19 September 2021 (Sunday) - A Day Off

I woke after ten hours sleep feeling rather grim. For all that I obviously needed a good night’s kip, I often find that I feel worse after a long sleep than after just a few hours.

I made toast… eventually. “er indoors TM” won’t hear a word against the toaster but the thing is fit only for the dustbin. Today it would only toast for up to ten seconds before spitting out the slightly warmed bread. I forced the thing to work by physically holding the lever down. I’m told that the thing is very pretty; it may well be, but it is of no use whatsoever.

 

With thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon we’d not planned a major hike for today. Instead we took the dogs down to Lydd for a shorter walk following a Wherigo that had been created in April. We parked up, activated the “Where You Go” apps on our phones and took the dogs on a little guided walk round Lydd. I’ve not really been round Lydd much before – it reminded me of Hastings in that you go from the incredibly posh parts with detached houses and manicured lawns to the council estates with piss-stained mattresses in the garden (and back again) seemingly in the blink of an eye.

We had a good little walk; the game started us off chasing a squirrel, and then we were challenged to work out which kind of station we’d found; fire, police or space. We then found a lost puppy, gave him some steak, took him home, and was rewarded with the location of a tiny little geocache. It was really good to do a Wherigo that wasn’t the generic downloaded one that comprises most of those that are active in the UK, or one that wasn’t ”blah blah dull history”.

We were about half-way round when the rain started, but that shower didn’t amount to much, and we were able to finish in the dry.

 

Geocache-wise I loved it, but we were only the fifth group to do the thing in as many months. People either love or hate Wherigo. Having created sixty of the things (with six more currently under construction) I’m seen as something of the go-to person for Wherigo locally and I really can’t understand why they aren’t more popular. People whinge about Wherigo:

I don’t have the app” – well get it free from the Play Store

I don’t know how to do Wherigo” – have a go and find out. It’s not hard.

Too much walking just for one smiley” – Walking about is what the game is!!

People who won’t (not can’t) do Wherigos miss so much – this walk round Lydd was ideal for a dull morning before the forecast storm.

 

We came home through light drizzle and had sticky toffee pudding with custard for lunch. “er indoors TM” served the custard as God intended (i.e. custard on top of pudding) and with lunch (pudding) scoffed I set the washing machine and dishwasher doing their things. Seeing the rain hadn’t amounted to much, I went in to do a little gardening. I picked fallen leaves and weeds out of the gravel, pruned the potted shrubs and mowed the lawn as the drizzle got heavier. Just as I was finishing there were a couple of rumbles of thunder in the distance.

 

I came in and perused the geo-map. Flushed with enthusiasm after this morning’s Wherigo walk I was determined to find somewhere to put out the new series I’ve been working on. Having made several field trips and spent hours (days) programming the thing I’ve given up on where I had in mind. Needing landowner permission, I’ve given up on Natural England as they only reply to maybe one email in ten. But (hopefully) I’ve found somewhere else that might do for a walk.

 

I then geo-puzzled a little whilst “er indoors TM” took the dogs chasing Munzees during a break in the rain, and once she’d come back, “er indoors TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a frankly amazing program about the construction of a floating house on one of the country’s canals. We then cracked open a bottle of port and downed it with roulade and stilton whilst watching the semi-finals of “Lego Masters” in which the frankly obnoxious little sh*t got knocked out.

We’ve shifted three quarters of that bottle of port. I shall feel it in the morning…

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