I was quite late to bed
last night. It was a hot night, and I was wide awake at 5am. I lay
awake for a bit, then got up, pootled about with domestic trivia and
then watched my morning's fix of Blake's Seven. Today our heroes were
having problems with an intergalactic fungus which was giving them
gyp. In the end Avon fixed it with a flutonic power cell. Which was
probably for the best.
I then had a look on-line
to see what was going on, and my piss boiled somewhat. Regular
readers of this drivel might know that I am on a quest to find
exactly what is so good about hand-held GPS units. For the uses to
which I would put one they are either equal or inferior to my phone
in every way except two. The two areas in which they excel is that
they have better battery life and they are billed as being pretty
much indestructible, If only I had enough money to waste I might find
out just what it is about these things that everyone loves so much.
All the disadvantages that hey have are billed as being reasons for
why they are so good.
This morning on Facebook
I saw a friend had managed to trash his GPS unit quite
comprehensively. When I mentioned that I had been told about the
ruggedness of said devices, those who once told me that now sang a
different tune.
And so on with the
business of the day. I’d arrange to pick Lisa up at 9am, and I
found myself parking outside her house far too early. As I’d driven
down my phone had beeped about emails so as I had a minute or two I
thought I’d check them. A new cache had gone live. Only a few
hundred yards away from where I was. I zoomed off, and got a First to
Find. I was quite pleased about the FTF; being in the right place at
the right time helped. I suspect there are those who will call
“shenanigans” though.
I collected Lisa and we
set off to Ham Street via Ruckinge. HSL1 had released a series of
geocaches earlier in the week. I would like to have done the lot
today, but time was short and we had other fish to fry. So we
contented ourselves in trying to find the one cache that Lisa
couldn’t find on Wednesday. It turned out that several other people
hadn’t found it either, and another FTF was begging. We parked up
and on seeing the power lines I had an idea. I suspected that the
power lines had thrown the GPS signal. They do that. So I didn’t
really bother with the GPS, and just marched up and down the footpath
looking for where someone would hide a cache. This plan paid off, and
we found it some fifty yards away from where one might first think to
look.
Having done the happy
dance we made off to Ham Street and told Steve the co-ordinates of
where we’d found it. And then the three of us went into Ham Street
Woods for a stroll, a wander, and to see if we could find a tunnel
which was purported to be in those woods. We found it; a torrent was
rushing through it, a small stream was fuelling a waterfall above it,
and it was full of spiders. But we found the tunnel, which was the
object of the exercise. Getting Lisa wet and covered in cobwebs was
an added bonus.
We did our best to ignore
the thunder we could hear in the distance. Fortunately the storm
never amounted to anything, but getting caught in the rain was
something to worry about.
It would have been good
to have messed about more today, but there were dull things to do at
home. Lawns to mow, overgrowth from next door to prune, garden
furniture to scrub, buckets to bleach, patios to brush, gardens to
tidy. I’ve not done a perfect job, but it will do.
I also put the new gas
barbecue together. To be honest it went together easily enough;
taking about an hour and a half to do. The problem came with the gas.
We had four gas bottles in the shed; none fitted. So I drove over to
Sweatman’s mowers and explained what I wanted. The nice man said I
could bring in one of the bottles from home and swap it for a
new-style bottle and save thirty quid on the cost of a new bottle.
All I would then have to pay for was the gas. I liked the sound of
that so drove home and came back with what was apparently the wrong
bottle. It was a nine-0-seven(!) This caused ructions with the
assembled throng. Apparently I couldn’t trade that in, but had to
buy a new bottle and gas as well. Whilst I was at it I got some gas
for the up-coming camping expedition.
That was seventy quid I
wasn’t expecting to spend…
er indoors TM"
came home and we took "Furry Face TM"
for a walk. Down through Park Farm and home through South
Willesborough. A two hour walk on a lovely evening. We came home to
find "My Boy TM" and his entourage
were in residence. They'd come to see the birthday girl.
Did I mention it was her
birthday today...?
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