As is so often the way,
after an ale or two I didn't sleep well last night. I was up and
eating cornflakes whilst watching "South Park" at
3am in an attempt to settle my wayward stomach.
It settled (after a
fashion); I went back to bed. However my sleep was marred by
vivid dreams in which I had been called into work because I had
recently been to London for a day's parasitology course (which
I had) and my wisdom was required. In my slumbers an
associate had gone bright yellow having contracted the rather rare
strain of "bastard malaria".
I finally gave up with
the idea of sleep shortly after 7am and watched "Toddlers and
Tiaras" over toast and coffee. That settled my stomach far
more than cornflakes ever did.
As I was prepping
"Hannah" for the day I had a message. Yesterday we
spent the evening at a geo-camping event. Nick's phone had been
charging in the car as we sat chatting. This morning - disaster.
Nick's keys had gone missing. "er indoors TM"
had a look in the car as I prepared to drive back out to Yalding to
deliver them, but they weren't in our car.
For all that we breathed
a sigh of relief I can't help but wonder where the errant keys went.
"Furry Face TM"
seemed rather subdued this morning; only nibbling at his breakfast.
Usually when he sees me getting backpack and walking boots together
he gooes mental, but not today. Perhaps he was worn out with
yesterday's excitement. But subdued dogs notwitstanding we got
ourselves together and set off to the south coast.
We had plans to walk
three shorter geo-serieses today, and so we drove out to Hawkinge to
start the "Up on the Downs" series. Billed as a walk
of two and a half miles the plan was to do this and another series
before lunch, and then move on to Samphire Hoe for the afternoon.
We started our walk with
a little diversion into Hawkinge itself, and then went on to the
country lanes. We saw rabits and pheasants and fox poo. The walk was
rather scenic; I
took a few photos whilst we were there. But as for a geocaching
walk.... I don't want to be negative, it wasn't a bad walk. In fact
looking back it was actually a rather good one. And in his defence
the chap who'd put the series out did say he'd never had much to do
with the outdoors and that he was new to hiding tupperware... but...
I had a couple of trivial
issues with the series. Personally I would have put more caches along
the route; I would have had more caches at places where you change
directions and footpaths just to make that change more obvious. And I
would question the published distance. Billed as two and a half
miles, three GPS units measured it at a shade under four miles.
However I would say that
the first geocache could have been worked differently. The puzzle was
was overly complicated and the final co-ordinates were some two miles
away and weren't actually on the walk. The final location involved a
little detour from the circuit of about half a mile. I would have
done it differently.
But I'm probably just
being picky here. The chap who'd put the caches out had obviously put
a lot of time and effort into providing me with a walk around places
I've never been before, and for all that I might whinge, I am very
grateful for his efforts.
As we walked we noticed a
little blood on Suzy-pup's side. We stopped and looked closer. There
was a gash in her side about an inch long. So rather than carrying on
into Alkham we abandoned our plans for the rest of the day and drove
to the vets in Folkestone. In addition to the gash the vet found two
puncture wounds. We are pretty sure she ripped her side on barbed
wire; either when chasing pheasants, or when falling out of a tree
(it's a dog thing).
The poor pup didn't seem
overly bothered but had we carried on she would have got the wound
infected. The vet closed the gash with three staples and put a
"bucket of shame" over Suzy-pup's head and ordered
rest, so we cut the day short and came home.
Once home "er
indoors TM" drove "My Boy TM"
up to the hospital. Cheryl's back had been getting more and more
painful. She is booked for surgery for a slipped disc, and having
been to the Accident & Emergency department she'd been told she
could have the surgery today.
After a few hours of
waiting around she was told things weren't as urgent as they seemed
and she was back on the waiting list and sent home again.
And with "er
indoors TM" off bowling I was left "home
alone" with my dog. He seemed really quiet, and as I did the
ironing I had to turn the telly up over the sound of his snoring.
He's laying asleep next
to me now; he sees absolutely knackered. He has got an appointment
with the vet himself tomorrow. I shall ask them if I'm fussing about
him unduly...
No comments:
Post a Comment