I woke at six o’clock feeling far better than I have
recently. I went to the loo, went back to bed and was gripped by a coughing fit
that simply wouldn’t stop. After a while of disturbing everyone I gave up on
the idea of having a lie-in (which I probably needed), got up, made
toast and had a look at the Internet. It was stil there; much the same as ever.
What with the union’s ballots about the latest NHS pay
offer having been announced (and the unions not being in agreement)
there was quite a bit of in-fighting going on on-line. I predict that within a
few months the nurses will have their own pay scale and will get better pay
offers than the rest of us.
I got the dogs into the car and we set off on a little
mission. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about sciency-stuff,
and in a novel break with tradition weren’t proudly showing their ignorance and
taking the piss out of stuff they didn’t understand. They were talking about Elon Musk’s
announcement that he too is trying to make an artificial
intelligence. Some expert or other was wheeled on who said that anyone who
fancies having a go at making an artificial intelligence really can just have a
go. There’s more regulation over making fish and chips than there is over
making something which could potentially wipe out humanity. Apparently it has been suggested that there
needs to be international regulation of artificial intelligence *before*
it runs amok and takes over the world.
I’d be up for that.
We got to Kings Wood, and parked in the lower car park…
just like we always used to in years gone by. We went on a little walk exploring
bits of the woods we’ve not explored before. As we went some of our number
rolled in horse poo, and some played tug o’ war with the headless corpse of a
dead squirrel.
As we walked down a very clearly marked path we’d not walked
before we saw a sign nailed to a tree saying “Private Woods”. I thought
that Kings Wood was open to the public, but not wanting to take any chances (especially
with the dogs in tow) we retreated back the way we’d come. As we were on
the way back to the car we met the chap with the moustache who walks half a
dozen dogs. I mentioned about the “Private Woods” sign. He said that if
you go far enough there’s an area where Kings Wood meets three or four other
woods. Some are private, some aren’t.
I suppose there’s quite enough space for us in Kings Wood
without needing to go further…
We came home and I spent a little while thinking about pond
filtration. Despite cleaning out the filters at the weekend, the pond is still
rather murky. I’d asked for opinions on the Facebook Garden Ponds UK page, and
the general consensus was to get a pressure filter, with a lot of people
recommending a particular brand and model.
I phoned “World of Water” in Rolvenden to see if
they had one. They didn’t, and they said that they didn’t recommend pressure
filters … presumably because they didn’t have any. They asked what filtration
set-up I had, and they told me that what I had was woefully inadequate for the
size of my pond. I thought about telling them that the filtration system I’ve
got was installed at their recommendation, but sometimes it is better to just keep
quiet.
I went on to All Pond Solutions
website… The pressure filter arrives tomorrow. Hopefully.
After “er indoors TM” had sorted a bowl
of soup for dinner I got out the ironing board and set about the laundry whilst
watching episodes of “Four in a Bed” featuring bed and breakfasts run by
British people in France. I do like this show, and this was a particularly good
set of episodes; the contestants *must* have been actors; could they
seriously have been real?. There was some old biddy (with a partner young
enough to be her son) who was more French than France. There was a
dyed-in-the-wool Conservative who had gone to France to “find his own piece
of England”. There was a little Englander who had been running a B&B in
France for over a year; proud of his ignorance of the French and proud not to
be able to speak the language. And there was a particularly vindictive little
fellow and his husband; the husband (quite frankly) deserving far better
in life.
With telly watched I embarked on yet another Wherigo
project. As we’d walked this morning I’d found potential final locations for
five more geocaches. I’ve sent an email to the geo-feds to see if the locations
are OK. Let’s see what they say.
“er indoors TM” boiled up a really
good dinner, I cracked open a cheap bottle of plonk, and we watched two
episodes of “Celebrity
Hunted”. Have you ever watched that show? I find it amazing for two
reasons. Firstly because of all the surveillance that goes on with each of us
every day without any of us being aware. And secondly because you would have
thought people going on that show would have watched previous episodes and
might have some idea about all the surveillance that goes on with each of us every
day without any of us being aware.
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