7 July 2021 (Wednesday) - Before The Night Shift

I slept well, which was something to be appreciated. Rather than having the usual morning routine we leapt into action and took the dogs to the woods for a little wander. And it was a good wander; if a little dangerous. The ground at Orlestone is currently rock-hard but with a millimetre-thick covering of slimy mud which makes your every step not unlike skating on wet ice. I never actually went arse-over-tit this morning, but it came close several times. But the dogs liked it, even if they did come home covered in mud.

As er indoors TM” scrubbed the mud from Treacle and Pogo so I went into the garden to attack the lawn. I came back in after two minutes though. The fine drizzle had become proper rain.

I made toast, and as yet another negative COVID test incubated I scoffed brekkie and peered into the Internet rather later than usual. I sent out birthday wishes to two friends, and saw something of a squabble kicking off on one of the work-based Facebook groups I follow. It never fails to amaze me how medical opinion varies between countries who provide state healthcare for the public and countries that don’t (i.e. America). I blogged about that particular issue somewhere else, then checked emails.

 

Apparently my credit score has gone down four points this week. I wonder why?

I was asked to cast my votes for the building society’s AGM – as if I have any understanding of what they are talking about, or any knowledge of the candidates standing for election.

And I was very surprised to see that the nice people at geocaching HQ have given me another set of Adventure Lab Caches to do with as I will.

 

Adventure Lab Caches are… well… they have the potential to be excellent. In theory the idea is that I create a guided walk that takes you somewhere that you wouldn’t usually go. Once there you have a little wander to answer some questions that have been set for you, and you get five more smiley faces on your geo-score when you get the answers right. However in reality, for every person who goes out and does it properly there are a dozen who use VPN software and geocaching cheat sites on Facebook to blag the things from the comfort of their own living rooms a thousand miles away. I was awarded a set of these Adventure Lab Caches in September 2019, put quite a bit of effort into setting it up, and of the first ten people to do it, seven had clearly cheated.

I expect I shall set the thing up at some point, but what do I do with it? Do I set it up to try to thwart the cheats? Or should I just say “stuff it” and let the cheats do what they will, knowing that there are those who will do it properly and enjoy it. I have a couple of ideas for locations, but none of them are quite what I’d like them to be. But it does seem odd that some people (like me) have now been given two of these whilst others (like er indoors TM) haven’t had any.

 

As I checked emails and wrote about the vagaries of the Kell blood group system and pondered maps so not-so-nice-next-door clanged away at her piano. Until recently she regularly started playing at quarter past five in the afternoon, but just recently she has started doing so at eleven o’clock in the morning. Perhaps I’m being unfair when I describe it as “clanged away”. I suppose a professional musician really needs to practice, but is she *really* a professional musician? She must enjoy doing it as she’s been at it for twenty years, but she’s nowhere near as good as you’d think someone who has been at it for twenty years would be. Perhaps she is doing a “Les Dawson to wind us up? Though it rather suits me having her clanging away to her heart’s content. With a couple of hours of that every day she can’t say a word about the dogs’  barking.

 

Seeing how the rain hadn’t amounted to much I went out into the garden and mowed the lawn. It wasn’t that wet, and at the rate it is growing it needed cutting sooner rather than later. And with lawn mowed I had a shower and went to bed for the afternoon. Both dogs came up at various times to see what I was doing, and I had a phone call from 07481 443640 which the internet tells me is a number well known for scamming phone calls. 

I’m hoping er indoors TM” will boil up some dinner soon, then I am off to the night shift. I was originally supposed to be working last night but I was asked to swap at the weekend. There is some major international football match this evening apparently. Looking on the internet I see it starts at eight o’clock. That should make for a quiet Sainsburys when I go shopping before work…

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