11 October 2015 (Sunday) - Earthcache Day

Earlier in the week I mentioned I'd bought the e-book "Night of the Triffids". I've finished it now. It was actually a good read written in the same sort of sexist 1950s way that Wyndham wrote "Day of the Triffids". But (and in my world there is usually a "but") I did think that six quid was just a little bit expensive for what it was. I can understand that a physical book costs money to produce and distribute, and that book shops have running costs. But e-books don't have anywhere near the same overheads.
Regular readers of this drivel may recall that a few years ago I did a course on astro-biology. The chap who lead that (free) course has written a book on the subject. I looked at getting that book on my Kindle app. It is currently on offer on Amazon dot com at a sixty seven per cent reduction. But even with that reduction it is still nearly forty quid. Forty quid. For an e-book?

Over brekkie I had a look-see on social media and got into a minor squabble on the Ashford Kent Today group. Someone was trying to do a "Power Of The Internet" thing in which she would use the power of the Internet to find the owner of some stuff for which she had accepted delivery. Personally if the postman tries to deliver something which isn't for me I refuse delivery. Or if he's stuck it through the letterbox I write "not known at this address" and stick it back in the post box. I asked why anyone would accept delivery of something when they had no idea who the recipient was. Apparently I wasn't being helpful (!)

My back and elbow were a little painful after yesterday's heavy lifting, but I'm not one to give up at the first twinge. Today is International Earthcache Day in which hunters of tupperware do their geology homework for which we all get an e-souvenir. Being rather keen on earthcaches meant I'd done most of the nearby ones so we set off to the closest one for which I was eligible which was at Dry Hill which isn't a million miles from Biggin Hill.
We met up with several like-minded friends there, and having found one sandwich box at the base of a tree we did our geology homework. There's no denying I got something of a muddy bum as I skidded to the bottom of the incline doing mine.

With phase one of the day's plan done some of our number went off to take the boys to play football. Some went off to do a few drive-by geocaches. and some of us then went a mile or so down the road where there was a trail of fifteen geocaches leading us round a rather beautiful walk; we only lost our way once.
As we walked there were several pheasants who were making the dogs very over-excited. I've often wondered what would happen if "Furry Face TM" ever actually caught a pheasant. Now I know. He was on the lead, but the lead does extend. And in my defence "er indoors TM" had hold of the lead. But there wasn't really anything she could have done. He shot into the hedge and came out with a freshly killed pheasant in his mouth. The thing's neck was clearly broken so it had been a clean kill (which was probably for the best), and with it removed from the hedge he started to rip the feathers out. We took a few photos, and made our way on to the pub.

We'd arranged for everyone to meet up at the Woodman at 1.30pm; once there and with everyone together I downloaded the untappd app which Mark and I had been chatting about. And then something odd happened. I had no problem downloading a 16Mb app, but I couldn't connect to register what beer I was drinking. Or the next one. Or even the third.

From the Woodman we made our way back to the cars then relocated another mile down the road for the third part of the day; another (slightly shorter) geo-walk. As we walked I wondered if we might see the Avro Vulcan XH558 which was having its farewell flight today. I've no real interest in the plane myself but everyone else seems keen on it. However I will say that over the last few months this plane seems to have had quite a few farewell flights. Perhaps there are several of them? I don't know.

We got back to the cars just before 5pm. Although we'd had a walk of three halves today, we still walked just over ten miles. And my face was glowing; I'd really caught the sun. We said our goodbyes and made our ways to our various homes. I took a few photos as we walked. Once home I popped them on-line as my killer hound snored.

Downton Abbey's on in a minute...


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