There are those that
would not want to work on a Saturday night. I really don't mind; I
don't have to do it *that* often, and having time off mid-week is not
too bad at all. I did my bit at work last night, and whilst waiting
for the relief shift to arrive there's no denying I quickly checked
my emails in the hope of a notification that a new geocache had gone
live on which I might chase the First to Find. As though getting one
such on the way into work last night wasn't enough.
Instead I contented
myself with doing a little maintenance (completely replacing)
on one of my Canterbury-based cache hides. If anyone should see a
bird box on the outskirts of Canterbury... look again.
As I drove home I
listened to the church service on the radio. Today the service for
the second Sunday in Advent was broadcast from St Joseph's church in
Bradford. For all that I can hardly claim to be the world's most
pious person I do like to listen to a"good" church
service. There can be something spiritual and reassuring about it.
Sometimes. But not today. Today's service was frankly rubbish. It
featured Latin chants which were alternately howled and droned; with
the occassional platitude thrown in for good measure. And bearing in
mind how close we are to Christmas there wasn't a single Chrimbo
carol.
I was disappointed.
And to add insult to
injury the A28 was closed at Chilham which meant I had to take a
rather circuitous detour to get home.
After a quick brekkie we
gathered the first fruit of my loin and his entourage and we set off
to the reindeer centre. It's nearly Christmas, and so the reindeer
centre would be a fun place to visit.
In the three years since
we first found the place it has risen in its popularity...
Our plan was to turn up ,
see Santa, see the animals, come home for a spot of lunch, and then
(for me) go to bed before another night shift. It was a good plan,
but like all plans bore little relation to what actually happened. We
arrived shortly after 10am, and queued for forty five minutes just to
get into the place. I was just a little shocked to find they'd put
their prices up; we paid double what we'd paid last time. I thought
fifty three quid for five of us was just the teensiest bit
extortionate.
Bearing in mind that the
queues were growing as we watched, we thought we'd best take Lacey to
see Santa right away; we queued some more. We finally saw Santa after
another hour's wait.
Then we went on to the
petting zoo part of the place. They had some really good animals,
reindeer, llamas, donkeys, goats, rabbits, ducks , pigs; all sorts of
creatures. All tame and friendly, and all really good with children.
Don't get me wrong; it was a really good outing. But it was *so* busy
there. Previous trips there have been good fun. Today was hard work
fighting our way round the swarms. By the time we were ready for
lunch we all agreed we couldn't face more queues so we came home
where Cheryl made some really good filled baguettes.
I finally got into bed
about an hour and a half later than I would have liked, and slept
like a log till six o'clock.
"er indoors TM"
had made a rather good bit of scoff for tea, and then it was off to
the night shift again. Just as I was about to set off I checked my
emails. I had a message that one of my puzzle geocaches had gone
missing. I say "gone missing"; actually the message was
that someone couldn't find it. A subtle difference, and my heart sank
when I checked the thing on my way to work and I found it was where
it was supposed to be.
When I can't find a
cache, I work on the principle of "I can't find it; so I'll try
again another time". So often I get messages from people who
cannot find caches I've hidden who take the line "I can't find
it therefore it's not there" and these people take great offence
when I check and tell them it was there all along. I've even been
accused of lying and of putting out new caches (and faking loads of
signatures in the wriiten logs before) by some of these people.
It came as something of a
releif when having emailed the chap to say it *was* there he replied
(in good humour) saying he'd try again.
And so to work. Another
night shift.
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