10 March 2026 (Tuesday) - Early Shift

With an alarm set I didn’t sleep well. I woke before two o’clock and then dozed for fifteen minutes at a time at most. I gave up and got up at five o’clock and watched the last episode of “Everyone Else Burns” in which our heroes finally saw through the utter bollox that was the cult which had held them captive for years…

I suppose that show worked really well for me because I was once a religious crackpot; I wonder how everyone else related to it? I wonder what I might watch next?

I sparked up my lap-top and had a little look at the Internet. Not much had happened overnight so I got ready for work.

 

When we came home from the woods yesterday I'd managed to park outside the house, so I didn't have to walk the streets trying to find where I'd left the car this morning.

As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were talking about the ongoing war in the Middle East. Apparently Donald Trump made some speech yesterday which has calmed the markets and oil prices have dropped quite a bit from the prices they were at yesterday. Personally I find nothing that bloke says as being calming, but what do I know? The pundits on the radio were interviewing various windbags all of whom were predicting rising inflation and fuel prices... which is odd as yesterday's post brought a letter from the energy company saying my combined leccie and gas bill was going down by a tenner a month. And that was following me having had the heating on a lot more over the last few months because it was winter.

More and more I find myself utterly bemused by the world I'm in.

 

I stopped off in Sainsburys to get a sandwich. I eventually got one; some idiot was standing right in front of the fridge in everyone's way, and seemed to have gone into some sort of trance. He seemed to be genuinely surprised when he came to and saw half a dozen people waiting for him to get out of the way.

Again the tills were all closed. The miserable harridan who often glares at the people using the self-service tills wasn't there today, but there were a few members of staff (who could have been on the tills) laughing and joking with each other. Again I emptied a pocket full of loose change into the self-service machine, but it's not the same without the sour faced old bat so obviously taking offence at my doing so. It was only as I walked out that I remembered that I should have got some tennis balls for Dog Club.

I went into work where I had a rather busy day. Things started badly with a Red Alert (that's two this week and it is only Tuesday!), and the day just went on from there.

 

But an early start made for an early finish. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good chicken curry which we washed down with a bottle of cabernet sauvignon. A red bottle. I’ve had the white stuff before and not been impressed, but the red stuff was rather good. AS we scoffed and swilled we watched some episodes of “Motherland” which were rather good. We’re now watching episodes of “Clarkson’s Farm” which aren’t.

9 March 2026 (Monday) - Rostered Day Off

All the lights were on next door when I went to the loo just before five o’clock. I went back to bed, and got up at eight.

I made toast and sent out birthday wishes to the four Facebook friends having birthdays, then had a little look-see to find out if I’d missed much overnight. I hadn’t really. Someone who’d never once taken the trouble to hide a geocache of their own was on one of the Facebook geocaching pages moaning about how people only ever put out small hides these days. I wrote a reply… and deleted it. I couldn’t be bothered to argue. But this is the way of the world isn’t it. No matter what the hobby (geocaching, astronomy, keeping snakes, kite-flying, sci-fi fandom, scouting, dogs…) no one ever says “why don’t we…”. It is always “why don’t you…”

 

I took the dogs out. We walked down the road to the car… then I remembered that I’d parked it up the road.

We drove up to the woods where it was very foggy. As we walked Morgan marched off in front as he does. He stopped at a corner and started growling. I looked round the corner and saw some woman pinning a red setter to the ground. This woman was constantly asking “are they all right” whilst glancing at Morgan and Bailey. I assured her that they were, and she got up. Her dog gave me a look of total embarrassment and walked  past. What was that all about?

Our walk today was one that was spelled out by our recent emails. We’d had reports that four of the geocaches I’d hidden in the woods were missing, so I planned a walk which would visit each of them. One was missing; three were where they were supposed to be.

As we walked we saw some horses about a hundred yards in front of us. I was rather pleased that the dogs saw them and ignored them.

I lost the dogs in the fog a few times, but each time they came back when I whistled.

And we found a rather nice woolly hat. I put it on a waymarker post so hopefully the owner will see it. But if it is still there on our next walk, I’m having it.

After either six miles (according to my phone) or six and three quarter miles (according to my watch) we got back to the car.

 

We came home for a cuppa, and with that guzzled I voomed round the garden with the lawnmower. You forget just how fast a lawn can grow.

I wanted to crack in in the garden, but the bugs are still (mostly) hibernating and I didn’t want to disturb them. And I’d already done six miles round the woods and mowed the lawn. It’s rather easy to overdo it and end up aching for a week, so I settled in front of the telly and watched episode of “Four In A Bed” in which everyone started off being all buddy-buddy but fell out quite spectacularly at the end.

 

I spent a little while playing with ChatGPT… I’m only allowed a few photos each day (because I’m mean and have the free version). I’ve created a little album of the better photos I’ve made over the last few days and weeks. I’m quite pleased with what it can do.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up pizza and chips then went off bowling. I sparked up Netflix and started watching a film. “Stripes” was something of a disappointment… I’m sure I can remember it being much better. I turned it off half-way through. It hasn’t stood the test of time. 

8 March 2026 (Sunday) - Early Shift

I slept reasonably well up till half past four. After laying awake for a bit I got up and noticed that the lights were on in not-so-nice-next-door. I often wonder if she runs on Japanese time; over the winter I’ve often noticed downstairs in darkness and the bedroom light on in the early evening, and there’s always lights on at five o’clock in the morning.

I made toast and scoffed it whilst watching an episode of “Everyone Else Burns”, then had a little look at the Internet. Apart from having reached our first Munzee goal this month, not much had changed since last night. I got dressed and set off to work.

 

It was very foggy this morning. I felt it was far too foggy to drive through Bethersden like a lunatic with no regard for speed limits, safety, other road users or pedestrians, but one idiot from a local paving company obviously disagreed with me. As I have said before, driving like an idiot is best done in unmarked cars.

As I drove I listened to the pundits on the radio who were talking about pedestrianism which was very popular in the nineteenth century when those with too much money would pit their lackeys against those of their mates in long distance walking races. Some poor footmen would be expected to walk from London to York (and back) as quickly as they possibly could, with silly amounts of money being wagered on them. Apparently it became quite popular as a spectator sport with thousands of people turning out to watch. I expect it was all very entertaining all the time it is someone else doing the walking. It was claimed that the four hundred miles from London to York and back  was usually covered in about six days... four miles round the woods in an hour or so is quite enough for me.

This was followed by an interview with some chap who claimed to regularly run over a hundred miles in twenty-four hours. I thought that was a tad excessive, but that is apparently only half the world record distance in that time period.

After this was the farming program which featured a farm in the West Country which was run by a cheesemonger who had started up a charcuterie. No? - I had no idea what a charcuterie was either.  Apparently it's a posh butcher's shop.

From the way that they were speaking on the radio I got the impression that they felt everyone would know what a charcuterie was. Well, I didn't and I've learned something. And as I always say, a day when you learn nothing is a day wasted 

 

I took a slightly different journey to work this morning. I drove through Pembury in the hope of finding a shop that might be open from where I might get lunch. When I'm working at Maidstone at the weekends I always go to the works canteen, but when at Pembury... let's just say the canteen is not as good.

I found a corner shop that was open,  got a sandwich and drove on to the early shift and did my bit. It was a rather busy bit as well, involving a Red Alert. And from personal experience I can confidently assure my loyal readers that Red Alerts are nowhere near as much fun as Captain Kirk would have you believe.

 

During a lull in proceedings I Wordled. I'm testing the limits of Wordle at the moment... it wouldn't accept "farty", but it was quite happy with "farts"; presumably because "farts" didn't contain a single letter of today's word whereas "farty" did. And when the late shift rolled in I slipped off for lunch and scoffed my sandwich which wasn't bad... though I was surprised that it had a "best before" date of the twenty-fourth.  How can a sandwich be good for two weeks?

 

I came home to find Treacle was back to her old self. She’d had some raw turnip a day or so ago and during the day she’d sicked up several very hard lumps of undigested raw turnip. She’ll have it boiled from here on it.

With her on the mend and the fish ponds up and running again I commented that I was going to “FEED THE FISH!!” and there was quite a stampede to the pond. The dogs go mad for the rice flakes that the fish get.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up lamb chops which we scoffed whilst watching the final of “The Floor” then more episodes of “Motherland”. I’m thinking about an early night – I’m worn out.

7 March 2026 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Games Night

As I scoffed my toast I rolled my eyes as I saw a post on Facebook. Someone was complaining about how someone else (with learning disabilities) was getting loads of abuse on one of the geocaching pages.

I first saw this sort of behaviour forty years ago when Star Trek fandom was organised through fan-run magazines in which the cowardly would lash out at people to whom they wouldn’t even have the courage to look at if they met in person. And now the Internet has sadly given free rein to this sort of person. Geocaching, ponds, tropical fish, Sci-fi, local groups… some people really refuse to be civil if they feel they can get away with being nasty.

And there were several people on one of the local Facebook pages queuing up to demonstrate their ignorance. I don’t mean that quite as nastily as it sounds, but it bothers me that so many people go on-line and rant about the perceived failings of the local council, and then vote on its composition despite being obviously unaware of what the council does and what it is actually responsible for.

But that’s people though, isn’t it? I can remember outcry from my days as a god-botherer when some evangelical chap announced that communism was the closest political thing to Jesus’s teachings. After a *lot* of nastiness it turned out that maybe one church-goer in a hundred actually knew what communism was (in theory) all about.

 

I had some emails… there’s minor issues with some of my geocaches in Kings Wood. That’s Monday’s walk planned.

I Munzed, and started Wordle with “dicks” (which didn’t help me at all). “Pleat” gave me an “e” (in the wrong place), and “boner” gave me an “o”. “Gouge” helped quite a bit. “Vouge” gave the game away. The answer was “vogue” which I’d spelt wrong on the fifth attempt.

Steve was on the radio. This morning’s “Guess the Lyrics” competition was “The night is young and full of possibilities”. No? I had no idea either. It was Anita Ward – “Ring My Bell”. I can remember that song coming out; I quite liked it. Was it really forty-seven years ago in 1979?

 

We got ready for the morning. We’d hoped to leave a few minutes early as I’d parked miles away. We got to Dog Club and had a rather good time. We humped and wallowed in mud and chased about and shared treats and generally ran riot. For all that there were several regulars not along, I counted fourteen dogs.

 

As we drove home Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. “Absolute Beginners” from David Bowie and “Touch Me” from Samantha Fox? 1986.

The dogs had a bath, we had a cuppa, then I went into the garden. Last week I got new ultra-violet bulbs for the pond filters. I got them into place and turned the pumps on. I then scraped the dead plants out of the floating baskets in the big pond. They took some scraping.

I wrote up some CPD, then had a brainwave and went out to that which I’d dinged out of the pond earlier and salvaged a couple of pond plant pots.

I drove over to Dobbies to get three pond plants to put into the floating baskets. I’d had an idea that if I bought a tub of three plants I could split the plants and use the plant pots I’d salvaged… it was actually ten quid cheaper to buy three individual plants (each of which came with its own pot) rather than to buy a tub of three and re-pot them.

 

I came home where I had a Belgian bun, then put my new plants into place and chucked some blanket weed treatment into the little pond.

We moved stuff around on the living room shelves and the mantlepiece and “er indoors ^TM” managed to destroy the Logo Bonsai tree so I spent the afternoon totally rebuilding it.

 

Chris came round with the big Infinity table, and Steve soon joined us. It was a shame that Sarah was poorly but four of us played “Game of Life” (I came third), “Trouble” (I won!!), “Sorry” (I came third) and “Ticket to Ride” (I came last). Hopefully there will be five of us for next time.

Treacle has been in an odd mood all evening… I shall keep an eye on her.

I’ve got to go to work in the morning…

6 March 2026 (Friday) - Early Shift

I was wide awake far earlier than I might have been this morning. Having Treacle tangled in the CPAP machine’s hose didn’t help. I was reminded of one of the more simple minded cub scouts at camp one year who deliberately embroiled himself in a load of tent guy ropes then got in a total panic because he was stuck… and then did it all again.

 

I made toast and watched another episode of “Everyone Else Burns” which again brought back so many memories from my days of crackpot religion, then I had a look at the Internet.

My Facebook feed featured quite a few photos from yesterday. Yesterday was “World Book Day” which in theory is a brilliant idea. Sadly the application leaves something to be desired. You’d think that “World Book Day” would involve all sorts of events and activities at schools. Reading out excepts from your favourite book, acting out scenes, discussing motivations…

Sadly “World Book Day” is all about dressing up as your favourite character. And if your favourite character is actually from a cartoon on the telly and not from a book, then who cares? Certainly not the teachers; most of whom wouldn’t seem to have the faintest idea anyway. I found myself remembering a particularly vicious squabble from my time in (sadly long-dead) organised Star Trek fandom in which people who couldn’t be bothered to read a book would use the phrase “graphic novel” where everyone else would use the phrase “comic”.

 

I wandered off down the road to find my car. Despite it being a Friday there were absolutely no signs of the bin men being about. The bins hadn't been emptied and hadn’t been left completely blocking the pavement, and no one was shouting swear words. Perhaps they've turned over a new leaf... or got the hump and weren't coming?

 

I drove round to Sainsburys to get petrol and a sandwich. Being at the Ashford Sainsburys petrol station at half past six means that you get a very limited choice of sandwiches. Basically it's yesterday's leftovers or go without. Which is more than you get at the Aylesford Sainsbury petrol station who ding out their sarnies every evening and there's absolutely nothing to be had until they fill the shelves at some point in the mid-morning.

I had the choice of a dozen sandwiches left from yesterday. I got the ham and cheese one for the simple reason that it was the only one that didn't feature bacon. Eleven of the twelve leftover sandwiches had bacon in them. I've never understood why bacon is so popular and have always felt that the stuff is over-rated. It wouldn't bother me if I never had bacon ever again. Clearly I'm not alone in thinking that.

I got my petrol and set off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the war in the Middle East. Perhaps I'm being cynical in thinking this is just the latest chapter in an ongoing and never-ending conflict. This morning there was talk about how Iran is now launching attacks on Saudi Arabia and Qatar for seemingly no other reason than that it could.

I couldn't help but wonder if Prince Andrew has redeemed himself and the Gaza and Ukrainian situations are now totally resolved as all of those topics were headline news a few days ago but none warranted a mention today.

 

I got to work and made myself a cuppa and did Wordle before I started. Yesterday I started Wordle with "wanky" if only to see if the word would be accepted. It was, and so today I started with "shite" which was also allowed. And I had an email. The geo-feds were happy with the letter of permission I'd got from Forestry England, so we are all circuits go for a Midsummer's Eve picnic...

 

Work was work; being on the early it was still light when I got home. Raining, but still light. I made the most of the light and the rain by chucking a couple of buckets of diluted bleach round where I’d smelled mouse and rat wee the other day. Having given the area a bit of a dousing the rain would wash it clean… and hopefully Bailey won’t be quite so obsessed with hunting round the area.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up chicken and chips which we scoffed whilst watching Danny Dyer’s Caravan Park which is amazingly entertaining, and then a couple of episodes of “Motherland”.

I’ve worked two days on the trot… I’m worn out.

5 March 2026 (Thursday) - Bonus Day At Work

I had something of a restless night. I have those when I have an alarm set.

I made toast and watched an episode of “Everyone Else Burns” then sparked up the lap-top. A friend of forty-odd years was posting photos from Sydney harbour where it was raining. For some reason it struck me as odd that it would rain in Australia. Presumably it rains in Australia? It rains in other parts of the world.

And I saw that I’d received a “Top Fan Badge” of Facebook’s wire-haired dachshund page… which isn’t a page that I follow. What was that all about?

I did a YouGov survey, Munzed, set the dishwasher going and (taking care to let sleeping dogs lie) got ready for work.

 

As I drove up the motorway’s fast lane (as the other two lanes were filled with slow-moving lorries) the pundits on the radio were talking about the UK’s response to what (at the risk of appearing cynical) I can only describe as the latest war in the Middle East. The UK has sent out some fighter jets and will send a warship next week. I’m still rather vague about why the Americans and Israelis started the fight in the first place, and I can’t help but question the wisdom of getting involved in someone else’s squabbles.

Is that wrong of me?

 

Pausing only briefly at Sainsburys for a sandwich I was soon at work. I got there early and had a cuppa before I started. I also Wordled; starting with “wanky” if only to see if it would be accepted as a word. It was. It’s in the dictionary. One lives and learns.   

And with my cuppa downed I cracked on with work. I wasn’t originally supposed to be in today, but the boss had messaged yesterday and said that they would be short-handed today. Could I step into the breach? Bearing in mind the contempt which the management where I used to work showed me, I quite like being asked to help.

 

At tea break I had an email. The nice lady at Forestry England had given permission for my planned geo-meet in Kings Wood. She says we can have a maximum of twenty-five people. I’d be surprised if we scared up a dozen. I’ve forwarded her letter to the geo-feds; hopefully they will accept the letter. If not I’ve still got some time before I give up on the idea. In any case I’ve still got a few weeks before the website will allow me to create the web page for the event.

 

I came home. The Amazon man had been with the anti-rat stuff. They are little pouches that smell really strongly of antiseptic *Really* strongly. I’ve put one in place. I’ll give till Saturday and if it hasn’t rained by then I’ll have a slosh round with some bleach and try another pouch.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of scoff which we devoured whilst watching the latest episode of “Star Trek; Starfleet Academy”. I won’t say that it was crap, but the secret of good sci-fi (or any fiction really) is believable characters…  We’re at the ninth episode and I’m not really warming to any of them…

I want to like the show (after all I’m a Trekkie) but it’s not easy…

4 March 2026 (Wednesday) - Foggy

I had a terrible night… I woke to the sound of a huge crash at half past two. It could only have been the sound of someone falling down the stairs… and then there was silence. I lay awake for two seconds thinking that “er indoors ^TM” was laying dead at the bottom of the stairs, and then she snored.

As I got up to investigate so three dogs moved into the warm spot I’d vacated.

I came downstairs to find absolutely nothing awry (apart from some turds by the back door where someone had tried to get outside but met a locked door). What could that crash have been?

I then lay awake for over an hour. I eventually nodded off only to wake in a cold sweat following a nightmare in which I was in prison for no apparent reason and was running an illicit bar and toiletry supply shop, and the inmates were getting rather cross about the poor ale selection and the colour of the washbags.

I lay awake for another hour before nodding off… only to find myself embroiled in another nightmare in which I was teaching the trainees at work how to recognise various stars, planets and constellations only to have the bosses complaining that these lessons should be done in daylight hours so that everyone could see what was going on.

 

I got up, made toast and had a look at the Internet. I had a message from Facebook. Last week I reported a video in which some chap was getting spiders to fight each other to the death. Apparently that doesn’t breach their community standards.

There wasn’t much else happening on-line this morning. I Munzed, Wordled from “hours” through “chain”, “wheel” and “theme” to “theft”, then got ready for the off.

 

I took the dogs up to the woods where the car park was very empty – there were only four other cars. Had the fog put people off? It was a very foggy morning. Although the fog slowly cleared, when we started our walk there was at best only twenty yards visibility.

As it was so foggy I took the longer route through what is often the muddier part of the woods in the hope of seeing deer. We didn’t see deer, but I think I heard a boar snuffling, and we rescued a normal person. At about our furthest point from the car park we met a young lady with camera and tripod who sadly asked if I could help her as she’d lost her bearings. She had a map… but a map is only any use if you know where you are on the map. I put her right and left her to her photography.

And fifty yards later the path was blocked where a tree had come down.

As we came back to the car park (where there is internet signal) my phone pinged about a new geocache which was only a mile away and had gone live whilst we’d been on our walk… and had been found for the first time whilst we’d been on our walk. Ho hum…

 

With walk walked we came home. The dogs were surprisingly clean so we skipped bath. I made us both a cuppa then I had a pootle in the garden. I topped up the bird feeder, and had a little look-see. Much of the bigger plants in big pots are sprouting again. The polyanthus are in flower. One or two of the potted plants look a bit iffy, but I’ll give them a week or so.

Last weekend we got some seeds and daffodils from the garden centre (the one that Bailey didn’t crap in). Today I put the daffodils into a plant box and planted the seeds. The instructions mentioned about keeping them warm so I’ve made a makeshift greenhouse in the back room. The seeds might sprout; they might not. Time will tell – it always does.

As I did the seeds so I was very conscious of a smell of tiddle. Was it the dogs? I suspect it might be rats and/or mice going after the seed the birds spill from the feeders. There’s always been rats and mice in the back gardens down our road ever since the council built houses over the back (many years ago). I’ve tried humane traps which have caught mice… but I’m then left with the dilemma of what to do with the mice which I’ve caught. I’m too soft to kill them myself, and when I’ve released them at the far end of the garden, Treacle has then caught them herself (and eaten them!)

I’ve been onto Amazon and got some peppermint oil jollop the smell of which is apparently abhorrent to rodents. It might work; it might not. Again, time will tell.

 

I came in, had a hot cross bun for dinner and spent an hour marking a trainee’s essay on bleeding disorders, then cracked on with the ironing. As I ironed I watched episode of “Four In A Bed” as I do. And it was rather entertaining. The episodes went from a rather nice hotel in Aberdeen to a posh country club in the Midlands to a delightful guest house in the Lake District. And every place had its supposed faults pointed out by some chap running a rather grim backstreet Blackpool B&B.

As I watched telly so I took ironing out of the washing machine and put more in. There’s never a dull moment in my life…

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled me up a plate of egg and chips and went out to dinner with her mates. I wrote up a little CPD… and then I settled in front of the telly. Today’s been rather busy. Today was supposed to be a day off. I’m working five of the next seven days. Just like being full time again…

3 March 2026 (Tuesday) - Early Shift

I woke at half past four feeling like death warmed up. What was that all about? I got up, made toast and sparked up the telly. I watched an episode of "Everybody Else Burns" with a wry smile. Have you seen the show - it's about a family of religious crackpots who go to a loony-fundamentalist church. For all that we all laugh at the religious nutters, being an ex-religious nutter myself the show struck a chord. I could see myself and many of the people with whom I used to go to church in that show. And looking back they really were "the people with whom I used to go to church" and (for quite a few of them) not "friends". 

 

Taking care not to disturb “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs I got dressed in the dark and set off to work. The moon was quite pretty as I drove, but by the time I found somewhere that I could park which had a decent view of the horizon the moon had set and the sun was up.

As I drove I listened to the pundits on the radio. Over the weekend that idiot Trump has started yet another war in the Middle East. For all that he keeps banging on about wanting a Nobel Peace Prize, he's quite keen on war. He's been lambasting the Prime Minister for not wanting to get involved. I can't help but think that the more that the international community treat that idiot Trump like the idiot that he so demonstrably is, the better. 

 

I stopped off at Tesco in Pembury to get a sandwich. I paid by filling the self-service machine with all my loose change. Unlike Sainsburys in Aylesford no one seemed to care. As I walked out I noticed there were two security thugs guarding the door. There were four security thugs on guard at Hastings railway station as I came home yesterday. Guarding places seems to be something of a growth industry; why does everywhere need to be guarded these days?

 

I went in to the early shift and did my thing. As I did, I spent much of the day thinking about yesterday's meet-up with my old muckers. The pals I met yesterday have pretty much ended up just like me. Not rich. Not poor. Probably best described (as my old boss in the Harbour restaurant predicted forty-five years ago)  as "comfortable".  I can remember my old boss from the Harbour restaurant telling me that I would be comfortable in life... and he said that being comfortable in life was about the worst thing that could happen to anyone. Was he right?

From our chat yesterday I think it's fair to say that all three of us are pretty much content with our lot in life. But we'd all expected to end up in a far better position bearing in mind what we'd been led to believe from having listened to all the propaganda about a grammar school and university level education. Yesterday we'd talked of others in our circle who'd ended up with much more than we have. Don't get me wrong - I'm not jealous (well, not *that* jealous), but I did think "what if" quite a bit today.

Some of our contemporaries were (and some still are) directors of international companies, admirals, ambassadors... Would I have liked to have ended up as a consultant surgeon or a university professor? Had things turned out differently I might have been, but would I have been happier? I'm reminded of that famous maxim quoted by many celebrities that at various times they'd been very poor and very rich, and looking back they preferred very rich. And also of another which says that money doesn't buy you happiness, but it allows you to be miserable in comfort. As I've often said, I'm far from poor, but I would like to be a whole lot better off.

Are those of our contemporaries who are now millionaires happy? Yesterday we talked about one of them who (like me) has posted a lot of photos to social media, and we all agreed that in every single photo he looked incredibly smug.

Like I would be with his money…

2 March 2026 (Monday) - Reunion

Apart from a rather vivid nightmare in which we’d moved house to somewhere with no light switches I had a rather good night’s sleep.

I got up at half past seven, made toast, and my piss boiled. I try not to rant about lefty woke bollox because I’m probably quite a woke lefty myself, but my piss boiled as I read what George Takei had posted to Facebook this morning. Apparently if you are perpetually late for work because you are too bone idle to get your arse out of bed, you can just claim to have “time blindness”. And it is a real thing too.

I Munzed, Wordled from “house” through “scare” and “spine” to “slime”, then got ready for the off.

 

Leaving “er indoors ^TM” with the dogs I walked up to the train station and got a ticket to Hastings. Again the price charged at the counter bore absolutely no relation to what I’d been quoted on-line.

Getting the train was quite an adventure; I’ve not been on one for a few years. But it wasn’t long before I was in Hastings. I rummaged by a billboard near the station for geocachical reasons and found a geocache there. I then walked over the West Hill where I failed to find three others, but I redeemed myself by finding three in the Old Town. And having constructively (!) spent the morning I went down to the First In Last Out where I met up with a couple of old friends. One was over from Canada who I’d not seen since 1982. Another has been on my Facebook list for some time, but we’d not met in person since 1995.

We spent a rather good three hours catching up, remembering old days. One of us retired from programming Canadian computers nearly ten years ago, one of us is semi-retired from blood testing, and one spent years in the pharmaceutical industry and now makes (among other things) night vision goggles. All with the same start in life; all now completely different… But it was as though only a few weeks had passed.

It was so good to catch up. We really must do this sort of thing more often.

 

All too soon the clock had beaten us. We walked back through the Old Town and into Hastings. The place has changed beyond all recognition. When I lived there the Old Town was very run-down and Hastings itself had all the shops. Now the decent shops are all in the Old Town and Hastings itself is just… well… “grim” is probably the best word to describe it.

In a novel break with tradition I stayed awake all the way home…

1 March 2026 (Sunday) - Wet Sunday

Apart from two trips to the loo in the night I had a good night, finally getting up at half past nine. I’ve not laid in for that long for ages.

I started the morning with something of a technical failure. “er indoors ^TM” had set the toaster to “crumpets”, and when you put bread in on that setting it just warms the bread a little. But there’s no point in trying to put the warmed bread back in again to finish the job because the toaster just takes offence and then incinerates it.

And then my lap-top refused to do anything with any speed. Re-booting eventually sorted it out.

 

Having finally got on-line, I saw there wasn’t a lot happening really. My Facebook feed was filled with adverts for static caravans and holiday chalets. I looked at a couple of sites last night after watching the Danny Dyer program… not that I could see very much of my Facebook feed. For some inexplicable reason the feed screen was perpetually scrolling down. What was that about? If there was a key stuck then this would have stuffed up every other website I visited, but they were all fine. Just Facebook being a pain.

Another re-boot sorted that.

I Munzed. Being the first of the month I chucked everyone out of the clan in readiness for the Clan War starting on Tuesday. I Wordled from “being” through “tread” and “scope” to “fluke”, then got ready for the morning.

 

It was raining but we went to the garden centre. We had a voucher from Christmas to use. We looked at bedding plants… they only had polyanthus and we’ve still got them from last year. We got some pansy and viola seeds; I’ve got compost and seed trays. I can have a go and if they haven’t grown by the end of the month I can get some from the garden centre when they say they will have some in.

We took the dogs with us. It wasn’t much of a walk but taking them to Dobbies meant they think they’ve had an outing. Making sure that Morgan was marched up the centre of every aisle stopped him peeing on things… but once again the award for *not* taking a dump in the garden centre went to Bailey. What is it about Dobbies that has such a laxative effect on Treacle and Morgan?

 

We came home via the little row of shops in Singleton where we got a cake for lunch… and we got talking to some woman who was a tad distraught. As she’d driven round a nearby roundabout so a passing car had crashed into her car; taken much of the front off of it, and then sped off.

What would you do in a situation like that? By the time you realise what has happened the other car is well out of sight. I had something not entirely dissimilar when I was driving to see my dad when he was in Eastbourne hospital. A white van was coming head on at me, and by the time I’d smashed up the side of my car that van was well away. As the insurance company chap said, these cars are probably not insured.

 

We came home. It was raining; I can do the seeds in the week. We had a cuppa and some cake, and I wrote up the week’s continuing professional development. I have to stay abreast of the latest developments in blood testing. Everyone who is a registered medical professional has to stay up to date with their field. It’s a legal requirement and a really good idea too; when I first started back at the now-demolished Royal East Sussex Hospital it was amazing how out of touch some people were.

The biggest problem with doing CPD is actually finding out about the latest developments in blood testing. Not that there’s any shortage of information, but for every one bit that is useful to me there’s a dozen bits of utter irrelevance from commercial companies trying to sell things, or stuff written in what amounts to a foreign language from managers trying to impress the easily impressed.

 

I did the dogs’ flea treatments which went rather easily today. It’s a simple process. Each dog has a little tube of jollop which I rub on the back of their necks. Sometimes (like today) I just rub it on the back of their necks whist they sit nicely. Other times I have to chase them round the house, wrestle them down and pin them to the floor to get the stuff anywhere near them.

And with not a lot else planned for the day I opened up the Lego maple tree set I’d got for my birthday last week and spent a couple of hours putting it together. I’m quite pleased with how it’s turned out.

 

I read my Kindle for a bit until dinner time when “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good roast which we scoffed whilst watching the semi-final of “The Floor” and then I refereed “dog afters” when the pups each got a bowl of vegetables covered in chicken fat. It was good to see Bailey eating something. She really tucked in, and told Morgan off when he’d finished his and came looking to her bowl for extras.

In retrospect little Bailey might have had too much. She does look very bloated. I expect there will be some farting later…

28 February 2028 (Saturday) - It Didn't Rain

I slept reasonably well. I woke t half past six, got up and made toast. As I scoffed it whilst peering into Facebook I was presented with a few adverts asking for people to volunteer to help as a scout leader. Lucy Spraggan (no – I had no idea either) was saying that all you needed was enthusiasm and a willingness to get stuck in. I was once asked to volunteer to help as a scout leader, and whenever I hear people being asked to do this I always feel the need to voice a note of caution. When I got involved everyone asking for help was so quick to say that scouts was just an hour a week. They would all gloss over the fact that the weekly meeting lasted for two hours. Then there was the preparation for that weekly meeting which generally took up another evening each week. There was always at least one scouting event (outings, district sporting competitions…) which took up one weekend day every month. There were three weekend holidays away with the scouts every year, as well as the week-long summer camp. Add on to this various committee meetings on whatever weekday evenings you had free. And any spare weekend time would be spent on fundraising to subsidise the parents who drove bigger cars than the one I had and who lived in bigger houses than I did…

The gratitude for becoming a helper didn’t last long, and very soon became guilt-tripping when my every moment wasn’t available for scouting.

Anyone thinking of volunteering to help with scouting needs to make it crystal clear exactly just how much time they can offer. The more you offer, the more scouting will expect (and take).

And there was an impressive squabble happening on one of the Geocaching Facebook pages in which some idiot was whinging that the Geocaching corporation didn’t sell good flashlights (or “torches” as they are called in the UK). Apparently when geocaching, every bit of kit you use has to bear the “Geocaching” logo. For some inexplicable reason this idiot was adamant that he couldn’t use just any old torch.

There wasn’t a lot else of note on the Internet this morning. I sent out birthday wishes to the two Facebook friends who were having a birthday today, Munzed, and Wordled from “today” to “hydra”; how many other words have a “D” in the middle and a “Y” not at the end?

 

As I fiddled on-line so Steve was on the radio. Guess the lyrics today was “what happened to the girl I used to know”. No – my immediate reaction was that I didn’t have a clue until Steve mentioned that it was from one of his favourite bands. The penny dropped - ELO – “Don’t Bring Me Down”.

 

Being Saturday we drove round to Repton and Dog Club. It was rather cold and rather muddy today, but the forecast rain didn’t come whilst we were there. Treacle played with one of the children. I say “played”; the little girl tried to get the ball from Treacle, and Treacle tried not to let her. Morgan charged around and played rough and tumble with his mates. And Bailey just stood and shivered until I stuffed her inside my coat. Bailey is a worry. I took a few photos as I do… and fed one into ChatGPT.

As we drove home so Steve was doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. In which year was the first website created and Helen Sharman (the first British astronaut) go into space? 1991.

 

We got home. Grubby dogs were bathed and I counted the Dog Club takings. Bearing in mind the subs is one pound fifty per dog, how can we end up with an odd forty pence?

And with the car parked directly outside the house and rain forecast I had ideal conditions for pressure-washing the front garden. It didn’t take *that* long to set the pressure-washer up. I scrubbed the concrete at the front of the house three times, and swept away seemingly gallons of mucky water. As I scrubbed and swept so not-so-nice-next-door was coming in and out of her house with no end of boxes and bags and three or four suitcases. Was she going on holiday or moving out? As she came in and out she glared at me, and (sadly) that was probably as communicative as she gets. It’s such a shame… She’s been next door for close on thirty years and makes absolutely no attempt whatsoever to even try to be civil.

 

“er indoors ^TM” went off visiting relatives for the afternoon. With the forecast rain still not arrived I cracked on in the garden and got the lawn mowed. I say “mowed”; it was more along the lines of a preliminary scalping. The first cut of the year is always something of a rough and ready one, but a cut lawn makes finding dog turds a lot easier. 

 

I might have overdone the morning’s pressure-washing and lawn mowing, so I settled in front of the telly with the dogs and sparked up Netflix. “The Holdovers” was a rather entertaining film, as was “Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk To Finchley”.

As I watched the telly I kept glancing at the window. Still no rain, and still stuff I might be doing in the garden. But still I ached.

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home with kebabs which we scoffed whilst watching “Danny Dyer’s Caravan Park” which was a rather good TV show about someone who used to be in EastEnders who had bough a part-share in a caravan park in Leysdown.

It was surprisingly captivating…

 

And as I’m thinking about bed it didn’t rain at all today, and not-so-nice-next-door is in and playing her piano…

27 February 2026 (Friday) - Bit Dull

I  had a good night’s sleep which was something of a result, but I did ache when I got up. That’s happening more and more these days. Am I overdoing it on the dog walks?

 

I made toast (with strawberry jam) and had a look at the internet. I was immediately presented with a little fundraiser to give nurses a little thank-you pressie. Good old nurses… I’m not doing them down at all, but no one ever thinks about the pharmacists, gardeners, porters, cooks, radiographers, speech therapists, cleaners, dieticians, biomedical scientists, audiologists, cardiologists, secretaries, IT technicians, drivers, phlebotomists, chiropodists, paramedics…

I also saw that five Facebook friends had a birthday today. I sent out birthday wishes.

I Munzed as “er indoors ^TM” tried to get Bailey to eat her brekkie. For all that she is tiny, she’s a very fussy dog and has to be watched as she is easily bullied off of her food. She will leave a full bowl after getting just one glance from Treacle.

 

Despite the drizzle I took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about how the Greens won the recent by-election. Reform UK came second and the Labour party were a poor third. But a poor third was rather better than the Conservatives and Dribbling Democraps managed.

No one seemed to want to mention that over half of the electorate didn’t cast a vote, so that the winner was chosen by maybe one voter in five.

 

We got to the woods and had a shorter walk than we often do. For the most part we stuck to gravelled tracks to try to avoid the mud. Our walk was mostly uneventful. We didn’t chase anything, we didn’t roll in anything. At one point we heard something heavy crashing in the trees, but we didn’t see anything. Probably deer. As we walked the drizzle let up, which was probably for the best.

 

We came home where the pups had bellies washed and I sorted a cuppa and a bit of cake for us both. I Wordled from “often” (which gave me nothing) to “dizzy” via “plaid”, “diddy”, “dicky” and dishy” and then popped over to Dobbies to get the second ultra-violet bulb I needed.

I had a vague plan to take the pressure washer to the front garden, but when I sweep the water into the gutter I’d rather not gunge up anyone else’s car. So being unable to park outside the house I thought better of that plan.

Instead I went to my fallback position of watching episodes of “Four In A Bed”. The first place was run by an aggressive screaming queen who underpaid everyone and criticised everyone for doing that which he did himself. The second place was something of a neon nightmare run by a rather pretty boy with some woman who was either his lackey or his mail-order bride (I couldn’t decide which). The third place was a campsite run by a very loud woman with her GBF, and the last place by someone who could have been everyone’s favourite auntie. They were all really friendly right up until payments were made, and then there was some serious falling out. It speaks volumes that the place that had shit stains on the towels came second.

I then amazed myself by beating the bots on chess dot com.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good pasta bake which we scoffed whilst watching last week’s episode of “The Floor”. We’re now watching the “Eddie The Eagle” film. I can remember the real “Eddie the Eagle” coming last at the Olympics… I can distinctly remember a song about him in the comedy show “Who Dares Wins” which had the chorus “That’s what being British is – we love you if you’re crap”.

I wonder if I can get that on DVD anywhere?  

26 February 2026 (Thursday) - Pressure Washing, Telly

I had a good night’s sleep which was something of a result. I got up at seven o’clock, made toast and had my usual look at the Internet.

There was an interesting post from “The Great British Pub Crawl” who probably made a mistake when answering a question about how he chooses his list of pubs to visit when goes to any given town. There was one particular pub in a town he’d visited which would (apparently) have been on any serious drinker’s itinerary but he hadn’t visited it. When asked why he hadn’t been to that one he said that they place had been approached to sponsor him and they’d chosen not to do so. I found myself reminded of a conversation I once had with the then manager of the Ypres Castle pub in Rye. At the time the place was far and away the best pub in Rye, but the manager openly admitted they would never get into CAMRA’s “Good Beer Guide” because he refused to put on the sumptuous buffet the judging committee expected to be given when they came round to inspect.

I wonder if CAMRA still operate that way? I was a member for years and was never once asked my opinion about my preferred local pub. I would just be told the decision made by the local committee.

And I sent out birthday wishes to someone who I thought was a lot older than me… but turns out to be a lot younger.

 

As I peered into the Internet so the bin lorry came up the road collecting the garden waste. They were a whole lot quieter that last Friday’s collection had been; not a single swear word was shouted up the street.

I Munzed, Wordled from “older” to “lance” via “leave” and “latte”, and got ready for the morning.

 

I drove the dogs up to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about Gianni Infantino who has been the president of FIFA for the last ten years and apparently has worked wonders for international football. I did have a wry smile when the windbag being interviewed explained the secret of this chap’s success. It was claimed that it was nothing to do with his football prowess. It was claimed that just like Boris Johnson, Elon Musk and Donald Trump (and several others who were also named), the bloke was predominantly an entertainer.

And that in a nutshell is precisely what is wrong with the world right now. (I know – I keep saying this).

 

We got to the woods. We walked a different route to our usual one. Back in the day we kept to the same old walk so much that Fudge flatly refused to walk any other routes and had to be dragged on a lead if I wanted a change.

We had a good walk. We avoided much of the mud. We discovered a new footpath; there can’t be many in those woods that we don’t know about. We walked for five miles and for much of that we didn’t see anyone else at all.

We had a minor incident when we got back to the car though. I opened the boot and said: “Boot Dogs!”

This is the signal for those dogs that are big enough to jump into the boot (Bailey isn’t). Two jump in, one gets lifted in. I then do the whistle and the dogs all get a treat and a fuss (which reenforces the whistle training)…

Or that is the plan.

Some passer-by felt that the command “Boot Dogs!” was a direct and personal insult to her dog, and once we’d finally sorted out that no insult or offence was intended, she thought her dog might like to get involved (and get into the car boot) for a treat.

Oh dear…

 

We came home for a belly wash and a cuppa, and then the dogs went mad. The Evri delivery driver was putting a parcel into the box outside the house. I went outside and asked why he didn’t knock on the door; he pretended not to speak English. I took the parcel off of him, and the parcel that he’d dumped on the garden recycling bin when he suddenly could speak English and clearly told me that parcel was for someone else. When I commented that he could speak English he again pretended not to be able to do so.

Some people really don’t help themselves.

 

I got the pressure washer out and had a first blast at the patio. The trouble with pressure washing is that all that the pressure washer does is lift the dirt off of that which is being washed. You need to get busy with the broom to sweep the mucky water away and the drain soon clogs. But I got an hour or so’s scrubbing in. I just did the worst of it, and will get into the nooks and crannies in a few weeks when all the hibernating bugs are out.

 

By then I was rather worn out so I settled in front of the telly with the dogs. I watched the last of “Boots” which was rather good, and then the film “Prometheus” which wasn’t. Sadly like all the films in the “Alien” franchise it rather assumes that you have to be rather stupid to be allowed to get onto a spaceship.

 

As I waited for “er indoors ^TM” to come home I played with ChatGPT some more. “er indoors ^TM” eventually came home from a day at the office and boiled up pie and chips which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy”. Sadly the show started rather well, but after a couple of months they’ve just broadcast what must be the weakest episode of Star Trek ever. And that’s up against “Spock’s Brain” and the first three seasons of “Enterprise”. Sadly Star Trek is fast going the way of “Doctor Who” in that I want to like it, but it is taking some doing.

25 February 2026 (Wednesday) - The Crab and Winkle Way

I slept reasonably well, but woke up at half past six shivering. I had no duvet; where had it all gone? I used Morgan and Bailey as hot water bottles.

 

I made toast and had a look at the geocaching website. Last September I put out a series of caches in Parkwood (near Appledore). Last night a friend told me that the given hint for the sixth one didn’t match the actual location. It mentioned a multi-trunked tree and a gate. That was odd – I can distinctly remember those geocaches. There’s a multi-trunked tree and a gate at the fifth one; the sixth is at the base of a big tree. I had a look at the website. I’d written down the wrong hint. You’d have thought that one of the previous twenty-odd finders would have said something? But I was glad that the issue was easily sorted. For all that those woods are a lovely place to walk, there’s something about them that sets Bailey off. She’s gone missing every time I’ve let her off of the lead down there, and now I take no chances when we go there, and she sulks as the other dogs are allowed to run and she isn’t.

There wasn’t much else happening on-line. Fans of Reform UK and Restore Britain were posting lies about the Labour party and calling them names. Fans of the Labour party were posting lies about Reform UK and Restore Britain and calling them names.

 

I prepped “Hannah” for the day, and with a couple of minutes to spare I logged into “Threads”. It doesn’t look very different to Facebook. I logged in to it using Instagram (as it is part of the same company)… Threads, Instagram, Facebook… three platforms from the same company all doing pretty much the same thing. What’s that all about?

I Munzed, and Wordled from “names” to “shred” via “speed” and “shied”, and then we got ready for the off.

 

With a good day forecast “er indoors ^TM” had booked the day off work. Having had a good experience in Whitstable a little while ago we thought we might try the place again. Ironically a day or so after we came home from Whitstable last time a series of puzzle geocaches had gone live there. I solved them, and we waited for another good winter’s day to go on a (hopefully) non-muddy walk.

We drove to the designated parking spot and had a rather good walk. The route took us along some of the quieter roads and along a very straight part of the Crab and Winkle Way. Treacle could be trusted (mostly) but the smaller pups stayed on the leads; even if Morgan on a lead is akin to taking a train for a walk.

As we walked we took a little diversion into the cemetery where we got information from half a dozen different war graves which would give us the location of a geocache… We got the information, did the sums and ended up in the hedge of someone’s back garden. The clue said “Top of 3 ft metal post” and there was a three foot tall metal post there… but no cache. I wasn’t happy rummaging in someone’s hedge so we revisited our calculations. A different interpretation of the questions gave us a location along a public footpath which seemed a far more likely place… it was only a shame that we couldn’t find a three foot tall metal post. Ho hum…  We carried on with our walk.

As we went “er indoors ^TM” found her fourteen thousandth geocache.

Once we’d covered a shade under three miles and a shade over two hours we were back at the car. We drove off on a little diversion to get one geocache which would complete the current series of geo-treasures for both of us and then we headed homewards.

Via Badlesmere.

 

We stopped off in the Red Lion for a spot of lunch. The Red Lion is an old favourite of ours. We’ve been calling in there every couple of months or so for years. The beer selection is good, and the food is excellent. The place can be very busy, but today there were several empty tables… Mind you it was two o’clock and mid-week. We had a pint and a plate of dinner each. It was rather good.

 

I took a few photos as we walked (and scoffed). We drove home past Kings Wood. I toyed with the idea of walking round there before going home… but decided against it.

We got home – it was something of a novelty not having to bath the dogs. I read my Kindle for a bit, and then we scoffed pudding. Having had a decent meal in the pub earlier we had black forest gateau for tea. As we scoffed we watched the last episodes of “Small Prophets”. It was a rather good show… it ended with the caption “to be continued”.

I wonder if it will be.

24 February 2026 (Tuesday) - ChatGPT

I slept reasonably well up until four o’clock then had something of a dilemma. Did I lay in bed for a few more hours desperately needing the loo. Or should I get up and surrender all the bed space to the dogs.

I got up, did what I had to do, and managed to get back onto the bed

I dozed on and off until half past seven.

 

I got up, made toast and had a look at the Internet as I do. This morning I was inundated with adverts for pressure filters for fish ponds. Having looked at one yesterday had clearly given the algorithms something to play with.

With nothing much else happening on-line I looked at the monthly accounts. I really could do with having far more money; is that greedy of me?

 

I took the dogs out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were continuing the article I was listening to last week about the hacker who’d tried to blackmail thousands of people. There was an interview with the chap this morning. He denied all responsibility and said that someone else did it; someone he knew but he wouldn’t say who it was. The chap clearly had no remorse for what he had done… and I suspect it won’t be that long before he’s out of prison.

 

We got to the wood where we walked a different route to our usual one. A marginally less muddy one. Though only marginally. We still got grubby. As we walked we saw the bluebells are starting to come up. And we met a few of the normal people with dogs on those ridiculously long leads. Some people must love untying knots.

As we drove out of the car park so the car in front of us had their dog’s lead hanging out of the door. Had it caught in anything it would have snapped the poor dog’s neck. I followed that car flashing my lights and eventually got them to stop. I had to repeat that the dog’s lead was hanging out four times before the woman actually looked out of the driver’s window to see what the issue was… and then she screamed about what might have happened.

 

We came home to see loads of people milling round the church up the road; all in black. And as I tried to drive down the road I had to slam on the brakes as some idiot old woman (also all in black and carrying a wreath) blundered into the middle of the road and just stood there. Eventually another funeral-goer came and tried to lead her away, but she didn’t want to go, and was having nothing to do with being told that she couldn’t stand in the middle of the road.

 

I gave the dogs a bath. Fortunately there was no fox poo to wash off today; only dried mud. I made us both a cuppa, Munzed, and Wordled from “being” through “breed”, “blare” and “bores” to “buyer”. Then I had a pootle in the garden.

I had a go with the battery powered pressure washer. Sadly that thing is on the crap side and I soon gave up with it. I couldn’t be arsed to get the proper one out, so instead I got the bionic burner out and had a go at the weeds coming through the patio.

 

I then had a look at the morning’s post and was disappointed. What I had hoped was written permission for my next geo-project was actually a bill for the thick end of two hundred quid for our recent boiler overhaul. I played around with ChatGPT, looked at a possible walk for tomorrow, and made myself a sandwich.

I then did my usual trick of watching episodes of “Four In A Bed”. Today’s were rather good; the contestants didn’t take long to hate each other.

One of the places competing was a pub in Edenbridge where last year we had a geo-meet. It was run by a rather vindictive chap who penalised a competitor by fifteen quid for trivia, and then had the right hump when that same one penalised him a measly three quid for quite serious failings, and he wasn’t at all happy that another marked him down for letting out a room with a broken bed. He *really* didn’t thank that a broken bed was a valid reason for underpaying.

Despite not having had the letter of permission that I’d been hoping for, I then spent a little while preparing the geocaching event page for the event (in the hope that permission would be forthcoming).

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good chili which we scoffed whilst watching the last two episodes of “The Traitors: Ireland”.  The show does make me laugh sometimes… one girl was accused of being a traitor because she hadn’t been voted out. I said she hadn’t been voted out because of the most entertaining way in which she brandished her chest.

Who was right… let’s just say she wasn’t a traitor but might as well have turned up in the nip for all that her so-called clothing kept secret…