31 August 2026 (Monday) - Bank Holiday

I slept well; eventually getting out of my pit at half past eight. I put a load of washing in to scrub, made toast and had a look at the internet as I do. It hadn’t changed much.

I looked out the window and saw the glorious morning and found myself thinking. Many years ago I used to be a general dogsbody at the Harbour restaurant in Hastings. Over the summer we used to make an average of two hundred and fifty dinners a day. Four hundred dinners was super-busy, and when we did four hundred we knew about it.

August Bank Holiday was always good for over six hundred.

Relatively more recently my August Bank Holiday Monday would regularly be spent taking down tents and clearing away camping gear. Many August Bank Holidays used to be spent camping at a friend’s farm. A great time was had by all, but the August Bank Holiday ones were different to many of the kite festivals we used to visit. At many of our long camping weekends everyone was free for the fun parts, but so many people had burning reasons to go home promptly on the Monday morning. People used to stay to clear up at the August camps.

Camping was fun but it was hard work.

Eleven years ago today we had thunderstorms. In a break in that day’s rain we went to a garden centre where we got my monkey puzzle tree. It’s grown rather impressively.

More recently August Bank Holidays have been a tad dull… no matter where you go is heaving with the normal people so we generally don’t go anywhere.

 

The dogs came down and wanted to go out. I went with them and followed them round with a bucket and trowel. When we first got her, Bailey had a habit of eating the other dogs’ turds. We hoped she’d grow out of it, but four years have passed and she is as coprophagic as she ever was (yuk!) so collecting the dung before she does is always a good idea.

I Munzed,  Wordled from “clear” to “mound” in five goes, and got ready for the day. Some new geocaches had gone live down the road, but the local FTF-hound had been out and had logged the First to Find on one of them within twenty minutes, and then had gone on to do all the others. I must admit these days if I’d got there first I’d do the same. Back in the day I would find one and leave the rest for others. But I’m in the minority with this attitude…

So instead I hung out the washing, and “er indoors ^TM” sorted out some pots to replace her missing geocaches. I then thought I’d prove a point. I cleaned out the filters of both ponds and tided away in less than twenty minutes. The filters I use are *so* much easier and quicker to clean out.

 

We then drove down to the Hamstreet area. It took a few minutes to get out of Ashford; the roads near the outlet centre were heaving. For all the talk of credit crunches and costs of living, there’s never any shortage of people (quite literally) queueing up at the outlet centre to pay way over the odds for massively overpriced tat.

We relocated a geocache with which the geo-feds had found fault, and had a look at two which had been reported as missing. We replaced the missing one, and found the other one exactly where it was supposed to be. We went on intending to replace a third one, but the area was swarming with normal people so we gave that a miss.

We then went on to Snargate church where we wandered round the graveyard getting information for the geo-puzzle based there. We found that puzzle’s geocache just outside the church then went for a little walk. It was a shame that the bridge forming the public footpath was not only impassable with brambles but also blocked with an electric fence. I reported it to the council – let’s see what they do.

The plan was then a pint in the nearby Red Lion but it was closed. Apparently they are closed every Monday. You’d think they’d open for a Bank Holiday, wouldn’t you? Oh well… their loss.

 

We came home. We’d been out for four hours and the queues at the outlet centre were still just as bad.

I popped over the road to the shop and got a couple of bottles of rather good ale (for less than the price of one rather average ale in a pub), and we sat in the garden for a bit scoffing a late lunch of nachos and dip until I nodded off.

 

We had a lazy rest-of-afternoon.  “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good pasta bake for dinner.

It’s been a rather good (if rather lazy) bank holiday.

30 August 2026 (Sunday) - Early Shift

With an alarm set I was awake far too early. I made toast and put on a new episode of “Stranger Things”. This one played for over two hours; I got bored with it after twenty minutes so I turned it off at what I felt was a sensible place to have ended an episode.

I sparked up the lap-top and had a little look at the Internet. Some conspiracy theory half-wit was ranting on about why we don’t hear anything about the hole in the ozone layer any more. The simple fact is that science found the issue with the ozone layer some years ago, the world’s governments banned the chemicals that caused the damage, and now is ozone layer is on the mend. Sadly the conspiracy theory half-wits weren’t happy to hear this. And they weren’t at all happy to be told that acid rain went much the same way.

I Munzed, Wordled from “twonk” to “intel” in five goes, and got ready for the early shift.

 

I set off for work. As I drove to junction nine of the motorway I was again amazed at how many people were out in their pyjamas walking their dogs. On Friday I mentioned that this would seem to be the way to walk your dog in South Ashford at quarter past six in the morning. Perhaps it is some fashion statement?

 

I drove up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio. Being Sunday there was some religious drivel being spouted. There was an interview with someone who was supposedly a big cheese in the "Revivalist Movement". Unlike previous "Revivalist Movements" this one is a frankly laughable idea that no religion is completely correct, but as they'd all been going for so long they couldn't all be wrong. So the people pushing this one have cooked up a theory that people might look at the mainstream religions, pick and choose the bits they like from each and ignore the bits they don't like. And if they wanted to make up their own little extras to add on, then that was fine with the idiot being interviewed. Everyone was entitled to their own opinions, and because each person's idea was "their religion" it was somehow both valid and right.

They let these people vote, you know.

 This was followed by an interview with a farmer who was working on National Trust land as part of the "Countryside Stewardship" scheme. From what I could work out this seemed to be a government initiative (from 1991) to keep paying for farms which clearly were losing money hand over fist.

I switched to my Adrian Mole MP3 and carried on up the motorway listening to his antics.

 

I got to work and went in to the early shift where I did my bit. I always say I don't mind working at the weekend when the weather is bad. The forecast for the day had been grim, but (as is so often the way) reality was at odds with forecast.  Or so it started that way, but as the day wore on the glorious sunshine gave way to grey skies and I stopped sulking (a bit). Mind you,  having now worked at some point on eight of the last ten weekends there's no denying I'm going off of the idea.

 

I came home and once we’d done “FEED THE FISH” I geo-puzzled for a bit until my head hurt. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good curry which we washed down with one of those cheap bottles of plonk.

As we did we watched the last episodes of “Celebrity Hunted”.

I’ve got a theory about that show – it’s all staged. If you were really on the run you really wouldn’t appear heading the bill on stage at live festivals, or live on national television, would you? It makes for good viewing, but if you were really on the run, you’d hunker down somewhere and keep quiet.

But now that the show is over we’ve got to find something else to watch.

29 August 2026 (Saturday) - Busy, Busy

I saw some sad news on-line as I scoffed my toast this morning. Back in the day I was a god-botherer. I eventually realised that the whole church thing was based on wishful thinking and gave up with it. But it bothers me that so any people still go along with the drivel it spouts. And it is drivel. Look at this morning’s news. There’s been an accident at a big happy-clappy Christian festival in West Sussex. A large sign collapsed killing one person and injuring several others.

This immediately begs the question of why did this bunch’s god allow the accident to happen? Did it not see the sign was unsafe or did it not care? And (bearing in mind what this lot preach) why are they seeing death as being a bad thing?

One of the people bemoaning the tragedy was someone who claimed to be a regular attendee at the festival. He and his boyfriend would go every year. As I have said so many times before, Christianity is fundamentally against the gay community. It says so in the bible.

I decided not to comment…

I also saw consternation on the Sparks-related Facebook pages. They are touring at the moment, and fans weren’t happy that they’d travelled miles and paid a small fortune only to hear twelve songs. I can’t help but think that with the band in their late seventies / early eighties, what do the fans expect?

 

I Munzed and Wordled. “Tired” gave me the “d”. With the letters I had left I could only think of one other word that ended in “d” and I got it on the second go with “blood”. Go me !!

Steve was on the radio. He said that the weather forecast for the day wasn’t good. It hadn’t been good when I looked last night and for all that it had improved overnight it was still on the grim side. He did the “Guess the Lyrics” competition too. “All she saw was a silhouette of a gun”. Usually I struggle with these, and today’s was no different. It was “Moonlight Shadow” by Mike Oldfield.

 

We drove round to Dog Club where (despite the weather) we had a rather good time. We had seventeen dogs along, and general mayhem ensued. When I describe Dog Club it doesn’t sound very much. We just stand around in a field for forty minutes whilst the dogs generally swarm about. But it is one of the highlights of the week.

Sadly the rain got worse as time wore on. We were rather damp when it was home time. As we drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year on the radio. I have no idea what the song was that he was playing but it immediately gave me flashbacks from my time at Bromley College. I could remember my old mates who went on to the post-graduate course in blood banking (at the time I went on to the one in haematology) so that immediately narrowed it down to my early years there. Some time between 1983 – 85. And I had flashbacks of the refectory… after the first month or so we spent most of our free time in the Five Bells up the road. It had to be 1983.

It was.

 

We stopped off at the co-op for pastries which we scoffed once we got home. We played Meowdoku (“er indoors ^TM” has downloaded it) then we drove up to Oare for the geo-meet. A dozen of us met up at the Three Mariners where we had a rather good session. We had (arguably) one pint too many before we set about a very good dinner of assorted bar snacks, then then we had a go at the G & T the last one of which was definitely one too many (not that I would have done anything any different).  

I slept most (pretty much all) of the way home.

 

Steve and Sarah arrived, closely followed by Chris. We had a rather good evening on the Infinity Table. Game of Life, Trouble, Sorry, Ticket to Ride…

At the risk of gloating I won three of the four games. Go me (again) !!

It’s been a rather good day today.

28 August 2026 (Friday) - Early Shift

I didn’t sleep well. Waking every twenty minutes or so I was laying wide awake at four o’clock when “er indoors ^TM” announced that it was eclipse time. We went into the garden and spent half an hour watching the lunar eclipse until the moon set behind the houses.

“er indoors ^TM” carried on watching from the attic room window. I made toast and watched more “Stranger Things” which had seriously improved on yesterday’s episode, and the amount of explosions had rather tapered off.

 

I had a little look at the Internet as I do. It was still there. Again I found myself presented with a load of ranting about fish care on one of the fishing pages I follow. Everyone was getting really aggressive with everyone else about how best to care for the fish through whose mouth they’d just stuck a hook and then dragged out of the water.

Rather amazingly only two people had posted anything about the eclipse, and “er indoors ^TM” had been one of them.

 

I Wordled from “lunar” to “tween” in five goes, Munzed, and got ready for work. As I drove to junction nine of the motorway I was amazed at how many people were out in their pyjamas walking their dogs. It is certainly the way to walk your dog in South Ashford at quarter past six in the morning. We don't get that at Dog Club.

I drove up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio spouting their usual drivel. There was an interview with someone or other talking about the American Federal Reserve (the US equivalent of the Bank of England). Apparently they want to put up interest rates but don't dare because that wound irritate President Trump and they simply can't face the arse-ache which that would generate. The chap being interviewed implied that it was difficult to run the Federal Reserve when they had a somewhat feeble-minded President with the attention span of a gnat. Though it was difficult to follow the conversation; the chap being interviewed had a very thick (almost incomprehensible) Scottish accent. It took me a while to realise that when he said "waar-ruck" (which he said several times) he actually meant "work".

I drove to the petrol station at Aylesford as the petrol there was four pence per litre cheaper than at home, then popped into Sainsburys to get lunch. As I shopped I followed a couple of assistants and listened to their conversation. Well, not so much "conversation" as "ranting". One had had a falling out with one of the managers, but I couldn't quite work out what her grievance actually was. There's only so much earwigging you can do before it becomes obvious.

 

I went in to the early shift and did my bit. Today was rather dull really, but in my line of work, dull is good.

I came home to find Treacle expectantly watching me… we did “FEED THE FISH”, and “er indoors ^TM” went off out with her craft club mates. I settled in front of the telly and watched more “Stranger Things”. Mind you I saw “watched”; “slept through” would be a more accurate summary.

 

It wasn’t just work. All of today was dull.

27 August 2026 (Thursday) - Never A Dull Moment

When I came back to bed from the loo in the small hours I found Treacle panting for air and burning up. I set the fan blowing air on her, and she eventually settled. She often does that in the night. I then lay awake listening to her breathing, and getting panic-stricken whenever she went quiet.

I eventually dozed off and woke just after half past seven to torrential rain.

 

I forgot to put the dishwasher on last night. Woops. I set that going, made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was the same as ever. A family member was posting some tripe about why Ant Middleton should become the Mayor of London. I took a deep breath. Everyone sees the “Jack The Lad” character on the telly… the telly he got sacked from. He was a COVID denier, he’s got convictions for assault, he’s got a history of being particularly nasty to women, he emigrated to Australia, he currently lives in Dubai and his tax history is dubious.

There’s no denying that the current mayor is a crap mayor, but this is entirely the problem with all wannabe politicians, isn’t it? They are so loud in pointing out the failures of their opponents that no one realizes their own inability. “Vote for us – we aren’t as crap as the others” is hardly a tenable political position (especially when you are), but most people don’t seem to look in to what they are voting for.

I Munzed, Worded from “night” to “uncut” in four goes, then got dressed. Even if it was raining I couldn’t spend the day in jim-jams (could I?)

 

I emptied the dishwasher, put a load of washing in, and with the rain showing no sign of easing up I wrote up a little CPD. Dull, but one day I might be grateful that I’ve made the effort (I’ve been saying that for over fifteen years…).

And then the rain stopped. The Met Office weather forecast was for a dry day but had issued a yellow warning of thunderstorms. The BBC predicted rain al day. We took a chance, went to Kings Wood and walked our usual four (and a bit) miles in glorious sunshine.

As we walked we met a geocacher. She greeted us by saying she recognised the dogs from their pictures on the web pages of our geocaches in Kings Wood. We had a good chat. She was Belgian, but spoke incredibly good English.

 

We came home. I hung out the washing and I had a phone call from the ENT people at the local hospital. They seemed mildly miffed that I’d put in a complaint. The reason they hadn’t replied to my phone calls or emails was that I’d been ringing the wrong number and sending emails to the wrong address. I suggested that they might update their website, I was told that wasn’t in her remit. We sorted a hearing test (four months later than I had been led to believe it would be). She said she’s put the details into an email. I suggested that they use the NHS app. She said their system wasn’t compatible with the NHS app.

I suppose I expect too much of them. But that’s what I get when dealing with the fifty-second best hospital in the UK… Working at the fourth best has probably given me an over-exaggerated idea of what I should expect from a local hospital.

 

I made us a cuppa, and fiddled about on-line downloading a few more audiobooks (this week’s obsession). I got “Brave New World”, “Childhood’s End”, “Raffles”… but on the minus side the version of “Fahrenheit 451” I got was in German. Ho hum…

I ironed the wet shirts and bandannas. As I did I watched another episode of “Stranger Things”. The show started well in season one, but now I’m half-way through the last season I find that I’m pretty much watching it because it would be a shame to stop now. Today’s episode was an hour and a half in duration, was about forty-five minutes longer than it needed to be, and the story had been done far better thirty years ago in the Alexei Sayle classic “Things Exploding 2: Everything Explodes”.

 

As I watched telly so Treacle watched my every move; getting more and more twitchy and anxious. Once telly was done I stood up and she flew to the back door. Then came running back looking expectantly at me. I announced that I was going to “FEED THE FISH” and she ran to the fish-pond squealing all the way. She gets so over-excited over the prospect of a few bits of dried rice.

Whilst I was outside I ran the hair trimmer over my head – that saved sixteen quid. I voomed round the garden gathering dung too.

I then had a look at some geo-puzzles until my brain hurt too much.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”. It wasn’t as good as last week’s episode, but was still very good.

However…

The trouble with any sort of prequel series is that you know what is going to happen a little way down the line (if you’ve watched the series to which it is a prequel). There are certain characters in the show with which putting them in danger doesn’t cause any suspense because we know that they are going to survive.

Or we do if you are a sad Trekkie like me…

 

And in closing I’ll make the observation that the BBC predicted heavy rain (and thunderstorms) all day… the rain finished at half past nine this morning.

26 August 2026 (Wednesday) - Messages, Late Shift

I had a decent night’s sleep really despite a nightmare in which my (late) father was tying kites to the sails of windmills because he could.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. As again it was the same as ever. There was a lot of talk on fishing-related pages about how cruel keep nets can be. The idea of a keep net is that it is a huge cylindrical net in which you retain everything you catch so that at the end of the day you can see all your fish in one go. This is supposedly a rather nasty thing to do… whereas sticking a hook through a fish’s mouth and pulling it out of the water isn’t? It’s some time since I’ve been fishing… I’ve rather gone off the idea of it.

I had another look at the internet archives and downloaded two Jeeves and Wooster audiobooks. In the past I’ve always been rather scathing of audiobooks, but they do fill the hour-long journey to and from work.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “night” to “capon” in five goes, then had a text message. I had a code to use for NPERS PRD authentication. I wonder what that was all about. As I fiddled on my phone Bailey refused to eat her brekkie. For a dog that regularly scoffs turds, she can be rather picky about what she will and won’t eat.

 

I took the dogs out for a walk. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the yesterday’s death of Dolly Parton. The nation seems to have taken her passing to heart.

As we drove we found the road was closed. We took a diversion through Shadoxhurst. One of the lanes was something of an eye-opener; the place must act as the local tip’s stunt double. There was rubbish strewn along the roadside for at least half a mile. Including several discarded kitchen appliances.

Why can’t people ding their tat properly?

We got to Orlestone where we walked a slightly different route to usual. Bailey went off on her own little missions a couple of times, and Treacle straggled a bit, but generally a good time would seem to have been had by all. Mind you we had a minor incident half-way round. Something stank to high heaven. A dead deer? I chivvied the dogs on before they found it and rolled in it.

 

We came home where I had another odd message. Was I available to be interviewed on the radio this Sunday? Someone wanted to talk about geocaching. I’m not free, so they asked me to prime a friend that they told me they were going to ask.

 

I left for work a tad earlier than I might. A week or so a new geocache went live in the Marden area which involved solving a puzzle. That gave you a location to visit, but the instructions were rather cryptic about what you did next. So I drove out to Marden  where I found out what you did next... I won't say what I did, but if rummaging under rocks looking for film pots floats your boat, then if you drive out to Marden you won't be disappointed (and there's a film pot involved).

I drove on to Pembury where I stopped off at Tesco to get a sandwich. I went to Tesco as I had a couple of money off vouchers totalling a bargain reduction of five quid off of my shopping. It paid for dinner, which was a result.

 

I went in to work and did my bit. It could have been a whole lot worse; many shifts are.

I 'd driven in to work listening to Adrian Mole on my MP3 player, and went home doing the same. For all that I've got hundreds of songs on my MP3 stick, over the years I've heard them all so many times. The antics of Adrian Mole made a nice change. Even if (as I've said before) Sue Townsend (the writer) was particularly nasty to him. Having finally got a break, did she *really* have to saddle him with a psycho who burned his house down?

25 August 2026 (Tuesday) - Rather Dull

I woke in a cold sweat in which I’d been drafted back into the scouts to instruct the “Delivering Beer” badge. Crucial to the award of the badge was the ability to use a shotgun, ride a horse and perform various feats with a top hat. Sometimes I wonder just what is going through my head.

 

I got up, made toast and watched more “Stranger Things”. It was a shame that the continuity people didn’t do a better job. Some of our heroes were up to mischief in the middle of the night. Others (supposedly simultaneously) were in broad daylight.

I then had a little look at the Internet as I do. It was the same as it ever was. A friend had posted dashcam footage of children playing “Chicken” (deliberately running in front of cars) on the ring road. Rather than sorting the issue, people were asking for the footage to be taken down. And the local newspaper was trying to imply that picking blackberries is illegal (it isn’t).

I Munzed and Wordled and got ready to go to work.

 

As I drove west-wards the pundits on the radio were getting a tad twitchy about Russia's veiled threat to the UK. If the UK is going to supply Ukraine with weapons, then the UK shouldn't be surprised if "someone" attacks the factories making those weapons. I would. I for one am surprised that this hasn't happened already.

And there was talk about "affordable housing" to be built across the country; the implication quite rightly being that much of the housing being built is unaffordable. Which it is.  Apparently the Prime Minister wants local councils to go back to building council houses like they used to in the fifties and sixties. When I was a lad much of where I lived in Hastings was estates of council houses, pretty much all of which were then bought (at rock-bottom bargain prices) by the sitting tenants when Margaret Thatcher decided to sell them all off. 

Building council houses, nationalizing the water companies... why has it taken so long for anyone to realize that capitalising on naked greed was no way to run a country in the long term?

 

Pausing only briefly to get a sandwich from Tesco I went in to work. As I worked my phone pinged with a message from Amazon. Based on my recent purchases, the bots at Amazon thought I might be interested in buying electrolyte drinks. My recent purchases on Amazon have been audio CDs, e-books, fish food, walking shoes and tins of deodorant. How did they get electrolyte drinks from that?

I did my bit. I came home listening to more Adrian Mole on my MP3 stick.

 

I got home to an empty house. “er indoors ^TM” had taken the dogs round to the park. Back in the day I used to walk the dogs there a lot, but the place heaves with normal people, and these days it is more than my nerves can stand. It might be a little drive to the wood, but it is much less traumatic.

While I waited for them to come home I found an internet archive of audiobooks that are so old that they are out of copyright and so I could get them as free MP3 downloads. I got “Brideshead Revisited” and “Day of the Triffids”. I shall get some more after dinner…

 

Today was dull…

24 August 2026 (Monday) - Rostered Day Off

I slept like a log last night, which was something of a result. I got up, made toast and had my usual rummage round the internet as I do. It was much the same as ever with pettiness and trivia abounding as it does. One use of social media is that it is a good reminder of how stupid people are. An ex-soldier was posting to Facebook about the Fabian society are conspiring against him. American evangelists were asking for money for them to then had a word with the Almighty on your behalf. I see very little of what I actually want to see though, which is what friends are up to, which is a shame. But I did see that the archaeological dig at Bodiam Castle (which was open to the public) closed today. That was a shame - “er indoors ^TM” would have liked to have seen that.

 

We drove up to the woods. Over the weekend someone has been out and taken down all the tatty England flags around Kennington. They’ve replaced them with Union Jacks (which is an acceptable term!) but sadly half of them are one way up, and half the other. Still, two world cups and one world war!!! Ing-Ur-Lund!!!!, eh?

We got to the woods and walked a longer walk today. As we went we saw a few of the normal people, but none who had ventured more than half a mile from the car park. We saw a horse where it wasn’t supposed to be, and evidence (huge piles of it) of others too. The rules are quite clear where horses are and aren’t allowed. I didn’t say anything to the horse rider; life is too short.

 

I came home and made us both a cuppa. We had a choco-break biccie with it too. Have you ever had a choco-break? Aldi do them – they are basically a half-price kit-kat made with far better chocolate.

I organised a car service for next week, then had a look at the monthly accounts. As always they could be a whole lot worse.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “skint” to “runny” in three goes, then had a look at the little pond. I didn’t clean its filter last week; I did today. I then had a look at the big pond. Last week I put some rocket into a floating basket. It’s not done much, but I remain hopeful.

 

I had a sandwich as I wrote up some CPD. Some of it was about information governance and I found myself remembering someone I’d rather not remember. Back in the day one of the nastier people with whom I used to work regularly got her own way in pretty much every aspect of work. No matter what suggestions or ideas were being suggested, she would always demand that her way was the only way that would “obviate the obvious governance issues”. As no one was brave enough to challenge her (as no one was confident enough about what “governance” actually meant) she regularly got her way all the time. She was an evil old bat… sometimes I idly ponder on the possibility of driving round to where she lives with a catapult and a bucket of dog turds…

 

I got the ironing board out and ironed. As I did I watched the first episode of the fifth season of “Stranger Things”. We did “FEED THE FISH”, and once Treacle had calmed down I spent an hour struggling with geo-puzzles.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went bowling; I watched more “Stranger Things”. For a day off I’ve been quite busy.

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow.

23 August 2026 (Sunday) - Nonington, Geo-Meet

I had a bad night. My arm and shoulder were particularly painful. And when I went to the loo in the small hours I couldn’t find Bailey. She’s so small she tucks into the smallest of places.

I finally nodded off and was sparko when “er indoors ^TM” alarm went off at half past seven. I swore, and got up.

 

I put a load of washing in to scrub, made toast and fiddled about with my lap-top. I backed up a couple of weeks of photos (that I will never look at again). Back in the day photos were a big thing. We had to fart around buying film, and with only twenty-four shots on a reel of film we would be incredibly judicious about that which we would photograph. And then we had to take the film to the chemist and wait a few days to get the photos back.

Nowadays we have instant access to photos. Someone in America can see the picture of my dogs seconds after I took it. Sometimes we don’t realise just how amazing the technology is.

And sometimes the technology can be wanting. The blatant display of racial hatred that I reported to the Facebook feds the other day apparently didn’t breach their community standards. One lives and learns.

I had an email about a new virtual geocache – the one that “er indoors ^TM” set up at Bonnington on Thursday evening. I was rather cagey on here about what we’d been up to as some people have (in the past) tracked my movements following this diary just to get to be first on anything geocachical we might be creating.

The thing had gone live just after half past six this morning, and the first one to find it had been out at Bonnington at just about the time I was getting out of bed.

But for the most part this morning my Internet was crawling with adverts for goldfish bowls… ones that looked really pretty with a traditional Chinese diorama but on closer inspection were probably about a quarter of the size you would have thought they were.

 

I Munzed, Wordled from “place” to “olden” in three goes, and harvested an epic crop of dog turds from the garden. I’ve said it before, but you wouldn’t believe how much dung three small dogs can generate.

I hung out the washing, checked that I’d programmed “Hannah” properly (last time I didn’t – woops!), Meowdolku-ed, and we set off on today’s mission.

 

We drove down to Nonington where  we waked for three miles picking up half a dozen geocaches as we went. It was a shame that Bailey went rogue towards the end of our walk, but that’s what she does. And (in all honesty) wouldn’t we all given half a chance.

As we walked we found half a dozen geocaches. It was a rather good walk.

From there we drove out to Sollys who operate a bar and an ice-cream parlour. We passed on the ice-cream but had an elegant sufficiency of the beer in the company of some very good friends. There’s no denying that the afternoon got more and more vague as it wore on; it was as well that I took a few photos.

 

We came home. I slept most of the way. And most of the evening too…

22 August 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Chartham, Ticket to Ride

 

I slept reasonably well… better than the night before. I got up, made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. I found myself laughing at a posting on one of the crackpot sites that Facebook thinks might interest me. Some religious nutter was banging on about the power of prayer. Someone else had pointed out that praying for something means that the one doing the praying had found a problem with God’s plan for the universe. And went on to say that if the prayers had been answered the God had admitted his plan was flawed in the first place. I stirred the pot a little by pointing out that the whole squabble was dependent on two unproven assumptions. Firstly that there actually is a God, and secondly that it listens to anything that we mere mortals might have to say. I know I shouldn’t engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent but the righteous wind me up sometimes.

 

I Munzed, and Wordled from “slate” through “drain” to “prawn”. As I did, Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess the Lyrics” competition. “Those were the times we had. Sharing the joy that we thought would last”. I had no idea at all. It was Forget Me Nots by Patrice Rushen. No? Me neither. Sometime I feel that my musical education is sadly lacking.

 

We drove round to Repton and Dog Club. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Treats were shared, chases chased, and mayhem generally ensued.

As we drove away so Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. When did Paul McCartney leave the Beatles? ! thought it was 1969, but I was a year too early.

We drove out to Chartham. Earlier in the year we’d had a rather good little walk around Chartham and we went back today. We parked up, walked through the village, over the hill, and back to the car via country lanes and fields. As we walked we found a geocache… well we would, wouldn’t we?

 

With walk walked we took a circuitous route home. There’s a Forestry England wood not that far from Chartham. Would it be any good for hiding a series of geocaches? Well… Yes, it would. *If* hidden by someone else. For all that those woods aren’t *that* far away it isn’t an easy drive to get there.

 

We got home where we had a cuppa and a cold cross bun for lunch. I counted up the Dog Club takings. In a novel break with tradition the money in the pot came to a multiple of one pound fifty. It rarely does. With money counted I added enough to the total to cover our three and transferred that amount to the bank. That’s over a hundred quid in the last month, and a lot of people choose to pay directly by text message from their phones. The people who own the field we use do OK out of the Dog Club…

 

I spent an hour or so fighting with geo-puzzles, then after another hot (cold) cross bun I sat in the garden with “er indoors ^TM”. She did her crafting; I read my Kindle.

I then had a stroke of genius… What with there being a geo-meet tomorrow afternoon I thought we might have a small walk before the meet. I perused the map and after a little brain-straining I came up with a little walk. In theory it should be on a par with today’s walk. In practice we will find out tomorrow.

 

“er indoors ^TM” sorted a couple of plates of chicken and chips and we scoffed them whilst having a few rounds of “Ticket To Ride” on the Infinity Table. Can you believe I won – three games to two.

21 August 2026 (Friday) - Feeling Worn Out

I couldn’t sleep last night. Having laid awake for seemingly ages I gave up and got up at four o’clock. I made toast and watched the last part of the episode of “Stranger Things” that I started watching yesterday.

This was the last episode of the fourth season of the show and sadly we’ve got to the stage that so many shows reach. It happened with the “Aliens” franchise and “Game of Thrones” and “The Last Ship”. The writers have effectively ran out of ideas and so five minutes of plot was padded out with an hour’s gratuitous violence and seemingly endless tedious fight scenes.

There’s one more season to go; it might perk up. I shall keep going with it; if only to see where Kate Bush made her money.

 

I had a quick look at the Internet and was rather amazed. A Reform UK councillor has had the heave-ho from Reform UK HQ for the simple reason that he’s not actually a member of Reform UK. Not only was councillor Robert Hanson elected under the Reform banner in May, he was the Reform spokesperson for Adult Health and Social Care in Sheffield council.

He’s now carrying on, but as an independent.

I would have thought that actually being a member of said party was a pre-requisite for standing as a candidate for that political party. You can’t make this up, can you?

 

And then it was time to set off for work. Yesterday was supposedly a day off. We walked over five miles round the woods I, got loads done in the garden, did ironing, had a serious fight with my old lap-top, took the dogs out again, watched Star Trek… by the time I went to bed last night I’d covered seventeen thousand steps. And then I had maybe two hours sleep at most.

I went off to work hoping for a bit of a rest. As I left Ashford there was a surprising amount of people walking dogs who were themselves only wearing their pyjamas.

 

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were all a-twitter about Prince Harry who is leaving America and coming back to live in the UK. There was also talk about how he lost his court case against Associated Newspapers (when he claimed they hacked his phone). Did they? During the court case some of his allegations were just abandoned “without any apology or even acknowledgment”. 

The claims of Prince Harry and his co-defendants were thrown out of court in their entirety several weeks ago, and together with six of his mates (including Elton John) he's got to stump up about ten million quid in court costs. And to add insult to injury the payments are due and it would seem their insurance won't cover it. That speaks volumes, doesn't it? If Prince Harry can't afford a court of law, what hope for the rest of us?

 

I stopped off in Sainsburys to get a sandwich. that place is always good for attitude. Some spotty oik who was employed to fill the shelves was making no secret of what he thought about the paying customers which he clearly felt were getting in his way. I just laughed; others would have had ample opportunity to make a formal complaint. I wonder if anyone did?

 

I went in to the early shift, did what I had to, and came home. “er indoors ^TM” had suggested an evening’s walk so we went to Orlestone. The walk passed off rather uneventfully, but I did think that the smaller two (Bailey in particular) were rather more wilful than usual. They know who panders to them whereas I will just keep going.

We came home. I spent a little while struggling on the on-line shops. I got the seventh Adrian Mole book on CD for about a fifth of the price I paid for the sixth. But I just can’t find the eight (and final) book on either MP3 or something that I could convert to MP3. But I did find a website offering all the Harry Potter books on MP3 for less than twenty quid the lot. Just like my seventh Adrian Mole CDs this is a rather good bargain *if* it arrives.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more episodes of “Celebrity Hunted”. It’s a rather good show, but realistically it’s just “Hunted” when you’ve only ever heard of one of the twelve so-called celebrities.

 

I’m rather worn out… and it’s hossing down outside.

 

20 August 2026 (Thursday) - A Busy Day Off

I slept well. I got up to see there had been more rain overnight. That was something of a result. I made toast and had a look at Facebook as I do. It was still there and much the same as ever. Lies, disinformation and blather persisted as it always does. When you think that I’ve got over seven hundred people on my Facebook list I see posts from maybe twenty of them. Pretty much everything I see is either “you might be interested in” (which I never am) or adverts for small businesses hundreds of miles away.

But it keeps me occupied in the mornings.

I had an email. My car insurance was due. Thirty quid less than it was last year. I saw that as a result and snapped it up. Last year it went up and I wasted a morning shopping about only to find I couldn’t get it cheaper anywhere else.

 

I took the dogs out. Over the last few days with time pressing we’d been to Orlestone. We can put the leads on, go to Orlestone and be back home drinking our cuppa in just over an hour. Kings Wood is a shade under three hours if the traffic is good, but we had the time to spare today, so that’s where we went.

As we walked we met two other groups of dog walkers. One was chatty, one was not. We chased a few squirrels, we didn’t roll in anything… or anything that stained anyway.

 

We came home and had that cuppa two hours and fifty minutes after we’d set off. I Munzed, and Wordled. Google said the best starting word to use in Wordle was “slate”. It lied. It didn’t give me a single letter at all. So I tried again with “bruin” (as I couldn’t think of any other word). And then it was serious brain straining. “Rough” didn’t help me any more. “Furry” was a step in the right direction, and I got it on the fifth go with “murky”. As I’d Wordled so we had a torrential rain shower, but it went as quickly as it came so I decided to crack on in the garden.

 

Before I started I put a load of washing in to scrub. I then cleaned out the pond filter. I lined the two planters we got on Sunday, filled them with compost and potted the lilac and the thing we got from “My Boy ^TM” (must find out what that is). I weeded the pots. I planted the violas we bought on Sunday. I pootled and tidied. I voomed round with the bionic burner. The bionic burner is a rather good gadget. It’s not as good as the adverts claim: it doesn’t “permanently eliminate weed roots from the ground” but it certainly gets rid of the weeds for longer than just pulling them out by hand does.

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned from a shopping mission. Whilst out she got me a pressie – a bag of wild rocket. Ostensibly a salad condiment; I’ve chucked it into a floating pot in the pond. The water cress is doing famously, so the rocket might. Or might not. Time will tell; it always does.

 

I had some sausage rolls (with mustard – oh yus!) for lunch then set about ironing my shirts. They always iron better when still wet from the washing machine.

And then I tried to spark up my old lap-top. I’d spent an age trying to get the later Adrian Mole books on MP3. And failed. All I could find was audibles and spotifys and things which seem to depend on a decent internet connection, and my car doesn’t have one. So I got the sixth book on CD and thought I could copy them like I did the other week.

My old lap-top flatly refused to work. It spent two hours trying to do an update. Eventually I lost patience with it, and despite the warnings I pulled its plug. It then allowed me to log in… but that was as far as it would go. Oh, I got cross with it.

After a lot of stress I pulled its plug and we took the dogs to the marsh for a little outing then on our return I sparked up the old lap-top again. This time it worked fine and happily turned my new CDs into MP3s.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up fajitas and we scoffed them whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”. It was a rather good episode. One of the best, I expect most of the fans will hate it…

 

19 August 2026 (Wednesday) - Another Late Shift, Rain

“er indoors ^TM” ‘s alarm woke me at quarter past seven. It didn’t wake her, but such is life.

I got up, made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. My American friends were posting tornado warnings. That’s one thing we don’t have to worry about (yet).

There was a lot of political posting this morning following Reform UK’s announcement that they want to do away with a lot of the disability benefits. One of the Clacton Reform UK supporters had clearly scored an own goal whilst a Cornish Reform UK councillor has resigned saying “I cannot in good conscience support the Making Welfare Work policy. These changes will cost lives of people especially those who have suicidal ideation.”

 

The trouble with our political system is that any given party will have one policy which attracts support. And it is human nature that having announced that they like this policy and consequently support a particular party, a worrying amount of people will automatically hate anyone who supports a different party and will follow their chosen party through thick and thin regardless of what their policies actually are.

Having been taken in by the pledges to send them all back on the next banana boat, and to be a viable alternative to the old two-party system. many Reform UK supporters with whom I’ve spoken have been totally unaware that many of their politicians are from immigrant families and/or are ex-Conservative politicians. That *certainly* wasn’t what they wanted.

I’m reminded of a woman with who I worked for many years who was very active in the local Conservative party. She delivered leaflets for them at election time, she made the tea at party meetings… in conversation she spouted pure Labour party propaganda. She didn’t believe in a single Conservative policy. But she had no idea what Conservative policies were. Forty years previously her father had said that she was a “True Blue” and on the strength of that she became a life-long Conservative voter and activist (even though she disagreed with everything the party stood for).

 

I took the dogs out for our walk. As we drove toward Orlestone the pundits on the radio were talking about the use of drones in warfare. It would seem that they are being controlled by AI and/or children and consequently not very specific in their targeting. And as is always the case it is the innocent bystanders that suffer. As Oliver Hardy once remarked, “twas ever thus”.

 

We got to the woods. We were half an hour earlier than yesterday and the car park was much busier. There was one idiot sitting in his car with the window open who was shouting a running commentary of all that was happening. “The red car has driven off. Here’s the man with three dogs, there’s a squirrel…”.

His wife gave me an embarrassed smile as we walked past.

As we walked we met a young family making a shelter in the woods. It was the sort of thing I used to do with the cubs back in the day. Sadly at four years old the kids were a bit too small and a bit disinterested, but Dad was getting stuck in.

And then we met a chap (about ten years older than me) with his dog, quite openly puffing on a spliff. He was friendly enough (he would be; puffing on that), but the stink of cannabis was overpowering. That stuff stinks.

And we walked the entire two miles in the rain. Light rain, but rain nonetheless. Not counting the sprinkling in the small hours of Sunday night that was the first rain I’ve seen since we got soaked when on holiday over two months ago.

 

We came home. I made us a cuppa. I tried to Munz, but the servers were down. I Wordled from “drove” to “grill”; getting it on the sixth and final go. I wrote up more CPD. Dull, but it has to be done

 

The earlier drizzle had seriously picked up and it was hossing down as I set off to work. The motorway was rather busy, and rather dangerous. Are the European lorries indestructible? They certainly drive as though they are.

 

Again I stopped off in Sainsburys to get lunch and saw a sign of the times. Today Sainsburys was awash with mothers taking their children shopping, many of which were clearly well into their teens; much taller than their mothers. All of them either looking bored to tears or arguing with their mothers

I found myself remembering some of the cubs' mothers who used to say that cubs was a two-hour break for them. Apart from school and cubs, the children were never let out of their mothers' sight. When I suggested letting them have some freedom the mothers looked at me as though I was mad.

When I was a lad, once I got to about eight years old I would spend the summer holidays out and about with my mates. Fishing, swimming, roaming the woods... wherever we wanted to go and doing whatever we wanted to do. And the fruits of my loin used to do their own thing too.

I would have gone stir-crazy if I had been constantly saddled with my mum when I was younger...

 

Work was work. It was certainly easier than yesterday's late shift had been, but I was still glad to see the night shift arrive.

I drove home listening to more Adrian Mole on the MP3. His mother was doing the dirty deed with Pandora’s father. The beasts…

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.