14 August 2014 (Thursday) - Hospitals, Vets

I slept through till 7am this morning. That's nearly eight hours sleep. Just like the normal people do. As I started to walk downstairs my knee gave a really painful twinge. I hope it stops doing that soon. I eventually hobbled downstairs to see my little dog seemed equally still this morning. I checked out the Internet over brekkie; not a lot seemed to be going on, which was probably for the best.

My mobile rang; it was the garage who had found a leak in the car's air-con. They seemed surprised; I thought it was rather obvious that the thing had a leak; that's why the last re-gassing had only lasted for a week. They then phoned back fifteen minutes later to tell me that they needed to get a special part from Renault which they wouldn't get until this afternoon.

I put the washing on the line, settled "Furry Face ^TM" and walked to the hospital. Today was my anaethetic review prior to the surgical rebore of my nose. I arrived at the out patient deparrtment with time to spare. After a little wait I then fiilled out a questionnaire asking all the questions I'd answered at the last two out patient appointments and I then sat with a nurse who told me what the specialists had told me at the last two out paatient appointments.

I then went round to the cardiology department for an E.C.G., which is standard practice for the over-fifties (!) .

I then walked home again. I stopped off in Newtown to get a sandwich. I won't be going back to that shop. The shop itself was passable; but there is something fundamentally wrong with a local shop being filled with middle-aged women drinking Stella and Special Brew from the can.

Once home I scoffed my lunch whilst watching more "Family Guy" until Lisa came round. We had a plan for the afternoon. First of all we went up a tree to find an arboreal geocache. That didn't do my bad knee any good. Then we jumped a fence and went off in search of an underground bunker we'd heard about. The hill we found took its toll on my knee as well. Our instructions for finding the entrance to the bunker had been rather vague, but soon enough we found a likely looking tunnel and scrambled inside. It was either the entrance to a wartime bunker or it was a sewer. It didn't smell too bad so we thought we'd taake a chance. After twenty yards the tunnel opened out into a couple of rooms and we spent a few minutes looking around. I took a few photos whilst we were inside, and then we made our way back to the car and home.

Once home (a la recherche du temps perdu (!)) I sparked up my old favourite pastime "NeverWinter Nights" and had a wander round Castle Never until the garage phoned to tell me my car was ready for collection. "Furry Face ^TM" and I walked over to Willesborough to be told my seal had been leaking, and if it does it again I should take the recalcitrant component back to them.

As my dog jumped into the car my eye was caught by the sores on his back. I knew he had bald patches; I'd been putting cream on to them recently, but I had no idea how bad they had become.

We went straight to the vet.

We try to walk into the vet's at "Pets at Home" once a week so he gets used to it. He is fine in the shop area and in the vet's waiting zone. But the moment the consulting room door opened he tried to escape. He was terrified.

But I'm much bigger than he is, and he had no choice. He was scooped up and unceremoniously dumped on the vet's table. After a little rummage the vet announced his anal glands needed "doing". Rubber gloves, fingers where they shouldn't be, a fishy smell. The problem was cured but his back remains sore. He's been given a steroid shot which may well leave him "out of sorts for a day or so" and he's been given a course of antibiotics. He's also been declared to be overweight and, like his Granddad, he has to go on a diet.

I bought him a large chew-bone for being a good dog at the vets, and he spent much of the evening chomping away at said chew-bone. We had been thinking of going for a walk this evening, but I'd already walked to the hospital and back and to the garage; all of which probably wasn't a good idea with my knee aching. And also bearing in mind the intermittent rain and a dog which had been medically declared to be "out of sorts" we decided to have a quiet night in. So we slobbed in front of "Little Shop of Horrors".

Well I liked it.......

13 August 2014 (Wednesday) - Haroldslea

I watched "Family Guy" over brekkie, and then spent a little while watching another on-line geo-squabble. Some chap whose command of the English language leaves a little to be desired was ranting about the cost of a premium membership of geocaching dot com. At fifty pence per week I think its good value, but he was whinging about the cost being too much. I got the distinct impression that he was looking for some sort of a subsidy on the money he spends making geocaches. (I might be mistaken here; his written English isn't good) Whilst I sympathise with his sentiments, the nice people at geocaching dot com are doing it as a business; and if we don't like it, that's our tough luck. It's called "capitalism".

And talking of geocaching I loaded "Furry Face ^TM" into the car, drove round to collect Lisa, and after a minor diversion to the electric fags shop we were soon on the motorway. With a day's holiday I'd looked on the map and found a little loop of thirteen geocaches along three miles of lanes near Crawley. Using judicious map reading and idiot enthusiasm we were able to expand this walk to about five miles to incorporate some high terrain caches; one up a tree, one underground in a tunnel. And even that holy grail of geo-finds; a D5/T5 (didn't actually find that one!)

Our underground excursion was interesting; the tunnel was not built with the more rotund frame in mind, and half way along that tunnel was the skeleton of what I think could only have been a triceratops.

Going up the tree was fun; from the ground I could see what I was sure was the cache. it was only on climbing that I found the actual cache was a lot lower than I was expecting; what I could see was a huge pine cone. It was when I was two thirds of the way up that tree (about twenty metres) that my knee became *really* painful. There are those who say I'm too old to be free-climing trees. They may have a point.

We had a really good walk; I even took some photos of our exploits. Mind you I must admit today's exertions tired me more than I was expecting. Two weekends with no major hikes have certainly left me out of practice. However, once home I knew that I wasn't finished yet.

I took my car round to the garage (to have the air-con sorted) and walked "Furry Face ^TM" home from there.

Once home I scoofed some chocolate coated peanuts. "er indoors ^TM" had bought them for me as a pressie. They were nice; they lasted me for about ten minutes. They conatined over a thousand calories. In fact about the same amont of calories that I'd burned off during today's walks.

And with my dog fast asleep and snoring I set off to the astro club committee meeting. Tonight was a meeting of the new observatory steering group. It probably didn't help that my knee was still playing up from when I strained it earlier, but tonight I had no enthusiasm for the new observatory project. All I wanted to do was put my knee up and sulk. Perhaps I should mention it at tomorrow's hospital appointment?

And in closing today ..... I've retrospectively censored this...... in years to come I might say why

12 August 2014 (Tuesday) - White Van Man

I was up relatively early and came downstairs to find "Furry Face ^TM" asleep. No "potty accidents" last night; for which I was grateful. I watched another episode of "Saxondale" over brekkie, checked the Internet and saw Robin Williams had died. Facebook was heaving with tributes to the chap. Personally I always found his humour over-rated. Yet again I am in the minority.

I walked into town to Enterprise-rent-a-car (what other firm could I use?) and after less than five minutes had the van keys in my hand. This is the second time I've used this firm and so far they have been really good. I had a dodgy few minutes trying to work out where to stick the keys, but soon enough the van was parked up outside home.

"er indoors ^TM" had just emerged from her pit, and a quick phone call woke "My Boy ^TM" who was soon with us. We loaded one or two odds and ends into the van and set off to Folkestone where "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" was relocating from the War Bunker (!) to somewhere more salubrious.

I've helped friends and family move before. I have memories of sofas wedged in hallways, of freezers still full of food, of people honestly expecting me to move wardrobes stuffed full of clothes, of endless flights of stairs. If more moves went like today's I'd be more inclined to get involved with more moves.

We arrived to find taht everything was packed and it really was as simple as moving all of the stuff out of the War Bunker and into the van. Unloading at the new place was rather tricky as the road was narrow and with nowhere to park we had no choice but to stop in the middle of the road and whenever a car came I had to do a "round the block" with the van. We unloaded in a fraction of the time it took to load up, and went back for the heavy stuff. It was heavy, but there was a lot less of it; and all the actual moving was done by mid day.

We had a quick spot of lunch, moved teh heavy stuff to where it was needed, put some beds together and left them to it.

The van hire agreement was that I put as much fuel into the van as I had used; I thought a tenner's worth of diesel would be fair so we stopped off at Sainsbury's filling station to get fuel. There was a minor hold up at the checkout. The woman at the front of teh queue was having a major cob. Someone else had paid for her petrol and had since driven off. The spotty girl behind the counter felt that if said woman paid for the petrol that the chap who had settled her bill had taken all would be well. However the bloke who'd paid for this woman's petrol wasn't daft. He'd put fifty quid's worth into his car and paid for thirty quid's worth. The woman holding the queue up was happy to pay for the petrol she'd taken but wasn't going to pay twenty quid over the odds. Spotty checkout girl wanted her till not to be twenty quid adrift.

These things are always amusing to watch... all the time it is someone else in the thick of it.

Once home I phoned the vet's. I'd had a message that "Furry Face ^TM" was due his annual once-over. The nice lady told me that he wasn't due until mid-September and they didn't like doing dogs early. I did toy with the idea of suggesting that if they didn't want me to book early then they shouldn't contact me early. But I bit my toungue and made an appointment for six weeks time.

I then took that dog for a walk, and came home to a rather good bit of tea washed down with a bottle of plonk. I went on-line and squabbled about how phones are better for geocaching than GPS units, then we went out for the Tuesday gathering. I actually stayed awake for this week's installment of the100. I'm not sure about this show; it doesn't actually have any likeable characters in it. There are either outright villains, or characters about which you just don't care. But I shall give it a little longer before dismissing it out of hand...

11 August 2014 (Monday) - Stuff

I had a particularly vivid dream last night in which my dog had developed the power of speech and was continually crying "please don't hurt me Granddad" which I found to be very upsetting. As if I'd ever hurt that soppy pup.

I was woken by the alarm (which very rarely happens) and went downstairs to find "Furry Face ^TM" had had a little "potty accident" in the night and he was looking incredibly upset and worried. Bearing in mind my dream I was rather spooked by this.

I watched "Family Guy" over brekkie, fed my toast crusts to "Furry Face ^TM" who was still rather subdued, did a little tidying, and set off to work on what was a beautiful morning compared to yesterday. Yesterday I was tearing my hair out in boredom with the rain; today was glorious sunshine.

As I drove I listened to the radio. I say "listened"; one of the first items was the morning's sport update. Sport has no interest for me, and I don't really listen to that. And having lost concentration on the sport I didn't really pay much attention to the rest of the program until the pundits were crucifying some bigwig from the RSPCA. Apparently the RSPCA have had a cat put to sleep for having long hair.

As always there was far more to the story than the sensationalist headline, but during the interview it came to light that the RSPCA are facing a funding crisis. Their income from donations is plummeting as more and more people feel the RSPCA are less interested in animal welfare and more interested in playing silly political games.

I had a wry smile over this. From 1984 to 1986 we lived in a flat the landlady of which was an active member of a crackpot-lefty-greenie-tree-hugging-animal-rights-political-activist bunch. Such groups were rife in the early 1980s. I can distinctly remember a conversation with her when she told me that her group would never have any respect from the public, that they were seen as being a bunch of loonies, and that she and others of her group were all going to seek office in the RSPCA and use that as a platform from which they would be able to get taken seriously. Looks like they've finally achieved their goal.

I stopped off at Morrisons for a little shopping before work. It wasn't so much a supermarket as a children's play area. I nearly got mowed down by brats on scooters. Several times. There were no parents to be seen, and the staff didn't seem bothered. Perhaps the staff use the store as a playground for their children during school holidays?

To work, which was much the same as ever. Lunchtime sax practice was odd; I was in mid toot when I felt a spot of rain. In ten seconds (literally) the sky went black and torrential rain hit; complete with thunder and lightning. I dived into the car and carried on blowing ion there for twenty minutes until the storm stopped every bit as quickly as it had started. This was just as well - I could now get back to work without getting soaked.

Home (through the rain) for lamb chops and jacket potatoes. Very tasty. And with "er indoors ^TM" off bowling I settled down on the sofa with my dog and caught up with "The Mill" which I'd recorded last night. Esther's had a baby.... where did that come from?

10 August 2014 (Sunday) - Rain

I woke at 6.30am, got up, shaved, had brekkie and was bored by 7am. I looked out the window and saw the rain was still hammering down. Judging by the puddles in the road it must have been raining for most of the night. To pass the time I solved a couple of geo-puzzles, and then spent nearly two hours applying to join a professional association. A dull, but necessary chore.

By 9am I was going stir crazy, so I took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. We were only out for just under half an hour and we got soaked. We came home and I set about the ironing that I gave up on last night. It didn't take long, and for once I could say there was no washing or ironing in the house to be done.

The sun came out just as I was ironing the last T shirt, but by the time I'd put the ironing board away the rain was pouring again. Usually on Sundays we go for long walks but with everyone else busy and the bad weather still continuing I was at a loose end.

It was a shame that "My Boy ^TM" was away for the weekend; I would have invited myself round for lunch. They had invited me down to spend the day with them at Pontins but I didn't want to leave "Furry Face ^TM".

I *could* have gone to Teston to visit the campers but much as I'd like to see friends, shivering in a tent or caravan is no fun. And my dog would have got filthy. Bearing in mind how bad the weather had been it was as well I hadn't gone camping.

I've since heard that Teston stalwarts were abandoning the festival and going home at mid day when normally they stay till after 7pm.

Mind you this is the first time I've missed the Teston kite festival in ten years, and it was just my luck that I missed the fight. Apparently there has been fisticuffs. Someone drove a 4x4 on the field nearly hitting people. It got stopped and one of the campers let the tyres down, another speared the vehicle with a metal stake and a third camper thumped the driver. I would like to have seen that. I've heard there is a video which will be put on-line soon; I'm looking forward to seeing it.

A cinema trip was suggested for the afternoon, but everyone else had had the same idea and the place was already booked out. I had a bit of lunch and as the rain slackened off I put the collar and lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and we went for a little wander. Today is "Sidetracked" day in the geo-world. If you log a find on a "Sidetracked" cache today you get a geo-souvenir so I went to my nearest such geocache which was in Tenterden. As luck would have it the two geo-puzzles I'd solved this morning were within a couple of miles (or so) of that cache so it made for a nice little walk of an hour or so during a gap in the rain.

Just as I got home so the torrential rain hit again.

I bathed the mud off of my dog, watched a bit of telly then put on long trousers and a fleece, settled "Furry Face ^TM" down, and went outside to wait for Steve to arrive. He was soon there and we went down to Folkestone where there was an observing the moon session because of today's harvest moon. A dozen of us watched the moon for an hour or so.

Quite fun, but rather cold. Mind you I was just glad that the rain had stopped.

Once home I got into my jim-jams... and now there's more stuff in the laundry basket again...

9 August 2014 (Saturday) - Busy

When I went to bed at 1am last night the rain was torrential; I would not wanted to have been out camping in that downpour. I got up shortly after 5am to find that although the rain had finally stopped, everywhere outside was completely soaked.

I did a few household chores, shared brekkie with "Furry Face ^TM", watched "Family Guy" and had intended to go back to bed for a bit. But by the time I'd then unloaded the dishwasher, put some laundry in, printed off a few bits for today's geo-meet, loaded up the car, taken my dog for a walk, prepared a picnic, hung the washing on the line, farted about and heaven only knows what else I did... it was suddenly half past nine. Four hours had just vanished.

I made myself a cuppa, loaded up the car, and me and Fudge set off to Orlestone Woods. Every month there is an official meet of the county's geocachers; this time I had volunteered to organise the event. Usually it is in a pub or a cafe or a place of interest or something like that. But for this meet I thought we'd go minimalist. We had a picnic; and at Orlestone Woods there are absolutely no facilities whatsoever. We were going to have an old-school picnic - bring your own tables, blankets, chairs, whatever. I realised that this wouldn't be to everyone's taste, and I was expecting a dozen or so people might turn up. I think we had over sixty. People came down from the Medway towns, and came up from Hastings. People came from as far west as Margate and as far east as Battle and Paddock Wood. There was a lot of people who had come from Sussex too.

I was really pleased with the turn-out. Apart from a minor incident with a frog Fudge was as good as gold. I met loads of people I only knew by name, and I was really pleased to learn that for a lot of people this had been their first geo-meet; having been rather nervous about coming, they all left feeling really happy and looking forward to the next meet.

I took a few photos of the picnic whilst I was there...

From the geo-meet I drove down to Camber where "My Boy ^TM" was on holiday at Pontins with his tribe. The plan had been for me to spend some time with them, but the spotty toothless YTS trainee (in security costume) on the gate wouldn't let "Furry Face ^TM" (or any dogs) in.

Instead everyone came out to see me and we went for a little walk round Camber before coming home again. "My Boy ^TM" had a minor cob - they'd been to the beach earlier and he'd been stung by a jellyfish. On the tit. I was reminded of my episode with being attacked by a swarm of wasps a few weeks ago; all very entertaining all the time it is somebody else who is in pain.

I felt a tad peckish so thought I'd nip down to the take-away for curry and chips. The man-mountain behind the counter recognised me; fifteen years ago he'd been one of my cubs. When he told me his name I immediately remembered him; he once (at cub camp) went building bivouacs in the woods in his pyjamas because I'd told the cubs to wear their oldest clothes and his pyjamas were his oldest clothes.

With curry and chips scoffed I settled down for an evening spent doing more washing and ironing. Eventually I got fed up with ironing and gave up; there is loads of that left but the laundry basket is now empty.

It has been a rather busy day today...

8 August 2014 (Friday) - A Game of Cards

We must have forgotten to close the living room door last night; "Furry Face ^TM" was having a woofing fit at the front door at 2.55am last night. I wish he wouldn;t do that. Whilst I was up I let him out into the garden where he had another woofing fit. I tried to get back to sleep, but couldn't. I dozed fitfully until I finally got up at 5.30am.

Friday morning is weigh-in time. Weight loss this week was disappointing after last week, but that is how weight loss goes. I watched "Family Guy" over brekkie; the dog who had been so lively three hours before was now fast asleep.

And so to work on a rather damp and murky morning. Had I been going to Teston today (as had been the original plan) I would have been be looking at a wet weekend; perhaps not going was for the best.

Mind you I did wonder how the event was going to be funded. Last year we had been told that the bill for the weekend would be over a thousand pounds which was to be financed by the camping attendees.

I offered several fundraising suggestions, none of which were taken up. I wonder how (or if) they raised the money.

As I drove to work the radio was talking about how the American air force is air-lifting humanitarian supplies to beleaguered minorities in the Middle East who are under fear of death because of their religious beliefs.

Sometimes I really despair. This is the twenty-first century. We have the technology to put people on the Moon. half the UK population can realistically expect a university education. Higher education is becoming the norm the world over and *still* we go to war over differences in superstitions...

I got to work for the early shift, and did my bit. I spent much of the day looking out of various windows whilst reflecting on how today would not be the sort of day best spent shivering in a field.

Sax practice was particularly overcast; it would have gone better had some random child not appeared from nowhere and offered me sage advice. Said child claimed to be able to play the saxophone really well and was self-taught. I smiled, and eventually he realised I was ignoring his wisdom.

I came home via the cheapo petrol station (which was today even cheaper than usual) and after quickly running "Furry Face ^TM" round to the co-op field five of us had a quick game of cards. With "er indoors ^TM" off at the annual convocation of the guild of candemongers we were having flushes and straights until midnight.

It's nearly eighteen months since I last played a game of poker. Really should do it more often...