3 April 2022 (Sunday) - Surprisingly Busy

I woke to a bright morning which was either four degrees below freezing or two above, depending on which weather forecast you chose.

With toast and coffee at my side I had a look at the Internet in the forlorn hope that something radical or revolutionary had happened overnight. I do this every morning, and (as usual) I was again disappointed. There was a minor row kicking off on one of the local Facebook pages caused by someone wanting to apply for a council grant toward their gas and electricity bill. The row was between those who feel that their every expenditure should be funded by some grant or benefit, and those who resent that they personally are being expected to fund everyone else’s reluctance to pay their way in life. As always the truth of the matter was somewhere between the two viewpoints but the squabble looked set to run and run.

I had a look at my emails; I had a notification of a new virtual geocache. They are rather rare and being first to find one of those takes some doing. I saw it was south-east of me… there’s not that many hunters of Tupperware to the south-east. And then I read the description properly. It was south east of me… in France.

There were (surprisingly) also two new geocaches relatively locally. One in Charing and one in Dover. But having been first yesterday, that’s me done for the month.

 

Seeing the washing I did last night was dry I got dressed (bypassing the ironing board) and went out for a little adventure, hermetically sealed from the masses inside my car.

The first thing I did was to unseal myself. I needed to scan some physical Munzees to get a Qrate or two (as you do), so I went to an industrial estate on the outskirts of town where I could be confident on not meeting anyone. I struggled with those Munzees… The trouble is that in order to capture a physical Munzee you have to find the 2-D barcode sticker. Your phone will take you to where the sticker is… or to be precise, to where the phone used to put out the Munzee thinks it was put out. And there’s the problem. When you activate your phone it can take a few seconds (sometimes up to a minute) for your phone’s GPS to sort itself out. Not everyone realises this. There are those who stick bar codes to lamp posts, pull their phones out, do the scan and move on all in less than five seconds. And when someone like me then comes along to find the bar code I am dependent on any hints or clues since the actual given GPS location can be up to fifty (or more) yards out.

I couldn’t find the first two I looked for, and then managed (with varying degrees of difficulty) to scan six Munzees in a deserted industrial estate (to get two Qrates) before sealing myself back into my car.

 

I then drove through town and through Wye remotely capturing (rather dull) Points of Interest. These are all virtual Munzees, and (like all virtual Munzees) can be Munz-ed remotely by just being in the general vicinity. From Wye I drove up to an open field in Chartham. Seeing no one was about I slipped out of the car and Munzed like a thing possessed capping weapons, mysteries and Flat Friends. As I Munz-ed I became conscious of one of the normal people watching me. This chap followed me across the field, across the level crossing (and back again), and as I went back to my car so he got into a car and drove round and round the car park making no secret of his watching me until I eventually drove off.

 

I drove up to another empty playing field near Canterbury for gaming Munzees, and from there up to Boughton. I needed to scan twenty Munzees which hadn’t been Munz-ed for over a year, and I needed to do it away from everyone else.  According to the Munzee map there were a load along the footpaths bordering the golf course. I did what I wanted to do, both in terms of Munz-ing and in avoiding contact,

But…

Have you ever been to Boughton golf course? Membership certainly ain’t cheap; six hours golf costs more than a year’s premium membership of geocaching or Munzee. Consequently you’d think they would attract a certain sort of client. I was frankly amazed to find they attracted the sort who swear very loudly and very frequently. As I walked around the paths I could hear pretty much every swear word known to science (except “fitbin”) being screamed from all directions.

 

Having achieved pretty much all the Munz-ing I wanted to do today I headed home. As I’d driven through Canterbury I’d seen queues at the petrol stations of people panic-buying petrol. There wasn’t any of that nonsense in Ashford so I panic-bought some from Sainsbury’s before it again became fashionable closer to home.

 

Once home I made lunch (toast) and had a look at the smart meter. The thing was laying an egg as we were suddenly massively over budget for use of gas and leccie. The nice people at the power company had told it that they’d increased their charges last week, but had left it to me to tell it that how much I was paying had changed as well (even though the nice people at the power company had changed that without asking me!). I had a little fiddle with the smart meter and had a look at my on-line account. Last Thursday the price of a unit of electricity was only fifty-seven per cent of what it is now. Similarly last Thursday a unit of gas cost me only forty-three per cent of what it costs me today.

 

Over an early tea I watched a film. “Brighton” was the story of two old couples coming on a day trip to Brighton to re-live and remember the visits of their youth. It could have been a good film *if* the film makers had done their homework.

• The film was called “Brighton” but I recognised many of the locations as being in Hastings and Eastbourne.
• The scenes set in the 1950s features modern road signage.
• The vintage bus (supposedly in Brighton) had a six-digit Hastings phone number; Hastings didn’t get six-digit phone numbers until twenty years later (I was there!)
• Rock a Nore is *not* in Brighton.

I suppose for anyone who hasn’t lives on the East Sussex coast (i.e. pretty much everyone) these trivial details would go completely unnoticed. But I noticed them…

 

And now it is beginning to get dark outside. I thought today was going to drag with me doing little but sulk about what I was missing. What with Munz-ing and sorting the power bill and telly today has been rather busy, which was probably for the best.

I shall play “Worms” for a bit, then see what’s happing on that telly…

2 April 2022 (Saturday) - Still Sulking

It was ironic that I should wake this morning feeling the best I’ve felt all week, wasn’t it? But such is life.

“er indoors ^TM” and the dogs set off on their adventure leaving me home alone and sulking, so I made toast, sent out some birthday wishes, and had a look at the Internet.

Over the last few days I have been rather critical of the weather forecast… perhaps unfairly as I’ve only ever looked at what the BBC’s forecast has to say. This morning I looked at both the BBC and the Met Office’s guesses; one felt the current temperature outside my house was just over freezing point; the other felt it was five degrees below. If they can’t agree on something they can actually measure, what hope for that at which they have to guess.

And it would seem that the general public’s love affair with the NHS has come to an end as public satisfaction with the NHS has sunk to its lowest level since 1997, with only a third of voters content with the way the health service is being run and is performing. Public opinion is such a fickle thing, isn’t it? Only a year ago the masses were standing on the doorstep clapping like demented sealions for the NHS; now they think it is rubbish. I can remember saying that the novelty of loving the NHS would wear off, and that would seem to have happened.

Before getting on with the dull housework I was reading my Kindle whilst sat “on the throne” when my phone beeped with the news of the publication of a new geocache. I took one look at the puzzle and decided it was beyond me and not to bother chasing the First to Find.
But two minutes later I wondered how long it would be before another cache gets published locally, and told myself that I shouldn’t be so negative. In the cache description there was a hint, and that which had looked like gibberish suddenly made sense. I frantically got Googling the common denominator of Benny Hill, Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons and Narnia and it wasn’t long before I had some co-ordinates. Mind you I had a minor problem with the first digit of the eastings; my calculations had the final location of my target either in southern France or in hyperspace, but bearing in mind that I’ve actually got a degree in mathematics (I really have!), I checked my sums and realised I only had to drive two miles down the road to get to where the cache was.

Despite road closures I was soon at the obvious parking spot where there was another car parked with the engine running. Had I been beaten? I didn’t recognise the chap in the car. Was he just the chauffer for some other hunters of Tupperware? I looked across to the obvious target as described in the hint and couldn’t see anyone. I wandered over and after a short search I uncovered what I was looking for… and at that very moment I remembered I was supposed to be ill.. I held my breath and held everything at arm’s length as I did the secret geo-rituals. And I was the first one to find it as well. Result !!! This was only my second FTF in over a year. Back in the day I tried to get one a month.
I walked back to my car, and as I got in it, so the chap in the other car drove away. I wonder what he’d been up to? I suspect he wondered what I’d been up to as well. 

 

I came home and scraped the mud off of my boots. I had planned to mow the lawn but it hadn’t grown much at all since I last scalped it. Instead I put a load of washing in to scrub (even though the washing basket was empty yesterday!) and ran round with the Hoover.

I then started planning a Munzee mission for tomorrow. Tomorrow is the start of the Clan War and I can Munz in splendid isolation from inside the car. I sparked up my Munzee app to see that Munzee HQ had given me a present of fifty Zeds. Zeds are a crypto-currency used in the Munzee game. One Zed is worth about half a pence, so whilst fifty of the things isn’t going to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams, it is better than a kick in the goolies.

I then made a cuppa and found that the chocolate digestive biccies had gone off. You wouldn’t think a chocolate digestive biccie could go off, would you? They were foul! I had a little look at the sell-by date and read the packet and realised the biccies hadn’t gone off at all. They were mince pie flavour. Have you ever had a mince pie flavoured chocolate digestive biccie? They are a bit grim.

 

I then alternated the rest of the day between reading my Kindle, watching “Trailer Park Boys” and playing “Worms” pausing only briefly to send out for dinner. My “Just Eat” app called up a kebab and some chips from… I won’t say where, but I will say it was double the price of the kebabery up the road, and it fuelled the guts ache the mince pie flavoured chocolate digestive biccies had started.

 

“er indoors ^TM” then video-called from Norfolk, and I spent a few minutes talking with everyone… and sulking about testing positive for COVID. I must admit that I feel as though I’m testing positive for COVID as opposed to actually having the thing, and I think it fair to say that compared to thousands I seem to have got off very lightly. However that doesn’t stop me wishing I tested negative.

1 April 2022 (Friday) - Sulking

I’d forgotten just how much space Pogo takes up on the bed. After a rather fraught night I woke wondering if six inches of bed space was so much to ask for. I set yet another COVID test going… and it was positive. How appropriate for April Fool’s Day.

I then looked up the regulations for what I have to do… and found that the official government advice for whatever it is that I am supposed to do changed today so I read that and read the instructions issued by work, and booked a PCR test (because I could), and then carried on looking at the rest of the Internet (as I do).

The admins of the “Lego Instructions: Share or Sell” Facebook page had deleted the rather immoral event which someone had created for followers of that page (which was a result for decency everywhere). It was only a shame that I’d actually reported the blatant pornography two days ago and it had taken them that long to respond.

And then my piss boiled. Kent County Council are having a public consultation about whether or not they should enforce long-established traffic laws, rules and regulations. Seriously? If the law says you don’t drive in a bus lane, then you don’t drive in a bus lane. End of!! You don’t ask the masses if they mind if the law is enforced. And my piss absolutely vaporised when I filled in the “equality and diversity” questionnaire. How on Earth does the colour of my skin, my sexual preferences, or whether I see myself as male, female or hatstand have any bearing on my ability to follow the law of the land?

 

Despite the snow I took Pogo and Treacle out for a walk. We got to the park, but the rain and sleet made for a bitterly cold walk, and on finding pretty much all of our usual route blocked by the council’s gardening people we abandoned our walk and came home.

 

The dogs settled pretty much right away, and I set off to Tunbridge Wells for a PCR COVID test. As I drove the weather went from glorious sunshine to heavy snow and back (several times) via hail, sleet and torrential rain, and the temperature (as measured by my car’s thermometer) varied from two to eleven degrees depending on what the weather was doing.

I got to Tunbridge Wells where I swabbed myself (yuk!) and was back on my way home in less than ten minutes.

 

Being at something of a loose end I put “Four In A Bed” on telly and watched in absolute amazement as some woman was incredibly critical of everyone else’s cleanliness when she herself ran a camping site which seemingly hadn’t ever been cleaned. How can you lambast someone for their toilet being only marginally less than one hundred per cent perfection when you yourself only offer one bucket (between six people) to crap in?

 

I then read my Kindle for a bit… and got rather wrapped up the worlds of Arthur C Clarke. The hours literally flew past. Again forgetting diets, “er indoors ^TM” got fish and chips. Very nice.

She’s now packing for holiday. Having spent some time looking for loopholes in the rules, there aren’t any. The rules say she can go away on holiday and I can’t.

I shall sulk for a bit…