16 June 2025 (Monday) - More Treasures (Planets)

I stepped on the scales this morning. I was under fifteen stone for the first time in years. I did my blood pressure which also seems to be down on what it was six months ago. Something of a result, I suppose.

I scoffed toast and peered into the Internet. It was still there.

 

With “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” needing a lift mid-morning I took the dogs out early. As we drove to the woods the pundits on the radio were talking to some Israeli spokesman or other. And like most Israeli spokesmen, this woman was utterly unreasonable. She felt it was perfectly fine for the Israelis to have launched a massive and unprovoked attack on the Iranians on the pretext of they might possibly attack Israel at some point in the future. But this woman felt it was utterly wrong of the Iranians to retaliate.

 

We got to the woods and walked our usual circuit. I went in trainers today, and the birdsong app didn’t detect any ducks. We did see a slow worm, Treacle and Pogo found a wet ditch, Morgan and Bailey found fox poo, and Treacle found a deer bone. As we walked we heard several large things crashing in the trees. A few months ago we would have been able to see deer through the trees; now what with all the leaves we can’t.

We headed up the slope to the car park just as loads of normal people were walking down. Pausing only briefly to bark at them we were soon back at the car.

 

We came home, and I solved geo-puzzles until “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” was done. Her and Pogo then went home to disaster. The pavement was dug up outside her flat. Including the entrance to her flat. The nice men had to stop work to let her through.

We took a circuitous route home. Last week two new loads of geocaching treasures were launched. We got one series yesterday. Today it was time to look at “planets”. Only certain geocaches count for getting these souvenirs, and I’d planned a route home.

 

The first stop was at puzzle based on benches in a churchyard in Capel. That was simple enough. The second involved a rather epic word search and I don’t think it was actually there.

The third and fourth adventures were straightforward; if involving a little hike. The last was a pain. I managed to work out the eastings of where the thing was hidden, but the northings eluded me. So I looked at the map and plotted a straight line along which the eastings co-ordinates laid. There was only one point where a footpath crossed that line, so I went and had a look, and there was a tree stump at the vital point.

And inside that tree stump was what I was hunting…

 

Sadly it was too late to do any gardening when I got home, but there it is. Anyway the most recent fruit of my loins has the strimmer… With that in mind I decided to leave it with her and get myself a new one. I had a look on Amazon and saw one that claimed next day delivery. I pressed the buttons and once it had got my money it said I would have it by the beginning of next month… I get that a lot on Amazon.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner then went bowling as she does most Mondays. I settled in front of the telly, did my evening blood pressure measurements and watched more “Orange is the New Black” as the dishwasher dishwashed.

 

I’m feeling rather worn out… 

15 June 2025 (Sunday) - Father's Day

I had something of a lie-in this morning; By the time “er indoors ^TM” got home from her Margate adventure last night it was getting on for one o’clock.

I didn’t do toast this morning. Instead I sat and had a go at some geo-puzzles. There’s one near where we had yesterday’s meet. Ostensibly about cabbages, it has had me struggling for over a year. I got a little pointer yesterday and this morning I finally got the thumbs-up from the checker.

I munzed, got wordle on the fourth attempt, and had another look at the geo-puzzle that went live for yesterday’s meet. There had been a minor cock-up with the publication of that puzzle. When it was sent in to the geo-feds it read “All you have to do to find the cache is to solve this puzzle N51 15.ABC   E001 15.DEF” and this was followed by pictures of pigs labelled A to F. However the pictures of pigs never appeared in the published puzzle. I got to the meet early yesterday and started looking for six-digit strings of numbers. I found them on the date the pub was built, on the fire alarm… Had I pressed the “refresh” button on my app I would have seen that the error had been spotted and corrected. Eventually once I was pointed at the right website I figured out what I was supposed to be doing to solve it.

 

“My Boy ^TM” called round and we went to McDonalds for a Father’s Day McMuffin. The local cafes were crowded out for Father's Day brekkies, but McDonalds was all but empty.

We came home for a cuppa and looked into the pond. “My Boy ^TM” pointed out that the biggest Koi was looking rather thin and ill. I suppose seeing him every day I’d not noticed, but he don’t look well.

 

We then went out for a little walk. We wanted somewhere shaded as the forecast was for a hot day, and somewhere with a series of geocaches that met the specific requirements for the new “Event Mementoes” series of Treasures. The “Another Crockham Wood Trek” series looked as though it would fit the bill.

It did.

We had a rather good walk. The paths were a bit vague (non-existent) in parts. The geocaches weren’t that easy to find. Treacle wallowed in a stagnant ditch, and we took no chances and kept Morgan and Bailey on their leads. But we walked a rather good (if hilly) three miles over two hours.

As I walked I had my birdsong app running. It didn’t detect any ducks today, and it detected ten more species of bird at the western edge of the wood compared to the eastern edge. Birds can be very locallised things.

I took some photos as we walked.

 

We came home via a frankly stupid route at the end of which we decided that the sat-nav in “er indoors ^TM”’s car has had its chance and blown it. But once home we had a rather good hour or so sitting in the garden. I put so much time and effort into the garden it would be a shame not to enjoy it from time to time.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went and had a little lie down. I spent a while struggling with more geo-puzzles.

We had a rather good dinner of pork chops whilst watching “Taskmaster”. I’m feeling washed out; a late night last night, possibly too much sun this weekend… The forecast is for a little less sun tomorrow. We shall see.

 

It still seems odd not going to see my dad…

14 June 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Geo-Meet

I slept through until my alarm went off at seven o’clock this morning. I saw that as a result. I made toast and peered into a Facebook which was rather polarized (isn’t it always?) There were those posting photos of last night’s lightning, and there were those who were pretending to be utterly disinterested. I suppose it is the same with photos of anything. Everything is interesting on first sight, but after the five hundredth photo, the interest tends to wane.

I had an email about a new geocache this morning. I have alerts set up to tell me about new geocaches within thirty miles of home. Back in the day it was rare for there not to have been at least one new one every day. It’s been two weeks since the last one went live.

And I had a text from the doctor. They want another week’s worth of twice-daily blood pressure measurements.

 

We drove round to Dog Club. As we drove Steve was doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition on the radio. “Father forgive me, I tried not to do it” ? No? – Pet Shop Boys; It’s A Sin.

Attendance was down at Dog Club, but we had a great time. Charging about; getting into mischief, more treats than sense…A great time was had by all.

As we drove away Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. When was the siege of the Iranian Embassy in London? 1980.

Steve didn’t give the answer until later this morning; I was pleased about that. It gives me more of a chance.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home to get ready for her adventure. I took the dogs out for ours. We drove to Staple where the monthly geo-meet was happening at the Black Pig. This was the fourth time we’ve met there, and it has always been an excellent meet-up.

Today we had a rather good game of Bat and Trap in which I scored three points; tripling my previous best score. The dogs had dog biscuits from the bar, and also had chicken skins. Chicken skins are new to us – they are basically the chicken version of pork scratchings. They had salami sticks too.

 

After nearly three hours the dogs got a tad fractious, so I brought them home. We said hello and goodbye to “er indoors ^TM” who was off to Margate for some 80s music evening thingy at Dreamland.

I put a load of washing in to scrub. I dishwashered and ironed and watched episodes of “Orange is the New Black” as the dogs all snored.

I decided against taking them out this evening; they’ve had a rather busy day today…

As have I.

13 June 2025 (Friday) - Bonus Late Shift

As I peered into Facebook this morning people were singing the praises of “The Kenny Everett TV show”. I watched an episode of that the other day. I can remember it having been incredibly popular back in the day… but funny? It was one of those shows where whenever a joke was made, the one making the joke would grimace at the camera and canned laughter would be played so that you knew it was funny. Much the same strategy was used in the show “Friends” and many others. My mother couldn’t watch a TV comedy that didn’t tell you when to laugh; she felt that comedies without canned laughter and people grimacing at the camera were just odd.

 

I munzed, wordled, and went upstairs to wake the dogs. Pogo was with us today, and four of us drove down to Orlestone. As we got to the turn-off for the woods we saw “Larry” walking up the main road. We often see him – I think of him as “Larry” as he looks like Larry Fine of the Three Stooges. This chap walks up the main road from Ham Street to South Ashford most mornings, and walks back again most evenings. Sadly he always seems to be going in the opposite direction to us; I’d offer him a lift if I could.

 

We got to the woods. Again I didn’t wear my walking boots; again my birdsong app didn’t detect any ducks. But it did detect coal tits on the three times I ran it. The Merlin birdsong app seems to have an issue with coal tits – how common are they? When I detect them at the bottom of Orlestone Woods the app tells me that they are uncommon. When I detect them anywhere else they aren’t uncommon.

We walked the same walk we did yesterday evening. With “er indoors ^TM” not along the dogs didn’t disappear into any thickets, didn’t run off, and didn’t need to be called at all. Mind you Treacle did wallow in a swamp and the smallest two did roll in fox poo; you can’t have everything.

 

We came home. Being Friday morning “Desert Island Discs” was on the radio. This morning’s castaway was someone of whom I’d never heard of; some professor who specialized in emergency planning. I once knew a chap who worked in emergency planning. He told me he loved it – apparently whenever there had been an emergency for which there had been no plan, the local press would crucify whoever had had the emergency. This chap said he spent all day playing “what if” thinking up the most obscure disaster scenarios and making contingency plans for them.

As we drove home we saw that “Larry” had got to Park Farm – that was a shade over four miles from where we’d seen him earlier. If I was walking that route every day I wouldn’t go up the main road. There’s loads of back lanes that are far prettier (and safer)

 

I wrote up some CPD, and got ready for work. I wasn’t supposed to be at work today, but the boss had asked me if I could help out by doing a late shift. Bearing in mind that I’m on the skint side, and that only a few short years ago I wasn’t trusted to do anything unsupervised, I’m only too happy to help. Even on a black Friday. Not that I’m overly superstitious, but many years ago I worked with a senior manager who took every Friday the thirteenth off work. He said he would take no chances.

 

I set off to work... via Folkestone to drop off those who'd stayed overnight. I then had this idea to set the car’s cruise control and drive at a steady seventy miles per hour for the thirty-five miles from Folkestone to work thereby taking half an hour. A genius idea in theory; utterly impractical in practice.  The trouble with cruise control is that no one else uses it, and so you are constantly either driving up other people's rear ends, or having people driving up your rear end. And it didn't help that a ferry or the Eurostar had just chucked out giving two lanes of lorries overtaking each other at one mile per hour difference in speed.

I got some petrol and went in to work for the late shift. Work was much the same as ever. Unlike Tuesday we didn't have any red alerts, and we had cake; I was grateful for small mercies. 

It was a shame there was a thunderstorm on the way home, but I got in before the torrential rain started.

 

And in closing today I seem to have formed a blister on my right thumb. I have no idea how that got there – possibly from all the fence painting?

12 June 2025 (Thursday) - The Duck Theory

I slept rather well last night which wasn’t really surprising, but I must admit I had been expecting a bit more of a headache. In retrospect polishing off an entire bottle of amaretto was a tad keen.

I made toast and peered into the Internet as I do. It was still there. Today’s petty squabble on Facebook was about who pays the vet bills. Do you pay the vet and claim from the insurance company, or does the insurance company pay the vet directly? Obviously it depends on the insurance policy that you’ve got, but people were getting amazingly confrontational about the matter.

And I was presented with adverts for a three-week cruise taking in Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. I’ve been getting these for some time now. I can’t say I’m overly keen on the idea of a cruise anyway, and at twenty thousand quid each it’s a tad expensive.

 

I munzed, and got Wordle on the fifth attempt. Any word with an “X” in it takes some doing. I put some washing in, and rather than going to the woods I cracked on in the garden. I got the lawn mowed and a panel of fence painting before we were due at the vet for the annual check-up and jabs. The vet seemed happy with Morgan and Bailey; sadly I don’t think the feeling was mutual.

 

We came home, collected Treacle, and went up the woods about three hours later than usual. We walked our usual walk and saw slow worms and fox poo as we went. We left the slow worm alone, but the dogs ate the fox poo that they didn’t smear over their ears and backs. Dogs is foul creatures.

Again I ran my birdsong app, and I think I’ve discovered a hiccup with it. Periodically it detects ducks that aren’t there… I *think* it is hearing my creaking boots.

As we walked back to the car a passing normal person took a shine to the pups. I told her not to stroke them as they were covered in fox poo. She smiled politely at me with a “WTF are you talking about” expression, stroked them both, and then realized that they were both covered in fox poo.

I did tell her…

We came home for a bath.

 

With dogs scrubbed we had a cheese sandwich, then I cracked on with fence painting. I got another panel painted, but the next one was in a bit of a state, so I put the paint away and spent an hour or so sorting out poggered fence panels. The panels really need replacing, but they will do for another year.

I didn’t feel like any more painting; by the time I’d run round with the watering can and done the “Feed The Fish” ritual the afternoon was pretty much all gone.

 

“er indoors ^TM” finished work and we took the dogs down to Orlestone for an evening walk. Bearing in mind my duck theory I wore trainers. As we walked round the woods I did three separate ten-minute recordings and didn’t detect a single duck.

We came home and had a rather good ploughman’s lunch for tea.

I’ve walked over twenty-one thousand steps today… I’m worn out.

 

11 June 2025 (Wednesday) - Walks, Gardening, Stuff, Hic !!!

I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go at quarter to midnight, and dozed fitfully for the rest of the night. I got up feeling rather grim just before seven o’clock.
I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. There was consternation on one of the Doctor Who Facebook pages as the deal about the show between the BBC and Disney has packed up. One major change with being a Doctor Who fan these days (as opposed to back when the show was good in the 1970s) is that all the gossip is about the behind-the-scenes stuff and the production of the show.
Someone moving to Ashford was asking for recommendations for a decent doctor’s surgery. Every surgery for miles around was brought up; every one had good and bad reports and some people were getting quite confrontational when everyone else slighted their personal choice. Much the same often happens with people asking about vet surgeries and take-out food. And football teams and political parties… people randomly pick a favourite and stay with it regardless of how good or bad it actually is.
I munzed and wordled, and got ready for the day.
 
I got the leads on to the dogs and we went up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about Elon Musk who has been making apologies on what was once Twitter. It seems he’s finally realized that as a businessman he’s got two sources of income. The American public who he has pissed off big-time by effectively calling them all bone-idle with his DOGE project. And the American government who he has pissed off big-time by squabbling with President Trump.
We got to the woods and walked our usual circuit. The birdsong app didn’t find any ducks today, but reckoned it identified a skylark. Did it? Who knows?
As we walked we wallowed in swamps, rolled in muck and found deer legs (two). One of the deer legs was rather dry and mummified. The other was rotten, rancid and stinking. I don’t mind the dried out ones; the dogs prefer the rancid ones. Dogs is foul creatures.
 
After four and a half miles we were back at the car. We came home; I made us a cuppa then played on-line chess against “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” who is surprisingly good at chess.
I then got the last of the fence between our garden and not-so-nice-next-door painted. And with painting painted I then fixed the poggered fence bits as best I could. The fence (probably) is good for a little while yet, but it is years old and needs to be replaced. There’s only so many bodges that can be applied. One of the bigger bodges I applied was to fix where my Fudge once tanked through it, and he’s been gone four years now.
I’ve offered to pay to have it all replaced with new fencing, but I suspect that not-so-nice-next-door realizes that I want the fence replaced and is being difficult.
 
“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a cheese sandwich and I spent a little while going through my diary checking that the hours I think I worked agreed with the hours that work thinks I worked (or at least turned up for). I found a few mistakes… all on my part. I wrote up some CPD… then announced that I was going to feed the fish. Dogs leapt up and sprinted out to the pond.
With fish fed I pruned back the watercress in the pond. It looks rather haggard. It might sprout again; if it don’t, another bag of the stuff is only a quid from Sainsbury’s.
 
Seeing a rather good evening, “er indoors ^TM” and I took the dogs down to Orlestone. They’d had four and a half miles round Kings Wood this morning; and got two more miles this evening. I was going to say that they were a tad more willful this evening, but at Orlestone the road runs near the footpaths and so I have to call them more. In Kings Wood I rarely need to call them. I’d rather not call them more than I need to; I’m convinced the more they get called the less notice they take.
 
With walk walked we came home. Having washed the bedding and got it dried, we then had to put it all back on the bed. That is always hard work.
We had a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching last week’s “Bake Off; The Professionals” and the final episode of “Race Across the World”. I was a tad disappointed that the team I liked didn’t win, but I was pleased that the wet weekend didn’t win either.
As we scoffed and stared at the telly we cracked open a rather good bottle of red wine, and then opened a bottle of amaretto.
Neither bottle saw out the evening,,,

10 June 2025 (Tuesday) - Goldfinches

I had a rather bad night; I always do when I’ve got an alarm set. I got up about an hour before I might have done, made toast and watched another episode of “Orange is the New Black” before setting off to work.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the planned new nuclear power station at Sizewell. The thing is now definitely going ahead… even though construction started eighteen months ago. There were those who welcomed it, and those who opposed it. For the most part those who welcomed it weren’t those with it on their doorstep, and those who opposed it were those who would be inconvenienced by the construction. Pretty much like absolutely everything else in life really.

There was also talk about humpback whales. They blow bubble rings when near humans, but drone footage of them all over the world shows this only happens when humans are about. They don’t do it when no one is looking. The implication is that they are trying to communicate… Are they? If so, what are they saying?  I’m jut hoping it’s not “so long, and thanks for all the fish”.

 

I popped in to Sainsburys to get a sandwich. They didn’t have the carrot & houmous dip that I like so I had to rough it with nachos and guacamole at three times the calories.

Being in the works car park earlier than I might have been, I went for a little walk, munzing as I went. I also had my bird app going and it detected a dozen different birds, including goldfinches. There’s loads of goldfinches at work; I spent a little while peering out of the blood bank window watching them having a bath in the puddle on the flat roof today.

 

In between watching goldfinches we had a rather busy day, including problematical apparatus and a red alert.

And it would seem that the trainees have absolutely no idea what the phrase “a poggered shit shop” means when describing a malfunctioning lavatory.

 

We had a rather good tea of pizza and garlic bread, and I then polished off the last of last week’s Vienetta and cream. The cream might have been in the fridge for a tad too long; it tasted OK but it’s not sitting well right now…

Apart from the goldfinches, today was dull…

9 June 2025 (Monday) - Complaining

 

The weekend had been rather dull. And as is so often the way, now it is all over it turned out there was a rather epic beer festival in Tenterden over the weekend that I missed. Back in the day the local branch of CAMRA used to organize a beer festival at the Rare Breeds centre. We went many times. A while ago it was moved from the Rare Breeds centre to the Kent and East Sussex railway in Tenterden… and yet again I found out about it after the event.

There had been an “Open Gardens” event in Challock yesterday when I could have gone and been nosey at people’s gardens, and something else I found out as I scoffed toast was that the chap who created cybermen (in “Doctor Who”) used to live just up the road in Doddington.

 

I got the dogs onto the leads (four – as Pogo had been with us overnight) and we set off for an adventure. As we drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing one of the head honchos of Reform UK. This chap had been the party’s chairman last week but had resigned saying that working for the party was not “a good use of my time”. He’s now come back and taken up another job with Reform UK; he was rather vague as to what it was but did say he’d had loads of messages from members of Reform UK urging him to remain. It was implied that being a Muslim himself he would have a moderating effect on the party. Hopefully he will…

As we drove we saw a car with the registration “G4 MNG”; I bet that wasn’t cheap.

 

We got to the woods and had a good walk. The ground wasn’t that wet bearing in mind the weekend’s overnight rain but there were puddles; some rather deep. Treacle had a wallow.

I tried the birdsong app; it detected two sorts of chiffchaff. I had thought there was only one sort; it turns out there’s four. It detected a spotted flycatcher, and claimed to have detected a common eider which ironically is rather rare in Kings Wood. Probably because I doubt there’s any actually there.

 

We came home, and I painted fence until “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” returned from her appointment. I drove her and Pogo back home and went shopping…

Oh dear.

The Cheriton branch of Tesco had renovations going on and pretty much every aisle I needed was closed. So I drove up the motorway to the one in Willesborough. I got what I needed and saw there was an offer on bottles of wine. If I were to buy three or more that were on offer I would get twenty-five per cent off. I picked up three bottles that were very clearly labelled as being in the deal – in front of each bottle was a sign saying the wine was in the deal. I got to the till and felt that the bill was a tad high.

It turned out that for a wine to be in the deal, the wine had to be labelled “Tesco’s Finest”. Sadly this wasn’t what the advertisement said; it clearly said that each of the wines I picked up were part of the deal.

And having taken my money, both the cashier and the customer service staff refused to give a refund.

I came home and sent Tesco’s head office a complaint. Or tried to. Eventually I found a Whatsapp number where after quite a bit of farting about I eventually got told that a real person would be in touch with me.

Someone claiming to be called Finlay Whatsapped me five minutes later wanting a photo of the receipt and my email address, and five minutes after that he emailed me a voucher for nearly nine quid.

It pays to complain.

 

Whilst I’d been in Tesco I’d got us a cream slice each for lunch (diet? – what diet!). I was rather amazed to find that there’s about fifty more calories in a croissant than there is in a cream slice. It’s like flapjack. I thought that stuff would be healthy. It pays to have a calorie-counting app.

 

I went into the garden and painted more fence. I’ve got to the panels near the house which are behind planters and lock-ups and are difficult to get to. And consequently I don’t get much done before it starts hurting. I got one panel done, did the “Feed The Fish” ritual, then made us both a cuppa.

 

After a rather good bit of scoff “er indoors ^TM” went bowling like she does most Mondays. I put “Orange is the New Black” on the telly and cracked on with the ironing.

The weekend was rather dull… today was rather busy. I’m worn out.

8 June 2025 (Sunday) - Another Dull Day

I woke to a bright morning, and the birds were chirping as I scoffed toast. Sparrows. I had my usual rummage round the Internet. Apart from endless adverts about “Back to the Future” (what was that all about?) Facebook was dull but I had an email about my leccie and gas bill. My account is fifty quid in credit which is something of a result I suppose.

I Munzed and Wordled, and then the dogs got up. I followed them with a trowel as I do, and sniggered. I could tell the rain had been heavy last night; rather than going right up the garden to unload, the late night turds had been dolloped only a few feet from the back door. It’s a dog thing.

 

I then got the ladder out and went upstairs with it. We’ve been hearing a chirping from above the airing cupboard, and from the outside it looks like the sparrows have been getting under the tiles. There was nothing to be seen in the airing cupboard; I got into the loft space above the back room and nothing seemed amiss. So I got onto the flat roof above the bathroom and had a look from the outside. The sparrows have made a little nest underneath one of the roof tiles. They don’t seem to be doing any harm there.

 

We took the dogs out. Bearing in mind last night’s rain we wanted to go somewhere relatively dry so we followed the path along the river up to Henwood and came back again, finding three new geocaches as we went.

As always when on their leads the dogs’ behavior left something to be desired. It usually does. When running free they are fine with other dogs; when on the lead there is loads of snarling and barking.

As we walked up the river we saw a nesting swan. The bird was fast asleep on the net as everyone was walking to and fro along the path.

 

We came home. After a cuppa “er indoors ^TM” went round to the scout hut for a meeting. Much as I love the scout group, it can be a nuisance. Most scouty people have nothing else in their lives as scouting completely takes your life over (been there, done that!) so a weekend with no scouty things is ideal for a meeting. Personally I’d rather have had the meeting one weekday evening but scouty people are doing scouty things every weekday evening… I was a scout leader for thirteen years. We had the cubs meeting on a Tuesday, I’d often be expected to show up at Beavers on a Wednesday. Monday and Thursday was district committee meetings, Friday would be fundraising events, weekends often had sporting events… I must have enjoyed my time as a scout leader, but it certainly takes over.

Effectively today was pretty much a non-event so’s a one-hour meeting could happen. That’s effectively a wasted weekend.

But there it is.

I cleaned the fish tank filter, and both pond filters, and got more fence painted before “er indoors ^TM” came home. “er indoors ^TM” came home to say that a merger is on the cards for the scout group. The group with which I used to help has no over-elevens any more, but has its own premises. The Stanhope scout group has no under-elevens and meets where it can. It makes sense to combine the two. As always I’m tempted to offer to help, but scouting really does take over. It was mentioned that the grounds of the scout hut need tidying – we might be able to organize a geo-meet to do that.

 

We then spent a little while putting the new garden table together. The old one collapsed a while ago.

Over some pork chops we watched the most recent episode of “Race Around the World”. The race is getting to the final stages… it’s getting rather exciting, and not at all the stage in the race at which to stuff up… 

7 June 2025 (Saturday) - Home Alone

I woke shortly before five o’clock this morning which was rather better than the previous night. I then lay there listening to the rain against the window. The forecast had been for overnight rain, but the sound of it is always rather depressing. I suspect this comes from listening to it (many times) from inside a tent. 

 

I got up, made toast and had a look at the Internet. Here’s a sign of the times… Back in the day record charts would tell you which bands were popular. An album or single would climb the charts, peak and then vanish into obscurity over a couple of months. These days things are far more immediate what with digital downloads. Last week Sparks’ new album entered many of the various album charts in position one or two. A week later the same album isn’t even in the top one hundred of any of them.

I had an offer – I could download a copy of the Beano’s summer special. Something for nothing can’t be bad… over fifty years ago I was an avid reader of the Beano; this year’s summer special was something of a disappointment.

And Catherine Tate was complaining about the price of theatre tickets. With local theatres struggling to get the punters in she’s said that the average person isn’t going to spend fifty quid on a ticket. Make it cheaper and the people will come. She’s got a point…

 

I munzed, and got Wordle on the fifth attempt. Reuse – what a stupid word. Is it even a word? Shouldn’t it be re-use with a hyphen?

I set the dishwasher going, then seeing that the rain was easing up we got ready for Dog Club. To be honest we’d get ready for Dog Club regardless of the weather. Being the key holder we had to at least show up and open up… “We” being me and the dogs; “er indoors ^TM” and the Craft Club gang were off to some big crafting convention today.

 

As we drove round to Repton Steve was on the radio. I had no idea about the guess the lyrics competition. “I can't say the words you want to hear. I suppose you're gonna have to play it by ear”. It was “Girls Talk” by Dave Edmonds apparently.

I must admit that my hopes for Dog Club weren’t high today. The weather forecast for the day was awful, but we still had a dozen dogs along. Things started badly for Morgan – with “er indoors ^TM” not being along he spent the first ten minutes crying for her, but he soon joined in the games with his friends. Playing and chasing, playing fetch, sharing treats… we all had fun.

And as we drove home I got the radio’s mystery year competition from the song “Sugar Baby Love” – a rather obscure song brought back so many memories of 1974.

 

Once home I emptied the dishwasher and put a load of laundry in to scrub. The forecast rain still hadn’t arrived but I decided against going into the garden. The overnight rain had left everything soaking wet. Instead I made myself a cuppa, and as the dogs sat on the back of the sofa and grumbled at every passer-by I counted the Dog Club takings. People can either pay their subs by cash or by texting the Repton centre. The cash goes in to a pot which I keep hold of. I quite like the idea of a money pot as every two weeks I count up the money, add on a tenner for our dogs and transfer that amount to the Repton people. I then pocket the cash, and it saves me the time it would take going to a cashpoint machine. It would only be a few seconds, but it saves some time.

I wrote up some CPD, ironed shirts, and fell asleep on the sofa. I woke after a few hours then had a minor pootle in the garden until “er indoors ^TM” came home.

 

“er indoors ^TM boiled up pizza then went off to Folkestone; some comedian or other was playing at the Leas Cliff Hall. I settled in front of the telly underneath dogs and watched episodes of “Orange is the New Black” and watched the rain which had finally started.

The weather forecast for today had been for heavy rain all day long and there had been formal warnings from the Met Office for thunderstorms. The overnight rain stopped at about half past seven this morning, and the day stayed dry until six o’clock this evening.

Maybe I might start a petition asking the government to either ban weather forecasting or have weather forecasts carry a little announcement about just how successful they have been over the last month?

 

6 June 2025 (Friday) - Before the Late Shift

I slept well until two o’clock. I woke to see the clock reading “2:34” and then I didn’t really sleep much more. Eventually Treacle jumped off the bed and started squeaking frantically. I got up; she sprinted to the back door and flew down the garden.

Part of me thinks we should have a litter tray by the back door in case of emergencies; part of me thinks that if we had a litter tray it would get used every night.

 

I made toast and had my usual rummage round Facebook as I do. More and more I’m getting postings about dying animals. I wish I wasn’t. I’ve already had two random melt-downs about my Fudge this week and it is over four years since he went.

I took a deep breath, and made a point of not joining in with a squabble I saw on one of the pension-related Facebook groups I follow. Someone had set up some scheme in which recipients of NHS pensions got some bargain or other. Someone else had joined the group purely to kick off about how that discriminated against people who didn’t get the NHS pension. It was suggested that the chap set up his own freebie-dishing-out scheme, and that was akin to a red rag to a bull. As is always the way people would rather complain than do anything. I know I would.

 

The dogs all got up, eventually followed by “er indoors ^TM” and “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM”. Once the dogs had had their brekkie I took them out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how President Trump and Elon Musk have been having a very bitter and very public argument. Perhaps Mr. Musk is right; perhaps Mr. Trump might not have won the election if not for him. But he did win the election, and consequently Mr. Musk (like all of us) must bear in mind the thirty-third rule of acquisition – it never hurts to suck up to the boss.

 

We got to the woods. With limited time this morning we went to Orlestone. There was only one other car in the car park and we walked for two miles without seeing anyone else. The dogs were as good as gold for once. In the past they have been willful at Orlestone; disappearing into thickets and being reluctant to come back when called. But today they didn’t disappear, they stayed (relatively) close, they didn’t roll in any muck, they totally ignored the two-feet-deep puddle that we walked past on the way back to the car.

As we walked I had my birdsong app running; in the last couple of weeks that has become a fascination of mine. In the back garden it always detects sparrows; in the woods it has never once detected a sparrow even though I see small birds which I have always thought were sparrows. I need to look closer to see what they are. And this morning the app identified a goose and three different tits too.

Pogo had stayed overnight – he came on our walk today. I had no problems with four dogs this morning. Back in the day I used to have problems with three dogs. Looking back it was little Fudge who was the problem; he would straggle behind so much. The four dogs along today all stayed (relatively) together and with me.

As we drove home Romesh Ranganathan was on the radio. He was this morning’s castaway on “Desert Island Discs”. He was very interesting, but with a frankly dreadful choice in music. Having said that I often listen to “Desert Island Discs”, and I’ve never heard anything by E.L.O., Sparks or Kate Bush on there.

 

We came home – no one needed a bath (which was a result). I ran round the garden collecting the dog turds I didn’t collect earlier and once I’d washed my hands I made us both a cuppa. We listened to the end of “Desert Island Discs”, and I wrote up some CPD until “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” returned from her appointment.

I drove her and Pogo home, then went on to the late shift. And as is so often the way when on the late shift, the day was effectively done by late morning.

5 June 2025 (Thursday) - It Rained

As I peered into Facebook this morning an old mate was posting photos of the motorbikes he’s restored and is now driving about. This got me thinking… I’ve had four motorbikes and I don’t miss any of them.

My first motorbike was a Suzuki AP50 which I destroyed by driving straight into the back of a car driven by my aunt’s ex-boyfriend (woops!)

I replaced it with a Honda CB100 which I had for six months; over four of which it spent in the workshops of Hastings Motorcycles. Despite being the only five-star Honda dealer in Sussex they couldn’t get the parts for it.

I gave up waiting and got a Suzuki GSX250 which I drove for a few years. My most vivid memory of it is skidding in oil in Cornwallis Gardens (in Hastings) and then skidding up the road with the bike pinning my ankle down as we scraped along the tarmac. After a couple of years the thing finally fell to bits. I eventually sold it to a friend of my father who wanted it for moto-cross. When that went I resorted to a pedal bike for fifteen years.

When we came back from the scouts holiday in Canada in 2000 I had a lot of money left over (the holiday turned out to be far cheaper than we had thought it would be), and in a fit of nostalgia for an age that never existed I got another motorbike. A Suzuki GSX650. I drove it for some time, but I have no happy memories of that bike at all. I can remember riding it through the rain to a works meeting in Margate, and sitting in the meeting in wet shirt and trousers as my so-called waterproofs were hung out steaming over a range of chairs. I can remember riding it to a works meeting in Milton Keynes, arriving with serious backache, and wondering about abandoning it and taking the train home. Eventually I gave up with the bike when it was in for a service and I borrowed “er indoors ^TM” car. It didn’t hurt to drive the car, I could carry more luggage than I could shove up my jumper, and I wasn’t in permanent fear of being wiped off the road by every passing vehicle that was bigger than a go-kart.

Motorbikes are all very well when it’s not raining, you’ve not got far to go, and there’s no other idiots on the road.

 

I munzed, got Wordle (datum – what a silly word) on the fourth attempt, put some washing in to scrub, woke the dogs, and once they’d had brekkie I took them out.

As we drove to the woods the pundits on the radio were interviewing the shadow chancellor of the exchequer who, like many politicians, was spouting drivel. He started off banging on about how only the Conservative party could be trusted with the country’s economy, and then was apologizing for the utter financial balls-up that the Liz Truss government had made. After a little squabbling he took the standard fall-back position of all politicians “vote for me – I’m not as bad as the others”.

 

We got to the woods. We started our walk. As we walked my birdsong app detected a redstart, or so it claimed. Gordon downloaded the same app yesterday and it thought his dog Norton was Norton’s panting was a ring-necked duck. We saw the pink flowers I’ve seen all over the woods recently. A friend has told me they are foxgloves.

And we saw a song thrush’s egg – sadly laying broken on the ground. How did it get there? I always thought they nested earlier in the year?

After a couple of miles the drizzle started, and the drizzle soon became rain. We shortened our walk, and rather than five miles we walked three and a half, and weren’t *that* wet when we got back to the car.

 

We came home. I hung out the washing, set the undercrackers tumble-drying and did some CPD until the rain eased up.

I went into the garden and got half of the lawn edging painted. I trimmed back the roses hanging over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. Just how far is it reasonable for her roses to come over the fence? Am I being unreasonable in thinking they shouldn’t scratch my head as I walk the stepping-stones which run up the middle of my garden? I mowed the lawn, and trimmed round the stepping-stones.

After two and a half hours the rain started again so I came in. And (sadly) after two and a half hours the garden looked much the same as when I’d started.

 

I looked at my phone – this morning’s post to Facebook came up, and below the post was a new button – Facebook’s AI saying “More about Fat Baldy’s Adventures”. I clicked on it but was disappointed. If it wants to know more about Fat Baldy it only has to read my blog. As for what adventure Fat Baldy would like to have… hope springs eternal.

I then spent a little while solving geo-puzzles. I think the idea was that I was supposed to go to certain locations, but I could get the information easily enough from Google Street View. That saved some farting about.

 

“Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” is visiting… she’s boiling up dinner.

4 June 2025 (Wednesday) - A Day At Work

I woke this morning feeling full of energy and raring to go... at twenty past one. I then didn't sleep for more than twenty minutes at a time. I gave up and got up at five o'clock, and watched an episode of "Big Mouth" as I scoffed toast. 

I set off in the general direction of work... stopping off to deliver a birthday card on the way. Back in the day that's what postmen used to do. These days we get post every other day at best, and (quite frankly) if you want a job done, do it yourself.

I also went to the petrol station. I might have spent a bit more money getting petrol in Ashford rather than Aylesford, but the petrol station in Ashford has sandwiches first thing in the morning. The carrots with houmous and the flavoured water took some finding though. Nothing ever seems to stay in the same place in the Ashford Sainsbury's petrol station.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were doing their usual thing. There was talk about diets; apparently low calorie diets can cause depression. That would possibly explain why I've had the hump for the last few months?

And there was talk about nationalising the Thames Water company after some potential buyer backed out of buying it. There was an interview with some chap whose garden fills with sewage every time there's heavy rain because the pumping station (which he can see from his turd-filled garden) doesn't actually pump. The pundits then played a recording from yesterday's parliamentary session in which the minister for something-or-other said that the government didn't want to nationalise Thames Water as it would cost too much. It probably would right now; it was suggested that the company should be left to go bust (which it was claimed wouldn't take long), and once bust the investors wouldn't actually have anything for the government to buy out. The government could then start from scratch where the failed Thames water left off. Harsh? Perhaps, but the current scheme ain't working, is it?

 

I got to work rather earlier than I might, and went for a little walk; Munzing as I went. As I went I got a frog cubimal out of a qrate, and got a gold qrate too. Never a dull moment in Munzee, eh? 

After a mile I was back at work, so I went in and made myself a cuppa and struggled with Wordle.  C-ASE ? The missing letter wasn't an H... It took me an age to work out what it was.

 

At tea break I treated myself to a cheese scone. Last year I had one of those every day. This year being on a diet I haven't. That's saved just over a quid and three hundred calories a day, and helped shift two stone. Admittedly I might be a lot more miserable for it, but (apparently) that's diets for you.

At tea break I also started re-reading an old favourite book of mine. I first read "The Many Coloured Land" and its sequels over forty years ago. I've since read them at least once every year, but they are such good books. Every time I re-read them I see a new plot element that I missed last time.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner which we washed down with a bottle of plonk whilst watching this week’s episode of “Bake Off: The Professionals”. Sometimes I wonder what might have happened if I’d pursued the career at the Harbour Restaurant rather than in blood testing. I might have been on telly cooking things.

 

The trouble with a bottle of plonk for dinner is that I will be fast asleep from nine o’clock this evening… and wide awake at two o’clock tomorrow morning.

 

3 June 2025 (Tuesday) - A Walk, Fence Painting, Ironing, Cooking

Pretty much nothing had happened on-line last night but I had an interesting email this morning. I’ve set up email notifications to tell me whenever anyone visits any of the geocaches we went to when in Uzbekistan (because I’m nosey). There had been an interesting episode in Tashkent last week.

When we were about to go to Uzbekistan last year we solved a geo-puzzle and saw that the cache had been missing for a while. We contacted the C.O. and asked if he’d like us to replace it. He said he would. So we got to where the thing was supposed to be and put down a new cache… all the time very conscious that the moment we slowed down and looked at the electrical box behind which the cache was supposed to be hidden, several local street cleaners started watching us. Since then the pot we put out has vanished and been replaced a few times. Last week some German chap stopped off at that cache with his tour group, rummaged around for the thing… and found himself taken off to the local police station where he was asked to explain whether he was planting drugs or trying to sabotage the electrical box behind which the cache was hidden. With only twenty-five geocaches in the entire country, geocaching took a bit of explaining.

 

I munzed, and got ready for the off. I took the dogs up to the woods. As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing Sharren Haskel, Israeli deputy minister for foreign affairs about an attack on an aid centre in Gaza. The interviewer read out a statement made by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). Ms. Haskel then announced that the BBC couldn’t be trusted to give impartial news then read out the same statement herself. The statement she read was absolutely identical to that read by the interviewer, but there was some merit in having it from a non-BBC source (apparently), and the interview then descended into an “everyone hates Israel;  you’re a load of B***rds” rant. I’ve said before, the Israeli government would go up inestimably in the world’s opinion if they could find a spokesperson who could speak in a reasoned tone of voice.

 

We got to the woods, we walked four miles. A good walk. I fiddled about with my bird app; it claimed to hear a firecrest. It might well have done; I have to take it on faith.

 

We came home. I immediately went into the garden and cracked on with fence painting. I got two more panels done before the forecast rain started.

I had a bowl of coco-puffs for lunch whilst watching an episode of “Orange is the New Black”, then did some ironing. When the rain eased up we did the “Feed The Fish” ceremony, then watched more telly before I cooked dinner. I say “cooked dinner”; I bunged leftovers into a pan with some curry powder, brown sauce and ketchup, and let it simmer until “er indoors ^TM” came home from work.

 

Dinner wasn’t that bad really; we washed it down with a bottle of coffee stout (good old Aldi) and then I shared some cheesy biccies with the dogs.

Due to the vagaries of my shift pattern I’ve been off work for a week. I’ve got to go back tomorrow – I wonder if I’ve missed much…

2 June 2025 (Monday) - Painting More Fence

I saw every hour of the night, which was something of a shame, if something of back to normal. I set a load of washing going and peered into the Internet. Someone was grumbling on one of the pond-related Facebook pages; his pond was over-run with water lilies. Looking at the photos you’d pay (literally) thousands of pounds for that amount of lilies from a garden centre. It had never occurred to this chap that someone else might want the lilies that he felt were a nuisance.

The local branch of the Labour party were posing personal insults at Nigel Farage. I can't say I'm a fan of the chap, but following their recent success in local elections they now have to prove themselves. Much like the Labour party have got to do. It's been my experience that "vote for me - I'm not as bad as the others" is a very weak position to take. As a life-long right wing leftie I find myself getting more and more disillusioned with the Labour party.

I munzed, got Wordle on the third attempt (preen) and then with the dogs getting up I got ready for the day.

 

As I drove the dogs to the woods so the pundits on the radio were interviewing the Prime Minister. The chap was saying that Britain should be preparing for war, but was being rather vague about why.

We got to the woods and had a rather good walk. We did our usual circuit, and once we were away from the car park we only saw one other person. A jogger. The dogs joined in running with him which rather perplexed the chap. You’d think he’s have welcomed the company?

As we walked I tried out my birdsong app as I do. It detected a duck (again) but didn’t detect the buzzards chirping. I’ve a theory that the smaller the bird, the more noise it makes.

 

Once home I made us a cuppa, then painted the fence until “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” was ready. I drove her home to Folkestone… then back to Ashford to get her keys and then back to Folkestone again.

I then spent a little while in the garden. I ran out the hose and topped up both ponds, and got four more fence panes painted. I decided against going for a fifth panel; you can get too much of a good thing.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went bowling. I settled in front of the telly under a pile of dogs and watched a few episodes of “Orange is the New Black”.

I really ache – I’ve walked the dogs, driven to Folkestone and back (twice) and painted some fence. I shouldn’t ache this much…

1 June 2025 (Sunday) - Lazy Day

I had a better night’s sleep last night which was something of a result. I got up at half past eight, which is something I’ve not done for a while. Being the first of the month I got out a new razor blade (I make them last!), and once I’d had my scrape I made toast and had my usual peer into the Internet.

Last night’s revelation of the new Doctor Who had for the most part gone down like a lead balloon. So-called Doctor Who fans were all over the internet complaining and harking back to the good old days. Sci-fi fans are a fickle lot. They are never happy; full of nostalgia for an age that never happened. It was the reactions of the so-called fans which killed off Star Trek (among many other TV shows). If those making TV shows see that something is getting loads of bad reviews, then they aren’t going to continue with it, are they?

I Munzed, got Wordle on the fourth attempt, and cracked on.

 

Today was a bit of a balls-up. We’d turned down a decent walk because we thought we’d be seeing “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” today, but it turned out that we’d all got our wires crossed.

So I put a load of washing in to scrub, and painted all the fence panels that I’d pressure-washed the other day. And with those painted I pulled the ivy off of more fence panels and pressure-washed them too. Thirty seconds to type; six hours to do.

As I painted and pressure-washed I tried my birdsong app in the garden. It detected doves, magpies and sparrows. No surprise there. What I thought was a crow it thought was a jackdaw, and it totally missed the seagulls.

 

Eventually “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” was ready so “er indoors ^TM” set off to fetch her and Pogo. I watched another episode of “Orange is the New Black” until they returned, then sat by the pond with the most recent fruit of my loin. We had a little drinkie whilst “er indoors ^TM” sorted roast beef. And then we had a rather good bit of dinner.

 

I’m told there’s a chance of seeing aurora this evening. I’m no expert bit you can’t really see it outside of a photograph. I don’t think I will bother.

I don’t really think I’ve done much today, but I’m worn out with it all…