22 September 2026 (Tuesday) - Before the Late Shift

 As I scoffed toast I found myself thinking.  Facebook told me that three years ago we were in Bukhara having a feast with twenty-five other people on an expedition round Uzbekistan. For two weeks we had the adventure of a lifetime and (I thought) we all became firm friends. Since we came back we’ve heard from one of them. One.

Facebook also told me that today was a Facebook friend birthday.  Someone from the Southampton area we used to see very regularly through a mutual interest in kite flying. Kite flying was a big part of my life for over ten years. We went to kite festivals (involving weekend camping holidays) several times a year. We went to all sorts of events and activities; even to France and Germany.

We’ve only seen two of our kite-flying friends in the last ten years.

Back in the day we used to have twenty friends round on Tuesday evenings to watch Star Trek episodes. We’re still in touch with some of these people; we’ve seen half a dozen this year.

And then there was the people at the snake club, the Lego club, scouting, six years of college, years of Open University, no end of people with whom I worked (some for over twenty years)… It is *so* easy to lose touch with people.

 

I Munzed, then started another Wordle streak (one day so far) by getting from “feast” to “stoke” in four goes. All these apps have streaks which you maintain by doing them daily. Munzee, Wordle, Kindle, Meowdoku… why do I worry so much about maintaining these streaks?

 

I got four (!) dogs onto their leads, and with time pressing drove down to Orlestone. Bearing in mind the road works on the old A2070 I went cross country, and again Church Lane was awash with litter. There is a mile of that road which really does look as though people just empty bin bags full of rubbish as they drive along. I’d organise a geocaching litter-pick to sort it, but it would involve having people on the side of a road, and cars fly down that lane.

We got to the woods and had a good walk. We saw some woman and a Labrador, but nor before they’d seen us and gone the other way. And about three quarters of the way round we met a “very nice man” mincing through the woods with two bundles of fluff on leads. I loudly ordered “Straight Past” and my lot just went straight past without bothering his dogs. “Straight Past” is a new trick which we are working on. It has varying levels of success, but over time the success rate is getting better. When it works (like today) it does look impressive; especially to those who don’t dare let their own dogs off of the lead.

 

We came home. I didn’t have a cuppa. When I have a cuppa before work I then drive to work desperate for a tiddle. Instead I used some of that amount of energy having Microsoft Copilot cooking up today’s picture. And having Microsoft Copilot make it rather than me, someone else paid for the electricity used. Result !!

And then I spent a few minutes checking my figures… yesterday I said “the whole process of creating an A.I. image … used less electricity than running an electric kettle to make a cuppa”. It turns out that making an A.I. caricature actually takes about one seventh of the leccie needed to boil a kettle, and I can make over fifty such piccies for the energy needed to tumble-dry my undercrackers. And you don’t see any tree-hugging hippies complaining about my undercrackers, do you?

 

I set off to work. I stopped off at the Repton centre. There's a new chap running the show and I've been getting loads of mixed third-hand messages about just what the Repton people want from the Dog Club, so I thought it best to talk to them directly. It turns out they are very happy with the Dog Club, but there's some confusion about how they recognise payments form us. People can pay their subs in three ways. They can pay directly by BACS or they can put cash into the pot which I collect then send a payment by BACS. BACS has a reference on it, and if people put "Dog Club" as the reference then all is heigh ho, pip and dandy.  However the Repton people have set up a system by which you pay them by texting a certain number on your mobile. The trouble with that is that when they get a payment by text they have no idea who has sent it. Table tennis, Karate, Pilates... it could be from anyone. I've suggested that they have a dedicated text number for Dog Club payments. They are looking into it.

 

From there I went up the motorway to work listening to more of  my "Day of the Triffids" audiobook. It's streets ahead of "All Quiet on the Western Front" as the bloke reading it is putting effort and feeling into his narration and doesn't some over as being utterly morose.

 

Work was work. I did my bit and came home listening to more "Triffids". I got home to find the new Hoover has arrived and is sucking like a thing possessed. Which is a result if you like that sort of thing. Personally I'm not averse...

21 September 2026 (Monday) - Busy, Busy...

I slept well… or as well as I could. My carpal tunnel nonsense *really* hurts if I sleep on my side, and my back *really* hurts if I sleep on my back. But the pain kicks in over different timescales. I get an hour on my back before that pain kicks off,  whereas my arm gives me (at most) two minutes on my side.

 

I got up at half past six, made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Again it was one big squabble with people posting rants based on factually incorrect premises.

I posted a few more A.I. piccies to Facebook last night… and that had caused offence. It is common knowledge that the data centres that house the A.I. systems are massively energy-intensive and are going to cause irreversible environmental damage…

The trouble with “common knowledge” is that for all that everyone knows these things, it is usually factually incorrect. I did a little finding out… the whole process of creating an A.I. image like the ones I posted up last night used less electricity than running an electric kettle to make a cuppa. On the other hand moving data around the internet (like when reading this blog) has a much larger environmental impact than generating a few images. Creating a few caricatures of me and my dogs has a tiny fraction of the carbon footprint of the phone or computer people are viewing them on. But is it about the (totally exaggerated) energy costs? I found myself thinking back to when I used to do oil painting in the style of Bob Ross. At the time there were several people finding fault and criticising. Most of whom were established artists who felt that the entire problem with the Bob Ross style of painting is that with a little practise anyone can make a half-decent painting. A.I. generated pictures are much the same.

And people were banging on about “Saint Princess Diana”… her brother has released a book which is very critical of the King, and everyone was posting fond memories of the “Queen of Hearts” (which bore little relationship to reality)… Anyone who’s familiar with Alice in Wonderland would know that the Queen of Hearts wasn’t a particularly likable character. Personally I don’t know very much about the late Princess Diana but it’s a matter of public record that when she died in a car crash she’d not seen her children in the preceding six weeks.

 

I Munzed. I Wordled. Starting with “could” I didn’t actually get to “pager”. That’s a three-month streak down the toilet.

I then loudly asked who wanted to go to the woods. Bailey was there like a shot. She loves her walks in the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were broadcasting from the annual conference of the Liberal Democrat party. The Dribbling Democraps apparently are rather concerned that despite having over seventy MPs, no one seems to know what their policies are, or what they stand for. Historically this was always their position – to be non-committal on everything. Like them or loathe them, the other parties tell you where they stand.

 

We got to the woods. The areas near the car park were thick with foragers all shouting at each other. Once we were past them we had a near miss with the idiot with the boxer dogs. We’ve met them before. The dogs are fine, but the idiot demands on a hundred metres exclusion zone round his dogs and gets arsey when no one gives him that. He shouted at Morgan, then nearly shat himself in terror as I came round the corner asking if there was a problem. I’m told I can do a good impression of a scary tattoo-ed skinhead…

A hundred yards later we met the dogs with bells tied to their collars (poor things), but with them behind us we then had a good walk. Squirrels abounded (which the dogs chased) and the deer were out (which the dogs completely missed).

As we walked I ran my birdsong app. Being up the woods an hour and a half earlier than usual the birds were making a lot more noise than they have recently. My app said it had heard a red-eyed vireo. Had it? Somehow I doubt it.

 

We came home to an empty house. With “er indoors ^TM” having a day in the office we’d been left home alone. I made myself a cuppa, put a load of washing in then cracked on in the garden.

I harvested quite a bit of dog dung. I mowed the lawn. I cleaned out both ponds’ filters. And whilst I was having a filtration session I put the new filter into the fish tank.  

I had a spot of lunch and watched an episode of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” whilst looking at the fish tank. A few months ago I put live plants in there. A few days ago I pruned those plants. But that was nowhere near enough pruning; I gave them a serious trimming, and syphoned out a lot of the muck which was across the bottom of the tank. Once I’d topped up the water it didn’t take more than a minute or so for the muck to settle again. So I syphoned another load of muck and topped up again… and did this four more times.

 

And then I wasn’t so much worn out as in serious arm pain, so I made myself a cuppa and had a little sit down. I wrote up some CPD,  watched more “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” and then it was five o’clock.

 

I loaded the dogs into the car and we drove up to Wye Downs where we joined in with a particularly good meet-up of the local geocaching community. A mini kitchen was set up. Hot chocolate and hot dogs all round (and sausages for the dogs), and we chatted until sunset. As we chatted “er indoors ^TM” and Pogo joined us. Pogey is staying with us whilst “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM”‘s landlord has the mortgage advisors in. (No, I can’t see why Pogo needs to go on a little holiday either).

 

We came home. “er indoors ^TM” fed us all then went bowling. I scoffed second dinner whilst watching the last episodes of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story”. The show started well, but had clearly been dragged out for about three more episodes than it needed to have been.

 

I’ve had a rather busy day today…

20 September 2026 (Sunday) - Early Shift

There’s no denying that I scoffed far too much of the Chinese take-away we had last night. It would probably have fed four people, but that didn’t stop me getting stuck in. The stuff didn’t sit well overnight.

I got up at five o’clock and wondered if some toast might settle my innards. It didn’t.

 

I watched another episode of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” on Netflix which was rather interesting. The practicalities of killing someone with an axe probably isn’t something that many have considered, but if you are going to do for someone with an axe you might want to think it through before going bat-shit-psycho.

 

As I drove off to work I tried listening to the radio. Early Sunday morning radio is usually dire, and today's was dire in the extreme.  I caught the end of some utter drivel about the religious convictions of some amateur poets,  and this was followed by a potted biography of some farmer. After ten minutes I gave up and listened to more "All Quiet on the Western Front" in which our hero had ended up in a rather dire field hospital, got better, and got shot right at the end of the war. I’ve got to the end of that audiobook now. I probably won’t listen to it again. The story is depressing enough, and it was read in the most miserable tone of voice. I’m now on “Day of the Triffids” which (so far) is much better.

 

I got to work. Back in the day I would have started a weekend early shift with the cooked breakfast. Back in the day I was three stones heavier. 

I sent the night shift home and made a start on the day's work.  When I first started this job Sunday was for dire emergencies and in-patients only. Today things are different. 

I did my bit; today contending with the E and the Kidd blood groups and was glad when home time came.

 

I came home to an empty house. Following an epic battle with the Hoover “er indoors ^TM” had claimed a victory and had taken the dogs for a walk. However every epic battle has a loser, and the Hoover has gone the way of the hero of "All Quiet on the Western Front".

I rather thought that washing the innards of the Hoover was a mistake, but nil desperandum (as the dead Romans say). The new Hoover arrives is a few days’ time.

I’m just glad it wasn’t me that poggered it.

 

I put a load of washing in to scrub, then fell asleep on the sofa underneath a pile of dogs. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Young Sheldon”.

Today has been dull, and I’m feeling rather worn out… 

19 September 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Litter Picking

I woke far too early, so I got up and turned the telly on. Last night I started watching “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” on Netflix. I’ve watched two episodes so far, and so far it’s not bad.

I hoofed “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs out of bed, and as they pootled I had a look at the Internet as I do. That carpal tunnel Facebook group featured more recipes. Last night I posted on there asking what all the recipes were about, and quite a few people had echoed the sentiment.

Friends were on holiday in Greece and Estonia.

Friends had been to Dover Castle.

Friends had been to dog agility competitions.

Facebook was showing me that people had been doing things; not the usual tripe it comes up with. That was a result.

 

As I fiddled on-line so Steve was on the radio doing the Guess The Lyrics competition. “One of those nights when you feel the world stop turning”. No? E.L.O. – Last Train to London. I got it right away, and was unbearably smug about it.

We got ourselves organised and went round to Repton and Dog Club where we had a rather good morning. I counted sixteen dogs, and all played and chased and had treats and got “fruity”. One of our number returned after a few months away; she’d had a baby. Littlun was cute, and enjoyed watching the antics of the dogs.

 

From Dog Club we headed westwards.  As we drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. V.A.T. was introduced and Sweet sang about the Ballroom Blitz. No? 1973.

The radio signal gave out at Bethersden which was odd. In the past it’s been good for another ten miles out as far as Goudhurst, but it wasn’t having it today.

We got to Frittenden where the eastern part of the Kent geocaching community was helping with the village’s litter picking. Me and “er indoors ^TM” were assigned the local playpark. We started gathering litter and found there wasn’t much. And then a local busybody bustled over and told us that we were wasting our time as he picks the litter every day… and then he started a rant about two black sacks of litter which have been laying by the fence for months. We took the black sacks… and the credit too.

We then wandered the local roads seeing what litter we might find. There wasn’t much, but it was good to wander about doing something useful. This was only my twelfth C.I.T.O (geo-speak for litter picking) event. I could and should do more.

We found our way back to the control point which was outside the local pub where we met up with the other geocachers and had quite a good catch-up… right until the pub opened. It would have been nice to have had a pint there, but everyone had places to be and people to see. And (quite frankly) we could (and did) have had two rounds of rather decent beer at home and change out of what one round of rather mediocre stuff would have cost us in the pub.

 

We came home and had a rather good few hours in the garden. Freshly baked bread with decent stout, and “er indoors ^TM” played with her resin modelling. It got cold perhaps a couple of hours earlier than it might have done, but there it is.

 

“er indoors ^TM” popped down the road to the new Chinese take-away and took away the set meal for two. It was rather good. We scoffed it whilst playing “Ticket To Ride”… I won all three games; That’s completely unheard of.

18 September 2026 (Friday) - Another Day Off

I slept well. I got up just after eight o’clock with a sore hand (as well as the carpal tunnel nonsense) and found a rather large splinter in my thumb. It must have been in there snice I did the gardening yesterday afternoon.

I made toast and had a look at the internet. It was still there. This morning’s squabble was about a video of someone rescuing a cuttlefish stranded on a rock and putting it back into the sea. Some (like me) felt it was a kind thing to do. Others were ranting about the thing being generated by A.I. and were being rather nasty about it… as if there wasn’t enough else to bicker about.

And last night’s episode of Star Trek got quite a lot of hate too.

 

In a novel break with tradition Bailey ate all of her brekkie this morning. And with that scoffed we drove up to the woods. The woods was rather busy today. Horses and cars. Normal people with nervous dogs. Treacle had a wallow in a swamp. And the skin-tight lycra-clad young mothers' running club were there too.

We found an injured little bird, but it hopped off into the undergrowth before I could capture it. I expect a fox had it fairly promptly.

We took a bit of a different route today. I took several turns to try to avoid everyone else, and every turn added to our journey. We’d covered over five miles by the time we got back to the car, and once I’d got some petrol on the way back it was after mid-day before I made our cuppa.

 

I sparked up the lap-top and told the geocaching community about tomorrow’s geo-events. There’s a litter pick in nearby Frittenden tomorrow morning, and a meet-up in a pub in Edenbridge at lunchtime. Back in the day I would have showed up for both.

I Munzed, and Wordled. Starting from “eight” (which didn’t help at all) I started again with “found”. This didn’t help as much as I’d like in that the “o” was in the wrong place. Can you think of a five letter word with “o” anywhere but in the second position? Eventually I came up with “brook” which showed me where the “o” was, but didn’t have the “n” which I knew (from my second go) was in there somewhere. In desperation I tried “sloan” (is that even a word?) and that left “snowy” as the only word I could think of.

Wordle strains my poor brain.

I wrote up some CPD, then had a little pootle in the garden. I cut back more of the overgrowth from not-so-nice-next-door’s trees. It comes to something when after torrential rain my flower pots are bone dry as their bushes are that far over the fence. Then I took the back off of the planter I was having issues with a few days ago.

And then I pulled out some of the plants in the living room fish tank. Earlier in the year I was having issues with how mucky the fish tank was. A combination of live plants and snails have worked wonders, but the plants had gone mad. Whilst I was at it I cleaned out the filter… which seems to have had it. I’ve ordered a new one from Amazon. I had various options for delivery. I could have it delivered tomorrow for free, or I could have it delivered tomorrow for one pound ninety-nine.

I used to work with a chap who really would have paid that one pound ninety-nine.

 

By then my carpal tunnel nonsense was too painful to continue. It’s odd – my arm has got incredibly worse ever since I got told that I’ve got carpal tunnel syndrome. Is that some psychological thing?

I sat on the sofa with Bailey and put the finishing touches to the register sheet I’ve drawn up for Dog Club. Personally I’d rather we didn’t bother, but the paddock owners feel we should have one, and they’ve probably got a point. Take the money for example – last week the cash payments were what we would expect for twelve point seven dogs. And at the end of the last session are we completely sure that everyone is out before the gate gets locked? We once got locked in at Old Wardour Castle… I defy anyone to jump over the fence at Dog Club.

And then I looked at joining some carpal tunnel Facebook groups. I found three, and the one with most members seemed to be little more than a repository for baking recipes all posted by the admin, so my hopes aren’t high. Bearing in mind my previous experience I suspect it will be one big argument, but hope springs eternal.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off out with her mates. I sprked up the telly and watched a film. ”East of Ipswich” was something I can distinctly remember watching some years ago. Written by Michael Palin I can remember it starred Miranda Richardson and it was rather good. I have no idea what I saw all those years ago, but it wasn’t what I watched this evening…

 

17 September 2026 (Thursday) - M.O.T.

I found a position in which I can sleep on my side without the carpal tunnel nonsense kicking off, and I slept till eight o’clock.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do every morning. It was still there, and much the same as ever. One thing on Facebook made me think. Several pages had posts about influencer claiming her holiday had been ruined after paying a Cornish local good money for directions to a secret beach which didn’t exist.

However for all that the world and his wife were queuing up to rip into this idiot, I tried to look a little deeper. All the articles on line said that “Surrey-based content creator Chardonnay Skye, known online as ChardOnTour, had been searching for somewhere to film on Cornwall’s north coast…” so I Googled. All that came up were links to the story on various social media platforms. There was nothing that I could find about “Chardonnay Skye” or “ChardOnTour”. Was it all made-up bollox? Clearly everyone is seeing it and spreading the story without checking anything.

 

It was raining… well, drizzle. We went for our walk anyway. Despite the wet day there were two other cars in the car park at Orlestone, but fortunately the twit who sits in his car giving a running commentary of the world wasn’t there. We went for a little walk, and suddenly there was a commotion. One of the normal people had come out of a path about fifty yards behind us and Morgan and Bailey had gone to shout at him. I whistled and they both came running. Their recall is rather impressive when it works.

I’d told the dogs they weren’t to roll in fox poo. To be fair to them I didn’t say anything about not eating the stuff and so Bailey had a mouthful. And then Morgan had a roll anyway. Treacle didn’t wade into the huge puddle at the top of the woods so I shall be grateful for small mercies.

We came home through Shadoxhurst avoiding the ongoing traffic hold-ups at Magpie Hall Road. I usually forget those, and spend an age sitting at a red light.

 

Once home we had a bath. Fox poo notwithstanding, paws and bellies were grubby. The dogs then had a late brekkie and Bailey ate all of hers; proving the theory that she doesn’t eat when faced with the prospect of going for a walk.

I Munzed, Wordled from “found” to “theta” (stupid word) in five goes, then took the car to Halfords for its MOT.

 

I left the car with the nice people and went for a little walk. I went round all of the garages looking at cars. As I’d driven to the woods earlier so the car’s odometer went over ninety thousand miles. Who’s going to buy a car with that mileage? I will be running this car into the ground, but what will I get when it is time for a replacement? I have one criterion for the next car (and only one); the boot opening must be low enough for the dogs to be able to jump in and out. Sat nav would be nice as would a reversing camera, but they are optional. A low opening boot is a must.

I certainly looked at over a hundred cars. As I looked only one salesman approached me. If I had worn a shirt and tie they would have been all over me. I said as much to the one salesman who spoke to me; he agreed. The chap didn’t actually laugh at what I felt was my priority; he said everyone has what is important to them. But he said that most cars don’t have those low backs any more. From what I saw today he was right. The Skoda dealer had some… the same model as my current car. And the Toyota dealer had two (at twice the price of the Skodas). A trip to Big Motoring World might be in order when the time comes.

As I wandered from one car dealership to another so my watch wobbled and told me that I’d walked four miles going here and there. Four miles just looking at cars – and I’ve no interest in cars(!)

 

I popped into McDonalds for lunch as I was in the area. Back in the day I was always in McDonalds. Back in the day I was three stones heavier. A decent bit of McScran set me back nearly four times the price of a Sainsbury’s meal deal.

 

I collected my car. It had one minor advisory; the light over the number plate needs replacing. That can wait till the car next needs a service. And since I’m a member of the Halfords Motoring Club I got the MOT for free.

This Halfords Motoring Club is something of a result. I joined a few weeks ago when I needed a new car battery. The nice lady said that if I joined there and then (for fifty quid) they would give me sixty quid off of the price of the battery. And then they made all sorts of reductions on the service earlier in the month. What with today’s buckshee MOT, according to my account with them I’ve saved over a hundred and fifty quid so far. I don’t usually give out adverts on here, but you’d be daft not to take up Halfords’ offer.

 

I came home and spent an hour hacking back more of the overgrowth coming over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. I really gave it some welly… part of me felt guilty, but I’ve asked her to sort it and she’s done nothing. And bearing in mind I was standing two feet away from the fence as I pruned, it certainly needed doing.

 

I made us a cuppa and then sat down. I was worn out from today’s exertions. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good curry which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”.

I won’t give any spoilers (maybe just one that I couldn’t resist…) but again it was a really good episode that the fans who are new to the genre will hate…

 

And I’ve been pondering for much of today. Several people I know have (relatively) recently jacked it all in and emigrated (is that the right word?) to Scotland. The chap who took over from me at work when I came home last night told me that he’s working his notice. He’s been offered a job at the labs at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow where he will get five hundred quid a month more than he gets now for doing exactly the same job.

Have I left it too late to go north of the border?

16 September 2026 (Wednesday) - Before The Late Shift

 I slept well again, and “er indoors ^TM” had turned her alarm off too. Bonus.

I made toast and had a look at the internet. One of the sci-fi pages I follow on Facebook had a picture of a compilation of lots of robots from various science fiction films and shows. You wouldn’t believe the squabbling it provoked about whether or not a dalek is or isn’t a robot. And one of the local Facebook pages featured photos of cats crapping on someone’s lawn. Some local idiot was fed up with cat turds and had decided to shame his neighbours. As if a cat would give a shit (figuratively; we know they do literally).

I Munzed, unlocking a Qrate as one does. I Wordled from “turds” through “spank” and “copse” before ending with “wispy” (for the simple reason that it was the only word that I could think of).

 

As I Munzed so “er indoors ^TM” stood over Bailey trying to get her to eat. We’ve realized that when I’m at work she eats her all of brekkie, but when I’m home she doesn’t. She’s too preoccupied with the thought of going out.

Today she ate maybe half of her brekkie before going into the hallway (where the leads are kept) where she quite openly started the queue for walkies.

 

As I drove the dogs down to Orlestone so the pundits on the radio were interviewing Rick Wakeman about the late David Bowie. The claim was made that David Bowie was the first person to ask if there was life on Mars… and this was presented as a serious proposition.

 

We got to Orlestone where there were quite a few cars in the car park. The frankly odd bloke was again sitting in his car shouting a running commentary into his phone. We left him to it. Foragers were foraging, and there were quite a few dogs being walked. A mile into the woods and they were still on their leads. One woman gave us the evil glare as we walked past. People like her boil my piss. If you won’t let your dogs run and you aren’t happy watching other dogs doing what dogs do, why not walk the streets of the town where dogs *will* be on leads.

Winter must be coming – I wore a jumper as we walked for the first time in months.

 

We came home where I showered the fox poo off of Bailey. I wrote up some CPD, and set off to the late shift. As I drove I listened to more of the audiobook of “All Quiet on the Western Front”. I’ve seen the film a few times relatively recently but have not read the book for years. I’d forgotten how profoundly depressing it was. I’m tempted to give up with it.

 

And the day was effectively done by the time I rolled into work at mid day…

15 September 2026 (Tuesday) - A Bit Of Whinging

I slept well… once I got to sleep. What with this carpal tunnel nonsense my arm seriously hurts unless I lay on my back.

I got up earlier than I might have done and watched an episode of “Alley Cats”; Ricky Gervais’s latest thing. It was rather good.

 

The internet was rather quiet at six o’clock this morning so I Munzed, Wordled from “hurts” through “tribe”, “metal” and “leapt” to “dealt”. I got ready for work and set off for work.

 

As I drove up the motorway the pundits on the radio were saying that Donald Trump has announced that any possibility of artificial intelligence taking over the world is a hoax. That's nice. We can all sleep safely following this latest pronouncement from the world's most powerful and most feeble-minded simpleton. I really don't understand why the American congress doesn't just give him a colouring-in book to keep him occupied whilst someone who isn't demonstrably senile is found to take command.

Meanwhile one of Vladimir Putin's cronies has paid for Donald Trump's son's wedding... would any other world leader allow that? Quod erat demonstrandum as they used to say in ancient Rome...

 

I went into Sainsburys to get lunch. I thought about taking in cakes to celebrate yesterday's anniversary... but thought better of it. There have been many changes in the workplace over the years; both in the technicalities of what we do and in the culture. And perhaps one of the worst changes is the reduction in people bringing in cakes. For the most part it really is a thing of the past

And I had a message from “Daddies’ Little Angel ^TM”. She’d been taking Pogo for a walk when he’d gone rogue and whipped a homeless chap’s lunch. He’s done similar things when I’ve taken him out before. Twice. It’s rather amusing all the time someone else is walking him and all the time he’s having someone else’ lunch.

 

Being on an early shift I got out of work promptly. As time goes by I’m finding the early starts to be getting more like hard work. But I like the early finish. I came home and spent much of the early evening dozing. The constant pain of this carpal tunnel nonsense is rather wearing. As is the constant whistling of the tinnitus.

I really don’t like whinging about it almost as much as I don’t like the ongoing pain and whistling.

There’s talk of a bottle of plonk with dinner later…

14 September 2026 (Monday) - Rostered Day Off

I slept like a log last night. The road trip to the Midlands, Nepalese curry, family party and late shift over a very busy weekend had taken its toll.

 

I made toast and (being back to the usual routine) had a look at the Internet. Someone with whom I went to college many years ago was posting climate change denial propaganda. That winds me up. Climate change is real – you can see it happening. Where there used to be cod in the English Channel there’s now dolphins and tuna. When did we last have enough snow for a sledge? When did we last have a proper summer like we had when I was a lad when every day *wasn’t* ridiculously hot?

And I found out that the world is ending in a couple of months.

One lives and learns.

And (for once) I saw the sort of thing that I have Facebook for. A friend had been to Finland to take part in the Nordic Walking World Championship. That’s what I want to see as I scoff my toast.

I Munzed, Wordled and went to wake “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs. If I have a lie-in she has an alarm set. If I don’t, she doesn’t either.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods. Sadly it is now foraging season. For the next few weeks all of the thickets within a quarter of a mile will be heaving with all sorts of people desperately seeking chestnuts and mushrooms and whatever it is that people forage for.  What none of them realise is that by this afternoon everything forage-able would have been foraged, but that won’t stop them. If any of them would walk for more than five minutes they would find an entire forest full of stuff worth having, but hardly anyone seems to forage out of sight of the car park.

If nothing else it gives the dogs something to bark at.

We had a good walk. We did our usual circuit. We didn’t see any deer, but something big was crashing about at the far end of the woods, and we chased a few squirrels.

 

We came home. I made us both a cuppa and we had one of the cakes that “er indoors ^TM” had made, and then I had a look in the garden. There was a load of soil round the bottom of one of the planters and the conifer pot. That mess wasn’t there yesterday. I had hoped the conifer pot had rusted through. I hoped in vain. A rat had chewed its way into the back of the planter. I emptied it all out and tided up. As I did so the back of the planter fell apart. I shall fix that another time.

I put shirts in to wash. I harvested dog turds. And seeing the lawn was long enough to hide the turds I ran round with the lawn mower. And whilst I was at it I hacked back more of the brambles coming over the fence from not-so-nice-next-door. As I hacked I saw she’d had a go at the brambles on her side, so that has got to be a result. Hint taken, perhaps?

 

No day off work is complete without ironing. And with ironing done I tried to quietly sneak outside, but it was “that time” and I was being watched like a pork (to coin a phrase). So I made the announcement “I’M GOING TO FEED THE FISH” and the dogs flew to the pond, with Treacle squealing in excitement.

I then carried on solving geo-puzzles and I had a message. The Dog Club squabble seems to be over for now, and the later group have asked if we’d like to hang on later this weekend as they’ve got a photographer coming. It’s a kind thought but to my mind the days of a professional photographer are numbered. Trying to get a dog to pose takes some doing, and I can’t help but think that I get every bit as good a photo off of the camera on my phone as from a fancy camera. I’m not keen on shelling out a tenner (per dog) for photos of my three which I can get buckshee.

 

By late afternoon the undercrackers were washed and dried (never a dull moment!). I put another load of washing in to scrub and “er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza and chips then went bowling.

I settled down and watched the last episode of “Upstairs Downstairs”. What can I watch next?

 

And in closing, today marks forty-five years since I first started work in blood testing. Let’s just say that I’ve been in my current place of work for nine and a half years and they’ve been the happiest nine and a half years of my working life. Being happy in your work is important – for a *very* long time I wasn’t.

13 September 2026 (Sunday) - Late Shift

I didn’t sleep as well as I’d hoped I would. Six pints of ale and far too much Nepalese curry hadn’t been sitting too well yesterday when I then dumped five more pints and a kebab on top.

I finally got settled when “er indoors ^TM” alarm went off (for no reason) at half past seven.

 

I got up, put a load of washing in, made toast, and had a look at the Internet to see if I’d missed much. There was a rather impressive squabble on the Dog Club WhatsApp group. No matter what the subject (Star Trek fandom, keeping reptiles, fishing, pub crawls, astronomy, 70s music, cookery garden ponds, astronomy, dachshunds, geocaching, Lego…) eventually it just dissolves into quarrelling.

 

I Munzed, Wordled and hung the washing out. Ideally I would have taken the dogs out, but it was raining and there were thunderstorms forecast. So I sat on the sofa (with Bailey cuddled up to me) and solved geo-puzzles. A new lot had gone live yesterday in the general vicinity of Edenbridge. As I solved them I saw that someone had got the First to Find on all of them this morning. That someone lives just up the road. With an hour and a quarter drive (according to Google and our previous experience) having logged the first one at quarter to seven he would have left home at half past five; an hour before dawn. He logged the last one at twenty to nine having covered twenty-four caches over a four-mile route. He must have run from cache to cache. In heavy rain.

Some people love it.

I paid my road tax. Twenty quid for the year. That can’t be bad. But there is now this nonsensical thing that if I sell the car, the road tax is non-transferrable. I would have to claim a refund, and the buyer then shell out the tax again.

And then it was time for work.

 

I drove up the motorway listening to a new audiobook. This time "All Quiet on the Western Front". It's a book that (fifty years ago) English teachers did their level best to ruin for me, but is actually rather good. Sadly the audiobook is read in a very dull Canadian accent, but it's better than the pompous voice of Sir John Gielgud was in "Brideshead Revisited".

I got to work and went into the works canteen to get lunch. I quite like the hospital dinners; I usually get myself one when on at a weekend.

There was a "delightful lady" doing her best to confuse the till staff in a very poorly disguised attempt to a rather cheap meal even cheaper. I didn’t get involved…

 

I cracked on with work. Back in the day weekends at a hospital were emergencies only; these days there are clinics running and with a reduced staff weekends are far busier than they ever used to be. Back in the day we would be called in for one specific named patient, and would then wait for two or three hours to be called again. Today my workload was constant and really didn’t stop. I only got a break by walking out for five minutes.

But it was raining for much of today. I don’t mind working when it is raining.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a late dinner of chicken nuggets and chips which we scoffed whilst watching “Tipping Point”. I love TV game shows - many of the contestants have no hesitation in showing their ignorance.

Has anyone honestly never heard of Pepe Le Pew?

 

12 September 2026 (Saturday) - Family Party

My cousin’s house is right next to a church. As well as ringing the hour the chimes went off every quarter of an hour all night long. I think I heard the lot. I got up at seven o’clock, put the en-suite through its paces and went downstairs to make myself a cuppa. I eventually found the kitchen… seriously. It took some finding. Each room in the house has a floor space bigger than the entire downstairs of my house. And having found the kitchen, finding the fridge took some doing.

The was blood on the kitchen tiles. The cat had had a mouse overnight. The fourth in twenty-four hours.

You don’t get that with dogs… Rather than playing with them, Treacle just swallows mice whole

 

It wasn’t long before we were all up. My cousin Karen asked if we had time for brekkie and got out the makings of a fry-up.

We had time.

We had a very good brekkie. As we scoffed so a red kite flew over. And some seagulls. Seagulls? We must stop calling them that. We were about as far from the sea as it is possible to get in the UK, with the closest beaches being pretty much equidistant at Southend and Weston Super Mare, and still gulls were flying about.

 

With brekkie scoffed we said our goodbyes. Ideally we would have stayed longer, but in my world everything happens at once.

The sat-nav which had done so will getting up to the Midlands did just as good getting us home (once we were on the M1 it was rather straightforward). There’s no denying that I’m not keen on driving, but it was far quicker and cheaper than the train. Trains are all very well for getting from A to B very fast. However both A and B are very rarely in a convenient place to get to or from.

 

We got home. The dogs went mad about the smell of cat. We did “FEED THE FISH”, “er indoors ^TM” had made cakes. We had them with a cuppa then set off to Icklesham for a family birthday party.

We had a rather good afternoon in the sunshine. My plan had been to stay for a drink or two… we stayed for five as the littluns bossed the dogs about.

 

We came home where “er indoors ^TM” got a kebab and we played a few rounds of “Ticket To Ride”, but I was wilting.

I gave up and did that which I always threaten but rarely do. I had an early night.

11 September 2026 (Friday) - Off to Bletchley

I slept well, which was a result. I woke shortly after six o’clock to the sound of rain on the window. The sound of rain is one of the most depressing sounds there is. There are those that like rain; those that sit inside and look out at it. I wanted to go out.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. There was endless support for lifeboats, and the right wing thugs that have been running them down have gone strangely quiet. Last night’s episode of Star Trek got mediocre reviews. For all that it was a good episode it was (very obviously) a remake of what had gone before in the genre, and those that were determined to dislike the show were very quick to point it out. And American blood bankers were discussing techniques that have been redundant in the UK for at least fifty years.

And there was a lot of talk about some local café closing and how we should all support these small businesses. Why? Yesterday I paid the thick end of eight quid for a rather mediocre cup of coffee and three bite-sized pastry things (which were on the burned side) from a local coffee shop. Why should I spend out on massively over-priced things I don’t want just because someone’s decided to make their living from selling massively over-priced things I don’t want?

 

I Munzed, and Wordled from “sound” to “aster” in five goes. Aster… it’s a sort of flower. I then took the dogs to the woods. With time short we went to Orlestone where there was only one other car in the car park (and that one left as we arrived). We walked a short walk; the first park of the wood was muddy enough and the lower part soon becomes a swamp.

As we drove I listened to more of my Brideshead Revisited MP3 audiobook… and decided to give up with it. It’s left out major plot segments and major characters. I’ll try something else.

 

We came home for a bath. You’d be amazed how much muck sticks to the belly of a small dog.

And then I said goodbye to the household, drove up to the station and collected my brother for a little road trip. Off to Bletchley.

 

We made good time up the M20, but there was quite a hold-up at the Dartford crossing. There always is.

South Mimms services was something of a game – we had a Subway lunch which was massively overpriced. Fow all that it was rather good I wouldn’t use it again simply because of the self-service machines.

From there it was a straight run to my cousin’s house. I was impressed with the sat-nav.

 

We met up with cousin Karen, her husband Martin, and had a rather good afternoon with them and the cat. Another cousin and her husband joined us for the evening. We went to a Nepalese restaurant for dinner. I’d not had Nepalese before; I’d certainly have it again.

Things got progressively more vague as the evening wore on…

10 September 2026 (Thursday) - Insomnia, Walk, Meeting, Ironing

 

I couldn’t sleep so I got up silly-early, made toast and watched an episode of “Upstairs Downstairs” in which Alex Kingston got rather lesbidaceous. I then had a little look at the Internet. It was rather depressing; the aftermath of the weekend’s hateful protests in Dover and Portsmouth were still continuing with members and supporters of the RNLI getting abuse (both verbal and in some cases physical) from the neo-Nazis. We live in strange times… there’s one part of the nation running round shouting about patriotism and tying flags to lamp posts and painting the cross of St George on roads and pavements. And there’s another part who have never been so ashamed to be British.

Meanwhile that idiot Donal Trump is offering every American five thousand dollars if they vote for his party at the upcoming elections.

I eventually felt a bit tired so I went back to bed at half past four where I didn’t really sleep. I dozed on and off until I finally got up for second breakfast at eight o’clock. As I scoffed it the bin men came for the garden waste bin. In a novel break with tradition not only did they actually empty it, they put the thing back in the general vicinity of our house.

As the dogs got up (at half past eight) so I gathered their dung, Munzed and Wordled from “nasty” to “dryly” in six moves. “Dryly” – what a stupid word.

 

I took the dogs up to Kings Wood where we had a good walk. Pogo screamed at the normal people, but that’s what he does. As we went I took a few photos and used the Map My Walk app… and my phone locked up. Twice. It’s a few years old; maybe it is time to think about getting a new one?

We came back to the car park to find several cars parked on the lane outside. Now that the RingGo parking thingy is up and running, more and more people are begrudging paying a couple of quid a week.

As we drove there and back I listened to more Brideshead Revisited MP3. I’m not impressed with it; so much of the original book has been missed out. I’m now about half-way through the three-hour audiobook. The TV adaptation was twelve hours long.

 

We came home where I sorted a cuppa. I wrote up some CPD then went round to a coffee shop in Repton where I had a meeting with the leading lights of the later session of Dog Club. There’s no denying that I was expecting the worst. I went fully expecting a fight, but we had a really productive session. There was talk of increasing the subs and changing the logistics of payments. There was talk of a working party to tidy up the paddock… 

It was all very positive. The only negative was having to pay the thick end of eight quid for a rather mediocre cup of coffee and three bite-sized pastry things (which were on the burned side). I don’t usually frequent coffee shops…

 

I came home and put a load of washing in, then did the ironing whilst watching an episode of “Upstairs Downstairs”. We did “FEED THE FISH” then I had a little kip.

 

“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 was rather good.

9 September 2026 (Wednesday) - Late Shift

I went to the loo in the small hours and Bailey wanted to go downstairs with me. I thought she wanted a widdle; she just wanted to play silly beggars in the dark garden. I eventually rounded her up but by the time I got back to my pit most of the bed space had been commandeered by other dogs. Conspiracy? Possibly.

I then dozed as best I could on the six inches of the edge of the bed.

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. There was a lot of talk about the gangs of masked thugs who blockaded Dover and Portsmouth last weekend. The various fascist political parties are claiming that this was a legitimate protest against illegal immigrants in small boats… So why blockade the ferries? Why not go to the beaches (Pett Level for one) where they regularly come ashore?

And there was quite a bit of flat Earth bollox being posted. Some people really do believe that the Earth is flat.

 

I took the dogs out. Being limited for time we went to Orlestone where there was some odd bloke sitting in his car in the car park. He’s often there… you have to wonder what the attraction of sitting in the car park is.

Morgan rolled in something disgusting, Treacle and Pogo went in a swamp, Bailey went rogue in the undergrowth and at the three-quarters point Pogo ran in terror from a small spaniel.

Some of our walks are more eventful than others.

We came home. Over a cuppa I Munzed, and Wordled from “swamp” through “frisk” to “burst” on the third attempt, and then I got ready for work.

I can’t say I was keen on going to work today. The carpal tunnel nonsense was sending tingling up my left forearm. Monday’s gardening had done for my right elbow, and there was a constant ringing of tinnitus in my ears. There are those who pull a sickie if they so much as fart twice, but I’ve never been one for pulling a sickie.

 

On my way I popped into Sainsburys to get a sandwich. As I queued the chap in front of me had a phone sim card in his shopping, and was explaining to another shopper what a phone sim card was. He wasn't making a very good job of explaining it, and a passing member of Sainsbury's staff came over to explain. This chap loudly announced that a sim card was a wonderful thing which gave your phone a different number to its usual one. He went on so (rather proudly) say that he had a second sim card which he used for making prank phone calls.

 

I went into work and did my bit. The carpal tunnel thingy which was giving me grief earlier played up for pretty much all of the shift. But at tea break I played some more Meowdoku… and got to level two thousand. Perhaps I should find something more constructive on which to waste my time?

 

As I’d driven in to work so I came to the end of my Adrian Mole MP3s. I've not got the last book in MP3 format; it is on my wish list. So I started listening to "Brideshead Revisited" read by Sir John Gielgud on the way home. Ideally I would have preferred Jeremy Irons, but I got this version for free, and something for nothing is never a bad thing, or so I thought…

The audiobook I’ve got isn’t so much “abridged” as “edited highlights”; there is so much that has been left out. I’m about half an hour into the audiobook I’ve got. Knowing the story almost off by heart I think that I would actually be over an hour in if listening to a complete version.

 

8 September 2026 (Tuesday) - At Work

I had a rather bad night. Just as I finally nodded off so “er indoors ^TM” started an argument with one of the dogs (possibly Bailey).

I got up at six o’clock, made toast and watched an episode of the remake of “Upstairs Downstairs”. Being made by the BBC each of the episodes are of the same length. This morning’s episode featured (in large part) the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s, and struck several chords with today’s political climate.

 

I set off to work through heavy rain. As I drove there was a lot of talk about Prince Harry and precisely what he will and won’t be doing. The King has announced that Harry will be a “non-working royal”. Some commentator being interviewed this morning was talking about how his role is incredibly vague and “lots of lines are being blurred”. It would seem that he’s left America and come back to the UK where it is somewhat easier to get on the gravy train, but what do I know?

And then the sports news came on. It dragged on and on. Surely there’s only so many times anyone can say “blah blah sport”? But only a few short weeks since the football world cup, the European football thing has started. I wouldn’t mind if football wasn’t so tedious, but can anyone seriously say that after watching ten minutes of a game of football you haven’t seen all that the game has to offer?

I went to Sainsbury’s to get a sandwich and had to queue up. I like to empty the change from Dog Club into the self-service machines, but there were *loads* of schoolkids queueing up to use those cash only self-service machines. I suppose they wouldn’t have cards, would they.

 

I’d left home half an hour later than usual when on a core shift. What with the schoolkids in Sainsburys and the really busy roads I’m going to go back to leaving silly-early for work. I’d rather have a far less stressful drive and no waiting about to pay for dinner. And I quite like a bit of peace and quiet before the aggro  of the day starts.

 

I got to work and cracked on with the aggro of the day. It was rather hard work today, my carpal tunnel syndrome was playing up all day long and the tinnitus meant that there was a constant buzzing sound too.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of Chinese which we washed down with a bottle of plonk whilst watching more “Young Sheldon”.

Today’s been a tad dull… my arm still hurts and my ears are still ringing.

 

And it is four years since the late Queen died…

7 September 2026 (Monday) - Rather Busy

I had something of a bad night last night. It was rather hot and I didn’t sleep well.

I made toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. I had a message from the Facebook feds. Over the past week I reported racist postings and postings of cruelty to animals. Apparently neither went against their so-called “community standards”.

Meanwhile it would seem that the reason no one’s discovered aliens yet is that we’ve been tuning radio telescopes to the wrong frequencies. Astronomers have since turned their radio telescopes to the right frequencies and not found any aliens, but the astronomers aren’t in the slightest bit deterred by that.

 

I drove over to the hospital. As I drove ex Prime Minister Gordon Brown was on the radio. He was duller than a dull thing so after two minutes I turned over to my Adriam Mole MP3s.

I got to the hospital and parked right away. There were loads of spaces at the bottom of the car park, but everyone else was driving round and round the top bit desperate to park a few yards closer to the hospital and to have to walk fifty yards less.

I went in and had a hearing test as a first step to sorting out this ongoing tinnitus. I got sat in a soundproof booth with headphones and had to press a button whenever I heard a sound. I heard some but (it transpired) not as many as I might have done. It would seem that I’ve got high frequency hearing loss. The results will go to my ENT consultant, and he will decide how we proceed. There was talk of hearing aids. Hearing aids? Seriously? Oh well… we’ll see what the expert has to say.

 

I came home and collected the dogs (and Pogo who’s having a little holiday with us) and we went up to Kings Wood. We saw some normal people near the car park, including one who seemed incredibly embarrassed to be seen feeding apples to her dog. She was rather shame-faced as she explained how her dog likes apples, and was clearly very surprised what I told her that dogs like fruit and vegetables. She had some strange idea that they only ate meat, and apple was particularly bad for them, and fellow dog walkers would look down on her.

But once we were more than a few hundred yards from the car park we didn’t see anyone else.

 

We walked a different route to our usual one, and after four and a half miles we were back at the car park. We met someone who recognised the dogs; she was about to go geocaching. I wished her luck – for all that the woods are full of geocaches (I put most of them there) we rarely see anyone playing that game.

We came home.

 

We spent a little while pondering over a geo-puzzle. Yesterday when at Newington church we had to go round the graveyard gathering information to solve a puzzle… We tried and tried but couldn’t come up with a plausible location yesterday so we gave up. We tried again today from the living room, but still couldn’t come up with a sensible answer.

I went into the garden to have a little pootle. I mowed the lawn for the first time in months. You know it needs mowing when it is long enough to hide the dog turds. The roses and creepers from not-so-nice-next-door needed hacking back, so I spent a while hacking it back. I ran round with the watering can, and then realising that Treacle was watching me like a pork (to coin a phrase) I announced that it was time to “FEED THE FISH”. All the dogs ran to the pond, with Treacle leading the charge and squealing in excitement.

 

I made us a cuppa, and saw I had a message from the GP. After last week’s debacle with the carpal tunnel clinic I had a message from the GP saying they’d sent in a referral so I should get an appointment at the clinic soon. How soon remains to be seen.

But what with high frequency hearing loss, carpal tunnel syndrome, nasal polyps, aching arthritic joints… this old body is slowly wearing out.

I wrote up some CPD, and by then the afternoon was all but done.

 

As the washing machine chewed on the undercrackers “er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza and chips, then she went bowling. I sparked up the telly and watched more episodes of the (relatively) recent remake of “Upstairs Downstairs”. It is rather good.

The undercrackers will be out of the tumble drier in a bit and I shall have to sort them. There’s never a dull moment in my world, it there?

 

Oh, and today marks four years since my dad died…