31 October 2012 (Wednesday) - Samhain

I had a wry smile at the morning's news. I see that the Disney corporation have acquired the rights to the Star Wars franchise and are planning on making a seventh Star Wars film. I can predict the film's reception already. The general public will love it in the way that they love all of these films. The (so-called) fans will hate it on general principle in the way that (so-called) fans always do.

And Disney will keep churning out more films in the genre all the time the money keeps pouring in because that's the business they are in.

The Internet was awash with comments on the subject this morning. A friend of a friend rather said it all when he commented that he loved the last film and can't wait to see the next voyage of the starship Enterprise. "Trek" and "Wars" are very different things to those who care about such trivia.

It is a very special person who knows the difference between RU12 and a Klangon, and who knows that ICUP has never been beamed up by Scotty.

 

Today was Hallowe'en. I had been rather vaguely looking forward to seeing loads of little trick-or-treaters coming knocking on the door this evening. But being on a 10pm finish meant that wasn't going to happen. However little Lacey had come round trick or treating last night (for some reason), and that had gone a long way to make up for my missing out on tonight's fun. Rather than asking for sweeties when she called, she showed me the haul of sweeties she'd already accrued, and she gave me a small bag of Maltesers. That choked me up. It was a shame we didn't have any sweeties to give her, but as a treat I told her to come in and play with Fudge. She seemed very happy with that.

Also being on a late finish tonight meant I got to miss the arky-ologee club. Which was a shame. For all that I run the club down, it gets me out of the house on what might otherwise be a dull evening. Tonight there was a talk on the practicalities of geophysics. I would like to have been along to that.

 

Today was also Samhain. Plenty of people were posting about it on Facebook and wishing everyone a happy one. Apparently Samhain is a Celtic/Gaelic traditional celebration. It always amazes me how many of the people whom I know are mad-keen on everything Gaelic/Celtic when they are all based in Kent.

You can't actually get further away from Celtic/Gaelic-land than Kent without crossing the sea...

30 October 2012 (Tuesday) - Hard Core Geocaching

With laundry needing washing, ironing needing doing, lawn needing mowing and all sorts of domestic trivia pending I had a full day ahead of me. Over a spot of brekkie Lisa messaged via Facebook saying she wanted to do a special geocache to be her six hundredth find. So domestic trivia went out of the window.

With "er indoors ^TM" off to work I left Fudge in the care of his Mummy and Daddy and was soon in the Lisa-mobile. We went to Hoads wood where a new cache had gone live. We had hoped to be first to find it. We were second. We stopped at the toilets at Hothfield common for another cache, and a third at Hollingbourne church before on to part of the main business of the day.

Geocaches are rated on a scoring system for difficulty to find and the terrain on which they are hidden. The scores go from (easy) to five (nearly impossible). Most of the caches I've hidden are rated 1.5/1.0. Generally I think seriously about going for a cache rated 3 or higher on either criterion. Too difficult!

"Arachnophobia" was rated 4.0/4.0. It took us a little while to find the entrance to the tunnel, but eventually we found the cover. I suppose that for most people going into disused tunnels is rather nerve-wracking. And it can be. But what with my experiences of being a hardened tunnel rat I must admit that this wasn't too bad. We climbed down a rather rickety ladder to find two rooms and a short tunnel. The geocache was soon located, and I then scrambled along the tunnel to see what was down there. (Unky Bear would not forgive me if I hadn't). It turned out that there wasn't much down that tunnel at all.

The cache as called "Arachnophobia". Admittedly there were spiders down there, but as many as you would expect of any comparable tunnel. It was a fun cache to do, incorporating two of my hobbies, but a 4.0/4.0 rating? I'm not sure about that.

Whilst in the area we did a few local caches then moved into Maidstone to do some more.

One of the things which really boils my piss about geocaching is the inconsistent way in which rules are applied. A good friend of mine had one of his hides disallowed because it was too near to a playpark. We came across one that was actually in a playpark. We also found another one with a high rating (2.5/4.5). We felt rather pleased with ourselves for that find; even more so when we realised that the Bat had tried for it unsuccessfully. I shall gloat at him when next I see him.

A few more caches, then we collected Earle from the station. We would need him for the day's finale. A cache with a 4.5/5.0 rating. "Shrek" is so named because like Shrek from the films, it lives in a swamp. Earle's job was to run "mission control" from dry land, take photographs, guard the clothing we'd taken off, and phone the coastguard if required. And because he was wearing his hi-vis work clothing he'd make it look like we had a bona-fido reason for being goolie-deep in a swamp.

We were soon goolie-deep in a swamp. Or that is those of us with goolies were goolie-deep. The cache was found within five minutes; cache was signed and we were back on dry land within ten minutes. And for all that it was fun I couldn't help but feel that the difficulty was over-rated. The terrain (a swamp) wasn't really anywhere near as challenging as the ponds into which I've assisted floating duck houses. And the cache wasn't that well hidden. I can see it would be a challenge for most people. Most people don't relish going goolie-deep in swamps.

But as I'm sure my loyal readers now realise, I'm not like most people...

29 October 2012 (Monday) - The Gypsum Gyratory (Part II)

Up earlier than I would normally have been, and after a swift spot of brekkie I got my bits together. And then I got my dog together. Lisa arrived, and we set off to Ham Street to collect Steve,

With the team assembled we took the short cut to Robertsbridge. Regular readers of this drivel might recall that three weeks ago Steve and I went geocaching on the first half of the Gypsum Gyratory. Today we went back to do the second half. The Gypsum Gyratory is a series of one hundred geocaches laid out in two loops across the Sussex countryside. Going along lanes and paths, through fields and woodlands, up hills and down dales. The Gypsum Gyratory in its entirety covers twenty three miles. Having survived (just) the first loop we thought that we'd have a go at the second loop today.

We started walking shortly after 10am. the first cache of the day (G.G.#51) was actually my six hundredth geocache. There are those who say that finding six hundred in three months is somewhat obsessive, but what do they know? The second and third caches were both good; it was at this point that the geo-hound was allowed off the lead.

We then had a moment's panic. With the clue to the next cache being "base of tree" we found a major area where forest clearance had been taking place.

We failed to find the sixth cache of the day, and possibly spent too long searching. From there we found one of the hills that we'd been warned about. And some of the mud. When we did the first half of the Gypsum Gyratory we'd got seriously muddy. But that was absolutely nothing compared with today. The mud was chest deep on poor Fudge.

Last time we'd been gyratory the weather had been against us. The weather (pretty much) held out today. Once a third of the way round we stopped for lunch and had a rather pleasant pic-nic in the sun by G.G.#66. Mind you, just before G.G.#72 the rain did start. Fortunately we could see a pub, and so stopped for a crafty pint. In Sussex one drinks Harvey's, and it slipped down very nicely. The barman was very friendly, and plied Fudge with dog biscuits (which he enjoyed).

After fifteen minutes the rain stopped so we ploughed onwards. The next cache (G.G.#72) was.... well I won't spoil the surprise, but let's just say that I've given it a favourite point.

When we walked the first half of the Gypsum Gyratory three weeks ago there were two points where we got seriously lost and wasted hours. That never happened today, but there's no denying that we think we may have gone a bit awry at G.G.#80. We never actually found anything resembling the description in the clue.

It was shortly after this that Fudge went missing. He was only gone for maybe two minutes, but that two minutes seemed like an eternity. And when he did appear, charging through the forest, there's no denying that you could see the panic on his face.

As we went on so the terrain got more and more muddy. And the sky got darker and darker. We'd forgotten that the clocks had gone back. It was getting noticeably dark at 3.30pm. Perhaps if we'd had more time we might have found G.G.#85 and G.G.#86, but time was pushing.

A word of warning to any potential gyrators. For all that I can't recommend this series of geocaches highly enough, caches 91 to 98 are spaced out along a sea of mud. Rather deep mud as well. By the time we'd traversed the mile of quagmire the light had failed entirely. We were grateful for the light from the fires of the charcoal burners. In fact that gave us an idea for a geocaching challenge.

We didn't find cache 99. From the description it sounded straight-forward. But it was dark. Mind you we did find G.G.#100. We found it with quite a sense of achievement.

So we have survived the Gypsum Gyratory. In its entirety. However of the one hundred caches we have only found ninety. Ten have eluded us. We will have to return...

28 October 2012 (Sunday) - The Ashford Amble

I was rather late to bed last night and woke with some confusion this morning. The clock said shortly after 9am. Had I put the clock back last night or not? I couldn't remember. It turned out that I hadn't. I wish that we didn't have to mess about putting clocks forwards and backwards.

"My Boy ^TM" came to visit at 9am (the proper 9am). He'd stashed all sorts of fishing baits in our freezer and having got us to defrost them last night he was collecting them. It turns out that Cheryl won't have that stuff in her freezer. Sensible girl. While he pootled about getting fishing gear together I set about mending the shed roof. Somehow the felt had torn so I clambered up a ladder and bashed it back in place with some clout nails. I hope they stay put.

I then checked out Facebook and exchanged insults with loyal readers in Kuala Lumpar where the temperature is some thirty degrees higher than here.

A quick bit of cheese on toast and then the Bat called. we set off for Lisa and pausing only briefly to check out the geocache not five yards from Lisa's house we made our way to Godinton Park. One of our new friends we've found through geocaching had set up a guided walk of twelve caches. With two caches in Godinton, two random caches half way round the amble, and two puzzle caches off of amble cache10 it was a wonderful way to spend a bright (if cold) afternoon.

Eight of us (and a small dog) soon found the first Godinton cache and once the dog had finished rolling in something disgusting we made our way onto the Ashford Amble. Again geocaching took me to some rather beautiful places to walk. Fudge liked being allowed off the lead (wherever possible). As usual Fudge whined when we stopped to sign the geocache logs. For all that he is a trackable himself, and he has a series of caches named after him, he doesn't seem to join in with the spirit of geocaching. I blame his aunt's influence.

At the half way point of the amble we took a slight detour. Firstly to "The Drop", which featured a clever conundrum by a rather pretty waterfall, and then on to "Hog's River Copse" (a cache owned by "er indoors ^TM"). We then picked up the Ashford Amble again, and met an organised group of ramblers coming the other way. We exchanged pleasantries. As they wandered off behind us I reflected that the groups I so often organise must look like that bunch looked.

Ashford Amble cache 10 had us foxed. Several people had logged that they couldn't find it. Nor could we. However after a major search "er indoors ^TM" came up with the cache and a round of applause. It was at this point that we again put the amble on hold and did a couple of puzzle caches that were in the area. One involving astronomical expertise (good job we had Dave and the girls along!), and one involving scanning quick-codes. Both were works of genius.

Back to the Amble for the last two caches. And once back at the cars we drove round to Chestnut Grove. We could have walked, but it was four hundred yards and it was getting dark. And with the nineteenth cache of the day found and the log signed we said our goodbyes and made our way home.

Fudge slept all evening...

Settiing up a series of geocaches like today's takes a lot of effort. Full marks to "The Hurks" for such an enjoyable walk.

27 October 2012 (Saturday) - Chartham to Canterbury

The weekly weigh-in. Another pound gone. Having held constant for a couple of months I now seem to be losing weight again. I'm thinking that it must be a consequence of all the extra walking I'm doing with Fudge. Nothing else has changed recently.

We got ourselves organised and made our way to the train station. I t must be a year since I last got on a train, and today eight of us took the train to Chartham. It was only twenty minutes late leaving. The journey passed off uneventfully enough, and once at Chartham we met up with the ninth member of our party, and walked along the river path into Canterbury.

Amazing! I drive along this way to work, and I didn't realise the river was there; nor how pretty the area is. It was only a shame that the weather failed to live up to the forecast. We went expecting a sunny, if cold, day. We got rain. But the rain wasn't that heavy. I was surprised how quick the time passed. It only took just over an hour to walk from Chartham into Canterbury (and that included finding a crafty geocache on the way).

One in Canterbury we soon we at the Foundry where we had a table booked. Excellent food with beer brewed on the premises. A pint of the porter slipped down very nicely, as did a pint of black lager. You don't often see black lager. The menu spoiled me for choice - I eventually settled for a half rack of ribs followed by banoffee pie.

There was a time when we would eat out every weekend, but in this new era of austerity eating out has become the treat it should really be. It wasn't cheap, but what is money for if not to worry about?

I would certainly go back to the Foundry. In fact the only fault I could find was the dog at another table was rather loud. I didn't so much mind the volume as the fact that the dog was there at all - I'd phoned earlier to ask about dogs and had been told that they had a no-dogs policy. I have a hound that would have liked the morning's walk that had stayed at home because of the supposed no-dog policy.

We then had a little pootle round Canterbury. I went into WH Smiths and wasted my voucher on some lego. I like lego, but I would rather have had cash that I could have spent anywhere rather than have had credit in a shop which doesn't actually sell anything I want. As we pootled back to the train station I slipped in another cheeky little cache find before dozing on the train home.

Once in Ashford we said our goodbyes and we popped into HomePlus. It was on the way home and they sell fireworks. I bought the rudest shaped large rocket they had. It's called "The Destroyer". I hope that lives up to expectations when the thing goes off next weekend. We picked up the pup (who was fast asleep) and took him round the park for a walk. It was sheer co-incidence that our walk went past three recently activated geocaches.

Steve and Sarah came round to collect the banana beer I'd made for next weekend. I do hope that stuff turns out OK. Whilst they were here they took "The Destroyer" with them. Soon after they left, "er indoors ^TM" went off to watch films. Fudge had been alone all day so I didn't want to leave him. I'd recorded "Platoon" onto the SkyPlus box during the week, so rather than going out I slept though that instead...

26 October 2012 (Friday) - Caching, Astro Club...

I was woken by a frantic barking at 2.20am this morning. I ran downstairs thinking something serious was going on only to find one of the local cats was pulling faces through the kitchen window at Fudge. When the cat saw me it shoved off. Fudge wanted to charge up the garden after the cat but I wasn't having that. I eventually got back to kip, and surprisingly stayed in bed before waking shortly after 8am.

A spot of brekkie, then I ironed shirts whilst watching a documentary about the private life of Hattie Jacques. I knew she was once married to John Le Mesurier. I didn't know she's been having it away with her driver. There's nothing as interesting as what other people get up to. Whilst I was in the thick of this domestic trivia "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" phoned with a potential plan for the day. A shame she couldn't have come up with this plan earlier as I already had a plan.

Lisa arrived, and then we set off to collect Steve, Maria and Cassie for an afternoon's caching. Fudge liked being again allowed off the lead (wherever possible). We found several caches, we had a good walk, Fudge rolled in something disgusting. A good time was had by all; even if it was cold.

We came home to find "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" and Sid in residence. Fudge and Sid ran riot for an hour or so. I left them to it and set off to the astro club. Regular readers of this drivel might recall that much earlier in the year there was a talk at the arky-ologee club about archeo-astronomy. It was a good talk, and I had asked the presenter if she might repeat the talk at the astro club. She did that tonight. An excellent talk, much appreciated by the seventy-odd people that were in attendance. It was only a shame that the skies were cloudy.

So much for the weather forecast...

25 October 2012 (Thursday) - The News

I had planned to leave a few minutes early this morning to look for a geocache that my beloved had hidden yesterday. But having wasted half an hour mucking about with the dog I didn't actually get to leave early. And hunting for those caches in the dark is just silly. So I didn't bother. For some inexplicable reason I got to work fifteen minutes earlier than I usually do. I wonder how that happened?

On the way I listened to the radio. Apparently more people are listening to radio four than ever before. I wonder if everyone else's piss boils at the news like mine does. Today it wasn't so much the news that wound me up as the people featuring in it.

I can hardly claim to be a staunch supporter of the Prime Minister, but he has a thankless lot really. This morning's news was slating him because he'd apparently made comments about some statistics that were due to be released this morning. Apparently releasing official figures ahead of when they should be released can affect the international money markets, can allow unscrupulous operators to make a fortune, is illegal, and is rather naughty too. The pundits were slating the P.M. for allegedly jumping the gun over the news that the recession is officially over.

What the P.M. actually said was a vague off the cuff comment about there being some good news. "Good news" could have referred to anything, really. And painting a bright future is what Prime Ministers are supposed to do. The poor chap can't win either way.

Mind you, other politicians get all they deserve. Apparently if you aren't sure about internet security you should just blag yourself a fake I.D. (according to Tory MP Andy Smith).

He's come in for a lot of criticism, and rightly so. Presumably the chap's never heard of on-line security, or phishing, or common sense. Or is his encouraging the use of fake aliases a tacit endorsement of cyber-bullying? (coming from someone who never uses his real name on-line!)

Meanwhile Daniel "James Bond" Craig talks sense. It would seem that there's quite a bit of product placement in the upcoming James Bond film. For anyone (like me) who was unsure about what the term "product placement" means; it's when you can see that James Bond brushes his teeth with Crelm toothpaste. Or drives a Satsuma Castanet. Or drinks "Bright'Un" from the Manky Brewery.

There are those who don't like to see this happening. One wonders if these bleeding hearts would be happy to pay upwards of a hundred quid to go to see the new Bond movie at the cinema. Making films isn't cheap, and product placement is a sign of the times. It's how film making is funded these days.

And on the way home was a program about how the legal system will deal with the so-called victims of the Jimmy Saville saga. I say "so-called victims" because the courts first have to decide who actually is a genuine possible bona-fido victim. As opposed to any random person who might have actually met Jimmy at some stage and feel they might squeeze a bob or two from the acquaintanceship. Or those who recognise a nice little earner can come from crying wolf like everyone else is doing.

You have to admire the antics of other people...

24 October 2012 (Wednesday) - Walkies

A relatively late start, and then I did the monthly accounts. A spot of Christmas shopping and the car's road tax have certainly made their mark on the bank account. Still, what's money for if not to squander foolishly. I just wish I had more to squander in that reckless fashion.

To the dentist for the six-monthly check-up. Before the dentist did his bit the nurse spent five minutes going over what I eat. She could see that I was half (well... two thirds) the man I used to be, and so I think I got the thumbs-up from her. The dentist then had a rummage around inside my gob and seemed pleased with the state of it. He then gave it all a bit of a scaling and ten minutes later I came out feeling as though I had a new mouth.

Home to the pup. I put his lead on and we went out. On Monday I'd been told that one of my geocaches needed some attention so we set off to have a look. Geocaching (if done properly) entails an element of stealth, and having a dog in tow can be useful. The normal people think you're doing dog-related stuff when actually you're mucking with the caches. However there were normal people loitering by the cache I needed to get to. Rather than mucking about I thought I'd come back later. So I took Fudge on a little walk. Six miles and two hours later we came back and sorted out that geocache.

Whilst we were walking we found four other caches. I say four; it was actually three and a carrier bag. Geocaches come in all sorts of containers, but I've never seen a carrier bag used before. All the standard contents were there; the log with the official logo. All in a carrier bag. that can't be right. I've sent a message to the cache (carrier bag) owner asking them to sort it out. Whilst out we also saw a nice lady taking a cat for a walk. I commented that I'd never seen a cat taken for a walk before. The nice lady smiled at me as though I was mad, and looked at Fudge as if to ask what he was.

Whilst out Fudge did some fudge. With six miles and woodlands and parks and countless places to unload, he chose the only garden which had people sitting in it. Oh how I laughed.

We came home, and after a spot of lunch "My Boy ^TM" came home. He helped me with some heavy lifting that needed doing, and we talked about going to the driving range. Talked about it, but both being skint put paid to that idea. There was talk about actually trying a round of golf. I'm not sure that I'm up to that yet.

In the evening we set off delivering bargains to the masses. It took a little longer than we were hoping...

23 October 2012 (Tuesday) - Stuff

An old friend got married yesterday. I can vaguely remember there being some talk of a wedding a while back. But the memory is very vague - if there was any talk it was a long while ago and I'd forgotten all about it in the meantime. It came as something of a surprise this morning when I found out about the wedding. I had a text message from a miffed friend who was also surprised by the news. In a typical sign of the times the announcement was received via Facebook.

There are various theories about weddings. There's no denying that they aren't cheap. And certainly they are for the people getting married. And if people want a ceremony just for themselves then that is entirely their choice and I respect it. But I still feel that I would like to have been a part of what happened yesterday. After all the chap's been quite a major part of my life for a long time and he has featured on quite a few blog entries over the years.

 

And so to work. I stopped off at the farm shop to get some veg (well, it is on the way). Whilst there, I thought I'd get myself a chocolate frog for my way home. I do get a bit peckish when on the 10pm finish. They didn't have any chocolate frogs but they did have chocolate Milky Bar Kids. I quite like white chocolate, but I would have preferred a chocolate frog.

Finding myself driving to work in daylight (a novelty these days) I found myself looking for places where I might hide geocaches. Three phone boxes are obvious candidates for future hides. Mind you I can't help but wonder how long phone boxes will last. Only the other day Lacey asked what a phone box was all about.

 

Being Tuesday the clans gathered. Being on a late finish I didn't get to go along. Usually in such circumstances I would go home to an empty house. But not today. I came home to find the pestilential pup fast asleep. He looked up and wagged his tail when he saw me, and slowly dragged himself out of his basket. All very cute.

I then spent a few minutes clearing bone fragments from everywhere. My Boy had been round with a lamb bone for Fudge, and he'd chomped the bone to destruction. His jaws are quite powerful. My other grand-dog's gob isn't quite so strong - as "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" has found out. Whilst she playing tug-o-war with him, Sid let the rope go, and "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" now has a black eye. Unfortunately photos are not forthcoming.

Meanwhile some Italian scientists have been found guilty of manslaughter. The so-called experts led the public to believe that a predicted earthquake wouldn't be anything to worry about. So the public didn't worry, and a major quake hit. People died. The crux of the matter was summarised in something the Daily Telegraph wrote: "At the heart of the case was a question of whether the government-appointed experts gave an overly reassuring picture of the risk"

There is a school of thought that the scientists are not guilty of manslaughter because earthquakeology is not an exact science. There is another school of thought that if so-called experts don't actually know what they are talking about then they shouldn't talk about anything. The general public believe experts; and if so-called experts are making pronouncements which they shouldn't then they are undermining the entire concept of science.

There was a lot of discussion on the Internet about this topic. As usual I'm in a minority of one. Perhaps I'm too close to the subject of scientists being held accountable for their mistakes. But why is it fine for me to be crucified whilst it's fine for everyone else to stuff up?

 

Not that I'm bitter or anything...

22 October 2012 (Monday) - Democracy

On Friday my routine was put out by the Treacle People being on a few minutes earlier than usual. Today they weren't on at all. I didn't like that. With satellite TV boasting hundreds of channels of drivel, it's amazing how little there is worth watching at any time; let alone at 6am. So, over a spot of brekkie, I went on-line where (not surprisingly) not much was happening there either.

 

The morning was foggy. Foggy and dark, which didn't make for easy driving. As I drove I listened to the news. The Jimmy Saville saga is now getting silly. The media has taken to raking dirt against those who didn't rake the dirt against Jimmy earlier. Surely this is a dangerous route for our so-called "news" providers to be taking. In future any hint of potential scandal against anyone will have to be front page headlines purely to prevent future allegations of cover-ups against those who produce front page headlines of dirt and allegation.

The news also railed against a cover-up of police corruption during the miner's strike of 1984. It's no secret that there were problems in the police forces of those times. History has recorded what went wrong and the riots that came as consequences. Surely there must be something more news-worthy than raking up stuff from thirty years ago?

In fact there was very little worthy of note in the news other than the surprise revelation that he ex -head of the metropolitan police has announced that he feels that the general public should boycott the upcoming elections for the positions of police commissioners. Apparently police forces are now to be accountable to elected officials. It's a good idea in principle, but it has the problem of all democracy in that will the right people get elected. Who is standing for the position of police commissioner in my area? I didn't know so I found out.

Surprise, surprise. I don't know of any of them. I've never heard of any of them. And most (but not all) are standing on the basis of their political affiliation; making the same tired promises that we have come to expect from all politicians.

I don't believe in democracy. It's a good idea in theory but in practice it's rubbish. It doesn't work. We never have the choice that the whole thing promises. Has anyone ever voted for the elected official that they actually want? Don't we actually just kid ourselves into feeling we have a democracy when in fact we just get to choose between (probably) unsuitable candidates that someone else has chosen for us.

Surely in this day and age we should have the technology to be able to select a list of suitable candidates on the basis of personality profiling and career/life experiences.

As it is I for one will be using random guesswork to hopefully select the least unsuitable candidate to be our police commissioner.

Work was dull. Quite often when Steve and I find our days off co-incide we go off geocaching together. Today I was working but Steve wasn't. I got an intermittent stream of texts as Steve walked wound South Ashford finding the "Fudge's Follies" series of geocaches I put out a few weeks ago. It would seem that the logs in some of them are rather damp. Replacing them will give me something to do on this week's day off.

21 October 2012 (Sunday) - Wet Sunday

The weather forecast had predicted rain overnight till about midnight, but a dry day today. So we thought we'd put the planned walk back to mid day to allow the world to dry out a little. I emerged from my pit at 9.30am to see torrential rain outside. I sulked.

Much of the morning was then spent trying to figure out what's going on in the geocaching world. In the past whenever I've taken up a hobby I've found myself getting involved in organised clubs and (quite frankly) whenever people are involved it becomes a squabble. (Which is why I am so pleased with how the astro club has turned out).

There is a geocaching group on Facebook for the county. I've been following the postings on there lately, and quite a few posts have been very derogatory about a certain person. As a newcomer it strikes me that said person could probably have Facebook close this group down on the grounds of cyber-bullying should this person wish to make a complaint. I asked one or two people (who would seem to be in the know) what was going on. It seems that this person is (arguably) reaping what they have sewn, having been winding the geocaching community up for years. Originally their only crime was to be rather rubbish at geocaching; and other people didn't like getting emails asking for hints about where their caches actually were, and not being able to see the patently obvious.

This was some time ago. In the intervening years it's all got silly. All sorts of squabbles have gone on. Posters on the local Facebook group have advocated the deletion of electronic logs featuring this person. The same posters have then acted surprised when this individual has recently reporting geocaches as being unsafe and has formally appealed for the caches to be closed. And these people who've posted against the individual have acted even more surprised when this individual was allegedly seen destroying geocaches hidden by those with whom they have fallen out.

This morning I heard that this individual had published a "dick list" featuring the names of those they feel they have a grievance with. This "dick list" also has the names of one or two innocent bystanders who are understandably miffed to find themselves drawn into somebody else's arguments. And these people (who until this morning were neutral in the fight) are now understandably taking up arms and joining in with the squabble themselves.

Those who published the "dick list" apparently run a pub. How long will it be before their business is made to suffer by those they've quarrelled with? Why can't humanity just get on without the bickering?

We had planned to take the pestilential pup for a walk round the Godinton estate this afternoon. But the weather was still damp. The ground would just be a swamp underfoot. So we abandoned our plans and instead we teamed up with the Bat and Chris and went for walk up to town; across to the cinema, and home via the Matalan roundabout. Fudge liked the walk, and was again allowed off the lead whenever possible. He was very good, coming back when called (this time). Since it was on the way we stopped off at a few geocaches. It would have been rude not to have done so.

With "er indoors ^TM" out bowling I sat in front of the telly watching DVDs. As Fudge sat on my lap and dozed I took photos of him sleeping. Unlike most dogs (!) he's quite cute, really....

20 October 2012 (Saturday) - The Shipbourne Stroll

The weekly weigh-in; another pound gone. Exactly five stones have gone since I first started watching what I shove down my neck. It's been a long slog, but probably worth it.

My mobile rang. Having been surfing "informative and educational web sites" someone I know turned on his PC this morning to find that rather than booting up properly, the thing just gives a message that he's been looking at filth, he's been reported to the rozzers, and that said rozzers will let him off if he gives a hundred quid to an obscure e-cash account operating out of Nigeria. We're hoping that it's nothing that a quick dose of AVG won't sort out.

And then on with the business of the day. We'd originally been invited to go on the "Shipbourne Stroll" some time ago. The Shipbourne Stroll is a walk of about ten miles taking in some fifty geocaches along the way. When first asked I was working. And it turned out everyone else was busy too on the planned date. What with one thing and another the event kept getting postponed, but today we did it. We met up with our new geocaching friend and set off to the farm for the Bat. Then on to Shipbourne where we met another new friend.

Five of us (and a small dog) had a great time. The mud was quite intense at places, and the hills were rather steep at one point. But if any of my loyal readers have got thoroughly sick of reading about geocaching in this blog and feel the time is now ripe to actually try it, then I can't recommend this walk highly enough. There were standard old dull film canister caches; there were sandwich box caches. There were dustbin sized caches. Caches padlocked needing puzzle-solving to open them. There were caches cunningly disguised as all sorts of things. The organiser of this stroll cannot be praised highly enough.

On the way round we found and dropped off several trackables. And (in yet another triumph of idiot enthusiasm over common sense) we tried letting Fudge loose off of his lead. I can't in all honesty say that he was as good as gold; there was one dodgy five minutes when he was half a field away (past a sign saying that dogs should be on leads) busy chasing pheasants. But on the whole he wasn't too bad. He came back when called (usually). We might just let him off the lead again.

As always, there's photos of the outing here.

And so home to find that it's the end of an era. Time Team has been axed. After twenty years Channel Four have pulled the plug on the program. Which is a shame....

Friday 19 October (Friday) - Stuff

Yesterday I mentioned that I'd pulled something in my arm whilst golfing. It was the pain in that arm that woke me this morning. And a dull nagging ache continued all day; exacerbated every time I forgot myself and used my arm in the way that arms should be used. I wonder what I've done to it - if I ever find out I certainly won't do it again.

The "Treacle People" were on ten minutes earlier than usual this morning. Much as I enjoy the antics of the treacle miners in Sabden, this minor change put my entire routine out. And then the rain started. A very wet black dark drive isn't very motivating in the morning.

 

The morning's news was tedious; for all that I listened to it for forty minutes on my way to work, I have to admit that not a single item of so-called news actually remained in my head. I suppose it's to be applauded that the media seemed to have given the ghost of Jimmy Saville a rest. My nerves need a rest from the constant muck-raking, even if Jimmy's ghost doesn't.

 

As I put my sandwich into the fridge in the works rest room the national weather forecast was on the telly. I listened to the nice man wittering on about low pressure coming from the west, then went to put my jacket in the locker. As I walked back up along the corridor as I passed the rest room I saw that the regional weather forecast was on. The nice lady's predictions were completely at odds with what the same channel had been broadcasting not five minutes previously.

Whilst it would be nice for the weather forecasts to be spot on, I don't expect them to be. But I would expect that any given TV channel would be consistent in the guesswork it broadcasts.

 

Much of the day was spent talking about "dog-cams" - web-cams that can be attached to a dog's collar so's that you can see photos and movies from the dog's perspective. I got quite seriously into the idea of Fudge-o-Vision and Sid-Tube until I saw the prices of dog cams. Cameras billed as dog cams are extortionate. Surely we can do something cheaper?

 

My phone beeped. I'm no longer with the people with whom I took out a contract. I'm now part of the UK's largest 3G network. I bet I still struggle to get signal when I'm in the back of beyond looking for sandwich boxes in the undergrowth.

 

And so home. Via the petrol station where I treated myself to my monthly chocolate fix. I used to wolf choccie down like it was going out of fashion. I used to be nearly nineteen stones in weight. I don't really miss the choccie; and I prefer being thinner...

18 October 2012 (Thursday) - More Golf....

Oh, the rain was loud last night. The guttering about our bedroom window gets overloaded with rain from the roof and it then overflows against the window. It doesn’t do that quietly at all. For once I was having a decent bit of kip and I wasn’t much pleased to be woken.

After a swift bit of brekkie I set off to collect "My Boy ^TM" and together we went to the golf club. Last week we had a go on the driving range. It wasn’t as easy as it looked, and today we had another go. I did something wrong on my first swipe and pulled a muscle in my right arm. We were there for about an hour. I would like to have stayed longer, but my arm was playing up.

Home, where I put the lead on Fudge and we set off for a quick walk. I’d had reports that one of my geocaches needed some maintenance. I found it and the log inside was soaked. So I replaced it, and we then came home again. "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" phoned. I had been expecting to see her today, but something or other had come up. She was off to London on some errand or other. I did ask her to keep me appraised of what she was doing, but I didn't hear anything more. I can only assume she's OK.

I then did a spot of washing and ironing. I could have done something in the garden, but it was too wet and my arm was hurting too. My arm carried on hurting for much of the day, so I rested it. Fudge rested too.

The day's news was unusual. In a novel break with tradition it didn't feature the latest fleeting trivialities of today's politicians who will be forgotten tomorrow. Nor did it feature digging dirt on long-dead celebrities. Instead it was actually something worthy of mention for a change. Six years ago the New Horizons space probe set off to fly past the planet Pluto. (Pluto *IS* a planet!!). However the recent discovery of several moons around the rather small celestial body has given NASA cause for concern. Since there's quite a lot of rather large space rock thingies where there weren't expected to be many has made the boffins wonder if there's also one or two smaller space rock thingies out there too. And if there is, that might be a problem. Having New Horizons prang into a space rock thingy (of any size) at fourteen kilometres per second is going to make quite a dent in said space probe.

And talking of space related things I set off to the astro club's committee meeting. I was perhaps earlier than I might have been; no one told me we were meeting at 8pm and not at 7.30pm like the email said. But we had a good meet-up. Plans for the future, a new year's series of talks planned, Stargazing Live, all sorts of stuff planned...

17 October 2012 (Wednesday) - Stuff

I was rather late to bed last night. Having been out I checked my emails just before bed time. I saw that a new geocache had become active in the previous hour. It was hidden somewhere near B&Q - not two minutes walk from my house, and had not (at the time) been found. In the sad geocaching world there is great kudos attached to being the first person to find a cache, so we got dressed, put the lead on Fudge and set off. We were lucky - after rummaging about in a hedge for a few minutes we were first to find (FTF) at 11.38pm.

My first FTF and my five hundredth geocache both on the same day. I am allowing myself to feel quite smug about that.

 

I wasn't especially worried about being late to bed last night - what with insomnia I figured it wouldn't make much difference. And I was wide awake before 5am as I thought I would be. But I was still rather tired all day. Mind you I suspect that is more to do with the cold I seem to be developing than anything to do with acting in a very surreptitious manner at midnight last night.

 

Over brekkie I watched a documentary I'd recorded a day or so ago and had been looking forward to seeing. Billed as being about how the life size model of the blue whale in the natural history museum had been built, the program turned out to be a great disappointment. For every minute about the model there were five minutes spent on the contemporary history of the time.

It was also depressingly dark this morning. I'd got used to waking in the dark, and it becoming light by the time I set off to work, but today it was still dark when I got to Canterbury. The news didn't do much for my mood either. Apparently on average there are fifty people chasing each job vacancy at the moment. That doesn't bode at all well for my long hoped-for change of career. Mind you, realistically I've all but given up with the job hunting. It's rather disheartening, and what do I want with a new job anyway?

 

I did my bit at work, and I came home to find the postman had been. He'd delivered my copy of Viz. Over the last year I'd rather stopped reading that magazine. One of many austerity measures. But one of life's daft facts is that it's far cheaper to have the magazine delivered by post than it is to buy the thing in the shops. So I'm now again getting my monthly fix of nonsense. I've quite missed Viz. If any of my loyal readers haven't read it, I'd suggest giving it a try. For non-stop knob jokes it takes some beating. That is - if you like knob jokes....