30 June 2026 (Tuesday) - Cheap Plonk

I woke feeling full of beans and raring to go... at half past one. I then lay awake for much of the rest of the night before giving up and getting up just before five o'clock.

I made toast and watched an episode of "The Handmaid's Tale" in which I got scouting flashbacks. Rather than talking, the lead character of the show was doing this arty-acting-thing where she was supposedly communicating her feelings by pouting and smiling and looking wistfully at the camera. Back in the day when I was a Cub Scout leader one of “My Boy ^TM”'s contemporaries used the same technique to communicate. Rather than speaking, he would go up to someone and grimace. He seriously expected people to know what he wanted simply by pulling strange faces at them, and his success at communication was on a par with her in the TV show this morning.

And with telly watched I got another coat of woodstain onto the wood which I sawed yesterday, then set off for work.

 

It was a shame that I'd forgotten that there were traffic works in Chart Road, but they only delayed me by ten minutes. I was soon on my way up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio who were spouting their usual brand of drivel as they do. There was so much talk about Andy Burnham. At the moment he really can do no wrong... it will only be a matter of time before he is out on his arse like all the rest.

And there was a lot of talk about a national review of midwifery. Some woman from some pressure group or other was being interviewed. She really boiled my piss when she referred to babies that had been "killed by the NHS". Was she seriously saying that health care professionals were going out of their way to cause harm? That was the message that I got. Admittedly the NHS isn't perfect, but giving air-time to this sort of ranting does absolutely nothing for staff morale, does it?

 

I popped in to Sainsburys to get lunch , then went into work. Earlier than I might have done. I spent quite a bit of time teaching one of the trainees the mysteries of blood film morphology, but as the day wore on the bad night's sleep did weigh on me. 

 

I walked out of work past the hospital’s league of fiends (!) shop who were again knocking out fruit. I got a punnet of strawberries from them, and took a diversion to Aldi to get some cream.

Coming home was hard work. The motorway was seemingly full of idiots trying to constantly tail-end everyone. I remembered not to drive down Chart Road, but not doing so took me through the town centre… I was only twenty minutes late home.

 

I got another coat of woodstain onto my sawn wood, and we watched the last episodes of “Canal Boat Diaries” as we scoffed dinner. We washed it down with a bottle of plonk; we got a job lot of cheap plonk. At three quid a bottle it wasn’t at all bad. We’ve paid far more for far worse…

And those strawberries were rather good too.

29 June 2026 (Monday) - A Walk, More Tyres, Aching

I slept through till seven o’clock this morning which was something of a result. I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. It was rather quiet this morning… someone had posted on Facebook that they’d seen a large black cat (non-moggy) near Tunbridge Wells. I wonder what it was. I once saw a very large black cat walking across a field near Hawkhurst, but that was twenty years ago. Photos of panthers look very like what I saw – I’m not saying it was a panther but it certainly wasn't someone's moggy.

 

I took the dogs up to Kings Wood. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the immediate ascension of Andy Burnham. There was precious little fact, but endless speculation.

We got to the woods to find some woman washing her smalls in the car park. I smiled at her and asked if she’d camped overnight. She said she had, and that it was a lovely place to camp.

We walked our usual walk. Treacle found four swamps. Bailey rolled in something foul. After four miles we came back to the car park to find the campers were cooking their breakfast. They seemed happy enough. I can’t help but wonder how Forestry England are going to enforce the proposed parking charges on people only stopping for an hour or so when other people are camping overnight with impunity.

 

We came home. The girls had a bath. I made a cuppa for me and “er indoors ^TM”, Wordled from “slept” to “crude” in four goes, Munzed, then went out again.

I needed a Stanley knife. Against my better judgement I went to B&Q where (for once) I got what I needed with no fuss. From there I drove round to the Repton centre. Over the weekend we’d heard third-hand rumours that there had been complaints about the Dog Club. It turned out that there hadn’t been, and all was fine. Or as fine as could be expected for Saturday mayhem.

 

I came home and with the heatwave gone I cracked on in the garden. I got on with my wishing well project. Toady’s plan was to get the uprights into place. That involved cutting some holes in the tyres I painted the other day, and sticking the uprights through those holes.

Have you ever tried to cut a hole in a tyre?

Whenever you hear mention of someone having had their tyres slashed, I’d seriously question it. It took all of my effort to force a brand new Stanley knife into the tyre, and it took sustained effort to get the knife to actually go through. And as for any actual cutting… I eventually got six holes cut, sawed the uprights to size, and got them in place.

Flushed with success I then started sawing the wood for the roof into shape… and I had a minor hiccup. Somehow I’d lost a bit of wood. A bit that was two and a half metres long. I wonder where that had gone?

It didn’t take *that* long to nip over to Wickes to get another.

And equipped with all the timber I need (I think), I sawed it all to size and gave the new stuff a coat of wood stain.

We did “FEED THE FISH” , I voomed round with the watering can and suddenly it was four o’clock and my step count for half the day was double what it had been for Saturday and Sunday combined.

 

I made a cuppa for “er indoors ^TM” and myself, and realised just how much pain I was getting from my right elbow. I’d certainly overdone it with the cutting of the tyres.

The wishing well is nearly together. It just needs the roof to be built … I’ll do that later in the week when I can take my time over it.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner then went off bowling. I turned on the telly and it suggested a film I might like. “Downton Abbey; The Grand Finale” was rather good but I got the impression that the writers had forgotten what had gone before in that show. The plot was all about the great scandal of Lady Mary having got divorced… this was the same Lady Mary who in the third episode of the show porked the Turkish attaché to death. I would have thought that after porking the Turkish attaché to death, getting a divorce would have been rather trivial, but what do I know – times were different back then.

28 June 2026 (Sunday) - Working, Crosswords, Stuff

I woke feeling full of energy and raring to go… at twenty to two. I didn’t get back to sleep after that as it was a hot and sultry night. I eventually gave up trying to sleep and got up. I watched another episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” … bearing in mind premise of this show is an uncaring state forcefully taking children from their mothers (sound familiar!?) I’m finding this rather hard going at times.

 

I set off to work. As I drove the talk on the radio was of a religious nature this morning (what with it being a Sunday). There was an interesting article about religious freedoms in America in which it was suggested that the biggest threat to religious freedom was the exponents of those advocating a competing religion to your own one. Two senior bishops of different churches came on, and there was an embarrassing five minutes in which both bishops flatly refused to let the other say a word. Both claimed that they were being shut down (which they were) and both claimed that they were tolerant of others (which they weren’t).

As I drove there was an inordinate amount of groups of cyclists; both pedal ones and motor ones. I always thought that pedal bikes were banned from having organised road races, but they seem to do them with annoying regularity.

I drove through Pembury this morning as I had a few minutes before work. I spent a few minutes looking for a geocache along the main road. I eventually found it. I hesitate to say that it was buried in someone’s front garden, but it was buried in someone’s front garden.

And I got petrol. In the past the petrol in Pembury has been about eight pence per litre more expensive than that in Ashford. Today it was five pence per litre cheaper. One thing which puzzles me is how petrol prices go up and down so regularly and vary so much within such short distances. The sweetie bars, sandwiches and chocolate that the petrol stations sell are all the same price everywhere, so why does the price of petrol go up and down?

 

I went in to work where I had a rather hard time of it. Such is life. But I was only working a half day today and so was soon on the way home. As I drove home I tuned to Radio Four Extra as they were playing a dramatization of the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. What I heard of it was rather entertaining. It was a shame that for most f the time I was listening to silence as the signal kept cutting out.

I’ve mentioned before that either DAB radio is a disappointment, or the one in my car needs replacing.

 

I got home where it was too hot to take the dogs out. Nowhere near as hot as it has been recently, but still too hot. And all the normal people come swarming out at the weekend and I really didn’t fancy dealing with them today. So we sat in the garden and I struggled with a crossword puzzle. One clue really had me foxed. “Daunting, Formidable (8) A - - - - O – E”. I can’t *really* be “arsehole” (can it)?

We did “FEED THE FISH”, I ran round with the watering can, and Treacle was threatened with having her buzzer collar put on. When she barks the thing vibrates uncomfortably. The idea is that if she didn’t bark at absolutely everything then it wouldn’t vibrate.

Usually the threat of the thing is enough to shut her up, and the threat worked.

 

We had a rather good bit of dinner and watched more “Canal Boad Diaries” in which our hero was having aggro with sunken trees.

The more I watch this show, the more I’m getting the impression that canal boating is quite a bit of arse-ache. We’ll probably still have a go at some stage though…

27 June 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club and Board Games

It was a hot night. Morgan was whimpering and crying in the small hours, and once he settled so the thunderstorm hit. After a while “er indoors ^TM” remembered she’d left the skylight in the attic room open. Woops.

I got up at seven o’clock, made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. It usually is. Apparently there was a big public meeting in Hastings yesterday to discuss renovations and improvements to the amenities around the sea front. Sadly what none of those in the meeting seemed to realise is that all of the amenities aren’t in public ownership. If the owner of a putting green or a boating lake chooses not to spend a small fortune on doing it up (for no financial gain) then no amount of public rancour will change anything. Especially when those expressing the rancour don’t actually spend any of their money in the amenity they want doing up. I blame Margaret Thatcher. It was patently obvious that taking anything out of public ownership and making it a profit-making business is going to stop whatever it is having its primary purpose as whatever it was supposed to be. Look at the current mess of the country’s trains and water supply.

 

I Munzed,and Wordled. “While” was a silly word with which to start. So I tried “start” which gave me the first letter. “Scuff” gave me the first two letters, and I got it on the fourth attempt with “scoop” for the simple reason that I couldn’t think of any other word that might have fitted.

As I strained my brain Steve was doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition on the radio. He gave the clue that it was from the seventies. “Let that feeling grab you deep inside and send you reeling where your love can’t hide”. I recognised it as being “Let Your Love Flow” but I had to look on the internet to find out who sang it. It was the Bellamy Brothers.

 

Being Saturday we drove round to Repton and Dog Club. Attendance was down; we only had a dozen dogs along. I blame the heat. But a good time was had by all; even if there was a lot of eating of grass going on.

As we drove home so Steve was doing the Mystery Year on the radio. There were several songs which gave me flashbacks of the Open University summer school. And “Something Good” by Utah Saints? 1992.

 

We came home. We had a cuppa and a doughnut and I counted up the Dog Club money, pocketed it and transferred that amount into the Repton’s people’s bank account. This time I made sure there was no foreign coins in there.

 

Chris came round and we sat in the garden playing on “the board” which is not entirely unlike the Infinity Table.

I took a few photos as we played. It was rather good…

26 June 2026 (Friday) - Still Far Too Hot

I had a better night than I might have had with this heat, and despite the bin men making their usual early morning racket I stayed in my pit until nearly eight o’clock.

I did have a vague idea to get up early and go chasing for First To Find on a puzzle geocache that went live yesterday which I solved yesterday but it was too hot to go out then. But someone else had had the same idea, and having got up at five o’clock they’d found the thing two hours before I got up.

 

I made toast and had a little look at the internet. Someone with whom I used to work was having a birthday today. I sent out birthday wishes. And I rolled my eyes.

One thing which has boiled my piss about the current heatwave is that Facebook is filled with postings about how we should all keep dogs inside, and about how cruel it is to walk dogs in this heat. I suppose the underlying sentiment is admirable, but the posts are all very passive-aggressive, clearly from people who know absolutely nothing about dogs, and are pretty much all from people who post anonymously as they are too cowardly to put their names to what they are saying. I tried telling my three that they couldn’t have a walk this morning, and they weren’t having any of it. They all stood by the door and whined.

So we went to Orlestone rather earlier than we might have done. We walked about a quarter of the distance we usually cover, with pretty much no hills and pretty much all in the shade. Morgan and Bailey managed to find fresh fox poo, and Treacle found a water-filled ditch.

After half an hour and a mile and a half we got back to the car at about the sort of time we would usually start our walk.

 

We came home. Yesterday “er indoors ^TM” came home with a packet of croissants. We had one with jam and a cuppa. I Munzed; Our Munzee Guild has hit the last of our monthly targets, and we got all our rewards. I Wordled from “night” through “trace” to “acute”. I wrote up some CPD. I wrote to my MP about the hose pipe ban which is supposedly coming into effect next week. Ironically I wrote to him last year about the floods near Asda when he achieved nothing, so my hopes aren’t high.

I then spent a little while fighting with my lap-top. My email provider had upgraded their website recently, and like pretty much every IT upgrade I’ve ever seen, rather than improving matters, the upgrade left the thing utterly unable to function in any way at all. Eventually I managed to get it working… deleting browsing history and cookies did the trick… until I tried to log in again later.

 

Bearing in mind the heat was supposed to subside  a little tomorrow (and I’m working on Sunday) I popped over the road to get some beer for an afternoon in the garden. I wasn’t the only person to have that idea… why do so many people have to take the entire family whenever they go shopping? Does it really need six people to stand round watching one person actually buying stuff?

And then I popped up the road to the other shop to get ice cream. Each little corner shop has its specialty… I was reminded of my grandmother who would spend an entire day shopping getting supplies from a dozen different shops.

 

And then I ran round the garden. I cleared the dog turds, cleaned out the pond filter and voomed about with the watering can. The snapdragons are looking rather good.

We had a rather good curry for dinner which we devoured whilst watching more “Canal Boat Diaries”… we’ve found a canal boat hire company which takes up to three dogs… Personally I think taking the hounds on a boat is a recipe for disaster, but what do I know?

 

And when fetching the bins back earlier, “er indoors ^TM” found a tenner in the front garden. That was a result.

25 June 2026 (Thursday) - Still Too Hot

Apart from Bailey having a coughing fit in the small hours I had a good night, sleeping through until eight o’clock despite the heat.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there, and much the same as ever. This morning my Facebook feed was seemingly filled with suggestions that I might follow the rantings of various Reform UK councillors. Most of the ones I was presented with had seemingly Polish or Asian names or were ex-Conservatives… Bearing in mind that many of the issues that Reform UK rant about can be traced back to the previous Conservative government and that they are making scapegoats of anyone who isn’t white British, what is it that I am missing here?

Not that the current government is a model of perfection. Nor are any of the other parties. More and more I find myself agreeing and disagreeing with all of the political parties in equal amounts. I’m reminded of an interview with David Steele (who was the leader of the Liberal party) in which he said that he only agreed with about twenty per cent of the Liberal party’s policies, but he agreed with more of their policies than those of any other party.

And I saw an advert for the London Craft Beer Festival. Apparently your ticket covers the cost of all the beer you can drink. At sixty-four quid a ticket that’s about twelve pints… I suppose they are talking London prices?

 

I took the dogs out before it got too hot. We went to Orlestone where we walked a rather short walk… the very same walk which used to be our standard walk when Fudge was with us. Oh that dog used to straggle behind. We took our time today, and even spending five minutes chatting with other dog walkers we were done in less than half an hour. Back in the day it used to take Fudge an hour to do that walk.

 

We came home where Treacle had a bath. She found a swamp and a water-filled ditch whist we were out. I hung out the laundry I’d put in to scrub, ironed a couple of shirts whilst they were still wet, and had a look at the monthly accounts. Every month I count up and account for every penny I’ve spent, and every month I end up mildly depressed about it. I’m far from skint, but could be a whole lot better off.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “until” through “unite” to “unity”. I made a rather good first choice there. I wrote up some CPD.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off visiting relatives. I settled in front of the telly and watched a film. I first saw “Breaking Glass” one afternoon in 1980 when I should have being doing games at school, but I bunked off and saw it with a friend (who now has a PhD). I can remember seeing it about twelve years ago when it prompted me to get a saxophone.

I then watched a fan-made Star Trek episode. Clearly a lot of time, effort and money had gone into the show. I hesitate to say it was tripe… but it wasn’t good.

 

We did “FEED THE FISH” and got the washing in, and those five minutes in the sun were quite enough. Yesterday had been the hottest June day in the UK, but today was hotter.

I played more Meowdoku until “er indoors ^TM” came home. Being rather late in the day she got some KFC which we scoffed whilst watching more “Canal Boat Diaries”. I can’t help but think that living on a canal boat right now would be ideal – I could just jump in. It’s gone nine o’clock and it is still ridiculously hot…

24 June 2026 (Wednesday) - The Heatwave Continues

It was a hot night; I didn’t sleep very well. I was awake for much of the night. I gave up trying to sleep, got up and watched a rather dull episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” in which pretty much nothing happened.

I Wordled from “early” to “queer” in four goes then had a little look at the Internet. It was still there. There wasn’t much kicking off; I was probably too early for any nonsense. I Munzed, got ready for work and set off wondering where I’d left my car last night.

I eventually found it in Christchurch Road.

 

As I drove off the car's thermometer was two and a half degrees up on what it had said at the same time yesterday.  I went up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio talking about how the Met Office had released a red warning about the heat. It was claimed that this was only the second red warning about heat that  the Met Office have ever issued. 

There was also talk about when (not if) Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister and how he’s planning to chuck the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves out on her arse. Is that unreasonable? A new Prime Minister really should choose his own team rather than take the team over from someone who has himself been hoiked out on his arse (shouldn't he?). 

Personally I can't help but think that a Prime Minister should be called "Andrew" rather than "Andy", but when you consider that (judging on recent performances) he too will be out on his arse in a year or so, does it really matter?

 

I stopped off at Sainsburys to get a sandwich. I had a minor episode with the self-service machine. As I filled it with loose change the machine rejected all the foreign coins that I'd fed into it. I didn't realise that I had quite so many foreign coins. They must come from the Dog Club pot. I count up the money in that pot, pocket it and pay that amount into the field owner's bank account. So once I've transferred the money and then found a foreign coin, it's me that's been swizzed. I shall look at the coins a bit more carefully this weekend.

 

I spent some time this morning doing training on the new blood transfusion computer system today. The chap doing the training knew I used to keep snakes... I wonder who told him that? And I spent much of the afternoon being trained on the latest developments in rivaroxiban and apixiban assays.

Back in the day the reps doing these training sessions used to bring cakes.

And an ex-trainee was visiting... it was odd. I can distinctly remember this chap being rather shorter than me; now he towers over me. In the fifteen years since I last saw him he has grown about nine inches... Or I’ve shrunk.

 

It was ridiculously hot as I came home. We did “FEED THE FISH” and I played Meowdoku until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and chips which we scoffed whilst watching the latest season of “Canal Boat Diaries”. And we had a decent bit of pudding too. As I came home the League of Fiends (!) shop at the hospital was selling punnets of raspberries.

I feel rather washed out – I blame the heat. Apparently today was the UK’s hottest ever June day.

23 June 2026 (Tuesday) - Via Lucem Continens

I thought I saw flashes of lighting as I shaved this morning. And I heard rumbles of thunder. And then the torrential rain hit.

I watched another episode of "The Handmaid's Tale" as I scoffed toast. This morning's episode was an improvement on the one I watched last night; perhaps I won't give up on it just yet. The trouble is that one of the major characters is utterly inconsistent in his behaviour. One minute he is an utter git; the next minute he's the hero of the day. Sometimes that sort of thing works... but not with Commander Lawrence. He really does come over as two different characters played by the same actor.

I rather thought that the flashes of lighting and booms of thunder would have bothered the dogs, but they slept right through it.  And slept through my getting ready for work too. 

 

I set off to work; a young lady jogger came past as I walked to my car. She'd got caught in a downpour and her white jogging kit had gone transparent. She might as well have been in the nip for all that she was keeping secret.

My car's thermometer said it was twenty degrees as I set off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the border processing area for car passengers going to Europe through Dover won't be ready in time for the summer holidays.

Why on Earth not? Bearing in mind it is ten years (to the day) since the Brexit vote when we as a country decided that this sort of thing was *exactly* what we wanted, how much longer is this going to take?

And there was endless talk about the Prime Minster; both the one that is going and the one that is coming. It seems to me that the recent spate of very short terms of premiership that we've been having lately can't be good for the country. 

 

I went to Sainsbury's to get a sandwich. The old bat who supervises the self-service tills was on duty, and wasn't at all happy as I emptied all of my loose change into the machine.

And so to work. I'd not been there for three weeks, but it didn't take long to get back into the swing of things.

 

I did my bit and came home. Once I’d run round the garden with a watering can “er indoors ^TM” boiled me up a pizza and I went up to the woods.

I’d organised a geo-meet in the woods at “Via lucem continens” (light walk). This is one of three remaining exhibits of the “Stour Valley Arts” project in Kings Wood. The brainchild of ­­Łukasz Skąpski (artist, professor, and head of the Department of Photography at the School of Painting and New Media of the Academy of Fine Arts in Szczecin), it is two avenues of yew trees which line a clearing which is about a hundred metres long. Standing at the stone at the eastern end (the one on which I frequently get the dogs to pose for photos), the twin avenues of yew trees supposedly frame the setting sun on midsummer’s eve.

Or that was the plan when it was planted in 1999. I wanted to find out if it really did.

 

The original plan was that it would be an evening dog walk, but it was far too hot, which was a shame. My car’s thermometer said it was thirty-eight degrees as I set off.  Leaving “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs I went up to the woods. I had a little walk about, and shortly after eight o’clock I made my way to the clearing.

Nine of us turned out and chatted… and (would you believe it) the sun did set at the end of the twin column of yew trees. It would have looked a lot better if the trees had been pruned somewhat… but we had a good meet up. I took a few photos.

We left at the point when the sun had gone below the tree line. I understand some people arrived after we’d gone…

22 July 2026 (Monday) - Too Hot

Another hot and restless night, but I managed to stay in my pit until seven o’clock which was a minor result. I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there.

This morning my Facebook feed was filled with adverts for pubs and beer festivals. Quite a few of them, but the closest being a hundred and twenty miles away. Getting adverts for shops and services half-way across the country is a regular occurrence on Facebook. Personally I’d never pay to advertise anything other than a mail-order business on there.

You’d think that the software would somehow be able to target the marketing a little better.

 

I Munzed; our guild had reached the second of our monthly targets. And we made an early start on our walk today. I had a plan to get out before it got too hot, but by the time we’d driven a mile the temperature on my car’s thermometer had gone up by two more degrees. We abandoned the idea of Kings Wood and went to Orlestone instead. We walked a shorter walk avoiding swamps and fox poo, but saw far more people than we usually do on our walks.

When we got home I couldn’t park. I couldn’t reverse into the space as the idiot driver from Clearabee was only inches from the back end of my car. I drove forward so he could pass… only he wouldn’t. He remained inches behind my car. And when I pulled up at the side of the road he too pulled up. I just sat and waited. Eventually he reversed and passed, whilst the chap in the passenger seat glared at me.

 

Once home I made us both a cuppa and heard the news that the Prime Minister has resigned. I can’t pretend to be a fan of the chap, but he’d achieved quite a bit in his short time in office. Sadly what he hadn’t done was to entertain and amuse the masses. As we’d driven to the woods this morning the pundits on the radio had been talking about how Prime Ministers don’t seem to last any length of time these days. The blame was put on the fickle electorate who want to be amused. Look at the success of that idiot Donald Trump who says black is white and good is bad, and when he can never deliver that which he’s promised he immediately finds a scapegoat to blame. Or consider the antics of Boris Johnson…

 

I Wordled from “guild” to “ovate” in five goes. “Ovate” means egg-shaped, and I got it randomly as it was the only word that fitted given the letters I had left.

I marked trainee’s work, I wrote up some CPD (not done that over the last two weeks’ holiday), and then went to have a look at just how hot it was in the garden.

 

It was hot. Too hot to be farting about putting the wishing well together. I didn’t want to be heaving and sawing in the heat, so I just contented myself by gently trimming back the jungles coming over the fences from next door. And with those trimmed I had a little doze, then played some more Meowdoku.

I then announced that it was time to “FEED THE FISH”, not that this came as any surprise to Treacle. She has a built-in timer when it comes to food. She knows that half past three is fish feeding time, and is rarely more than a minute or two off at dinner time and chicken foot time either.

 

I voomed round with the watering can, and then got the hair trimmer out and gave myself a haircut. Speaking with various people over the weekend it would seem that you pay over sixteen quid for a short back and slap at the barber’s these days. Stuff that !!

 

“er indoors ^TM” went bowling. I cracked on with the ironing whilst watching another episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Like so many other shows it started very well, but now that it’s got to the fourth season it is fast running out of steam.

 

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow. That will come as something of a shock…

21 July 2026 (Sunday) - Rather Dull

It was a hot night, not helped by the dogs all laying in a straight line only allowing me about eight inches along the edge of the bed. They all looked most indignant when I hoiked them over (several times).

I eventually gave in and got up at eight o’clock. I had a plan for an early dog walk, but it was already too hot.

I made toast and peered into the Internet. This morning’s petty squabble was on one of the pond-related Facebook groups in which quite a few people were bending over backwards to show they didn’t have the faintest idea about how to tell the difference between a tench and a goldfish.

And a friend got married yesterday. I say “a friend”; she’s on my Facebook friends list, but I don’t recognise the name or the face. I wonder who she is?

I Munzed, Wordled from “eight” to “alibi” via “spiny” and “flick”, and got dressed.

 

Last Sunday we went for a short walk round Frittenden following a geocaching Adventure Lab. I did have a vague plan to do one of those today – a little half-hour walk. Yesterday we met friends at a geo-meet; there was one of those in Sussex today. Yesterday we’d also had a great time at Dog Club and with friends round in the evening. But by the time I’d scoffed toast it was two degrees hotter than that in which I’d have been happy to take the dogs out. Being far too hot to do anything much we sat in the garden (under an umbrella) and had a rather dull day. I got a couple more coats of paint onto my tyres, and in between painting I alternated between crossword puzzles and my latest waste of time – “Meowduko” which is actually rather harder than you might think.

And “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good ploughman’s lunch so the day wasn’t a total write-off.. 

 

In between “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM” sent messages and “My Boy ^TM” visited, both in honour of today being Father’s Day. Back in the day Father’s Day used to be a big thing…

I miss my dad…

20 June 2026 (Saturday) - Rather Busy

I had something of a restless night last night, and eventually nodded off just before the alarm went off. Being woken by the alarm - there’s a novelty.

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. This morning there was quite a bit of talk about the Geocaching Association of Great Britain (the GAGB).  Despite its rather impressive name, the GAGB has absolutely no formal standing with geocaching.com whatsoever and is pretty much unknown to the wider community of those who rummage under rocks for errant film pots.

Back in the days when the Internet was young the GAGB started its life as one of those internet forums in which people used to bicker constantly before Facebook was invented. It tried to make the transition to social media, but therein lay its problem. It was an internet forum and pretty much nothing else. Its membership is basically those who have subscribed to its newsletter. Over the years several friends have suggested that I stood for their committee, but what put me off was that during the fourteen years that I’ve been asking, no one (least of all other committee members) seemed to be able to tell me what they actually did, and I’ve only ever heard from them when they wanted votes in their committee elections. 

It would seem that they’ve now gone belly-up.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “night” to “drake” on the last attempt. Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. He said this one was easy: “Theres a rumour going round the town that you don’t want me around”. It might be easy for some… it wasn’t for me.

 

I got dressed – putting on the same clothes that I wore yesterday. They’d been washed yesterday evening and had dried in the heat overnight.

Being Saturday we went round to Dog Club where we had a rather good session. I counted eighteen dogs but it was difficult to be sure. Treats were shared, squabbles were squabbled, a typical Dog Club really.

“er indoors ^TM” went off to craft club, and as I drove home Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition… When did the Pope come to Canterbury, and when did Genesis release “Paper Lace”? I knew that one – 1982.

 

Once home I emptied the dishwasher. The thing has been playing up lately; the glass isn’t sparkling like it used to. I’d topped up the rinse aid and the salt, and used non-cheapo tablets, but still the glass needed a rinse under the tap afterwards. I suspect the dishy needs replacing.

I got another coat of paint onto those tyres. We’re on to the masonry paint now. The masonry paint seemed to go on rather quicker than the primer; despite a serious shaking-up it seemed to be rather thinner. And with the tyres painted I fiddled and farted about for the four hours it said to leave between coats. It was then that I struck on the genius idea of getting a stick and stirring the stuff. When you stirred it (as opposed to shaking) it was considerably thicker.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home from craft club and we drove down to Brookland where there was a meet-up of local geocachers going on. As we walked into the pub garden so the normal people’s dogs kicked off, and our three totally ignored them. I felt rather smug.

It was good to catch up with friends… even if we had met up with most of them only a week ago.

 

We came home, and were soon joined by Chris, Steve and Sarah. We sat in the garden for a while and got out the 3-D Blokus. I offered sage advice (!) for the first game, and then won the second.

We came inside where despite a rather promising start I came last in “Game of Life” and I amazed everyone (not least of which myself) with a rather impressive winning score in “Ticket To Ride”.

 

Today had been rather busy… and I’ve covered about half the steps that I’ve done every other day this week.

19 June 2026 (Friday) - Too Hot

As I scoffed my toast I saw that Ashford is to get a branch of Primark. Is that a good or bad thing? I don’t really know, but our MP was all over social media this morning trying to take the credit for it. As I have said so many times before, our Labour MP is pretty much indistinguishable from his Conservative predecessor in that all he is ever seen to do is to appear on social media somehow managing to take the credit for other people’s efforts.

Meanwhile the people of Makerfield have elected Andy Burnham to be their MP. He’ll be Prime Minister within a few months… and facing leadership challenges of his own within a year.

And I rolled my eyes as I read some of the snake-related Facebook groups. For some random reason Facebook has suggested I might follow pages about royal pythons. Lovely creatures. I've been following those groups with interest. I used to keep pythons thirty years ago, and helped run a local reptile club at the time. Back then reptile keeping was one big argument, and sadly nothing has changed. Snakes, fish, dogs, Star Trek, 70s bands, geocaching, walking in the woods and now pythons… no matter what the topic, people just want to argue.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “thing” to “emoji” in four goes. Did you know that today is Wordle’s birthday?

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. We walked our usual four-miles circuit and as we went we didn’t see anyone else at all. Treacle waded in several swamps… it was a tad warm when we started, and was far too hot when we ended. But we managed to walk most of the way in the shade, and Treacle found several puddles in which she cooled off.

 

We came home for a cuppa. I loaded up the car with a bootful of rubbish, then turned the tyres over and got another coat of primer onto them. And then I took my bootful of rubbish to the tip. It was rather hot as I drove.

Bearing in mind the local tip has been closed for redevelopment for months I was rather surprised to find it pretty much *exactly* the same as it ever was. The only discernible difference was that the various skips were rather more full than they ever used to be.

And with boot emptied I came home, I spent a little while pulling weeds, then settled by the pond and read my Kindle for a bit until it cooled down a bit. When it wasn’t roasting I ran round the garden with the lawn mower. The lawn had reached that length when it could conceal a smaller dog’s turd, and I’d rather see them than be navigating a potential minefield. And with lawn mowed I voomed round the gravelled areas with the garden vacuum. That made me sweat. I had a quick shower, and bunged a washload in.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up ribs and chips for dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Taskmaster”. Part of me wants to go out and paint those tyres. The instructions on the tin said to let the primer dry for six hours and it’s had seven…

18 June 2026 (Thursday) - More Rain

Again I ached when I woke. I got up, made toast and had a look at Facebook. Someone who used to run a rather specialist shop in Folkestone had the arse with the government because no one was coming to buy surplus military stuff from him. I can see that only taking fifteen quid a day wasn’t a viable business model, but more and more the government is being blamed for every single failing of the world. Am I missing the point here? Would having a Reform UK government have the masses running out to Folkestone to dress up like Action Man? Somehow I doubt it.

 

With “er indoors ^TM” not working from home today we were up earlier than usual. We got to the woods a good hour and a half earlier than we did yesterday. We walked our usual shorter walk (what used to be our usual walk) of four and a half miles and in that time we only saw two other people. We did see a deer though. Again like the one we saw the other day it wasn’t particularly fazed by the dogs.

 

We came home. My Forestry England welcome pack had arrived together with the all-important car sticker which allows me free parking at the Kings Wood car park. I Munzed and opened a qrate. I Wordled from “today” through “butty” to “entry”, then cracked on in the garden.

As always I started by harvesting the dog dung. Strating with anything else usually leads to disaster. I then got a first coat of undercoat onto the tyres. The instructions said to allow at least six hours between coats so I got the spirit level and got the platform for the thing level, and that was all I could do on “Operation Wishing Well” for today. I don’t want to saw any wood into shape until I’ve figured out how far apart my uprights are going to be. That distance will be what it is once the uprights are actually in place, and will probably bear little (if any) relation to anything I might measure.

 

It was a bit warm so I came inside. I saw I had an email. I subscribe to a website called “Lablogatory”. Every so often there would be a work-related post appearing there which I could sometimes use in my personal continuing professional development. Naively I always thought the site was created by volunteers. It turns out that those producing material for the site were being paid to do so, and the money has dried up. My CPD blog is open to all, and a surprising amount of people seem to refer to it. Am I wrong in providing this for free? Personally I don’t think so.

 

I watched an episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” as I scoffed a Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle for lunch. Having been a tad egg-bound recently I hoped for great things. And then I went out to the shed and had a little tidy-up. I’ve booked a tip run for tomorrow to get rid of that which I tidied.

I could feel a few spots of rain so we quickly did “FEED THE FISH”; it was hossing down by the time the fish and the dogs had had a little scoff.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between trying to do the shed when it wasn’t raining, and reading my Kindle when it was. It rained quite a bit – I’m just hoping the paint on my tyres was mostly dry by then.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home and boiled up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a couple of episodes of “Taskmaster”, and that Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle has done the trick. I’m going to bed as I shall lay down there. It hurts to sit right now…

17 June 2026 (Wednesday) - Taking It Easy

I slept like a log last night. I did have an idea to go out into the garden and scrub those tyres when I woke far too early at five o’clock, but I slept through until eight o’clock which was something of a result.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. I’ve noticed something - more and more I’m seeing posts to Facebook starting with “please – no hate”. This speaks volumes about social media doesn’t it? There’s no denying I’d be lost without it, but when you consider how many people clearly just go on-line to spew their vitriol at people they’ve never met and never will, you can see why the government wants to keep children off of it, can’t you?

Meanwhile a Russian frigate sailing down the English Channel has taken a pot-shot at a passing yacht.

 

I Munzed, got Wordle on the fourth attempt, and at twenty to nine decided that “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs had been in bed for quite long enough. I hoiked them out of their pit, and once they’d had brekkie I took the dogs up to Kings Wood. I made a point of taking a shorter walk today… we did what used to be our standard walk. I need to go back to a shade under four miles. The recent five-and-a-bit miles is just a bit too much. But we had a good walk… even if Treacle found the mud and Morgan did come home covered in bird crap.

As we walked we met quite a few other dogs; the woods were rather busy today. And most of the encounters passed off well. They only real iffy one was with some woman with a Labrador and a Poodle who blanked us entirely. Generally there’s a polite greeting, and sometimes a bit of a chat with those we see regularly, but more and more there’s an element up there that is stand-offish to the point of rudeness. We saw one the other day – the idiot in the shirt and tie.

 

We came home. In a novel break with tradition Bailey escaped being bathed, and with the mud off of Treacle and the bird crap off of Morgan I made us both a cuppa. And then I cracked on in the garden.

I gave the tyres another scrubbing with soap and water, and got another coat of wood stain onto the wood bits. I voomed round with the bionic burner, and spent a little while looking for the roofing felt. I had this stroke of genius that roofing felt might make a good roof for the wishing well I’m going to make out of the tyres and timbers.  I can remember having loads of the stuff… It turns out I took it round to “My Boy ^TM” to help with his shed roof.

I drove round to fetch it back.

 

I stopped off at the co-op to get Belgian buns for lunch. The co-op do the best Belgian buns. Sadly they do the best annoying idiots too. How can so many people blunder around utterly oblivious of the world around them? At one point one old biddy grabbed her mate’s arm and dragged her away saying that she was in everyone’s way. The one being dragged looked around and was very obviously very surprised to see there was a whole world around her.

And with buns eventually bought I went on to the first fruit of my loin. He’s had his lawn replaced with artificial grass. It looks rather good at the moment, but will it last? We shall see.

I got the roof felt. And I blagged his white spirit too.

 

I came home and saw that the little pond’s aerator pump was struggling so I cleaned it out. As I did I found one of the grass carp was dead. Ho hum… That got flushed.

I had my Belgian bun then went back into the garden. I rubbed the tyres down with white spirit, then gave the timbers another coat of wood stain. Then rubbed the tyres with more white spirit. That stuff stinks. I had a little sleep by the pond and thought about painting the tyres but decided against it. Instead I pruned the hedge between us and not-so-nice-next-door. It needed pruning. I would say something to her about the jungle, but over the years I’ve sadly found that speaking to her is at best a futile endeavour.

I also pruned our no-longer-dead cordyline. I’ve pulled off all the dead leaves. Maybe that did it some good. Maybe it didn’t. Time will tell; it always does.

Meanwhile my new fuchsia is blooming.

 

I had a phone call from one of my old trainees (he was a trainee sixteen years ago!) He’s up before the beak facing allegations of… well, in many ways the allegations are immaterial. Having been up against the legal system myself a couple of times, and having seen friends contesting with it, my hopes for my old mucker aren’t high. It really has been my experience in courts of law that victory goes to those who know what phrases to say (regardless of their veracity) whilst keeping a straight face. Am I bitter? Yes.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled me up a pizza then she went off out with her old workmates. I settled in front of the telly underneath a pile of dogs and watched more episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. As I watched there were several commotions outside. We’ve put a tray under the bird feeders to catch the seeds chucked by the sparrows. The pigeons have taken to trying to get those seeds by getting into the tray and making the whole lot over-balance..

 

My plan for today was to take it somewhat easier… I’ve come in at under fourteen thousand steps so that’s somewhat better than the last two days, I suppose… I still ache though.

16 June 2026 (Tuesday) - Walk, Shopping, Gardening, Vets

I rather ached when I got up this morning. Last night when I went to bed my watch claimed I’d covered over seventeen thousand steps yesterday. Perhaps I overdid it a bit?

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. The other day I mentioned that a pub a few miles away, the Bonny Cravat, was closing down. There was a post about them on the local news site this morning. Despite having spent ninety thousand pounds of their own money on a Shepherd Neame pub they were only getting one or two customers a day and have knocked it on the head. For all that I keep saying that pubs have had their day, this one has always amazed me. The Bonny Cravat looks like a council house surrounded by a tarmac car park whilst the building next door is a traditional olde-worlde pub with oak beams and a rather pretty garden. The only surprise here is how the Bonny Cravat kept going for so long.

I saw a friend was off on a river cruise in Portugal. I quite liked the look of that… but I couldn’t leave my dogs behind.

And several people were posting to say that their children had left school for the last time.

However no one was posting pictures of fishing. Back in the day freshwater fishing would stop for three months in March so that the fish could spawn, and fishing would re-start on June 16^th. People would sit on the lakesides and cast out at the stroke of midnight. These days no one observes the close season.

I Munzed, Wordled from “ached” to “amaze” in four goes.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods where we had a good (if long) walk. As we walked I saw a deer on the path in front of us. The dogs missed it completely; it watched us approach, and it only ran off when I reached for my phone to take a photo of it.

We had a “near miss” with the normal people. Bailey disappeared for about ten seconds. I whistled for her and a voice on the other side of a thicket told me not to worry; he’d found my missing dog. I whistled again and the chap said he’d got her. I replied to let her go. This confused him. What – just let the dog run? Yes. He wasn’t happy about it but two seconds later Bailey came running round the tree and I could hear mumblings from the other side of the bushes. We carried on but never actually saw this bloke, which was probably for the best.

 

We came home for a cuppa, then I went out on a little mission. First of all to Brewer’s (the paint shop) to get something to prime my old car’s tyres before dobbing them with masonry paint. The internet said I should use oil based multipurpose primer. The specialist paint shop said they’d never heard of it, and after a quick look it would seem their suppliers hadn’t either.

I drove round to Wickes where I got a water-based multipurpose primer, several bits of wood, some screws, a chain and most of the ingredients for what I’m going to make those tyres into.

 

I came home again and potted the plants I got on Sunday. They look much better potted, and the purple plants give a nice contrast to the water buttercups round the bog filter. I scrubbed the tyres with warm soapy water (as it said to on the internet), painted up the wood with woodstain, and by then I was worn out. We did “FEED THE FISH” and then I sat by the pond for a while reading my Kindle as I had a late lunch of a bag of smoky bacon crisps and a tin of Doctor Pepper.

 

I took Morgan and Bailey to the vets for their annual check-up. For a dog that barely eats, Bailey has put on half a kilogram. Morgan’s weight remains constant, and both dogs passed their MOT with flying colours.

I came home, had a shower, and slobbed in front of the telly as I do in the early evening playing games on my phone whilst watching drivel on the UK Gold channel… There’s something odd with that channel. So often the program goes intermittently silent and the video pixelates. It doesn’t happen during the adverts and it doesn’t happen on any of the other (non-UK brand) channels. I shall hope that the issue is at their end and not with our Sky-Q box.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of prosecco and a couple of G&Ts as we watched a couple of episodes of “Taskmaster”.

And for all that I might have overdone it yesterday, as I type this my watch is telling me I’ve covered twenty thousand and twenty-five steps and it hurts to move. I really should take it easier tomorrow.

15 June 2026 (Monday) - Another Day Off

 

I slept though till six o’clock this morning. I got up, did what I got up for, and put a load of washing in to scrub. I went back to bed in the hope that I might get some more kip. I didn’t; I rarely do. Once I’m awake, generally that’s it.

I eventually got up at eight o’clock. After a shave I stood on the scales. Last week’s holiday has put half a stone on to me. Oh well; that’s what holidays do. I hung out the washing, made toast and had a little look at the Internet as I do most mornings. There was quite a lot of consternation in the Facebook pages about the Romney Marsh as some asylum-seekers have been housed in the area. Apparently these asylum seekers have been bothering local children… Apparently. Everyone’s heard the tales but no one has actually seen anything; let alone reported it to the police. No end of hatred and vitriol was being spouted. I originally wrote “racist hatred” but is it *really* racist? There’s also quite a lot of bad feeling in the Hastings Facebook pages from those who’ve never lived more than fifty yards from the house in which they were born. They really don’t like the “DFL”s. “DFL”s is a term used to describe the people moving into the area who are “down from London”.

I’m reminded of my days in the cubs (as a cub, not a leader) when the children there came from two different primary schools. The leaders tried and tried to get the kids to mix, but we stayed in two completely separate tribes. We simply wouldn’t even acknowledge the existence of a child who went to a different school.

So many people have a general animosity against anyone who hails from somewhere else, which is silly and a great shame. People you don’t know aren’t actually enemies looking to slit your throats; they are just friends you haven’t met yet.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “slept” to “broil” in five goes,  then took the dogs up to the woods. We walked one of our longer usual walks, but over the course of five and a half miles we only saw two other dog walkers. One said hello, the other looked down his nose at us whilst his poor dog (formally ordered to walk at heel) watched with a pang of sadness as my three ran riot in the thickets. I felt sorry for the poor dog; he really was with one of the normal people. Who else walks in the woods in mid-June in a shirt and tie with waistcoat, jacket and a coat on?

 

We got back to the car and came home. We arrived just as “er indoors ^TM” was making a cuppa, so that saved me a job. I updated my Facebook profile pictures with those piccies above, then charged into the garden to get the laundry in as it was raining.

And with that draped over the banister I popped over to the garden centre. Yesterday I’d got some new plants but we had no compost for potting them. I got some compost… at eight quid for a huge bag or twelve quid for two huge bags I bought two huge bags. And as I suddenly had loads of compost and the pots at home were small I got a couple of small troughs too.

 

I came home where I made myself some toast, and with that scoffed I got on with the post-holiday ironing. I’d got all the laundry washed and dried over the weekend, and it only took a couple of hours to get it ironed. As I ironed I watched more episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. And with ironing done and telly watched I then tried to get up quietly. But the dogs which had been so soundly asleep and snoring weren’t going to miss the possibility of “FEED THE FISH”, so that’s what we did. I then ran round with the watering can and had a look at that pile of tyres I saved from when I got new tyres for the car. I’ve got instructions for what I might do with them.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and chips then went bowling. I watched even more episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale”. The republic of Gilead seems to be a scary place, but with Reform UK councils seemingly repealing a *lot* of the legislation which stopped the alienation of the LGBT community and there insisting on prayers at council meetings, is it *that* unlikely that the UK could be reduced to that sort of religious crackpotism ?

 

I’m feeling rather worn out. Days off often do that to me.