7 July 2014 (Monday) - Stuff

Just lately "Furry Face ^TM" had taken to having woofing fits in the night. He had another one last night. I wish he wouldn't; especially when I've actually found myself in bed and asleep.

He grudgingly accepted the crusts from my toast this morning as I watched "The Mill" from the Sky's "On Demand" thingy; I hear there is to be a second series so I thought I'd remind myself of the first. It's quite a good show if you like that sort of thing. Which I do.

Off to work; as I drove I listened to the radio. There was talk about how people are making a fast buck on the international buying and selling of gold. Apparently every afternoon there is a conference telephone call made between a gaggle of top bankers who agree the day's price of gold. The accusation has been made that there are those who are getting rich by illicit means by this arrangement. If I could explain any better I would be getting rich myself.

I stopped off at Morrisons on my way to work. As well as apples and bananas I bought two bottles of port for the upcoming camping weekend. It's interesting how Morrisons aare happy to sell me port on my way to work wheras Tesco flatly refuses to do so.

Work was much the same as ever. At one point I did try to have one of the apprentices executed for blatent and wanton willful destruction of government property during a time of prolonged national austerity, but (apparently) throwing out rubbish doesn't count as " blatent and wanton..."

After work I popped round to see Matt; he had several of Malcolm's plants which needed taking to the allotment. My car looked rather liike a jungle as I drove round town.

I then ran "Furry Face ^TM" round the co op field, and with "er indoors ^TM" off flogging candles I found myself having to forage for my tea. I foraged in the general direction of the Hong Kong Kitchen only to find the place wasn't open.

KFC never lets me down...

6 July 2014 (Sunday) - Rain Stopped Play

Yesterday evening when I could have been out with friends watching other friends playing in their band I was fast asleep. This morning at 5.30am when I should have fast asleep like everyone else, I was wide awake.

The plan for the day had been a walk around Meopham, but overnight rain (which was still pouring down) had put paid to that idea. We can go back to Meopham another time.

We pretty much wasted the morning waiting for the rain to stop. I pootled about clearing rubbish files from my laptop whist in the background "Friends" dribbled on the Comedy Central channel in the background. "Friends" must be the lamest and most dire show in the entire history of television. My piss particularly boils every time a feeble joke is told and the entire cast all turn and griimace at the camera so that the viewers know that a joke has been told.

I soon got bored... how do people spend so long doing nothing. I've heard it described as "chilling"; I was bored senseless.

We had already abandoned plans for a day in Meopham. The backup plan was an afternoon in Faversham, but continuing rain scuppered that plan too. Instead we drove down to Folkestone to see "Daddies Little Angel ^TM". She's been flogging Kleeneze stuff recently. I say "flogging"; like me she's found it to be a rather futile pursuit. With an average income of about a pound an hour (before any expenses are taken into consideration) the whole thing is money straight down the toilet.

We stayed there for an hour or so, and as the rain had finally stopped we came home the scenic way through Saltwood. If I didn't get a geocache or two I would go completely round the twist.

"er indoors ^TM" went bowling, and with a small dog fast asleep on my lap I had a little look-see on-line. My piss boiled when I checked out one of the Facebook Geocaching pages. Designed to be somewhere where the mere mortals (like me) get to communicate with the Grand-High Pum-Bahs of the world of hunting tupperware, it's perhaps the rudest place on Facebook I have ever found (so far). And the rudeness doesn't come from "Joe Public"; it's those with a little bit of power who are full of rudeness annd arrogance.

I've said it before; I really shouldn't do Internet forums. They are not good for my blood pressure (or piss temperature).

A dull day, but I shouldn't complain...

5 July 2014 (Saturday) - Busy

Last night was a very hot and humid night. Whenever I did drop off to sleep "Furry Face ^TM" would wake me shortly after with a woofing fit. I finally gave up any attempt at a weekend lie-in shortly after 6am and got up to find we had had heavy rain overnight.

I chivvied "er indoors ^TM" out of her pit and we made our way to the Brookfield cafe where we met Steve for a spot of brekkie. The Brookfield cafe does a rather good fry-up, but it has two drawbacks. Firstly the place seems to be built inside an echo chamber; even one other person speaking in there makes the place painfully loud. And secondly the children of the staff... What is it with parents of small children these days? Everywhere I go seems to be over run by noisy brats the parents of whom are making no effort to keep the brats in check? With the cafe already incredibly noisy, the "delightful child" of the waitress was singing some tuneless dirge at the top of her voice just to add to the noise of the place.

The brekkie was very good, but next time I will go somewhere quieter.

From our fry-up we went out to Smarden to a certain farm where we collected assorted camping gear for an upcoming kite festival, and we came home via Matalan. I've had rather a high attrition rate on my socks recently, and the soles of my trainers had split. New shoes and new socks, and then home. With the car unloaded and camping gear stashed I had planned to mow the lawn, but it was still wet from the overnight rain.

Instead I set about the household accounts. They were not really very good, but they could be a whole lot worse really. I also had a go with the astro club's accounts. That has thirty two pence more in it than it should have. I wonder where that came from.

A belgian bun and a cup of coffee made for a good lunch. I then took my car to get petrol, and then on to my sax lesson. Teacher has given me some rather tricky passages to master this week. I've got to get to grips with semiquavers which is far easier said than done.

I did have a plan to then go up to the town, but all I had to do there was to pay one cheque into the bank, so whilst "er indoors ^TM" did that (and then some dress shopping) I made a start at getting the lawn mowed. It took some doing. The edges were especially troublesome. I didn't strim them; I ripped them out by hand. That will delay growth for a few days. Whilst in the garden I got the water features running again; "Furry Face ^TM" seemed to enjoy that, even if he did get soaked and nearly drowned himself in the process. I videoed that silly dog, and then videoed him again because I could.

"er indoors ^TM" came home with the shopping, and we then took "Furry Face ^TM" for a short walk round teh park. He was rather protective of his new ball, but we got it off of him eventually. We persuaded him to swim a little in the river; if nothing else that washed the smelly water-feature water off of him. He can have a proper bath tomorrow.

By the time we came home it was 6pm; the day was mostly gone and I didn't feel we'd actually done anything much.

A swift bit of tea, and then I set about what felt like a month'sworth of ironing. The plan was to get it all done so's I could be up at the Star with everyone else for 9pm. It was a good plan.... I finally got the last of the ironing done shortly before 10pm. But I had three quarters of an hour before the band was on, so I sat down to watch the last five minutes of "National Lampoon's European Vacation" before setting off.

I woke up an hour later...

I didn't stop all day......

4 July 2014 (Friday) - Blockheads

It was a hot night last night; I was rather restless, and was up and about having the washing machine doing its thing before 6am. My dog wasn't up though. I'm a little worried about him. Yesterday he seemed rather subdued; he seemed especially listless when we went round the park. I think the heat is affecting him.

With nothing new geocachical in the area I set off to work. Friday; the last day of the week. I really don't like a five-day week. I much preferred a three day working week. Even if I was working much longer days on the days I had to go and do something.

As I drove I listened to the news as always. Her Majesty was off to Scotland to name the navy's latest aircraft carrier.

I say "the navy's"; apparently there is still some three years until the ship is actually handed over to the navy. And then another three years until the thing is actually put into service. I can't help but wonder what will take six years if the ship is actually afloat and being named today.

And here's a thought... the ship was built in Scottish shipyards. If the Scots do go independent, what will happen with the navy? Will they get half a dozen frigates and a minesweeper, or will the fleet move to Portsmouth and the Scots have to start building their own fleet?

I did have a snigger when I heard about a fellow who has been labelled "Blockhead". This chap does the same job that I do, albeit half way round the world in Taiwan. He's a few years older than I am, and in a shallow attempt to get into the knickers of someone younger than my daughter he's given himself arguably the world's most stupid haircut. Fortunately the young lady in question has figured out what this fellow is up to, and has made a public statement. "...My friends call him blockhead, I can imagine he might have found someone as he had a good and respectable job as a medical laboratory scientist at the National Taiwan University Hospital. But he should act his age."

To be fair to "Blockhead" he is probably actually acting his age; if I had any hair left I would get an equally stupid haircut. Mind you in my case it would be because I could; not in any lame attempt to get into some bimbo's undercrackers.

Talking of people old enough to know better I spent a little while following the Internet's live feed of Rolf Harris's appearing in court for sentencing today. Found guilty of four counts of making indecent images as well as twelve counts of indecent assault he's been sent to prison for nearly six years.

Is this really justice, or just a modern day equivalent of watching Christians being thrown to the lions. Look at the public fascination in the recent trial of Oscar Pistorius or a few years of O.J. Simpson. We love watching the downfall of others, don't we?

I can't help but feel that the whole Rolf Harris case needs to be viewed with some historical perspective. I'm not defending him, but look at the re-runs of "Top of the Pops" from thirty years ago which are all over UK television. Scantily clad young ladies are openly all over whoever they feel is famous. And watch any television shows from the time when Rolf committed his crimes. "On the Buses", "Man About The House", "Are You Being Served", the "Carry On" films or the "Confessions" films. Even Fletch's daughter Ingrid in "Porridge" to name but a few. Men would regularly goose up women on stage and screen; it was regularly and constantly portrayed as socially acceptable.

It might not have been right, it certainly isn't seen as right nowadays. But that was how things were at that time. Can we really apply the morals of one generation to another? As his defence lawyer said this morning all of these crimes are from over twenty years ago.

Mind you the bit about making indecent images and child pornography on his computer is news; that hadn't been revealed before. That's entirely a different matter...

...but has anyone actually been harmed by his having this stuff? Just because we might consider him contemptible doesn't necessarily mean he should be punished for being contemptible does it?

I don't know...

3 July 2014 (Thursday) - Endoscopy

Yesterday evening's little stroll couldn't have been more than three miles; we were only out for two and a half hours. This morning I felt absolutely exhausted as I fed most of my brekkie to a surprisingly hungry "Furry Face ^TM".

I'd put some washing into the machine before brekkie; after brekkie I activated our eco-friendly solar powered laundry drier (aka I put it on the clothes line), and just before leaving for work I had a last-minute email check. A new geocache had gone live within two miles of home. But it was a puzzle cache. I didn't have time for caching; I certainly didn't have time for puzzle solving. But it looked like a straight-forward puzzle.

I got the First to Find in just over half an hour after getting the email; which I thought was rather good going.

It was at that point that I remembered that the road to work had been closed by the police yesterday afternoon.

Fortunately the A28 had re-opened in the meantime. As I drove to work the pundits on the radio were discussing the Government's plans to move a whole load of health care services out of hospital out-patients departments into purpose built community clinics. In a stroke of utter genius (!) it seems that hospital out-patients departments are to be closed long before the clinics to replace them have been built. One of the experts being interviewed about the matter made the very profound statement that the problem with health care in the UK is that demand far outstrips the available resources. Wow! Had no one else realised this!

There were then interviews with leading members of the Israeli and Palestinian Governments about the ongoing conflicts. The Palestinian official interviewed would not discuss the specific grievance which is causing this week's problems; he seemed more interested in ranting about mistakes made fifty years ago. The Israeli spokesman implied that one couldn't expect anything else from savages...

...and as I have said before, war will go on in that part of the world incessantly because (in all honesty) they don't seem to want to stop fighting.

As I drove I was wondering how late I would be. Normally I give myself some spare time in case of hold-ups. Today I had no spare time, but the roads were amazingly clear. I got to work with three minutes to spare. I didn't need any of the lame excuses I'd been thinking up on my drive in.

Work went much the same as ever; sax practice was uneventful for once, and then I had a phone call. The ENT people had got the results of my CT scan; I had rather large nasal polyps on the right hand side of my head, and could I come to the clinic this afternoon? A quick grovel to the boss, and I set off from work a little early so as to get to the clinic in time.

I got to the clinic - what a waste of my time. In a total triumph of the NHS's policy of moving out-patient services out of hospitals and into the community the clinic didn't have access to the CT scan results. So to get round this minor problem the specialist had one of his mates at the hospital take a photo of my scan and send it to his phone. I was then subjected to the indignity (and torment) of having an endoscope rammed into my nose and after a serious rummage I wasn't told anything I didn't know already.

I knew I had rather large nasal polyps on the right hand side; I've known this for ages. It constantly feels as though I have a golf ball wedged up my nose. This has now been confirmed by CT scan and endoscopy. All the sinuses on the right hand side of my head are bunged up solid with polyps. I need an urgent surgical re-bore, and they will let me know when I can be fitted in.

It was with a rather tender snout that I went home and took my dog for a walk round the park, and having backed up the last month's blog entries I set off to astro club committee (via McDonalds). I had a bit of a rant, and came home.

"er indoors ^TM" had been to a meeting of geocachers which had been called by Kent County Council. In years gone by paid members of staff of Kent County Council hid geocaches. they didn't look after them, the caches got trashed and archived. Now the council want someone to do their caches for them. For free. It was as well that I wasn't at that meeting. I might have had a proper rant...

2 July 2014 (Wednesday) - Postling

I had set my alarm for 6am; I was awake shortly after 4am, and chasing a woofing dog round the garden at 5.20am. I *thought* his worrying at the door meant he needed a tiddle. It actually meant he wanted to chase the local cats.

We both scoffed toast whilst I watched "Reggie Perrin".

As I drove to work the Prime Minister was expressing his concerns about the growing problem of bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics. His solution was in theory admirable; he is keen to persuade the private sector to develop the next generation of antibiotic drugs. In practice it's not such a good plan. A leading doctor was then interviewed who explained that it is common practice not to prescribe antibiotics unless they are absolutely necessary because of the problem of bacteria becoming resistant to them. How often does anyone get prescribed antibiotics these days?

Consequently antibiotics aren't quite so lucrative to the drug companies as drugs such as anti-rheumatics and statins and things that are taken by millions of people every day.

One of the directors of a leading drug company was then interviewed and he agreed that his company wasn't keen to invest in antibiotic research because there was more money to be made in other pharmaceuticals. So who *is* going to fund the research? Heaven forbid it might be done out of a sense of public decency rather than for financial gain.

The really worrying part of all this is that I personally knew full well about the dangers of antibiotic resistant bacteria twenty years ago. Why has it taken so long for this to become news?

Over my tea break a colleague told me of his friend's latest acquisition, a wi-fi kettle. Costing a mere one hundred quid this kettle can be activated remotely by a range of wi-fi enabled devices including one's phone. What an utter waste of money. Bearing in mind one cannot fill the thing with water remotely, or make tea or coffee via wi-fi, what on Earth use is the thing? It's a sad indictment of our society that even in these days of austerity there are people with far more money that sense.

The union rep was sniffing round work at lunchtime today. She clearly didn't recognise or remember me. I suppose it is now over two years since I asked for the services of the union. (And over two years since she told me she's rather get involved in silly political stunts than to help people needing said help.) I resisted the temptation to throw rocks at her, and went out to practice my saxophone instead.

Gettiing home took a little longer than expected due to the A28 having been closed. Once home the nice lady from MyYodel picked up my knackeredd walking shoes and said shee would pack them off to Cotton Traders for me. Let's hope she does - the refund is dependent on them getting the shoes back.

Once "er indoors ^TM" came home we put the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and drove out to Farthing Common. We had a little stroll around the fields and footppaths. It was a tad hilly in parts, but such is life when walking the Downs. I took a few photos whilst we were out...

I think we deserved the curry we had when we got home...

1 July 2014 (Tuesday) - An FTF, Stuff...

Despite a particularly vivid and disturbing dream in which "Furry Face ^TM" had been replaced with a mentally sub-normal air-breathing flying goldfish I slept reasonably well. My dog got up with me and helped me eat my toast as we watched Reggie Perrin's "Grot" empire grow from strength to strength.

As I checked my emails I saw a new geocache had gone live about a mile from work. Time was pushing on but I thought I'd chance my luck. It would have been nice to have had a bit more time to play silly beggars before work; I would have had more time had everyone else going to Canterbury this morning got a move on. I'm not advocating driving like a lunatic, but surely one could go faster than thirty five miles an hour in a sixty miles an hour zone? Also why did the car in front of me keep stopping in the middle of the carriageway (seven times) for absolutely no reason?

I got to the designated place to park for this geocache at 8am, and I had half an hour to get on with it. Being a five part multi I knew I would be lucky if I found it. I tried, I got all the clues; but I was not lucky - I couldn't find the cache itself.

So I went to work in a bit of a sulk. As I arrived I walked through the hospital's out patient's department as I do most mornings. I rarely mention work, but today I saw something of note. There was a little old lady and her husband in the out patients waiting area. both swigging from a hip flask they were sharing.

That's where all the money goes in the NHS. There's no denying I like a drink myself, but at 8.40am whilst waiting to see the doctor?

Interestingly once at work I got an email from the chap who'd hidden the cache that I couldn't find. He seemed worried that I couldn't find it. I wasn't worried; I explained that for all that my cache find number is high, some days I can't find my own arse with both hands. Nevertheless he wanted to go out to check the thing for himself as he thought that it might have gone walkabout (they do sometimes). He did so, and emailed me back to say that despite another person logging that they couldn't find it either, I had been in the right place and it *was* there - I had missed it.

I was intrigued by this; so much so that I abandoned my lunchtime sax practice and went to have another look-see. After half an hour I found the thing. It wasn't small, I have no idea how I missed seeing it for so long. But I found it, and got a First to Find into the bargain. Happy dance.

I went back to work feeling decidedly more smug than I did this morning. I did my bit at work, and then came home again. It was a hot afternoon to be driving home; I was very glad I'd shelled out to get the car's air conditioning fixed last week.

As I drove the pundits were discussing the day's news. The conviction of Rolf Harris was getting a lot of air time. Personally I was amazed to hear that Rolf was guilty; I'm still not sure that I believe it. And now loads of other people he allegedly abused are coming to light down under . Interestingly many complainants arern't taking their allegations to the police, but to compensation lawyers.

"Operation Yewtree" was then discussed at length; specifically has it worked? Has it brought sex offenders to justice? And if so, at what cost? Seventeen arrests, two convictions, fifteen innocent good names destroyed.... the implication was that if one guilty celebrity is brought to justice then it doesn't matter how many innocents are put through the mangle at the same time. After all, if they weren't guilty then "Operation Yewtree" wouldn't have accused them in the first place. Apparently!

Our system of justice isn't what it might be.

They are now investigating allegations about Leonard (Reggie Perrin) Rossiter who has been safely dead for thirty years.

Once home we had a quick dog walk, and then I looked at the astro club's account. Twelve quid more than we should have. Woops!

And beiong Tuesday the clans gathered for the last ever episode of Merlin. It had been a good show; a shame to see it come to an end now...