14 March 2014 (Friday) - More Busy

This morning's post brought news of my forthcoming oximeter test prior to seeing someone at the sleep clinic. Perhaps I might finally get something done about this infernal insomnia. Again I felt I'd been awake for half the day by the time er indoors ^TM" got up at what anyone else would call a sensible time to be getting up.

I took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. We went down through Park Farm where we bumped into Anita. She fetched Lizzie-pup and the four of us wandered round Park farm for a bit. Me and "Furry Face ^TM" then continued up to an area that "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" rather accurately describes as LegoLand (because the houses all look as though they are made from Lego). From here I did a little geocache maintenance; three of my caches lie along the same footpath.

The first cache is something to which I shall have to give some thought. The puzzle leading to it is quite tricky; few people have solved the puzzle. The actual location of the cache is currently fenced off with some sort of groundwork going on. The cache itself had been put by that fence, clearly having been deliberately smashed. Bearing in mind a combination lock and chain (now both ruined) were an integral part of the not insubstantial cache, that's over ten quid down the toilet. Shall I replace it or not? I shall give it some thought.

The next cache was also missing; having been flooded out in the recent rains. I replaced that, as I did the next one which had been washed away by the winter floods.

I didn't have the opportunity to replace the last cache; being a rubber duck tethered in a river I had been looking for a brick to use as an anchor. I couldn't find one. There is never an old brick about when you need one. Mind you my dog did find a huge bone which kept him quiet for ten minutes.

Whilst we were out I got a message via Facebook. (Mobile phones are wonderful toys). In early December I'd seen a saxophone for sale and had offered just under half the asking price knowing full well my offer would be turned down. It was, but today the chap asked if I was still interested in the sax. I've offered a hundred pounds (that I haven't got) and we'll seee what happens.

Once home I got out the lawnmower and strimmer and gave the lawn its first haircut of the year. Both lawnmower and strimmer sounded knackered (to put it bluntly). Let's hope that's not going to be more expense.

I could have done more in the garden. I could have gone to get more shingle to finish off the gravelling; but that is thirty-plus quid that can wait until after pay day. I thought about doing the shed roof, but that is really a two person job.

Instead I did more of my on-line course. Week seven of Internet History, Technology, and Security covered the application layer. I must have understood it because I was a bit of a smartarse and got full marks in this week's assessment. But on reflection I could not honestly say what the lectures had been about. http-something was mentioned; as were ports. I also got full marks in the second of the course's three optional essays. The essays are for extra credit and I don't have to do them. I've got full marks in the first two, but I think I shall choose not to do the third one; "Choose an element or aspect of the TCP/IP architecture and write a simple essay explaining how it works to a non-technical person. This is about writing for a non-technical audience." In all honestly I'm not entirely sure what an element of the TCP/IP architecture is. If pressed I would go with hydrogen or plutonium.

With this week's course coursed I then attacked the laundry whilst watching episodes of Family Guy. After four episodes of the adventures of the Griffin family my clothes were in a neat pile again. I then fell asleep until er indoors ^TM" came home. Over scoff we watched a film; "Run, Fatboy, Run". I didn't think I'd seen it before, but parts of it seemed quite familiar.

It's been a rather busy four days holiday...

13 March 2014 (Thursday) - Busy, Busy

I suppose I slept reasonably well last night, but woke feeling rather run-down and grotty. I wasn't on top form yesterday evening. I wonder if I'm sickening for something?

After a quick spot of brekkie I took "Furry Face ^TM" for a morning walk. We went up past the railway station where someone had chained their bike to the railings. There were many bokes chained to the railings; this one had clearly been run over by something very heavy and the wreckage that was left was fit for the dustbin. So why on earth had it been chained to the railings?

We popped into the post office to collect a parcel, then carried on via a rather convoluted route to Frogs Island and home. On the way we tried for that new geocache near Asda. Tried and failed.

Once home I settled "Furry Face ^TM" as best I could then went oin a little mission of my own. Firstly to the tip where I emptied all the rubbish we'd loaded up yesterday. Then on to Matalan for a new pair of trousers. And lastly to B&Q where I spend the voucher I'd got for my birthday. I got a car full of ingredients to make the garden better; I've been neglecting it recently.

Home again, where I finally got going in the garden. I removed the old washing line and put up the new one; another job which sounds a lot easier than it actually is. And after a spot of lunch I unloaded the car and made a start with a job I've been putting off for ages. Several months ago we replaced the fence at the back of the garden; today I laid the membrane and shingle. I'd worked out that I needed six bags of shingle. I got eight. I should have bought twelve. I didn't have enough.

I could have then scurried up another load of rubbish for the tip. I could have mowed the lawn. I could have made good the shed roof. But I'd probably overdone it by lugging all the shingle about so I sat and watched The Tomorrow People which I'd recorded onto the SkyPlus box. Another good episode.

And so to the Wagarium. The astro club had a committee meeting this evening, and as a prelude to committee we'd been invited to tea; complete with a rather good musical interlude. I've often wished I was more musical and listening to the violin tunes has made me more determined to have a go at an instrument. I *will* get that saxophone...

12 March 2014 (Wednesday) - Ospringe and Faversham

I woke and looked at the clock and was amazed to see it was nearly 6am. I've not slept for so long for ages. I had a quick bit of brekkie and then took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. We nearly got run down by a cyclist who was riding down the pavement whilst busy fiddling with his phone; both ears bunged up with headphones from said phone. I made sure my dog was safe and kept walking, and at the last minute the twit swerved and ended up in someone's front garden. It wasn't that he didn't see me coming; he could see me all right. He just felt I should walk up the road to avoid him. The road is where he should have been.

As he extricated himself from someone's wheely-bin I smiled sweetly and kept going.

We met an ex-cub's mother whilst we were out. She remembered me, and I recognised her. Greg and Georgie were good lads; one of them was an accomplished runner, and I remember him doing very well in a cubs cross country race at the Biddenden vineyard where I got several cubs' mothers drunk. She told me that Grag and Georgie are now in their early twenties. I remember them as being ten years old.

Once home "Furry Face ^TM" had his brekkie, and I drove round to the tip to get rid of all the rubish I emptied from the garden yesterday. And then, with er indoors ^TM" emerged from her pit, we set off on a day's hunting tupperware. First of all round Ospringe; a rather scenic village. It was here that we met a couple of people who spotted us caching and introduced themselves as fellow chasers of sandwich boxes. they gave us the low-down on one cache we'd been unable to find earlier in the day, and recommended a pub for lunch.

The Ship Inn in Ospringe is the sort of pub that you would look at and walk swiftly away from. It looks grim; the outside has probably not had a lick of paint since the mid 1970s. But looks can be deceptive. With three ales on the hand pumps, really good food and friendly staff I would recommend the place to anyone who might be in the area.

We then went into Faversham to track down elusive plastic. Whilst we were wandering here, there and thither my Munzee app died, which was a nuisance. However on the plus side we discovered a home brew shop which is streets ahead of the shop in Ashford.

We found a dozen or so caches, then came home to collect phones from the repair shop. We then spent a few minutes filling the car with another load of garden rubbish for another tip run tomorrow. The car is now pretty much full of rubbish (again) and I think I could probably fill it with rubbish again tomorrow.

The plan for the evening was to watch all sorts of stuff from the SkyPlus box. We watched the last two episodes of "Fleming" (which weren't very good) then I slept through everything else...

11 March 2014 (Tuesday) - Chilham Revisited

Having woken at 2.30am and looked at the clock every five minutes for the rest of the night I finally dozed off five minutes before the alarm went off. Over brekkie I saw a geocache go live. There's no denying I got a little bit precious over it. It was a direct replacement for a cache I'd blogged about on December 8th; one I'd tried to adopt.

The cache at the time was a rather good walk over some rather scenic countryside, but due to the way it had been set up it involved three hours effort to only increase one's geo-score by one find. I had a plan to replace this cache with a series of (about) a dozen themed caches. Some traditional caches and a multi-cache. A puzzle or two and a couple of letterbox hybrids. I'd found somewhere not too far off the old route which had a geological feature I could have used for an Earthcache, and I even had the software for a Wherigo cartridge cache to lead people along the dodgier parts of the route.

With the worst of the winter's rain gone and today being a day off work I had planned to go out today and get some geo-fixes along that very route to start planning this new series with a possible go-live to co-incide with a geo-meet over the summer which I would have hosted in Chilham. Seven cache types in one day was the plan; but I left it too late, and someone else got in first.

Oh well; it's not the first time I've missed out on a location. The fault (if there is any fault to assign) is entirely mine for not gettig my arse in gear earlier. I'd had three months to do something. It's just a shame that being mid-way between home and work made it ideally positioned for me.

So I had a little rant on Facebook. Perhaps I shouldn't have been quite so primadonna-ish. Perhaps this lack of sleep is getting to me. Perhaps two and a half years of ongoing hearings and court cases and tribunals have taken their toll. Perhaps being on half the money I was on when I was only half my age was preying on my mind again. Or perhaps my various problems that aren't a matter of public record were still winding me up.

Whilst I am one of the world's greatest advocates of social media, it does have its drawbacks. The entire problem with social media is that so many people feel obliged to make comment on matters about which they have absolutely no idea whatsoever. Still, those people that matter to me know why I rant from time to time, and they either made the right noises or kept quiet.

But a little on-line rant from time to time is a good thing. If nothing else it lets me know those people who shouldn't be on my friends list. And so I had a minor cull. Those that felt they were being clever by making smart-ass comments don't know me anyway, and have now got the chop.

Pausing only briefly to get the car MOT'ed I grabbed my dog and we set off to Chilham. Me and "Furry Face ^TM" parked up in Bagham Lane and were soon on our way round the route. The route had been mapped out with several waypoints; whilst useful I don't think they were really necessary; the way was along easy-to-follow footpaths. A bit muddy in a couple of places, but... let's just say the dog didn't need a shower when we got home.

None of the hides were "easy"; I only found one of the parts with less than five minutes searching. Some of them were rather well hidden, but good co-ords and hints taken together allowed me to find all parts; though they did take some hunting out. There's no denying I came close to giving up on a few of the hides. despite my better judgement I put all back exactly as found, resisting the temptation to make them slightly easier to find.

After a lovely walk of three hours I had the cache in my hand and I saw a clean log book. Smug mode - FTF!

What can I say about this cache? I suspect that (like its predecessor cache) it will not be done very often. Why? Because it's a multi, and people generally avoid multis in favour of chasing numbers. Which is a great shame. This multi-cache is a really well marked out (and easy to follow) walk along some really beautiful scenery. Which is the very reason why I wanted to make so much more of the route.

Once home I spent some more time working on the presentation for the astro club until "My Boy ^TM" came round and helped me make a start in the garden. Now the rains seem to have abated somewhat we've manged to get broken fence panels and the like into the car for a tip run. We had a lot of broken fence panels; enough to make the back garden rather inaccessible. It's now clear and I shall carry on out in the garden later this week.

Being Tuesday the clans gathered; this time in Somerset Road. As we walked up there I couldn't help but look up at the clear sky. Last night when we had the telescope evening planned it was complete cloud cover. Tonight was a wonderful starry sky.

And with the clans gathered we watched the cliffhanger of season four of Merlin. A good episode; but it was a great shame that Sir Bigtits had to die. She'd only been in the show for two weeks and had made an impressive contribution to the storyline with her impressive assets. We will miss her. And her impressive assets...

10 March 2014 (Monday) - Cloudy

I was wide awake at 3am and didn't get back to sleep again. I eventually gave up trying to sleep and got up. Last week I mentioned that I wasn't impressed with the BBC's comedy show Blandings. I tried another episode; it's not getting any better.

After a couple of episodes of Family Guy I set off to work. As I drove I listened to the radio. Despite a bright sunny morning it would seem that much of the country is still suffering from a very wet winter. So much so that the National Trust was suggesting actually abandoning some land to the sea. An interesting position to take; albeit probably very pragmatic.

Work was relatively good; I slipped out at lunch time for a quick bout of SpecTrek; I've now gone up a level. And once I'd done my bit I drove down to the Warren in Folkestone. The plan was to have an observing night for the astro club. It was a good plan; but the one hundred per cent cloud cover put paid to that idea. We four brave souls that had turned up waited for half an hour to see if the clouds would clear. And on seeing that they wouldn't we adjourned (via the chip shop) to the Admiralty (to eat our chips).

We try to get the scopes out so rarely; it's such a shame that the weather was against us today...

9 March 2014 (Sunday) - Back to Wye

Another terible night's sleep. I was up and sharing my toast with a very sleepy "Furry Face ^TM" whilst watching episodes of Family Guy well before 6am. By the time er indoors ^TM" came down I'd been awake for over five hours and so was bored senseless.

We were soon ready for the off; and having collected Gordon Tracy we set off to Wye. Regular readers of this drivel amy recall a series of geocaches went live in Wye two weeks ago and although I First to Finded seveal of them, I failed to find several others. So we went back to Wye,. Whils we were at it we did another cache series as well. Everyone else added twenty one to their total of cache finds; I only added five as I'd been there before. But it's not always all about the numbers. Four of this five were particularly elusive caches that I was pleased to find; and one of them was something completely new to me. And when your cache find count is approaching three thousand, that's saying something.

Wye Downs is only five miles from home, and it's a beautiful place to walk. Two weeks ago the mud was thick; whilst it was still muddy in places, it was nowhere near as bad as it was.

I took some photos whilst we were out too.

Once home "Furry Face ^TM" jumped into the bath. He knows the price he has to pay for rolling in fox poo. And with various grunges washed off of my dog I popped round to Denver and Jo to pick up the astro club's Dobsonian telescope for tomorrow evening. Denver didn't look well. Like me, he would seem to suffer with a bad back.

er indoors ^TM" set off for her regular Sunday bowling fix, and I watched Family Guy and Big Bang Theory in between eavesdropping on the row that next door were having. I say " eavesdropping"; they were screeching louder than the television. He was bellowing at her to f*&! off back to Japan, and she was screaming at him him to give her the value of her half of the house.

There is nothing more entertaining than someone else's domestic problems...

8 March 2014 (Saturday) - Solar Astronomy

er indoors ^TM" was supposedly dying to death of lurgy yesterday. That didn't stop her doing God knows what until the small hours; finally clumping to bed at 3am and waking me up. I then lay awake befire finally getting up shortly after 5am and watching drivel on the telly wishing I was asleep.

Eventually it was time to set off for the business of the day, and leaving er indoors ^TM" and "Furry Face ^TM" fast asleep I made my way to the town centre. The astro club was doing a display on the town bandstand as part of national astronomy week. I arrived to find Steve, Sarah, Denver and Jo getting ready, and I chipped in as I do.

We were soon set up and talking to the general public. Being broad daylight there was only really one star we could gaze at, and the solar telescope was put to good use.

We got loads of interest from the general public; I met loads of friends; it's amazing how many people were in town today. "My Boy ^TM" was even passing and I had McLunch with him and Lacey.

And we saw loads of nut cases who taught me so much. I learned that the first meteorite to hit the Moon did so in 1969, and it is currently on display in a museum in Japan. Also I found out that America's sun has got a sunspot which is about to explode and spray solar material all over America. However there is no need for my loyal readers on this side of the Atlantic to worry; the British sun is fine.

We had an enquiry; a chap wanted me to tell him what was wrong with his telescope. Apparently no matter what direction he points the thing, all he ever sees was the ground.

We had the family from Deliverance who asked if we could see aliens through our telescopes.

We had the village idiot who asked how many UFOs we had reported to the police this year.

And we had one rather special fellow who liked nothing more than lying on his back and staring up so that he couldn't see anything else but the universe. As if anyone has ever seen anything else (!)

I took a few photos of the event. It was good fun.

The Rear Admiral had left his car outside the house, so I walked home with him via the milkshake shop where I had a Maltesers milk shake. The miilkshake shop has a very wide repertoire; they even offer milkshakes made from bakes beans or pickled onions. Tempted as I might be, next time I shall settle for one made from a Mars bar.

Being back on regular hours I don't have time mid-week for domestic trivia any more, so this evening I set the washing machine to have a fight with my smalls whilst I did this week's installment on my on-line course. Astoundingly I scored 90% on TCP/IP protocols. I think it's fair to say that the amazement experienced by my loyal readers on learning this fact is as nothing when compared to my own...