2 April 2019 (Tuesday) - A Day Off


Not a bad night, I suppose. Treacle did try to scrap with Pogo in the small hours but it blew over as quickly as it started.
I was laying quite contentedly when I suddenly realised that after all the hours of preparation for setting today’s geo-series (and there has been a *lot* of hours spent preparing) I hadn’t updated “Hannah” with the thirty-three final sets of co-ordinates that I am going to use, and would need for this morning.
That was another half-hour…

As I updated my GPX file (a rather tedious pastime) Fudge sat with me hoping for toast crusts. He gets some these days. A couple of years ago he was quite the barrel, but as he’s getting older so he is losing weight. I wouldn’t say he’s gaunt, but I might just take him to the vet and waste thirty quid to be told I’m worrying about nothing.
I then had a look at Facebook. I sent out a couple of birthday messages. One chap who was having a birthday today… I always thought I was older than him, but fifteen years older? And I then had a wry smile at the latest meme that was circulating. Those who never post anything original were re-posting “I wanna see something cool – not a meme or a selfie but a pic you’ve taken”. I agree entirely with the sentiment – that’s why I go on Facebook. I want to see what others are getting up to.
I spent a few minutes solving geo-puzzles, then got myself organised for the day. The original plan for today was that I would be working, but having swapped out of last Thursday night (and got two day shifts instead) and having acquired last Sunday’s early meant I was owed some time.

I loaded the dogs into the boot of the car and we drove to the garage where "er indoors TM" had left her car for its MOT. Up until that point the dogs had sat in the back of the car as good as gold. The moment that they heard "er indoors TM" they started screaming and Treacle tried (and succeeded) to come up-front. We drove "er indoors TM" to work, and once we’d dropped her off so the hounds all went back to being (relatively) well behaved.

I drove the dogs up to Kings Wood; having done all of the preparations for a new geo-series it was time to actually shove the film pots under some rocks and sticks.
We had a rather good walk. The only cattle we met were on the other side of a fence. We met two other people, but that passed off without incident. We met a horse rider; she was civil enough but I *think* she shouldn’t have been there. I don’t think horse riders are allowed there. I even took a few photos as we walked.
In fact the only problems I had was when I was actually trying to hide film pots under rocks; Pogo wanted to play with the sticks I was using to disguise that which I was hiding. He got quite frantic in wanting the sticks. Mind you the dogs were a lot easier to manage than on previous geo-maintenance missions.
The problem with taking dogs out on a geocaching expedition is it soon becomes all about the dogs. On-with-leads, off-with-leads. Crossing roads. Crossing stiles… It is all very well when you are mob-handed with two people to every dog, but when it is just “me and three” it can be hard work. Kings Wood has none of this nonsense. Once we are twenty yards from the car park the dogs come off the leads, and bimble about doing their own thing until we’ve walked all the way round. Five miles over three hours – not a bad walk for the dogs (or me!) I’m hoping that this route will make for much easier geo-maintenance than the previous eight series I’ve put out did.

It was rather foggy this morning. The weather forecast had predicted rain for mid-day, but we got round whilst it was still dry.
Once home I scoffed a sandwich whilst watching an episode of “Uncle”, then told the geo-feds what I’d done this morning. That took half an hour. When I was half-way through so the rain started. I then archived the route of film pots under rocks I put round the north of Challock a couple of years ago. It had been logged as visited by over a hundred and thirty people and (from experience) that’s probably about as many people as are going to go visit it. It’s run its course; time to go.

I did have a plan to mow the lawn and generally pootle in the garden this afternoon, but the ran had put paid to that. instead I set about solving some geo-puzzles. The solutions to these puzzles will lead us round a walk that I expect we shall be taking in the not-too-distant future. These puzzles were about the TV series “Dancing on Ice”. I’ve never seen a single episode of the show, but (as always) Wikipedia told me all I needed to know. I did chuckle as I called up the “Dancing on Ice” page on Wikipedia. Have you seen it? Have a look by clicking here. As you page down through it there are tables of celebrities who have been on the show. These tables list exactly what these so-called celebrities are famous for. Isn’t this truly a sign of our times in that with celebrities being ten-a-penny, we need to be told why people are actually billed as being famous.

I drove out to collect "er indoors TM" from work and take her to the garage. All is not peachy with the "er indoors TM"-mobile…
We had a rather good bit of dinner and a bottle of plonk whilst watching “Young Sheldon”, “Derry Girls” and “Bake Off”. “Bake Off” *really* proved my earlier rant. It was the celebrity show – we’d never head of any of them…

A day off without doing any laundry… that must be a first…

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