25 April 2015 (Saturday) - Busy, Busy...

I woke far too early and having watched all of my pre-recorded rubbish on the SkyPlus box I watched a little "Toddlers and Tiaras" on the TLC channel. "Toddlers and Tiaras" is always fun; most of the children clearly don't want to be there; most of the parents are horrible people. One mother was forcing a fifteen month old child into beauty pageants; claiming the only reason she had a child was so she could force the child into beauty pageants.
Mind you I can't help but wonder how much of this is really "reality TV" and how much is scripted like any other soap opera.

I then walked up to the Stour Centre. The astro club was helping out with the British Astronomical Association's one day event they were holding in Ashford. I arrived a little early and met the woman from the B.A.A. I must admit I didn't really warm to her; and I can't help but feel that a roped-off half of a sports hall wasn't perhaps the best of venues. I wasn't impressed with the hand-torn half a sheet of A4 programmes for the day. And I did feel that as we were the club which was providing all the kit for the day, they could at the very least have got the name of our club right.
I helped set up, and when others arrived I said my goodbyes and went to the Gorge with Steve and Sarah for a spot of brekkie.

As I walked home I had a pleasant surprise. The lady walking toward me looked just like my aunt Jenny. And the people with her looked just like my aunt Sylv and my aunt Jean and cousin Helen. I've not seen them for ages. They were having a day out; it was good to catch up.

I then went to Chatham. Following a mix-up with dates for a geo-event I needed to speak with the organisers of the upcoming mega-event. I knew they would be at a CITO event so I popped up to have a word.
I hadn't planned on going to the CITO event. CITO stands for "Cache in Trash Out" and is supposed to be time spent tidying up an area of land. Fields, parks, woodlands.... I've been to two in the past and wasn't impressed with either. I had made a decision not to waste my time on any more CITO events; but as I was going to be there I thought I'd give it an hour of my time; it would have been rude not to have done so.

We were helping to tidy up Fort Luton today. It's the sort of place where I've been known to trespass in the past. An old Victorian fort. having been left to decay; it's currently in private ownership and is being slowly renovated. Thirty or so of us got stuck in today. Hedge trimming, paint stripping, pressure washing, painting general tidying all needed doing. I explained to the organisers that seeing how I was one of the older ones it was be nice if I could have one of the less physically demanding jobs. So I ended up on the gang that was putting in the fence posts; the most physically demanding job of the lot.
Mind you I'm not complaining; we had a great laugh. Especially when we realised four of the posts needed to be dug out and done again properly. As I said I only intended to make a flying visit; I was there for the duration of the event. There's talk of a return visit; I would be up for that.

I came home and walked my dog round the park. We took a pink tennis ball; he played nicely with it. And once home I played with a gpx file for my new geo-app. What was an hour's fight last week took five minutes today. And with "er indoors TM" off to film night I set about the monthly accounts. Could be better. I ironed shirts, then fell asleep whilst watching James Bond on ITV.

Today had looked set to be rather dull. It certainly wasn't...


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