I remember him doing that on the radio all those years ago.

 

Once home I gathered a bumper crop of dog turds from the garden (before Bailey could go eat it), then washed my hands and made us a cuppa. I Munzed, and Wordled. Starting with “sound” I worked my way through “flask” and “aspic” to “pshaw” which (apparently) is a seventeenth century word used to express strong disapproval, contempt, impatience, or disbelief. One lives and learns.

I spent a couple of hours marking trainee’s work. Some of them have recently passed their exam, which was something of a result.

I screwed on the wishing well’s roof. I’d just sat it on previously and the wind had taken it off.

I watched a couple more episode of “Unchosen” in which the righteous turned out to be iniquitous sinners (they usually are).

And then, seeing that Treacle was watching me like a pork (to coin a phrase) I loudly announced that it was time to “FEED THE FISH”. The ceremony of feeding the pond fish really is the highlight of her day. She watches me intently from mid-day onwards, and when I make the announcement that “I’M GOING TO FEED THE FISH” she charges to the pond quite literally squealing with excitement. All that happens is she gets a handful of the dried rice-cereal stuff that the fish have, but to her it really is heaven on earth.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up bangers and mash which we scoffed whilst watching a couple of episodes of “The Traitors USA”. A particularly vindictive character got the heave-ho. There’s something about the American version which is much more personal and rather nastier than the UK version.

 

And the England football team is playing in the semi-final of the world cup this evening. They are playing against the Argentinian team, and I’ve lost count of the amount of memes I’ve seen which hark back to a war which finished over forty years ago…

14 July 2026 (Tuesday) - Late Shift

I had a fairly decent night’s sleep, eventually getting up at seven o’clock. I made toast (as I do) and peered into the internet (as I do). It was still there.

This morning’s squabble was that old chestnut about how do you fill up your garden ponds? There are many who would rather use sulphuric acid than tap water as tap water is supposedly full of chemicals. These people advocate either saving rain water (that comes off of your roof and down the gutters collecting muck as it goes), or using tap water but also adding no end of chemicals to counteract those that they claim are in the tap water. It’s an argument that’s been running for years. Personally I use the water from the tap – it can’t be that bad as I’ve been drinking it for years.

Pond keepers wind me up. So many of them fart around gathering rain water, measuring the levels of no end of chemicals (that they don’t understand) and adding this treatment and that treatment to get the levels of the various chemicals just right… and then once a month they chuck out a quarter of the water and start all over again.

And there was a video on Facebook from one of the head honchos at Kent County Council saying how vital and necessary it was to bring back “Operation Brock”. The video was odd. The chap speaking banged on about how we need “Operation Brock” at peak times, and also said that the numbers of lorries using the channel crossing remain constant all year long. Why not queue up the cars full of tourists that *are* seasonal?

It struck me as rather odd that his lot all stood for election promising to get rid of it, and now they are singing its praises.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “brock” to “steak” in five goes, then took the dogs out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing Robert Jenrick. He winds me up. He appears all over the media finding all sorts of fault with things about which he did absolutely sod all when he was actually in government himself. At one point the interviewer had to remind him that he’d been brought on to the radio to be interviewed and not to make a speech.

 

We went to Orlestone today, and walked half of what we did yesterday, but chased rabbits, and those of us that didn’t roll in fox poo went into a rather muddy swamp.

We came home for a bath, and to report the old mattress than had been fly-tipped in the car park. That mattress annoyed me for two reasons. Firstly someone had clearly made as much effort to drive the thing to the woods as it would have taken to drive to the tip. And secondly because no one else had reported it. I mentioned the thing to another dog walker who told me it had been there several days.

 

We came home where dogs got bathed. Having squealed with the fly-tipped mattress I wrote up some CPD, and carried on with a little project I’ve been doing for a few days. I’m compiling a little list of places where we’ve had (relatively) successful dog walks.

I then had a look on-line for cheap beer. Amazon have stopped knocking it out at a quid a bottle, which is a pain in the glass. I had a quick go at Meowduku, and set off to work.

 

I drove up what once was (and will be again) the motorway listening to The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Marvin the Paranoid Android outwitted a Frogstar Class D Scout Robot, and Zaphod Beeblebrox was fed into the Total Perspective Vortex. For all that the books and the TV shows and the film were good, HHG was always a radio show.

 

As I drove I saw that (as promised) "Operation Brock" was still on. As usual, nothing was being held on the motorway (it rarely is), and there were ten cars in the Brock bit that clearly hadn't read the instructions before driving into the Brock bit.

I set the cruise control at fifty miles per hour (as that is now the speed limit there), and lost count of the amount of foreign lorries that tail-ended me. Loads of them drove about six feet from my rear end before eventually overtaking at what I can only describe as "far too fast". A policeman with whom I used to go to the Open University once told me that the police never attempted to do anything about the crap driving of foreign lorry drivers as they always pretended not to be able to speak English and it was "all too much arse ache". That was thirty years ago - it would seem nothing has changed in the meantime.

 

I went in to Sainsburys to get lunch. As well as a sandwich I got a caramel and apple dipper. It looked nice. Work was work, but the caramel and apple dipper was something of a disappointment. It tasted rather cheap. I won't be getting that again. 

I did my bit, and was rather glad to see the night shift arrive.

 

It was still light as I left work. That won't last for much longer. I drove home listening to more of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and in a novel break with tradition got to park right outside the house.

That will make for an easier trip to the woods in the morning. I can never remember where I park the car. 

 

I’ve moaned a lot today, haven’t I?

13 July 2026 (Monday) - Rather Busy

I slept through till five o’clock this morning which was something of a result. I then made the schoolboy error of going to the loo only to come back to find dogs in what had been my warm space. I eventually folded myself around then and dozed on and off for another hour or so.

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet as I do. It was rather quiet this morning. No one was picking fights over trivia, no one was demanding that their imaginary god could have another person’s imaginary god in a fight. No one was having a birthday…

I had some emails. People had been looking for my geocaches in Kings Wood and elsewhere yesterday. Those who’ve not been playing the game for that long were rather effusive in their written logs. Those who are amongst the country’s top finders weren’t quite so. I’d like to think they didn’t mean to be quite as rude as they appeared to be in what they’d written.

I thought about sending then a snarky message, but thought better of doing so.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the Falklands war of 1982. Apparently the next game that the England football team will play in the ongoing World Cup is against the Argentinian team, and a whole load of bad feeling has been stirred up.

We got to the woods and had a good walk. We didn’t see any normal people, we didn’t go in any swamps.

We replaced two geocaches that had been reported as being missing (as they were). We took a different route to our usual one. Being a warmer day I deliberately took the dogs on a shorter route… it was only about a quarter of a mile shorter according to my mapping app. I would have said a whole mile shorter – shows what I know.

 

I came home and harvested an epic crop of dog dung, cleaned out the fish pond filter, voomed round with the bionic burner, then had a little look at some of my Wherigos. A Wherigo is a special sort of geocache in which you play a little game on your phone (which I write) before being told where to find the actual geocache. Sadly a lot of people use cheat software to rip into the coding of what I’ve written to get the location without playing the game. So I’ve started writing Wherigos containing pictures giving fake locations. These pictures never appear when playing the actual game properly, but do appear when you use the cheat software.

I’ve had several people messaging me saying that they can’t find my Wherigos, and when I ask what co-ordinates they’ve got they give me the fake co-ordinates that I’ve set to catch them out. And then they try to pretend they haven’t been cheating…

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “cheat” to “stout” in four goes, and then sat by the pond reading “The Kraken Wakes”. Or I tried to. I found myself rather engrossed in the antics of the pigeons. Having spent a load of time, effort and money setting up a splash-aerator-ornamental-fish thingy it would seem that the pigeons are using it as a water fountain so that they can get a drink. I’m not complaining though; they do far less damage when they stand and drink from that than when they try to stand on the floating baskets and capsize the lot. Which they also tried to do this afternoon.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza and chips and then went bowling. I cracked on with the ironing whilst watching something on Netflix. “Unchosen” is about a young woman struggling with being a part of a crackpot religious sect.

Being very wrapped up in crackpot religion when younger, that could so easily have been me.