I slept well until the puppy started
licking and biting my head shortly after 7am. I got up and she made herself
comfortable where I had been. I came downstairs and over brekkie watched my
lap-top finishing off its weekly update. I *always*
make the same mistake; presented with the options of “Update and restart” or “Update
and shut down” I invariably go for “Update
and shut down”. I always forget this actually means “Do half the update and do the rest when he turns the thing on next time”.
The lap-top eventually came back to life
and when it did I managed to have a look at the Internet. Yesterday I mentioned
about the week’s geo-event in Devon. Several friends had gone, and were
complaining about the rain. In years gone by I used to camp a lot; nowhere near
so much these days (it hurts too much),
but there’s no denying that the rain does put me off. Rain when camping is
manageable *if* you are prepared for
it, but being prepared for it involves taking some relatively huge form of
shelter. And having some way of drying it out when you bring it home wet.
If I could afford a camper van or a
caravan and had somewhere practical to store it…
I then spent a little while on
TripAdvisor giving the work the benefit of my sage wisdom on several cafes,
restaurants and McDonalds until the birthday girl emerged from her pit. She
then spent a rather happy half an hour opening pressies; she had a good haul.
We then took the dogs for a walk. With
rain forecast later we thought we’d wear them out before it got wet. A new
geocache had gone live in the wilds near Tenterden, so we walked the dogs round
some beautiful countryside and even got a cheeky First to Find whilst we were
at it.
As we walked we were harangued by a
landowner. They were very polite but very insistent that we complained about
the owner of the adjoining fields. They claimed that they spent out maintaining
the rights of way on their land whilst their neighbour had let the stiles fall
into disrepair and had let them become dangerous. We assured them that we would
report any dodgy stiles to the council. However we didn’t find any. I wonder
what they had the arse about; all the stiles we found were fine.
We got home just as the rain started.
We settled the dogs and drove down to
Hythe. "er indoors TM" fancied an afternoon tea, so
we went to the Hythe Imperial Hotel. It wasn’t bad but… the coffee cup was so
small that two gulps and you emptied it. Admittedly they did free refills. But
three tiddly sandwiches, one scone and four micro cakes came to twenty quid
each. And call me old fashioned if you will, but I did think the hen party on
the next table having champagne instead of tea was just a tad too much. No one
gave me the option of a pint. Mind you I’d certainly go back.
On the way home another car rear-ended
us; he skidded on the wet roads. No harm was done, but it added to the
adventure of the day.
Once home we slobbed for a bit, then collected
Sam and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction TM" and
then went on to the railway station for "Daddy’s Little Angel TM".
The entire tribe then met up at the Harvester where I’d booked a table for
family dinner. Not cheap, but then that sort of thing rarely is. And although
the food was excellent, like yesterday (in
all honesty) I would rather have had a McDonalds…
I think she enjoyed her birthday – I certainly did…
No comments:
Post a Comment