I suppose I slept well. Had I not had a nightmare in which
lavatories were (by law) no longer available to anyone but regular
churchgoers I might have slept a whole lot better though.
Over brekkie I had my usual trawl of the Internet. I had a
wry smile at some chap posting to the local geocaching page suggesting that
everyone else might put out themed geocaches about pubs. Geocaching, like every
other hobby I’ve ever followed, is rife with people saying “why don’t you
do…”, but you rarely see “why don’t we do…” and almost never see “I’ve
just done…”.
This morning’s petty squabble was on one of the Facebook
groups about the villages round Hastings. Several people claimed to have lived
in “Staple Cross” as opposed to “Staplecross”, and others were
putting them right. I suppose it *is* possible to get more petty, but it
would take some doing.
I took the dogs out. Usually Orlestone Woods is our go-to
place but when it is wet it is a swamp. So with the rain we’ve had recently I
decided to take no chances. As we drove up to Kings Wood the pundits on the
radio were giving out a suggested reading list for children on their school
holidays.
Back in the day when I was on summer holidays I would walk
out the front door shortly after eight o’clock each morning, and together with
a gaggle of mates not come back for twelve hours. We would go to Fairlight sand
quarry, the beach, the swimming pool… and never come to any harm. However kids
these days dare not leave the house for fear of being murdered on the doorstep
(but that’s a rant for another time…).
Pretty much all of the children’s reading being suggested
was actually by non-English authors, and one of the suggestions for teenagers
was the collected fairy tales of the brothers Grimm. It was claimed that the
Disney and Pixar films have tamed these books down a *lot*, and that the
original books are rather gritty.
I’m tempted to give them a go.
We got to the woods and did one of our “standard”
walks. A shade under two miles; we walked it in forty-five minutes. I had a
little tear as I remembered my Fudge pootling round at his own pace taking
nearly an hour and a half to do the same distance, with me regularly putting
him back on the lead to stop him wandering off on his own little missions.
As we walked we met two other groups of dogs. Treacle
walked straight past ignoring them; Morgan and Bailey had a little sniff but
came away when called.
We came home via the petrol station as the car was getting
low on the stuff. I had hoped to eke it out until tomorrow night when I will be
in Aylesford where the petrol is a *lot* cheaper but I’d rather spend
out a little than conk out half-way between the -hursts and the -dens.
We had a cuppa and some cake, and then I set off through
the -hursts and the -dens. I set off to work with every intention of checking
on a geocache of mine near Goudhurst that someone couldn't find recently, and
of going looking for one near Pembury. But I found so many sets of road works,
then found myself stuck behind some steam-powered tractor thing (bearing a
sign saying "slow moving - steam powered!). And there was the usual
arrogance in Goudhurst where despite the road being incredibly narrow, no one
is prepared to give any way. The journey which took just over an hour yesterday
took just under two hours this morning.
I stopped off at Tesco in Pembury though - I needed a sandwich, and got one or two
other bits and bobs too. As I queued the chap in the queue in front of me was
ranting at the woman behind the till about what a load of crap Tesco store
cards are. He asked my opinion. I winked at the woman on the till, and invited
him to watch and see what a piss-poor deal I got with the thing. The chap
watched my stuff getting scanned, made a note of the total, and his face was a
picture as I scanned my Tesco clubcard and the till knocked a full ten per cent
off the price of what I was buying.
He wasn't happy about that...
Work was rather busy; far busier than yesterday had been.
Far busier than I would have liked. And the journey home was problematical too…
And in other news, “Daddy’s
Little Angel TM” tells me that “Stormageddon – Bringer of
Destruction TM” has created the architectural masterpiece of the
age; the Slidge. It is a combination of a slide and a bridge and combines the
fun and benefits of both. Sadly it doesn't actually work, but in our world that
is just a piddling detail.
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