31 July 2024 (Wednesday) - Lullingstone

I woke in a cold sweat at four o’clock following a nightmare in which our tortoise had died tragically. We haven’t got a tortoise, and have never had one. What was that all about?

Other than that I slept well, finally getting up at eight o’clock. I made toast, sparked up the Internet and sent out birthday wishes to two friends, then had a little look-see to find out if I’d missed much overnight. I hadn’t really. I had a message from someone wanting to come to Dog Club on Saturday. I replied, but… We get three or four such messages a week from people who want to come along but claim that their dog is a very special case, we’ve never seen any dog like their’s before. Maybe one in ten of these enquiries results in anyone actually turning up.

 

We got the dogs organized and set off on today’s mission. As part of the week’s Mega-Geo-Event there was a litter tidy-up and a communal picnic at Lullingstone today. We drove up to Lullingstone and fell at the first hurdle. I couldn’t pay for car parking as there was no Internet signal for the RingGo app to work. A passing friend said that you can pay RingGo from home as long as you pay it the same day. Here’s hoping.

 

The plan had been to spend an hour litter picking and doing a Geocaching Adventure Lab at the same time. But what with there being pretty much no mobile data signal in the valley we gave up after having done the two ad-lab stages at the top of the hill, and went down to the river where we tried to littler pick whilst Treacle played in the river. Bailey had a little paddle, but Morgan wasn’t having any of it.

As has been my experience with geocaching litter picks, we always go to the wrong place to gather litter. The vast bulk of our litter was lolly sticks from our Magnums and bags of our dogs’ turds.

I’ve since heard that no one made a point of getting formal permission for the litter pick… something I was told I needed to have when I was planning to hold one in Kings Wood. I suppose this would explain why our event clashed with a rather well attended children’s story telling event, and why when I arrived I had the last space in the car park.

From litter picking we moved on to the communal picnic where we met and chatted with some new friends, and I walked round giving dog treats to any dogs I met. Sadly there weren’t many. Dogs, or people really. The people we were chatting with said that bearing in mind how many people were at the Mega-Geo-Event campsite he was surprised at how few people were at the picnic. I suppose there were fifty or so there. Back in the day we used to get that many turning up to the monthly county events. I suppose that bearing in mind the campsite was an hour’s drive from where we were, people weren’t keen on driving about.

 

We came home via Wickes where I got the sleepers for the next pond project. I wanted to get some huge screws to fasten the sleepers together, but the screws that were the right size looked like they needed some sort of spanner attachment to screw them into place, and the nice man in Wickes didn’t have anything that would do the trick.

Oh well, I can bodge the sleepers together. I’ve done it before.

 

I came home to find that the litter picking and the picnic had earned me a geo-souvenir. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a pasta bake, then we watched another episode of the American version of “The Traitors”. Have you ever seen it? Twenty so-called celebrities work together to earn a prize pot of money. Each week they work together and make more and more dosh. However three of them are traitors. Every evening the contestants sit round and try to reason out who is a traitor and banish who they don’t trust. And then every night the traitors randomly chuck out another of the contestants. The idea being that once only a few are left, those remaining get the cash. Unless there’s traitors left in which case they get all the money.

However those being banished and chucked out aren’t getting the heave-ho through any logical process. The whole thing is a popularity contest. I watch it out of a sense of amazement that something so dire has such a cult following.

 

Amazon has just delivered my water shoes… I shall need those tomorrow (he mentioned cryptically!)

30 July 2024 (Tuesday) - Another Early Shift

I had a far better night’s sleep last night but was still wide awake before five o’clock. I got up, made toast and had a little look at the Internet as I do. Several people were posting holiday photos. It would seem that there’s ticks at the Mega-Geo-Event, people were grumbling about the pensioners in their households not getting a winter fuel allowance.

I put out some virtual Munzees at today’s planned geo-event at Eastbourne beach. From the Mega-Geo-Event to Eastbourne is an hour’s drive (according to Google)… I feel sorry for those who’ve planned months in advance to come to this Mega, travelled miles (many internationally) and have found that by using public transport (without their own car) they’ve rather wasted their time and money.

 

I got Wordle on the fifth attempt, then set off to work. I went via the petrol station at the Ashford Sainsburys. As usual the woman on the till had a face like a smacked arse. She always looks so miserable. You'd think she'd jack it in and go get a job that she doesn't hate quite so much, wouldn't you?

 

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about what the latest Chancellor of the Exchequer has been up to. She's effectively decided to do away with the pensioner vote and suck up to the NHS workers by giving them a pay rise funded (in part) from the winter heating allowance.

Mind you not all of the NHS workers are happy. The average NHS worker looks set to get a five and a half per cent pay rise but the nurses have got the arse because the junior doctors are getting four times that. Personally I remember the strikes of the early 80s when we all stood together until the nurses got a socking great pay rise at which point they gave two fingers to everyone else, went back to work and the united NHS work force collapsed.

It's just a shame that the vast majority of nurses involved with that have long since retired.

 

There was also talk about the stabbing in Merseyside in which it would seem someone or other went absolutely psycho with a knife in a children's dance studio. The local MP was on the radio this morning asking that people didn't spread speculation and rumours on social media. I suppose the chap's got a point, but it strikes me that if an arrest has been made and the chap who did it has been caught, why don't the authorities put him in the stocks in the town centre and let people throw rocks at them? Seriously. Why not?

 

Meanwhile the triathlon event at the Paris Olympics has been postponed on account of there being too many turds floating down the Seine. Or so the French water quality expert being interviewed claimed. He blamed it all on the heavy rains of last week, but was rather vague on the details. Personally I can't see how that works. Are there turds in rainwater? Or are there random turds sitting about the riverbank which get washed in by the rain?

 

Work was work, but being on another early shift meant I got out early. My car’s thermometer told me it was thirty-two degrees as I left the works car park. The car park is always warm, but it didn’t get below twenty-nine degrees once on the journey home.

Road works meant it took nearly half an hour longer to get home than it might have done, but there it is. I had another blast round the patio with the pressure washer, watered the plants and fed the fish. As I pootled I saw that the sweet peas had flowered. Well, one flower, but that’s a start.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of steak which we washed down with a bottle of plonk.

Hopefully that might make me sleep…

29 July 2024 (Monday) - There Was Cake

I had an early night last night for once. I went to bed and lay awake for an hour or so. I finally nodded off and then “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs came up. The dogs stomped about until I was wide awake, then they all settled. I then dozed on and off for the rest of the night; not sleeping for more than twenty minutes at a time. Some nights I’m out cold; others not so.

I gave up trying to sleep, got up and made toast. I tried watching another episode of “The Decameron” but gave up after ten minutes. There are eight episodes of the show; I gave up after two and a bit. It wasn’t the best.

 

I had my usual look at the Internet. It would seem I’d missed quite a bit this weekend. Portsmouth Kite Festival, Piratemania, Maidstone’s River Festival, Folkestone Pride parade, Folkestone Kate Bush Day…

Had I known about what was happening in Folkestone yesterday I would have been there. Not so sure about the other events but it would have been nice to have known about them. Given notice I could have swapped work shifts about. Oh well…I’m sure it wasn’t all a conspiracy of secrecy; I just really do need to pay attention.

Over the weekend some people had walked my series of geocaches in Kings Wood and reported two missing. The furthest two from the car park. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – it will make for a dog walk in the next week or so.

 

I sent out birthday wishes, got Wordle on the fifth attempt, and had a little Munz session from the sofa. The requirements for next month’s Munzee Clan War have been published. Next month we need to get “Garden Scatter Points” and “Storyland Bouncer Points”. It’s not just scanning bar codes stuck to lamp posts, you know. However I’m finding that as time goes on this game is getting too complicated for me…

 

I set off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the latest Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that the country's financial situation was far worse than the outgoing Conservative government had claimed it was.

But then, to paraphrase Mandy Rice Davis, "well she would, wouldn't she?"

The general consensus was that this announcement and the subsequent cancellation of all sorts of public projects including scaling back on new hospitals and road tunnels under Stonehenge is a prelude to major tax hikes that she promised she wasn't going to do.

Amazingly she's also announced above inflation pay rises for teachers and NHS workers. Not that I don't want a pay rise, but the timing leaves a lot to be desired. I suppose what she's doing is to try to get some parity between the private and public sectors. It needs doing. Yesterday I heard about a distant acquaintance whose manual labouring brings home fifty per cent more money than what I get. Not that I'm jealous (I am!), but if I make a mistake I'm up before the professional regulator and out on my arse. On the other hand how can you balls up digging a hole in the road?

 

I'd left home early this morning expecting traffic chaos at the Coldharbour roundabout. I never got that far; the motorway was closed at the previous junction, and I had a little diversion through Aylesford. 

 

I got to work and cracked on with the early shift.  Work was much the same as ever, but today I had the added bonus of having my annual appraisal. Not that I am cynical about that sort of thing, but I'm too old for that sort of nonsense. I've done career advancement in the past and (in all honesty) didn't like it very much. Where do I see myself in five years time? Either pushing up daisies or eighteen months away from full retirement. Do I want to take on any extra roles or responsibilities? Not really. Been there, done that, wasn't keen.

I intimated (said outright) that I'd like to stop the night work, but I can't see that happening. Back in the day when I started this game (in 1981) the night work was paid rather better than it is these days. People did the night work for the money, and stopped on their thirtieth birthday as the youngsters were keen for the money. Nowadays the money is nowhere near as attractive, no one wants to do it, and people don't even start in this line of work until they are over thirty anyway.

And as well as an appraisal there was cake as well. Personally I was far more interested in the cake.

 

As always an early start made for an early finish. I came home and got that little hand-held pressure washer out and had a little blast round the patio.

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up fish and chips then went bowling. I made myself comfortable on the sofa with the dogs and watched a film on Netflix. “Queenpins” was rather good. Fun, entertaining… and then I woke up and realized I’d slept through half of it. 

28 July 2024 (Sunday) - New Pressure Washer

As I scoffed toast this morning I saw that someone had commented on the photos I’d posted to the Dog Club’s Facebook page yesterday. “It was my dog’s first time at dog club and he really had a great time and it was lovely watching him playing with all his new friends will definitely be going back”. That was good. Mind you the dogs usually have a great time at Dog Club. Any issues (not that there are many) come from the people.

I also saw that today was my brother and sister in law’s seventeenth wedding anniversary Seventeen years, eh? If asked I would have said ten. But that’s why I keep a diary, I was at that wedding.

I also had an email from Amazon. A week or so ago I ordered a hand-held pressure washer. When I came home last night I saw that it had arrived. This morning Amazon had sent me an email saying that they had had no notification that the thing had been shipped, and if they don’t get that in a week then they will refund my money. I suppose I should tell them that it has arrived.

Mind you, Amazon also thought that I might like their new range of “Friends” T-shirts and hoodies. I absolutely loathe and detest that show.

 

I had a quick Minz, got Wordle in four goes, then got dressed and opened up my hand-held pressure washer. The instructions had clearly been translated into English by someone who doesn’t speak English, but after a little farting around I got it all together. To be honest it was a bit of a disappointment, but I had taken the battery straight out of the packaging so I put it on to charge, and then went shopping.

I thought I might get those sleepers I’d seen in B&Q. However when I looked at those sleepers in B&Q they had a notice saying that they’d been treated with biocides and weren’t suitable for use near ponds.

I came home and had a little look on-line to find that pretty much every timber merchant is closed on a Sunday. So I voomed round the garden with the Bionic Burner. That’s one garden tool which does work.

 

I made us both a cuppa, then seeing how the hand-held pressure washer’s battery was charged I thought I might see if it worked any better with a full charge.

It did.

Much better. Comparable to how well the existing pressure washer works. However the little one has the advantage that because it operates out of a bucket I have to go get more water regularly and this prompts me to have a sweep up of all the dirty water. Without this prompt (as happens with the existing pressure washer) I end up ankle deep in a filthy mire.

 

With the garden washed we went  round to see “My Boy ^TM” and Cheryl. We sat in the sunshine scoffing barbecue chicken.

Not a bad way to spend the afternoon…

27 July 2024 (Saturday) - Before the Late Shift

I had a rather vivid dream last night in which I had gone to the barber’s for a haircut and he’d cut my fringe rather short. This was a rather serious matter for me, and I was really upset about it…

What was that all about. I’ve not had a fringe for years.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do most mornings. It was still there. Not a lot was happening on Facebook, which was probably a good thing.

I had an email; Amazon had sent me a refund for those waterfall thingies which I bought in good faith only to find they were no use for what I had in mind. That will pay for a couple of sleepers.

And I saw that our Munzee clan had reached its monthly target.

I got Wordle on the fourth attempt, then “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs descended. We did our usual wander round the garden as dogs do in the mornings. There were reports of a dead fish, but all the ones I could see looked to be quite contentedly still alive.

 

Being Saturday we drove round to Repton where we had Dog Club. Several new dogs (and their people) were along, and a great time was had by all.

Having totally failed on Steve’s “Guess the Lyrics” competition on the radio on the way there, I was one year out on the Mystery Year competition on the way home.

 

Once home I popped to the corner shop for pastries, and scoffed them whilst deploying Munzees at the Mega-Geo-Event. That should be good for a few points. And I discovered there’s a second Mega-Geo-Event near Reading which is taking place today. No one told me about that one. Ho hum…

 

I set off to work. I hadn't got as far as the turn-off to Dog Club (about a mile) when the tyre pressure warning alarm went off on my car. The new rear tyre that was fitted yesterday was under pressure. I pulled up where I could and pumped it up a bit. And then as I drove up the motorway for all that the cruise control was working there was no icon on the dashboard to tell me the car was in cruise control mode... like the nice man in the garage said there should be and that he would ensure was working. Oh well. The car has got an MOT in a few months' time. They can sort the cruise control icon then. It's not as though this is the first time they've not looked at it.

 

In a novel break with tradition there were actually some lorries queued up in the "Operation Brock" bit of the motorway. Not many; certainly no more than could have been parked up at the Sevington inland border control place. But some.

I only saw one car driving down the HGV bit this morning, but he was towing a caravan... if that is any excuse.

As I drove I was wondering if Radio Ashford has got a new transmitter - the signal got as far as Harrietsham this morning.

 

Needing supplies I went to the Aylesford branch of Sainsburys. This place never fails to entertain. The woman on the till was nearing the end of her shift and was loudly giving her supervisor a countdown of how many minutes there were before she was getting up and leaving "all this lot" waiting as she rudely waved dismissively at the queue at her till. Being a member of "all this lot" I was rather glad to have got through with three minutes remaining.

I thought about wasting her time with inane questions about the Nectar points on the voucher she rudely thrust at me, but thought better of doing so. Instead I passed the voucher (for five per cent off of my shopping the next time I spend over a hundred quid) to the chap behind me in the queue and left the woman on the till shrieking that the vouchers weren't transferable.

 

I went to work and did my bit whilst sulking and staring out of the window. On Thursday I'd not got much done as it had been pouring hard. Yesterday there was lots I could have done but I wore myself out on an epic route march in the morning. I could have got stuff done today if I'd not been working. I always say I don't mind working at the weekends... but I do mind if the weather is good.

Rather a waste of a Saturday really…

26 July 2024 (Friday) - Car Service

I slept reasonably well, but again woke feeling rather pissed off and miserable. I’ve been doing this quite a bit lately. I’m OK once I get up and get going, but start the day incredibly morose.

I got up and got going. And made toast and had a look at the Internet. It would seem there’s a load of Adventure Lab geocaches that have gone live for next week’s Mega-geo-event. Created by all sorts of people. Had I known about this I would have been only too happy to have been a part of it. I’ve offered to help with several Mega-geo-events over the years. With the exception of the one in Sussex which was cancelled because of COVID my help has only ever been accepted by the events miles away (I wrote Wherigos for them). Presumably someone relatively locally doesn’t want me involved. Understandable really; I wouldn’t want me involved either…

I struggled with Wordle, then kicked everyone else out of bed in readiness for the morning.

 

The plan for the morning was to get the car serviced, so I loaded up the dogs and we all drove over to the garage. Whilst the car was in I asked the nice man to recharge (or whatever) the air-con, and to have a look at the rear left tail light. There’s an intermittent fault in which the car tells me to have a look at the rear left tail light, but when I do there’s nothing wrong with it. And I asked them to have a look at the cruise control too. The cruise control works fine, but there’s supposed to be an icon on the dashboard which comes on to tell me I’m in cruise control mode. There isn’t.

The nice man in the garage gave the dogs a treat each, and told us to come back two hours later. So we took a little walk round the footpaths along the edge of the Sevington Inland Border Facility. The place is huge, and I saw maybe six lorries in there. Surely it would make more sense to use that rather than half a motorway if there are issues at the ports?

 

We then walked out half-way to Mersham for geo-reasons. There is a geocache there. To be able to claim a find you had to have found a geocache which had been hidden in every month since 2002. I qualified when the thing went live, but what with one thing and another I didn’t get to go for it. And after a couple of months with no new caches going live within miles  I resigned myself to not qualifying for it.

Last night I had another look at the requirements for this cache. I didn’t have to find one hidden in every month since 2002. I had to find one every month from 2002 to 2022. A subtle difference, but I qualified for that Had I actually read what it said I would have done that cache ages ago…

As we walked we met a jogger. Clearly a jogger in that he had trainers on. But he also had a suit too. What was that all about?

 

Just as we were walking past the hospital on the way back to the garage my phone rang. It was the garage. I thought that was handy – we were on our way back there. But it wasn’t handy at all. The car wasn’t ready. The garage needed some part or other, and the garage would need the car all day.

Was that a problem?

What could I say?

We walked home. Once home my watch told me we’d done six and a half miles and fifteen thousand steps.

 

Having been out rather longer than expected the dogs tucked into their water bowl when we got home. I made a quick cuppa for me and “er indoors ^TM”, then cracked on in the garden. I got the lawn mowed, cleaned out the pond filter, tidied up the gravel then fell asleep by the pond.

I then sulked. I had planned to get some sleepers and start sawing them into shape. I had hoped to look at getting pond liner. All of which rather depended on having a car. So I read my Kindle for a bit then wrote up some CPD until the keyboard on my lap-top died. Re-booting sorted it out, but it was rather worrying. What was that all about?

 

With lap-top going again I then strained my brain on another geo-puzzle that went live on Romney Marsh a day or so ago. Seemingly based on cakes, puddings and desserts I *think* there’s some Star Wars related element to it as well. But, be that as it may, how I turn a list of cakes, puddings and desserts into numbers is beyond me.

And then my phone beeped. The garage had sent a video showing how bald my tyres were. Did this mean the car was ready? I phoned the garage… no it wasn’t ready but if I wanted they could replace the tyres in the meantime. And did I know my rear windscreen wiper blade was juddering?

I agreed for them to sort that lot out. I carried on struggling to sort out the puzzle pudding until the garage phoned back to say the car was ready. Six hours longer than I had been expecting it to take, but there it was. I like being able to zoom about in a car; keeping the thing in a zoom-able condition isn’t *that* much of an inconvenience really.

 

With my step count into the seventeen thousands I didn’t fancy walking to the garage. “er indoors ^TM” drove me and the dogs back over there (they were hoping for more treats) and she then drove on to her ex-works summer party. Sometimes I am rather jealous of her. She keeps up with all her old workmates. I don’t, really.

I took the dogs to the garage where they got more fuss and more treats, gave the nice man over six hundred quid, collected my car and came home where I sparked up Netflix and started watching something new. “The Decameron” was only released onto Netflix yesterday. It’s a comedy… and I know that not through having watched two episodes, but because it says so on Wikipedia. I might stick with it; it might perk up.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home with dinner. At the risk of appearing ungrateful I fed the fishsticks to the dogs. I would have given them the garlic bread too if it wasn’t poisonous to them. It’s a bit poisonous to me too as it always gives me bellyache.

 

And in closing, today would have been a good friend’s birthday. Living where he did meant that I didn’t get to see Terry very often, but the half-dozen times we met up every year were always rather special.

He’s been gone three years now…

25 July 2024 (Thursday) - Pouring Hard

“er indoors ^TM” got up and left me asleep this morning. After half an hour Treacle came back upstairs and squeaked until I got up. She didn’t need me to do anything for her; she’d just decided I’d been in my pit for quite long enough.

As I drove home yesterday the weather forecaster was crystal clear that the weather in the South East would be dry overnight and dry today. It was quite clear that we’d had heavy rain when I let the dogs out, and the forecast had changed to drizzle all day.

 

I made toast and looked at the Internet. The plan for “er indoors ^TM”’s birthday next week had been to join in with one of the activities for next week’s Mega-Geo event. Sadly it turns out that the tickets all sold out ages ago.

I don’t want to detract from the hard work that has gone into the thing, but having been looking forward to joining in with some of the events planned for next week’s Mega-Geo event, it isn’t turning out like I thought it might. Previous Mega-events I’ve been to have been based at one place and all the activities go on from there. This one seems to be spread over much of Kent and Sussex, and involve a lot of driving for those taking part. I’ve seen quite a few complaints from people who had planned to go to the thing by train and stay for the week, and are now faced with either hiring for a car or having a rather boring week waiting about whilst everyone else goes out for the day.

 

When “er indoors ^TM” set off to work it was actually raining. By the time I’d got Wordle on the fourth attempt the rain had slackened off to drizzle, and with Met Check and the BBC giving totally contradictory weather forecasts I thought I’d just take pot luck.

I set a load of washing and the dishwasher going, and we went up to the woods and did one of our usual walks. As we walked my watch did a silly. What it usually records as being a shade under four miles was only three and a half miles today. But we got round in the dry. Expecting rain I’d taken a coat and carried it the entire way. Had I not taken the coat it would have poured hard.

 

We came home. As I emptied the washing machine and dishwasher so the heavens opened. I had planned to mow the lawn, but instead ran round with the Hoover despite Bailey trying to fight it, scoffed last night’s leftover kebab then set about the ironing whist watching a film on Netflix. Captain Underpants is always entertaining.

I then watched the last episode of “Boomers”. An odd series; like so many other series I found myself watching the last episodes because having watched so many it would be churlish to pack up half way through.

With the rain still hossing down I went through the monthly accounts. As always they could be a whole lot worse (is it wrong for me to want to have far too much money?) but they are certainly a lot better than they have been in the past.

 

With the back garden still awash with rain there was nothing I could do outside. I settled on the sofa with dogs and watched episodes of “Four in a Bed”. I’ve not watched the show for a while, but as ever proprietors of various B&B establishments crucified each other for things that they did wrong themselves. Today’s shows featured some chap who wouldn’t shut up about his having won the “Loo of the Year” awards for several years despite his glamping site’s loos having skid marks.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and chips for tea which we scoffed whilst watching “The Traitors US” in which twenty American so-called celebrities think that shrieking a lot makes them appear intelligent and astute.

 

Hopefully this rain will have stopped by the morning…

24 July 2024 (Wednesday) - Geo-Meet After Work

I slept reasonably well, but was still awake long before I needed to be. I made toast and watched another episode of “Boomers”. This one featured him who played Ford Prefect in the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The actor looks to have lost about two feet in height over the intervening years.

 I had a look at a dull Internet, got Wordle on my fifth attempt then got ready for work.

 

I wandered off down the road wondering where I'd left the car. I eventually found it two streets away. Sometimes I really think we need to move; if only to get off-street parking so I know where my car is.

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were talking about how the Prime Minister has laid down the law and suspended seven Labour MPs who defied him by voting against his proposals for only allowing child benefits for two children. Whether or not this specific case is right or wrong, it really shows yet another failing with our so-called democracy. In the last few weeks we've clearly elected a load of MPs who must do as they are told or they will be ruthlessly slapped down. So much for our having a voice in Parliament, eh?

 

As I drove up the dual carriageway (which was once a motorway) I kept glancing over at the "Operation Brock" bit in which absolutely no lorries whatsoever were being queued. Again I found myself wondering why the Highways department have trashed a perfectly good motorway. I also saw three cars driving down the "HGVs only" bit...

I got close to Junction Five and joined the queue. At half past seven this morning the queue was already quite long enough. The traffic was reduced to only one lane because of roundabout-widening roadworks. Mind you I can't help but think that the half-dozen workmen might have been better employed actually widening the roundabout rather than just standing about. To be fair one digger was doing digging. But then again there was space for at least a dozen diggers to have been doing digging.

 

Work was work. Getting home after work was just as problematical as getting there had been. With lanes coned off for no apparent reason it took nearly half an hour to get to the motorway. Had there been anyone at all working I could understand why lanes might have been cordoned off, but no one at all was working. And as I drove down the “Operation Brock” bit of the motorway I saw one lorry in fifteen miles. Thet’s not “not many” – that’s “one”. I counted.

 

I got home, collected “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs and we drove to the Leas in Folkestone where there was a little geo-meet going on. With people from miles away in the area for next week’s Mega-meet we spoke hunting Tupperware with people from Scotland and Holland. And I got four points towards the next ge-souvenir.

 

Getting home rather later than usual we had a kebab for dinner. Having had a guts ache all week, that should either kill or cure.

 

23 July 2024 (Tuesday) - Rather Busy

I slept like a log until four o’clock last night, went to the loo, and then lay awake for the rest of the night. When I finally dozed off Treacle did some silly nonsense in which she rolled herself in all the bedding.

I got up, took the dogs into the garden where I harvested a bumper crop of dung, then made some toast. I peered into the Internet as I do. There was consternation being expressed at the number of road closures planned across the county for this weekend. Four major A-roads and two motorways look to be closed. It strikes me that the obvious answer is to only close one road (and one road only) at a time. Get all available workmen on it regardless of what firm they work for. and work round the clock until the job is done, then move on to the next.

Look at the shambles at Coldharbour (M20 J5) yesterday where the roads are up until Christmas. It took me half an hour to drive one mile and there was only one digger doing anything there.

 

I got the dogs onto their leads. Eventually. Morgan is a worry. He clearly loves the walks when we are out, but he trembles seemingly in fear whenever it is time to put the lead on, and when we get to the car and do “Boot Dogs” he cowers at the back. Does he get travel sick?

We got to the woods and had a rather longer walk than usual. I’d had reports that two of the geocaches I’d hidden had gone missing. And they were at opposite ends of the woods. The first one was missing so I replaced it. The second was fine.

As we walked we met another Jackshund – a dog crossed between a Jack Russell and a Dachshund. Like Morgan and Bailey are, and like my Fudge was. This one looked rather like Fudge; a paler colour, but a fat little barrel like he used to be before his kidneys gave up. We chatted for a bit; Jackshunds aren’t that common.

 

As we drove home we saw a car with the registration plate MUM 1. Once home the dogs went straight into the bath. The overnight rain had made the woods rather muddy, and we had grubby tummies.

After a quick sausage roll for lunch I set off on a little mission. First of all to return the frankly useless waterfall thingies that I’d mistakenly ordered from Amazon. The idea was that I did all the paperwork on-line and got a bar code emailed to me. I scan that in the shop that does Evri delivery, and they print the return label for me. Seems straight forward.

So I went to the nearest shop that does Evri deliveries but sadly the village idiot was on the counter.

She said I needed to come back tomorrow because they don’t have the machine to print labels. I asked what time the thing would be arriving tomorrow. She said it wasn’t. I asked her how I would print a label if I came back tomorrow. She said I wouldn’t be able to. I asked what good my coming back tomorrow would achieve. She gave me a dopey grin. I asked if there were any other shops locally that did Evri.

The nice lady in the shop by Aldi eventually printed labels from her machine, but it clearly wasn’t easy.

 

I then had a look at sleepers for the garden pond’s next upgrade. My first choice of places to go to (Wickes) didn’t have the bits I needed, neither did Jewson. The timber merchant near Stanhope had two sleepers that I could use. But only two. And on closer inspection both had great big cracks through them. The nice man there said to snap them up as they are shipping out all their stock to other branches as the place is closing next week. The landlord has doubled the rent.

In the end my last choice of DIY shops (B&Q) had what I needed. Well, not what I needed but what I might be able to use. As I was looking about I saw someone I recognized. The ex-chairman of my old scout group. I’d not seen him for years. We chatted for over an hour. It was rather odd really – twenty years ago the scout group was such a large part of my life, and consequently so was this chap and his family. And now I’ve not seen him for years. There are so many people like that in my life. Which is why I like Facebook – if nothing else it keeps me updated on what people are up to.

 

I wrote up some CPD then settled myself in front of the telly for the evening. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good curry which we scoffed whilst watching the last episodes of “Meet the Richardsons”. A rather good show even if you do watching it wondering what is real and what is made up. Amazingly Kemah Bob really does sound like that.

 

I didn’t sleep well last night. I’ve walked nearly seventeen thousand steps today. In theory I really should sleep well tonight.

22 July 2024 (Monday) - Intimations of Mortality

I slept rather better last night, but was still wide awake at half past four. I lay awake for an hour, then got up, made toast and scoffed it whilst watching an episode of “Boomers” before having my usual look at the Internet.

Yesterday one of my old schoolfriends had his birthday. He posted to Facebook about it, and listed some of our old contemporaries who hadn’t made it this far. Overnight a lot of people had commented listing more names of old schoolfriends who’ve passed away. A surprising number of people with whom I grew up aren’t here any more. One drove a motorbike into a skip. One had diabetes and wouldn’t stop eating sweeties. One went down with the Herald of Free Enterprise. One had a stroke (aged fourteen!) One had an asthma attack and was dead minutes later. One died when the Nimrod he was piloting crashed. One had bowel cancer.  One committed suicide. The class bully had leukaemia. Quite a few people were posting all sorts of nice memories about these people… I didn’t have the heart to point out what a nasty piece of work the class bully had been. But it was a long time ago.

Following on from this I spent quite a bit of time today trying to recall a conversation from years ago. Two of the people in our year at school shared a name. Same first and last name. In my mate's Facebook post he claimed that one of these two had died; the one who sat on my table during physics lessons forty-five years ago. This came as a revelation, but as the day went on I could remember having heard this years ago.  I messaged the chap who I distinctly remembered telling me the news, but he couldn't remember the one who died; let alone telling me that he had died.

I must have heard it from an old school mate I once met on the train to Brighton in 1983 who regaled a list of many from our schooldays who had died before getting to twenty years of age.

The chap on the train said that he'd heard that I had been one of them.

 

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were all a-twitter about the news that President Biden isn't going to run for a second term as President of the USA. The smart money was backing his vice-president who looks set to get the nomination of her party, but whether or not she will beat Donald Trump is a very different question. The expert being interviewed implied that by stating stark nonsense as actual facts.  Mr. Trump appeals to the rather thicker members of the electorate who seem to struggle to tell the difference between stark nonsense and actual facts.

 

Work was work. I did my bit. Being on an early shift was something of a result in that I got out early. But thanks to the roads I didn't get home with any speed. Works to widen the roundabout at Junction five of the motorway meant it took half an hour to drive the mile or so from the hospital to the motorway. And the utter stupidity which is Operation Brock meant it took another half-hour to get down the motorway.

As I drove through Operation Brock I did my usual thing of counting how many cars had ignored all the signs and notices and had driven into the bit clearly labelled "HGVs ONLY!!!". Last Friday there were six; four on Saturday and five yesterday. Today there were three.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner then went bowling. I watched drivel on the telly from underneath a pile of dogs whilst trying to stay awake. I really need a decent kip. It doesn’t help that after nearly four weeks since my nose job it still feels as though I’ve been slapped in the face.

21 July 2024 (Sunday) - Dull

I woke feeling like death warmed up, got up and tripped over Treacle who was laying on the floor.

I made toast and scoffed it whilst watching an episode of "Boomers" which was rather excruciating, then had a quick look at the Internet to see if I'd missed anything overnight. I hadn't really.

 

The roads were rather quiet and deserted as I drove to work this morning. No one wants to be up and about at half past seven on a Sunday, do they?

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the upcoming American Presidential election. It would seem that last week's failed assassination attempt has effectively handed the election to Donald Trump.

He and his supporters are claiming that his survival was God's will, and apparently millions are gullible enough to believe it. Have I ever said that democracy is a silly idea.

There was also talk about how Third World countries have got the hump as more and more Western governments are putting conditions on the aid money they are sending. Apparently some see it as gross interference with their native culture when an aid package will only be given if a certain country stops persecuting gays or starts educating girls.

Funny old world...

And it would seem I'm going to get an above-inflation pay rise. I can remember being told (over forty years ago) that NHS workers got below inflation pay rises from Conservative governments and above inflation pay rises from Labour governments. Back in the day that might have been true, but I can't remember the Labour governments of twenty years ago being very generous. This lot might be, but there's also talk of their taxing pensions. Ho hum...

 

I got to work a tad earlier than I might have done, and went to the works canteen to treat myself to the cooked breakfast. I say "treat myself"... it was a tad grim and gave me a stomach ache which lasted some time.

Work was work; weekend working is always odd. The place seems strangely empty with only a skeleton staff in. But I was only working the morning. I was home by early afternoon. I got home to find the pond’s water level was down by six inches. A minor issue with the bog filter; I had hoped to replace it all in the late autumn. I might need to get a move on with it.

I ran out the hose pipe to top up the pond, and whilst I was at it I gave the plants a splash. And found a dead sparrow in one of the planters. I was rather amazed that the dogs hadn’t found it. Bailey would have eaten it; she is quite foul sometimes.

 

I then sat on the sofa… and woke up with neck ache an hour later. “er indoors ^TM” sorted some lamb chops and we scoffed them whilst watching more episodes of “Meet the Richardsons”. The show started well a few seasons ago, but it’s running out of steam. Bit like me, really.

20 July 2024 (Saturday) - Hic !

As I drove home yesterday evening the weather forecast said that it would be a hot and humid night and that people wouldn’t sleep well.

They were spot on, but too much ale did help.

 

I made toast and peered into the Internet as I do most mornings. There were petty squabbles about Lego and Star Trek, and endless adverts for Temu who seem to be making everything from children’s toys to saucy underwear these days.

Judging by the pictures I saw several people were on holiday; I suppose it’s the time of year for that. My old mate from Boys Brigade days who moves from hotel to hotel was posting to the world from the Lake District today. He says it is cheaper for him to lead the lifestyle he wants by moving form hotel to hotel rather than having a house of his own with all the associated expenses.

It’s another world, isn’t it?

I got Wordle on the fifth attempt. I also had another dubious friend request.

 

Being Saturday we drove round to Repton and Dog Club. We’d had three people asking about Dog Club in the week, and in a novel break with tradition two of them turned up. So often we have people asking so many questions about Dog Club and preparing us for a dramatic appearance, and then never showing up.

Dog Club went rather well. It was a shame that Pogo had to hump Kai, but there it is.

Having totally failed Steve’s “Guess the Lyrics” competition on the radio on the way to Dog Club we were out late and missed the Mystery Year competition on the way home.

 

We got home. The dogs immediately went to sleep. I counted up the Dog Club money and paid it into the bank, then cracked on. Washing on to the line, putting away the garden chairs from last night, running the shears over my head for a quick haircut, then popped over the road to get some beers for later.

Disaster.

For years the Polish shop over the road has had the best beer selection for miles. Today it was no different to Tesco. Such a disappointment.

 

“er indoors ^TM”  slipped off shopping. I fell asleep on the sofa and dozed for an hour or so until she returned. We had a spot of lunch, then set off to Sittingbourne where we had a rather good afternoon sitting in Karl and Tracy’s garden drinking beer, eating pizza and putting the world to rights. There’s no denying that after six pints cracking the gin open might have been construed as a questionable move, but it was a move I would certainly do again.

We left Pogo there; he is now having a little holiday. We came home down the M20 following a train which was setting off all sorts of sparks as trains do. “er indoors ^TM” said it was lightning; who am I to disagree (as Annie Lennox once sung).

I’ve got to be up early for work tomorrow… right now that seems rather ambitious.

 

19 July 2024 (Friday) - A Birthday Get-Together

I was rather late to bed last night and slept like a log until quarter to one, then dozed fitfully looking at the clock every twenty minutes. This happens every time I have an alarm set.

I got up at half past five and made toast which I scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Boomers”, then had a little look at the Internet. It was much the same as ever.

A new series of geocaches had gone live about an hour’s drive away. I featured in one of the caches; rather flattering to be mentioned. And overnight the people who’d supplied the pond waterfall attachments had sent an email saying they would accept the things back again, which was just as well because they are going back whether they would be accepted or not.

Three people on my Facebook list had a birthday today. I sent out birthday wishes, failed at Wordle, then got ready for work.

 

I set off to work... once I remembered where I'd left the car last night. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the upcoming presidential election in America. Donald Trump has been confirmed as the Republican candidate, and there are moves afoot to get someone who's not in their mid-eighties to be the Democrat candidate. Poor President Biden would seem to be quickly losing the confidence of everyone. The implication was that the American public are being faced with a choice between the incompetent and the incapable, and given such a choice no one wants to choose "incapable".

There was also an interview with the new Defence minister who is today meeting with the Ukrainian president who's got the arse because the UK government won't let them fire UK weapons into Russia. I must admit I was rather disappointed with the new Defence minister. After so many years of Conservatives, this Labour minister sounds exactly the same as the Tories in that he said a lot without saying anything.

I suppose that's politicians for you.

 

I did my bit, and came home. We had a rather good evening in the garden with friends having a little get-together in honour of a sixty-fifth birthday.

A very good evening… the fourth bottle of ale might have been a mistake…

18 July 2024 (Thursday) - Pies, Late Shift

I slept well last night (for a change) spending over nine hours asleep in my pit. That was something of a result.

As I made brekkie so my phone beeped. The car parking I’d bought on the Ringo app last night was about to expire. I hadn’t realized that there was free parking from six in the evening until eight in the morning, so by parking at quarter to six and getting an hour’s worth I’d effectively brought three quarters of an hour’s parking this morning. Woops.

I had my usual look at the Internet. There were a lot less people wanting to join the “Upstairs Downstairs” Facebook page I help moderate this morning. The show has started a re-run on ITV3 recently and the group which used to get two or three membership requests a week has recently been getting a couple of dozen every day.

There was an argument about the correct name of the Post Office Tower in London. Some people were pretending not to realise the thing was over sixty years old. Apparently it is to be converted into a hotel.

 

I munzed from the sofa and captured “er indoors ^TM”’s baby dragon. Then took five goes to get today’s “Wordle”. At the risk of giving spoilers, today’s answer was “Nerdy” – rather appropriate. I wrote up some CPD. CPD (continuous professional development) is something I legally have to do to keep myself up to date with what’s going on at work, but to anyone who doesn’t test blood it would be incredibly dull. But within minutes of having written up an incredibly dry few lines about this week’s newsletter from Oncology Central, that entry had had views.

 

I set off to work... with a few moments to spare I thought I might pop into Matalan to get some more work shirts. They had stuff which was either utterly posh or totally casual. I'll have a look on Amazon later.

Bearing in mind the utter shambles that is Operation Brock I decided against going up the motorway. I took the A-road instead and stopped off at Lenham. I thought I might treat myself and got a steak and kidney pie from the local bakery. I took one bite and the thing utterly disintegrated and sprayed its contents everywhere. It wasn't so much a pie as a gravy-filled grenade. It was as well that it came with a foil tray; I ended up slurping the wreckage out of the tray. Pies do that. If you are ever going to scoff a pie, have a plate, knife and fork to hand.  Pasties and steak bakes are a different matter, but never trust a pie.

I didn't actually go to Lenham for the pie (I wish I hadn't now).  I've got a geocache near the church which has had reports of being missing. I had a little walk across the fields to where it was supposed to be and found it was missing. I replaced it. It was a shame that the people who logged it as missing couldn't have done that. You really can replace the thing quicker than you can write a log saying "it ain't there any more" and save me a load of pie-related arse-ache. But there it is.

 

I drove on to the petrol station for fuel both for the car and myself. Having learned from my earlier pie-related disaster I got a sandwich and a bag of crisps. And then it was on to work for the late shift. Work seemed rather odd, but then ever since I've gone part time it's seemed odd. I'm not quite sure why. I did my bit. I don't really like the late shifts, but there it is.

 

I came home to find my new waterfall attachment (for the bog filter) that I ordered from Amazon had arrived. It was far too small. That’s going back.

17 July 2024 (Wednesday) - Folkestone

I didn’t sleep that well last night. Shortly after I finally nodded off “er indoors ^TM” ‘s alarm woke me, and then once she’d got up, Treacle started barking for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

I got up and made toast. The Internet was its usual argument. There was quite the squabble this morning about a flood relief weir in the far east on one of the Facebook pages I follow. Was it made in the twelfth century or in the 1980s? I would say “who cares” but it would seem quite a few people did care. You wouldn’t believe how heated people got over something so trivial.

 

“er indoors ^TM” fed the dogs and I took them up to the woods. We had a rather good walk round. The place was surprisingly much muddier than it had been yesterday. We met two other groups of dogs, and Pogo’s reaction was entertaining. If the other dogs don’t get in first he screams. But if the puppies recognize the other dogs, then Pogo just stands and watches in amazement.

We walked for over an hour; at the end my watch said we’d covered over four miles.

Getting home was entertaining. We got to within a few hundred yards of home and found ourselves stuck behind the local DPD van. We’ve met this one a few times before; the chap who drives it is an idiot. When he has a delivery he doesn’t pull over, like anyone else would. He just stops his van in the middle of the road, saunters out to make the delivery, chats on the doorstep, then wanders back and drives on to the next port of call where he again blocks traffic in all directions.

 

We eventually got home. I hosed the mud from Morgan’s belly (no one else had a grubby tummy) then sorted a cuppa for me and “er indoors ^TM”. I did dull housework for an hour or so, then spent a couple of hours ironing whilst watching a film on Netflix. “Unfrosted” was rather good -  a comedy about the origin of pop-tarts with an all-star cast including Tyrian Lanister out of Game of Thrones. After this I watched an episode of UFO – made in 1970 and supposedly set in 1980 it hasn’t aged well.

I wrote up a little CPD, then once “er indoors ^TM” had finished work we drove down to Folkestone. There was a geo-meet on the Leas from which I collected a Mad Hatter trackable. And having met and chatted with (mostly) German tourists we took a little walk along the Leas before coming home.

 

Being rather late(ish) home we had KFC and watched more “Meet the Richardsons”.

I’ve got a guts ache now…

16 July 2024 (Tuesday) - Gardening

I had a restless night. When the dogs settle all is well; there’s plenty of space for them at the foot of the bed so why do they spend all night long trying to nudge me over?
 
I made toast and had a look at the Internet. There was consternation on one of the Jack Russell Facebook pages I follow. Someone had been banned because the only posts she ever made to that page were posts begging for money to pay for vet bills. The people implementing the ban took the line that being able to fund a dog was an integral part of having one. I thought that perhaps a tad harsh, if true.
And there was a semi-joking meme about how following the England football team’s defeat by the Spanish, sales of tapas have rocketed in Scotland and Wales… I wonder if that’s far from the truth There’s a really odd relationship between the countries of the so-called United Kingdom. The English aren’t really that bothered about the others, but the others *really* hate the English on the pretext of historical events from hundreds of years ago.
I’m always running into Welsh and Irish and Scots who really hate England and the English despite their living and working in Kent from where they couldn’t be further from their home country but still be on the same island.
 
I took the dogs up to the woods for a walk. We took a longer walk than we did yesterday, and my watch told me we walked a tenth of a mile less. What was that all about? I had a plan we’d been done before the forecast rain; sadly we weren’t. The rain started when we were about a mile from the car. We got rather wet, and the rain stopped on the drive home.
 
Once home I ran round with the Hoover, and rather than having a cuppa I got myself a Magnum ice cream from the shop over the road. They are two and a half quid each these days. Can you believe it?
I scoffed it as I watched drivel on the telly, and with drivel watched and ice cream scoffed I went into the garden and pootled. I trimmed the lawn edges, mowed the lawn, kicked the gravel to some semblance of tidiness, then did something I’ve been meaning to do for years.
We laid all the stones round the pond on 9 April 2007, and over the intervening seventeen years the world and his wife has felt obliged to throw the stones into the pond. I got a net and hoiked quite a few out. The trouble is that it isn’t easy to get to the bottom of the pond what with pumps and hoses and leccie cables all over the place, but I got quite a lot out.
As is always the way when working in the garden after four hours I was worn out, and the garden looked just the same as when I’d started.
 
I fed the fish, spent a little while staring at the pond, then looking at Amazon. My pond’s bog filter isn’t big enough. I’ve twice tried to expand it, and both times I’ve made the mistake of trying to do so on the cheap. The first time I bought things which simply didn’t fit, and ended up throwing good money after bad and building a second pond. The second time I bought a cheap tank which I bodged into place but didn’t bother putting in the effort to sink it in the ground and I’ve got something which will look OK all the time that plants are in full growth (as they are now) but will look dreadful in a couple of months’ time.
I’ve bought a couple of waterfall blades. Once they arrive I shall get some sleepers that fit them. Then in the autumn I shall spend a couple of days doing some serious carpentry and digging a hole.
I also got a small hand-held pressure washer as setting up my current one is too much arse ache, more armpit squirt and a couple of bottles of smelly. I’ve been sweating a lot recently and don’t want to be whiffy(!)
 
I then dozed until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up some dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the most recent series of “Meet the Richardsons”.
Supposedly the Richardsons have split up… I can’t help but wonder if this is something purely for the telly show.