15 May 2026 (Friday) - Early Shift

With an alarm set I was wide awake far too early this morning and watching an episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” at five o’clock. Disappointingly the jubblies were flopped out in this morning’s episode. I say “disappointingly” because (for all that I am a fan of jubblies) their being flopped out in any TV series usually means the writers have run out of ideas.

As I watched I listened out for that dog which has come down the street barking at five o’clock every day this week. I was all set to go out and have a word, but this morning either they walked somewhere else, or they walked quietly.

 

I then had a little look at the Internet as I do. This morning I didn’t see a single advert for anything. That was rather odd. There was a petty squabble about some upcoming film in which Supergirl had pierced ears. For some people that really was a matter of the utmost importance.

I got dressed and set off to work.

 

I hobbled out to the car and set off west-wards through the -hursts and the -dens.  As I drove I listened to the pundits on the radio. The mayor of Manchester is looking set to jack in being mayor in favour of being Prime Minister. He's got a sitting MP to stand down for him... and in doing so has illustrated a strange procedural irregularity in our parliamentary system. If an MP jacks it in then there has to be a public election to replace them. However if the Prime Minister jacks it in then there's no public election. This isn't news; this is well established and has been going on for years. It's all a bit odd though. In practice it means that *if* Andy Burnham gets elected as an MP he can then get straight in to the top job pretty much right away. However there is a big "if". Where he's standing had a total Reform UK vote in last week’s council elections. I suspect he's going to fall at the first hurdle.

And there was an interview with the head honcho of the company that makes the Raspberry Pi computers. He was talking about delivery costs and plastic prices in such a way that if it all got too expensive then his company could just make ice cream or dog collars instead. For some people the profession isn't "insurance" or "teaching" or "baker" or "farrier" or "manufacturer". For some people the profession really is "making a profit", and how they make that profit is entirely secondary to what their company actually does. The chap was talking about "bleeding edge technology". I laughed at him for getting the phrase wrong. Surely he meant "leading edge technology". It turned out that I was wrong and he was right. "Bleeding edge technology" is a thing.

One lives and learns.

 

I stopped off at the Pembury Tesco to get a sandwich, and whilst I was at it a bag (or three) of dog treats for tomorrow's Dog Club. As always no one was operating the proper tills. I made a point of checking the self-service tills to make sure I got the meal deal bargain (which I did) but there was a minor hiccup with the dog treats. On the shelf the label said "three for three pounds" but the machine said it was three for three pounds fifty pence. Bearing in mind the squabble I'd had with them last Saturday I really couldn't be arsed to bicker.

There was also a potential issue with the self-service machine in that as I fed all my loose change into the machine I rather lost count. Looking back I'm sure it must be my mistake, but I couldn't help but feel that the machine took a quid too much. I've felt that before; next time I shall be more strict with my counting.

 

I got to work where I did the best I could with my dodgy back. Mind you the pain has moved into my right arse cheek.  I'm OK all the time I'm moving or still; it's getting up that hurts it. I managed to wangle a day at the microscope which was probably as much sitting still as is possible to do.

And at tea break in a novel break with tradition I had some of the hot chocolate. It was rather nicer than the coffee. I would have that more often... if it weren't about ten times the calories of a cup of coffee.

 

Being on an early I escaped early. Not early enough to do a tip run, but early enough to take a circuitous route home via Rolvenden’s World of Water where were having a sale. I got a half-price aerator pump, and a third-price grass carp. As long as the pump works and Morgan doesn’t eat the little fish, this will be a bargain.

 

And “er indoors ^TM” got a new bird feeder. Apparently this one doesn’t scatter seed everywhere… for the simple reason that the birds are terrified of it and are yet to actually feed from it.

14 May 2026 (Thursday) - Back Still Hurts

That dog (someone else’s) was barking up the street again at five o’clock this morning, and once I’d nodded off again so “er indoors ^TM”’s alarm went off… even though she wasn’t going in to the office today.

I made toast and looked at the Internet as I do most mornings. This morning there was no end of bickering about Cranbrook of all places. Some landscape gardeners and a café down the place’s high street were coming in for a *lot* of criticism this morning. Both allegedly owed customers money… I suppose that seeing how going to court costs so much, naming and shaming is the only option open to most people; even though this presupposes that the accused have done anything to be named and shamed about.

I Munzed, and Wordled. Starting with “today” I eventually got “waver” on the last attempt.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how Angela Rayner has got her tax issues sorted and so can now make a bid for leadership of the Labour party. The Health Secretary is supposed to standing as a candidate, and there’s talk about Andy Burnham (the head honcho in Manchester) standing as well… if only he could get into parliament in the next few days.

We got to the woods where it was rather cold, but after a mile or so the sun came out. We walked about five and a half uneventful miles; just how I liked it. Mind you, again my watch and my phone disagreed on the exact distance. I wonder why they are always so much adrift; it’s not as though one or other of them takes a short cut.

Bailey did manage a roll in a turd at the last minute, so when we came home she had a bath.

 

I made us both a cuppa and got us both an Aldi kit-kat, then went out to the garden. I got about a quarter of the lawn mowed before the torrential rain hit. So much for mowing for today.

I put a load of washing in to scrub, then tried to renew my works car parking permit. Nothing is ever easy, it it? I marked eight pieces of trainee’s portfolio work.

And seeing the rain had stopped I went back outside to the garden.

 

I checked the fuse in the pressure washer. A new one made no difference; it remained poggered.

I got the poggered aerator pump out of the pond. That was easy enough. Getting the cable out took some doing as I’d buried it quite comprehensively. I had to shift quite a bit of the rockery and shingle, and my back wasn’t all that good to begin with.

I’ve now got to get rid of the pressure-washer and the aerator pump. I had a vague hope I could go to the tip at Tunbridge Wells after work tomorrow, but the tip closes at about the time I’d be finishing the early shift. That’s a nuisance.

I spent much of the afternoon sitting in front of the telly resting my poor back. In between resting I loaded and unloaded the washing machine and hung out shirts and jim-jams, and scrubbed and tumble-dried undercrackers. And I spent a little while sorting out yet another geocaching Adventure Lab series. I’d got another credit and so did another “Lost Pubs of Ashford” series. I’d actually got it all prepared some time ago, so the hard work part was already done. If you fancy having a go at it, just scan the 2-D barcode above.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted burgers and chips which we scoffed whilst watching last night’s episode of “Race Across the World”. I’m thinking I wouldn’t mind a trip to Mongolia. If only I wouldn’t miss the dogs so much…

13 May 2026 (Wednesday) - Gardening

I slept well, but again the dog that walks up our road at five o clock had another barking fit.

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. It was still there and was much the same as ever. Squabbles and trivia abounded as it does. The Prime Minister was facing ever more pressure to jack it all in for no reason that anyone could actually explain. I saw our local MP had expressed solidarity with the Prime Minister though. I was surprised at that. I was surprised that he actually took a stand one way or the other. I’ve mentioned before that having a Labour MP has turned out to be something of a disappointment.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. With normal people dawdling at a snail’s pace along the path we usually take into the woods we took another one today, and walked a rather different route to our usual one. We met a couple of other dog walkers as we went, but each encounter passed off amicably (as it should). No one chased anything, no one rolled in anything. It was all rather uneventful which was probably for the best.

Just as we got home so the heavens opened.

 

I made us both a cuppa which we had with a “choco-break”. Have you ever had a “choco-break”? You can get them from Aldi – they are like a kit-kat but made from far better chocolate and are about half the price.

(£1.25 compared to £2.20).

 

And with the rain having stopped I cracked on in the garden. I stripped out all the stuff between the bathroom and the shed. There was quite a bit of stuff I could use to attempt to bodge the bottom of the fence between our garden and not-so-nice-next-door. I swept up, squirted round with the rat deterrent, and then the heavens opened again. I came in, Munzed and Wordled. “Again” gave me nothing, as did “slept”. With a third of my goes gone and not a single letter I scratched my head. “Brock” gave me an “o” even if it was in the wrong place. “Mommy” gave me two letters in the right place, and I got it on the fifth go with “dowdy”.

 

The rain stopped so I went back out. Leaving out the bits that might be useful I put the rest of the tat back between the bathroom and shed, and then started on the main business of the day. I stripped out all the tat outside the kitchen window and all the flower boxes. I shifted the old chewed sleeper blocks, swept and brushed, and got the new bricks and planks into place. And with the flower tubs back onto the new planking I got the pressure-washer out to give it all a good scrubbing.

The pressure washer was poggered.

I can remember it being problematical in the past, but in the past it always started working after I gave it a good clout. I gave it several good clouts but to no avail. Ho hum…

I did the best I could with a hose pipe and a yard brush.

Whilst I was at it I lifted the drain cover to have a look-see. The water level was higher than it might have been, and as I watched so a nappy floated by. I always though there were rules about what you chucked down a chodbin?

 

I then had a look at the pond. Yesterday “er indoors ^TM” spotted that the pond’s aerator pump had had it. I fiddled with it and changed the fuse, but it wasn’t having any of it. I could have taken the thing apart but the rain was starting again so I gave up, came in and watched a couple of episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a decent chili which went down with a bottle of the red stuff as we watched another couple of episodes of “The Orville”. I’ve been re-reading my diaries of nine years ago when I first saw the show and I was rather disparaging about it. I can’t remember the episodes at all, but they are rather good… this time round.

12 May 2026 (Tuesday) - Before The Late Shift

 

There are several people who walk their dogs at five o’clock in the morning. There’s one dog which regularly comes up our road far too early barking like a thing possessed. It was that one which woke me this morning. I tried to get back to sleep, and dozed on and off until half past seven.

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. It was still there. The usual political arguing was completely missing from my Facebook feed this morning. Instead I had loads of postings for groups offering support to people with various bone marrow cancers, and quite a bit of “repent sinner!” bollox. As a lapsed Christian (I was once a Steward in the Methodist church), the entire Christian theology doesn’t stand up to any thought at all. *If* Jesus has already died in payment for my sins, why should I be up for eternal damnation? However I will make the observation that it is pointless to ask this question on a Facebook forum.

 

I Munzed, getting two Rover treats as I did, and took the dogs to the woods. Being pushed for time we went to Orlestone. There was a weird man in the car park. He seemed really creepy as he tried to stroke the dogs; I called them away.

We had a mostly good walk. It was a shame that Bailey ran amok, but she does that.

Yesterday we walked nearly seven miles; today it was just a shade over two.

 

We came home where “er indoors ^TM” was making herself a cuppa. She did me one, and then I cracked on in the garden. Yesterday I got three hypersonic rat deterrents (as they came in packs of three); overnight I had a stroke of genius as to where I might position one of them. And I got another coat of paint on my planks. I harvested a bumper crop of dog dung, and had a little look at the area round the plant pots vaguely planning for tomorrow.

I Wordled. Starting with “plank” I made rather hard work of it going through “cluck” and “click” before getting “clock” on the fourth attempt.

 

I set off to the late shift… and that was effectively it for the day. So often when on the late shift the day is done by the late morning.

11 May 2026 (Monday) - A Walk, An FTF, Some Shopping

I slept rather better than I have done recently, but was still awake earlier than I wanted to be. I got up. My back was hurting, but I got up easier than I did on the last couple of days.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. People were squabbling about last week’s elections… every squabble showed that the squabblers had no idea of the issues that they’d been voting about.

People were squabbling about religion.

People were squabbling about ponds, dogs, geocaching… pretty much everything about which it would be possible to squabble.

I sighed… I look at social media to see what colleagues, friends and family have been doing with their lives, not to watch people I’ve never met quarrelling with people they will never meet.

 

I Munzed, opening two qrates. I Wordled from “argue” through “event”, “coney” and “neddy” to come up with “newly” on the fifth attempt. And I took the dogs up to the woods. When the schools are open I need to leave home either before half past seven or after nine o’clock so I don’t get stuck in traffic. I got out of town easily enough this morning but the traffic coming into Ashford was backed up a mile or so up the A251 to the woods.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the Prime Minister’s days might be numbered, and whether he goes will be entirely down to some speech he is going to make. Surely he should be judged on what he does rather than what he says? This is why that idiot Boris Johnson survived so long. No one noticed how crap he was at actually doing the job; he was entertaining to listen to, and for most people that is all that counts.

And there was an interview with the ex-chairman of the league of A&E doctors (or whatever their club is called) who was saying how nice it would be to have one NHS-wide computer… I remember the debacle when that was tried last time…

We got to the woods and had a frankly epic walk of either six and three quarter miles or seven and one quarter miles, depending on whether you listen to my phone or my watch. But apart from a mild altercation with a Dalmatian the walk passed off pretty much entirely without incident.

 

We came home to find that “er indoors ^TM” was off on an errand with “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM”. I told the Alexa to play “relaxing music for dogs” and I cracked on in the garden. I got another coat of paint on my planks, topped up the ponds and water features, bionically burned the weeds and topped up the bird feeder.

“er indoors ^TM” then came home and I made us a cuppa… then remembered I’d left the hose running topping up the big water feature… Woops.

I also saw a new geocache had gone live this morning near Lydd, and it hadn’t been found. I turned off the hose, and hopped into the car.

 

It didn’t take long to get to a lay-by on the road into Lydd, and after a quick search I spotted the geocache. I opened it up. The logsheet was blank… I was the first one to find it. Result ! That’s three hundred and one geocaches I’ve been first to find – I’ve got a list.

As I drove home so the rain started, so it was probably the best time to go shopping. I went to the garden centre at Hamstreet. Did they have anything that would get rid of rats in the garden? Yes. Did they have anything that would get rid of rats in the garden that *wouldn’t* kill the dogs? That got a blank stare… I got the impression that in the war against rats, killing the dogs would just be collateral damage.

I tried the new garden centre in the Home Bargains shop. It was closed; staff were turning customers away as the place had a power cut.

I tried Dobbies. They were helpful. As well as poisoning everything they had humane traps. The trouble with a humane trap is what do you do with what you’ve humanely captured? The nice lady suggested drowning the rats in a bucket of water (she really did!).

I went to Bybrook Barn where they had some ultrasonic rat deterrents. They were five times the price of the ones on Amazon, but had the advantage that you can plug them into a UK power socket. I’d rather scare the rats away than have to kill them.

Strangely the dogs don’t seen to deter them very much.

 

I came home. I plugged one of the ultrasonic thingies in the socket in the shed. I really need to figure out how to set one up in the garden. And I had a look at the gusher water feature. It is certainly running better now I’ve topped it up. I’ll wind the hose in tomorrow – the rain might have dried off of it by then. I’ll give the planks another coat of paint then as well – hopefully they will have dried too.

I made us both a cuppa and we had the last of the cake. Yesterday I said it was ginger cake. It wasn’t. It was golden syrup cake, and there’s no ginger in the ingredients. So why did I think it was ginger cake?

I wrote up some CPD and tried to get up quietly, but it was no good. Treacle was watching me like a hawk. She knew it was time to “FEED THE FISH”.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner then went bowling. I settled on the sofa and started watching something new. “The Handmaid’s Tale” (on Amazon Prime). I’m two episodes in; so far, so good…

 

My back’s still giving me grief… I can sit still or I can walk about. It’s getting up and getting down that hurts…

10 May 2026 (Sunday) - A Quiet Day

As I peered into Facebook as I scoffed my toast I saw a posting from an old friend who is currently living in Australia. He was getting nostalgic and was hoping someone might organise a reunion of his old school-mates. It would be good, but the trouble with a reunion is that in the intervening years a *lot* of people have moved away and getting everyone back together would be problematical at best. Take our old gang from the Boys Brigade. The turn-out at our old leader’s funeral was a tad disappointing (frankly piss-poor) bearing in mind how many people I contacted, but I contacted people who’d since gone to live in Bournemouth, Minehead, Sweden, Scotland, Tonbridge...

Or take my old school class. A couple of months ago one of our number was back in Hastings (from Canada). Three of us met up. Others had since moved to St Albans, Colchester, Australia, USA…

 

I checked my emails… three new geocaches had gone live locally. It would have been nice to see if I could get First to Find on one of them… but the same chap who gets all the FTFs had flown round and done the lot in less than an hour after they went live. I would have gone out hoping to get one and to leave the other two for others. But that’s just me.

 

I sulked as I had a little look at the flower pots in the garden and had a measure-up, then Munzed. Our Guild (we’re not a Clan any more!) had reached the first of our monthly targets. I Wordled from “waste” through “paddy” and “parch” to “parka”. I don’t think it could have been anything else.

 

We then took the dogs out. “er indoors ^TM” had some maintenance to do on a couple of her geocaches, and with that done we carried on to Orlestone where we walked the dogs round. Being mid-day I hoped that the normal people would all be having their lunch, and for the most part they all were. We only saw one other person and that was almost at the car park.

I took a few photos as we walked.

 

We came home… and I remembered that I’d meant to go to Wickes whilst we were out. So leaving “er indoors ^TM” with the dogs I went shopping. A week or so ago we had a rat problem, and looking at the aftermath it would seem that they’d hollowed out the sleepers that I’d used to edge the garden. They’d gnawed in and chewed away the softer wood, and left the knots in place. I had intended to replace those sleepers, but it struck me that was just making a new home for them. So I got a couple of planks of decking which will stand on bricks. Being open means there will be nowhere for the poor rats to make nests. I do feel sorry for them… but they can go nest elsewhere.

Again this was one of those things that was far easier to type than to do.  Driving over to Wickes, getting what I needed, bringing it home and giving the planks a first coat of paint took two hours.

 

We did “FEED THE FISH”, we had a cuppa and some ginger cake. With my back giving me some serious grief I sat down and spent a little while updating my geocaching databases for Kings Wood. A few weeks ago I found another sink hole up there. That’s twenty-eight in those woods. And I included the Wherigo I created last week into the database as well.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “The Orville”.

Today has been a tad dull… and my back is still rather painful…

9 May 2026 (Saturday) - Early Shift

I had something of an early night but woke at ten to two and then just dozed on and off until finally giving up and trying to get up at half past four. “Trying” being the operative phrase… whatever damage I’d done doing the heavy lifting hadn’t got any better overnight.

 

I watched the last episode of “The Man In The High Castle” as I scoffed brekkie. It was a shame that having been a really good show I had to go onto the Internet to find out what the ending was all about. And whilst I was there I had a look at the Internet. Nothing was happening at half past five so I gingerly got up and took little while getting ready for work.

 

I hobbled out to the car and set off west-wards through the -hursts and the -dens. It was too early for the weekend news on the radio. Instead there was some utter tripe about the restoration of some heathland. What would have made rather good viewing on the telly made for rather rubbish listening on the radio. There's only so much description and being told to look at the pictures on the website that I can stand.

I switched over to my MP3 stick and sang along to Ivor Biggun.

 

I stopped off in Pembury's Tesco for lunch. Had I been at Maidstone today I would have tried the works canteen, but the Pembury one isn’t the same.

Tesco’s meal-deal looked good today - a barbecue chicken salad rather than a sandwich. When I came to pay, the self-service machine wanted the thick end of a tenner, and when I complained the poor little boy in the Tesco costume ran off to fetch his boss. There was quite the discussion amongst various members of staff as they tried to decide who it was that would have to tell me that what I wanted wasn't in the meal deal.

Am I that scary?

The chap who drew the short straw was adamant that the thing wasn't in the meal deal, and was not impressed when I pointed out the sign that said it was. He breathed an obvious sigh of relief when I said that I'd have the coronation chicken sandwich instead, but seemed utterly disinterested in removing the clearly wrong sign.

 

I went in to the early shift where I sulked. Saturday morning is usually Steve on the radio doing the "Guess the Lyrics" then Dog Club followed by Steve on the radio doing the Mystery Year. I missed all of that today.

But an early start made for an early finish. I came home to three dogs who were incredibly excited to see me. We did “FEED THE FISH” and they were then asleep within a couple of minutes.

 

I had a cuppa and counted the takings from Dog Club. We ask for a donation of one pound fifty per dog… there was twenty-seven quid and seventeen pence in the pot. What was that all about?

 

Chris arrived, and we spent a little while in the garden talking water features. Chris is keen to get one, but there’s more to them than just pretty splashy things. Ones at ground level look very nice but unearthing the pump for maintenance can be hard work. Splashy ones look pretty but soon empty the reservoir.

Steve and Sarah joined us, and we had a rather good evening on the Infinity Table. A game of “Game of Life” and a game of “Sorry” in both of which I didn’t quite come last.

And then a game of “Ticket to Ride” in which I had a plan, and I amazed myself at just how well that plan worked…

 

My back still hurts…