14 June 2020 (Sunday) - Marden and a Barby


I was sleeping like a log when Treacle started grumbling. I *think* she was telling Pogo off for some vague and unspecified crime.
Over brekkie I had a look at the Internet which was one big argument.
There was quite a squabble kicking off on one of the work-related Facebook pages I follow, In order to be a professional blood tester you need to have a degree in biomedical science before you start. But not just any old degree; you need one which is specifically accredited by the league of blood testers. Time and time again people start doing any old degree, complete the course and then find that their qualification isn’t actually what they thought it was, they find it isn’t actually worth having, and they have to spend a couple more years doing top-up modules. I made the observation that choosing the right degree in the first place was in itself some sort of a test, and that hadn’t gone down well with several people who’d made that mistake.
Over the years I’ve met so many people who’ve got to the stage of having a biomedical science degree (that has taken four years to obtain) that isn’t fit for purpose, Or they’ve got a “good” degree only to find they have no idea what a professional blood tester actually does. Or they actually want to do forensic pathology or research and didn’t realise that neither is what happens in the hospital setting.
I despair for the future of professional blood testing. Back in the day you entered the job aged seventeen having done reasonably well at your “O” levels. The laboratory in which you worked then sent you to college one day a week for the next four years and then you were qualified. If you wanted it, there was the option to do a further two years day-release to get an MSc equivalent degree (which I did). Nowadays you are expected to go get all the qualifications in your own time and at your own expense. You apply for a job *after* you qualify (*not* four years before), and by the time people have farted around having gap years and the like, they don’t start looking for work until about ten years later in life than I did.
And a twenty-seven year-old has far more expectations than a seventeen year old.

There was also consternation on one of the geocaching websites. Yesterday I’d asked for help with the geo-software on the dedicated geo-software Facebook page. Leaving out the specifics, when creating a new geocache listing given that you have performed action “A”, you then perform action “B”. I’d figured out (totally by chance) how to automate action “A” using the geo-software and wondered if I could similarly automate action “B”. So I asked that question.
Several people had posted overnight telling me that it is impossible to perform action “A” using the geo-software (even though I had done so), and others felt there was some merit in spending an hour or so performing action “B” manually rather than automating it so it could be done with one key stroke.
No one answered what I had asked; everyone was looking for a fight.

We got the dogs organised and drove out to Marden. As we drove we listened to Steve who was broadcasting on Radio Ashford. He played some song or other at five to nine. I must admit that to me it was just a noise but "er indoors TM" assured me that the song played was the version that shouldn’t be played at five to nine on a Sunday morning.
I tried to text him, but there was no signal as we drove through Smarden.

We got to the car park in Marden where we met Karl, Tracey and Charlotte. Once the dogs calmed down we met a Fudge look-alike, then set off on a little walk following a relatively new series of geocaches. We had a good walk... we started off by meeting a little dog that looked just like Fudge. And with pleasantries exchanged with that dog we carried on along lanes and orchards and lanes and footpaths.
Geocache-wise it was a good walk. It was good to see a new walk in an area in which there hadn’t previously been any caches. I must admit I would have put more caches along the route; Fifteen caches over four miles wasn’t *that* many. And one or two of them were rather overlooked. But I am in no way complaining. It was good to see a new series of caches – if only more people would take the trouble to put out new cache series…
I took a few photos as we walked.

We came home, settled the dogs, and popped round to see "My Boy TM" for a socially distanced barby. An afternoon in the sun drinking beer and scoffing ourselves silly was a good way to spend the afternoon. Perhaps most of a bottle of bubbly after five bottles of ale was a bad move…

We came home again, and joined in the Sunday Zoom catch-up. Apparently there was an on-line role-play game yesterday…
It would have nice to have been invited… (!) Still, as I have often said, no good deed goes unpublished.
The sad thing is that when I tell these people that I was offended by not being included, they will be mortified because it really never occurred to them that I might take offence at not being included…

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