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16 September 2018 (Sunday) - Late Shift


I slept like a log last night, finally waking after a solid eight hours snoozing. I came downstairs to be welcomed by both dogs.
I did snigger as I made my toast. "er indoors TM" was giving the dogs their brekkie but Fudge was being fussy. And if Fudge doesn’t eat, Treacle won’t either. After a few minutes "er indoors TM" fed Fudge his brekkie one morsel at a time. Sometimes he will only eat when being hand-fed. Is he being fussy? Does his neck hurt to reach down? Is he just being awkward? Or does he prefer having a servant feed him each scrap?
As I scoffed my toast he came and sat with me and farted quite impressively.

I had my morning trawl through cyberspace. Facebook reminded me of a rather good walk I went on six years ago, told me of a (distant) family birthday, and gave me all the dirt on an acquaintance’s rather tangled love life. And (for once) no one was spewing racial hatred. Facebook can be quite fun sometimes. Mind you I didn’t see many pictures from yesterday’s geo-meet. I saw quite a few piccies from people who might have gone who had been elsewhere though. Was it *not* just me who hadn’t seen it advertised anywhere? But the pictures I did see looked as though the meet had taken place in an ice-cream parlour. I think I missed out there.
Looking at my emails confirmed my theory about yesterday’s geo-meet not being publicised. I had *loads* of emails about people who yesterday had found the caches I’ve hidden locally; many of which were people who I would have thought would have been at the geo-meet.

We got the dogs onto their leads and went for a little walk. Today we went up past the station, past the civic centre and home through the memorial gardens and Viccie park on a mission to find a few Snow Dogs. All were rather wonderful, but I did think the one by the remembrance monument was rather poignant (as well as being one of a small minority on which Fudge hasn’t tiddled. I wish he wouldn’t do that). We found fifteen today – I’ve updated my Snow Dogs photo album. It looks as if I’ve found all of the Snow Dogs and Snow Pups in the town centre; just a few to find over in the outlet centre now.

As we walked through the park we met a young chap who looked familiar – he was an ex-cub with three children of his own. When he told me his name I immediately remembered him and two other lads performing a rap song about a fox at a cub camp some fifteen years ago. Over the years I must have had over a hundred boys and girls come through the cub pack. I remember every one of them – but in my mind they are all nine years old. So often as I walk through the town I get shy smiles from people in their twenties and thirties; I wish they would introduce themselves.

I set off to work hoping for the best but expecting the worst. The motorway had been closed for the weekend between junctions four and six in both directions, and bearing in mind I take the motorway to junction five for work I thought my journey might be somewhat problematical.
It was.
As usual Google Navigation let me down. That app is excellent for navigating and finding better routes when there is congestion, but it sees a closed road as a freely moving road and so always directs you into the closure. I drove up the motorway expecting to come off at junction six; I found traffic queued back as far as junction seven so I came off there and struggled my way round Maidstone. The roads round Maidstone were already congested due to the ongoing repairs to the roads caused by a huge sink hole.
When you bear in mind that the roads round Maidstone have been in chaos (because of the sink hole) for over three months you really have to wonder just why anyone would allow the motorway to be closed today.
Ashford is just the same with road works pretty much everywhere too.
Now I'm no expert on the subject, but why doesn't whoever it is that oversees road works implement a scheme whereby (apart from emergencies) no road works are allowed within (say) five miles of any other road works. Rather than having loads of gangs working on loads of road works, we might have all the available road workers working on one set of road works. That way each job could get done faster and be finished before starting on the next, and towns wouldn't be absolutely blocked solidly as Maidstone and Ashford currently are.

I got to work and had some lunch in the works canteen. Broccoli cheese and chips went down very well.
I then had a rather busy shift. During a break in the work I had a look at my phone. A month ago I wrote a nice little story about my (and the dogs) adventure with one particular geocache on the way to visit my mum in Hastings. I was rather pleasantly surprised to see that my write-up had been voted "Log of the Month" by the Sussex guild of the hunters of Tupperware.
I spent the rest of the shift feeling somewhat smug (if also feeling a bit busy)…

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