Anyone who reads this blog will realise that one of my pet
hates is how nasty people are to each other on Facebook. But I saw a post this
morning that left me speechless. Someone had dug out a garden pond, lined it
with the weed-proof membranes that you put under gravel in the garden, and was
asking why the thing wasn’t holding any water. Have you seen these weed-proof
membranes? They are porous in the extreme; made of woven fibres they are
designed to let water though. How could anyone think that these would hold
water? Seriously? But faced with a very easy target, pretty much everyone on
that Facebook page was being kind and helpful. Here’s hoping this is the way
forward…
Being a Saturday morning I loaded the dogs into the car and
set off to Dog Club listening to Steve on the radio. Every Saturday on the way
to Dog Club there is a lyrics quiz; Steve reads out the lyrics to a song and we
have to work out which one... "Facing
twenty-thousand of your friends, how can anyone be so lonely?" Do you
know it? This was the first one I've ever known - Super Trouper by Abba. Go
me!!
We got to Dog Club, and after a few minutes “er indoors TM”
joined us. Dog Club was rather busy this morning, but nowhere near as many of
the bigger dogs were along. I got the impression that words have been said, and
the bigger (quite frankly huge) dogs have graduated from the small dogs
session to one of the later sessions. But there were plenty of small dogs to
swarm about. There was a minor incident when some small child felt overwhelmed
(and got a bit upset) by being mobbed by the dogs, but as the mother
pointed out, if you are going to stand there with a bag of dog treats you can
either give them out and the dogs will soon lose interest. Or you can stand
there holding the treats and get mobbed.
Morgan ran round with his mates; I watched him get told off
(by slightly larger dogs) a couple of times, which was good for him.
Bailey made a few heads turn as she screamed, but as I
pointed out she was screaming as she was chasing the bigger dogs. They weren't
chasing her. She was just excited.
Treacle even sniffed a few other dogs which for her is a
massive improvement in her attitude to other dogs.
I did chuckle as we walked out. A woman who hadn't been
along before fussed Bailey. As I walked away (with Bailey on the lead) I
heard her saying to her friends "there's a man who's not afraid to be
seen with a tiny dog".
As we drove from Dog Club Steve was doing the Mystery year
on the radio. When did Jon Pertwee step down as Doctor Who? Steve mentioned
he'd seen the photos I'd posted to Facebook from Dog Club, then mentioned me by
name saying that the next record would give the mystery year away to me. I
drove down the motorway grinning like a Cheshire cat listening to Sparks
playing "Amateur
Hour".
We drove to the Conningbrook Country Park; not somewhere
we've ever been before. It looked rather pretty, but with signs everywhere saying
dogs had to be on leads it isn't the sort of place we'd go. Mind you there were
plenty of people with dogs ignoring those signs.
But today the monthly geocachers' meet-up was taking place
there, what with it being International Geocaching Day, and if ever there was a
day to meet up with hunters of Tupperware, it was today. So a dozen of us met
up, ate doughnuts and talked about things geocachical for an hour.
After an hour, leaving everyone else (and “er indoors TM”
and the dogs) behind I set off to work. Mind you I've worked on ten of the
eleven "International Geocaching Days" that have happened
whilst I've been a Tupperware hunter, so setting off to work today wasn't
really anything new
As I drove up the motorway I found myself thinking about
the little meet-up of geocachers. Looking back I think we took up geocaching at
the right time. There were dozens of people keen on the hobby back then; our
enthusiasm bounced off of each other and for many years we all had fun. Both in
going out for walks and in meeting up. But over the years I think it fair to
say that the novelty has worn off. Where a meet-up would have attracted dozens
of people in the past, today we barely got one dozen along.
As I drove up the motorway (which is still now only a
dual carriageway) I looked across at the miles of empty lane supposedly to
be used as a lorry park for "Operation Brock". I suppose that
this is better than the complete motorway closures that happened on the old
"Operation Stack", but it is still (to coin a phrase)
"a pain in the glass".
I got to work far earlier than planned. The original plan
for the day had me working the night shift at Pembury, but what with shift
swaps and illness and one thing and another I ended up doing the late shift at
Maidstone. I got to work and went to the M&S to get a sandwich. As I swiped
my Sparks card (M&S's loyalty card thingy) so the checkout laid an
egg, and loudly announced that I was the day's lucky winner and that today's
shopping was for free. Had I known that in advance I would have got far more
than just a sandwich. But something for nothing can't be bad.
Work was far more like hard work than I had hoped it would
be, but with it done I came home to an empty house; “er indoors TM”
was chauffeuring Cheryl about.
I made the most of watching the telly…
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