14 November 2015 (Saturday) - Raining

Overnight the radio was full of talk about yesterday's terror attack in France. Details seemed somewhat vague, but.... what can I say? Why?

I also found myself asking "why" when I saw all the postings on social media saying we should pray for the victims? How does that work? Do we pray that something worse doesn't happen? And to what are we supposed to pray? To a God which could have prevented it all in the first place? I'm not sure I want anything to do with a supposed God which clearly *could* make this such a better world but obviously chooses not to.

This is the twenty-first century. We can take the heart of one person and tranplant it into another. We can put people onto the Moon and bring them back safely. And still we act like a bunch of superstitious savages. Sometimes I wonder about what sort of a world we are leaving for our children.

With the night shift done I popped out to get a crafty geocache; today was a blank day on my geo-calendar. I then drove round to the Foundry for a bit of brekkie. Yesterday I only ate toast, and with "er indoors ^TM" off flogging candles to the masses at a school bazaar (or a bizarre school) today I really felt I should have more than just toast again.

I then took "Furry Face ^TM" round to the park. I again forgot it was Saturday and therefore jogger day. Skin-tight lycra and bouncy boobies was clearly in vogue today. Result!!

As we were walking home so the rain started. We were rather soggy when we got home. I then spent a little while in bed. But not as long as I would have liked. After a couple of hours my mother phoned with some news. She was rather excited. Her and my dad have made their wills and have paid for their funerals and wanted to tell me where all the documents were. I'm actually rather glad they've done that; it makes a lot of sense to have all these details sorted in advance. But I didn't get back to sleep again after that. Instead I spent much of the afternoon in front of rubbish on the telly with a sleeping dog at my side.

"er indoors ^TM" came home from selling candles to the masses and brought cake with her. She was just a little sodden. The rain had got worse during the day so we abandoned plans to go to Rye bonfire parade. Instead we had a rather good afternoon and evening in front of the telly sinking beer and wine whilst catching up watching stuff recorded onto the SkyPlus box.

I think I might have an early night....

13 November 2015 (Friday) - Sandhurst

I slept well. Over brekkie I checked out social media. Nothing much had changed in the world overnight. I finally made a decision and spent a few minutes pruning the list of people I follow on that social media. I seem to get endless notifications about the antics of people I once met (for an hour) five years ago and absolutely nothing about people from whom I'd actually like to hear.

I popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and we set off on today's mission. Earlier in the week we'd seen a posting on the Sussex geocacher's page from our good friend Gordon asking if anyone fancied a walk round Sandhurst. That is only forty minutes away (traffic allowing) so I thought that might be something to do for the morning before an afternoon asleep.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing prominent policemen. There are calls for the police force to become a graduate-only profession. There were arguments on both sides... all I can say is that I've seen this happen to my own profession and it has not been an unqualified success.

"Desert Island Discs" came next - Lord Indarjit Singh was the castaway; he was rather interesting.

We soon arrived at Sandhurst church and it wasn't long before everyone arrived. I'd not met several of the people on today's walk. There are those who would think twice about teaming up with total strangers in this way, but I love it. What had (up till now) been random odd names on a geo-log sheet are now new friends.

We had a good walk; there's no denying that the weather was against us today. The remnants of a tropical storm soaked us on three occassions. The mud was slippery; one of our number was on his bum at one point, and I certainly needed a helping hand to be pulled out of a stream and up the bank. But a walk in the countryside with good company is always worthwhile.

I took a few photos whilst we walked too.

Mind you I feel I must be honest. As a geo-walk I cannot recommend the one round Sandhurst. One of the caches was missing; with a C.O. who's not logged in for nearly a year I doubt it will be replaced. The walk was billed as being one of four miles. Admittedly we did start at the church, but that can't have added much to the final distance walked; I measured it on "Hannah" as being a shade over six miles. And we started at the church as the recommended parking wasn't really the sort of place any of us wanted to leave a car.

Once home both "Furry Face ^TM" and I had a shower. I then took myself off to bed. Sometimes I can get some sleep before the night shift; other times I can't. Today I couldn't. After two hours I gave up laying there and came downstairs and watched an episode of "Upstairs Downstairs". Thomas (the chauffeur) had had his wicked way with Sarah (the nurserymaid). His Lordship was rather shocked.

As I watched the telly so my dog was snuggled up on the sofa next to me. He seemed to be shivering. Perhaps walking in the tropical storm this morning didn't agree with him. If he is still iffy in the morning I shall take him to the vet.

I'm off to the night shift now...

12 November 2015 (Thursday) - C.V. Writing

i seem to be somewhat obsessed with the possibility of a promotion to the Maidstone Hospital. I lay awake for much of the night speculating on the "what if"s of the matter. Do I *really* want to go back to a managerial position? Despite the "unfortunate episode" that led to me being in my current position I actually do like my job at the moment. I feel it rather suits me, and I've not once in the last four years felt physically sick at the thought of going into work (a welcome change from how things used to be).

However... These days I do wander in to work on the dot of starting time, spend much of the day spouting purile banter, and am gone like a shot the moment the clock gets to home time. I make no secret that at the moment I am just coasting to my retirement in (about) eight to ten years' time. I particularly like my current shift system (which gives me days off like today). And I don't miss the problems and difficulties of command at all. Nowadays no one phones me to tell me they are going sick just an hour before their shift starts. When equipment has little hiccups I can pass the problem over to someone else with a clear conscience.

But I do feel I could contribute so much more.I've been "the boss" before; whilst I'm not a natural manager I don't think I was *that* bad at it. I particularly miss the formal training and mentoring of the trainee staff. I would like the opportunity to feel that I'd actually done something positive from time to time.

And a couple of hundred more quid each month wouldn't go amiss.

Do I want to go back to being a boss? I don't know. At the moment it is not a decision I have to make. I shall wait for the job in Maidstone to be advertised and see exactly what is on offer and then think about applying.

And (you never know) - they might not even want me.

One off the advantages of my current job is that what with the vagaries of the shift system I do have quite a few days off mid-week. I used one of those days (Monday) to get the washing machine fixed. Tuesday was another such day when I got my New Year walk (provisionally and hopefully) sorted. Today was another day off and so I'd arranged to get the boiler serviced. In a possible New World Order I might have to use annual leave for that sort of thing.

The nice boiler man soon arrived and was pleasantly surprised at how clean our boiler was. It didn't take him long to do his thing and he was soon on his way. And so "Furry Face ^TM" and I were soon on our way too; a walk round to Frog's Island and back.

As we walked Fudge did his fudge (as we all do). I was just bagging it up when a passing looney stopped and announced that it was making him feel really hungry. I did wonder if I should hand the bag of poo over to him; instead I just smiled sweetly and got away as quickly as we could.

We carried on into South Willesborough where I did a little geo-maintenance and we came home past the outlet centre where a certain dog rolled in a dead sparrow. (What a delightful dog I have). It was shortly after this that we again encountered the passing looney we'd met earlier. He was now munching on a Cornish pasty and on seeing us he beamed and loudly announced that he's told us that he was hungry.

Over lunch I watched last night's episode of "You, Me and the Apocalypse"; the series started well and has had some interesting plot twists but it seems now to be in danger of not actually going anywhere. And with lunch scoffed I had a little look at my C.V. Once I seemed to do nothing but constantly re-write it to no avail.

I then re-vamped my LinkedIn profile. I can't help but wonder if anyone actually looks at those things but I suppose it can't help to have the thing up to date. If anyone would care to give it the once-over I'd be grateful for any comments or suggestions.

Over a rather late dinner we watched last Saturday's episode of Doctor Who. It was rather good...

11 November 2015 (Wednesday) - Cookie Monster

I was out for the count last night when suddenly (and for no good reason) "Furry Face ^TM" declared "Red Alert" at 3.33am. He flew round the house, barking like a thing possessed then took himself back to his basket and went to sleep as abruptly as he had woken.

As I scoffed my toast at brekkie time so my dog jumped onto the sofa, put his chin on my left hand and fell asleep looking absolutely worn out.

Did I ever mention that I never wanted a dog?

As I took said dog for his walk we saw that something had ripped open the dustbin bag in the front garden. Perhaps that was what had upset him in the night?

We were out for our walk a little earlier than usual this morning; loads of kiddies were on their way to school. Most of the smaller ones had nagging mothers in tow. I can't remember my mother ever whinging and griping as much as this lot seemed to be nagging this morning. Every single thing that every single child did was wrong.

Once home I tidied up the ripped bin bags and took them to the tip. I went via the YMCA charity shop; I'd gathered together a box of books that I hadn't read for years but were too good to throw away. I thought I'd give them to the YMCA as it it easier to park there than it is near to any other charity shop.

I certainly shan't take anything to the YMCA charity shop ever again. They were disinterested to the point of rudeness. It would have been churlish of me not to leave the books with them, but the old harridan on the counter made it clear that they were doing me a favour by taking the books from me.

I had a little while before work so I popped down to Folkestone to see the littlun. He seemed a little under the weather. Whilst there I got to see a new TV show; The Furchester Hotel. It features Elmo and Cookie Monster (of Sesame Street fame) running a hotel. In today's episode they had a visit from a very important porcupine. TV don't get better than that.

In a novel break with tradition I showed up at work today. Word is that there will be a vacancy for a senior position coming up at the labs at the Maidstone Hospital soon. I'm tempted to apply....

10 November 2015 (Tuesday) - In The Mud

I slept like a log last night. Perhaps the night shifts had taken their toll. I woke just after 7am which for me is something of a lie-in. I got up, had a swift brekkie and checked the weather forecast. It wasn't good, but time was pressing; I really did need to firm up my plans for the New Year's Day walk which I'd offered to organise. So I popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and drove out to Great Chart.

I'd provsionally worked out a route in my mind and (would you beleive it) my plan pretty much worked. Unlike my Bethersden route (which needed some serious re-routing and several re-visits) today's walk went nearly one hundred percent as planned. There was one minor hiccup out near Daniel's Water where the landowner seems to have deliberately blocked off a footpath. But to their credit they have made all the other footpaths crystal clear with well marked signs.

As we walked we met horses and goats. "Furry Face ^TM" chased squirrels, rabbits and "f-birds" as best as he could whilst being on his lead. Mind you despite being on his lead he did get muddy.

We did do a little back-tracking as we walked; but we've got nineteen potential places in which to hide tupperware along a route of four miles. We walked for a shade over two hours which I am hoping will be just right for New Year's day.

I took a few photos whilst we were out. Once home (and dog bathed) I put them on-line. Perhaps I shouldn't have had KFC for lunch, but it was tasty. And with lunch scoffed I then did the geo-on-line-thing to see if the potential hides I came up with earlier were acceptable. They are now in the hands of the geo-feds. Here's hoping.

As I fiddled about on-line so the washing machine did its thing with some sheets. Last night when tumble drying it sounded as though it was chewing on sheet metal. Today it sounded fine. Perhaps it has a problem tumble-drying or perhaps it doesn't like my smalls?

It struck me that I could do with some more film pots so I wandered up into Ashford to get some. Whilst there I thought I'd go into the mobile phone shop and have a whinge. The signal I get with EE is generally frankly terrible if I'm not in an urban area. "er indoors ^TM" gets excellent signal with Vodafone in places where I get no signal at all. I've phoned and emailed the people at EE and been fobbed off with being told to take my phone to one of their shops to have it tested. So I went into the shop and stood and waited. After fifteen minutes of waiting I walked out. Ashford has two branches of EE so I went to the second branch where I again stood and waited for another fifteen minutes before walking out again.

Mind you the milk shake shop was open (for once) so I treated myself to a battenburg milk shake. Not too shabby at all (!) It was a *real* battenburg milk shake. I watched them make it. They chucked two large lumps of battenburg cake into a mixer with ice cream and milk and mashed it up before my eyes. They make milk shakes out of pretty much anything. I've had shakes from black forest gateaux, bakewell tarts and even werther's originals in the past.

"er indoors ^TM" phoned. She was going off candlemongering this evening. Did I fancy some KFC if she brought it home for a quick bit of tea? KFC twice in one day? Can't be bad. However I didn't tell her I'd had KFC for lunch. She will find out by reading it here.

And with "er indoors ^TM" off candlemongering I was left "home alone" with my dog. Usually on Tuesdays the clans gather but today people seemed to be busy.

I'm going to spend the evening staring at the telly and hoping that this KFC-induced guts ache subsides soon...

9 November 2015 (Monday) - A Day Asleep

As I drove home after the night shift. I couldn't believe what I heard on the radio. The country's most senior general has publically expressed concern at the thought of Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister. It is no secret that Mt Corbyn came to office under the suspicion that he was a bit of a twit, and it realls seems that he has done his level best to remove any doubt on the matter. It comes to something when a serving military officer now publically expresses concern about the bloke.

At the time of his becoming leader of the Labour party there was concern about how many people had seemed to have joined the Labour party purely to vote in the leadership ballot. Was the election really fixed? Did tens of thousands of Conservative voters *really* effectively make the Labour party unelectable?

As I arrived home I saw a van outside our house. But not just any old van. A van from the Acme Lawnmower, Washing Machine and Dangerous Toy Corporation. It was at that moment that my phone beeped with a text message telling me that the nice man from the Acme Lawnmower, Washing Machine and Dangerous Toy Corporation was coming to look at our washing machine.

By the time I got in he had already worked his magic. The programmer had indeed gone west and he'd fitted a new one. He also made the observation that we'd had the thing set to do cold washes only. If nothing else we've been saving money all these years.

I had vaguely planned to take "Furry Face ^TM" out to plan the New Year walk today, but I was feeling rather too tired to wrestle with navigating new (to me) footpaths so instead we did one of our standard walks round to Singleton Lake and back. Whilst at the lake my dog was busy snuffling in the undergrowth (as dogs do) so I thought I'd photograth the geese who were looking particularly scenic. It was at that point that Fudge decided to pick a fight with a goose.

Once home I had all sorts of plans about what I might do with the day; but feeling rather tired I thought I'd get an hour's sleep then spend the afternoon doing all sorts of little errands.

I woke up and looked at the clock. I expected it to be early afternoon; the clock said 4.30pm, so I decided to do the petty errands another time.

"er indoors ^TM" came home and in a novel break with tradition was n't bowling tonight so instead we caught up with watching stuff off of the SkyPlus box.

Can't beat an evening of rubbish telly and grim red wine...

In the meantime the washing machine is making rather seriously bad noises. Perhaps we need the nice man back?

8 November 2015 (Sunday) - Between the Night Shifts

Last night as I worked the radio was playing its usual mix of interest and banal.

There was a discussion about the use of the death penalty in British justice. Arguments were made on both sides; pro and con. I can quite understand that the death penalty is irreversible; in the cases of miscarriages of justice (and there are quite a few) one cannot say sorry after the event.

However would there be many (or any) such miscarriages of justice? Would the death penalty act as a deterrent? I don't know but I am reminded of a chap I once knew who thought nothing of leaving his six-year old daughter eating in a public restaurant whilst he nipped off on errands. When I told him of the dangers of doing so he explained that where he came from (mainland China) his village still had a public stocks in which various criminals could be imprisoned and be pelted with all manner of things. Mind you it didn't happen very often; the threat was enough to make people behave themselves.

Consequently he came from a much safer place. People really did think twice before performing criminal acts.

There was another radio discussion about the rate at which the human population is rocketing. What with increasing birth rates and increasing life spans there are seventy million more people every year on this planet. Various fatuous windbags pontificated on the matter. The general consensus of the fatuous windbags seemed to be that "the lower orders were breeding like rats and decent people (like them) weren't". I couldn't help but wonder if what was seen to be "decent people" weren't the sort of people who would get the chance to breed in the first place.

For myself I realise that there are only so many people who will fit on this world. Having made a conscious decision to stop breeding when I did (and having had my nads cut) I would nevertheless have liked more children.

As well as death penalties and overpopulation the night's radio featured quizzes, plays and an expose on a chap in India who was publically killed by a mob for eating beef. The radio was actually quite interesting for once.

And having listened to all sorts of stuff overnight I'd actually been looking forward to the church service on the radio as I drove home. I was disappointed. Billed as " a celebration of music" it was actually rather awful howling. I turned it off.

Once home I checked social media over brekkie. It would seem that as I slept yesterday afternoon and worked last night so everyone else had had a whale of a time. Those that hadn't been watching bands or karaoke-ing had been out watching fireworks at various events.

"er indoors ^TM" soon set off with "Furry Face ^TM" on a geo-maintenance mission. "Geo-maintenance" is one of life's really unneccessary things in the geo-world. People hide geocaches; others go find them. Having found them, these others then do the secret geo-thing and are supposed to put the caches back how and where they found them.

In practice they don't. They don't always close the things up properly. They don't always hide them as they found them. And so a sandwich box which was hidden only a few months ago is soon either waterlogged or missing (or both). But (if nothing else) geo-maintenance is a walk for my dog.

I then took myself off to bed for the day; I would have slept much longer had I not recevied a succession of phone calls and texts in the late afternoon. After the umpttenth I gave up trying to sleep and got up.

The house is lonely when my little dog is not here.

Off to work again...