6 January 2014 (Monday) - Tired

I had perhaps the worst night's sleep ever last night. I went to bed with guts ache, having spent much of yesterday evening sharing left-over cheese with my dog and then having a farting contest with him (which I think I won)

er indoors ^TM" came home from bowling five minutes after I nodded off, and she clumped about until 2am, and which point she snored until 6am. I don't sleep much, but I need *some* sleep, so at 6am I kicked her awake and told her that it was now my turn to sleep.

She took no notice. I don't blame her. I wouldn't have done. But I did spend much of the day feeling extremely tired. Perhaps I shuld have phoned in sick? Were I not seriously sucking up to management I might have done so.

I checked out the world of social media over brekkie. There were several independent discussions (rants) aboult the concept of "spoilers". What one person sees as a general and non-specific comment on any given topic, another sees as having completely explained the matter and having ruined any element of surprise. This made me think; I do hope I've never given any spoilers about anything in this blog; if I do, I hope someone would tell me.

And so to work. The roads were very wet; the rivers flooding the fields. Had I been able to have parked along the A28 I would have photographed a flock of horses which were knee deep in flood water. But I couldn't so I didn't.

As I drove I listened to the radio. For no adequately explained reason much of the morning's current affairs show was being broadcast from Nigeria. Things are tough over there; I'm not entirely sure the entire thing wasn't a government plot to make the UK population (or Radio Four listeners at least) grateful for what we have got.

And so to work where I had a surprisingly good day despite feeling worn out. During my mid afternoon break I had an email. A new geocache had gone live only half a mile away from where I work. The next five hours did drag somewhat; and I was checking my email as I walked out at home time. Thatt geocache was still unfound. A two minute drive and a three minute search soon had me with thee log in my hand. An unsullied log - First to Find. Happy dance.

This morning I'd seen a lot of people getting worke up about spoilers. I'm not going to give any about this new cache; I shall content myself with saying that it was rather unusual...

5 January 2014 (Sunday) - Hawkinge

"My Boy ^TM" was something of the hero last night (apparently). Whilst having his late-night fag he saw someone breaking into a car parked nearby and he squealed them up to the pigs. It turned out that the car they were breaking into had already been stolen and was abandoned up his street.

I aam reliably informed it was all rather exciting.

After a relatively late brekkie we collected "Gordon Tracy" and three of us (and two small dogs) made our way to Hawkinge for a stroll through the mud. We had a good outing. Those of our party who enjoy eating turds of various flavours (there were two of that ilk) had their fill. Those who like hunting plastic hunted to their hearts content.

We had a really good walk before lunch just north of Reinden Wood; meeting a family who had only just taken up geocaching. We gave them some pointers and some warnings. We met a strange couple of chaps who were obviously out ferreting. And we found mud. Lots of it.

After a couple of miles we were back at the car where we lunched in relative warmth before driving a mile or so to Acrise to make our way round a second series of caches.

This second series of caches gave us a harder time than the first. One of the caches was especially tricky... let's just say that it took an hour to find. And two of them were in positions that were just the teensiest bit cheeky (if a small plastic box can be cheeky).

As always I took some photos of the day. Several of my loyal readers have sommented that they might like to come along on some of these weekend walks. Everyone is welcome; The more the merrier..

Next week (weather permitting) we are going to a place with a wonderful name - "Rough Common". If anyone wold like to come along just drop me a line. And don't be put off - having a small dog or a propensity for seeking out sandwich boxes isn'r compulsory.

4 January 2014 (Saturday) - Pantomime, Daleks

I was woken by the dustmen doing their thing at 6am this morning. A shame they couldn't have done it quieter. I came down to find four rolls of bin bags through the letter box and a letter telling me to make them last until July. The letter also mentioned food waste bags, but none had actually been delivered. I shall have to whinge to the council on Monday.

I checked email and Facebook, then took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. Bearing in mind the floods at the park yesterday and the Saturday fun(ny) run, I thought we'd walk round Frog's Island this morning. We couldn't get close as the river had burst its banks and had flooded the footpaths. We came home via a rather convoluted way (just to give the dog a walk) and I played Candy Crush Saga until "My Boy ^TM" came round.

We drove down to Folkestone for a spot of McLunch were some of th e clans gathered. Then we went round to the Leas Cliff Hall to meet up with the rest of the party for the annual dose of pantomime. Cindarella was a good show; the Dames were entertaining, Buttons was dim. All rather good; especially the choruses. I do like the panto. Last year I was wondering if I might join an an-dram group to be in a panto. I'm still wondering if there is a group I might join. I think I'd be good ono the stage.

After the show we drove round to visit "Daddies Little Angel ^TM". We had a cuppa, fussed Sid and "other dog", and came home. I had a shower, and er indoors ^TM" went round to Curry's to read them the riot act and it's relevence to sales of dishwashers. Apparenntly they are going to try to deliver another dishwasher on Wednesday afternoon.

Oh well, it's not as though I was planning to do anything other than play Candy Crush on Wednesday afternoon.

I then wasted an hour mucking about with the settings and photos on my Facebook page, and with er indoors ^TM" off out to a meeting of fellow candlemongers I found myself home alone with a small Patagonian Tripe-Hound asleep on my chest. So I got out the left-over Stilton and cheese straws and put "Escape to Victory" on the telly. I'd recorded it on to the SkyPlus box over the holiday; a standard film that gets trotted out every Christmas. I've only ever seen bits of it before; I'd never seen it in its entirety.

It was something of a disappointment.

Just before I went to bed I checked out a geocaching group on Facebook where someone had gone looking for a geocache and had found a dalek. I've found several things when out and about, but so far none of these...

3 January 2014 (Friday) - Dishwashers

I had a rather traumatic dream last night in which (at very short notice) certain denizens of Queen Street staged a pantomime. The box office of this panomime took a *lot* of money with which I had been asked to deal. I spent most of the night carrying piles of assorted coinage and notes with absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be doing with it.

I woke feeling more tired than when I went to bed. I got up to find "Furry Face ^TM" fast asleep on the sofa. He didn't stir at all as I came down; and I got just the smallest wag of his tail when I stroked him. He too seemed to have had a bad night.

Over brekkie my piss boiled. After one bright day yesterday the storms had returned with a vengeance. The Prime Minister was whinging that the insurance companies hadn't done enough for victims the current floods.

And victims of floods nearby were complaining to the Prime Minister that not eniugh had been done. Why bother? What do they honestly expect from a Conservative Prime Minister?

It is at times like this that the stupidity of the general public wind me up. Leaving aside the blatent opportunism of the Dribbling Democraps, the UK's political arena is one in which the electorate has two choices: a strong controlling government which sticks its nose in everything, or a weak laid back government which does nothing but lets industries and privitised companies do it for them (whilst profiteering).

Vicitms of floods are finding out the (very) hard way that socialism isn't always as black as it's painted.

Normally when not working I take "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk almost immediately after breakfast. But not today. The dishwasher was being delivered. We had a message; a reminder that it was being delivered between 7am and 10:59am (rather precise!) so I stayed in and waited. My little dog didn;t understand and he got rather fractious as we waited. And waited. I had a phone call shortly after 10am to say they would be along in twenty minutes time. Eventually they arrived shortly before mid day. They announced that they wouldn't take the old one away (which we'd paid for them to do), that they wouldn't plumb in the new one (which we'd paid for them to do) and that the new one wouldn't fit anyway (which it didn't).

They suggested that they might take the dishwasher away with them, and that we should argue it out with Currys in the morning. They also gave us the warning that Currys are a bunch of idiots who don't know what they are doing anyway.

Filled with confidence with sales and delivery teams I think the best thing we can do is get a refund and go to another company.

We eventually got our walk round the park rather later than usual. Much of the park was flooded. At one pount I lost my dog. I found him stranded on a grassy outcrop. Normally just a little patch of high ground, today it was an island in a swamp. Two of our usual paths were completely blocked with floodwater, and the river looked very high so we gave up on the idea of a long walk.

Once home I did the Hoovering (with a Dyson) and then ironed. As I ironed I watched the recent Sky TV adaptation of the novel "Moonfleet". "Moonfleet" was based on a novel I was forced to read in my second year at the Hastings Academy for Budding Geniuses; and I can remember that book being awful. Today's TV adaptation wasn't awful; but it was dull. It went on for two hours and nothing really happened at all.

I then fell asleeep for much of the rest of the afternoon...

2 January 2014 (Thursday) - FTF in the Mud

After a week or so of reasonable sleep I was wide awake at 4am, and watching episodes of "Family Guy" by 6am. Some episodes of that show are really amusing and entertaining; today's (in which Stewie attempted to murder Santa) was just lame.

And so, after a really good Christmas break, it was back to work. As always I listened to the radio on my way there. For all that the show often winds me up, I do like the morning's radio show as it makes me think. Even if I disagree with it.

Today's morning news,current events and discussion show had a guest editor (they do that over the Christmas break) and consequently the show was absolutely terrible. I can't actually remember anything worthy of note being on the program. Instead they concentrated on what I can only describe as "leftie-hippy-ism" with far too much hippie singing and too much bad poetry.

The show was so dire that I actually turned the radio off.

Yesterday afternoon I saw that a new geocache had gone live in the Canterbury area. In Ashford the things are hunted down like wild animals. In Canterbury no one really bothers chasing First to Find. This morning over brekkie I saw the thing was still waiting to be found for the first time, so I set off a little early to see if I could get a cheeky FTF before work

The cache was in Harbledown. I found Harbledown easily enough, but it was at this point that my sat-nav app gave up the ghost and refused to do anything. Three or four re-boots seemed to achieve nothing, so I asked locals for directions to Duke's Meadow. No one had heard of the place. I drove about for a bit, and was on the point of giving up when sat-nav burped and told me I was one hundred metres from my destination.

I could see where I was supposed to be; and I plodded through a swamp to get there. I solved the small puzzle, and found that my final target wasn't too far away. So I swam through more swamp, and braved jungle before finally getting to my prize. FTF - my fifty-fifth FTF, and my first on a multi-cache.

I would have done a little celebratory victory dance if not for the fact that I was ankle deep in sloppy muddy leaf litter.

Back to the car, where I scraped off the worst of the mud. By now I was running a little short of time so rather than going to a supermarket I stopped at the little corner shop in Martyr's Field for the makings of lunch. I asked them if they had any fruit. The chap behind the counter looked blankly at me. I tried being more specific; the fellow had no idea what bananas were, but he had heard of apples. He didn't sell them though.

From his attitude you would think I'd asked if he sold anthrax or firearms; he seemed so shocked to be asked for fruit.

Once at work I did my bit whilst looking out of the window. After ten days of storm-ridden holiday today I was at work looking out at glorious sunshine. Once dried I brushed most of the mud off of my trousers and did my bit until my bit was done.

I came home to find Rab C Nesbit was on the telly. I like him...

1 January 2014 (Wednesday) - Walking in the Rain

Last night I spent much of the evening with back ache. Overnight the back ache subsided only to give way to gut rot. I'm not sure which is worse.

I got up early to chase an FTF for which I had been primed. And in a classic example of poetic justice in action I did not get that FTF. In retrospect I am pleased about that, even if I did have a rant at the time.

I came home, sulked, and then we rallied the troops and set off to Little Burton Farm. A new series of geocaches had gone live in honour of it being a new year, and the lady who had set them had made the offer of bacon sarnies at her house for anyone who fancied some brekkie before the walk. That was a kind offer which I was not going to turn down.

Eventually with sarnies scoffed we set out to the designated meeting place for the walk. The forecast bad weather had put a lot of people off, but seven of us set off. "Team Peter" (no - I don't know why either) made a good start. I certainly did. I found the first cache, popped it out of its hide, and when the rest of "Team Peter" found that hide I showed them the cache that was once on it.

And I was amazed to see that we were First to Find, despite two hours having passed since publication.

The second cache gave us a problem. We'd missed the footpath we needed to take, and found ourselves faced with a small river. One of our number thought he might jump the river, and so he did. "The Hurks" jumped, landed on the opposite river bank, slipped, and fell backwards straight into the drink. Oh, it was so funny. He was laying on his back, stretched out in the river. It was one of those moments that was hilarious; all the time it was happening to someone else.

Once I'd finished laughing, claiming a second FTF came as something of an anticlimax.

Despite a serious effort we couldn't find the third cache of the series, and by the time we'd claimed FTF on the fourth cache the rain was coming down rather heavily.

We were soon in Wye; which is a lot closer on foot than you might think, and it was here that we found that other people were goecaching too. We'd been beaten to these caches, but we didn't mind (really). We made our way through the village, and on past Perry Court farm to the A28. I drive past that place on the way to work, and have often seen the footpath signs. Today I was walking those footpaths. It was a shame that I was wriniging wet, but you can't have everything. It was shortly after this point that three more of our party threw in the towel and went home. What was once a team of seven was now only three.

We had a dilemma in Boughton Aluph. We found the geocache. It was quite obvious. It was just a long way up a tree. It will keep till another time.

It was at this point that others walking the route caught up with us, and with insults exchanged we had a rather soggy walk back into Kennington.

We then drove home to change into dry pants, and then went back to the Conningbrook where a meet-up of cachers was in full flow. We met friends old and new. We were pleased to see that "Gordon Tracy" had dried out (and had got the beers in). And we talked "hunting plastic boxes in the rain" for well over an hour. I had gone there with the naive idea to just have a glass of coca-cola; I ended up shifting three pints; including one of Shepherd Neame's Christmas Ale which (at 7% abv) isn't to be guzzled lightly.

And so home where I spent much of the rest of the day sleeping off the Christmas Ale...

31 December 2013 (Tuesday) - New Year's Eve

After the excesses of last night I didn't get out of my pit until gone 10am this morning, That happens so rarely. Over a spot of brekkie I had a look at the New Year's Honours List. I suppose that there are decent people in that list who have been given recognition for tireless effort in charitable work. Mind you there is no denying that a lot of awards have been given to people in recognition for various things for which they already get six (or more) figure salaries.

Having seen decent people doing all sorts of community work for years for no reward, and all sorts of other people getting medals for doing their paid job I am utterly convinced that the so-called "honours" system should be scrapped.

I took "Furry Face ^TM" for his walk as he seemed to be going stir-crazy. We had an urban walk today as the fields would be so wet after the rain, and I wanted to see how many other people had had their fences blown down.

We came home just as er indoors ^TM" was going out shopping, so I made myself a cuppa and did the monthly accounts. Could be a whole lot worse I suppose. I backed up the year's digital photos; a job which didn't take anywhere near as long as I thought it might, and with the weather against doing anything I then played Candy Crush until er indoors ^TM" came home.

We then went down to Folkestone for the traditional New Year bash. Excellent food, good fun. I learned the dangers of hob nobs.

A shame that a recovering back decided to act up.... 2013 hasn't been a bad year really; but it could have gone better in a few places. Let's seen what the future holds...