15 December 2025 (Monday) - A Disappointment

In a novel break with tradition my alarm woke me this morning. Mind you I'd seen every twenty minutes of the night before that.

I got up, opened my Advent Calendar, made toast and watched some telly. Back in the day the Young Ones was *the* TV show to watch. It started some time in 1982 and was broadcast on a Thursday evening. I remember it being on a Thursday as that was the night I was always late home because Thursday was college day. I always missed the show, and everyone else would tell me how good it had been. There was no video recorders or catch-up TV back then... Eventually I got to see the program in re-runs and like everyone else I was enthralled by it.

Sadly it hasn't really stood the test of time... 

 

I set off to work via the petrol station.  There was a surprising amount of people getting petro at seven o'clock this morning. And once I'd got petrol I set off up the motorway. For all that the motorway was busy this morning, it was a far better journey that going cross-country to Pembury had been last week. 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the availability of diet drugs on the NHS. There was an interview with a chap who wasn't entirely unlike me in that the chap had been overweight for years and had used a CPAP machine for years. However unlike me, this chap seemed to be rather too keen on the pies. He was laying the blame for his obesity purely on the NHS which wasn't giving him the diet injections. Surely  I'm not the only one to have realised that your cake hole is bigger than your arse hole, and the feeling of hunger is what weight loss feels like?

 

I got to work and in a fit of recklessness got myself a cheese scone from the League of Friends' little shop. Nowadays I have one as a treat from time to time; a year ago I had one every day. I made myself a cuppa to have with the scone, and I had a little look at the Internet. I had an email. Yesterday I organised a geo-meet to take place at the micropub I found yesterday. The geo-Feds have approved my plan, and so if any of my loyal readers are at a loose end in mid-January...

 

I got on with work. I did several wet ones as one does (it's a blood compatibility testing thing). What with te vagaries of my work pattern this was my first Monday at work for months. It was rather busy; I was glad when home time came round. 

 

I came home. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza and then went bowling. I wrapped Christmas pressies whilst watching episodes of “This is England 86”. I had planned to do the ironing… I’ll do that tomorrow, eh…

14 December 2025 (Sunday) - Hunting More Origami Animals

Apart from a trip to the loo in the small hours I stayed asleep until half past eight when my aching joints told me it was time to start moving about. It’s amazing the difference not setting an alarm makes.

 

I got up and opened the Advent Calendar. Finally I had something I felt I might do something with. I had a scrape, made toast and had a look at the Internet. Back in the day people used to post photos of all sorts of pre-Christmas parties and events. So far hardly anyone has posted photos of hardly anything to social media. Either no one’s posting anything, or nothing is happening.

I saw that the Kent geo-meet happened yesterday… I say “Kent” it was in south London. Back in the day the December geo-meet was the highlight of the geocaching calendar. From what I could see hardly anyone from Kent went. We didn’t as the place wasn’t dog-friendly.

Which reminded me that I was hoping to stage the February geo-meet at the McCann’s brewery. They haven’t replied to me email. I’d better chivvy them up.

 

The dogs came down. I chivvied them into the garden. Something has been digging in my flower boxes. A couple of days ago nice-next-door commented she thinks she’s got a rat in her roof. It would be a brave rat with Bailey about. Apparently coffee deters them.

I Munzed; earning ten Zeds. Zeds are a crypto-currency used in Munzee. Ten Zeds is somewhere between six and seven pence.

 

We got ourselves organised and went for a little outing. Certain geocaches give you an Origami Animal e-Treasure when you log them, and we targeted a few of them today to give us a little adventure.

First of all we went to Aldington to get one that I’d found twelve years ago, but “er indoors ^TM” hadn’t. That evened up my finding the one at Dungeness yesterday.

We then drove to Lympne castle where after a little walk we had the second one in hand. That cache was called “Marsh Views” and there was a particularly good view across the marsh from there.

It was only half a mile from there to the Shepway Cross monument where we soon found the third one.

From there we had a little drive up to Lydden Hill where the racing happens. The fourth cache was soon found.

As we’d driven there we’d seen signs to a micropub. And it was lunch time. So we had a little lunch break. The Blue Silo micropub was a rather good find. As “er indoors ^TM” parked the car I popped my head round the door and asked two questions. Could I bring the dogs in? Could I pay by card? Having been told yes to both, I told the nice lady that all else was details. We had a drinkie and a sausage roll each, and arranged to stage the next (January) monthly geo-meet there.

And then on to our fourth geo-target. The instructions for that one told us where the car park was, and said we simply walk a mile up the disused train line to the geocache and walk back again. And that’s what we did. Sadly walking there was a lot easier than walking back was. As always it was the smallest of our group that was the pain in the glass, but Bailey eventually reappeared after having been missing for fifteen minutes.

We could have then driven down to New Romney for one last geo-find, but time was against us.

I took a few photos as we went about. We can get that last origami animal next weekend.

 

We came home. “er indoors ^TM” set off shopping. I did the admin for the geo-meet we’d spoken about with the nice lady in the Blue Silo micropub.

“er indoors ^TM” came home from shopping and I put the telly on. We watched “Carry On Spying”. When I was a lad the Carry On films were the pinnacle of comedy. “Carry On Spying” was something of a disappointment.

 

We had dinner. Enchiladas went down rather well. As we scoffed we watched a celebrity Bake-Off episode which was entertaining enough, but (for me) would have been better had it featured celebrities I’d heard of.

Today’s been rather good…

13 December 2025 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Dungeness, Telly

Usually I have no issues getting to sleep. Staying asleep is generally the problem. But it was the opposite last night – I was still wide awake two hours after getting into my pit.

I got four hours kip last night which was better than some nights recently.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. Last night “er indoors ^TM” went outside to see the aurora… not that there was much to be seen. A chap I used to know was posting photos of a rather spectacular display he’d seen from his new house in Scotland. Jacking it all in, turning your back on everyone and moving to Scotland seems to be happening more and more with people I know (or used to know).

There wasn’t a lot else happening on line. Steve was on the radio doing the “guess the lyrics” competition. “Do you hear what I’m saying? Got to say how I feel”. No? I had no idea either. It was “Dreams” by Gabrielle. 

 

Being Saturday we went round to Repton and Dog Club. Despite a cold day a dozen dogs turned out. We had a good time’ I must admit to a wry smile as Luna came out of a thicket covered in fox poo. It’s quite funny when it is someone else’s dog.

All too soon the bigger dogs started arriving for their session and so it was time to go. “er indoors ^TM” had craft club today so she went her way and I took the dogs with me on mine. As I drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. When did the pound coin come out? I know this one. 1983.

I had this idea to go to Dungeness to get a geocache for the current origami animals set of Treasures. There’s not many geocaches which qualify for them. There’s one in Aldington which I have done which “er indoors ^TM” can go get at some stage. And there’s one near the power station in Dungeness which “er indoors ^TM” found when I was working one weekend twelve years ago. So I thought that the one in Dungeness might be something to do this morning. A dog walk and an origami animal too. And part of me wanted to see how the radio signal from Radio Ashford would hold out. Bearing in mind it goes west-wards almost as far as Folkestone and eastwards to Goudhurst, it doesn’t make five miles north to Challock. Heading south the signal started breaking up at Lydd.

We got to the old lighthouse at Dungeness where we started our little walk. The dogs stayed on the leads all the time we were within striking distance of the power station; I wasn’t having the littlest one getting on the other side of the fence. When we were safely away from it I let them off. We had a great time running and chasing about. I found my geocache (and got an origami rhinoceros) and then my heart sank as a rabbit ran by. The two little ones chased off in hot pursuit. I whistled; Morgan stopped dead and came straight back. Bailey (aka “Team Sod”) sauntered back in her own good time about quarter of an hour later.

 

We came home. The dogs seemed surprisingly clean so we skipped the bath and they were soon snoring. I made myself a cuppa, put a load of washing in to scrub, Munzed, and had a look at Wordle. “Snore” gave me s, r and e but all in the wrong places. “Fresh” did exactly the same. “Rests” told me where the s went. “Laser” told me where the e and r went. “Wiser” gave me the i. I got it with “miser” on the last go.

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned from craft club, and after a quick bit of cheese on toast all round she set off visiting family in Hastings. I stayed with the sleeping dogs and watched more “Danger UXB” in which our hero renewed his association with the mad professor’s daughter. The beast.

I did the dogs’ dinners then downloaded something on the SkyQ box. “This is England” is a rather grim film… and really reminded me of what things used to be like forty-odd years ago.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home with kebabs and we scoffed them whilst watching more “Canal Boat Diaries”. Whilst I like watching the show, the more I see of it, the less inclined I am to go on a boating holiday…

12 December 2025 (Friday) - Another Early Shift

I had an alarm set last night; I barely slept. I woke shortly after midnight and saw every quarter of an hour after that. Eventually I gave up (as I so often do), got up, made toast and scoffed it whilst watching telly. In today's instalment of "Danger UXB" our hero got given the heave-ho by the mad professor's daughter which was probably a triumph for morality but a bit of a smack in the kisser for our hero.

 

Having heard the bin men making a racket as I'd watched telly I was expecting problems getting out of the road, but the bin men were suddenly nowhere to be seen when I drove off. 

As I drove there was something on the radio about "farm-sitters"; people who come and look after farms whilst the farmers go off on holiday. I suppose it could have been quite interesting had the farm-sitter being interviewed not ermm... said ermmm...  between ermmm... everything ermmm...  he ermmm...  said.

I've mentioned before that those who bring people onto national radio really should vet the interviewees beforehand.

There was also an interview with the chap who runs the Magnum ice cream corporation. I mentioned the other day that they've not turned out to be quite as profitable as had been hoped. It turns out that some years ago the Magnum people bought out Ben and Jerries, and the people behind Ben and Jerries want it back. It turns out there's quite a lot of bitterness in the ice cream world.

 

I got three quarters of the way to work and suddenly found the A21 completely bunged up. Fortunately I know the roads reasonably well and managed a crafty diversion through Matfield, and went on to Tesco where I got some Christmas supplies in. Today they had people working the tills which was probably for the best bearing in mind Tuesday's debacle.

 

I started work seven minutes before sunrise.  Work was surprisingly hard work today. I was rather glad when home time came. Home time was seven minutes before sunset. Google Maps told me that whatever the hold-up had been this morning had cleared, and I believed it… right up to the point where I met the traffic jam five miles up the road from the hold-up.

I took another crafty diversion through Matfield.

 

Once home I plonked myself on the sofa and peered at the telly. Days at work can be dull…

Meanwhile “er indoors ^TM” has gone outside to take photos of the aurora. Not that there’s any there, and if there was the clouds are in the way…

11 December 2025 (Thursday) - M3617637

With no alarm set I slept through till four o’clock when I got up for a tiddle then went back to bed until just before eight o'clock. That was a result.

I opened the Lego Advent Calendar – a small cat. What was I supposed to say about that?

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. Squabbles persisted; this morning there was some serious bickering on the religion and politics pages which the Facebook bots told me might be of interest to me. Sometimes it strikes me that if one person was to say “I disagree for the following reasons” and list their reasons, and the other person was to read them and think about them then the world might be a far less divided place. Sadly everyone treats their opinion like they treat their favourite football team; to be followed through thick and thin regardless.

I Munzed, opening a qrate (as I do every ten days or so) and Wordled. Today I started with “think” and didn’t get a single letter. So I tried “space” and got the c and e; but not in the right places. “Bless” gave me the last three letters in the right places. The only word I could then think of (with the available letters) was “dress” but that wasn’t right. And then I realised the answer was obvious. Guess.

 

I took the dogs out. As we drove to the woods “In Our Time” was on the radio. It’s a show which spends half an hour investigating pretty much everything and anything. Previous episodes have included Roman Emperors, quantum physics, medieval churches… todays was about a poet from two hundred years ago and was amazingly interesting for something that you’d think would be amazingly dull.

 

We got to the woods and had a slightly different walk to our usual one. As we went round there was a surprising amount of other people in the woods. We saw two on horseback. Riding along next to each other, everything they had to say was shouted, and so we had plenty of notice that they were coming. We found a glove which someone had dropped. I put it on a waymarker; hopefully the owner will find it.

We got back to the car; as always my watch felt we’d walked quarter of a mile further than my phone felt we’d done. I always snigger when people on the geocaching and hiking websites bang on about how accurate their GPS is and quibble about distances walked and accuracy of GPS… there’s no two devices which agree. I once stuck my GPS on the windowsill and left it whilst I went to work. It thought it had covered four miles during the day when it had never actually moved anywhere.

 

As we drove home Professor Brian Cox was on the radio. I generally don’t like listening to “The Infinite Monkey Cage” as the show seems to really over-simplify things. Today they were talking about clouds and it was really interesting. I suspect that they’d really over-simplified things but as I don’t know much about clouds I was none the wiser.

 

We came home for a wash. The dogs were surprisingly clean; they probably wash themselves on the drive home. I wish they would wait for bath time rather than licking the mud off.

I hung out the dog bedding I’d put in to wash earlier and put more in to scrub. I ordered up a Christmas pressie for grandson (which should be delivered tomorrow).

And realising that earlier I’d found out that I knew nothing about clouds I signed up with the Open University and started a free course on the subject. Supposedly taking ten hours, I completed it this afternoon and then had a look at what other courses they’ve got. There’s nearly nine hundred.

Having done my maths degree with the OU all those years ago it’s good to be back with them again. I still remember my old student number…

 

I hung out the second load of washed dog bedding, wrote up some CPD and then played chess, finally managing to beat the level 1000 bot. I finally had an idea what I might say about today’s instalment of the Advent Calendar,

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a Christmas film. “Bad Tidings” was rather good, but in retrospect was something of a low-budget remake of “Home Alone”.

After that we watched the last episode of “Celebrity Race Across the World”. I won’t say who won, but I will say that I was pleased with the result.

 

And I’m now going to spark up the Infinity table and download as many games as I can… apparently the firm that makes them is going out of business tomorrow… oh well… as long as the table keeps working for now…

10 December 2025 (Wednesday) - Another Early Shift

Again I woke at half past midnight having had about an hour and a half's sleep, then dozed on and off until finally giving up and getting up. I made toast, and watched another episode of "Danger UXB" in which our hero was getting jiggy with the mad professor's daughter. As one does, given the opportunity.

And with telly watched I set off to work.

 

The journey through the -hursts and the -dens was better today that it had been yesterday. It wasn't raining, and far fewer drivers had their headlights on full beam. I always say that I like working at Pembury but I hate going there, and that really does sum it up. I like working there, but the journey leaves a lot to be desired.

Still... I knew what the journey would be when I took the job on, and it is far better than the nasty bullying environment I had elsewhere for many years.

 

As I drove I listened to the pundits on the radio spouting the news. There was a lot of talk about a sperm donor whose "product" led to the births of over two hundred babies over the last twenty years... it has been announced that the chap's genetic heritage gives him a much-increased risk of cancer, and he's unwittingly passed that on. Apparently ten of his offspring have already gone down with cancers, and some have already died. And (as is so often the way) those on the radio who know absolutely nothing about science tried to make some sort of scandal out of the matter.

And there was more talk of the situation in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president has said he won't give up any land in any peace deal. He might not have the option - apparently President Trump is getting a tad fed up with him. Whether it is fair or not, the Ukrainians are fighting a war that others are paying for. I don't want to be selfish or bury my head in the sand, but is a war half-way across the world something I should be funding? 

 

I stopped off at Tesco to get lunch. Often I get little packs of carrot sticks with hummus. They didn't have those today; instead I got apple slices with peanut butter dip... at four times the calories.  And when I came to scoff it, it wasn't all that good. I'm blaming it for the guts ache which lasted all afternoon.

 

The drive home this evening was better than yesterday’s. I left work at sunset; it was rather pretty. And what with no rain it got completely dark about half an hour later than it did yesterday.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good chili which we washed down with a bottle of malbec, and with that shifted so the dogs looked on hopefully. They usually get to share dry biscuits with me when there’s a bottle of plonk on the go. I opened a packet of cheese straws.

We all liked that…

9 December 2025 (Tuesday) - Early Shift

I woke at half past midnight having had about an hour and a half's sleep, then dozed on and off until I finally gave up with the idea of laying in bed. I got up, made toast and watched an episode of "Danger UXB". As I watched I suddenly realised where I'd seen one of the characters before. Sapper Powell was in an episode of "Porridge" in which he compared himself to a frog in having a large s*xual appetite. 

As I watched telly so Treacle came downstairs with something of a sense of urgency. She charged to the back door where she squeaked at me. I opened the door, she took one look at the rain and went back to bed.

 

The rain had eased up a little by six o'clock when I set off to work. It was incredibly dark as I drove west-wards through the -hursts and the-dens, and an average of maybe one oncoming car in six dipped their headlights as they came past. I flashed every car that left their headlight on full beam. Some then dipped them… but not many.

As I drove I listened to the news as I do most days when I go to work. Apparently the company that makes Magnum ice creams has been launched on to the stock exchange where they haven't turned out to be quite the money-maker people were hoping. Interestingly all the talk was money and management and corporate, and not a word about how good or bad the actual product is.

There was talk about the situation in Ukraine. The Ukrainian premier isn't happy with the deal that Donald Trump has cooked up and so is hoping that the European leaders will have a better solution.  They may well have, but if the Ukrainians can't sell the scheme to the Americans, the USA may well just walk away and let the Europeans fund it all. Don’t forget that the American President has been given a peace prize not that the rest of the world isn't pointing and laughing at him about it very much.

Meanwhile there were question in Parliament about the Army's new tank. I would have thought that if the Army's new tank was a total disaster, then telling the world wouldn't have been a good idea, but what do I know?

 

I stopped off at Tesco to get a sandwich. What should have taken two minutes took an absolute age as I managed to pogger the self-service till. The thing got jammed. The nice lady wanted to know how much money I'd put into it. I had no idea. I don't count what I put into it; I just keep chucking small coins in until the machine says it's had enough. The nice lady said that was entirely the problem. People put too much money into the machine.  And she wasn't at all happy when I suggested that this might be God's way of saying open the proper tills.

 

I got to work and did my bit. As I did I whinged about how no one wanted to dip their headlights as I’d driven in earlier. One of the girls asked what I meant by that. After a few misunderstandings it turned out that she had no idea about dipping headlights… she just gets into the car and fiddles with the controls until some lights come on. I suspect there had been an element of that this morning.

 

I drove home in the oncoming glare of full beam headlights.

Once home I had a look at my Lego Advent Calendar, and then dozed on the sofa until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of “Game of Wool”; a rather good show which is best described as “Bake Off does knitting”.

I hope I get some sleep tonight…

8 December 2025 (Monday) - Lazy Day

Again I woke far too early. Quarter past one. And then I just dozed on and off for the rest of the night. Eventually I gave up, got up and being  Monday I stood on the scales. Another pound has come off. Result.

I made some toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. It was fairly quiet this morning; no squabbles or petty bickering.

I sent out birthday wishes to the friend having a birthday, then took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove there was some drivel on the radio about peasant rebellions from centuries ago. Apparently hundreds of monasteries were stormed by the swarming hoards who had the arse that they weren’t allowed the wine during holy communions.

People really will argue about anything… and this is clearly nothing new.

We parked in the lower car park at Kings Wood today and did a different walk to usual. We walked about four and a half miles, and as we went we saw one other person, and that was only a hundred yards from the car park. The walk from the lower car park involved far fewer hills and quite a bit less mud, but still enough mud to need a bath when we got home.

 

I came home where we had that bath, and once I sorted us both a cuppa I saw postie had been. I had a letter from the hospital. Having given me an appointment I couldn’t keep they sent me another. I shall have to see if I can swap shifts when I’m in at work next.

I Munzed; despite only being five days into the Clan War, our team has done all the team requirements for the month. We’ve just got the individual challenges to do now, which is a result.

I Wordled. Starting with “being” was a bad move. That just gave me the “g”, but in the wrong place. I could only think of one other word with “g” but with none of the letters I’d excluded… and got it with “gravy” on the second go.

I wrote up some CPD; that took some time. I then slobbed on the sofa reading my Kindle app with Bailey for a while until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good late breakfast for tea. She then went bowling and I settled on the sofa underneath a pile of dogs watching more “Danger UXB”.

 

Rather a lazy day today. I could have done so much more had it not started raining after our walk and it getting dark so early…

7 December 2025 (Sunday) - Road Trip in the Rain

Yesterday afternoon was a blur, and yesterday evening was something of a blank. I felt rather fragile when I got up this morning.

I made toast and had a little look at the Internet to see if I’d missed much. There was quite a bit of chat on the family Whatsapp group following on from yesterday’s party.

The local newspaper was trying to stir it all up about an anti-immigration protest that happened yesterday. A couple of dozen protestors showed up to shout hatred, and about twice that number showed up to shout at those doing the shouting. If anything, the winner here was apathy.

I Munzed, and had a go at Wordle. “Doing” gave me nothing. “Truce” was a bit better, and through utter pot luck I got it on the third go with “flute”.

As we fiddled about so we had Radio Ashford playing on the Alexa. The Sunday chap isn’t a patch on the chap who does it on a Saturday…

 

We had planned some small walks across the Romney Marsh hunting out Origami Animals (it’s a geo-thing) for today, but the weather was against that. So instead we had a little road trip up to Ramsgate and back hunting out Origami Animals up there.

We started off hunting out a geocache that according to the map was on the side of a road… It was. But sadly it was on the other side of the dual carriageway we were on. Fortunately we found a lay-by and I managed to nip over the road during a lull in the traffic.

The second one was by an ancient Celtic cross monument and took quite a bit of finding.

The third one was missing. The hint explained exactly what we were looking for, and exactly where it was. The last person to find it has only ever found one geocache – I suspect they’ve taken it home to show their mum.

The fourth one was called “Canapes on the Beach” and with a name like that you’d expect it to be actually on the beach, wouldn’t you? Not on the promenade overlooking the beach?

It was raining when I was just about to pick up the fifth cache. As I reached for it so a loud voice demanded to know “What the hell are you doing!!!” There was some aggressive-looking woman walking past. I told her I was looking for something. She wanted to know if it was an important something. I told her it wasn’t. She said that if it was important she would have helped me. I remarked that it was as well that it wasn’t important. She then wanted to know what I was doing looking for something unimportant in the rain. I explained that I was minding my own business. It was at this point that “delightful individual” shoved off and left me alone.

The sixth involved parking up and going for another little walk.

And the seventh was just by a bridge overlooking the M2.

 

I thought we’d only be out for a couple of hours; we were out for over four hours. But the dogs got some little walks, and I took a few photos as we went here and there. We had targeted seven geocaches for today. We found six, and so got six origami animals – an elephant, a frog, a moose, a fox, a pig and a crab.

There’s still six more origami animal Treasures for us to get.

 

We came home for a rather late lunch. I sat on the sofa and had a little doze. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up some sausages for tea then went off to the cinema. I ironed some shirts whilst watching more episodes of “Danger UXB”. Although it is a rather old show it is quite believable in that (just like actually happened in real life) many of the characters in it die. In so many TV shows the characters seem immortal, and that simply wouldn’t work in a show like this.

 

The dogs have been really quiet this evening…

6 December 2025 (Saturday) - Pre Christmas Party

We had a rather late night last night. We’ve taken to watching “Tipping Point”; a game show in which particularly thick contestants play on a huge “penny falls” machine.

It was gone one o’clock before I got into my pit last night, but I didn’t sleep that well.

 

I gave up trying to sleep, made toast and had a look at the Internet. People were complaining about the price of a ticket to see Sparks performing in London next year. At less than a hundred quid each I felt that was rather cheap, but what do I know. Someone was whinging that this was double the price of tickets for when they were in Bexhill a couple of years ago. I was reminded of the ELO tribute band we saw several years ago whose ticket prices varied massively according to where they were playing.

And someone else on another site was asking where he could get top quality Infinity tables at rock bottom prices as he was fed up with hearing about how cheap others had got one and handing over his money only to get scammed. Generally if something seems to be too cheap to be true, it is.

 

I had someone post a comment on this blog. Someone claiming to be called “Satta King” said that last Monday’s entry was “nice post”, and then tried to post half a dozen links to gambling sites. Nice try Satta…

I had an email from the nice people at MoVember. Having raised over three hundred quid for them, they’ve sent me a pair of socks. That’s kind of them.

 

I Munzed (making a balls-up of magnetizing the tree house) and Wordled from “cause” through “harsh”, “sassy” to get “waist” on the fourth attempt. As I strained my brain at Wordle so Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess The Lyrics” competition. “Better stop dreaming of the quiet life cause it’s the one we’ll never know”? No – it was from some time ago - The Jam – “A Town Called Malice”.

 

We drove round to Repton and Dog Club. It was ten degrees warmer this morning compared to what it had been yesterday. Perhaps an icy morning might have been better; it would have frozen the mud, but it didn’t rain today which was a result. I suspect the forecast rain put a lot of people off, which was a shame. But nine dogs had a whale of a time. There was a minor disaster when we realized that Bailey was missing. The little horror had sneaked under a gap in the fence, but soon came back when I brandished the treat bag.

We drove home to Steve doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out in this year. I thought 2002 – I was a year too early.

 

Once home the dogs had a bath. They’d got filthy at Dog Club. We had a cuppa and a chocolate éclair. I posted up today’s installment of the Advent story, did some chess puzzles, then went for a little drive.

 

After a couple of diversions for geo reasons (and an origami bear) we were soon at the family Christmas party. A few drinks, a rather good spread, bingo and a raffle. The dogs were a hit and were taken here, there and thither by their distant relatives.

It all got rather vague…

5 December 2025 (Friday) - A Day At Work

I slept well. As I scoffed toast I started something new on the telly. I say new… I tried watching Rik Mayall’s “The New Statesman”. I’ve always liked Rik Mayal in “The Young Ones”, “Bottom”, “Filthy Rich and Catflap” and the like, but sadly “The New Statesman” was utter tripe. I turned it off after ten minutes. I can definitely remember it being much better…

I had a quick look at the Internet instead. It was a tad dull this morning. I sent out birthday wishes, had a quick Munz, opened the Advent Calendar and got ready for work.

 

The weather forecast for overnight claimed the temperature would stay above freezing, so the thick ice on the car came as something of a shock this morning.

It didn’t take *that* long to shift.

 

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how OFCOM (the people in charge of internet security) are trying to cut down on the abundance of free porn on the Internet. It’s all very well fining a company a million quid for dishing out free porn, but it’s something of an embarrassment when you have absolutely no idea where this company actually is and they don’t reply to emails.

The joy of the Internet is that anyone can be absolutely anywhere and it all still works. You’d think the nice people at OFCOM would know that, wouldn’t you?

And there was talk about how countries are boycotting the Eurovision Song Contest as Israel isn’t getting chucked out. The people who run it say that they won’t chuck Israel out as the contest is strictly non-political… clearly the people who run it have never watched the voting.

 

I stopped off at Sainsbury’s to get a sandwich and some dog treats. As I paid so I was telling (ranting at) the nice lady on the till about what a load of crap their Nectar vouchers are. She smiled sweetly and gave me a Nectar voucher for money off of any pet insurance policy I might take out with them. Like I haven’t had pet insurance policies for years.

 

Work was work. I had something of a “reactive lymphocytes and malaria” sort of a day really. I would say “like we all do from time to time” but I suspect some have them more than others.

I did my bit, and was pleased to find the road home was a lot less busy than often it is.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off out with her mates. I boiled myself up a pizza and started watching “Danger UXB” on DVD. I’ve not watched that for years… the first two episodes were rather good…

And then I remembered that for all that I’d opened my Advent Calendar some fifteen hours previously, I’d not told the world about it…

4 December 2025 (Thursday) - Home Alone

I had a good night’s sleep, but again woke with a very painful right hip. Am I overdoing the walking? Let’s hope not.

I got up, did the usual morning things, and peered into the Internet as I scoffed toast as I do. I rolled my eyes as I looked at some of the work-related Facebook pages. People post up photos of blood films taken from people with various conditions, and I’m probably not far off in thinking that no matter what the condition, over ninety per cent of people looking at the pictures say “malaria” regardless. I can only hope these people aren’t in positions where their opinions are taken seriously.

And this morning’s petty argument was on a telly-related page on which people were arguing about why the fictional character Richard Bucket (pronounced Boo-quet) ever married the equally fictional Hyacinth (out of “Keeping up Appearances).

 

Despite the drizzle I took the dogs up to the woods for a walk. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how President Putin of Russia is off visiting India today. Pretty much everyone seems worried that India is seemingly chumming up to the Russians, but after President Trump’s sticking tariffs on everyone and everything can anyone really be surprised about this.

We got to the woods where we barked at the normal people, chased a herd of deer, chewed on the squirrel carcass we found yesterday, rolled in fox poo and ate a dead mouse. All of which whilst it hossed down with rain. Some days our walk in the woods is more eventful than others.

 

We came home for a warm bath and a cuppa. I Munzed, and Wordled through “other”, “taint” and “tiddy” to get “tulip” on the fourth attempt.

And then the postman came. And my piss boiled.

If anyone ever comments that the country is hard up, or that there is a financial crisis, just laugh in their face. The country clearly is in an incredibly amazingly very good financial position. It must be; how and why else would the government be able to afford to waste money writing to me to tell me that I will react State Pension age in 2031, and that they will write to me to tell me how to claim some time in October 2030.

 

I got the ironing board out and set about the ironing. As I did my plan was to watch a DVD… We bought a new DVD player the other day which would be able to play the multi-region DVDs we’d bought off of eBay over the years… Sadly it couldn’t play any of our standard DVDs that we bought from shops.

Fortunately we still had the old DVD player, and it didn’t take that long to plumb it back in again.

Hopefully “er indoors ^TM” kept the receipt.

 

As I ironed I started watching “The Charmer”; a rather good TV series based on the books of Patrick Hamilton. And with ironing ironed I carried on watching the DVDs from under a pile of dogs. I watched the entire lot this afternoon.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home from work and boiled up a rather good steak dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Game of Wool”.

 

I’ve got a stomach ache to go with the iffy hip… and here’s today’s Advent Adventure.

3 December 2025 (Wednesday) - This n That

With no alarm set we didn’t get up until after eight o’clock this morning. I had a shave, made toast and had a look at the Internet. I saw that the Geocaching Association of Great Britain had elected a new committee. This might possibly be a good thing… depending on who got elected.

A few years ago I was nominated to their committee but I chose not to get involved. When I asked what (exactly and specifically) they did, I was told it depended on who they had on their committee. If they had people who liked to travel then they would stage events all over the place. If they had people who were IT-savvy then they would do IT things. At that time they appointed a fourteen year old child (who lived a couple of hours drive away) who made the announcement that he was “in charge of geocaching in the South” and seemingly did very little else that I could see.

 

With not a lot else happening and the rain seeming to be easing off I got the dogs onto their leads and we went up to the woods. I wore a coat as rain showers had been forecast; it stayed dry for our entire walk.

We did our “winter walk” avoiding the worst of the mud. Sadly avoiding the worst of the mud also means avoiding  where we are most likely to see deer. But there it is.

As we walked we found a toilet roll that had been unwound and left in the rain about a mile and a half from the car park. And we found a squirrel that had been dead for some time. Pretty much an average walk, really. But there’s no denying that with the silly beard gone, my face certainly felt the cold.

 

We came home where paws and bellies got a wash, and I made us both a cuppa. I then phoned the local hospital. It’s been some time since I had my annual endoscope up the nose and I wanted to be sure that I will get an annual check-up. They managed to drop me off of the system after my first nasal re-bore. I phoned the out-patients department and the automated system told me that I was in position twenty-one in the queue. I wrote up some CPD for half an hour while I waited to get through. Eventually a nice lady said that I had been due for a review last September and that she would put me through to the ENT department. And then she said she couldn’t as the phones just went through to an answering machine… which had always been my experience of the ENT department.

I’m assured someone will be in touch about an appointment.

I Munzed. Being the first day of the Munzee Clan War I put out some Christmas cards. And I Wordled through “about”, “trace” and “plate” to “haste”.

 

I thought about going into the garden to pootle. Over the summer I spent an inordinate amount of time pootling in the garden. But not today. In much the same way that the morning’s forecast rain showers didn’t happen, the forecast dry afternoon didn’t happen either.

Instead I had a look at something that the nice man from Infinity Table dot com had sent me about how I could get into the workings of the Sky hub to allow it to accept game requests from Chris. It all looked rather technical and with the potential to turn the Sky hub into a rather expensive brick. We can send out game requests, and that’s good enough to be getting on with for now.

 

I sorted out the undercrackers that I’d washed and tumble-dried on Monday (I always take an age to do that job), fixed the bathroom light cord, and tuned in to chess dot com. The nice people there gave me a free lesson in how to sacrifice bits to get a victory, challenged me to my daily three free puzzles, and comprehensively handed me my arse on a plate in a dozen games in which I was totally thrashed.

 

I posted up today’s installment of the advent story, and “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of plonk and then the dogs amazed me. Usually right after dinner they go sit on the sofa with “er indoors ^TM”. This evening they all sat around me looking hopeful. Usually when we have a bottle of plonk I crack open some cheese biscuits to share with them. They’d clearly seen the bottle of plonk and knew what that usually meant.

So I opened some cheesy biccies.

 

And then we had a go on the Infinity table… The thing accepts incoming friend requests, so why doesn’t it accept incoming game requests? 

2 December 2025 (Tuesday) - Late Shift

I had something of a lie-in this morning, finally getting up at about half past eight. I opened the second window of my Lego Advent Calendar. A bulldozer. What was I supposed to do with that? The early ones in the Advent Calendar set the course of the story, so the pressure is always on at the start of the month.

I had a shave. Oh, how I’ve missed that. I made toast and had a look at the internet as I do most mornings. It was still there.

This morning’s squabble was over a conspiracy theory about how what is considered to be a “normal” blood pressure reading has got lower over time; presumably in order to sell more anti-hypertensive drugs. The fact of the matter is that over time more and more blood pressure readings have been taken on more and more reliable devices which have given more reliable normal ranges, But as is usually the way, the most stupid and uneducated a person, the more vehemently they were advocating utter bollox. As Neil Innes once said, how sweet to be an idiot.

 

Ideally we would have gone for a walk in the woods this morning. Usually when time is pressing we go to Orlestone, but as I found yesterday the place is a swamp. So with no time to go to Kings Wood we just walked round the local streets. I don’t really like any walk when Morgan is on the lead – he becomes an idiot. He always tries to pick fights with dogs with which he would play or ignore when off the lead.

It only took quarter of an hour to walk round the block.

 

We came home for the monthly flea treatments. I can’t pretend the dogs like their flea treatments, but they don’t run and hide like Treacle used to. And then I had a minor fight with Bailey. Last week the Doggy Dentist found her gums were rather sore. Yesterday the special dental ointment arrived, and applying the stuff was something of a game. Fortunately she is small enough that I can manage on my own. She wasn’t at all keen… until she tasted it. Maybe the next time might be easier?

 

I Munzed, and Wordled through maybe, tails, ratio and faith before getting cacti on the fifth attempt. I posted up today’s Advent adventure and wrote up some CPD.

As I pootled on-line so there was a knock on the door. The Royal Mail postie had our Amazon delivery. Quite a bit of stuff from Amazon comes via Royal Mail. I suspect that the Amazon deliveries go a long way to keeping Royal Mail in business.

I struggled with a puzzle on chess dot com, then got ready for work.

 

It was rather bright and sunny as I drove off to work.  With nothing of note on the radio I sang along to my MP3s. 

I considered a little geo-adventure, but thought better of it. Instead I went to the Sainsbury's petrol station at Aylesford where I topped up, and got a tad miffed. Last week when I went to Sainsbury's I got given a voucher for double nectar points when I next got petrol with them. So I got the voucher out... and it wasn't valid. Pretty much every time I shop at Sainsburys I get these vouchers which are either worth money off of stuff I never buy, or they don't actually work.

 

I then drove on to work... very conscious that the car behind was incredibly close. As I drove I realised that the chap driving the car was shouting. Every time I slowed or stopped (and there are a lot of reasons to slow and stop along Hermitage Lane) so the chap got more and more worked up, waving his fists and making obscene gestures.

He followed me as I drove into the hospital, and followed me to the staff car park where he couldn't get through the barrier. Which was probably for the best. I was in the mood for a good argument. And looking at the state of the chap I think I could probably have laid him out with a swift one up the bracket (which I would have claimed was self-defence).

 

I went in to work and did my bit; for all that we had a busy day today, it was a rather good one. But it is always good to see the relief arrive.

I drove home tuned to Radio 4 Extra on which Russell Tovey was playing the Admirable Crichton. It was probably as well that the DAB signal failed completely after ten minutes; it wasn’t very good…

1 December 2025 (Monday) - The Advent Calendar Starts (Again)

I’m a very superstitious person (for all that superstitions are total bollox). Many years ago my mother told me that the first thing I should say on the first day of every month was “White Rabbits, White Rabbits, White Rabbits”. And so I have done for years. Consequently I was rather miffed that my first words this morning were “fuksake” as I knocked the bedside clock flying.

 

I opened the first window of my Lego Advent Calendar… and for the sixteenth year wished I’d opened it months ago, then went to the bathroom where I rather enjoyed having a shave. I signed up for the Movember thing a month ago after we came home from a geo-meet on the evening of the last day of October. After a few beers it seemed like a good idea. In the cold light of the next day it didn’t, but by the morning of the first day of November I’d already had fifty quid of donations so I rather felt I had to go ahead with it.

In the end the mutton chops didn’t look quite as bad as they might have been. I think that being grey they looked far better than they had the last time I did it in 2012. I’m told they made me look very distinguished but they’ve gone now, and I’m also told I now look fifteen years younger..

They might come back at some stage… who knows.

 

I made toast and had a look at the internet. There was a minor episode on one of the Facebook groups I moderate, The group is about an obscure series of books from many years ago. Just recently some chap has been posting AI generated pictures of the various characters. Personally I didn’t think that he’d got any of them remotely right, but he was contributing to the group which is more than most people do. Someone else took exception to all the AI pictures last night and had posted a rather nasty comment which (as a moderator) I deleted. The chap who’d posted the AI pictures apologized when he had nothing to apologize for, and the chap who’d made the nasty comment couldn’t understand how he could disagree without being disagreeable, left the group in a sulk and everyone else was happy… which was probably for the best.

And I had a suggestion for a possible Facebook friend. Facebook periodically prompts me to send friend requests to people I might know. Generally I don’t know the people in question but this morning it came up with a rather interesting choice. I have no idea who the chap it suggested is; I’ve never met him. But I and this fellow have four mutual Facebook friends. Two geocachers, someone I met through astronomy, and someone with whom I took scouts to Canada all those years ago. Sometimes it is quite amazing just who knows who.

 

It was drizzling this morning, but I took the dogs out anyway. With time being short this morning we went to Orlestone woods for which really should be the last time this winter. The trouble with Orlestone woods is that there are two really muddy parts which really can’t be avoided. So no matter what route you take, you get filthy.

But we had a good half-hour walk.

As we drove home the pundits on the radio were talking about the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. Some people take the subject seriously; some don’t. And some people delight in showing their ignorance. The presenter really did ask one of the experts being interviewed just how important it was to look into space when searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence. Where did he think aliens hang put? Tesco?

 

We came home; the dogs had paws and bellies washed. After a quick cuppa I took Pogo to collect “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” from her appointment and took them both home on a circuitous route via Canterbury. On the way home I stopped off for a little geocache near Hythe, but sadly the hint was “small tree” and I got to where my sat-nav said I should be only to find the wreckage of a small tree which had been cut down. Ho hum…

Instead we had a little geo-mission near home over lunchtime which was successful and earned us an origami rabbit.

 

I made us another cuppa, did some CPD, then realized that I had neither Munzed nor Wordled. I put that right then had a go at the bots on chess dot com… and failed miserably.

 

“My Boy ^TM” and ”Auntie Chel ^TM” came round with a white chocolate advent calendar for me, and once we’d had dinner, “er indoors ^TM” went bowling. I settled on the sofa and watched the last episode of “Brideshead Revisited”. Six days to watch the lot… I wonder what I shall watch next?