19 April 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club and Rolvenden

I can remember saying goodbye to Karl and Tracey yesterday evening, but from then on it was all something of a blur. I woke with a rotten headache at about four o'clock this morning and lay awake suffering for an hour or so before giving up and getting up.

I made toast and peered into a very dull Internet. You would have thought that what with yesterday being a Bank Holiday people would have been out and about and doing things. People probably were, but just didn’t do what I do and post it all over Facebook. I wish people would; I’m very nosey and like seeing what people are getting up to. Mind you I had over a hundred and fifty emails about people having found some of my geocaches in Kings Wood. Apparently a group of four went out yesterday to see if they could find over a hundred in a day. I’ve done that eight times in the past – it takes some doing. Thirty-seven yesterday was hard going.

 

Being Saturday we drove round to Repton and Dog Club. As we drove Steve wasn’t on the radio. His stand-in was better than the previous one, but it wasn’t the same.

Dog Club was fun. Attendance seemed to be noticeably down, but we still counted (about) eighteen dogs. Mayhem ensued, as it does.

 

From Dog Club we popped to the garden centre. During the week I’d been given a packet of random seeds, and so we got a planter and some compost and some buns.

We came home for a cuppa and those buns, and I then spent a few minutes putting the compost into the planter and toshing out the seeds.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up the pizza slices that were left over from yesterday. That made for a quick lunch, then we took the dogs to Rolvenden. Many years ago (five) “er indoors ^TM” hid a series of geocaches in the area. They’ve run their course, and a route of eight miles was a tad long anyway. So we went on a little recce to see if we (she) couldn’t come up with a shorter route. We (she) now have a provisional route of three and a half miles planned out.

After a couple of hours we were back at the car. We came home and had a cuppa, and the dogs were soon snoring.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted chicken wings for dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a film. “Yesterday” was rather good. And then we watched some documentary about a chap living in a canal boat. Looks a bit like needless hard work and farting about to me.

Oh – I took a few photos of today. Yesterday I walked more than twenty-one thousand steps. Today was only half that amount.

 

18 April 2025 (Friday) - Romney Marsh

The dogs were rather restless last night, and when they are restless so is everyone. They eventually settled, but I didn’t really. I got up at half past six, made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet as I do every day. I suppose back in the day I used to read the newspaper which was equally drivel-esque.

There was a photo of the old Sainsburys supermarket in Hastings on one of the old photo memory pages. I remember that place – I always used to work the night before Christmas eve so that I would follow the family to Hastings on the train on Christmas Eve morning. My brother would meet the train and we would have a pint or two then go to that Sainsburys where mayhem ensued. As the shop was going to be closed for a day, the panic-buying was ridiculous. Some bargain would be announced on the Tannoy and there would be a stampede for that which you’d never normally buy in a million years. People would whip things from your trolley in desperation and so my brother would sit in the trolley, guarding the stuff we would buy and we’d take home to mum a whole load of stuff she neither needed nor wanted, and would throw out in the New Year. Happy days.

I also had a look at the “Hematology” Facebook page. Some work-related Facebook pages are good. Some are interesting. Some are quite educational and I learn a lot. This “Hematology” one is worrying in that someone will post a photo of something or other and ask what it is, and no matter what it is the answers will range through every medical condition from “perfectly healthy” to “three weeks dead”. And the more obviously wrong any given person is, the more aggressively arrogant they are that they are correct.

 

I Munzed and Wordled, and got ready for the day. We drove down to Old Romney where we met Karl and Tracey, and we then went on a little wander across the marsh. It was a shame Morgan had to roll in fox muck quite so early in the day, and Treacle didn’t help by paddling in the stagnant puddles. In a novel break with tradition it was Bailey who ended up the cleanest. Our walk was on flat ground which was just as well. Usually when up the woods we cover just over four miles; we walked over nine today.

As is so often the way our route was mapped out for us by a series of geocaches; thirty-seven of them along lanes and tracks and up trees. Most of them were found relatively easily; one was missing so we replaced it. From the hint and previous descriptions it would seem that if it was there it would have been an easy find. There are those who demand that replacing missing ones is up to the chap who hid it; personally if one of mine has gone I’d rather someone replaced it for me. I can pop out a new pot in less time than it takes me to whinge that it needs to be sorted.

 

After nine (and a bit) miles and five and a half hours we were back at the cars. We took a short drive home and had pizza and crisps in the garden. And beer. I opened a bottle of port to find it had gone off. Rather than being a ruby-red colour it had gone brown and lumpy.

I didn’t know it did that.

 

I took a few photos today. As I do. It’s been a while since we went on a decent day’s walk. We used to do it all the time – must get back in the habit of doing so again.

17 April 2025 (Thursday) - Not At Work

I slept reasonably well, and over some toast I watched another episode of “Back” on Netflix. In many ways it is very like “Peep Show” by the same people.

I then had a look at the Internet. One of today’s arguments on Facebook was on a pension-related group about National Insurance contributions. Do payments made before your eighteenth birthday count. I don’t see why they wouldn’t, but there were those that seemed to think there was an issue. I should really check that the government has made a note of my payments over the years really, shouldn’t I?

The other argument was about how you keep rainwater out of garden ponds as rainwater is supposedly dangerously acidic. Supposedly. You would think that it rained neat sulphuric acid from what some people were posting.

 

I munzed, and went to wake the dogs. Rather than going to the woods, we had a dull walk today. We drove over to the Skoda garage, left the car for its service and walked home. Usually when in the woods the dogs get to run about as much as they like. On the way home from the garage there wasn’t much scope for running riot.

As we walked we came past the bit near Asda which often floods. It wasn’t flooded today. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing I’ve eventually been told by the county council’s corporate director for growth, environment and transport that the river floods at the Asda underpass as that is the footpath’s lowest point (as if that wasn’t glaringly obvious) and it floods because of blockages downstream (as if that wasn’t glaringly obvious either). I’ve also been told that all the county councilors have jacked it all in pending the upcoming elections.

I shall see who gets elected in a couple of weeks’ time and see whose arse we kick to get some dredging done.

 

Once home I gathered dog dung and then mowed the lawn. And with lawn mowed I got out my paints and painted up more garden statues. A duck, a frog, a couple of badgers and three birds. I then pulled weeds, and had a look at the little pond. We’ve a second baby fish in there. A couple of weeks ago I saw a goldfish less than an inch long; there’s another one of about the same size but dark in colour.

We had a spot of lunch and then the phone rang. My car was nearly ready.

I finished painting, tidied up, and went to get it.

 

In the past I’ve dropped the car off and had this silly idea of walking the dogs until the car is ready. But there is only so much of an on-lead dog walk that you can do. Today there was a delay of over four hours between dropping the car off and being told it was ready.

I took the dogs over to get the car. A service, change of brake fluid, air-con re-gassing and a fancy video cost me the thick end of five hundred quid. To say nothing of three hundred quid’s worth of advisories that we’ll worry about next week.

Who’d have a car?

 

We came home where I made a cuppa, and put a load of shirts in to scrub. And then once they’d been scrubbed I ironed them whilst they were still damp – that’s the best way to iron shirts.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and we scoffed them whilst watching more “McDonald & Dodds” in which Uncle Bryn did it.

 

I really hurt right now – I wish I knew why. I’ve walked less than I walk on an average walk round the woods, mowed the lawn, painted some garden ornaments and done some ironing.

I really should program “Hannah” for tomorrow…

16 April 2025 (Wednesday) - Another Day At Work

After a reasonable night’s sleep I started watching “Back” on Netflix. It is amusing enough and has the advantage that the episodes are short. Why does so much on Netflix these days have to be an hour long?

I then had a little look at the Internet as I do.

Someone was selling a Zeroid. Back in the day (over fifty years ago) there was a range of robot toys called “Zeroids”. There’s a Facebook page about them that I started following a little while ago with a vague plan to see if I might get a Zeroid or two of my own. After all, I’ve sneaked Lego into the living room – how hard could it be to get a couple of small robots? And then I had a look at the prices of the things on eBay. Broken ones are changing hands for about a hundred quid. One in decent condition sold last night for three hundred dollars.

 

As I drove to work I found myself becoming rather sick of hearing about the antics of American politics from the pundits on the radio. When the UK found itself saddled with a Prime Minister who had clearly and demonstrably ballsed it all up there were processes in place to get shot of her. Doesn't the American constitution have such safeguards?

Mind you for all that Liz Truss was gone in a month, it did take a while to hoik that idiot Boris Johnson out. I suppose in many ways he was like Donald Trump in that many people will overlook what he's doing as he's rather entertaining to watch.

There was probably a lot more on the radio, but my attention drifted when the sports news came on. So often rather than reporting any actual news, the pundits just wheel on someone who was something or other to do with a recent sporting event with no regard to how eloquent they may be. And so rather than giving a good interview, the so-called expert just mumbles and continually repeats "um - yeah - you know". This has been going on for years; you'd think that peak-time national radio would have higher standards, wouldn't you?

 

I stopped off at the little shop in Sissinghurst to get a sandwich and to get some supplies for the weekend. Once I'd bought my stuff, just as I got back to my car some idiot woman driving the other way down the road pulled across the road and stopped her car blocking me in. She had a full-blown battle with the child in the passenger seat then forcibly dragged the child out and marched into the shop... leaving my car stuck.  I managed to reverse and get past her car, and I drove off - leaving her car in the middle of the road pointing the wrong way and effectively blocking the traffic. I could have said something; I couldn't be arsed. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

 

Work was work. I did my bit, and came home again. I really shouldn’t complain about my job, but it is seriously getting in the way of my doing whatever I would rather be doing.

 

Pausing only briefly for geocachical reasons “er indoors ^TM” boiled up fish and chips which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey’s trip across France. That was rather good. We followed it with some utter tripe in which Bradley Walsh tried to pretend that the pyramids were built by aliens.  I never had him down as being so thick as to assign everything he doesn’t understand to aliens.

15 April 2025 (Tuesday) - A Day At Work

I didn’t really sleep very well last night. I gave up trying to sleep shortly before six o’clock, gave up and got up.

I didn’t fancy watching the telly today; I made toast and had a look at a rather dull internet. Very little had happened overnight really. There were also rants about water bills and how unfair it is that what we pay goes into some holding account which then pays our water bills later, and in the meantime the water company makes profit on the interest. My water bill has gone up by almost forty per cent, and my leccie and gas bill has gone up by ten percent as well. They run a similar payment plan. Maybe I should see if I’m in that sort of scheme and cut back on what I’m paying?

 

I Munzed, checked Google maps for my journey to work, and taking care not to wake anyone I got ready for the off. It was raining as I left for work. Oh well - the car needed a wash. Pausing only briefly to get some petrol I set off west-wards through the -hursts and the -dens and the traffic lights to Tunbridge Wells. 

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about an interview with American vice-president Vance who sees the chances of a UK-US trade deal as being rather good. I don't doubt he does; most commentators seem to think that US fiscal policy has blown up in their faces as they simply don't understand how finance works. I can't pretend to be an expert on the subject, but I'm willing to learn. Take for example something President Trump has been very vocal about recently - the US's balance of trade with many smaller countries.

If you sell your toaster to your next door neighbour for a tenner and then buy his car for a thousand pounds, there's a trade imbalance in theory. However in practice if both sides are happy with the deal, what's the issue. Where's the sense in forcing unwanted transactions just so the amount of money going each way stays the same?

If I can understand that and explain it in less than a minute, it is rather worrying that the leader of the free world can't seem to.

 

I eventually got to work. I always say that I quite like working at Pembury but I hate going there. Some see that as a contradiction in terms, but it is spot-on. I like working there, but the journey leaves a lot to be desired. There weren't that many sets of temporary traffic lights this morning compared to what I usually face, but as always there wasn't anyone actually working where the traffic was being held up. And again no one had any patience at the traffic bottlenecks at Sissinghurst and Goudhurst church.

What Google told me would take fifty minutes was well over an hour.

 

But I got to work and did my bit, and for all that the rain had stopped the journey home again took a lot longer than Google would have me believe.

Once home we did the “Feed The Fish” ritual – my water irises are flowering… if water irises is what they are. If not, something else is flowering.

 

I can’t say that I worked especially hard today, but the novelty of working has definitely worn off.

14 April 2025 (Monday) - Deer and Lions

Much as I like Facebook, it is boiling my piss at the moment. It’s not so much the adverts and the irrelevant drivel, it’s how out of date it is. This morning I saw all sorts of posts about what friends had been doing over the last two weeks. An old mate came back from ten days’ holiday this morning – the photos of him at the airport leaving appeared today. There were photos of another old mucker who had been mountain-climbing… in late March. And I saw an advert for the beer festival which happened on Saturday.

A week or so ago “er indoors ^TM” posted up asking if anyone fancied an afternoon in the garden. So many people posted that the posting came up on their feed days after it had all taken place.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. The car park was busy, but once away from the car park we managed to avoid most of the normal people. We had a little explore today; there’s one path at the end of the wood which heads east. I wondered if it went on to loop round with another path I’ve wondered about.

It didn’t.

It just went to a dead end, which was odd as there were horse hoof prints on the path.

As we walked back we saw the bluebells beginning to come out, and we saw a herd of deer; we’ve not seen deer for a few weeks. And I saw Treacle was carrying a stick. And then I looked closer. It wasn’t a stick. It was half a deer’s leg, and she wasn’t going to give that up without a fight. I took the line of least resistance and let her carry it.

 

Usually we walk just over four miles; we covered five and a half today. We came home, and I had a look on-line. I had hoped to do a tip run, but there weren’t any spaces available today. That’s unusual… but I did find the tip was rather busy when I went last Monday. So rather than a tip run I dug a small net out of the shed and spent half an hour trying to scrape the stones off of the bottom of the big pond.

I then ran out the hose and cleaned out the pressure-filter. A smelly job which used to take over an hour with the old box filters now takes less than fifteen minutes, and all the muck goes straight onto the monkey-puzzle tree.

 

And then “er indoors ^TM” told me my Amazon parcel had arrived. Yesterday I bought some more paints for the garden ornaments. I got out the burnt sienna and dulled down the lions which looked not unlike sherbet lemons yesterday.

 

It was late afternoon before I got round to Munzing today. I sparked up my app to find that our clan has reached our first of three goals for this month. And then I made rather hard work of Wordle, finally getting it on the fifth attempt.

With my back twinging I set about the bots on chess dot com…

I like chess dot com. I don’t like back twinging.

13 April 2025 (Sunday) - Painting, Beach

With nothing on the agenda for today my plan had been to have something of a lie in. Sadly I woke before four o’clock, and by the time I’d been lying in my pit bored senseless for three hours I’d had enough.

I got up and had my usual morning brekkie ritual.

The plan had been to watch last night’s episode of “Doctor Who” this evening, but with the amount of spoilers all over the internet this morning I found myself if I needed to see the show. There wasn’t much else going on really. I munzed, Wordled, and went into the garden to have a look at fixing that flooding gusher.

 

I had a stroke of genius – water needed to go through the weed proof membrane… so the weed proof membrane needed a couple of holes. All I needed to do was to scrape the shingle off of the two lowest points, cut an inch square hole in the weed proof membranes, put it all back together and all would be sorted.

Scraping back the shingle was easy enough, but cutting the membrane took some doing. My Stanley knife was slightly more blunt than my bum. I really would have had more luck rubbing my backside against the membrane  than using that Stanley knife. But then I remembered. Last weekend when I tidied the shed I labelled one of the drawers “Sharp Things”. And I stuck a packet of new Stanley knife blades in that drawer. There are those who feel that sharp things are best left in a drawer labelled “Sharp Things”, but I managed to fit the new blade without severe laceration. And equipped with a sharp blade I soon cut the holes I needed.

 

And then… more painting of garden ornaments. Rabbits, otters, frogs, crocodiles, lions. All came out rather well except the lions. Do you remember that episode of “Only Fools and Horses” in which Del Boy paints Mr. Chin’s Chinese restaurant with bright yellow luminous paint? The lions came out rather reminiscent of that.

 

We took the dogs out. We went to Broomhill Sands again. Being the weekend we thought the place might be busy so we left it till later in the day. There weren’t that many normal people abut, but there were a *lot* of kite-surfers. I counted fifty at one point. As they surfed and flew into the air, Treacle got incredibly over-excited as I threw pebbles into the water for her, and Bailey got incredibly over-excited as she found a week-dead dogfish. All three joined in with the dogfish which we eventually got from them, but Bailey then found something else equally foul. I have no idea what it was – she ate it before I could get it from her.

 

We came home and I had a look on Amazon. Pausing only briefly to cancel the internal paint I bought by mistake I ordered a job lot of garden ornament paints which should be here tomorrow. Hopefully in time for me to tone those lion statues down a tad.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted a rather good pasta bake which we scoffed whilst watching last night’s episode of “Doctor Who” despite having seen all the spoilers earlier.

It was far better than the Christmas episode we watched last night, but I found myself asking what the writers were up to. One minute the show was a serious hard-hitting drama; the next a frankly ridiculous farce.

Let’s hope the show improves… I want to like it.

12 April 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Gardening

As I perused Facebook this morning I saw there was a model railway exhibition just up the road happening today. Not that I’m a fan of model railways… but it would have cost twenty-five quid for the two of us to have gone and had a look round. There was also a beer festival going on as part of the railway festival… that had been kept quiet. But I suppose that for all that beer festivals were fun in the past, in the cold light of day they are just about spending a lot of money to get a headache.

There was also a lot of anti-Donald Trump propaganda on Facebook… again from non-Americans.

 

I Munzed, and got rather stuck on Wordle again. That either used up half an hour, or wasted it, depending on your perspective. I turned off the lap-top and got ready for the off.

As we drove to Repton we turned on the radio. I got Steve’s “Guess the Lyrics” competition – “I’m a professional cynic but my heart’s not in in”? No - Blur – Country House.

 

Dog Club was rather busy today. At one point I think counted twenty-four dogs, but it was difficult to be sure – they all kept charging about.

Dog Club rather over-ran and we missed the Mystery Year competition on the radio. If only it went from ten o’clock till half past…

 

We came home and had a cuppa with “My Boy ^TM” who popped in, then I started on yet another garden project. The gravel around our big water-gusher lays on metal chicken wire grids, Over the years where people and dogs have walked across it, the chicken wire has bent and stuck up out of the gravel. It looked awful and could give a scratch. So I hoiked up all the gravel, put some weed-proofing membranes over the chicken wire grids to keep it down, and re-laid the gravel. Sadly whilst scooping up the gravel a lot had fallen into the water reservoir…

We loaded the dogs into the car and popped to Bybrook Barn to get some more.

 

Eventually (over four hours later) I got the gravelled area finished… it looked just the same as when I started with one major difference. When we turn the gusher on the water doesn’t drain away. The weedproof membrane is also waterproof. Ho hum.

I’ll think about that one…

 

Chris and Sue popped round for an hour or so, and brought their pups. We had a good afternoon… the only fly in the ointment was that Treacle got rather possessive over the dog toys. She was sitting under the table with an assortment of balls and bones and toys and was guarding the lot.

 

The new season of “Doctor Who” started this evening. Before watching that we thought we’d better catch up with – we’d not seen the Christmas episode so we watched that.

I fell asleep half way through.

I want to like “Doctor Who”. It always used to be a fun adventure starring a hero character. What I saw of the Christmas episode was a frankly over-convoluted plot starring a bit of an idiot.

Such a shame.

11 April 2025 (Friday) - White Twix

I slept though till about four o’clock this morning, which wasn’t bad I suppose. I then dozed on and off before finally getting up at half past seven. I looked at the washing basket, couldn’t be arsed to load it into the washing machine, made toast and had a look at the Internet.

It was still there.

There was a lot of hype on one of the sci-fi pages I follow about how one of the best sci-fi movies of the century is airing for the first time this weekend. Thinking I might have missed something I clicked the link only to find that the Star Trek film made sixteen years ago was being shown on the Film4 channel for the first time. Something of a disappointment, but this sort of thing happens all the time. So many channels get access to something that has been out for years and then bill it as a premiere showing. I wish they wouldn’t.

Whilst I’m having a whinge I had an email about a geo-meet-up in Essex. The rules say that geo-meets cannot be held in or near train stations… the meet was called “Theydon Bois Tube meet” and will be at Theydon Bois tube station.

I sighed. If ever there was an activity which picks and chooses when to apply the rules, it is geocaching.

 

I Munzed as I do every morning, and Wordled as well. Sadly I again started off with utterly the wrong word. “Spice” didn’t have any correct letters at all. “Round” gave me an R and an O but in the wrong places. I got a tad closer with “Bravo”, but only a tad. “Armor” told me there were two Rs, and so it could only be “arrow”. For all that I struggle with Wordle, there’s a sense of achievement when I finally get it right.

 

As “er indoors ^TM” set about a spring clean I cracked on in the garden. The lawn needed mowing and the yard needed a good sweeping. Despite having tidied the shed at the weekend it needed another tidying, and then I had a look at the garden fence. On one side we’ve a decent fence that I had professionally installed in the summer of 2020. On the other we’ve a fence which is on the poggered side. Were it my fence I would have replaced it years ago, but it isn’t. I’ve tried offering to pay for a new fence to be installed, but I just get a load of abuse and ranting that the fence is four inches too far on her side. Admittedly the three panels closest to the house probably are four inches too far on her side, but you can see where the fence straightens itself. Years ago when the strange chap lived there he was quite happy for me to put gravel boards on the bottom where the fence was rotting through. And so I tightened the screws holding the gravel boards in place which straightened the fence a bit.

 

We had a ham roll, then went out for a little adventure. We went through Lydd where we stopped off to do the secret rituals that go with finding a particularly fiendish geo-puzzle. And for those that would mock, could you solve the puzzle?

From there we went on to Broomhill Sands. A mile east of Camber Sands, it’s a rather good dog-friendly beach. The pups got to run about. The girl pups chased stones thrown in the water; Morgan wouldn’t even get his paws wet. All three got plastered in a rather clay-y mud. The only fly in the ointment was one idiot who, on seeing Morgan coming up to say hello, picked his dog up and waved it round as though it was some sort of toy. He was totally oblivious to the fact that Morgan thought this was some sort of game. I think we’ve met this twit before in Orlestone doing exactly the same thing.

 

We came home where the dogs all had a wash. Sand, salt and mud had to be hosed off in varying amounts. And then we had a cuppa – with a white twix. Have you ever had a white twix? – who would have thought such wonders were possible? And only two hundred and thirty calories too?

I sat by the pond and scoffed my twixt, then came in and watched drivel on UK Gold whilst “er indoors ^TM” carried on tidying up and creating an ever-growing pile of rubbish for a tip run. I’m not complaining – we do have far too much stuff about the house. If we are ever going to downsize to the one-floor bungalow I’d rather have, we realistically need to lose about ninety per cent of the stuff in the house.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of “McDonald and Dodds”; a detective drama which is different to other detective dramas in that I rather like it. We followed this with something I’d not seen before.

“Tempting Fortune” features a gaggle of contestants who’ve got to trek through the jungle equipped with only the basic kit. They can then get all sorts of extras that they haven’t already been given but it will cost them… and be paid for out of the show’s prize money. So the more they rough it, the more bung they get at the end. Needless to say there’s some contestants prepared to rough it, and others who expect to be paid for simply getting off their arse.

There seems to be a growth industry in TV shows based on getting people to argue with each other.

10 April 2025 (Thursday) - One Per Cent Club

I’m not the most patient of people; particularly when it comes to death. Someone I know’s father died a month ago, and they were still ranting about it on-line this morning. I don’t want to appear heartless, but everyone dies. And the older someone is the more likely it is. Is it *really* that much of a surprise when someone in their eighties (who was never a health freak anyway) passes? Or am I just being uncharitable (again)?

And my piss boiled rather spectacularly when I saw that my professional institute had sent me the shortlist of this year’s annual awards. The trouble with singling out an individual and praising them for what a wonderful job they have done is that it automatically belittles everyone else doing exactly the same job. Someone with whom I once worked received praise and accolade for providing blood in an emergency situation. Nothing that everyone else doesn’t do on a regular basis, but one was singled out for praise and an award. I emailed the awarding committee pointing out how many family events and parties I and others had missed to keep the service going… I never even got a reply.

Not that I’m bitter, but I get the distinct impression that these sort of awards don’t so much go to those who do the best job; they go to those on good terms with those who love the paperwork that goes with these awards. Take our local vets surgery for example. There are annual national awards for people in the veterinary field, and our local surgery always has people nominated and shortlisted in every category. How likely is it that they have quite so many national champions working in one small place?

 

I try to be positive, but sometimes the Internet does wind me up.

I munzed, and then had a minor fight with Wordle. Starting with smile gave me absolutely nothing. Frown gave me two letters in the wrong place. Roach was no further help. So I gave up, got dressed and had a little look in the garden.

 

Disaster.

 

When I’d put the cover on the small pond last night the water nozzle must have been lying against it. This morning about a third of the water had drained away. I ran out the hose and topped it up, and had a little squirt round the plants whilst I was at it.

And then I came in and sat down. My back was hurting. It does that a lot these days. I carried little Darcie for quite a bit yesterday afternoon. And for all that my back hurts, I’d do it again right now if I could.

We had a cuppa and I had another look at Wordle. From Roach I went to burro, and then finally got success with turbo.

 

Once we were all ready we went up to the woods for a walk. We took a shorter route than usual, but still three and a half miles. I need to watch Treacle more as we walk; she is definitely finding it more and more hard going. She needs lifting into the car at the end of the walk these days, and jumping in at the start is clearly becoming a struggle.

We came home. I had a scrub at Bailey (with soap!). She will roll in fox poo. I wish she wouldn’t.

 

I did the ironing, then “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching episodes of the 1% Club. Have you ever seen it – I found myself judging people for being so stupid for being unable to answer the silly-easy questions… right up to the point where I couldn’t answer them.

9 April 2025 (Wednesday) - A Little Digression

I’m feeling a tad down today and I really can’t be arsed… but here’s something to ponder. As I scoffed toast this morning I read something on Facebook from some American activist or other who pointed out that it’s harder for the right wingers to discredit the left wingers as the left is almost always telling the truth.

This sparked quite the argument.

Is the statement actually true?

Does the truth actually need to be told?

What is “truth” – a provable fact or the interpretation one puts on that fact?

I don’t know.

 

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible – and as soon as my back stops hurting.

 

(This is actually the sort of profound crap that I intended to spout when I first started blogging all those years ago)

8 April 2025 (Tuesday) - A Bad Day

I woke in a cold sweat following a nightmare in which I was somehow responsible for having turned the local hospital into a cheap hotel as there’s more money in the hotel trade than in the medical business. I found myself wide awake at five to one. I dozed on and off for the rest of the night, finally giving up and getting up at about half past five.

I watched an episode of “Orange is the New Black” and had a little look at Facebook. It was still there, and much the same as ever. I munzed, and got ready for the day.

 

I’ll draw a veil over today. Suffice to say it wasn’t one of the better ones. Between constant backache and being constantly tired I really could have done with a better day. As Bob Ross once said, you need the blacker days to appreciate the better ones.

But I had a sour apple Minecraft McFlurry with my favourite lady so the day wasn’t entirely wasted.

7 April 2025 (Monday) - Painting More Gnomes

Another restless night; is a night asleep so much to ask? Littlun whimpered in her sleep at about half past six and all the dogs ran upstairs with “er indoors ^TM” to check on her. I got up and made toast.

The Internet was much the same as ever. There’s an American author I follow on Facebook who was banning people from her Facebook page if they so much as hinted that there won’t be any more presidential elections in America. Another author I follow once said in an interview that social media can be tricky for authors as you can lose a lot of your audience every time you express an opinion, and this particular woman I follow isn’t at all slow to express an opinion.

Another friend was posting twee motivational memes on her twee motivational Facebook page. Have you ever noticed that those advocating that when life give you lemons you should make lemonade are those who have rarely (if ever) neem given a lemon by life. Not that I’m bitter…

 

I munzed and captured a pouch creature; earning myself five zeds, then had a look at Wordle. I started with “spice” which only gave me one letter, and that was in the wrong place. “Treat” gave me two letters; both in the wrong place. “Fable” brought me a tad closer, and “navel” closer still. I eventually got there with “hazel”.

 

I drove round to the tip. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the increasingly dire global financial situation. It is quite clear that President Trump really has no conception of the damage his half-baked ideas have done. I’ve tried to give the chap the benefit of the doubt, but it has to be asked how someone who demonstrably can’t string words into a coherent sentence has been allowed to do quite so much damage. Friends of mine who live in various parts of America tell me there’s widespread demonstrations against him, but the news agencies are too scared to give them any air-time.

 

I got to the tip and joined the queue. I’ve never seen it so busy; presumably people load their cars with rubbish over the weekend and drop it off on their way to work?

Having said that, the roads were incredibly quiet at eight o’clock.

 

With rubbish unloaded I came home and collected the dogs. Pogo had his breakfast with the rest of the dogs, but as I took three of them out, Pogey preferred to go back to bed to watch over “Darcie WaaWaa ^TM”.

I took my three to Kings Wood. We made rather good time getting there; where we’d normally be stuck in traffic at half past eight we just drove straight through the town. We got to the woods and walked one of our longer walks. Once away from the car park we didn’t see anyone else, but we heard a particularly noisy pair bellowing their conversation at each other from about four hundred yards away.

 

We came home, and after a cuppa and a tad more laundry I had a stroke of genius. Having forgotten to take the old knackered gnomes to the tip earlier I thought I might see if I could perk them up with a lick of paint.

Four hours later I’d given myself yet another backache, but the gnomes were good for another year. I quite like painting the gnomes, but the garden was odd today. When I could sit in the sunshine it was very warm. Out of the sunshine was freezing.

I sat in the sunshine by the pond… and fell asleep. I woke an hour later with Bailey snuggled up to me. As I’d slept I’d caught the sun. From years of sitting by water when fishing I know that sitting by water gives you a double dose of sunshine. Sunshine itself and the reflection. My face was glowing when I woke, and my back was incredibly achy.

 

I came in and wrote up a little CPD as littlun watched Oko-Lele.

I’ve not done *that* much today – a few bits to the tip, once round the woods, and painted some gnomes. And my back has had it. I’m getting fed up with my back…

6 April 2025 (Sunday) - Tidying The Shed

I had another restless night. I blame the KFC we had last night – I’m always incredibly thirsty for a day or so after having any of that stuff. I gave up trying to sleep and got up. Bailey soon followed me and wanted to go out. She went and started eating grass, then as I scoffed toast she sat on the sofa farting and periodically whimpering. She’s only herself to blame; she will eat crap (figuratively and literally) but you can’t explain that to a small dog.

I put a load of washing in to scrub, and as I scoffed toast I saw some Facebook friends had birthdays today. A distant relative in Canada, a fellow hunter of Tupperware, and two colleagues. One of those colleagues was doing a sponsored run today to raise money for stroke charities; another colleague had a massive stroke a few months ago. Only thirty years old and in good health, one day this lady didn’t show up for work and wasn’t answering her phone. Colleagues popped round to her house and found her in bed unable to move. Strokes can happen to anyone; not just the old and infirm.

 

I saw there was a new geocache about twenty minutes’ drive away. A follow hunter of Tupperware had already found it. From what I could see on-line he’d had the same notification that I’d had, run out of the door and driven like a thing possessed, managed to park and find the thing all in less than half an hour.

I munzed and started off on Wordle with “spicy” to find that only the middle letter was correct, but that was in the wrong place. “Field” gave me two correct letters, and both in the right place. And then I was stuck.

Eventually I hit on “villa” - go me.

 

I went into the garden and got busy. I hung the washing out, then painted up the cover I’d built for the little pond. Then emptied out the garden lock-up, and re-packed it. I painted the stand from which the bird feeder hangs. I emptied the shed and tidied up, I had this idea to make some order out of the place. I found so many identical drill bits. Having used one I’d put it in some random place in the shed, lost it and then bought another. I found about a dozen new and unused paint brushes. And jubilee clips – I found half a dozen packets of the things.

I loaded a bootful of rubbish into the  back of the car, and booked a tip slot for the morning,

 

We then took littlun to the park. Whilst her and her mother made new friends at the play park, “er indoors ^TM” and I sparked up our Munzee apps and went on a virtual shooting star hunt.

We came home for a cuppa, and I saw something sad on Facebook. A chap I’ve known for ten years has quite serious cancer. He’d like to go panning for gold to get enough to make wedding rings for his daughters before he dies… there’s a fundraiser to try to help him do this. You can donate by clicking here.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled us up some pork chops with all the rest of a roast dinner. Littlun ate most of hers apart from that which she declared was “gross”.

My face is glowing; I caught the sun today. And I’ve got backache. Again.

5 April 2025 (Saturday) - In The Garden

I had a much better night’s sleep last night. It was a shame that “er indoors ^TM” had to have a fight with Treacle at three o’clock, but there it is.

 

I made toast and peered into the Internet. It was still there. Again people were ranting about President Trump. His imposition of tariffs across the world seems to have poggered international trade, but no one appears to be in a position to stop him. When Liz Truss did for the British economy a couple of years ago she was soon out on her arse, but no one in America seems to be doing likewise. Is there no provision to oust an incompetent president in the American constitution, or is everyone scared of him? People were talking about four more years of this… people are assuming he’s going to allow elections when the time comes. No one has stood up to him so far; what’s to stop him staying in office for life? Absolutely nothing that I can see.

I Munzed, and after yesterday’s debacle when I completely failed at Wordle I started off with “price” and found I didn’t have a single letter at all. “Found” then gave me the first two letters. “Folly” then gave me the last letter, and I was then rather stumped until in desperation I tried “foamy”. What a stupid word, but it worked.

 

With the girls wanting a lazy morning Pogo came down and we took him to Dog Club. With about twenty dogs along we had a rather good session. Pogo did his usual trick. Being new to Dog Club he was rather defending what he saw as “his pack” until he eventually realized that his pack didn’t need defending. He stopped defending and then behaved in a rather unmoral way with Smudge and Kai, neither of whom were ever confused.

As we came home so Steve was doing the mystery year competition on the radio. When did the UK government agree with the French to dig the channel tunnel? Unusually I was quite a long way out for once. I thought it was some time in the early eighties – 1981? It was 1987.

We got home where Alexa was finally able to stream Radio Ashford; the streaming wotsit at the radio station had been poggered earlier. And after a dose of Junior Choice – “My Brother” and “I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat” I had a little tidy-up in the garden in readiness for the afternoon.

 

It wasn’t long before Steve and Sarah joined us, and Chris was hot on their heels. Despite the sunshine it wasn’t the warmest of afternoons, but we had a rather good little session in the afternoon. It was rather good to catch up.

 

And as the evening wore on, “er indoors ^TM” went up to the KFC for a bit of dinner. The dogs are worn out, “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and “Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” are all in.

The washing machine is having a go at my undercrackers, and we’re doing something we rarely, if ever, do. We are currently watching “Britain’s Got Talent”. Britain might have, but this bunch haven’t.

4 April 2025 (Friday) - Two Hundred Calories

I had another of those nights where I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go only to find it wasn’t even one o’clock. I then dozed on and off until finally giving up and getting up at five o’clock.

I made toast and watched an episode of “Orange is the New Black” then had my usual peer in to the Internet. It was relatively dull today, but a few people were talking about the start of the holiday. It took me a little while to realise that they meant Easter. Quite a few people are now on a two-week holiday. I can’t complain – these days my life is much more holiday than it ever used to be.

 

I went round to the co-op to get dinner which was easier said than done. The self-service machines were both poggered and the woman in front of me in the queue... oh dear. When she came to pay she just waved her bank card in the air in much the same way that Harry Potter might wave a magic wand. The woman behind the till had to take the card off of her and show her how to use it.

 

I got to the motorway and was rather dismayed to see that some genius had re-installed the stupidity that is Operation Brock. Again there were cars mixed in with the lorries in the coast-bound carriageway, and again there was too much traffic going far too fast in the London-bound carriageway. But the those at Kent County Council know best... 

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the world's reaction to the tariffs President Trump has put on them. Interestingly some American spokesman was on saying that the UK government should shut its rattle and be grateful that the tariffs on the UK are less than half of that on the EU. 

No one wanted to address why Russia doesn't face any tariffs.

And there was talk about the disaster relief operations in Myanmar. The general consensus was that it is now too late to expect to find anyone else still alive, and pointed comments were made about the lack of American response to the earthquake.

Not that I'm in any way defending them, but I can see the American point of view. For years the USA has been there in the forefront of international disaster relief. But now that the orange idiot has done his level best to trash the American economy they've got to make savings.

 

I got to work, and as I had a cuppa before I started I had a little phone call. One of the journalists at Radio Kent has recently discovered geocaching and they were doing a feature on it this morning. Would I talk to her about it? I did. I’m told that the interview I gave was broadcast at about half past ten.

And I had an email at work. There's a new position being advertised. They want someone to oversee training in pathology labs across the county. Back in the day I'd have jumped for a job like this. Nowadays I just want a quiet life.

Tea time was good - there were doughnuts. Mind you at two hundred calories a go, that was over one tenth of my daily calorie allowance on one bun.

 

I came home where “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” and “Darcie WaaWaa ^TM” have come to stay for the weekend. I’m worn out already.

3 April 2025 (Thursday) - Painting Gnomes

Last night I made a start on painting my new garden ornaments. Finding myself awake earlier than I might have been this morning I cracked on and got the Rupert statue painted. He looked a bit boss-eyed if you look closely… and rather scary too. I shall stick that statue somewhere in the garden where people won’t look that closely.

 

I made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. It was still there. Not much was happening on social media, but there was a post on the “Blood Bank Professionals” group. I follow several work-related groups on Facebook; partly out of a desire to learn something, and partly out of a sense of utter amazement at what goes on in America. In the UK we have strict national standards to which we must adhere, and everyone does just that. In the USA there’s either no standards at all, or if there are they are treated as guidelines that you might wish to follow if you could be bothered. Time and again people are posting “what would you do if…” to Facebook and then describe a scenario for which I’ve had written instructions for as long as I can remember.

Bear this in mind when you want to vote for someone who advocates an American-style form of healthcare in which your treatment is that advocated by the first person to post to a random Facebook group.

 

I had an email too. Some time ago (16^th January) I wrote to my county councilor and my MP about the flooding at the underpass by Asda. Both replied promising to look into the matter. Overnight the MP replied. He’d been on to the county  council and been told that “it is not viable to provide remedy of flooding at this location. Even if the wall was extended, the area forms a low point so rainwater and surface water from higher ground would continue to collect with no means of escape. The council has no control of the source of flooding in this instance so there will be some instances where the route will unfortunately be unavailable for use until the river levels recede”. The obvious answer would be to find the source of the flooding and consequently who does have control of it but, as I replied to my MP, he’s actually taken time to look into the issue.

I suppose that if nothing else I now have the name of someone at Kent County Council who knows something about the matter. I’ll get onto him and ask him what is the actual source of the flooding.

Bearing in mind my county councilor is up for re-election I’d have thought he might have taken the time to reply. Having said that, my MP has paid staff to reply for him. Do county councilors have paid staff to do their bidding?

 

I also had an email telling me about a geo-event in Viccie park later in the month, and I saw that someone had found that geocache I didn’t find on Monday.

I tried to Munz, but the Munzee website was poggered. So instead I Wordled. Starting with “plate” I worked through “dream” to get “shear” on the third go.  

 

I put a load of washing in to scrub then took the dogs to the woods where we had a rather uneventful walk right up till when we got back to the car park where we met two women who had at least ten dogs between them. They recognized me, and commented how I never wanted Fudge and now I’ve got three dogs. I wonder who they were.

 

We came home. I made a cuppa then cracked on in the garden. I hung out the washing, mowed the lawn, cleaned both pond filters, topped up the water filters, got out the garden table and then feeling that I needed a rest spent the afternoon painting gnomes. Those things are surprisingly heavy, and I felt my back twinging as I moved them about. Painting four gnomes took over four hours, but it kept me out of mischief.

My dad used to make garden gnomes. His were really good, but people kept stealing them. I wonder if I might make some – but by the time I’ve got moulds and mixed the cement it’s a lot of farting about. Especially when Whelans are knocking them out for a fiver.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up bangers and mash which we scoffed whilst watching that new thing on UK Gold featuring Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey on a little holiday going round France. It was claimed that Neil Morrissey now lives there. His page on Wikipedia doesn’t mention it.

 

My face is glowing – I think I caught the sun today. And my back hurts again.

2 April 2025 (Tuesday) - Dead Butt Syndrome

A few weeks ago we had a run-in with a rather over-excitable horse which I reported to the public rights of way people at Kent County Council. Overnight I received an email from someone called Denis  saying that “Dangerous animals and livestock incidents are enforced by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive)”. I told Denis that a month had passed and it was all rather late.

It must be wonderful to work in a job that has absolutely no urgency.

 

Once I’d scoffed toast and watched another episode of “Orange is the New Black” I got ready for work. I went to my car which was absolutely miles away, brought it to the now vacant parking space outside the house and unloaded all the stuff I got in Whelan’s yesterday. One of the biggest problems with the late shifts is my being unable to park anywhere remotely near the house when I get home. Last night I drove past the house and then circled the local streets for twenty minutes trying to find a parking space. As did at least six other cars that I saw driving round also all trying to park. The trouble is that people don’t park sensibly. Bays that could hold seven cars have five as no one gives a thought as to how they are going to abandon their car.

 

I went round to the co-op to get dinner. Once I'd fed my loose change into the self-service machine I saw Martin getting his shopping. We chatted for a bit, then I set off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were playing recordings of yesterday's parliamentary debates. I say "debates"; "petty bickering" would be closer to the truth. Those elected to run the show were squabbling like ill-behaved brats. I was reminded of the fruits of my loin quarrelling when they were small and very tired. Perhaps if someone were to send the MPs to bed with slapped arses the country might be in a better state.

This was followed by an interview with the head honcho of the British Butterfly Brigade who said that butterfly numbers have been on the decrease for fifty years. He also said that buddleias are good for butterflies, so I'm doing my bit. Even if unintentionally.

 

I got to work and did my bit. As I skived so a contingent of senior managers from other local hospitals came through. As they wandered past one of then cheerfully said "hello Dave". I wonder who he was?  Something similar happened yesterday as well. As I was putting petrol into my car the woman at the next pump said hello and started chatting. She clearly knew me even though I had no idea who she was.

And then a colleague was complaining that she was in pain after running on account of her having "lazy glutes", or "dead butt syndrome" to use the technical term.

Apparently people who run or walk a lot get this if they stop running or walking for any length of time... which is probably why a long dog walk is hard work if I've not taken them out for a while.  It turns out that one of the recognised treatments for this condition (in sports clinics) is infusions of the injured person's own platelets. Platelet transfusions are something I oversee every day... but autologous (your own platelets) transfusions can be given for a range of conditions including sports injury and hair loss.

I might just over-over from NHSBT and rub a couple of doses on my head.

 

I was glad when home time came – I think I might have over-done the lifting what I emptied my car earlier. My back was rather tender.

As “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner I spotted she’d had a haircut. Go me. We had a rather good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of chianti. Bearing in mind my being up at silly o’clock this morning I’m hoping this will have me fast asleep before too much longer.