13 January 2014 (Monday) - Road Trip

A little while ago ago a colleague got a new job in Southhampton, and mentioned that moving might be problematical as he didn't drive. I said that if he paid for the hire of a van in which we could load all his stuff I would drive it for him. Today was moving to Southhampton day.

I went to pick up the van. I knew there would be a delay. We'd booked the van some weeks ago, but still the company wouldn't get the van ready in advance. Instead it is their policy to phone around at opening time to see which of their nearby branches had the long-base van we had booked.

Once they located it they went to get it. They had guaranteed they would have te van we had bokoed; but they had no idea how far away it would be. As luck would have it they had the van within half an hour. We had been warned that there might have been a two hour delay if the van had been a long way away.

I then drove over to Canterbury and found th house we wre emptying and we loaded up. How eeasy it is to type that. Loading up was back-breaking and took the best part of two hours. Once loaded we had to take the keys of the house that was being left back to the letting agents. It only took a few minutes, and we got to see two rather demonstrative girls who were obviously in love (with each other) being rather expressive about the matter in the High Street.

The van came with built-in sat-nav so we programmed it for Southampton and set off. To begin with the sat-nav was impressive; warning us of road works and re-routing us around the A249. But once we got as far as the A3 it decided to take us cross country, put us onto a rather straight A-road with no posible turning points, and then changed its mind about where we should be going. It was at that point that the torrential rain gave way to intense hail. Trying to do a U-turn in that weather wasn't an experience I'd like to repeat.

Eventually we found ourselves on the M3, and as Fleet serrvices loomed up through the black clouds we realised that we were both rather hungry. Burger King Chicken McWotsit slipped down very well, and as we made or way back to the van I had a quick look-see on my geocaching app. There was a cache not a hudred yards away, so we went and did it. Or, that is, I did it. My colleague looked on in amazement; I won't say where the cache was, but tens of thousands of people go right past this thing every day and have no idea that it is there.

I think I might have another convert to the cause.

With cache found and lunch scoffed we made our way onto Southampton. At Junction 13 of the M3 the Sat-Nav was insistent that we should turn off. So we did. As we came down the slip road off of the motorway the Sat-Nav changed its mind and wanted us back on the motorway. Oh how we laughed.

But soon enough we were at Imperial Avenue. As we unloaded the van so the rain started. It only rained heavily for five minutes, but that was enough to get us absolutely soaked.

Funily enough, despite moving to an upstairs flat we managed to unload the van in about half the time it took to load the thing. We then paused for a little while to catch our breath, and then on realising there wasn't a lot more that I could do we said our goodbyes and I set off. I activated my geo-app and found a relatively nearby geocache. My first geocache over a hundred miles from home. One huundred and one and a half miles to be precise.

For all that we go out every weekend, I don't actually go very far away. This is probably the first time since our last holiday in Weymouth (four years ago) that I have been more than one hundred miles from home.

Having got a geocache in Hampshire my plan was to then come home a rather convoluted route through Wiltshire and Hampshire to colect a few more geocaches in a few more counties. But as the rain got worse and worse so I went off of the idea of night caching. I've never been a fan of caching at night, and I can't pretend I was completely confident driving that huge van about round strange roads. So instead I came home. I stopped off for a McFlurry at Cobham services, and by the time I'd re-filled the van wth diesel I was eventually home by 9pm.

I quite enjoyed today's road trip.

12 January 2014 (Sunday) - Rough Common

For some inexplicable reason my innards weren't right last night. Is it just possible that a surfiet of chili wasn't sitting well on top of a gallon of ale?

I checked ot Facebook over a bit of brekkie. Last night's "Stargazing Live" seemed to have gone down well. It usually does.

And then we set off (a little later than planned) to collect "Gordon Tracy". Three us us and two smal dogs made our way to Upper Harbledown. We were soon in Rough Common Woods which, contrary to first impressionss, is a rather posh part of a rather posh area. The car park in the woods was incredibly buisy, with a small car selling a range of fresh-made coffees at exhorbitant prices.

We walked a circular route round the woods; picking up about twenty geocaaches as we went. It was a good day to be out. The rain held off, but the ground was muddy. The dogs got filthy.

I've never been to Rough Common Woods before, and if not for hunting tupperware I doubt I would ever have gone there. It was a good place for a day out.

After three (or so) hours we were back where we started, but with a couple of hours of daylight left it was too early to go home, so we drove down to Lower Harbledown where, after another hour's walking, we found another half a dozen caches. On this walk "Furry Face ^TM" was allowed off of his lead, and (for a change) he was really well behaved.

I took a few photos whilst we were out.

Once home a small dog had a bath; being so low to the ground he really accumulates the mud. And after a rather good bit of tea er indoors ^TM" set off bowling. I set the dishwasher doing its thing, and set the washing machine doing it's monthly de-scale. I would also have done my dog's monthly anti-flea treatment but we would seem to have run out of the jollop. We'll go to see the vet in the week...

11 January 2014 (Saturday) - Double Booked

I was woken by the sound on (not forecast) rain against the window this morning. It's got to stop raining soon!

Over brekkie I checked out social media amd my piss boiled. Why are intelligent people taken in by crackpot nonsense? Someone rather close to me was posting good things about Rife machines. For any of my loyal readers who are unfamiliar wityh the things, Rife machines are crackpottery. The claims made about them which allude to "the human cancer virus" show a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of the disease. The claims made about them concerning microscopy show a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of viruses and microscopes.

Let's be clear on the matter - Rife machines are evil in that they offer false hope to desperate people who pay money they can ill afford on a treatment that won't help them. There may well be a placebo effect in some cases, but the use of Rife machines has been blamed for the deaths of cancer patients who may well have been cured by conventional therapy (Hills, Ben (2000-12-30). "Cheating Death". Sydney Morning Herald. to give but one of many examples)

Thaat was very serious and sensible wasn't it?

After tht little outburst we rallieed the troops and set off to Gillingham where the monthly cachers meet-up was taking place. Rather than hunting tupperware I got chatting with fellow hunters of tupperware. Time flew (almost as fast as the ale flew down my throat), and suddenly I realised we were two hours late for "Stargazing Live".

We arrived half way through procedings, suitably anaesthetised, and made the most of what was left of the evening. A clear night made for opportunity for telescopes; the chili potatoes were good.

Next year hopefully the two events won't co-incide...

10 January 2014 (Friday) - Tomorrow People

Over brekkie (shared with my dog) I watched the first episode of the re-vamped "The Tomorrow People". The original TV series was something that I loved as a child in the 1970s. It was brought back to our screens about twenty years ago and was rather awful; and it's been done again by an American company as a far more adult-based show. I actually quite liked it; there are a *lot* of nods to the original series, and I'm reliably informed that some of the original cast are going to make cameo appearances.

However... (and there is always a "however" in my world) in many ways it may well end up as just another story about superheroes trying to fit into a "normal" world; a story which was original in 1975, but now has been done to death by shows such as "X-Men", "The 4400", "Lois and Clark", "No Ordinary Family" and countless other shows.

Once I'd scraped the ice from my car I set off to work. Today the talk on the radio was all about a possible referendum for the UK's continued membership of the European Union. One of the senior Euro-crats was calling for the British media to start gving a fair coverage to all things euro-related.

I think the lady might have a point. the BBC is hardly impartial; after all I cannot remember the last time they said anything positive about Islam, to give but one example of the media's bias.

After the current affairs program was "Desert Island Discs". And unlike the show's standard way of operating, tehy had someone interesting on the show; the well-know survivalist Ray Mears. Listening to him was rather interesting.

I filled the car with petrol, and finally I've accrued enough Morrisons petrol points to get a money-off voucher. it was only worth a fiver, but that is a fiver of my money that I won't have to squander on squirting my armpits.

And as I had a few minutes before work I went round to the cheapo-bargains shop. For some time I've been looking for a USB phone charger that I can plug into my car's cigarette lighter. Today the cheapo-bargains shop had some. Result !

And then to work, and very little of note happened from then onward....

9 January 2014 Thursday) - Malware

I had a reasonable night's sleep (for a change) and came down to find the newly plumbed-in dishwashed hadn't leaked overnight. er indoors ^TM" set off getting the er indoors ^TM"-mobile through its MOT and I set all the washing machines to scrubbing dishes and undercrackeres and took my dog for a walk. We went on a rather circuitous walk today' through the park to Gaswoks Lane, then past the Foundry and along Victoria Road to the ford. From here we came back through the park, and home via Oak Tree Road. As we went I couldn't help but nosey through people's windows. a lot of peple still have their Christmas decorations up you know.

Whilst we were out we ran into several old friends, and had quite a few good old gossips. What woould normally have been just over an hour's walk took us nearly two hours. Once home I found I'd not actually set the washing machine going. That was rather a waste of time.

Whilst the washing machine did have a go at my smalls I send out some invites to a birthday party. If any of my loyal readers haven't recevied an invite (and would like one) could you please let me know.

I then backed up the last week's worth of blog entries and was rather ashamed of all the spelling misstakes. Unfortunately OpenOffice doesn't have a spell checker. So I downloaded what seemed to be the official OpenOffice dictionary (from the OpenOffice website) only to find it was a conduit hack package. I then spent an hour or so trying to get one thousand (or so) suspect files off of my laptop. Perhaps I'm naive, but I never expected a link from OpenOffice's startup screen to take me to a hacking download site.

I suppose this is the trouble with open source software - you never really know who's giving you something for nothing.

Whilst countless scans ran and re-ran on my laptop I watched the last two episodes of "Death comes to Pemberley". I watched the first episode yesterday; it was slow. However the show picked up somewhat in today's two episodes. Mr Wickham was something of a beast; but then he always was. Mind you I wwasn't entirely sure that Colonel Fitzwilliam's intentions to Miss Georgiana weren't entirely honorable.

With the D'arcy family once more happy I wondered why the laptop scanniing was taking so long. Eventually I realised that what I thought was a PC scan was yet another scam. Any downloaded conduit removal tool merely claimed to find hundreds of files and then asked for money to removel them. In the end good old AVG and Windows Defender came to the rescue. And these people helped too.

After quite a loot of farting about I think I've got my laptop fixed. if anyone gets any iffy messgaes from me then clearly the spybots have eluded me. And if anyone knows how to get a spell checker into OpenOffice I would love to know the secret...

8 January 2014 (Wednesday) - New Dishwasher

I could probably have done with an earlier night last night; having spent far too long dozing on the sofa before finally going to bed at 1am.

Over brekkie I read something which... what can I say. Read the article here. Some young lad has been seen on telly sobbing his heart out becuse his favourite football team lost. The managers of that club are trying to find that lad to offer him VIP tickets as an apology for the upset caused.

Shouldn't the police and social services be trying to trace the lad to put him with parents and carers who could help the boy to realise what does and doesn't matter in life?

And before anyone posts in hate mail, I know in advance that nearly everyone who does feel strongly about this young lad's tears will feel that it is only wrong because he is sobbing about the wrong football team.

What is it about football that instills such passion? If you watch ten minutes of the sport, (be it the world cup final, or half a dozen children kicking a ball round the park) you really have seen all that the game has to offer. Don't get me wrong - I don't dislike football as such; I just don't understand what's (apparently) so good about it. And despite over forty years of asking that question no one has ever given anything approaching a reasoned explanation about why such a simple sport arouses such high feelings and emotions.

After brekkie I set off to the MOT shop to collect er indoors ^TM" and to drive her to work whilst her car failed its MOT. And with her safely ensconced at the workhouse I came home to find that the dishwasher that I helped carry to the front garden last night had been stolen from our front garden. I was quite pleased about that - one less thing to have to lug round to the skip.

I put the lead on to "Furry Face ^TM" and took him for a little walk. We went through the park where we ran into (literally) Orangehead and her chunky little friend. Over the lasst few weeks Orangehead has been losing the orange hue and had been becoming somewhat grey, but she must have had a re-spray for Christmas. She's back to her usual colour. We walked on past Singleton Lake and out to Great Chart. Over the Christmas break "Gordon Tracy" told me that one of my Wherigos had gone walkabout. There is nothing more disconcerting than an errant Wherigo so I went to check on it only to find it was where I'd left it three months ago.

Oh well, "Furry Face ^TM" needed a walk anyway.

I had a text message. The er indoors ^TM"- mobile had inded failed its MOT. But only on one tyre. If I could collect her from work and drive her back to the MOT centre she could then sort out the necessaries. So I collected her and did what I was told. I know my place.

I was home just in time for the delivery of the new dishwasher. Following last week's debacle, this time we were taking far more of a D.I.Y. approach; all we wanted from the shop was for them to deliver a new dishwasher. And that was what it did.

I could have spent the afternoon plumbing it in, but er indoors ^TM" said she was going to do that. So I took her at her word, and left tthe thing in its packaging in the kitchen. I then Hoovered (with a Dyson) round it, cleaned the mud off of my wellies (in the bath), and then started watching "Death comes to Pemberley"; a sequel to "Pride and Prejudice" which I had recorded onto the SkyPlus box. The first episode was watchable.

I worked on the party guestlist for a bit, then listened to the latest Total Ashford podcast. It was quite interesting; with job hunting tips, news about all sorts of local stuff, and even an article about the astro club. Then the doorbell went. Some arrogant little scrote was trying to sell double glazing and wouldn't take "shove off" for an answer. Apparently only his double glazing has any thermal insulating properties at all, and when I eventually shut the door on him he shouted through the letterbox that he would leave me to carry on wasting heat through my windows. I wish I had taken his leaflets; I would at least know which company I could publically run down.

Then the phone wouldn't stop ringing. Half a dozen calls which could have been about absolutely anything; the Indian accent was so thick I could not understand a word. Alan from lifestyle choices with a survey which (apparently) I was obliged to complete for him; I hung up. And finally Debbie called from Wills-4-U. I asked her how many calls it was reasonable for me to expect in one afternoon. She was quite pleasant, and said that company policy was to phone anyone who hadn't specifically asked them not to phone.

I wonder how that would stand up in court. I expect it's probably the truth. But it prompted me to review my will. I reviewed it. You can read it if you want - there's a link to it at the top of this page.

er indoors ^TM" came home and installed the dishwasher. I say "installed"; she did so in a supervisory manner. you can guess who did the donkey work. I took some photos of the assistant. The thing is having sea trials before we trust it entirely. I'm expecting leaks. Better to expect the worst and have your expectations exceeded than to hope for the best and be disappointed...

7 January 2014 (Tuesday) - Malingering

I woke with something of a headache this morning. It got worse as I had my morning scrape. I then settled down to a lonely breakfast as my dog was still asleep.

I still cannot get my head round the fact that he is not a greedy dog. Every other dog of my acquaintance has been a gannet; wolfing down any food. My Patagonian Tripe-Hound is not at all like that. He is very fussy about what he eats. if he doesn't like something he makes it plain and simply doesn't eat it. That twenty quid I spent on the bargain Trophy pet food was money down the drain; and much of the tinned food I buy him goes to waste. Sardines however he hoovers up in seconds.

Over the last few weeks "Furry Face ^TM" has been more and more reticent about sharing the crusts of my morning toast. Last weekend he would only lick the marmalade off; and now he won't even bother with the toast at all.

Over brekkie I watched a couple of episodes of "Family Guy"; the SkyPlus box seems to be recording them at double the rate I can watch them. It's amusing enough, but like all American TV shows I have the distinct feeling that I am missing half of the jokes.

In a novel break with tradition the pundits on the radio were talking sense for once. There are calls for people to be charged to be seen in hospitals Accident and Emergency departments.

Apparently one such department has announced that twelve thousand people accounted for two hundred thousand A&E consultations; with some of these malingerers presenting over four a week (every week) with absoluely nothing wrong with them.

The idea is that people hand over money before they are seen by medical staff, and if they are truly unwell then their money is refunded. In theory this will discourage time wasters. And it would save money; maybe even generate a little income to hospitals. And perhaps it will make the time-wasters realise there is nothing wrong with them.

Interestingly as I drove home the bleeding hearts were on the radio complaining about this proposal. Apparently it discriminates against those who are so stupid that they cannot distinguish between a fart and rectal cancer (!)

The radio also had mention about possible cuts to the Environment Agency There was consternation about this as there was concerns about funding of flood defences; something rather dear to many people at the moment as the country slowly sinks under the waves. There was a politician (of some sort) being interviewed who seemed to think that the private sector might do more to help with the nation's flood defences.

Personally I can't see how a privatised sea wall or shares in the Thames Barrier would work; but what do I know?

I did my bit at work, and came home a little earlier than usual. We had time for a quick walk so we went round teh block, with my dog barking at pretty much everything and anything. Once home again I wrestled the carcass of the old dishwasher out of it's hole and (with some help) dragged it into the front garden.

Matt came roound, and we made plans for the birthday party. There is a birthday party in the offing; if any of my loyal readers haven't had their invite in a week or so so remind me to send it.

We then had our Tuesday gathering; albeit with somewhat reduced numbers. With no "Merlin" discs to hand we watched old episodes of Star Trek. You can't go wrong with a bit of the old final front ear...