3 August 2017 (Thursday) - Flowers, Dogs

Perhaps I scoffed too much yesterday evening, perhaps it was the coffee at afternoon tea, or perhaps it was that puppy again. But whatever it was, I didn't sleep very well last night. I gave up trying to sleep at 5am, got up and as the puppy got comfortable where I had been, I spent a very worrying ten minutes trying to find my dog. He was nowhere to be found. I searched the bedrooms, behind the sofa, in the laundry basket. I even went round the garden and into the shed. the more I searched the more worried I became.

Eventually I discovered him (fast asleep) in his basket where he was supposed to be. I don't really know why I didn't look there first.

Over brekkie I watched the most recent episode of "Detectorists" that the SkyPlus box had recorded, then set off to work.

As I drove there was an interesting interview with an economist on the radio. This chap was saying that future British fiscal policy will need to be conducted carefully bearing in mind that as a nation we've deliberately decided to cripple our economy by opting to leave the European Union. He was quite vocal on the matter, and presented quite a bit of evidence which he claimed supported his position (not that I really understood it). He also implied that having done something so stupid, the rest of the world is now watching to see what idiot move we as a nation make next. I felt this wasn't perhaps the most balanced view to take, but there it is. He sounded believable, and (as always) facts are never as important as perception. You can fool all of the people all of the time provided you talk loudly and confidently.

There was also talk about genetic engineering; a vital first step has been taken to remove genetic disease from unborn babies. Who knows - generations yet unborn may never suffer with cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease.

The pundits on the radio were interviewing an expert from the University of Kent. But the interview was rather once-sided. It was embarrassing to listen to the ignorance of the radio show's hosts when they asked the expert to sum up several years of post-doctoral research into one easy-to-understand sentence.

I'd left home early to chase a First to Find. A new geocache had gone live not a million miles from work. I thought I might get a cheeky FTF. Interestingly the thing had gone live on Monday evening and still no find had been logged. I had wondered why; that rarely (if ever) happens. Finds are usually made within a couple of hours. Two days is unheard of.

I got to where the sat-nav took me and soon realized why this remained unfound. I found a flower box on a very busy street corner.  Even at 6.45am there were endless passers-by who were looking very suspiciously at the stranger acting oddly by the flower box. The hint for finding the cache was "In the flower box". *In* it? Seriously?

I could see that others had rummaged about in the box. It had been somewhat trashed, with broken plants left in the box and dead flowers scattered on the grass nearby. I had a cursory look-see before logging a "Needs Archiving" to protect the remaining plants.

Surely the reviewer should have thought better about this before allowing this? Less than one minute on Google Street View showed the location wasn't really suitable. Furthermore the chap who hid this cache has never logged a find on any caches and (from what I can work out) is only thirteen years old.

I got to work for the early shift, and spent the day sitting in front of a microscope alternately whinging about my aching stomach and farting (when I felt I could get away with it). But an early start made for an early finish.

Once home I took the dogs round the park. The walk was progressing much the same as ever when a cyclist flew by. The puppy did her usual thing of trying to race (she races all fast-moving things).

The cyclist deliberately kicked her.

I bellowed after the chap who immediately speeded up. There’s a photo of the fellow here just in case anyone might recognise him…

I mentioned the episode to other dog walkers; some seemed to know of the chap. Apparently there is someone who cycles through the park at 6.45am and 5pm who doesn’t like dogs. Part of me wants to be waiting at the park at 6.45am tomorrow. Part of me wants to break this fellow.

But…

Realistically I have no idea who he is; I have a blurred photo of someone a hundred (or more) yards away. Were I to lay in wait tomorrow all I would do would be to harangue some innocent passer-by.

It has been suggested I tell the police. From bitter experience I know the police would be disinterested at best. They threatened *me* with arrest when I complained to them that a pervert was telling me about his sexual desires on my teenaged daughter; they wouldn’t get off their arses for a dog.

2 August 2017 (Wednesday) - A Big Birthday

I slept well until the puppy started licking and biting my head shortly after 7am. I got up and she made herself comfortable where I had been. I came downstairs and over brekkie watched my lap-top finishing off its weekly update. I *always* make the same mistake; presented with the options of “Update and restart” or “Update and shut down” I invariably go for “Update and shut down”. I always forget this actually means “Do half the update and do the rest when he turns the thing on next time”.

The lap-top eventually came back to life and when it did I managed to have a look at the Internet. Yesterday I mentioned about the week’s geo-event in Devon. Several friends had gone, and were complaining about the rain. In years gone by I used to camp a lot; nowhere near so much these days (it hurts too much), but there’s no denying that the rain does put me off. Rain when camping is manageable *if* you are prepared for it, but being prepared for it involves taking some relatively huge form of shelter. And having some way of drying it out when you bring it home wet.

If I could afford a camper van or a caravan and had somewhere practical to store it…

I then spent a little while on TripAdvisor giving the work the benefit of my sage wisdom on several cafes, restaurants and McDonalds until the birthday girl emerged from her pit. She then spent a rather happy half an hour opening pressies; she had a good haul.

We then took the dogs for a walk. With rain forecast later we thought we’d wear them out before it got wet. A new geocache had gone live in the wilds near Tenterden, so we walked the dogs round some beautiful countryside and even got a cheeky First to Find whilst we were at it.

As we walked we were harangued by a landowner. They were very polite but very insistent that we complained about the owner of the adjoining fields. They claimed that they spent out maintaining the rights of way on their land whilst their neighbour had let the stiles fall into disrepair and had let them become dangerous. We assured them that we would report any dodgy stiles to the council. However we didn’t find any. I wonder what they had the arse about; all the stiles we found were fine.

We got home just as the rain started.

We settled the dogs and drove down to Hythe. "er indoors ^TM" fancied an afternoon tea, so we went to the Hythe Imperial Hotel. It wasn’t bad but… the coffee cup was so small that two gulps and you emptied it. Admittedly they did free refills. But three tiddly sandwiches, one scone and four micro cakes came to twenty quid each. And call me old fashioned if you will, but I did think the hen party on the next table having champagne instead of tea was just a tad too much. No one gave me the option of a pint. Mind you I’d certainly go back.

On the way home another car rear-ended us; he skidded on the wet roads. No harm was done, but it added to the adventure of the day.

Once home we slobbed for a bit, then collected Sam and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" and then went on to the railway station for "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM". The entire tribe then met up at the Harvester where I’d booked a table for family dinner. Not cheap, but then that sort of thing rarely is. And although the food was excellent, like yesterday (in all honesty) I would rather have had a McDonalds…

I think she enjoyed her birthday – I certainly did…

1 August 2017 (Tuesday) - Lazy Day

I was sleeping so well, and being on a rostered day off I had no need to be up and about early. It was such a shame that the dogs had to start a pitched battle on the bed at silly o’clock.

I gave up trying to sleep; over brekkie I had a look into cyber-space as I do. There were several people posting to Facebook from Devon. This week is the national week-long national meet-up of Tupperware hunters. There had been talk of going, but "er indoors ^TM" couldn’t get the time off work. I suppose what with her big birthday this week, that was probably for the best.

I also saw I’d made a geo-boo-boo. There had been issues with the series of geocaches I put out in Bethersden. Several of the caches on one stretch had intermittently been going missing. A chap doing the series told the landowner on that stretch all about geocaching, and so (armed with a map of where to look) the landowner went out and destroyed all he could find. A friend went out yesterday and fetched in all the remaining ones for me. When he told me he’d got them in I did the on-line archiving not thinking that he might not have done his geo-admin. Woops.

To some people this would be a matter of life and death, to others it would be petty triviality. Each to their own.

Seeing a large parking space outside the house I fetched my car round… I wish I hadn’t. As I walked up the road there was a near-miss as a cyclist came out of a side road into Beaver Road. The cyclist wasn’t watching the road; his eyes and both hands were on his phone and he was utterly unaware of any traffic until he was nearly over the bonnet of a passing car.

I got my car; as I drove down Beaver Road I pulled up into the parking space and stopped. I heard a screech of brakes and looked round to see a car diagonally blocking the road not six inches from the back of my car. Some irate bloke was bellowing out of his car window demanding to know what the f… I was doing. Without thinking I replied I was parking my car. That completely foxed him. He’d shot out of the shop’s forecourt fully intending to fly down the road with no regard for anyone who might consider speed limits. With a little to-ing and fro-ing he managed to get his car out of the silly angle he’d got into and headed off. Hopefully never to be seen again.

"er indoors ^TM" went to work. Together with the dogs I scrounged a lift as far as Godinton. There were two relatively new geocaches there. The first one had literally been thrown in a hedge; the second had been hidden with a little thought. Mind you I’m not complaining; they gave us targets for today’s walk. But I have now found every sandwich box concealed within three and a half miles of home.

We came home through the park where the dogs played in the river to cool off. The morning turned out to be hotter than I had expected.

Once home I had an early lunch which I devoured whilst watching episodes of “Time Gentlemen Please”, Good stuff to watch.

I could have then fixed the bannister; I could have pootled in the garden. But I didn’t. I’ve been rather tired lately; every day I’ve not been working I’ve been doing things, and so with the dogs asleep I had a lazy afternoon dozing in front of the telly.

"er indoors ^TM" came home and we went to Pizza Express where the clans gathered for a pre-birthday dinner. I’d not been there before; the food wasn’t too bad at all. But (in all honesty) I would rather have had a McDonalds…