24 October 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Late Shift

I slept quite well really, not waking until nearly seven o’clock. I got up and (as it was Saturday) I told the Alexa to play Radio Ashford. It played Magic Radio. I told it to stop, and we tried again. The Alexa wasn’t having any of it. Eventually after a bit of an argument it did what it was told. It wasn’t that long ago when a voice-controlled machine was firmly in the realms of science-fiction. Now we whinge when the things don’t work perfectly.

As I scoffed my toast I downloaded bank statements and had my monthly look at the accounts. Again I could be a lot worse off, but I’m nowhere near as rich as I’d like to be. But then, is anyone?

 

I then had a little look at the Internet as I do. It was the same as it ever is really. As I rummaged through the drivel on-line so Steve was on the radio. The “Guess the Lyrics” competition. Today it was “Thought I could have my cake and eat it too”. I had no idea. It was “Working My Way Back To You” by the Four Seasons. I also had no idea that Shakin’ Stevens was Welsh until Steve told us. One lives and learns.

As Steve was playing “Crazy Horses” by the Osmonds I Munzed, and Wordled from “crazy” to “holey” in five goes, then got ready for Dog Club. I found myself thinking back to over fifty years ago when I was in the Osmonds fan club. In retrospect that was money down the drain, wasn’t it?

 

Dog Club was its usual mayhem. In the week I’d bought a bag of sprats for the dogs as some of them have allergies to beef and cheese. The sprats were rather popular, but there were a couple of pups that didn’t seem to like them.

We came home via the corner shop where I got a pain au chocolat and an almond croissant. As we scoffed them Steve was coming to the end of the Mystery Year competition. I knew that the various songs and historical events were from the mid-seventies, but which year?. Did Steve realise I was struggling? He then announced that Jon Pertwee left Doctor Who in that year, and played “Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth” by Sparks. That clinched it. 1974.

 

I set off to work. I listened to Radio Ashford as far as I could... which wasn't fat up the M20 this morning. I turned over to Sir Stephen Fry reading the first Harry Potter book. Having read the thing myself many times it has to be said that Sir Stephen reads much slower than I do.

 

I got to work and did my bit. With a Met Office formal warning of severe weather I didn't (really) mind going in to work even if this was the fifteenth of the last nineteen weekends when I've been at work. Having said that, when I left home this same Met Office was predicting a ninety-five per cent chance of heavy rain and it wasn't raining.  As I went up the motorway there was a bit of drizzle, but not much really.  As I worked I kept a weather eye (quite literally) out of the window. I suppose the rain would have put me off taking the dogs to the woods, but was it bad enough to warrant a formal weather warning? 

When I started working my watch told me I'd already walked three thousand two hundred steps today. When the night shift came in I was up to nine thousand nine hundred and ten steps. Bearing in mind that from many walks round Kings Wood I average two thousand two hundred steps per mile, I walked a shade over three miles just going round the laboratory today. 

 

I’ve worked four days this week. I’m worn out.

23 October 2026 (Friday) - Early Shift

With an alarm set I didn’t sleep well. I was awake far too early so I got up, made toast and watched an episode of “Lost In Space”. I must admit I haven’t a clue about what is going on in that show. The writers would seem to have made it all mysterious and enigmatic rather than actually having a plot.

I had a little look at the internet. This morning there were no end of vaccine denying lies on some of the political pages on Facebook. It never fails to amaze me that so many people honestly believe that having misunderstood a factually incorrect video on You-Tube (presented by someone even more ignorant than they are) they know more with people with PhD-level qualifications who have studied immunology for twenty years.

There wasn’t a lot else going on on-line so I had a quick Munz and set off to work.

 

As I drove up the motorway there was something rather worrying on the news. The pundits on the radio were talking about how the Ukrainians have now had their access to the defensive Starlink system restored to them... by Elon Musk. I would have (admittedly naively) thought that such a decision would have been made by politicians in consultation with senior generals. Apparently not. A rich man has decided.

Not that I've any confidence in the entire concept of democracy, but if a society is going to pretend to be run by a democratically elected government, then that is who should be deciding things, isn't it?

The time will come when the rich say that enough is enough, and that us proles need to learn our places. We're not quite there yet, but this is obviously one step closer.

 

As I drove I was constantly being dazzled by the headlights of the car behind me. As I drove away from Sainsburys the head honcho of the R.A.C. was wheeled on. He claimed that a quarter of all drivers are looking to seriously curtail their driving over the winter as they are getting sick of the glare from oncoming vehicles. The R.A.C. are calling for changes in the way that car's headlights operate, and at M.O.T. inspections have them angled out of the eyes of oncoming drivers.

I can remember there being talk about this in the past. But talk is cheap. I was dazzled in the past and expect I will be dazzled again.

 

I got to work and did my bit. As I worked I saw a poster in the rest room. One of my younger colleagues is raising money for charity by doing a sponsored read. She is planning to spend a few minutes every day reading a book and expects to be sponsored for doing so. The implication was that the reading for which she is seeking sponsorship is a rather arduous activity.  I bit my tongue and tried not to actually laugh out loud at this. But she is serious... 

I can remember going geocaching once before - we had a nine mile walk and a chap coming with us had arranged sponsorship for himself that morning because of the frankly epic distance being covered (or so he felt).

 

An early start made for an early finish. I came home via the works branch of M&S as “er indoors ^TM” had sent instructions for me to get some milk. Did you know that M&S sell the world’s most responsibly sourced milk? You learn something new every day… even if this does beg the question of how one might source milk irresponsibly.

 

I played a little Meowdoku until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up egg and chips which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of “Young Sheldon” and then tonight’s episode of “Celebrity Traitors” which (if nothing else) proved that the Faithfuls haven’t got a clue about what is going on.

 

I’m wondering if I’m going down with the lurgy; I’m feeling rather grim.

22 October 2026 (Thursday) - Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

With no alarm set I had a far better night. I went to the loo in the small hours and listened to the noise of the rain thundering on the roof, then went back to bed. I stayed there until eight o’clock when it has stopped raining. Result.

 

I got up and did my usual root around the Internet. This morning’s petty bickering was on one of the Hastings-related Facebook pages where people were bemoaning the loss of the old cricket ground (even though it has been a shopping centre for thirty years). Those who were old enough to remember the cricket ground were adamant that they missed the place, and that losing it was a serious loss for the town. The same people also were admitting that they never actually went there to play or watch cricket. I found myself thinking the same about the Eurostar terminal just up the road. People regularly whinge about what a loss it is for the town that the international trains don’t stop there any more…the same people who never once caught an international train.

I had a look at my emails. A friend had been round Kings Wood yesterday and couldn’t find one of the geocaches that I’d hidden there. That set our walk for today.

I got dressed, squirted my armpits, and had a spray round with the smelly stuff. I use Adidas Ice spray as I like the smell, but I’ve discovered something. For ages I’ve been getting the fifty millilitre bottle which costs nearly a tenner. I’ve just discovered that a bottle of the same stuff which is twice the size costs three quid less. It pays to pay attention.

 

As we drove to the woods so there was a documentary on the radio about Ishtar (the Mesopotamian goddess of love, sex and war). Wasting half an hour of air-time like this, is it any wonder why the BBC’s radio budgets are being cut back?

We went to the lower car park at Kings Wood and walked out to where the supposedly missing geocache was. I couldn’t find it so I popped out a replacement. I had intended to then walk all of the stretch of the Pilgrim’s Way that goes through Kings Wood, but it is at the extreme east side. Much of it is alongside a fence, and just on the other side of that fence were pheasants. Loads of pheasants. The dogs went just the teensiest bit psycho. I wasn’t going to risk them getting on the other side of that fence so we diverted up past the dew pond… and Treacle went for a spuddle. Still, better a wet dog than an errant dog. To be fair to the dogs for all that they went sprinting after the pheasants they all came straight back what called.

As we walked I spotted something. Just in front of us was a stag. Right on the path and clearly watching us. I slowed down and got my phone's camera on the case. The dogs had seen the stag and were just quietly watching him. We carried on walking slowly, and got to about fifty yards away from him when he slowly turned and trotted into the trees. I thought the dogs might have given chase, but they just carried on following the path we usually take.

 

We came home where the dogs had their bellies rinsed off. After the rain of the last couple of days the woods had been muddy.

When shopping last night “er indoors ^TM” had come home with Whitby buns. We had them with a cuppa. Very nice. I then beefed up one of the photos I’d taken of the stag. I cropped out the edges of the photo to concentrate on Morgan and the stag, and sharpened it. When I posted up the photo, Facebook said that it had to have the label of “AI content”. Seriously?

I Munzed. I Wordled from “meant” to “reset”. I wrote up some CPD, then set off for the afternoon’s adventure.

 

I drove over to Canterbury. I popped into Go Outdoors to look at their walking boots. They’ve certainly dropped in price.

From there I went up to the hospital where I had an appointment for nerve conductivity tests to assess how bad my carpal tunnel syndrome was. The nice lady rigged me up to loads of electrodes and zapped me for fifteen minutes then announced that my nerve conductivity was fine and I didn’t have carpal tunnel syndrome. She seemed happy about that, but seemed rather miffed when I told her that my hand still hurt, and that as we spoke my left thumb was completely numb.

We decided that going back to the GP might be a plan, but the nice lady said that as we get older we get these aches and pains which don’t seem to have any definite diagnosis. Ho hum…

 

I came home and we did “FEED THE FISH” which is always popular with the dogs… well, with the girls. Morgan tends to give it a miss. I made us both a cuppa, and got stuck into Meowdoku for far too long.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of Malbec whilst watching this evening’s episode of “Celebrity Traitors” in which Jerry Hall ended up “redder than a fox’s are at gooseberry time” (to coin a phrase).

I won’t say who got banished, but I will say I was glad to see the back of them.

21 October 2026 (Wednesday) - Cheeky FTF

With an alarm set I had a poor night. I gave up trying to sleep, got up and watched an episode of "Lost In Space". I can remember reading on Facebook about how Irwin Allen (the creator of the original series) once tried to get scientists from NASA involved in the show.  Apparently the scientists didn't want to touch the show with a barge pole as Irwin Allen was more interested in dramatic effect than scientific accuracy. Much the same must be true of the creators of the most recent remake; the plot of this morning's episode involved decontaminating drinking water by bubbling ammonia through it.

I Wordled from "early" via "peony" to "penny", then set off to work.

As I walked to my car so my phone beeped. There was a new geocache quite literally down the road. A mile down the road, but down the road. A two-minute drive, a rummage round a street sign and I soon had the thing in hand. And I was First to Find too. Happy dance.

 

I drove on to work. As I went up the motorway the pundits on the radio were talking about the most recent round of peace talks over the conflict in Ukraine. I'm rather confused with the whole thing. It is being alleged that Donald Trump is the Russian President's puppet. If so, why are the Americans still funding the Ukraine war effort? Perhaps that's what these talks are all about? Perhaps the American involvement is coming to an end?

And there was talk about the Jackdaw oil field in the North Sea. Controversial? Maybe. On the one hand carrying on with oil and gas isn't very environmentally friendly. On the other hand widespread take-up of electric cars won't be practical for some years, and what with two loads of madmen squabbling in the Strait of Hormuz it is quite plain that the UK needs fuel security.

And in any event whatever the UK does or doesn't burn is just pissing in the wind compared to the world's total use of fossil fuels.

 

I went into Sainsburys where the shelf fillers were quietly doing their jobs. There was no shrieking and pointed glances at any of the customers today. Had someone said something to them?

I got my lunch, some tennis balls for Treacle for Dog Club, and whilst I was at it I got some dried sprats. That will be a special treat for Dog Club; I just hope the dogs like them.

I then had something of a fight with the self-service till. Eventually an assistant that I hadn't seen before came over, gave the till a hefty clout and the thing started working again. There's nothing quite like getting technical with it, is there?

 

I went into work. We had cake. Lots of cake. A colleague was leaving today and had brought quite a bit I will be sad to see him leave; if only because that means more late shifts and night shifts for me to cover.

And one of the bosses is going as well. She applied for the mutually agreed redundancy scheme whereby she gets a year’s money and goes… on the understanding she can’t have another NHS job in the next year. She intends to take the money and retire. Personally I don’t think I’d like that – I quite enjoy part time working… for now.

 

Having gone to work I came home again. “er indoors ^TM” went off out with her mates. I put shirts in to wash, and whilst they scrubbed I cooked up a pizza. I scoffed that, then ironed shirts as I watched more episodes of “Lost In Space”.

“er indoors ^TM” came home with a trifle. Very nice…

20 October 2026 (Tuesday) - Early Shift

With an alarm set I had a bad night. I barely slept. I eventually gave up with laying awake, got up and watched another episode of “Lost In Space” (which has improved quite a bit) before having my usual root around the Internet.

Having been looking at pond supplies over the weekend pretty much every advert I saw on Facebook and Google were pond and fish related. Loads of these adverts were for stuff on Temu… I’ve never shopped on Temu before and will probably do so. One particular advert made me sit up and take notice. There was a particularly nice little fish tank featuring a bowl with an oriental scene featuring a temple, bridge, a little garden with trees… when you read the reviews it turned out that the advert was actually just for the models of the temple and bridge (which were in reality only four inches long) and none of the rest of the stuff in the advert were part of what was actually being sold.

It pays to pay close attention.

 

I managed to get dressed without disturbing anyone, and set off to find my car. For once I remembered where I'd parked it, and I was soon on my way up the motorway. As I drove I again got cross with the pundits on the radio. They always have live interviews with people who simply aren't prepared for being interviewed live on national radio. This morning  some chap was deliberately surprised with a question he clearly hadn't been expecting. The poor fellow tried to reply with "I -  I -  I... think that-that-that... we might-might-might..." as he desperately tried to think about that which he might actually do. About half of the interview time was spent with the chap nervously stuttering because he had no idea of how to reply to questions which he obviously wasn't expecting. You'd think that with years of experience of surprising  people with awkward questions, the pundits on the radio would have eventually realised that doing so only serves to embarrass them and waste time. As I've said before the presenters of the morning's radio show would do far better with either pre-recording their interviews or not interviewing people who are terrified of being interviewed on live radio.

Unless it is their intention to embarrass people. (It probably is). 

Meanwhile the Japanese are sending a probe to one of the moons of Mars where it will gather a few rocks and then bring them back to Earth (Australia, not, Japan).

  

I stopped off in Aylesford where I got some petrol. the petrol was three pence per litre cheaper than at home, but the diesel was more expensive. But as my car runs on petrol I wasn't fussed about that (I'm all right, thank you for asking!) And I then popped into Sainsbury s to get a sandwich. I stood back for a few moments and watched three shelf-fillers who were chatting amongst themselves openly laughing at the customers. I thought about complaining... but that would have been petty of me.  Instead I contented myself by filling the self-service till with loose change which annoyed the till guardians who glared at me as I did so. 

 

I went into work where someone with whom I used to work (twenty years ago) had arrived to do a bit of training on the new computer system we are getting in a few weeks' time. It was good to catch up. 

I did the training, and then cracked on with the day's work... sadly with the theme tune to the "Police Academy" films stuck in my head.

 

I came home listening to Sir Stephen Fry reading the first of the Harry Potter books. Once home I had a little kip, then “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the latest episode of “Lego Masters” which by coincidence was Harry Potter week.

We’re now watching this week’s “Bake Off”…

19 October 2026 (Monday) - Rather Busy

Apart from one vivid dream in which I was being pressured by TV celebrity Hugh Dennis to move house to Bredhurst I had a good night’s sleep. I stayed in bed until half past seven which wasn’t bad really. It was a shame that “er indoors ^TM” had set an alarm, but there it was.

 

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Today’s petty on-line argument involved someone getting banned from the “Canal Boat Diaries” Facebook page. Have you ever watched “Canal Boat Diaries” on the telly? It is the most gentle and laid-back TV show there is. How could anyone following that get themselves banned from a Facebook page for being aggressive and verbally abusive?

And I saw loads of posts from someone I used to work with. An odd chap. He fills his Facebook feed with photos of himself trying to look incredibly macho and threatening whilst posing in expensive sports cars and at the gym, but in reality the chap was always too timid to even say hello.

 

Magic Radio’s weather forecast was for rain showers all day. The BBC and the Met Office both predicted no rain. Bearing in mind who was right and who was wrong yesterday I took the dogs out.

I chuckled as we drove to Challock. The pundits on the radio were interviewing some professors of mathematics who had the arse because artificial intelligences have solved quite a few mathematical problems which have been defeating the best brains for years. One professor was saying that this was a good thing as this was pushing back the boundaries of ignorance and opening up new vistas of mathematics. I can’t help but think that the chap is right. He reminded me of one of the tutors at Brighton Technical College who (over forty years ago) maintained that pocket calculators took the drudgery out of maths, but was pretty much alone amongst other maths teachers in feeling they weren’t fundamentally evil. I found myself remembering our old maths teacher at Hastings Academy for budding geniuses. Eric Lavender had a blanket ban on calculators, glared at slide rules, and I could see him shitting a brick at the thought of AI solving Riemann’s Conjecture (it hasn’t).

 

We got to the woods. Our last two walks had been washouts; today’s walk was rather good. We chased squirrels. We heard something huge crashing in the undergrowth. We saw a stag (in the distance). We met other dogs. Other than Treacle telling a Golden Retriever to get knotted we had absolutely no episodes whatsoever.

As we walked I sparked up my birdsong app. “er indoors ^TM” had detected eight types of bird in the back garden this morning. I only detected three whilst we were in the woods.

 

We came home. I eventually found somewhere to park. Unlike the last two days the dogs didn’t need baths. I made us both a cuppa, Munzed, and Wordled from “clean” to “stink” in five goes, then put a load of laundry into scrub.

Whilst the washing machine did its thing I went into the garden.

I harvested as much dog dung as I could find then cut the lawn. There are those who would say it was too wet to be cut. I’m not going to have chance to cut it for a while, and when it gets too high that it is hiding the turds it needs to be cut. I interrupted lawn scalping a few times to deal with turds that (quite literally) came to light.

I cleaned out both pond filters. The water flow in the big pond isn’t what it might be. I suspect the pumps are filled with gunge… I’ll clean those out another time.

I got the dead acers out of their pots and topped up the soil level. The compost had settled and compacted since I planted those (now dead) acers. I’ll leave that soil to get wet in the rain that’s forecast for this week and plant the lavenders later.

I got my head trimmers out and saved myself a small fortune by giving myself a haircut (have you seen the price of a short back and slap at the barbers?!)

I cleaned out the fish tank’s filter and then sat down. I was knackered.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up some bacon rolls for lunch. And with them scoffed I settled down to do the ironing whilst watching a couple of episodes of “Lost In Space”. Just recently I was getting a tad fed up with that show, but it seemed to have perked up.

To Treacle’s delight we did “FEED THE FISH”, then wrote up some CPD, then I closed my eyes… and woke up an hour later.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up cauliflower cheese which we scoffed then she set off to off bowling. I set to more laundry. Undercrackers don’t sort themselves.

18 October 2026 (Sunday) - Rainy Day

I slept well up until the point at which I went to the loo in the small hours. I came back to find Treacle in my space and she simply wouldn’t shift. I tried to make myself comfortable but no matter how I twisted and turned I couldn’t get my iffy hand to stop throbbing. Obviously I was twisting and turning too much as Treacle eventually grunted and went to the bottom of the bed where things were a bit quieter. Morgan immediately tried to move to where Treacle had been, but he’s less than half her size and much easier pushed.
 
I got up just after eight o’clock and had my usual look at the Internet. People had posted pictures of last night’s fireworks at Hastings. I can always remember those evenings as being incredibly crowded with tens of thousands of people shoved into fifty yards of the sea front. My cousin had posted photos she’d taken from the pier. Only a short way away, she’d had a really good view of all that was going on, and less than a dozen other people were using that obvious vantage point.
One of the Facebook groups I follow details the problem customers which various tradesmen encounter. Some customers can be seriously unreasonable, and these are often referred to as “clowns” and “melts”. Since when were these terms serious insults?
 
As I peered into the internet the BBC’s on-line weather forecast predicted at least ninety per cent chance of rain showers all day. The Met Office said greater than ninety-five percent chance of heavy rain all day. Magic Radio’s weather forecast then announced “plenty of sunshine across the country today”. I looked out of the window. The earlier rain had stopped, so I trusted the radio… Never again.
“er indoors ^TM” wanted to go shopping so I took a chance and took the dogs to Orlestone. As we drove so the drizzle started. Shortly after we started walking so the rain got heavier. I only planned a short walk, but we were soaked by the half-way point, and the rain had stopped by the time we got back to the car. But it had started again before we got home.
 
The dogs had a hot shower to warm them up and clean off the muck. I put my wet clothes into wash, unloaded the dishwasher, and was suddenly possessed by the urge to clean the thing. I was amazed at how much gunge I pulled out of the arms that spray the water around. How does gunge get in there?
 
There was a knock on the door. My nephew was visiting. He’d brought his girlfriend, my brother-in-law and his dog. Bringing the dog was something of a gamble, but after an initial episode our smallest two got locked in the back lobby and we had a rather good afternoon catching up. We don’t see anywhere near enough of my nephew – we must do it more often. Ideally when it isn’t pouring hard and we can go on a dog walk or meet in a pub garden.
 
I then spent a little while going through the attendance list for yesterday’s Dog Club. I think we shall take yesterday’s attempt at a register as a trial run. We weren’t the only ones to forget to sign out, some people claimed to pay by cash after I’d taken the pot home, and some claimed to be paying by more than one method. But no matter how I tried to tot up the money we still ended up with five quid more than I thought we should have… That’s not “in credit” though, the Dog Club doesn’t take any money. No matter whether we take ten pence or a hundred quid the Repton people get the lot (that’s the arrangement). The trouble is they don’t seem to have any idea just how much they are getting. Hopefully we’ll figure it out.
 
We got the Infinity Table out and spent the evening playing “Ticket To Ride”. We played eight games… I won three. Could have done better… could have done a whole lot worse…
Today’s been rather busy…

17 October 2026 (Saturday) - Late Shift

I couldn’t sleep (again). I lay awake finally giving up at half-past five when I got up, made toast and tried to watch an episode of “Lost In Space”. Today’s episode was supposed to be excitement and adventure but was sadly just rather tedious. It wasn’t helped by the show’s being all fiction and no science. Having spent weeks supposedly organising chemical fuel for their spaceship, today the thing was running off of electricity. And blood transfusions don’t go in and out of the wrist. And do you deliberately run toward or away from certain doom?

 

With telly watched I had my usual foray into the Internet. It was the same as it ever was. Pretty much nothing of note, and endless idiots queueing up to show off their ignorance. I did laugh at one bunch who’d got locked in Wingham Wildlife during the week. Rather than calling the police, they’d posted their plight on Facebook instead. I suppose that really speaks volumes about how today’s society works though, doesn’t it?

I Munzed, Wordled from “sadly” to “gaffe”; getting it on the last attempt.

Steve was on the radio. The words from a well-known song in the “Guess the Lyrics” competition this morning were: “I’ve travelled so far to change this lonely life”. I immediately recognised these words.. but what was the song? I could remember it as being more of a howl than a song… after a couple of minutes I remembered that it was “I want to know what love is” by Foreigner. Steve gave me the thumbs-up, and we then got ready for Dog Club. Today we introduced a register so that we have an idea of how much money we should be getting in, and also to be sure that no one gets locked in (like at Wingham Wildlife Park).

 

Dog Club went much the same as ever. Dogs played and shared treats. Morgan was an idiot. Most people filled in the new register. I forgot to sign us out. Woops.

We came home via the co-op where we got a Belgian bun to have with a cuppa. As I scoffed my bun I counted up the Dog Club money. Now we have a register I know how much cash we should have in the pot… today we were spot on. Whether or not that continues remains to be seen.

 

And all too soon it was time to set off to the late shift. I listened to Steve on the radio until the signal gave out. Today that was on the bit of the motorway leading up to Leeds castle. Ashford Radio's signal seems to transmit far better toward Folkestone and Tunbridge Wells than it does towards Maidstone, and it certainly doesn't like going anywhere near Challock, or going north at all. 

When it got too fizzy I switched over to my audiobook, and then went in to work.  I always say I don't mind working at the weekends if I'm not missing anything. For all that it didn't rain, it had been rather cold at Dog Club earlier; pootling in the garden could wait for a warmer day. However I did sulk just a bit that I was missing Hastings Bonfire Parade. Mind you when I say "missing", I've not been to it for years, and probably wouldn’t have gone anyway.

For all that I had spent much of the morning sulking about having to go into work the shift could have been a whole lot worse. But I was still pleased to see the night shift roll in.

I came home to find “er indoors ^TM” had boiled up pizza.

 

And in closing, today is National Album Day. There were several that I might have chosen as a favourite… but let’s go with this one… 

16 October 2026 (Friday) - Award Winning? (Not Really)

I slept reasonably well for an hour or so, then woke feeling very cold, and didn’t get warm again. I dozed on and off. I must have slept as I didn’t hear the bin men, and that’s unusual. I got up at half past seven, made toast and had a look at the Internet.

 

I rolled my eyes as I peered into the work-related pages on Facebook. More and more they are being filled up by people asking the sort of questions that schoolchildren would ask. Is it schoolchildren asking them, or are standards really that low in other parts of the world? Take for example the question “which blood group is known as the universal donor?” This immediately begs the question “to whom is it known as that?”

It’s been my experience that if you find yourself talking with someone who uses the phrases “universal donor” and “universal recipient” you can be pretty sure that you are talking with someone who knows very little about blood transfusion. But this is the problem with the Internet isn’t it? By offering free and immediate communication to everyone, the plums are going to start spewing nonsense, aren’t they?

Meanwhile science has discovered a green star. Sometimes I think I might be doing the wrong bit of science as a profession. There’s far less chance of accidentally killing someone if you get the colour of a star wrong.

 

I took the dogs out. As we drove there was a little drizzle, but the weather forecast said that the rain wasn’t going to get heavy until about the sort of time we’d be getting home so we carried on.

We got to the woods just as some strange looking woman was unloading dogs from her van. Stinking of cannabis she had seven dogs with her. If stinking of cannabis is her thing then I’m not going to be judgemental, but I would make the observation that I wouldn’t want her looking after my wolf-pack.

We walked a different route to our usual one, and once we were about half a mile in, so the rain got heavier. And heavier. I decided to cut our walk short. It was as well that I did. We were all soaked when we got back to the car.

As I loaded the dogs into the car’s boot I saw a chap cowering under a tree fighting with his phone. He asked if I knew any way to pay for the car parking other than using the app. He then ranted that his job takes him all over the country. He takes his bike on the back of his car to have a ride round the woods where he goes, and nowhere has any phone signal for the parking app. I pointed at my Forestry England pass (on my car window) and explained that I get free parking in all Forestry England woods for less than two quid a week.

Oh, he wasn’t happy. That was more than he pays for just one of his many parkings during the week. Why was this such a well-kept secret? I blathered a few platitudes and drove home.

 

Once home the dogs had a warm bath, and I got some dry clothes. Absolutely everything I had on was wet.

I put the wet stuff into the washing machine, made us both a cuppa. I Munzed, and Wordled from “Moist” (which was something of an understatement) to “shady” in three goes.

I wrote up some CPD.  In amongst the puerile nonsense filling the work-related Facebook pages is (occasionally) a link to a useful text book in .pdf format. I’ve been downloading them when I see them, but it occurred to me that rather than just leaving them in my downloads folder (where I will never see them again) I might make a sharable folder on my Google drive. After all Google gives me a squillion plabtobytes of free webspace with which I’m not doing very much at all. It only took a minute to set up. I quite like e-books for the simple reason that they take up a whole lot less space than a real book. At the moment there’s only half a dozen e-books in there. In the fullness of time I might need to figure out something of a Dewey Decimal Classification system to sort them…

I spent a little while trying to solve geo-puzzles. “Trying” being the operative word.

 

We had a ham roll for lunch then I popped over to the garden centre. Yesterday I went to Dobbies; I tried Bybrook Barn today. In the shrubs was an area marked “dry soil”. There were a couple of lavender plants. Google said they like direct sun so I got them. One was priced at seven quid, one at nine. The woman on the till scanned the seven quid plant twice; I saw that as a result. Much like yesterday when I bought two fish billed at four quid each for six pounds forty.

I came home, looked at the plants I’d just bought and decided against planting them today. Instead we did “FEED THE FISH”. That’s always popular with Treacle and Bailey.

 

I spent an absolute age fighting with the telly to get it to accept the lap-top’s screen if I were to cast it. Eventually enabling mirroring and pressing Windows-K allowed me to do that, and we then tuned in to Pinpoint Magazine’s Zoom meeting. Pinpoint Magazine is a geocaching publication and I’d been nominated for one of their annual awards in the “Outstanding Community Contribution” category. To be honest I didn’t really want to tune in, or reallyt to have anything to do with it, but I felt rather obliged to do so. Someone had taken the time and trouble to nominate me for which I was rather flattered and very grateful. But I can think of several people who make far more effort for the hobby than I do who didn’t get a mention. The trouble with singling one person out for praise is that it automatically belittles the efforts of everyone else. I waxed loquacious on the matter on 13 September 2006.  In any event I didn’t win, which was probably for the best.

 

We then had a bit of KFC for dinner dinner whilst watching more “Lego Masters” and then tonight’s episode of “Traitors”. The foxy one got the heave-ho last night, but we’re carrying on watching it. It is strangely captivating…

15 October 2026 (Thursday) - Rather Busy

With no alarm set I slept rather better. I got up at half past seven, made toast and had my usual look at the Internet as I do. It was much the same as it ever is. Today some crackpot from the future was telling the world what disaster awaits us. He seemed to gloss over how he made a time machine in a post-apocalyptic disaster area though.

And there was talk about a documentary which has exposed a lot of serious racism and racist hate in Reform UK politicians. Surely the only surprise here is that it is presented as news? Obviously as a county the UK can’t support unlimited immigration. However from my own experience of being unable to fill vacancies (not a single UK-based applicant for many posts over many years) the UK needs some immigration. The problem is human nature. Just because the scarf someone wears to a football match is a different colour to someone else’s is reason enough for many to go and inflict physical harm on someone else. As a lad in the Boys Brigade we hated the scouts as they were scouts and not Boys Brigade. We were the eighth Hastings company… there was also quite a bit of animosity against any of the other Boys Brigade companies. I for one have issues with the later group at Dog Club for the simple reason that I’m in the early group. It’s human nature to distrust anyone who is in any way different, and we look for differences, don’t we?.

Sadly rather than rising above our differences, Reform UK is gaining traction from exploiting them.

 

I took the dogs out. We walked up and down the road looking for my car. I eventually found it where I’d left it yesterday… right outside the house.

We drove off. As we went the pundits on the radio were interviewing the Scottish First Minister who was (quite frankly) talking out of his arse. On the one hand he was adamant that he wanted Scotland to be independent of the United Kingdom. On the other hand he was crystal clear that he wanted Scotland to be a part of the European Union. And he was utterly unable to see any contradiction in those two viewpoints.

 

We got to the woods where the idiots were out in force. We met one chap who was hysterically bellowing at his dog every time it moved more than two yards away from him. We met some woman with a dog the size of a cart horse. This dog was on a lead half a mile from the nearest road and was all but pulling the woman over. And we heard the sound of bells and shouts. Some people attach loud bells to their dogs so they don’t lose the dogs. One such dog had clearly got lost, and its walker was bellowing for the dog. After ten minutes of listening to her shouting, I shouted that if she were to shut up she’d be able to hear the dog’s bells. She shut up. As well she might. I go to the woods to walk the dogs, for exercise, but mostly for a bit of peace and quiet. I get so wound up by the gobby ones up there. We didn’t see any deer today… hardly surprising really. But we did see brown leaves. In the three days since we were last at Kings Wood autumn has suddenly arrived.

 

After four and a half miles or five miles (depending on whether you asked my phone or my watch) we were back at the car. As we drove out of the car park those presenting “Women’s Hour” were being rather nasty about Nigella Lawson’s appearances on “Bake Off”. Apparently shoving great lumps of cake into one’s gob isn’t ladylike, and she should daintily nibble on half a crumb.

I turned over to my audiobook and we drove home.

 

I sorted a cuppa, and the phone rang. I had a telephone appointment with the ENT chap this morning. He had the results of the hearing tests I had a few weeks ago.  I’ve got mild to moderate high frequency hearing loss in both ears. The ENT chap said this is a symptom of getting older (!) and is a common cause of tinnitus. He felt that all the time the tinnitus is just a mild inconvenience then I should just suck it up. If it becomes painful or keeps me awake then we could look at white noise generators and specific hearing aids. But for now sucking it up is the way forward. I’ve plenty of other health issues (nasal surgeries, carpal tunnel, arthritis, blood pressure) that I just suck up; what’s one more? If nothing less it will give me another malady to boast about when I next meet up with mates of my old age… more and more my conversations with my contemporaries are just discussions of our mutual physical infirmities.

 

I Munzed. I Wordled. Starting with “noisy” it took me three more tries to end up with “dunce”. I wrote up some CPD, and as part of that I got Microsoft Copilot to generate a fun piccie of me at work in the blood bank. In order to personalise it somewhat I asked it to include a poster featuring the two rules I always tell the trainees (which it did). When I thanked Microsoft Copilot for this picture it commented: “I have to say, the final blood bank version with the "Two Rules. Don't balls it up. Don't kill no one" poster made me laugh. It feels exactly like the sort of unofficial quality-management statement that every transfusion laboratory secretly operates under, despite hundreds of pages of SOPs saying the same thing in a much more complicated way”.

Seeing it has this level of understanding of reality is why I always thank it for anything I ask it to do.

 

We had a ham roll for lunch then I went on a little shopping mission. We’re going to have a register sheet at Dog Club and we’re going to leave sheets on a clip board in a plastic box at the paddock. So I went to Home Bargains to get a plastic box.

Home Bargains is always interesting. For all that there’s talk of people having no money, Home Bargains were selling huge eight-feet-tall inflatable Hallowe’en garden decorations and they were selling fast.

I thought there was a surprising amount of children of school age in the shop at two o’clock on a Thursday afternoon, but what do I know?

From there I went to Dobbies and had a look at the plants, then got a couple of mottled goldfish for the little pond.

 

I came home, put the bag of fish into the pond to equilibrate, and pretended to pootle whilst Treacle watched me like a hawk. She was waiting for the magic words. So (to keep her happy) I said it was time to “FEED THE FISH” and she flew up the garden squealing like a thing possessed.

I gave out the fish food to fish and dogs alike, then made us both a cuppa. I read my Kindle for a bit… and woke up an hour later. I had a quick Meowdoku then had a look on Google. Sadly our acers have had it, so I need to find some sort of shrub which is relatively bomb-proof. Amazon had several ideas, but much as I like Amazon I have to question the practicality of having a shrub delivered.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a decent bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of the red stuff and followed up with port and cheesy biccies (which the dogs loved). As we scoffed we watched more “Lego Masters” and then the latest episode of “Traitors” in which the foxy one got the heave-ho.

I saw that as something of a disappointment, but then that’s the kind of guy I am.

 

14 October 2026 (Wednesday) - Another Early Shift

I had another bad night’s sleep… not that much sleeping happened. I gave up at half past four, got up and watched another episode of “Lost in Space”, then had a little rummage round the Internet as I do. It was as well that we’d watched last night’s “Bake Off” yesterday as spoilers abounded, but for once there wasn’t a lot else going on. Perhaps that was because it was too early?

 

I Munzed. Every day the Munzee app gives us a daily challenge. Today's challenge was to go get one of the Munzees which only appear once every three days. Yesterday was one of the days when they appear, and they will be back on Friday. But not today.  So why did I get that challenge today? I wonder what the app was thinking about. Still, our Guild has reached the first of this month's targets and we all got credited with all sorts of in-game credits. That was a result if sticking bar codes to lamp posts is your thing.

I Wordled. Starting with "space" I had the "c" in the correct place, and the "s" and "p" in the wrong places. Is there any possible word other than "psych" which would have fitted? Not that "psych" is a word (is it?)

 

I set off to work through a dark morning. My piss boiled as I listened to the radio. There's about ten thousand children in the country who need foster care. There was a five-minute preamble about how neglected these children are... I started screaming swear words at the radio as I know one child in foster care who *certainly* wasn't neglected.  There was then a lot of talk about an initiative to recruit more foster carers... and how various measures are coming which will make it easier for people to foster children.

Perhaps the criteria for rejecting foster carers might be formally reviewed, and the insurmountable obstacles that we faced (such as having dogs, stairs or a garden pond) might not be considered reasons for summarily and rudely rejecting potential foster carers. Perhaps having competent social workers who don't rip small girls from their mothers on the basis of unsubstantiated hearsay, and sacking those who get caught out in their bare-faced lies might be an idea as well... but what do I know? Not that I'm in any way bitter... it's only been eighteen months.

And there was talk about the Pope who's had surgery to remove half of his right lung. So much for the power of prayer, eh?

 

I'd calmed down a bit by the time I got to work, which was probably for the best. I went in to the early shift and did my bit. I quite enjoy doing my bit but having been part time for a couple of years, I do find doing two consecutive days to be harder than it ever used to be.

But there was cake at tea-time. And more than just cake – home-made baklava. It went down rather well with a cuppa.

 

With my bit done I came home. I was on another early but today I avoided the road works in Chart Road and came home through the town centre. I got home fifteen minutes quicker than I did yesterday. I sparked up Meowdoku on my phone… and woke up an hour later.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good dinner of sausages, chips and baking paper which we scoffed whilst watching more “Lego Masters”. Mind you when I say “watching more Lego Masters”, there was a not insignificant amount of watching the frankly epic chest of half of the Canadian team. I did have a theory that the more she brandishes her chest, the better her team does, but this evening her jubblies were at full power, and they ended up getting the heave-ho. So much for my theory.

 

And in closing, did you know that today is the nine hundred and sixtieth anniversary of the battle of Hastings?

13 October 2026 (Tuesday) - Early Shift

Treacle woke me at half past four. She’d got off the bed and was whinging that she wanted to get back on. I got up and helped her up, and then Bailey wanted a tiddle. By the time she’d played silly beggars in the garden I was wide awake.

I made toast and watched the last episode of the first season of the re-make of “Lost In Space”. Like the original series it is entertaining enough provided you don’t actually think about it. If you do you realise that the premise is nonsense. It’s somewhat akin to ending up in the Amazonian rain forest whilst taking a wrong turn on your way from the back door to the shed.

I then had a little look at the Internet. It was much the same as ever. No one had done anything of note, but plenty of people were posting poorly written misinformation.

I Munzed, and got ready for work.

 

It was very dark and rather wet as I drove off to work. I completely forgot the road works in Chart Road, but they didn't delay me (much). I drove up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio who were broadcasting from an oil rig in the North Sea for no reason that I could fathom, but the interviews with the workers there were interesting. They do two weeks of twelve hour shifts, and then have three weeks off. But when off shift there's nowhere to go (as they are on an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea).

There was then a lot of talk about the government's early release scheme. Prisoners are being released early as there's not enough prison spaces. People who were in the previous government that didn't build enough prisons were queuing up to find fault with the current government who is trying to deal with the mess they have been left. The Conservatives being interviewed felt it unacceptable for prisoners to be released early, and felt it was unacceptable for there not to be enough prison spaces (even though that was their fault). What did they want.. The next ten thousand people who are convicted and given a prison sentence should get executed? Regardless of what they've done, just execute them? That *would* relieve the pressure on an overcrowded prison service.

Or maybe we might just release prisoners early and give them community service or set them to breaking rocks... 

It is so easy to find fault with anything, but coming up with a workable solution... that takes some doing.

Pausing only briefly to avoid getting tail-ended by a French minibus I popped into Sainsburys where I boiled the piss of the pinch-faced harridan who guards the self-service tills. I always empty my loose change into those machines; she really doesn't like it.

I went into work where I was incredibly hungry. I have the same brekkie every day. When not at work it does me fine, and I usually have a four-mile trek round the woods as well. When at work I'm ravenous a couple of hours after brekkie.

Work was work; I skived off mid-morning to get my flu jab. I get it every year. There's those who bang on about how bad vaccinations are; it boils my piss that these people can be so stupid and still be allowed to vote and do jury service, but there it is. A sore arm for a day, and I don't die of influenza. I see that as a result.

Less of a result was that of one of my colleagues who had a phone call during the day to say that her cat had peed on her coat, and had to slip off early to get a new one. Coat that is, not cat.

 

An early start made for an early finish. I checked Google Maps to see what the traffic was like on the way home. Google reckoned that there was less traffic down Chart Road than in the town centre, so I believed it.

There was a *lot* of traffic down Chart Road. I shall try coming through the town centre tomorrow.

 

I got home about half an hour later than I might have done. We did “FEED THE FISH” (to Treacle’s delight), and “er indoors ^TM” sorted pork chops which we scoffed whilst watching more “Lego Masters” and then this week’s “Bake Off”.

 

I’m feeling all in. Was it the early start or the flu jab?

12 October 2026 (Monday) - This n That

I’ve come to hate night time. I can’t get comfortable. I’m forever shifting from one position in which I have constant back ache to one in which my left hand is throbbing. And add to that I’m either roasting under the covers or shivering on top of them… Last night was just like this, with what little sleep I did get plagued with nightmares about how it was up to me to finance the visitor’s centre at Adnam’s brewery.

I gave up and got up at seven o’clock, made toast and had a look at the Internet which was much the same as ever. There were a few pictures of what friends had been up to at the weekend, which was good. One chap had been to the re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings, others had carried on their walk along the Thames.

One chap (on a vintage toy site I follow) was sulking that he’d been outbid on an eBay auction. He’d been bidding on a Lego wooden duck (back in the day they made more than building bricks) which eventually sold for over five thousand dollars. Five thousand dollars for a wooden duck. Seriously.

 

I Munzed, and with dog breakfast done I took the dogs out. We went up to the woods and walked a bit further than we usually do. Mainly because we had to divert at the start of the walk to avoid horses. Horses in the woods boil my piss. It’s clearly laid out where they can and can’t go. When we walk along the horse-friendly tracks we very occasionally see a horse or a horse turd. When we walk along the supposed no-horses paths we often meet horses and invariably find horse turds.

And there were quite a few normal people out and about today; even though we’d started our walk early to avoid them.

We saw a stag. He was fifty yards down the path from us, and stood still long enough for me to get a half-way decent photo (which I tided up when we got home). The dogs totally missed seeing him. A little later we heard something huge crashing in the undergrowth. We often hear things, but whatever this was, it bothered Morgan. He ran to me and growled at it from the safety of my side, and he stayed by me for the next fifty yards or so.

As we walked I saw something that looked familiar. A few years ago I put out a rather large box as a geocache. It lasted a year or so before going missing so I replaced it with one of my standard pots. This morning I found the thing laying on the path. A path along which we’ve walked at least once a month for the last few years. I wonder where that had been? I brought it home. I can tidy it up and use it again.

 

We came home. I made us a cuppa, tidied up the photo of the stag, then had a pootle in the garden. I harvested dog dung, cleaned out both pond filters and hacked back more of the overgrowth coming over the fence until it got too drizzly and too cold to carry on.

I had a late Wordle. Starting with “horse” I got to “yodel” in three goes whilst “er indoors ^TM” popped off on an errand. She came back with Belgian buns, and with those scoffed I set about the ironing whilst watching more “Lost In Space” on Netflix.

Despite the rain we did “FEED THE FISH”, then I put some undercrackers in to scrub and wrote up some CPD. Dull, but it needs doing.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pie and chips then went bowling. I tumble-dried the undercrackers (never a dull moment) as I watched more “Lost in Space”.

I’ve got to go to work tomorrow.

11 October 2026 (Sunday) - Bonnington

I had another iffy night. When I finally got to sleep so Morgan trampled over me, then with his head an inch from mine had a vigorous head-shake so his ears whipped mine very forcefully.

He does that from time to time; it really wakes you up.

I dozed on and off, and finally got up at half past seven feeling rather grim.

I put a load of washing in, and had a look at the Internet as I do. It was still there. Some friends had been walking along the Thames yesterday. Others had taken photos of last night’s auroras. It was good to see their photos; that’s what I want to see.

I Munzed, and Wordled from “along” to “uncap” in four goes.

Nice-next-door sent a message – could she straddle the fence with a ladder so’s she could muck about on her conservatory roof? I helped her set the ladder up, then left her to it.

We took the dogs down to Bonnington. We parked up at the church and once we were going the right way along the canal we followed a set of geocaching ad-labs. It was a lovely walk along the canal and back. Treacle went in. Bailey chased a heron and then rolled in something foul. We came back to the car to see an organised bunch of walkers coming down the road. They stopped at the church, and as were having lunch as we drove past. It was probably The Ramblers. I sometimes think about joining them. But I follow the local group on Facebook and their average walks are about twelve miles. Perhaps a tad too long?

 

We came home where “er indoors ^TM” warmed up the leftover Chinese (from last night), and with the oven on she roasted some chestnuts she’d gathered when we were up at Kings Wood the other day. We knew when dinner was ready as the chestnuts started exploding.

With lunch scoffed I cracked on in the garden. There was a definite sense of “work”; Nice-next-door’s boyfriend was up on our bathroom roof painting the back of their house. The roofer was cracking on with the roofing. I was impressed that he was out on a Sunday, but we’ve agreed a flat payment rather than an hourly rate so I suppose it’s to his advantage to get on with it. And perhaps (like I used to when I was full time) perhaps he has a day off in the week. Or perhaps he doesn’t have a day off. Many don’t.

I pulled rubbish out of the gravel, mowed the lawn, and had a little tidy-up of the tat down the side of the shed. I thought about cleaning the pond filters, but that will keep until tomorrow.

I came in and sat on the sofa… and woke up a couple of hours later.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up fajitas (oh yus!!) which we scoffed whilst watching another episode of “Lego Masters”. Her with the chest finally managed to get it under control.

 

I woke feeling rather grim; I’ve felt rough all day. Perhaps I’ll sleep it off?