12 December 2025 (Friday) - Another Early Shift

I had an alarm set last night; I barely slept. I woke shortly after midnight and saw every quarter of an hour after that. Eventually I gave up (as I so often do), got up, made toast and scoffed it whilst watching telly. In today's instalment of "Danger UXB" our hero got given the heave-ho by the mad professor's daughter which was probably a triumph for morality but a bit of a smack in the kisser for our hero.

 

Having heard the bin men making a racket as I'd watched telly I was expecting problems getting out of the road, but the bin men were suddenly nowhere to be seen when I drove off. 

As I drove there was something on the radio about "farm-sitters"; people who come and look after farms whilst the farmers go off on holiday. I suppose it could have been quite interesting had the farm-sitter being interviewed not ermm... said ermmm...  between ermmm... everything ermmm...  he ermmm...  said.

I've mentioned before that those who bring people onto national radio really should vet the interviewees beforehand.

There was also an interview with the chap who runs the Magnum ice cream corporation. I mentioned the other day that they've not turned out to be quite as profitable as had been hoped. It turns out that some years ago the Magnum people bought out Ben and Jerries, and the people behind Ben and Jerries want it back. It turns out there's quite a lot of bitterness in the ice cream world.

 

I got three quarters of the way to work and suddenly found the A21 completely bunged up. Fortunately I know the roads reasonably well and managed a crafty diversion through Matfield, and went on to Tesco where I got some Christmas supplies in. Today they had people working the tills which was probably for the best bearing in mind Tuesday's debacle.

 

I started work seven minutes before sunrise.  Work was surprisingly hard work today. I was rather glad when home time came. Home time was seven minutes before sunset. Google Maps told me that whatever the hold-up had been this morning had cleared, and I believed it… right up to the point where I met the traffic jam five miles up the road from the hold-up.

I took another crafty diversion through Matfield.

 

Once home I plonked myself on the sofa and peered at the telly. Days at work can be dull…

Meanwhile “er indoors ^TM” has gone outside to take photos of the aurora. Not that there’s any there, and if there was the clouds are in the way…

11 December 2025 (Thursday) - M3617637

With no alarm set I slept through till four o’clock when I got up for a tiddle then went back to bed until just before eight o'clock. That was a result.

I opened the Lego Advent Calendar – a small cat. What was I supposed to say about that?

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. Squabbles persisted; this morning there was some serious bickering on the religion and politics pages which the Facebook bots told me might be of interest to me. Sometimes it strikes me that if one person was to say “I disagree for the following reasons” and list their reasons, and the other person was to read them and think about them then the world might be a far less divided place. Sadly everyone treats their opinion like they treat their favourite football team; to be followed through thick and thin regardless.

I Munzed, opening a qrate (as I do every ten days or so) and Wordled. Today I started with “think” and didn’t get a single letter. So I tried “space” and got the c and e; but not in the right places. “Bless” gave me the last three letters in the right places. The only word I could then think of (with the available letters) was “dress” but that wasn’t right. And then I realised the answer was obvious. Guess.

 

I took the dogs out. As we drove to the woods “In Our Time” was on the radio. It’s a show which spends half an hour investigating pretty much everything and anything. Previous episodes have included Roman Emperors, quantum physics, medieval churches… todays was about a poet from two hundred years ago and was amazingly interesting for something that you’d think would be amazingly dull.

 

We got to the woods and had a slightly different walk to our usual one. As we went round there was a surprising amount of other people in the woods. We saw two on horseback. Riding along next to each other, everything they had to say was shouted, and so we had plenty of notice that they were coming. We found a glove which someone had dropped. I put it on a waymarker; hopefully the owner will find it.

We got back to the car; as always my watch felt we’d walked quarter of a mile further than my phone felt we’d done. I always snigger when people on the geocaching and hiking websites bang on about how accurate their GPS is and quibble about distances walked and accuracy of GPS… there’s no two devices which agree. I once stuck my GPS on the windowsill and left it whilst I went to work. It thought it had covered four miles during the day when it had never actually moved anywhere.

 

As we drove home Professor Brian Cox was on the radio. I generally don’t like listening to “The Infinite Monkey Cage” as the show seems to really over-simplify things. Today they were talking about clouds and it was really interesting. I suspect that they’d really over-simplified things but as I don’t know much about clouds I was none the wiser.

 

We came home for a wash. The dogs were surprisingly clean; they probably wash themselves on the drive home. I wish they would wait for bath time rather than licking the mud off.

I hung out the dog bedding I’d put in to wash earlier and put more in to scrub. I ordered up a Christmas pressie for grandson (which should be delivered tomorrow).

And realising that earlier I’d found out that I knew nothing about clouds I signed up with the Open University and started a free course on the subject. Supposedly taking ten hours, I completed it this afternoon and then had a look at what other courses they’ve got. There’s nearly nine hundred.

Having done my maths degree with the OU all those years ago it’s good to be back with them again. I still remember my old student number…

 

I hung out the second load of washed dog bedding, wrote up some CPD and then played chess, finally managing to beat the level 1000 bot. I finally had an idea what I might say about today’s instalment of the Advent Calendar,

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a Christmas film. “Bad Tidings” was rather good, but in retrospect was something of a low-budget remake of “Home Alone”.

After that we watched the last episode of “Celebrity Race Across the World”. I won’t say who won, but I will say that I was pleased with the result.

 

And I’m now going to spark up the Infinity table and download as many games as I can… apparently the firm that makes them is going out of business tomorrow… oh well… as long as the table keeps working for now…

10 December 2025 (Wednesday) - Another Early Shift

Again I woke at half past midnight having had about an hour and a half's sleep, then dozed on and off until finally giving up and getting up. I made toast, and watched another episode of "Danger UXB" in which our hero was getting jiggy with the mad professor's daughter. As one does, given the opportunity.

And with telly watched I set off to work.

 

The journey through the -hursts and the -dens was better today that it had been yesterday. It wasn't raining, and far fewer drivers had their headlights on full beam. I always say that I like working at Pembury but I hate going there, and that really does sum it up. I like working there, but the journey leaves a lot to be desired.

Still... I knew what the journey would be when I took the job on, and it is far better than the nasty bullying environment I had elsewhere for many years.

 

As I drove I listened to the pundits on the radio spouting the news. There was a lot of talk about a sperm donor whose "product" led to the births of over two hundred babies over the last twenty years... it has been announced that the chap's genetic heritage gives him a much-increased risk of cancer, and he's unwittingly passed that on. Apparently ten of his offspring have already gone down with cancers, and some have already died. And (as is so often the way) those on the radio who know absolutely nothing about science tried to make some sort of scandal out of the matter.

And there was more talk of the situation in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president has said he won't give up any land in any peace deal. He might not have the option - apparently President Trump is getting a tad fed up with him. Whether it is fair or not, the Ukrainians are fighting a war that others are paying for. I don't want to be selfish or bury my head in the sand, but is a war half-way across the world something I should be funding? 

 

I stopped off at Tesco to get lunch. Often I get little packs of carrot sticks with hummus. They didn't have those today; instead I got apple slices with peanut butter dip... at four times the calories.  And when I came to scoff it, it wasn't all that good. I'm blaming it for the guts ache which lasted all afternoon.

 

The drive home this evening was better than yesterday’s. I left work at sunset; it was rather pretty. And what with no rain it got completely dark about half an hour later than it did yesterday.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good chili which we washed down with a bottle of malbec, and with that shifted so the dogs looked on hopefully. They usually get to share dry biscuits with me when there’s a bottle of plonk on the go. I opened a packet of cheese straws.

We all liked that…

9 December 2025 (Tuesday) - Early Shift

I woke at half past midnight having had about an hour and a half's sleep, then dozed on and off until I finally gave up with the idea of laying in bed. I got up, made toast and watched an episode of "Danger UXB". As I watched I suddenly realised where I'd seen one of the characters before. Sapper Powell was in an episode of "Porridge" in which he compared himself to a frog in having a large s*xual appetite. 

As I watched telly so Treacle came downstairs with something of a sense of urgency. She charged to the back door where she squeaked at me. I opened the door, she took one look at the rain and went back to bed.

 

The rain had eased up a little by six o'clock when I set off to work. It was incredibly dark as I drove west-wards through the -hursts and the-dens, and an average of maybe one oncoming car in six dipped their headlights as they came past. I flashed every car that left their headlight on full beam. Some then dipped them… but not many.

As I drove I listened to the news as I do most days when I go to work. Apparently the company that makes Magnum ice creams has been launched on to the stock exchange where they haven't turned out to be quite the money-maker people were hoping. Interestingly all the talk was money and management and corporate, and not a word about how good or bad the actual product is.

There was talk about the situation in Ukraine. The Ukrainian premier isn't happy with the deal that Donald Trump has cooked up and so is hoping that the European leaders will have a better solution.  They may well have, but if the Ukrainians can't sell the scheme to the Americans, the USA may well just walk away and let the Europeans fund it all. Don’t forget that the American President has been given a peace prize not that the rest of the world isn't pointing and laughing at him about it very much.

Meanwhile there were question in Parliament about the Army's new tank. I would have thought that if the Army's new tank was a total disaster, then telling the world wouldn't have been a good idea, but what do I know?

 

I stopped off at Tesco to get a sandwich. What should have taken two minutes took an absolute age as I managed to pogger the self-service till. The thing got jammed. The nice lady wanted to know how much money I'd put into it. I had no idea. I don't count what I put into it; I just keep chucking small coins in until the machine says it's had enough. The nice lady said that was entirely the problem. People put too much money into the machine.  And she wasn't at all happy when I suggested that this might be God's way of saying open the proper tills.

 

I got to work and did my bit. As I did I whinged about how no one wanted to dip their headlights as I’d driven in earlier. One of the girls asked what I meant by that. After a few misunderstandings it turned out that she had no idea about dipping headlights… she just gets into the car and fiddles with the controls until some lights come on. I suspect there had been an element of that this morning.

 

I drove home in the oncoming glare of full beam headlights.

Once home I had a look at my Lego Advent Calendar, and then dozed on the sofa until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of “Game of Wool”; a rather good show which is best described as “Bake Off does knitting”.

I hope I get some sleep tonight…

8 December 2025 (Monday) - Lazy Day

Again I woke far too early. Quarter past one. And then I just dozed on and off for the rest of the night. Eventually I gave up, got up and being  Monday I stood on the scales. Another pound has come off. Result.

I made some toast and had my usual rummage round the Internet. It was fairly quiet this morning; no squabbles or petty bickering.

I sent out birthday wishes to the friend having a birthday, then took the dogs up to the woods. As we drove there was some drivel on the radio about peasant rebellions from centuries ago. Apparently hundreds of monasteries were stormed by the swarming hoards who had the arse that they weren’t allowed the wine during holy communions.

People really will argue about anything… and this is clearly nothing new.

We parked in the lower car park at Kings Wood today and did a different walk to usual. We walked about four and a half miles, and as we went we saw one other person, and that was only a hundred yards from the car park. The walk from the lower car park involved far fewer hills and quite a bit less mud, but still enough mud to need a bath when we got home.

 

I came home where we had that bath, and once I sorted us both a cuppa I saw postie had been. I had a letter from the hospital. Having given me an appointment I couldn’t keep they sent me another. I shall have to see if I can swap shifts when I’m in at work next.

I Munzed; despite only being five days into the Clan War, our team has done all the team requirements for the month. We’ve just got the individual challenges to do now, which is a result.

I Wordled. Starting with “being” was a bad move. That just gave me the “g”, but in the wrong place. I could only think of one other word with “g” but with none of the letters I’d excluded… and got it with “gravy” on the second go.

I wrote up some CPD; that took some time. I then slobbed on the sofa reading my Kindle app with Bailey for a while until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good late breakfast for tea. She then went bowling and I settled on the sofa underneath a pile of dogs watching more “Danger UXB”.

 

Rather a lazy day today. I could have done so much more had it not started raining after our walk and it getting dark so early…

7 December 2025 (Sunday) - Road Trip in the Rain

Yesterday afternoon was a blur, and yesterday evening was something of a blank. I felt rather fragile when I got up this morning.

I made toast and had a little look at the Internet to see if I’d missed much. There was quite a bit of chat on the family Whatsapp group following on from yesterday’s party.

The local newspaper was trying to stir it all up about an anti-immigration protest that happened yesterday. A couple of dozen protestors showed up to shout hatred, and about twice that number showed up to shout at those doing the shouting. If anything, the winner here was apathy.

I Munzed, and had a go at Wordle. “Doing” gave me nothing. “Truce” was a bit better, and through utter pot luck I got it on the third go with “flute”.

As we fiddled about so we had Radio Ashford playing on the Alexa. The Sunday chap isn’t a patch on the chap who does it on a Saturday…

 

We had planned some small walks across the Romney Marsh hunting out Origami Animals (it’s a geo-thing) for today, but the weather was against that. So instead we had a little road trip up to Ramsgate and back hunting out Origami Animals up there.

We started off hunting out a geocache that according to the map was on the side of a road… It was. But sadly it was on the other side of the dual carriageway we were on. Fortunately we found a lay-by and I managed to nip over the road during a lull in the traffic.

The second one was by an ancient Celtic cross monument and took quite a bit of finding.

The third one was missing. The hint explained exactly what we were looking for, and exactly where it was. The last person to find it has only ever found one geocache – I suspect they’ve taken it home to show their mum.

The fourth one was called “Canapes on the Beach” and with a name like that you’d expect it to be actually on the beach, wouldn’t you? Not on the promenade overlooking the beach?

It was raining when I was just about to pick up the fifth cache. As I reached for it so a loud voice demanded to know “What the hell are you doing!!!” There was some aggressive-looking woman walking past. I told her I was looking for something. She wanted to know if it was an important something. I told her it wasn’t. She said that if it was important she would have helped me. I remarked that it was as well that it wasn’t important. She then wanted to know what I was doing looking for something unimportant in the rain. I explained that I was minding my own business. It was at this point that “delightful individual” shoved off and left me alone.

The sixth involved parking up and going for another little walk.

And the seventh was just by a bridge overlooking the M2.

 

I thought we’d only be out for a couple of hours; we were out for over four hours. But the dogs got some little walks, and I took a few photos as we went here and there. We had targeted seven geocaches for today. We found six, and so got six origami animals – an elephant, a frog, a moose, a fox, a pig and a crab.

There’s still six more origami animal Treasures for us to get.

 

We came home for a rather late lunch. I sat on the sofa and had a little doze. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up some sausages for tea then went off to the cinema. I ironed some shirts whilst watching more episodes of “Danger UXB”. Although it is a rather old show it is quite believable in that (just like actually happened in real life) many of the characters in it die. In so many TV shows the characters seem immortal, and that simply wouldn’t work in a show like this.

 

The dogs have been really quiet this evening…

6 December 2025 (Saturday) - Pre Christmas Party

We had a rather late night last night. We’ve taken to watching “Tipping Point”; a game show in which particularly thick contestants play on a huge “penny falls” machine.

It was gone one o’clock before I got into my pit last night, but I didn’t sleep that well.

 

I gave up trying to sleep, made toast and had a look at the Internet. People were complaining about the price of a ticket to see Sparks performing in London next year. At less than a hundred quid each I felt that was rather cheap, but what do I know. Someone was whinging that this was double the price of tickets for when they were in Bexhill a couple of years ago. I was reminded of the ELO tribute band we saw several years ago whose ticket prices varied massively according to where they were playing.

And someone else on another site was asking where he could get top quality Infinity tables at rock bottom prices as he was fed up with hearing about how cheap others had got one and handing over his money only to get scammed. Generally if something seems to be too cheap to be true, it is.

 

I had someone post a comment on this blog. Someone claiming to be called “Satta King” said that last Monday’s entry was “nice post”, and then tried to post half a dozen links to gambling sites. Nice try Satta…

I had an email from the nice people at MoVember. Having raised over three hundred quid for them, they’ve sent me a pair of socks. That’s kind of them.

 

I Munzed (making a balls-up of magnetizing the tree house) and Wordled from “cause” through “harsh”, “sassy” to get “waist” on the fourth attempt. As I strained my brain at Wordle so Steve was on the radio doing the “Guess The Lyrics” competition. “Better stop dreaming of the quiet life cause it’s the one we’ll never know”? No – it was from some time ago - The Jam – “A Town Called Malice”.

 

We drove round to Repton and Dog Club. It was ten degrees warmer this morning compared to what it had been yesterday. Perhaps an icy morning might have been better; it would have frozen the mud, but it didn’t rain today which was a result. I suspect the forecast rain put a lot of people off, which was a shame. But nine dogs had a whale of a time. There was a minor disaster when we realized that Bailey was missing. The little horror had sneaked under a gap in the fence, but soon came back when I brandished the treat bag.

We drove home to Steve doing the Mystery Year competition on the radio. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out in this year. I thought 2002 – I was a year too early.

 

Once home the dogs had a bath. They’d got filthy at Dog Club. We had a cuppa and a chocolate éclair. I posted up today’s installment of the Advent story, did some chess puzzles, then went for a little drive.

 

After a couple of diversions for geo reasons (and an origami bear) we were soon at the family Christmas party. A few drinks, a rather good spread, bingo and a raffle. The dogs were a hit and were taken here, there and thither by their distant relatives.

It all got rather vague…