28 February 2017 (Tuesday) - This n That

I slept well; over brekkie I watched the second episode of SS-GB; a “what-if” fantasy about what might have happened if Germany had won the Battle of Britain. It is quite a good show so far; I hope it keeps up this standard.

In a novel break with tradition both dogs were up and about as I watched morning telly. I chivvied them into a cold garden to do what dogs do; for all that the puppy is getting better she is not averse to peeing on the carpet when the mood takes her.

Once tiddled, both dogs ran upstairs to sleep on top of "er indoors ^TM" whilst I had my morning’s sweep of the Internet. I had a friend request on Facebook from someone I should really have added months ago. I also found I’d been de-friended by someone I was intending to de-friend. And I had emails offering me compensation for flight delays I’ve never had.

I scraped the ice from my car’s windscreen and set off to work with the car’s heater doing its thing. As I drove the pundits were discussing Sir John Major’s recent speech in which he seemed to be having a grumble about Brexit. I can’t help but feel the chap had a point. At the time I was against it; I had heard all sorts of reasons to vote against Brexit, and not a single (verified) reason to vote for it. Today the New European website poses forty-eight questions that still remain unanswered about the matter. For example, far from getting back three hundred and fifty five million pounds each week from the EU, the UK will have to shell out far more.

But after all is said and done the decision has been made. Sir John really should shut his rattle as I have mine. For better or worse, interesting times lay ahead,

I ws surprised to find I made good time to work; just before I left I’d seen a message on Facebook saying the A249 was at a standstill. I don’t know why that was; the M20 was moving fine. Similarly on the way home the motorway signs were saying that the journey time to Ashford was half an hour and it only took fifteen minutes.

After a quick bit of scoff we went out to the Tuesday gathering. Chippy had moved house and we went to have a look-see. A rather nice house, and a rather nice lady friend too. Over a pint (or two) of rather good beer we cheered on the first ever episode of Blake’s Seven.

A rather good evening…

27 February 2017 (Monday) - When I Croak...

I slept well, but was still awake two hours earlier than I needed to be. I had a vague idea to watch an episode of “You Rang M’Lord” over brekkie, but the DVD player wouldn’t switch on. It does that from time to time. To get the thing to work I have to pull its plug and start the thing off again. But getting to the plug is a bit of a stretch and I couldn’t be bothered, so I watched an episode of “Dad’s Army” instead.

With some telly watched I then rebooted the DVD player and had a look-see on-line. Other than some junk emails from Volvo, not a lot of note had happened overnight.

I set off to work; the roads were really busy. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about all sorts of stuff (as they do). Jeremy Corbyn was under fire again. He amazes me; whether he is a good leader for the Labour party or not is irrelevant. The media have clearly decided against him and have persuaded the public that he has made the Labour party unelectable. The public clearly believe this. But still he refuses to go.

The national child abuse enquiry finally got going. I got cross. I do feel for the abused children; what happened to many children over the years is terrible. But what on Earth can be achieved by interviewing a victim who is now seventy years old?

I got to work; today I was learning how my new place of work measures levels of Vitamin B12 in the blood. I used to do that with radioactive isotopes in years gone by. The technology is rather less dangerous these days, but even so I managed to get an error out of the analyser that no one had ever seen before.

The engineer arrives tomorrow.

I left work whilst it was still light this evening. I got home after dark, but I left work in the light. Once home I ran the dogs round the roads, and then told "er indoors ^TM" we need to revise our will. What happen if both kids croak before us? What if we all croak? Could a hereditary grandchild’s guardian make a better case for what I leave than an acquired grandchild’s guardian might? And what about my dogs? I need to leave money to over their food and vet bills.

Our current will merely makes allowances for who looks after the fruits of my loin if we croak. I can’t see "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" taking kindly to being sent to live with her auntie when I croak…

26 February 2017 (Sunday) - Eastbourne

I was rather late crawling out of my pit this morning; I ached from the fencing work yesterday. Dog breakfast was entertaining; the puppy has decided that the biscuit bowl is now a toy. She now drags the bowl around the living room and has taken to chewing lumps out of it.

Just as I sat to scoff my toast we got the news that Jose had a hangover. I smiled. Despite the copious quantities I consumed last night my head was rather clear. Mind you I had enough pain from the aching.

I checked the Internet as I had brekkie. Ongoing Facebook squabbles seemed to have quietened down overnight. I’m getting rather sick of Facebook squabbles; they *always* take the same format. One protagonist has a grievance about something another has done. However rather than saying “I am unhappy because…”, they say “I hate you” and the whole thing descends into bitter nastiness. The original problem remains unresolved on one side and a mystery to the other. I’m getting a little fed up with the squabbling.

However on a more positive note, emails told me of a new geo-series in the general vicinity of Sevenoaks. That may well be a plan for next Sunday; I spent a few minutes solving geo-puzzles in the area (just in case).

With a few minutes to spare I did the monthly accounts. There is no denying that not having done any night or weekend shifts (with enhanced payments) for a while has left me short. And an MOT and a broken fence have also made a dent in the finances. But I expect I will survive; after all what is money for if not to squander foolishly?

We set off for Hastings where we collected mother-in law, and then drove on to Eastbourne to meet sister-in-law. There was a minor hiatus whilst we cleared up puppy vomit (Treacle gets travel-sick), but we were soon back on schedule. Whilst everyone else pored over the paperwork from the solicitors following father-in-law’s death I took the dogs for a walk through Princes Park and along the sea front. I managed to find three geocaches (can you believe it?) The walk was only marred by "Furry Face ^TM" attempting to hump a passing pug.

Our walk didn’t take long, solicitor’s paperwork took a little longer, but we were soon on the way home. It would have been good to have spent longer with family, but Eastbourne isn’t the easiest of places to get to.

We came home via my mum’s house. Following a trip to Guy’s hospital a couple of days ago she’s been booked in to have half a lung taken out in four days time. Mind you she seemed rather chirpy bearing in mind she’s not well.

We came home; for all that the dogs hadn’t had a major walk they both were soon fast asleep. I then had a look at the geo-map around Guy’s hospital. The visiting hours there are frankly ludicrous. They chuck visitors out for two and a half hours over lunch time, so I thought I might try to plan a little geo-wander to pass the time whilst she has her dinner.

"er indoors ^TM" then boiled up a rather good bit of dinner. As we scoffed it we watched the last episode of “Taboo”. Now that I’ve seen the lot I can confidently wonder what was that all about?

25 February 2017 (Saturday) - Fence Fixed

It was well after midnight before I got to bed last night. I slept like a log, and was pleasantly dozing when "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" woke me with a text saying how they’d hardly slept.

I made myself some toast and had a look at the Internet. I found myself looking at a geocaching-related group called “geocarping”. The whole idea of the group is that you go there to whinge and moan about all things Tupperware-related, but it is rather depressing. I have rarely read such a load of nastiness (and being on the Internet it is up against some rather stiff competition).

But on a more positive note I had a message from someone who’d been to Ashford to do some of my Wherigos. They sent a rather nice message. I really should see about making that Crystal Maze themed one I’ve been planning for months.

But "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" were on the way, so I got dressed and made a start in the garden. Before long the most recent fruit of my loin (and her branch of the family tree) were with us. As "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM"  wreaked havoc inside, Sam and I fixed the fence. The old fence post had been cemented in place; over the years the post had rotted and Thursday’s storm had proved too much for it. The post had snapped at ground level. Fortunately, the fence panels were still intact so today’s job was dead simple. We had to move the fallen panels out of the way, dig out the concrete core in which the old fence post had been buried, replace the post with a new one, and put the fallen fence panels back in place. Dead simple to type out. Straightforward to do… To be honest it *was* a straightforward job. I’d moved the panels out of the way before anyone had arrived. Sam and I did struggle to get the old concrete core out. It took some digging, but after forty minutes we managed to get a rope around it and heaved it out. We then reviewed the situation. We knew we needed to go shopping for a new post. We decided to get a Metpost rather than concreting again, so we went to B&Q. We got the post (it was on clearance sale – result!) and we got a new club-hammer and a screwdriver set, but B&Q didn’t have a Metpost. We asked the staff but… Have you ever asked the staff anything in B&Q? They are all pleasant enough people, but know absolutely nothing about that which they are selling.

So we went to Wickes. Not only did Wickes have what we wanted, but the journey back home took us right past McDonalds. We paused briefly for a cheeky McBreakfast before coming home to finish the job. We stuck one of the fence panels in place, got the new post into the ground square to the fence panel, then put the final panel in place. So easy to type, not so easy to do. "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" came out to help and offer sage advice and film the operation. In retrospect, the job would have gone quicker had one of the dogs not fallen in the pond (about five minutes twenty seconds into the video).

After two hours the job was done. Sam worked wonders with me this morning. Replacing fence panels is something for which you need some help. By this time Cheryl, Lacey and Rolo had arrived, and we all took the dogs for a walk round the park, then had KFC for lunch before the family all went their various ways.

We went to Tesco for a little shopping, then came home and had a minor tidy-up. I then emailed the BBC… A nice lady from the BBC emailed the astro club a couple of days ago. They wondered if we might like to do help create an intro link for them which they would show between programs. You can see what they had in mind by clicking here. This idea was put to the membership last night and there was quite a bit of interest. So I emailed the nice lady from the BBC to discuss how we might proceed, and I immediately got an automated email reply saying “Hi there, I have now finished at the BBC. Many thanks”. I suspect the project is now dead in the water, but we shall see.

The door bell rang; Jose and Maria came for dinner. We had a rather good time…