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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