6 January 2024 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Boxley, Infinity Table

The bin men came up the road this morning around six o’clock. Not able to make quite as much noise from plastic bins as they’d like, they shouted across the street to each other as they went. I expect they were sulking from not getting what used to be a traditional Christmas bonus.

I made toast and looked at the Internet. My brother was at Brighton and Hove Albion’s football ground waiting for the coach to take him and his pals to Stoke on Trent. Google told me it was a four hour drive and that the match didn’t start for another eight hours.

This morning there were interesting squabbles on Facebook pages about “Game of Thrones” and “Star Trek” both featuring people who’d never watched the TV shows.  The squabble about “Game of Thrones” made me laugh out loud; some chap openly admitted he’d never watched the program but still had an opinion on it.

Facebook told me that a Facebook friend was having a birthday today. I had a look and vaguely recognised the name. Looking at our mutual friends I *think* I used to work with her about fifteen years ago. Facebook is good for keeping in touch with friends I’ve not seen for ages, but I also find I’m keeping in touch with people I barely knew at the time (and that time was “yonks ago”). Perhaps I need to have a little cull on my list? I had a little look at it; there were eight less people on it than there were the last time I looked. Perhaps some obscure acquaintances had already dumped me? Cheeky!

 

Being Saturday we drove round to Repton and Dog Club. It was perhaps a tad nippy which probably explained attendance being down. It does take a certain hardy sort to stand in a field for forty minutes in January. But the dogs had a whale of a time. There was a minor episode when Bailey wouldn’t stop bothering the bigger dogs, then screamed in terror when they tried to play with her. To be honest we’ve got a vague idea that Kai (one of the biggest dogs) sees Bailey as some sort of mobile squeaky toy.

Having missed the “Guess the Lyrics” competition on the way to Dog Club we listened to all the clues for the Mystery Year contest as we drove off. Elvis Costello, the bear in the Scottish Highlands, Blondie… surely it was 1978? I was two years out. 1980.

 

Rather than going home we drove up to Boxley where we met Karl and Tracey and had a little walk. Karl and Tracey have a series of geocaches in the area and several people had posted “Did Not Find” logs so a maintenance mission was in order. There weren’t as many missing as we’d been led to believe; there rarely is.

As we walked we saw quite a few off-road motorbikes vooming about. Getting permission to put geocaches on what is a Site of Special Scientific Interest took the best part of a year, but no one seems at all bothered about the thug element motorbiking all over it. I suspect no one is brave enough to stand up to the thug element. I’m not going to.

 

We came home, washed lumps of mud off of the dogs (Morgan!) and I had a little doze until Chris arrived. He’d brought round his Infinity Table and with it set up half a dozen of us played “Ticket to Ride”; a rather run game which I can only describe as “Risk on Trains”. I won the first game though I have no idea how.

We had a rather late end to a rather busy day…

As always I took a few photos.

5 January 2024 (Friday) - Bit Tired

Last night’s shift wasn’t especially busy… but I’ll make the observation that I can remember one day in 1984 when my workload included six coagulation investigations. My boss at the time thought this to be ridiculously excessive and sent a memo to everyone with the authority to request these tests. He explained that six in one day was far too many, and would doctors please only request those coagulation investigations that were strictly clinically necessary.

Last night I did forty.

 

As I drove home this morning I listened to the news on the radio as I do. There was a lot of talk about the general election. One hasn’t been called yet but (by law) there has to be one this year. Mind you, as I ranted yesterday, “the law” only works all the time people follow it. What would happen if the Prime Minister didn’t call a general election? After all, Donald Trump only went wrong when he lost an election and tried to stage a coup. Had he just stayed in office and not called an election…?

Back in the day I was something of a loonie leftie. These days I’m not so sure. But I predict that the main player in this year’s general election will be the Reform UK party. Most people haven’t heard of them so far. Basically they are an extreme right-wing bunch whose main policy is to send them all back on the next banana boat, and have taken over where UKIP and the Brexit party left off. Having announced they intend to contest every constituency in the next general election they will split the Conservative vote and Labour will get into power not because they won, but because the Conservatives lost.

Democracy, eh?

And there was a lot of consternation being expressed about the plight pf poor Luke Littler. Having won two hundred thousand pounds by coming second in the World Darts Championship he’s got to pay eighty-three thousand quid in income tax.

Darts fans are up in arms.

I can’t see why. This is how professional darts players operate. They compete for a cash prize in the same way that I stroll up to a hospital and do blood tests. I have to pay income tax; why shouldn’t a darts player, no matter how old they are?

It amazes me that all the darts fans are up in arms about his having to pay tax. No one has voiced the rather controversial opinion that two hundred thousand quid for coming second is about six times the average annual income for someone working in the UK.

 

I got home, had a shave and went to bed for the morning. I woke after two hours. I could have gone back to sleep, but I got up. If I’d spent the entire day asleep I wouldn’t have slept tonight.

I made myself a rather late brekkie, and then spent nearly three hours catching up on the ironing. What with Christmas I’d let it slip. As I ironed I watched something on Netflix about the Great Train Robbery. It was rather good. And after that I watched two hours of Ancient Aliens on the history channel. Have you ever watched Ancient Aliens? It is so laughable that it is brilliant. The show takes pretty much everything and anything and makes the assertion that whatever it is talking about this week *might* be the work of aliens when clearly anyone but the most feeble-minded simpleton can see that it is not.

 

“er indoors ^TM” got us dinner from the KFC, and I then spent the evening trying to stay awake.

4 January 2024 (Thursday) - Before the Night Shift

Last night the “twin duvet theory” was a total failure as I shivered. I found myself wondering whatever happened to the sleeping bags.

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. Three friends were having a birthday today so I sent out the new birthday video. A friend posted to Facebook that his daughter was twenty today; he’s not seen her for about fifteen years since his ex-wife threw a wobbler and took herself and the children off to America. For all that there are laws against doing that sort of thing, the law would seem to be powerless with dealing with the situation once it has happened. Funny old thing, law.

There was a piccie of a Lego steam train that someone had made… well, not so much made as designed on some software package. Making virtual Lego models (as opposed to actual physical models) is now a hobby in itself apparently.

 

I got the dogs on to their leads in the living room this morning. I’ve discovered that in the living room leads just go on. Putting on leads in the hallway is chaos.

We drove up to the woods and I rolled my eyes as we pulled up. More and more people have taken to bagging their dog poo when the dogs download in the woods, and carrying it back to the car park where they then leave the poo bags on a little bank rather than walking a further twenty yards to the poo bin.

We had a good walk round the woods. Despite the mud we followed some of the less walked and narrower tracks. This avoids the horses and the land rovers which can be a pain in the glass for dogs. As we walked our four miles we met four other dog walkers, all within a few hundred yards of the car park.

 

We came home for a belly wash. Strangely Treacle (the tallest dog) was the grubbiest. You’d have thought that those at mud level would have been the filthiest, wouldn’t you?

I then ran the trimmer over my head. I do that every so often. There is a barber just up the road from me, but every time I walk past I see that he chap only knows one haircut, and that is frankly ridiculous. He shaves round the sides and gels the top. People queue up for it… the odd thing is that having been given these absolutely laughable haircuts, you never see anyone in the street sporting one of them. What’s going on there?

 

I wrote up some CPD, then went off to bed for the afternoon. I took a hot water bottle as my feet never warm up when I try to sleep in the afternoon. As I dozed I could hear next door flicking her light switch on and off. She must have turned the light on and off twenty times during the afternoon. What was that all about?

As I dozed so the rain started. What had been a rather bright morning became a very wet afternoon.

 

Hopefully “er indoors ^TM” will boil up some dinner and then I’m off to the night shift…

3 January 2024 (Wednesday) - Repeating Myself (Again)

I had a better night's sleep than I had the night before, but I'm not at all convinced about this "double duvet" theory of “er indoors ^TM” 's.

I was again wide awake far too early, and so I watched the second episode of "Peep Show" which was an improvement on the first. Perhaps the show has promise?

 

I got dressed in the dark as I do; easier said than done when small dogs are determined to be sat upon. I moved them out of the way so that I could sit on the edge of the bed, and they moved back again. They can be stubborn little things sometimes.

I walked two streets away to where I'd left my car then had a little Munzee adventure before heading up the motorway. Being the first day of the Clan War I got a couple of Qrates and deployed a Golden Carrot too.

 

As I drove to work I listened to the radio. Wars still rage in Gaza and Ukraine. For all that loads of air-time was spent on them, there wasn't really anything new to report. As in pretty much every war ever, those suffering aren't those with anything to do with the causes of the war. One day the little people will say "enough is enough", and those who want a war will have to face the consequences of starting one.

But not today it would seem.

And there was talk about the junior doctors who went on strike this morning. Apparently the strike was only going to happen if there had been no pay offer over the Christmas period. Some politician or other spouted loads of management-type catchphrases whilst trying to brush over the fact that there had been no offer (increased or otherwise). This was followed by an interview with the head honcho of an NHS Trust in Surrey who spoke about the six-day strike covering "four working days". Doesn't this speak volumes about the head honchos in the NHS? In a hospital every day is a working day... isn't it?

I must admit I feel for the junior doctors' position; if only out of a sense of self-interest. I want there to be doctors in hospitals as I get older and need them more. As the junior doctors point out, with their wages having fallen by thirty-five per cent in real terms, who wants to be a doctor when you can do something far more lucrative needing far less qualifications and far less effort.

 

Ironically at tea break I found myself looking at my old school's Facebook group in which I saw people with whom I went to school who have retired years ago and live in far better houses than I've got with pensions higher than my wages...

One of them - the lad who sat next to me for many lessons for many years - was having his birthday today. He retired a couple of years ago and lives in one of the expensive mansions by the park in Hastings.

If I had my time again I wouldn't go into health care again. I'd go into industry and business like all my old schoolmates did.

 

I’ve done this rant before, haven’t I?

2 January 2024 (Tuesday) - The News

Yesterday I foolishly boasted about the triumph which was our new duvet system. Although it gave us a decent night sleep on its first go, I overlooked that it does nothing about having restless dogs. Morgan was particularly restless last night and consequently so was I as he kept fidgeting about.

Needing some drivel to watch as I scoffed toast, this morning I started watching "Peep Show". “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” has raved about it in the past. In all honesty I thought the first episode was rather crap, but I shall persevere; it might get better.

 

I got dressed and walked a couple of streets away to where I'd parked the car after collecting “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” on Saturday, then set off to work through a rather dull and dark morning.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were spouting their usual drivel (as they do). They started with an interview with the Shadow something-or-other... some bloke who was being rather critical about the government's financial record. Bearing in mind there's been a global pandemic and a global financial disaster (to say nothing of Liz Truss ballsing it all up in the meantime), the current government is probably doing the best it can under less than ideal circumstances. This chap said that today the Labour party would be releasing some website in which you can work out how badly you've personally done under fourteen years of Conservative government. It tells me that under the Tories I’m a thousand quid a year worse off.

Well, it would, wouldn’t it?

All I can say when it comes to finance and the Labour party is that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

 

There was then a lot of talk about Labour's plans for dealing with illegal immigrants... The whole subject of illegal immigration boils my piss. It is a problem that we as a nation have chosen to have. Back in the day the UK was a member of a group of twenty-seven nations, most of which had a problem in that loads of illegal immigrants were charging through their borders hell-bent on getting to one of them. However that one of them left and set up on its own, and overnight what was once a collective problem for the European Union became somebody else's problem.

Illegal immigration to the UK is (sadly) a totally predictable consequence of Brexit...

The Labour spokesman being interviewed spoke a load of twaddle, as spokesmen of all political persuasions do. However the only solution to the problem of illegal immigration is for the UK to make itself a far less attractive proposition than any of the alternatives open to the illegal immigrants. It ain't rocket science, is it?

 

And it would seem that the Shipping Forecast is a hundred years old. I can remember my father listening to it mesmerised as it spoke of precipitation being within sight in Cromarty and something falling more slowly in Wight. The woman who reads it out every night (at about quarter to one in the morning) was being interviewed, and she claimed that a lot of people find it relaxing and restful.

Back in the day when I used to be alone when I did night shifts in Canterbury I used to turn the radio off during the Shipping Forecast; I've always found it rather sinister.

 

Needing petrol I popped to the Sainsbury's filling station in Aylesford where the stuff was being knocked out at ten pence per litre less than the last time I got any.

And then on to work. At tea break when I tuned in to my e-book my Kindle app announced it had given me an award for actually reading a e-book, and it told me it has eight others it might give me before the end of March if it feels so inclined.

I wonder if it will?

 

After an award from my Kindle app the rest of the day was something of an anticlimax…

1 January 2024 (Monday) - New Year's Day

A rather good night‘s sleep… with many more to come (he boasted foolishly!) In the past the dogs have got onto the bed between us and the duvet got pulled down under their weight, got pulled off of us (me!) and we (I) shivered. We’ve now got a single duvet each and so when the dogs get in the middle they don’t pull the duvet off of us (me!). The first night was a success; I slept through till nine o’clock this morning.

 

Being the first of a month meant I changed the blade on my razor, and with my toast made I had a look at the Internet. Pretty much everyone who posts on Facebook was wishing the world a happy new year, which was nice.

Back in the day there used to be a big walk for all the geocachers in Kent on New Year’s Day following the epic pub session for all the geocachers in Kent on New Year’s Eve, but with geocaching in a terminal decline, sadly no one organized anything this year. So we got the dogs onto their leads and “er indoors ^TM” and I took the dogs to Hythe for a little geo-adventure of our own. We walked round the town doing the series of Adventure Lab caches that are there, and with the Adventure Lab done we found ourselves at a church where there was a geocache with a puzzle needing quite a bit of information to be found around the church. As we walked around getting what we needed from benches in the graveyard we were approached by some chap who introduced himself as a friend of a very serious geocacher who has over two hundred finds… and he offered us help and advice. He showed us where he lived and said if we needed any more help just to knock on his front door and ask. I smiled sweetly.

 

After a couple of hours we came home and over a lunch of leftovers we watched the Christmas episode of “Ghosts”, then we watched “Chicken Run; Dawn of the Nugget”. As we watched I made myself feel quite ill scoffing a tub of Cadbury’s Heroes, and “er indoors ^TM” got rather stressed trying to get a quote for dog insurance. They don’t give it away you know.

 

We had more leftovers for dinner, and scoffed them whilst watching the Lego movie. Both were rather good.

In the past New Year’s day has been quite the adventure; today was rather quieter.

I quite liked today…

 

31 December 2023 (Sunday) - New Year's Eve

I eventually emerged from my pit shortly after nine o’clock this morning. I made toast, and started reading the New Year’s Honours List. When I was a lad I wanted to do something with my life; something worthwhile that would be rewarded with a medal from Buckingham Palace. Had I done so I would probably be giving that medal back this morning. Whilst some of the recipients have done sterling work for various charities, this year some medals and knighthoods seem to have been given out for simply doing the job for which the recipients are already paid (and probably overpaid if truth be told), or for sucking up to the Prime Minister.

I suppose those who give out the medals are restricted by the nominations they get… if the decent people who deserve the medals don’t get nominated, they won’t get recognition. I blame myself; I really do. I first ranted about the country’s farcical honours system seventeen years ago on January 4^th 2007, but I *still* haven’t nominated anyone myself. If anyone fancies nominating me for a lifetime of blood testing, or for services to Kentish Geocaching or for opening the gate at Dog Club, now’s your chance…

 

I spent a few minutes putting the finishing touches to next year’s birthday video. For some reason “TUUUBE!!!!” (as “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” calls You-Tube) wanted to post the video as a “short” rather than as a video. Eventually I sorted it to appear as as I wanted it to appear. I won’t post a link to it… it will be a nice surprise on your birthday.

 

Seeing a rather bright morning we got the leads onto the dogs and drove over to Godinton for a little geo-adventure. There was a geo-souvenir to be had if you logged a find on a geocache today. We parked up a hundred yards from our target, walked the dogs down the road, and just as I found our quarry so the heavens opened. I quickly did the secret rituals, then hurried back to the car.

We drove round to Bybrook Barn Garden Centre for a little look-see. I wanted to check out the saxifrage (for the next pond project) and “er indoors ^TM” wanted to see what craft bits were in the sale. As we shopped some old biddy was huffing and glaring at me. There was a puddle of dog pee by one of the stands. Bearing in mind I’d deliberately kept the dogs on short leads so that they wouldn’t piddle up things I think they were innocent. But had the old woman watched them peeing when I’d not been looking? Possibly. If so I wish she’d told me rather than just glaring and then hurrying off when I caught her eye.

As we walked out so I got us croissants from the bakery stall that sets up outside the garden centre.

Just as we got to the car so my phone pinged. A message from the boss. She was letting me know that a colleague’s husband dropped dead yesterday. The chap was in his late thirties and with no prior warnings or signs he had a massive heart attack.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

 

We got home just as the torrential rain stopped, and had those croissants with a cuppa. They were nice… but at three quid a croissant I would hope that they were. That little bakery stall doesn’t give the things away.

I then had a little sort-out of the DVDs. A few weeks ago I mentioned that several seemed to be missing. “er indoors ^TM” found a box of DVDs, and having got all the DVD onto the shelves in alphabetical order I had to fit another fifty in, and there’s still some missing.

I then built a Lego set that “er indoors ^TM” had got me for Christmas, and popped down the road to Beijing House to get dinner. The set meal for two was rather good; if far too much for us. I will certainly go back there again, if only to say “Happy Weekend” to the nice lady behind the till who was wishing everyone Happy Weekend”.

 

In the past on New Year’s Eve we’ve all gone down to Jose and Maria’s for the evening, but since COVID we’ve taken to having virtual meet-ups, and several of us tuned in to a Zoom meet for the evening. Spanish New Year with the grapes at eleven o’clock (UK time), a quiz… it was good to catch up.

We really should do that more often…

 

I suppose that what with the year coming to an end I should stop and reflect a little. Looking back over the year it strikes me that this last year has been a tad dull compared to some… or am I looking further back with rose-coloured glasses? Keeping a diary like this means I have some record of what I’ve been up to.

 

Sadly the Lego club which started in late 2022 died a death early this year. Looking back the club was dealt a death blow when the parents of the brat element were told the idea was to build Lego, not to run round constantly screaming, and the move from Tuesday evenings in a Guide hut to Saturdays in a gaming shop finished it off.

And there’s no denying that geocaching, the mainstay of the last ten years, is seemingly in something of a (probably terminal) decline. I found my first thousand geocaches in just under five months; my most recent thousand have taken over two and a half years. Sadly fewer and fewer people are hiding the things these days. But we’ve had a few geo-walks this year (including several on a rather good holiday in East Anglia over the summer). I’ve been to seven geo-meets this year including a particularly good one on the far east of the county over the summer and one I staged myself, and I’ve contributed a lot to the hobby this year hiding over a hundred of the things in Kings Wood.

 

As the grandchildren get older, we’ve been doing quite a bit of family stuff. A good day at Maidstone’s “Prison Island”, a good day at Hastings’ crazy golf. Two bingo parties; one in a family garden and one via Microsoft Teams. And a very good birthday session for my brother.

Rather sadly we sold Dad’s house, but with the proceeds we got our back room’s dodgy plastering sorted and got some long overdue roof maintenance done.

 

I’ve been busy in the garden. Having borrowed a leaf blower (and had great fun with it) I’ve bought one of my own. I’ve replaced the box pond filters with a pressure filter and turned the splash pool into a bog filter, and lifted and re-set the stepping stones which go up the lawn.

Also in the garden we re-started the tradition of a summer garden party; a tradition which stopped with the COVID pandemic.

And talking of COVID, I had a week off sick with it.

 

I’ve renewed my membership of the Friends of Kings Wood and walked up there with the dogs a lot this year. And Dog Club is still going every Saturday morning.

 

Looking forward I’m planning to semi-retire at the end of February… I’ve a vague idea to start monthly mid-week dog club walks. I’ve big plans for the pond, and for the garden…

I’m hoping for a good new year. Will it be a good one? Time will tell; it always does.