I was fast asleep when Treacle decided to start
walking on my head. Having walked across it once, she walked back again. And
again. I wish she wouldn’t do that.
I tried to get back to sleep; I eventually gave up
and got up feeling like death warmed up. I made myself some toast and as I
scoffed it I peered into the Internet. Facebook was heaving with teachers
whinging about what a hard life it is having to go back to work. Doing a
six-hour day after six weeks off must have come hard.
There were also posts about how the local council
are planning to inspect the bins we put out and leave stickers on bins with the
wrong sort of rubbish in them. It’s getting so you need a degree in dustbin
studies before you dare throw anything away. Ashford council posted up to one
comment on Facebook saying “We're not actually
including blocks of flats and communal bins in this campaign”. Whoops! If my bins get the thumbs-down I know where I’m chucking my
rubbish.
I had a load of emails telling me that people had
been out visiting my new series of geocaches. All caches found; no issues
reported. I’m relieved about that; the plan for today had been to go out and
check all was well, but it would seem that all *is* well.
What do you do when you get two reports (on the same day) about the same
film pot, one of which says “GPS co-ordinates twenty
metres out” and the other says “GPS co-ordinates
spot on”?
What with the vagaries of my work pattern I was not
expected to turn up at work today. Seeing a new type of geo-adventure had
appeared in Hastings Old Town I’d asked if anyone fancied a day out. As is so
often the case, most people were busy, but Gordon was free. I took the dogs; we
all met up on Hastings sea front and had quite a good time.
Geocaching Adventure Lab is a new thing. The
idea is that you go somewhere, answer questions about what you find, and each
answer you get right is the equivalent of finding a film pot under a rock. It
has the advantage that whilst a film pot can (and often
does) go missing, providing an answer should be a
relatively easier way to claim a find.
The Adventure lab in Hastings was based on the blue
plaques that you find on the front of houses marking where famous people once
lived. Having lived in Hastings for twenty years and worked in the area where
we were walking I found this little tour amazing. I had no idea that the artist
Dante Gabriel Rossetti had lived in Hastings. I didn’t know that Hastings had
once had its own bank based only a few yards from where I often go on drinking
sessions. As always geocaching took me to the quirky little places. And we got
nine joint First to Finds too. Result !!
However from a technical perspective the thing has
one or two issues. It has to be done in an “on-line” mode. When I go hunting Tupperware I either have a GPS unit, or a
phone which I set up at home. The Adventure Lab app requires an active Internet
connection and it eats the battery. My phone used up thirty per cent of its
charge in half an hour. And because the game requires an active Internet
connection, I did struggle a couple of times (interestingly
Gordon didn’t). In many ways the thing reminds me of a Wherigo.
Perhaps this will replace them?
I’d certainly go do more of these.
Having bought three hours of parking (just in case) we found ourselves
back at the car after only half an hour. It was then that I realised I’d left
the car windows open. Whoops!
We said our goodbyes and headed homewards. I
stopped off on the way to pick up a geocache that I’d had my eye on for some
time. Having finally figured out where this one actually was I managed to claim
another geo-resuscitation. Go me!!
We came home, and I realised Treacle had stopped
shaking her head about. Before we left home she’d been constantly shaking her
head. I’d said that if she was still doing it when we got home we’d be going to
see the vet. Thinking about it, the head-shaking had stopped when we walked out
the door this morning. I wonder what that was all about.
I had a spot of lunch whilst watching more “Black Mirror” then got on with
my latest Wherigo project. I amazed myself; in four hours I got the thing to a
stage where I can test it out in the field, and I got all the cache pages
written up.
Hopefully I can have it all live by the weekend.
"er
indoors TM"
is currently boiling up some dinner. We’ve got cheese in the fridge and a box
of wine, and Bake-Off is on the telly later.
And in closing did you know it is eight years to
the day since I first met Fudge…
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