21 December 2012 (Friday) - Still Here

It turned out that the world didn't end today after all. Which was probably for the best. After a quick spot of brekkie the Folkestonians arrived. I then did the run to drop people off at work because everyone else was off on the beer this afternoon.

I came home, and ably assisted by "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" we tidied the living room. It took a Herculean effort, and we tidied one room at the expense of another by merely lugging all the clutter upstairs. But we got there. Whilst at it we found all sorts of stuff, including a bag of pressies bought for last Christmas. For want of anything better to do, we then took a carfull of cardboard for recycling, then took the dogs for a little stroll. And then the dogs covered "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" in mud, so we came home to wash the dogs and "Daddies Little Angel ^TM"'s clothes.

A cup of coffee, and we tidied some more. It's amazing how much tidying one can do with a bit of assistance. And then hoovering. Fragments of what I can only describe as "dog-related wreckage" were everywhere.

Once I'd got to the point of being able to tidy no more Lisa called, and I popped out for half an hour's working on a puzzle geocache. I have been criticised in the past for putting out caches which are seen to be too easy. This one was frankly impossible. We gave up trying to figure out a fourteen figure key combination with absolutely no clue after half an hour's effort. We had some ideas, but none were successful. I shall keep thinking.

Home again, into my glad rags, and the Bat arrived and drove us into town. To Wetherspoons where we met the Rear Admiral, and after a pint of the plum porter we made our way to the Chippery. I'd brewed some ale for the gathering. It went down very well with everyone else, but for myself I didn't like it very much: too fruity. Sam had done an excellent spread, and whilst I didn't drink that much, I certainly ate too much. An excellent evening with friends; we finally staggered home shortly after 1am, when we then did battle with a turkey...

20 December 2012 (Thursday) - That's All, Folks...

Being on a late start made for something of a lie-in, even if my beloved's alarm did go off at five past seven. An odd time for which to set an alarm, but what do I know? I got up and spent a few minutes on my morning constitutional - having lost a lot of weight, I'm a bit loose in places. Toning up is a must-do. But have you ever tried to do twenty sit-ups with a Patagonian Tripehound sitting on your chest whilst trying to chew your ears? It's a form of exercise which doesn't come easily. So I abandoned sit ups and spent the time terrorising the dog instead.

After a swift bit of brekkie I set off to work. The rain was very heavy, as was the traffic. Or, that is traffic was heavy in every direction except the one in which I was going. I drove all the way with a sense of foreboding. It seemed that everyone knew of some delay, accident or obstruction that I didn't. Why else would no one be going that way? But I got to Canterbury without event. I wonder why every other direction was heaving with traffic except where I was going. Odd.

For once there was actually something of interest in the news. The star Tau Ceti would seem to have a family of (at least) five planets around it, and one "super-Earth" in the habitable zone. It's a far cry from having discovered aliens, but it's quite an impressive discovery. I felt sorry for the expert astronomer who was being interviewed on the subject on the radio. The news commentators were full of sarcastic puerile comments about little green men, but never once actually asked anything sensible; not even the name of the star in question.

Interestingly the next guest to be interviewed (on the matter of the management of the BBC) told the same news commentators to stop their snide comments.

There was also trivia. Apparently hideous Christmas jumpers are making a comeback. And, making a mockery of all of the talk of recession, shops are selling out of these jumpers; some of them costing over a thousand pounds. Who can spare a thousand pounds to spend on a jumper? If any of my loyal readers have money to burn in these austere times, spare a thought for "Yours Truly" with "er indoors ^TM" and Furry Face to support.... (provided the world don't end tomorrow)

Just in case the crackpots are right and the world does end tomorrow, can I take this opportunity to wish everyone what they would wish themselves at such a momentous occasion. Ends of the world don't happen that often.

Having said that I've lived through quite a few ends of the world. My first (in 1980) was something of a disappointment, and since then I've never really taken the occasion seriously. Having had a quick look on Wikipedia it would seem I've survived a couple of dozen apocalypses. So far they have all passed off uneventfully, but tomorrow might just be the big one. If it is, I'll just say "so long - and thanks for all the fish"...

19 December 2012 (Wednesday) - Guts Ache...

I was woken by my alarm this morning. That's twice in one month that I've not beaten it by two hours. I'm looking on having had so much sleep as being a good thing. I'm also reminded that a few weeks ago I downloaded a sleep management app for my phone. Perhaps I might turn the thing on? (The app that is - not the phone)

I got myself into gear promptly this morning, left for work a little earlier than usual and got that geocache that I mentioned yesterday hidden. There are precious few of the things in the Canterbury area, and fewer active geocachers over there, so I expect that activity on this one will be slow. Having said that, it was found for the first time about an hour after it went live. Perhaps the denizens of Canterbury are getting more into this silly game?

The morning's radio program had news about how social media will be policed in future. There are apparently concerns that prosecuting people for writing "offensive, shocking or disturbing" messages would have a very bad effect on the right of free speech. I can't see it really affecting me or this blog. As someone who writes a lot I might be critical of the world and those in it, but I try to avoid giving offence. Sometimes I even manage to do so.

Social media websites are being encouraged to embrace this new legislation, and persistent "trolls" will be prosecuted. This could be a good thing - a family member has recently been the victim of cyber-bullying. A mechanism to stop this would be good. But will it make social media a better place? Not really. There's no secret that I am very loathe to post in internet forums because of the bad feeling that is rife in so many of these places. Realistically I blame the schools for not teaching people literacy in the first place. Internet forums are places where people disagree. But how many of us can disagree without becoming disagreeable? How should one disagree politely or civilly?

"I disagree with you for the following reasons..." is a valid statement. "I disagree with you therefore you are stupid" or "You disagree with me therefore you are wrong" or "because you believe "A" you therefore believe "B", "C" and "D"" are not valid. However statements like this seem to form the basis of most of the (so-called) on-line discussions.

At school I learned logic and debating skills. There is a world of difference between reasoned debate and petty squabbling. It's a shame that the Internet can't see more of reasoned debate and less of petty squabbling.

My phone rang. The most recent fruit of my loin had come home for the day and had taken Fudge for a walk. Whilst they were out, a bird had startled both dogs. Sid hadn't been bothered by the feathered fellow, but Fudge had felt affronted, and leapt off after it in pursuit. The bird apparently flew into a hedge. Fudge also flew into that hedge, and got stuck. Daddies Little Angel wasn't at all impressed at having to extricate a Patagonian Tripehound from thick privet. (Apparently the Kennel Club has yet to recognise "Patagonian Tripehound" as an official breed of dog)

I had a good lunch today - the works Christmas buffet made for a serious feast. So much so that I gave myself a rather spectacular guts ache that lasted most of the afternoon and well into the evening.

We also had the exchange of "Secret Santa" gifts. I got a Christmas collar for Fudge and a couple of dog mince pies. He likes the mince pies, but he's not keen on his collar. I expect he will eat it before the weekend. Last Saturday I bought him a nice new rope toy and it is now nothing more than broken fragments. I suppose I can't really expect that much quality from the pound shop, but I live in hope.

And so to bed; hoping my stomach will settle....

18 December 2012 (Tuesday) - Luvaduck

I felt quite ill when I woke this morning - headache, runny nose and a general feeling of bleagh. Fudge didn't seem quite one hundred per cent either. His ears were cold, which seemed unusual. As the day went on I think we both perked up a bit; even if Furry Face did sleep an awful lot.

Once "er indoors ^TM" set off to work I took Fudge for a little walk. I had some geocache maintenance to do. One of my caches is in a fake snail shell. Or that is it was. Now that it's gone missing, been replaced and gone missing again I've replaced the snail shell with a bog standard magnetic key holder. There are those who look down their noses at magnetic key holders as geocaches. But equally only yesterday I got an email of thanks about one of my series of caches which consists of seven of these key holders. And a magnetic key holder costs fifty pence whereas a fake snail costs over a fiver.

Whilst we were out we hid another cache. When we first started this game the third cache I ever found was round the corner from my house. However "Horse Guards" has not been looked after by its owner, was marked as needing maintenance back in August, and yesterday it was archived (removed from the list of active caches). I've been trying to contact the person who owned the cache for ages, but to no avail.

With that cache now gone, the way was left clear for my latest scheme. A geocache which is blatantly obvious, but rather hard to actually get at. Caches are rated on a difficulty/terrain scheme on which the difficulty and terrain are graded from a score of one (dead simple) to five (rather tricky!). I've rated "luvaduck" as difficulty 1 / terrain 4. The cache is obvious. As the name suggests the cache is in a duck (a floating plastic decoy duck). The difficult bit is that the duck is anchored in the middle of the river.

On arrival at where I planned to place the cache I let Fudge off the lead and spent several minutes trying to carefully arrange everything. And when I finally realised that I couldn't do it in a controlled manner without getting very wet I just chucked the whole lot into the river. There was a huge splash, and in a triumph of pot luck over the odds the duck ended up just where I wanted it. And then Fudge went mad. For some reason he didn't like seeing the duck in the water, and he wouldn't stop barking at it.

We came home and did the necessary on-line activation of the duck and I wondered how long it would be before it was found. I got a text from Lisa at 1pm to say that she had done the cache and found two others had already signed the log before her.

Fudge and I then went up to the post office to collect a parcel. My Chinese puzzle box has arrived. I shall use that in another geocache. One with a very easy terrain setting (very easy to get to), but rather tricky to actually open up. A 4:1 to complement today's 1:4. It's my intention to hide that on a bridge I know in Canterbury tomorrow morning; if only I can get going early enough tomorrow.

We came home and I did some laundry and then the hoovering. Fudge seemed terrified by the hoover. And then whilst I scoffed the Chinese take-away that "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" had left laying around I watched a film about the life of the famous footballer George Best. A watchable film, but whilst it was on Fudge fell asleep on my lap. I really didn't have the heart to move him, so I resigned myself to watching rubbish on the telly whilst he noisily snored the afternoon away.

"My Boy ^TM" came to visit, and he was watching the telly with us when there was a huge crash outside. Some twit had come down the road far too fast and had swerved into the cars parked outside the shop just over the road. Fortunately no one was hurt, but it made quite a mess.

And then being Tuesday the clans gathered. Banana bread and mince pies. Very tasty...

17 December 2012 (Monday) - Grain Sea Fort

Bikes boil my piss. Well, to be fair it's not the bikes so much as the people riding them. Take yesterday for example. I had an interesting altercation with a plank on a mountain bike. I was bringing up the rear of the group with whom I was out walking. I watched the party ahead of me scatter in all directions as an idiot flew downhill through them on his mountain bike. By the time he'd reached me he'd slowed down somewhat. He then launched a bitter tirade about how rude everyone else had been by not saying hello to him. When I intimated that perhaps they didn't like his flying down footpaths on his bike (like a bat out of hell) he got quite mouthy, claiming that he had a God-given right to do just that. Silly fellow.

And then this morning I nearly mowed down two cyclists whilst driving to work. Both were out on their bikes on main roads before 7a.m. Sunrise this morning was at 07.56 - it was really dark when I nearly killed them. Both of my potential victims were clothed entirely in black, neither of them had any lights or reflectors on their bikes at all. And one of them was cycling down the wrong side of the road.

And so to work, which was rather uncomfortable. The elastic had gone in my underpants, and I spent much of the day hoiking my undercarriage about; doing the job my pants didn't. It's the sort of thing which is rather entertaining all the time it is happening to someone else. But when it's your own junk, it's a bit of a nuisance.

And then home earlier than usual. I got changed, and was soon zooming up the motorway with Lisa and Earle. A call had gone up on the Kent geocaching page that people were going to try for the cache in the sea fort which is about half a mile off of the coast of the Isle of Grain and is only accessible at low tide. Low tide as at about 9pm, so a dozen hardy (daft) souls met up and marched along the causeway. The first few hundred yards were the muddiest, but people who had been there before had already gone out to the fort and left a trail of beacons for us to follow, and set up a ladder. And also arranged for hot drinks to be waiting for us all. Another of our number brought muffins, and having explored the fort we had an impromptu sixty-fourth birthday party for one of our number. I was impressed - the birthday boy had received a kidney transplant less than a month previously.

Being a tunnel rat at heart it was odd - reminiscent of the architecture of the tunnels at Capel and Dover, but not underground. And having a geocache there was a nice added bonus. It would have been good to have explored more but time and tide (literally) were pressing. So we made our way back along a causeway which I felt was noticeably wetter than when we'd gone out.

Back on the mainland we looked for (and found) three more caches that were in the area. They took some finding - the local geology apparently had a lot of ferrite which stuffs up GSP readings.

And so home shortly after midnight to find the Chinese take-away that he most recent fruit of my loin had left. That made for a nice bit of supper.

We shall have to go back and explore that fort in the daylight...

16 December 2012 (Sunday) - Yalding

I was woken by my alarm this morning. That hardly ever happens. Up, brekkied, dressed and out of the house by 8am. We collected Hursky and made our way to Yalding. On the way we drove past Teston Bridge picnic site; somewhere which is very special to me. The river was very full, the weir was under water. And there seemed to be a lot of building work going on. I wonder what's happening there?

Pausing only briefly a couple of times for caches we were passing, we soon met up with friends old and new in Yalding, and nine of us took Fudge for a walk. Along the Yalding Hill Walk, a series of twenty (or so) geocaches. Up hills, down dales, through swamps. Finding supposedly leaning trees that had actually fallen, shouting at small dogs for rolling in fox poo; it was a really good walk. And at the end of the walk as a bonus we were given co-ordinates for a further five geocaches which were slightly more tricky.

One of these boiled my piss. The official rules of hiding geocaches state that caches should not be put near playparks. The actual rules say that only caches hidden by me should not be near playparks. We found yet another cache on top of a kiddies play area. I've actually started compiling a list of such caches. It's getting longer. When I'm next feeling in a black mood I might just squeal them all up. But not today.

Finding all the Yalding Hill caches took just over three and a half hours. We made our way into the village and sat at the seats by the war memorial to eat our picnic. Disaster! Someone (me) had left our sarnies at home. Fortunately we were with excellent company who ensured we didn't go hungry.

We then said our goodbyes to some of our number, and three of us (and a small dog) then slowly made our way home via whatever geocaches we could find on the way. We stopped off for quite a serious stroll around Collier Street where we found four caches. One named in honour of a pig which once lived nearby, One in the fields where hops are grown.

And then on to Staplehurst where we gave up on two: one being a muilti-cache which seemed to lead us on to a point over a mile away, and another which required a serious hike up and down through the village; as it was getting dark we decided against that. Instead we found "Dog's Cache" in the dark (the light had completely failed by this time). And with only one more pit stop we made our way home. A successful day's geocaching having found over thirty caches. And, as always, there are photos of the day on-line.

Once home Fudge had a bath. He'd gone out wearing his coat,but it had got soaked whilst we were walking, And he'd also done his signature move in fox poo (what is the attraction?) so a scrub was necessary.

And we found the sandwiches I'd prepared for lunch sitting in the kitchen where I'd left them. Waste not, want not. They made for a passable bit of tea.

And with "er indoors ^TM" off bowling and an exhausted little Fudge fast asleep on my lap I wasted the rest of the evening watching rubbish on UK Gold. My face is glowing; I seem to have caught the sun today.

Five days until mid winter and I've caught the sun....

15 December 2012 (Saturday) - Rather Quiet, Really...

The intention was to catch upon sleep last night. I dozed on the sofa with Fudge on my lap until gone midnight, then lay in bed chatting on Facebook till gone 1.30am. And was woken by the noise of the rain shortly after.

I spent a little while this morning trying to post onto the astro club's Facebook page. What I wanted to say was "Hi all. As a club we have display boards and a *lot* of posters for them. But 99% of these posters are hopelessly out of date. Being a very mean treasurer I am very loathe to spend good money on new posters which will also get out of date.

Instead might I ask the membership to design posters for the club. We have some very accomplished astro-photographers. A print on A3 or A4, maybe a description. laminated would be good. Or why not design something on a planet? All contributions gratefully received"

I posted that, and then deleted it six times because of spelling mistakes I kept finding. The final version has still got a typo in it, but I can't be bothered to change it for a seventh time.

Here's something of interest. t would seem some normal people watched a geocacher doing his thing and were suspicious. They called the police. A town was cordoned off for hours, and the poor geocacher ended up with a police caution.

In theory this is entirely avoidable. For all that caches are reviewed by experienced cachers before they go live, these reviewers do not have local knowledge. To get round this, when cachers find a geocache in a place which could be construed as less than ideal they have the option to say so in the log that appears on-line. In theory this should point out any shortcomings in problematical geocaches.

In practice this doesn't work. It's become the accepted practice that these logs should only be used in a very positive way, and any log which does not gush praise regardless of any problems is frowned upon, and then deleted.

And then shopping. First to the outlet centre. Every time I go there the shops are different. We got some Christmas pressies, then walked into town for more Christmas pressies. We had a look in the clothes shops and I couldn't see anything that I couldn't get cheaper in Asda or Tesco. A quick bit of McLunch, then on to the pound shops to pick up some bargains. And with bargains bought we came home, collected Furry Face and took him for a walk though some very wet and muddy fields. Whilst out we fitted in a couple of geocaches. Well, we were in the area and it would be a shame not to. The pup did get wet and muddy though. And was soon shivering. He will be wearing his T shirt and coat tomorrow whether he likes it or not.

And with "er indoors ^TM" off to the film night watching a film I wouldn't have minded watching I dusted off an old presentation I once gave to the astro club. I'm presenting at our upcoming Stargazing Live extravaganza, and am fast running out of time to have it all ready...