18 August 2026 (Tuesday) - Late Shift

I slept for six hours until the pain in my shoulder got too much. I got up and fiddled about until the pain eased off when I went back to bed for another couple of hours.

There was a minor episode over brekkie – the margarine looked as though something had blown up in it. “er indoors ^TM” said it wasn’t her (it was!), and as I scoffed toast so she staged an impromptu dog ear cleaning session. The dogs weren’t happy about having their lugs scrubbed, and sulked as I peered into the Internet. It was much the same as ever. Petty bickering and open displays of ignorance abounded. I really shouldn’t look at it every morning, but if nothing else it reminds me of just how stupid some people are. For example, do people *seriously* expect change out of a hundred quid when calling out an emergency plumber at midnight?

 

I Munzed, and Wordled from “minor” to “strip” in four goes whilst “er indoors ^TM” tried to get Bailey to eat her brekkie. She’s a fussy little dog, and things aren’t helped by Treacle trying to bully her off of every bit of food she’s given.

And then we went to the woods.

 

As we drove the pundits on the radio were a bit twitching about the Russian embassy in London’s announcement that “UK 'will pay' for supplying drones to Ukraine”. I can’t see how anyone can be surprised about that. If a country has no weapons to fight a war, giving them weapons is pretty much the same as fighting the war for them. Isn’t it?

Not having as much time as I’d like we went to Orlestone today. We can go there, walk round and be home all in an hour. Kings Wood takes about two and a half hours. We got to the woods to find only one other car in the car park. Apart from chasing a couple of squirrels the walk was rather uneventful. We saw no-one else, no one rolled in nothing. All rather tranquil for once.

 

We came home. I made us both a cuppa and had a go on the blood transfusion simulator. I got the exercise wrong in that you have to remember how the simulator works, and not how blood transfusions work. A subtle difference…

I then went onto the haemostasis on-lie academy and did one of the little courses on there. I passed that one.

I then phoned the local hospital. When I saw the ENT chap in April he said he would arrange some hearing tests to sort out this ongoing tinnitus. Four months have passed… I phoned three different numbers and just went round in circles. After half an hour I gave up and emailed a formal complaint. In the past I’ve only ever got anywhere by making formal complaints. The ENT chap is really good… *if* you can get an appointment to see him.

 

And then it was time to go to work. I drove up the motorway. The motorway. Not the dual carriageway it has been for weeks.  The "Operation Brock" stupidity has been cancelled (and the motorway re-opened) earlier than planned. Bearing in mind that this has been done a couple of weeks before the busy bank holiday, you really have to ask why the thing was activated in the first place, don't you?

The trouble with "Operation Brock" is that it is brought into play (and shut down) by the Kent Resilience Forum.

The official position of the Kent Resilience Forum is that "it is an operationally independent multi-agency partnership functioning under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, where individual member organizations remain accountable to their own governing bodies, chief officers, and respective central government department". Which means that it wasn't really thought out in the first place, and now it exists, it effectively answers to no one.  Nice work if you can get it.

 

I got some petrol. Today it was six pence per litre cheaper than Ashford. And then went into Sainsburys to get a sandwich. Oh, my piss boiled. Why can't people see that there's dozens of other people in the shop with them? So many of them were just blundering about; totally oblivious of their surroundings and with no care or consideration for anyone else.

I got my sandwich and went to work. It wasn't a bad late shift really.

 

As I did my bit I got a text message. there were reports of a gang of teenagers in Viccie Park, armed with catapults. No one seemed to know what (if anything) they were catapulting at, but the police had been informed. I really can't help but think that a judicious slap and having the brat watch its catapult being destroyed would go a long way to curing the problem. If indeed there is one. 

 

It was dark as I came home... I suppose it should be really. The longest day was two months ago.

17 August 2026 (Monday) - After the Night Shift

Last Saturday when I went to bed my watch told me I’d walked three and a half thousand steps. This morning when I walked out of the night shift my watch told me I’d walked over five thousand steps since midnight. There’s no denying that I’d hoped a Sunday night would have been a quiet shift. Back in the day when I first started night work we’d rarely be called on more than half a dozen times. Last night I had over fifty samples to deal with.

 

As I drove home the pundits on the radio were talking about the new Prime Minister who (so it was claimed) had been taken in by a fraudster who had been pretending to be a senior member of the American government. Apparently only a couple of text messages were exchanged before he wised up to what was going on, but the fact that this was in the news was rather significant. A couple of weeks ago the new Prime Minister was being portrayed as the saviour of the universe. Now he’s fair game for digging the dirt.

The honeymoon period is clearly over.

I got bored with the news, and listened to my Adrian Mole MP3 audiobook instead. In the past I’ve been very scathing about audiobooks, but am I turning to the dark side?

 

I got home. For all that the temperature is down on what it has been over the last week, it was forecast to be warm later so I took the dogs out right away. It was only a short drive to Orlestone.

Just lately our walks have been “fox-poo-free”… well, to be precise, probably only seemingly “fox-poo-free”. I suspect that there had been some rolling going on, but what with everything having been so hot and bone dry all the fox turds had been baked dry. However last night there had been rain. Quite a bit of it. And that had rehydrated the fox turds, as evidenced by the frankly massive skid mark that Bailey got up her back within five minutes of getting to the woods.

We walked for two miles and saw two other groups. Morgan grumbled at them; I wish he wouldn’t.

 

We came home. Once Bailey had had a bath (with soap!) I had a shave and a shower and went to bed. Morgan and Bailey came with me. I rather suspected that they’d come up for a fight, but both settled and we slept for four hours. That’s not a bad sleep after a night shift.

 

Eventually the ongoing pain in my arm woke me. About a month ago I whinged about my arm. There’s an almost constant sensation of numbness/tingling/pins and needles in my left hand, and an intermittent sensation of pain in my upper left arm and shoulder. So I went onto the doctor’s website and filled in the on-line questionnaire in the hope that someone might get back to me about it.

Whilst I was at it I had a look at the Internet as I do. A Facebook friend was having a birthday today. The chap used to live just down the road from me when I was at primary school. We lost contact years ago but got in touch through Facebook. We actually met a few years ago when he wanted details of my father’s funeral which was a kind thought.

 

I Munzed (having Wordled at three o’clock this morning), and we did “FEED THE FISH”. Again little Treacle squealed in excitement when I made the announcement. I then voomed round the garden with the watering can, and then my phone beeped. The doctor wants to see me… well specifically wants to see my left arm. They sent me a link to book an appointment. I had the choice of one date (in two weeks’ time). I’m not sure why I had to mess about going through the website if I only had the choice of one date, but I’m now booked in for a fortnight on Thursday.

I wrote up some CPD. I thought about cleaning pond filters (Monday is usually pond filter day) but by then it was nearly five o’clock. The pond will keep for a day or so.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pie and chips and went bowling. I settled in front of the telly and watched an episode of “Stranger Things”. At an hour and a half it was too long; the next episode plays for over two hours. Apparently the writers felt that movie-length episodes allowed them to tell a better story. Maybe it did, but I’m not sitting still for over two hours. I shall watch that next episode in (at least) three separate sittings.

16 August 2026 (Sunday) - Before the Night Shift

I slept reasonably well, but was awake a couple of hours earlier than I might have liked.

I got up and went straight round the garden gathering dung before Bailey could go out and gather it for herself. She worries me. She is such a fussy eater when it comes to dog food, but given half a chance she yums up all the turds in the garden. I had a theory that if she didn’t fill up on dung, she might eat her brekkie.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. There have been several sightings of big cats. Some near Stonehenge, and some near Bexhill. Apparently sightings have increased this year; it was claimed that heatwaves have been the cause. There was also talk of black foxes which are more common than I thought (bearing in mind I’d never heard of them).

Despite pubs closing hand over fist, Shepherd Neame were advertising for people to take over tenancies in their pubs. Who would try to make a go of running a pub these days??

And those who (up till now) have advocated covering garden ponds with metal meshes were bemoaning about how many dragonflies are getting trapped by their metal meshes and then drowning.

 

I had an email. There was a new geocache not a mile and a half away. I’d already had two First to Finds this week. Usually I restrict myself to only having one First to Find a month so as to share the love. However it is painfully apparent that I’m in the minority in doing this, so I leapt into action.

I drove out to a whole new housing estate that I never knew existed, and it wasn’t long before I had the cache in hand. It was a rather good 3-D printed cache; it was a shame that it hadn’t so much been hidden as just put in the grass by a tree. But I was first to find (only thirty-seven minutes after publication) and that was a result. That’s two consecutive months with a First to Find… I wonder how long this streak will last? I once managed twenty-three months.

As I drove home I put the radio on. Being Sunday there was a church service, but rather than being inspiring and uplifting it was just some choir howling. I turned over to Adrian Mole on my MP3; he’s just met Jo-Jo.

 

Once I’d been home for a while the dogs eventually got up. I followed them into the garden and harvested what they dropped (as they dropped it) to be sure that Bailey wasn’t having any pre-brekkie snacks.

I Munzed. I Wordled from “first” to “aspic” in five goes. “Aspic” is basically a trifle but with meat where the cake and custard would be. I’d heard of the word before, but had no idea what it was. One lives and learns.

And then we tested my theory about Bailey, brekkie and turd-eating. She eventually scoffed her brekkie, but (as usual) it took a lot of encouragement and cajoling. So much for my turd theory.

 

We loaded the dogs into the car and went over to Bybrook Barn garden centre. Yesterday gave me a plant, and earlier in the year Karl gave me a lilac tree. I wanted some decent pots for them. I knew what I had in mind, and Bybrook Barn wanted far too much for them. They had some nice pots in the bargain section; I thought I’d get two if they were under a tenner. They were sixty quid each. Sixty quid!!!

I contented myself with a bargain tray of violas (three quid) and we went round to Home Bargains. They had some nice pots. I’d seen similar in Bybrook Barn for thirty quid; Home Bargains wanted seven quid. I got two planters at less than half the price of Bybrook Barn’s. It pays to shop around… not that people do. I found myself thinking back to someone with whom I used to work who loved spending money. He was absolutely adamant that if you had two items which were absolutely identical in every respect except the price, then the more expensive one was the better one. There was no reasoning with him on this – it stood to reason (apparently). His wife was a teacher at a local school and (so I was reliably informed) regularly won the pupils’ “Worst Dressed Teacher” competition.

We thought better of going into Dobbies – Morgan and Treacle have a habit of “unloading” in there.

 

We came home and I shifted plant pots and planters about to work out where to put our new ones. I think I’ve figured out what will go where. The new planters will need lining, but that will be a job for another day.

I had a dunk in the shower, and took myself off to bed for the afternoon where I slept surprisingly well for three hours.

 

I woke to find “er indoors ^TM” had been baking. We did “FEED THE FISH”, I voomed round with the watering can, and then made us both a cuppa to go with our cake slices.

They were rather good.

 

It will soon be dinner time, then I’m off to the night shift. I might grumble but I don’t really mind the night work. What I do mind is spending the entire day seemingly just waiting to go to work. I do much the same (albeit on a smaller scale) when I’m on the late shifts.

I need to shift this mindset of just fretting about “got to go to work later..”  It’s not as though I turn up at work that much these days, let alone do many late or night shifts.

15 August 2026 (Saturday) - Bit Dull Really

This morning’s petty bickering on the local Facebook pages was all about a pub near Deal. Some woman had gone there for dinner and either didn’t like her dinner or thought she was up for a freebie. Whichever it was, she made a fuss when it came to pay up and threatened bad reviews on Tripadvisor and Facebook. Fortunately the pub’s owners called this woman’s bluff, and (literally) hundreds of people have posted comments of support. In this age of reviews and social media it is so easy for people to try to pull a fast one. And people wonder why pubs are going out of business. This morning also brought the news that the Red Lion in Biddenden was closing. Not that I’ve been to that place for years…  

I Munzed, and Wordled from “about” to “loose”, getting it on the last attempt.

A new geocache went live. I solved it (well, ChatGPT did) but the final location was about an hour’s drive away. That will keep until we are next over at Staple and the Black Pig. Assuming that pub doesn’t go the way of so many others.

 

As I fiddled on the Internet so Steve was on the radio. The “Guess The Lyrics” competition today was “When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know”. I had absolutely no idea at all. It was “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac.

We drove round to Repton and Dog Club. (About) sixteen dogs had a rather good time charging about as dogs do.

From Dog Club we drove to Godinton. Once we’d done cat duty we had a little walk round the pond. There’s a geocache there that I’ve failed to find three times before. We tried a fourth time and finally found the thing. Probably just as well – there’s a souvenir for finding a geocache today what with it being International Geocaching Day.  Today is my fourteenth International Geocaching Day, and keeping a diary I can see that I’ve actually been at work at some point on eleven of them. There was actually a geo-meet-up this morning, but by the time we would have finished at Dog Club and driven there we would have missed it.

There’s another next weekend…

 

We then popped in to see “My Boy ^TM” and ”Auntie Chel ^TM” as it was her birthday. Sadly as we drove there so she drove past going off to the nail bar. But we left a card and stuff with the first fruit of my loin, and he gave me a plant. His plants have been going mad recently and I was very happy to take a surplus plant.

We came home via the co-op where we got chocolate croissants. I scoffed mine whilst writing up some CPD.

 

I read my Kindle, I played Meodoku, I had a little doze. “er indoors ^TM” set off to visit her mum, I sparked up Netflix and watched more “Stranger Things” but with each episode at the length of a film it was a tad hard going. After one episode I had a vague idea to take the dogs to Orlestone, but we’d been to Dog Club this morning and it was still rather warm outside. Much cooler than the last few days, but still warm. So I stayed in front of the telly watching “Stranger Things”.

Today was dull.

 

14 August 2026 (Friday) - Still Far Too Hot

The dogs didn’t settle in last night’s heat, and with them being restless I didn’t sleep well either.

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. That odious Nigel Farage won the by-election in Clacton last night. Having declared that he would let the public judge the actions which put him under investigation it would seem that the good people of Clacton are quite happy with convicted foreign criminals giving five million pounds in bungs to UK politicians.

Democracy, eh? Can’t beat it.

Some rich people of my acquaintance were flaunting their wealth. It must be nice to be able to afford a mansion, a fleet of cars and still be able to fund four children through a school that charges upward of sixty thousand quid a year per brat.

I know I’m not poor, but I’m nowhere near as loaded as I might be.

 

With another hot day forecast we made an early start on our walk today. We walked what I had thought would be a shorter walk round the woods, but it was only about half a mile less than what we usually walk. As we went I gathered litter. You can always tell when it is school holiday; the part of the woods within a couple of hundred yards of the car parks becomes strewn with rubbish. Frutella sweets would seem to be particularly popular at the moment judging by the amount of wrappers I picked up.

We didn’t see any deer, but Treacle found a deer bone, and I found two new sink holes.

And the camera to check people are paying their car parking fees is now in place.

We came home listening to Adrian Mole MP3s.

 

I had so many things I could have done today. The shed needed cleaning out. I could probably have scared up enough rubbish for a tip run. But again it was too hot to do much so I slobbed about instead. I Munzed. I Wordled from “might” to “geode” in four goes. I updated my database of sink holes in Kings Wood. I fed various geo-puzzles into ChatGPT; it didn’t do very well with them. But I did solve a maximum difficulty puzzle. Trouble was I found that the cache was three hundred metres down a drainage tunnel. A few years ago I would have scrambled in to get that. These days… maybe not.

 

I felt tired… I woke up a couple of hours later. I had a cuppa and watched an episode of “Stranger Things”. At an hour and twenty minutes the episodes are a tad too long.

We did “FEED THE FISH”, and then I sat by the pond and read my Kindle for a bit.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off on cat duty. I perused the geo-map to plan a small mission for tomorrow after Dog Club.

We had burgers and watched the first two episodes of “Celebrity Hunted”. Mind you when I say “celebrity” I’d only heard of one out of the twelve so-called celebrities. And again I couldn’t help but wonder if the contestants were either deliberately stupid, or were under orders to give the hunters some clues.

 

13 August 2026 (Thursday) - Far Too Hot

We stayed up late last night to see the meteor shower. Sadly, like all meteor showers, it was a bit crap. At its peak we were seeing maybe one or two a minute. That might sound a lot, but each shooting star lasted for about a second so you had to be looking in exactly the right direction to see it, and it wasn’t long before I got neckache.

 

I slept through till half past five. Bearing in mind we had a hot day forecast I made an early start. Dog brekkie was done and we were at the woods by eight o’clock.

We arrived at the car park at the same time as an odd woman with her two dogs. She saw us and quite obviously stood and waited for us to get out of the car. Morgan and Treacle started barking at her dogs; she didn’t care. She just stood blocking the way to the main path out of the car park. I smiled at her and told the dogs we were going a different way today, and the odd woman looked vaguely disappointed.

We went the different way and walked round the woods keeping out of the sun and in the shade as much as we could. Unlike yesterday we only saw one squirrel, but we did see deer.

 

We got back to the car at about half past nine and I checked the Internet. Yesterday a new geocache had gone live in Faversham. It hadn’t been found at brekkie time, and it still hadn’t been found. Bearing in mind that we were already half-way to Faversham my phone said that the cache was a twelve minute drive away, So we took a twelve minute drive, and it wasn’t long before I had the thing in my hand. And another First to Find as well. Result.

 

By then it was ten o’clock and things were warming up. We drove home where my parcel was waiting for me. About six years ago I spent twenty quid on a pair of trainers which lasted six months so I spent a hundred quid on a pair of walking shoes that looked the same. These lasted five and a half years. Last night (about ten o’clock) I ordered a new pair from Amazon. They were waiting for me when we got home. Delivery had taken about twelve hours. They arrived quicker than I could have gone to the shops, and were cheaper too.

We also arrived home to see the window cleaner had been. We don’t ask him to come; he just turns up unannounced, hoses down the front of the house and sends us a bill for a fiver. The front garden was awash. So much for drought orders and hose pipe bans, eh?

 

I made myself a cuppa and put a load of washing in to scrub. I Munzed, and Wordled from “night” to “crash” in three goes. Bearing in mind how hot it was getting I stayed inside with the curtains pulled and watched a film. I tried to find our DVD of “Quadrophenia” a few weeks ago but couldn’t. It was on Film Four the other day so I recorded it, and then found the DVD the next day.

As I watched I ironed shirts, then put the undercrackers in to scrub.

I’d hoped it might have cooled down by the time the film finished, but the Alexa said it was thirty-six degrees. I treated myself to a tub of ice cream from the shop over the road and watched a couple of episodes of “Stranger Things”.

 

By the time I’d watched telly, scoffed the ice cream, loaded (and run) the dishwasher and sorted the undercrackers three hours had passed and the temperature had dropped… to thirty-five degrees. It was two hours past “FEED THE FISH” time and Treacle was getting twitchy so despite the heat we fed the fish. And then the dogs went back to sleep. I would have done too if it wasn’t so hot.

I did a YouGov survey instead.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home from a day in the office. She’d been to the shops on the way home and had a bag of watercress for me. That went into the pond’s new floating pots.

And then I turned on the telly. An old friend was on BBC1 this evening. I first met him in 1975. I have a vague recollection of him at a Boys Brigade camp in Tunbridge Wells going by the sobriquet of “Fast Goose”. In the years after that we walked to and from secondary school. Over the years I rather lost touch with him, but through the wonders of Facebook we got back in touch, and this evening he was playing a prison governor on Eastenders.

I’d not seen EastEnders for years – I won’t be watching it again.

 

Being Thursday we watched this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”. It wasn’t the best but certainly wasn’t bad.

12 August 2026 (Wednesday) - Solar Eclipse

 I slept through till nearly five o’clock this morning, and then lay dozing with Bailey for a while before giving up and getting up. I made toast and had a look at the Internet.

On the one hand I should stay up to date with current affairs, on the other hand it boils my piss. This morning people were ranting about the early release of prisoners, the ongoing drought… People were ranting about the current sad state of affairs and blaming the government for everything. A lot of the furore was being stirred up by the opposition politicians whose policies led to the current state of affairs and who did nothing about it when they were in a position to do so.

I Munzed, and hearing the dogs getting up I turned off the lap-top and got ready for the off.

 

We drove up to the woods listening to the pundits on the radio spouting their usual drivel. Once parked we set off in the general direction of the geocache of mine that had been reported as missing.

It was.

It had probably been trashed during the recent coppicing so I popped out a new one. The people who reported it as missing could have done the same in less time than it took them to report it missing, but there it is.

We carried on round the woods. For some reason the squirrels were active today. Certainly more so than usual. The dogs chased several. But for all that we saw squirrels we didn’t see much else. No deer, and once out of the car park no one else at all. We did hear someone a hundred yards from the car park shrieking at her dog, but that was all.

 

We came home listening to Adrian Mole’s diaries on my MP3 stick. He’s now moved to London and is in love with Bianca. I know how that is going to end… I realise Adrian Mole is a made-up fictional character who doesn’t exist, but I do think that Sue Townsend (his creator) was rather mean to him in all of the books.

 

Once home I made us both a cuppa and sorted a slice of that walnut cake we’d got at the weekend. My mother and aunt used to make walnut cake all the time when I was small. I can remember never being that fussed about the stuff then. It’s my favourite now.

I Wordled. “Round” gave me nothing, and neither did my second go (table). “Picky” was a step in the right direction and I got it with “wimpy” on the fourth attempt.

 

I went out to the garden. Yesterday I mentioned that we’d been given some pond plants in floating baskets. Late last night I’d hoiked the biggest one out as “er indoors ^TM” had spotted that it was top-heavy and had capsized. This morning that big one got re-potted into the bog filter, and I secured its now empty floating pot to the other floating pots. I then sat for a while alternately reading my Kindle and watching the fish eating the new plants which were overhanging the floating baskets.

 

I came in as it was rather hot outside. I wrote up some CPD. I spent a little while running some puzzle geocaches through Chat GPT to see if it could solve them. It solved maybe a third of the ones I tried.

We did “FEED THE FISH”, I watched an episode of “Stranger Things” and we then loaded the dogs into the car for the evening’s adventure.

 

Once we’d done the evening’s cat feeding we drove down to an obscure lane on the Romney Marsh. This evening was (probably) the last solar eclipse that I would be able to see (the next one will be in 2081). Looking on-line it seemed that the masses were descending on Lydd and Wye downs to get a good view. I suspected no one had considered Ham Mill Lane, and I was right. With no one else around for miles (and we could see around for miles) we had a good view of the western horizon. We cracked out the pinhole camera and had a look.

As we fiddled about so my phone was beeping. The works WhatsApp group was going mad; we had quite the virtual eclipse party swapping photos. It had to be said that the best photo was from a colleague who was on holiday in La Coruña (in Spain) where the eclipse was total.

 

It was gone eight o’clock by the time we got home. Too late to cook – we had KFC for tea…

11 August 2026 (Tuesday) - Early Shift

I woke as I so often do feeling full of energy and raring to go… at quarter to one. I dozed on and off for the rest of the night before giving up and getting up at five o’clock.

I made toast and watched another episode of “Stranger Things” then had my usual root around the Internet.

This morning’s petty bickering was on one of the CPAP-related Facebook pages. Someone asked whether using a CPAP machine made you eligible for a Personal Independence Payment. My piss immediately boiled. A *lot* of people get these PIP payments and rely on them. But just for using a CPAP machine? I can see a reason for getting a benefit payment for having sleep apnea, but the CPAP machine alleviates the effects of sleep apnea. The squabble had seriously polarized the CPAP-using community. One half was saying to suck it up and get on with life. The other had clearly seen what they thought was a potential gravy train and was trying to jump on it with talk of campaigns to get sleep apnea and CPAP use added to the list of things for which you get a hand-out.

I then laughed out loud at a Nigerian vicar who seriously  had the hump, He was bemoaning how the Western world welcomes Nigerian doctors and engineers and skilled people, but there’s no openings for Nigerian happy-clappy vicars.

And I had an email telling me that one of my caches in Kings Wood was missing. Oh well… that’s tomorrow’s walk planned for us.

I loaded the dishwasher and set off for work.

 

As I drove up what used to be a motorway so the pundits on the radio were talking about local high streets. The head honcho of one of the nation’s leading chain stores was whinging that little independent shops all look shabby and should close up so that his chain stores could take their place and (with their corporate money) would make high streets look better.

There was then a lot of talk about the state of high streets. The chap being interviewed wouldn’t say where he was talking about (as he was frightened to) but he spoke of one high street which was nothing but vape shops, barbers and nail bars. Newsagents, grocers and “proper shops” kept going bankrupt, but vape shops, barbers and nail bars do a roaring trade. Or they are a front for organised crime, or so it was claimed.

 

I got to work and did what I couldn’t avoid. I took a little detour on the way home. A fellow member of Dog Club had something for me. Many years ago her husband had built a rather impressive garden pond, but he passed on a while ago. And our friend had found just how much hard work a garden pond can be. A small goldfish pond is enough work. My pond in the garden keeps me occupied. But a large Koi pond takes a *lot* of looking after. Her triple-filtration system had taken to blocking up recently. I’ve seen the mess when a box filter blocks up, and ours was a fraction of the size of hers. She’s mentioned the blockages a few times over the last few weeks. And after the latest blockage her pump gave up the ghost (those aren’t cheap). There comes a time when enough is enough.

She wondered if I’d like anything from the pond. I’ve probably got too many fish in my pond, but I was very grateful for floating plant pots (complete with pots), some fish food and various accessories.

It was good to meet up and chat… one thing she said made me think. Her house is in the better part of town and she was talking about getting a builder to professionally fill in the pond and remove the walls (it’s not a job for an amateur). She said that most builders double the price for any job up her road as there’s this preconception that if you live in the better part of town then you are loaded. She’s probably right… I know of people who live up that road who inherited the house who would never otherwise be able to afford to live there.

 

I came home where we fed our fish and popped the new pond plants into the pond. I shall sort them properly tomorrow. 

“er indoors ^TM” went off on cat duty. I had a shower and a little doze. It’s all very well only having an hour’s sleep, but it does leave you tired.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up some sausages which we scoffed whilst watching the final of “Bake Off: The Professionals”, and then a couple more episodes of “Ann Droid” which is slowly growing on me…

Treacle is currently having a serious tantrum in the kitchen. She wants her supper, and when she wants her supper she makes no secret of it…

10 August 2026 (Monday) - A Walk, Ponds, Ironing, Folkestone

I woke in the small hours following a rather vivid dream in which I was at an Open University Summer School doing some subject about which I knew absolutely nothing at all. This is something of a recurrent dream which I seem to have with annoying regularity. I wonder what that is all about.

 

I got up, put a load of washing in to scrub, and watched an episode of “Stranger Things” (in which strange things happened), then sparked up my lap-top. The Internet was much the same as ever. Today’s whinge was about bonfires. People were complaining about the smell. They’ve probably got a point. There’s a family a few doors up who barbecue constantly. And by “constantly” I mean every single day from April through to October. At least they give us the morning to get the laundry dry.

My cousin had posted a video of seagulls tearing her black rubbish sacks apart. Our seagulls are noisy, buut they don’t do that (yet).

I Munzed, Wordled from “scrub” to “snipe” via “shale”, “spoke” and “stipe”, then hung the washing out.

 

Once the dogs had scoffed brekkie we went for our walk. We went earlier than usual as it was going to be a hot day. As we drove the pundits on the radio were saying that we in the South East were having our fifth heatwave of the year whilst parts of Scotland had had a month’s worth of rain over the weekend.

Am I alone in seeing the obvious answer here. Having local water companies is such a silly idea. Surely it would make far more sense to have a national water company with the ability to pipe water from where there are floods (Scotland) to where there is a drought (my house). After all that’s how I get the gas to heat my water, isn’t it?

 

We got to the woods and walked our usual route. No one rolled in anything, we didn’t squabble with anyone. It was all rather dull which was probably for the best.

We came home listening to more Adrian Mole MP3s, and once home no one needed a bath. I unloaded the dishwasher and put bedding and towels in to wash. Once I’d had a cuppa I went into the garden. Monday has become pond filter cleaning day, and it has to be said that having a pressure filter means it’s a far faster job these days, and there’s a lot less smelling of fish poo at the end of it all.

I hung out the bedding and towels and sat by the pond for a while watching the pigeons drinking from the bog filter. They do that quite a bit.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted some lunch, and with that scoffed I spent a couple of hours doing the ironing. As I ironed I watched a couple more episodes of “Stranger Things”. As I ironed I was very conscious of Treacle watching me “like a pork” (to coin a phrase). I put the ironing board away and she flew up the garden. I stayed inside. After five seconds she came running back and looked at me expectantly. I said the magic words “I’M GOING TO FEED THE FISH!”, and she flew up the garden squealing in excitement. We fed the fish. And the dogs. Last week I mentioned the economies of buying fish food in bulk,,, a lot of that saving goes straight down the dogs’ necks.

 

“er indoors ^TM” finished work and we drove down to Folkestone Harbour. We had a little wander about then went to the old Folkestone Harbour railway station where there was a geo-meet happening.

It’s always good to catch up with friends… I didn’t get the chips. Four pounds for a portion of chips.

Seriously !?!?!

9 August 2026 (Sunday) - FTF, Working, Hot

I woke far earlier than I needed to and lay awake for too long. I eventually got up, made toast and had a stroke of genius (I do that from time to time). Last night a new puzzle geocache had gone live not *that* far from work but I had no idea how to solve the puzzle. But this morning I had an idea. Going on-line to blag a copy of the second Harry Potter book gave me the numbers I wanted and the geo-checker said my answer was correct.  And it was on the way to work (sort-of).

 

As I drove off to find this cache there was some right old tripe on the radio. There was a lot of talk about some Russian bishop who was supposedly getting backhanders from Vladimir Putin. There were two theories as to why this might be. Either the bishop had some gossip on Vlad, or Vlad was sucking up to the Almighty.

And there was an interview with one of the head honchos at the Mother's Union  which is a sort of religious version of the Women's Institute. The woman being interviewed seemed to be rather jealous of the W.I. for no reason that I could fathom. I gave up listening to the drivel on the radio. Sunday morning radio is usually on the rubbish side (at best).  I listened to Adrian Mole on MP3 instead. This morning he was squabbling with the love of his life. Some things are universal...

It wasn't long before I was in some obscure back street near Sevenoaks. There was no one about, I rummaged on a street sign and soon had the geocache I was hunting. And no one else had got there before me. I was First to Find. Result. Go me.

As I drove on to work there were a few spots of rain on the windscreen. A tiny shower. Not much, but some rain. And then I noticed the roads were awash. That wasn't rain. That was leaking pipes. You'd think that what with all this talk of drought and water shortages the water companies would be on the case wouldn't you? The trouble is that they are on the case. Their case being making money for foreign investors. Sadly the days when a UK water company had actually providing water as its main raison d'etre are long gone.

 

I got to work. I thought better of the cooked brekkie as it gave me belly-ache last time. Instead I popped into the works M&S and got myself a croissant then got on with the morning.

The original plan for today had been a little wander round Eastling doing a few geocaches to finish off the current set of geocaching Treasures. But on Friday the boss had phoned. There had been a minor staffing disaster at work and she’d had to ask people to swap shifts about. And having solved her immediate staffing issue she would need someone to step into the breach this morning. Could I help?

Oh, go on then. I didn’t mind really. If I did I wouldn’t have spent a life in hospital work, would I? And the weather forecast was against doing much today. It had been rather warm yesterday and the forecast was for thirty degrees from mid-day onwards.

According to my car’s thermometer it was thirty-three degrees when I finished and came home.

 

I drove slowly through the “Operation Brock” stupidity, and once home we had a cheese roll for lunch. You can’t go wrong with a cheese roll.

We spent the afternoon sitting in the garden (in the shade) until “er indoors ^TM” set off on cat duty. I had a shower, put some washing in, and wrote up some CPD.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Bake Off: The Professionals”. And then we started watching “Ann Droid”. Bearing in mind the writers and the cast, the first episode was a tad disappointing.

It might perk up though. Here’s hoping.

8 August 2026 (Saturday) - Northiam

This morning’s Facebook feed again showed the ignorance of the general public. The pub just down the road from where I used to live has been “saved from demolition”. Sadly there were a load of people who thought that that because planning permission to build houses on the site had been refused, the pub was going to re-open.

Several people were banging on about how few pubs there now are in the area, and how “they” should open more. There’s as many pubs open in any area as can make a living out of the pub business. Recently I mentioned the Peacock Inn in Goudhurst which closed (because it wasn’t making money). Someone’s taken it on and re-opened it, but yesterday the Eight Bells in the middle of Hawkhurst (not five miles away from the Peacock) closed its doors for the last time.

 

I Munzed (deploying a scrapstar), and Wordled. I started with “vague” and got one letter right, but in the wrong place. But that did help. My second try was “civil”, then “ivory” finally ending up with “privy” on the fourth attempt.

As I fiddled about Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. “And the night goes by so very slow. Oh, I hope it won’t end though”. I had no idea – it was “Alone” by Heart.

I had no idea either.

 

We drove round to Repton and Dog Club… We had a good time with the usual mayhem. It was a shame that Roo had to kick off right at the very end, but that’s what dogs do. And with Dog Club done we drove to Northiam.

We’d had a vague idea that we might have gone to the main day of the national geocaching mega-event week in Norfolk today… purely because it was *the* national geocaching event. But the last one we went to was something of a disappointment. I’ve been to seven mega-events, Five of them involved a lot of travel to be faintly disappointed, and the other two sort-of happened in the background whilst we were at a weekend-long camping event. These mega-events are really geared up for the people who are staying for the week.

With a three-hour trip to travel the one hundred and sixty miles to get there for a day trip, I would have gone stir-crazy on the way, and we wouldn’t have got there till the early afternoon. We decided against going. Maybe next year we could hire a cottage in the area of wherever it is going to be (somewhere in the West Midlands, apparently).

Instead we went to Northiam where there was a set of geocaches on (mostly) flat ground which would get us most of the latest set of geocaching Treasures that were released last week.

 

We had a very good walk. The footpaths were well marked and clear. As we went we saw some squirrels and a herd of deer charging across the fields. There was a strange fellow with an umbrella, but he kept his distance. Bailey went rogue for about ten seconds, and came back having lost her name tag. We’ll get another from Amazon.

We took a lot of water for the dogs. It was only a short walk – a mile less than what we walk round the woods several times each week, but I for one was glad to get back to the car at the end.

I took a few photos as we wandered.

 

Once home I did the geo-admin, posted the photos of our walk, and counted the Dog Club Money. Bearing in mind we ask for one pound fifty per dog I was rather bemused to end up with nineteen pounds thirty pence.

“er indoors ^TM” popped out. Over the summer she checks up on the cats of various friends who are on holiday. I stayed home with the dogs.

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned and we spent the evening playing “Ticket To Ride” on the Infinity Table.

I lost every game…

7 August 2026 (Friday) - A Horse-Free Zone

I rolled my eyes as I peered into the Internet this morning. I thought last night’s episode of Star Trek was one of the best ones… judging by the posts on-line it would seem that it wasn’t as popular as I thought it might have been. I found myself thinking back twenty years when “Star Trek: Enterprise” was cancelled because the (so-called) – fans slated the show. After all, who’s going to carry on making a TV show which gets such bad reviews from its target audience.

I sent out birthday wishes, Munzed, and took the dogs out. As we drove to the woods the pundits on the radio were in Clacton interviewing people who were going to vote for either Nigel Farage, Count Binface or thirty other nobodies. I can only imagine that the interviews broadcast were done for dramatic effect; I’d never heard such ill-informed stupidity. People openly admitted they knew nothing of politics or policies but believed every word that every politician said to them, and most of them said they would probably vote for the last one they heard from, as that one would be the one they remembered.

And people say democracy is a good thing.

 

We got to the woods where we had an episode. I plan our walks so that we are mostly off of the gravelled tracks. That’s the bits where horses aren’t supposed to go. As we walked one of the narrower tracks (well away from the horse areas) so two old bats on horses came toward us. The one in front was shrieking “two metres, two metres”. I got the dogs on their leads and dragged the dogs as far back into the bracken as we could go. As the horses came past so the one in front looked at us like we were the shit on her shoe. The one at the back thanked us for getting out of the way. I politely pointed out that horses are supposed to stick to the gravelled tracks. The one in front started ranting that she’d paid for her pass (over twenty quid less per year than I pay for parking), she can ride her horse where she likes, and had I cleared up my dogs’ poo. I pointed out that her horse was taking a dump right then, and asked if she’d seen the “no horses” sign. She stormed off shouting that there was no need for me to be so “unpleasant”.

At least her mate had the good grace to apologize.

 

We came home listening to Adrian Mole MP3s. Once home I made us a cuppa which we had with the last of the Rice Crispie cakes. I sparked up my lap-top and had a look. I was right. There’s places in Kings Wood where horses can go, and places where they can’t.

I Wordled from “horse” to “feign” in three goes… there’s only so many (one) words that start with “fe” but don’t end in “e”.

I then downloaded the fifth Adrian Mole book in MP3 format, and spent a little while fiddling about with my MP3 sticks. I shifted all the audiobooks onto another stick so that when I tell it to randomly play music it won’t randomly play various chapters from audiobooks. Hopefully.

 

I had a Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle for lunch then set about solving geo-puzzles. As time wore on I became more and more conscious of three sets of eyes looking at me. Eventually I stood up and thee dogs jumped up. I looked at Treacle and she looked back. I opened my mouth a few times without saying anything. Each time she quivered in excitement. When I finally said “I’M GOING TO FEED THE FISH” she squealed in excitement as they all ran to the pond.

There’s so much fuss over some dried rice.

It was as well that we went out; I’d forgotten that I’d hung washing out earlier.

 

I then spent an hour fighting with Paintshop Pro struggling to create today’s piccie showing the paths in the woods where horses are allowed, and where we had our earlier episode. It wanted to create the text in such a way that it that would impress graphic designers, but would actually be unreadable.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good pasta bake which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Bake Off: The Professionals”. One of the contestants had dyed his hair. In the previous episode he had greying hair. Suddenly he looked as though he had rubbed boot polish all over his head. It was embarrassing to watch.

Why can’t people just grow old gracefully?

6 August 2026 (Thursday) - Flat Battery, New Geocache

I slept better last night but again woke feeling rather morose. I made toast and had my little look at the Internet. There were quite a few photos of people going on holiday and being on holiday. I was rather envious of the people being on holiday, but not of those going. A subtle difference? It’s the travelling that I don’t like. I’m quite regretting not having arranged to go to the week-long geocaching event that’s on now in Norfolk, but it’s three hours and a hundred and sixty miles away.

I had a snarky email. At the weekend I downloaded a glucose-measuring app on my phone. It was rubbish. It asked loads of questions but didn’t measure anything (well obviously it couldn’t on a phone) so I said as much in my review. The people who made it had taken umbrage. 

I Munzed, Wordled from “miles” via “brine”, “tripe” and “cripe” to “gripe”. A rather appropriate word for me…

 

I got the leads onto the dogs. As I started the car it sounded a tad sluggish but at the time I thought nothing of it. As I drove I listened to the pundits on the radio who were talking about Professor Jason Arday who has resigned from Cambridge University over allegations of plagiarism. I don’t know what Professor Arday did or didn’t do, but one of the allegations against him was that he claimed to have written and published a particular book which he hadn’t. Some chum of his was wheeled on to defend him. I wish I knew who this pal of his was; this chap felt there was nothing wrong with claiming to have written a book when you hadn’t. This chap said he’d planned to write books himself which he hadn’t, and implied that the intention to write a book was synonymous with actually writing one.

 

We got to the woods and once we were away from the car park we had a good walk. We hid another geocache in the woods (I wasn’t happy with the one I put out yesterday). As we turned a corner we saw a deer not ten yards away. We chased squirrels and rabbits.

Sadly we knew when we were getting back to the car. The noise level definitely went up as all the families going on their annual dog walk were shouting at each other. Despite only being inches apart they could have been heard miles away.

 

We got back to the car… and it eventually started. Once the thing eventually leapt into life it have me a warning message that the battery was on the low side.

I dropped the dogs at home and drove round to Halfords. The nice man got his gadget out and showed me that my battery was deficient in both volts and amps. But he said he wasn’t surprised – he said it looked like it was the car’s original battery which would make it eleven years old.

He said he could sell me a new battery and fit it, but said that if I joined their premium club it would actually be fifteen quid cheaper. So I joined their premium club, got the discount, and not only do I now get money off from other things I buy in Halfords, I get a free MOT too. That’s a bonus.

 

I came home and made us both a cuppa, then sorted the admin for the new geocache we hid today. It took over an hour to devise what I hope is a particularly fiendish puzzle. I have this theory about geocaching puzzles… everyone whinges on saying how that difficult puzzles are all part of the game, but hardly anyone can ever solve the tricky ones. To illustrate this contention I put one out last year. It’s been found four times.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up bread rolls which we scoffed with the last of the weekend’s cheese, then I had a minor pootle in the garden. The sleepers round the pond were rather crusted with pigeon poop. I was amazed at how easy the stuff came off. I then alternately read my Kindle, Meowdoku-ed and dozed by the pond. As I slobbed about shamelessly being bone idle I found myself wondering. I’d shelled out the thick end of a hundred and fifty quid to get my car’s battery done earlier. Was I being mean? – that price struck me as expensive. I phoned my usual garage who said they wanted three hundred and twenty quid to do the same job.

I shall be going back to Halfords for car issues from now on. I’ve put their phone number into my phone and everything. I had a look at their website – I can get ten per cent off of a new pressure washer… such a shame that what with the hose pipe ban they are currently a no-no.

And then my phone beeped. The geocache I’d hidden this morning had gone live, and I’d got the souvenir for hiding it.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted a rather good curry which we washed down with a bottle of the cheap plonk whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”. I won’t give any spoilers but I will say it was the best episode of Star Trek for some time. 

 

5 August 2026 (Wednesday) - It Ain't Diabetes

With an alarm set I woke at quarter to three and just lay awake. I gave up trying to sleep at five o’clock, got up and scoffed toast as I watched an episode of “Stranger Things”. It was rather good.

I then had my usual look at the Internet.

I had a minor sulk as I peered into Facebook this morning. People were posting holiday photos from Spain and Dorset and Austria and the Lake District. But a *lot* of friends had been posting from Norfolk where they’d arrived for the beginning of the five-day national geocaching mega-event. I would have liked to have gone myself. Back in the day I used to organise no end of long weekends away at kite festivals and camping events. I suppose I could have sorted something but we’d left it too late to book anywhere to stay in the area, and camping is simply too much like hard work these days. Back in the day I used to organise mid-week and weekend mass geocaching walks, but sadly since I’ve not had time to organise them, no one else has taken up the mantle.

I Munzed, Wordled from “minor” through “boils” to get it with “posit” on the third go for the simple reason that pretty much every other possibility had the “i” in the wrong place.

 

I set off to find my car. As I walked I saw her who lives down the road and likes walking. I've been seeing her on and off for nearly forty years. Her son went to school with “My Boy ^TM” and was one of my cubs (a particularly odd child who chose not to speak but to communicate by pulling faces. He could speak, but preferred to grimace). I often see her walking about Ashford. All over Ashford at all times of day. This morning she was marching past our house at half past six. I often wonder why she walks so much. Does she want to stay out of her house?  Should I be contacting someone about her?

 

I found my car. As I drove to work so the pundits on the radio were interviewing some dog groomer. The woman being interviewed simpered and wittered and basically wasted ten minutes of peak air-time. I couldn't help but wonder what she'd been brought on to the radio for.

They had tried to get her to talk about flea and tick treatments (not that she actually said very much at all), and once she'd gone it turned out that the spot-on-the-neck treatments used to prevent parasite infestations (like I dobbed onto the dogs' necks on Monday) are under scrutiny.  There's calls for them to be banned from general sale after an inquiry raised concerns about their impact on their environment.

Apparently they are widely available in all sorts of shops and supermarkets,  and the component chemicals are being found in rivers and streams. I was always under the impression that the stuff was only available with a vet's prescription and that dogs had to be kept dry after they'd had the treatments dobbed onto them?

I'm going to carry on treating the dogs with the flea jollop and they will carry on having their tick collars. There's no point in waiting until the ticks and fleas have latched on and given them no end of diseases before you do anything about it, is there?

 

I got petrol in Aylesford. Today it was only a penny a litre cheaper than in Ashford. And with a few minutes spare I went for a little walk looking for somewhere to hide a geocache. There's a souvenir for anyone who hides on in August.

And then I cracked on with work.  At tea break I started reading a new book on my Kindle. It was terrible. Poorly edited, poorly proof-read. It read as though it had been written by a foreign schoolchild and translated into English by another schoolchild as a rather rushed bit of homework. I gave up with it at lunch time and rated it at one star on Amazon and Goodreads with the recommendation that it be withdrawn from sale and proof-read. Harsh? Maybe. But it had the potential to be a good story; if a tad unreadable. The chap who wrote it has done himself no favours by rushing publication. I then got another e-book from Amazon. It wasn't *quite* as bad, but was still on the crap side... zombies in outer space? Seriously? I suppose I shouldn't really have had high expectations for ninety-nine pence, should I?

 

I came home to find the nice Amazon man had delivered my glucose monitor. I’ve been feeling numbness and tingling in my left hand for some weeks now. Occasionally in my left foot and right hand as well.

I realise it has been very hot recently but I do think I’m more thirsty than I have been for some time; more so that would be explained by the heatwaves. My father had late onset diabetes as did my grandmother. I don’t want anyone to think I’d had a look at Google and diagnosed myself… but I had a look at Google and diagnosed myself. But with a random blood glucose of five point three mmol/L I think I’ll have another look at Google.

Or ring the doctor…

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home. She’d taken the dogs out, and she seemed stressed. They had been totally ill-behaved little sods for her. Odd – they normally see her as pack leader. I’d have thought they wouldn’t have dared to put a foot wrong.

 

I’m feeling rather tired. If only I could sleep when I have an alarm set.