7 April 2016 (Thursday) - Busy, Busy...

I woke feeling rather rough. Was it the two recent night shifts or the two bottles of stout last night? I'm finding that (more and more) I'm feeling rough after not very much beer.

Over brekkie I watched "Raised by Wolves"; the last episode of the current season. I hope they make more of that show. I then had a little look-see on line and got just a little bit cross.

I'd not heard of countryside access wardens before. In theory it is a good idea. Unpaid volunteers walk the Kentish footpaths and deal with any access and right-of-way issues they find. However when I was a lad this was a full-time profeessional occupation. This was someone's job. I actually considered it as a career. Now it is something done by volunteers in their spare time. This is no different to the volunteer librarians and how the library service is dependent on volunteers about which I was ranting a week or so ago. Am I the only one who doesn't see the bigger picture? Where will it all end?

Take today's strike by junior doctors - the answer is obvious. Sack all of those doctors who work in A&E departments (and the nurses too) and have St John's Ambulance volunteers running the places. Do we need an expensive police force? Why not just have vigilantes laying down the law as they see fit?

I took a deep breath and drove round to collect "My Boy ^TM". We had a quick fry-up then came back home. Together we moved the arbour away from the fence, spent ten minutes setting up the pressure washer, then scrubbed down the arbour. "My Boy ^TM" seemed quite taken with the pressure washer. Most people seem to be when they have their first play with one.

I then took "My Boy ^TM" back home. We took the pressure washer with us; he's borrowing it for a while.

Having made a start in the garden I continued. I got the strimmer out and edged the lawn, then found the secateurs and cut back more of the stuff hanging over a yard into my garden from next door. I *almost* got finished, bbut the rain got too heavy so I gave up.

I popped up the shop to get a sandwich. Whilst in the shop I struck up a conversation with the locals who were asking about my nutty neighbour. Apparently he's been going round telling everyone that his wife has left him (even though she hasn't) and has been telling everyone how much better the world was when Tony Benn was Prime Minister (he never was).

With lunch scoffed I set about the ironing. as I ironed I watched the last ever episode of "Extant". In the past I've mentioned that his series has been rather variable. Last week's episode was rather good. This final one was.... well.... it wasn't a bad epiisode. Its story just bore no relation to what had gone before.

With "Extant" watched I put on a DVD. "Master and Commander" kept me occupied until I finally finished the ironing at 4.30pm.

I shall program "Hannah" for tomorrow... and maybe have an early night. I've been busy today.

6 April 2016 (Wednesday) - Geo-Maintenance

As I worked last night I had the radio on. One article struck me as being a sign of the times.... Apparently the Butlins holiday camp has caused upset. As part of the entertainment for the masses was a wrestling match. I've seen this sort of thing before; it is all good fun. But was this match? It featured some hero-wrestler "Tony Spitfire" (clad in Union Jack attire). When Tony entered the ring the crowd were encouraged to chant "England! England! ". His opponent was some chap called Hakim who was waving some flag which was (apparently) instantly recognisable as being Islamic, and the crowd was told to boo and jeer at him.

Whilst this shouldn't have happened, bearing in mind the international climate is anyone surprised?

There was also something which made me sit up and take notice. I have always said that history is written by those who can be bothered to write it down. (i.e.me!) But it turns out that historians are now re-thinking Churchill's role as war-time leader. For all that he did a wonderful job, history overlooks the team who helped him. And why is that? because (apparently) historians studying the second world war seem to use books which were written by Churchill as a major reference.

Churchill himself once said "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it"

I came home to find "er indoors ^TM" was rather concerned about "Furry Face ^TM". He hadn't eaten his tea last night and he'd spent the night on the sofa rather than going upstairs. I thought he seemed rather subdued yesterday, but when he saw me this morning he went ballistic.

I popped his lead on him and we drove out to Bethersden for a little walk.

About six months ago I hid thirty eight geocaches in a circular walk around Bethersden. Over the winter the floods had washed one away. It would be the one which was furthest from a road. We stomped across the mud, found where it used to be. Sure enough it had gone so I replaced it. As we walked I took a photo of the woods and posted it on Facebook with the caption "Geocaches don't maintain themselves".

And then I pondered...

When I go for a geo-walk I do my homework. If any seem to be missing before we go out I message the chap who owns the missing cache and ask if they'd like me to replace it. If when I am out I can't find one and I'm sure it has gone I'll replace it (and message the owner). If the paper log is wet or damp I'll replace it. Everyone is *always* grateful for my efforts; from the perspective of the people who are supposed to do geo-maintenance the caches I find *do* maintain themselves.

It's just the ones that I hide that don't.

We got back to the car just as the heavy rain started. It was as well I'd put a towel on the passenger seat; being low-down my dog does collect the mud. But bathing him didn't take long, and within minutes of his bath he was snoring.

I did myself a little toast, then went to bed at 11am with the intention to be up by the early afternoon. I slept a little longer that I had planned.

Having woken feeling something like death warmed up I set the washing machine loose on my smalls then spent an hour or so writing another blog.

"er indoors ^TM" came home and boiled up a rather good bit of scoff which we devoured whilst catching up with stuff the SkyPlus box had recorded for us. That SkyPlus box is good to us...

5 April 2016 (Tuesday) - A Day Asleep

As I drove home after a rather busy night the radio was spouting its usual blend of drivel and opinion. However there was something rather interesting this morning. There has been some major leak of confidential financial documents and it now seems that the Prime Minister's late father ran a multi-million pound business that never paid a penny of tax to the UK Government in thirty years.

The Prime Minister has said that he doesn't have anything to do with this business (well he would, wouldn't he?) but apparently he is rather miffed that this has all been spread all over the news. He seems to think his family's financial affairs should be private.

Is he *really* that thick? If anyone's life must be an open book it is the Prime Minister.

We got home, and fleetingly saw "er indoors ^TM" as she went to work. After a few minutes "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" arrived with "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" and we had a little walk round the park. As we went we met Leroy the pug who has been on something of a diet (at the vet's orders). Comment was made that all vets do is shove fingers in unmentionable places and tell dogs to go on diets.

With our walk done we wasted ten minutes trying to find Sam's shoes. "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" tried to make off with the SkyPlus remote control, and then once he and "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" had set off, I went to bed for the day.

I was out like a light for six hours...

Up at 4pm, a spot of dinner scoffed, drivel on the telly watched... I'm off to the night shift again. The day between the night shifts is usually something of a non-event. Today was no exception...

4 April 2016 (Monday) - Before the Night Shift

I slpet like a log last night; waking shortly before 7am to find myself cuddling my dog as though he was a teddy bear. He really should spend the night in his own bed. Mind you I was glad to have slept all night. Yesterday evening those of my friends who live about ten to fifteen miles away were telling tales (on social media) of epic storms. Either these storms never came my way or I slept through them.

Over brekkie I saw I now have a page of my own at a publishing house. I had a little smug smile about that.

I then made a few plans for a walk in Sussex that I will probably organise for some time in May. The walk will involve going underground...

I popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and we walked round to collect "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM". We had a little walk. I had some geo-maintenance to do in Park Farm and we all needed a walk so we combined the two.

As we walked we met a dog. "Winnie" was a black labrador who was friendly enough, but he was running loose. At one point he ran into the road as the cars swerved around him. His owner commented that he wished that Winnie wouldn't do that as Winnie had been run over by a car at Christmas time. I thought about suggesting the method by which I stop my dog getting flattened; namely a dog lead. But I thought better of saying anything. Some people do take the blindingly obvious to be intended as sarcasm.

Pausing only briefly to find one cache (today was a calendar day) we made our way home via the old A28.Today's picture above features that road. It is now effectively a footpath; to the right of Fudge you can see the white line that used to mark the centre of the road.

We stopped off at the bakery where "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" bought her old dad a cream bun, then said our goodbyes and I scoffed my cream bun over a cuppa. Very nice!

I took myself off to bed for the afternoon and made a point of putting "Furry Face ^TM" at the foot of the bed. If he is left downstairs during the day he just finds things at which to bark. After three hours I woke and then watched thee last two episodes of "Killjoys" which the SkyPlus box had recorded for me. It has been something of a variable series, but I hear they are making a second season.

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

3 April 2016 (Sunday) - Golden Cross

I slept like a log, but woke to find both my hands were in pain. Closer inspection showed both were filled with small splinters and thorns; presumably from having done all that gardening yesterday. I got a needle and spent a few minutes trying to get out as many as I could.

I didn't get them all.

"Furry Face ^TM" was something of a problem this morning; he wouldn't eat all of his brekkie. After a while I gave up chivvying him; he never wants to eat when he knows we are going out. Instead I popped his lead on and, pausing only briefly to collect his canine sidekick (and her associate), we set off to Sussex.

Eleven of us (and three dogs) met up to walk round the footpaths and lanes surrounding the Sussex village of Golden Cross. It was rather swampy in places; and we did acquire more dogs at various points of the walk.

It can come as no surprise to regular readers of this drivel that we were hunting tupperware; geocache-wise this was very much a walk of two halves. We'd gone out knowing that we were planning to do two seperate series of caches. The larger series of caches round Golden Cross were easy to get to on clearly marked footpaths and in good repair (even though some were rather tricky hides). The smaller series in the Chiddingly area were somewhat more hit-and-miss with at least one seemingly randomly placed a long distance from any public right of way and most of them seeming to be in need of a little maintenance.

Mind you the threatened rain held off until five minutes after we finished, and the day was warm enough to be walking in T-shirts.

And (as always) there was a photo or two taken as we walked.

Although we'd parked up by a long-closed pub we found our route took us right past the Six Bells in Chiddlingly so we stopped off for a pint. Or two. Somtimes the pubs we find on our walks are rather up-market. Other times they can be a little bit "council". But this pub was really good: it was here that we transiently aquired another dog. "Diesel" joined us for dog treats and then carried on doing his doggy thing.

With ten miles walked and thirty-eight geo-finds logged (including one seven thousandth find) we said our goodbyes. We drove home through the rain (which stopped as quickly as it started).

Over a rather good bit of tea I watched an episode of the BBC's series "Moving On". This series is a seemingly unconnected load of dramas which are quite well done. Very thought-provoking. What would *you* do if you found a load of diamonds in an old lady's house when you were doing her a favour and she clearly had no idea they were there?

I then sparked up my laptop. Having been shown the error of my ways by "er indoors ^TM" I can now directly upload my field notes via GSAK. And so I did if for no other reason than that I could.

Have you ever uploaded a field note via GSAK? I can heartily recommend doing so. Provided (of course) that you actually have a field note.

As I fiddled about my little dog snored. Immediately on getting home he'd had his bath and his tea and he had taken himself off to bed. (My bed!)

Sometimes I worry that I'm walking that little dog too much. Perhaps I should ask the vet's opinion. Mind you the vet wouldn't beleive how much we walk; the vet would just tell me he's overweight (again)...

2 April 2016 (Saturday) - Devastatingly Dangerous

As I drove home from the night shift it became apparent that I'd missed something. Apparently it was national "drive up the middle of the road" day. I found myself mounting the pavement several times to avoid colliding with other road users who seemed blissfully aware of what side of the road on which they were supposed to be.

I got home and made straight for the loo. Last night I saw butter flavoured toilet roll in Morrisons. I was rather curious so I bought some and this morning I had a "Go Compare" moment with the various bogrolls in Trap One. Without going into graphic detail let's just say that butter flavoued bogroll was something of a disappointment.

Over brekkie I saw something which made me check the date. But it wasn't an April Fool thing. Scientists have worked out a way of hiding from aliens.

One way to detect planets in orbit around another star is to measure the brightness of the light from that star. As any planet orbiting the star comes between that star and us the star's light dims. Not much, but noticeably. It is possible that aliens might find Earth that way. After all we've found lots of planets that way. However do we want aliens to find us?

Having watche far too much science fiction, supposedly reputable scientists have a theory that if we shine humungous laser beams into space they will counteract the dimming of the sun as seen from a distant planet when we transit our sun and so render the Earth invisible.

What they haven't realised though is that for this to work we need to turn the lasers on as we start to cross the sun (from the aliens' perspective) and turn them off when the transit is complete. But having no idea whatsoever where it is that the aliens would be watching us from, rather than hiding the Earth, chances are these lasers would act as a beacon to show where we are.

We popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and took him out for a little adventure. We drove out to Faversham to have a mooch round a ruined church. Once a Roman temple it is the only ancient church in England which started life as a Roman temple. Or so the sign said. The fact there was a geocache under a nearby rock was an added bonus. "Furry Face ^TM" seemed happy to spend ten minutes chasing down rabbit holes.

I was glad to get out and do something; otherwise I woul have just slept the day away. Having said that I slept for most of the journey home.

Once home we had a quick Belgian bun for lunch, then spent a llittle while working in the garden. Several years ago the more difficult of our neighbours planted clematis and roses against his side of the fence which seperates our gardens. He's left it to grow wild, and it had got so that it was effectively impossible to get past the garden pond. A few years ago our back garden was beautiful; these days it is something of a jungle. So I decided to reclaim the back garden and we hacked back his overgrowth.

As I hacked I was expecting him to appear at any moment, frothing at the mouth and ranting. He didn't but I'm still waiting to hear from him.

In the past he has turned up on the doorstep demanding that I go tell the people who live on the other next door to him to sort themselves out because leaves from their tree has fallen in his garden. But he sees nothing wrong with his shrubberies overhanging over four feet into my garden.

I then drove a car full of cut down clematis to the tip. Having cut back all the clematis we've actually been able to get to the arbour by the pond. I toyed with the idea of getting the pressure washer out and giving the arbour a good scrub.

Instead "er indoors ^TM" took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk and I had a couple of hours sleep. I then made some plans for a little walk next Friday. If anyone fancies wandering through the Kent mud, the more the merrier.

I watched the last episode of "Childhood's End" then spent the rest of the evening applying for promotion. Do I want promotion? I don't know. But it doesn't hurt to try. Will anything come of the application? Possibly. We shall see. Time will tell. It always does...

Meanwhile I've got the jingle to the the daring, dazzling, death-defyingly dull, devastatingly dangerous, delectable, delicatessenable, divinely decadent Sandwich Quiz stuck in my head...

1 April 2016 (Friday) - Before the Night Shift

My little dog spent the entire night downstairs on the sofa last night. I wonder what that was all about. Perhaps he was sulking about having been forced to walk through all that mud yesterday? Perhaps he was tired after walking through all that mud yesterday? He came and sat with me as I scoffed my toast, and he was snoring noisily within minutes. Perhpas yesterday *was* a bit too much for him?

With my dog's chin on my left hand I spent a few minutes perusing the geo-map making vague plans for future outings. If I don't plan, nothing will happen...

I've an idea to go on a ghost-hunt round the City of London; I've spotted eleven of them in the area.

I also toyed with the idea of spending a day doing geo-selfies on webcam caches. That's not going to be quite so easy; there are only twelve in the country and I've already done five of them. The closest to home that I could go for is only two hundred and thirty miles away in Leeds. There are another two a little way on from there in Liverpool. Maybe a road trip later in the year?

I popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and we went for a little walk. We went round to Newtown to meet "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM". They had an appointment in town so we walked into town with them, then came home via the post office. I had a parcel to collect.

I've ranted about Ashford's sorting office before. Today they were just as I have found them to be in the past; surly and un-cooperative. But I got my parcel from them. Eventually.

We came home and I mowed the lawn. Just a cursory haircut but I worked up quite a sweat. As I went for a quick shower I noticed the central heating was still on. Not only had I not changed the clock on the timer when British summertime started last weekend, but the timer was on for too long anyway.

I made some adjustments to the thing. That might save a bob or two in the long run.

Last night I saw that I'd missed something new on the telly. Many years ago I read an Arthur C Clarke book called "Childhood's End". It was rather good; and it had been made in to a TV series. No one told me... However through the wonders of catch-up TV I was able to download the series. I watched the first episode over lunch. It was quite good.

I spent the afternoon asleep. Or as asleep as I could be with Fudge constantly declaring "Red Alert" for no reasons that I could fathom. I gave up trying to sleep shortly after 4pm and watched the second episode of "Childhood's End" instead.

Ironically a certain dog slept through that without making the slightest sound.

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