7 February 2024 (Wednesday) - The "H" Word

I would have slept better last night if not for the torrential rain. But once it finally stopped I nodded off shortly after two o'clock.

As I watched "Peep Show" this morning I remembered something I spotted on the Internet yesterday. Apparently there was a reunion of the cast last week...  a reunion at which most of the cast didn't show up.

 

With telly watched I got ready for work and set off. I took a circuitous route round Ashford capping POIs (it's a Munzee thing) before going to Sainsburys for petrol. With the Sainsbury's filling station near work closed for rebuilding I'm going to the Sainsbury's filling station in Ashford. I can carry on building up the Nectar points, and in all honesty it is rather amusing watching the attitude of the old bat behind the till. Some people really shouldn't work in retail.

 

Unlike the last couple of days the motorway wasn't blocked up with juggernauts slowly and dangerously overtaking each other. As I drove there was an interview with one of the head honchos of the British Dental Association who was being rather scathing about the government's plans to cajole dentists to move to the poorer parts of the country where dental services are lacking. The problem is that the NHS pays dentists for "units of dental activity", and there's quite a bit of disagreement about what should constitute a "unit of dental activity". Apparently dentists get paid the same amount for an NHS patient who only needs one filling as they get paid for an NHS patient who needs an entire gob transplant. Consequently there's little money to be made by dentists operating in the poorer parts of the country where the punters don't look after their teeth and are more likely to need entire gob transplants. Dentists would rather work in more well to do areas where the NHS patients brush their teeth and so require less effort on the dentist's part for the same money, or where the punters can pay for private dental care (like I do). 

 

There was then an interview with Sir Ed Davey, the leader of  the Dribbling Democraps, who was the minister responsible for the Post Office during the time of the Horizon computer system scandal.

To be fair to the bloke, he claimed that when post office workers told him their concerns he went to the officials responsible for the computer system. With hindsight it is now apparent that these officials lied. But at the time they said that all was well with the computer system. Who was Sir Ed supposed to believe? IT experts or people blaming the IT system? He was getting quite a load of stick on the radio this morning. On the one hand as the minister he was responsible for the failings of the IT system. On the other hand he cannot possibly be responsible for the functioning of the IT system; that's why the government employed the experts. Implicit in an expert being employed is the assumption that they won't tell lies.

 

I got to work and did my bit. At tea break I had my usual root around the internet; albeit a little later than usual. There was consternation on one of the "Dad's Army" related Facebook pages. Apparently you aren't allowed to mention Hitler over there. Bearing in mind when that show was set and who they were fighting against, I would have thought that was a name which would have come up with some regularity, but apparently not. Apparently the mention of the name sets off Facebook's automated censoring software and gets anyone mentioning it banned for a week.

And I saw some friends were moving house today. Going from Brighton down to somewhere in Somerset. I've seen precious little of Dave and Tracie over the last few years; I wonder when we will next meet up? This is the trouble with living where I do - everyone else is so far away.

 

This morning the motorway wasn't blocked up with juggernauts slowly and dangerously overtaking each other. As I drove home this evening it was.

I got home and spent a little while fiddling with the leccie to the shed. Somehow in the overnight storm it had all got unplugged and blown a fuse. It is sorted now, which is a minor result. I then spent a little while revamping the county geo-meet for March. I’d volunteered to organize it and had hoped for a picnic in Kings Wood following a litter gathering session. But the rules state that we would need the landowner’s permission, and (sadly) Forestry England have been less than co-operative over these last few weeks and months. It really was as though they didn’t want an army of volunteers clearing away litter.

Organizing another venue took five minutes. We’re going to the pub.

6 February 2024 (Tuesday) - Goldfinches

I had a rather good night last night; when the dogs are still, so is everyone else.

I made brekkie, watched more “Peep Show” in which one of the more annoying secondary characters croaked (Good!) then had a quick look at the Internet. I saw one of my less well to do friends was on yet another foreign holiday. I suppose it is cheaper to go abroad than holiday in the UK these days.

Four friends had a birthday today. I sent birthday wishes to two, the third had set his Facebook settings to not allow birthday wishes, and the last was someone I *think* I knew from astro club but has made no effort to contact me in the last seven years.

I had a sneaking suspicion that an old friend from college had his birthday today. For two years Dave Ferrier was one of my closest friends. Together we were known as “Dave squared” at college. Every lunchtime we would have a minor pub session, and he showed me all round the lesser-known parts of Brighton where the tourists don’t go. Sadly when we left Brighton Technical College (in 1983) we rather lost touch. The last I heard (twenty years ago) was that he was somewhere in the Epsom area.

 

I had a quick Munz session, then set off up the motorway. As I drove the talk on the radio was about nothing else but the announcement that the King has got cancer. Despite all that was known was that the King had cancer, there was endless talk and speculation. There was a lot of reassurances offered, but doesn’t it speak volumes that the black (ginger) sheep of the family has flown home to see his father?

 

I popped in to Sainsburys to get a sandwich (as I’d forgotten to make one this morning). As always all of the tills were closed, but there were plenty of staff standing round laughing at the customers struggling with the self-service tills.

 

Work was work. Half way through the morning one of my colleagues had a phone call. Her husband was having a day off today and he’d had a message from his boss. This boss was about to open the shop (a branch of a well-known chain where he is the manager) when he heard voices from inside the shop. Rather than calling the police he flung the doors open and charged in… to find bailiffs who had forced entry and an electrician cutting off the leccie. Apparently there is an unpaid leccie bill of about twenty thousand quid.

Will the shop be opening tomorrow?

I spent much of the rest of the day watching the antics of the flock of goldfinches who live in the tree outside the blood bank’s window.

 

And with work worked I came home… eventually. With total mayhem at the junction where I take the motorway home, I drove five miles the wrong way up the motorway, turned round at the next junction and drove back past the junction which was horrendously congested for absolutely no reason that I could see.

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Junior Bake Off” which was rather good, and then the final of “Traitors” which wasn’t.

5 February 2024 (Monday) - There Was Cake

Surprisingly I slept rather well, but ached when I woke. I seriously ached. What was that all about? If I'm going to be aching like that after a couple of hours walking yesterday, it don't bode well for the future, does it?

I made brekkie and turned on the telly. As I was about to turn to Netflix for "Peep Show" I found myself watching some infomercial for a mattress which was being advertised by the same woman who last week was flogging some food blender, and the week before was flogging something else I neither needed nor wanted. She seems to have claimed the "5.30am on the Obscure Channel" slot as her own. Mind you whilst it is easy to be sarcastic, in claiming it she has achieved far more than many other wannabes have done.

As I watched "Peep Show" I sorted undercrackers and socks, and again had an odd sock at the end. Odd socks amaze me. Where do the missing ones go? On reflection I think Morgan eats them.

 

I set off to work via a Tree House up Christchurch Road (it’s a Munzee thing), then came home for everything that I'd forgotten to collect when I'd first set off. Work pass, lunch... the stuff I really needed.

I then headed through the town centre to get a dozen Points of Interest Munzees, and with them sorted I headed up the motorway.

My piss boiled as I drove up the motorway. Partly because of all the lorries slowly overtaking each other thereby forcing all the cars into the fast lane, and partly because of the day's news. Apparently asylum seekers wanting to remain in the UK are abandoning whatever superstitions they brought with them and converting to Christianity in a shallow attempt to aid their applications. It speaks volumes about the sad state of the world that in the third decade of the twenty-first century people still take religious twaddle seriously.

 

I got to the works car park and spent ten minutes on a Munzee mission on one of the nearby estates deploying briefcases (as one does) before heading in.

 

There was cake at tea-time. And as I peered into Facebook at tea-time I saw something else that boiled my piss.

As a child I went to the Boys Brigade. Looking back, that was a mistake. The Boys Brigade was nothing more than a shallow attempt to brainwash small children into god-bothering. Shortly after I started I took a friend along with me. Looking back it is clear that this friend was exactly the sort of person that the Boys Brigade preyed on. His father had died when he was very young. When we were at primary and secondary school together he used to latch onto all the male teachers desperately seeking a father figure. He idolised the chap who ran the Boys Brigade, fell for all the religious twaddle, and is now a Baptist minister in the West Country. I follow his church on Facebook (I really shouldn't) and this morning he was leading their "Prayers at 10" live broadcast. I could see that this live broadcast had two viewers (I wonder who the other one was), and there was my old mate spouting complete gibberish, clearly loving every minute of it, and getting paid to do so. His broadcast finished at about the same time as my tea break ended, and then I suppose he was done for the day. Unless, of course, the need for an emergency platitude to be blathered arose.

I spent much of the rest of my day either doing blood tests or wondering which of me and my old mate was the daft one.

 

I came home and geo-puzzled until “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner. Then with her off bowling I set about the ironing. That only took an hour. I then spent half an hour on my quality management course and got eighty-five per cent in this week’s quiz.

I’m going to do some more geo-puzzles, then see if I can get some kip.

 

And in closing, Ian Lavender died today. Famous for playing Private Pike in "Dad's Army", he was the last surviving main cast member of the series.  Like Bill Mumy who I mentioned the other day, it would seem he too peaked early in life. It must be so annoying to only be remembered for what you did fifty years ago.

 

4 February 2024 (Sunday) - Rather Dull Really

Apart from the obligatory trip to the loo in the small hours I slept for over nine hours last night.  I got up and fetched in a bumper harvest of dog dung from the garden before the hounds got up so that Bailey wouldn’t eat any. Five minutes later “er indoors ^TM” and the hounds came downstairs, went outside, and “er indoors ^TM” announced that Bailey had breakfasted on freshly laid turd.

She is a foul dog. If not rolling in turd she is eating it. And she looks such a sweet little thing too.

 

Over brekkie I had a minor sulk that no major outing was planned for today, then had my usual look at the Internet. A friend was having a birthday today. I sent birthday wishes, and spent much of the day thinking about this chap. For much of his life he was a naval officer; at one point commanding a nuclear submarine. He’s got an OBE too. When I was much younger I seriously considered a career as a naval officer. That could have been me.

Mind you for all that I grumble about my job, having worked a night shift at Christmas or a bank holiday it is a short(ish) drive home. A bit different if you are out heaven-only-know-where and twenty thousand fathoms under the sea.

 

“er indoors ^TM” popped out to meet up with mates for brekkie. I sat with the dogs. It was as well that I did. As we sat so someone noisily loaded up their car just down the road, and then someone else stood outside with toddlers which just shrieked for no reason whatsoever. Both provoked woofing fits that I managed to nip in the bud.

In between these episodes the dogs snored and I cracked on with more of my Coursera course. I can’t help but think that had where I used to work used such quality improvement methods such as involving people and team building rather than looking to assign blame, then things might have turned out rather differently for me.  

 

“er indoors ^TM” returned and we took the dogs for a walk. We didn’t drive anywhere; we walked south through the back streets past Angling Direct and through the footpath to the end of Kingsnorth Road, then home via Stanhope, Cuckoo Lane and Jennett Road; Munzee-ing like things possessed as we went. We walked about two thousand more steps than an average walk round Kings Wood and were out for over two hours. We did have one “episode” with the app, but I’ve sought advice from far more experienced Munzers.

 

Once home the dogs were soon snoring. “er indoors ^TM” sorted out a cuppa and hot (cold) cross buns and we watched a few more episodes of “Traitors” which finally killed off any respect I might have had for the British judicial system. The game show involves two dozen random people going off to a castle in Scotland. Three or four of them form a secret group (the traitors) and each night this secret group gets rid of one of the other contestants. The next day everyone plays some activity or other, then they all sit round a table and in theory use their wit, ingenuity and wisdom to identify a traitor. However in practice rather than using wit, ingenuity and wisdom, contestants seem to queue up to show off how stupid they all are by making spurious unfounded random guesses. And without exception the more wrong they are in their wild guesswork, the more vocal they are about their being right. Bearing in mind these people are from the same pool from which courts draw UK juries …

 

As “er indoors ^TM” went looking for something in the back bedroom (good luck with that one!) I set about more geo-puzzles. I solved quite a few until it was dinner time.

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of scran (she does that). You can’t go wrong with a steak dinner. We washed it down with a rather good bottle of plonk (which we got as a Christmas prezzie) and as we scoffed we watched another episode of “Junior Bake Off”.

 

My plan is that bearing in mind I’m setting an alarm I won’t get a decent night’s sleep, I might as well get what sleep I can get from an early night.

I wonder if I will go up and have one?

3 February 2024 (Saturday) - Rolvenden

It was a shame that again my phone decided to spend the night telling me about all sorts of trivial things to which it should have been oblivious (with its Internet connection switched off). I wish it wouldn’t do that.

I made toast and had my usual rummage about the Internet. A couple of days ago I mentioned the celebrity angler Matt Hayes. He’s now trying to make a comeback on the telly which he hopes to crowdfund. He’s asking for two thousand five hundred people to each chip in twenty quid. That’s fifty thousand quid to make a TV show. Is that how much it costs? Seems a bit expensive to me. Am I *that* naïve to think you could record it all on your phone and cobble the program together using Microsoft Clipchamp? After all, that’s what I plan to do for this year’s Geocaching International Film Festival (must get on with that project!)

And Facebook presented me with a lot of memories from Dover beer festival. In years gone by the first weekend of February was one of the highlights of the year – Dover beer festival. Fortunately for my head it isn’t happening this year as the venue is being refurbished.

 

Being Saturday we set off to the Repton estate. As we drove I noticed the car in front looked odd. There was a tree attached to it. I say “tree”; “sapling” would be a better description. Somehow when parked, someone had shut one of the larger branches of a small tree in the passenger side back door, and the driver had set off and pulled the small tree out of the ground; clearly totally oblivious to what he had done.

As we turned into the Repton estate so the squeaking started; the dogs know when they are going to Dog Club.

There was a relatively low turn-out at Dog Club this morning. Odd really when you consider that over fifty people have joined the Facebook group over the last week. Dog Club was fun… but the dogs were in an odd mood today. There were more quarrels than usual, and spring was definitely in the air with quite a bit of “dog piggyback” going on. Bailey escaped the field twice as well. We bunged up the holes in the fence through which she’d got out; I expect there are more to be found.

 

“er indoors ^TM” set off to her craft group. I took the dogs home; listening to Steve on the radio as I went. I got the mystery year right – when did pound notes go and when did Kylie Minogue first hit the UK charts? 1988.

Once home we had a minor laundry session. Morgan needed the mud washing off. Bailey needed the fox and bird poo washing off. And I needed clean trousers having been tiddled up three times.

I did a little more of my Quality Management course and wrote it up on another blog I write. And then turned on the telly and dozed through episodes of “Peep Show” until “er indoors ^TM” came home with lunch.

 

We then set off to Rolvenden for a little Munzee session. We wandered around sticking bar codes onto lamp posts, and scanning them. No matter how I try to big it up it still sounds rubbish.. All I can say is that Munzee really is nowhere near as lame as it sounds. As we wandered and scanned we got nine Qrewzees between us, more Qrates than sense, and barked at some other dogs.

 

We came home. “er indoors ^TM” sorted out some rather good dinner which we scoffed whilst watching more “Junior Bake Off” then I fell asleep as we watched “Traitors”; a strangely popular program in which a couple of dozen people have to guess which four of them are actually a secret cabal using nothing more than guesswork and pot luck.

I spent much of the time staring at Claudia Winkleman’s haircut and wondering what she was thinking of

2 February 2024 (Friday) - Bit Tired

Despite all the dogs being settled I was still wide awake, scoffing toast and watching telly before six o’clock this morning. “Peep Show” was entertaining enough, and then I sparked up my lap-top.

Even more people had asked to join the Dog Club Facebook group. This has had loads of requests to join just recently; I wonder why; bearing in mind that for every twenty members of the Facebook group, about one actually shows up.

I did more of my on-line course, and failed the third module exam. Having copied my answers I pressed the “Try Again” button and having identified the ones I’d got wrong managed to pass on the second attempt.

 

I threaded my way in and out through the bins which were randomly scattered across the pavement where the bin men had left them as I went to find my car. I set off to work listening to the radio as I went.

It turns out that the chap who threw acid over a young mother and her children was a registered sex offender who was also an asylum seeker whose application had failed twice before finally being accepted. There was an interview with the local MP who seemed rather concerned that the media were describing the attacker as an asylum seeker as this would probably lead to innocent asylum seekers getting abuse. She's probably got a point...  Here's a suggestion (which won't get taken up). Why don't the authorities catch this chap, then hand him over to the sort of people who would give abuse to the asylum seekers? He wouldn't attack anyone ever again, and potential attackers would certainly be discouraged, wouldn't they?

And the Labour party were being accused of back-tracking on their twenty-eight billion pounds green investment plan. The poor chap being interviewed was trying to explain that until he saw the books he couldn't really commit to spending anything. He's probably got a point, but that's not what the masses want to hear, is it? The trouble with our political system is that the two sides try to outdo each other with impossible promises until the one with the most outrageous and unachievable goals gets voted into power by those who are gullible enough to believe them. And then the gullible get outraged when those they've voted it are not capable of delivering on the impossible promises they made.

Is waiting until he can see what he can afford such an unreasonable political stance to take? It's a sensible one, but it won't win many votes.

Meanwhile the Japanese are planning to put lasers into orbit to zap all the space junk. How long will it be before they zap the wrong thing?

 

I drove normally up the motorway for half of my journey this morning, and drove at a shade over sixty miles an hour for the second half. Finding myself behind a police car I wasn't brave enough to overtake it. Unlike the motorbike that came past slaloming across all three lanes and weaving in and out of the traffic whilst driving far too fast. I would have thought that the police would have taken off in hot pursuit. They didn't. I'd like to think that they were already busy on their way to catch murderers. I suspect they were on the way to join the early morning gathering of police vehicles in McDonald's car park.

 

Work was much the same as ever. There was no cake, which was something of a disappointment. At tea break my phone pinged with a message. The head honchos at Munzee HQ have changed the rules so that you can cap a Greenie every day. That's good news for the Greenies, but effectively puts the tin lid on Qrewzees.

It's another world when you go round sticking bar codes onto lamp posts.

And I had a friend request on Facebook too. But not the sort of dubious scantily clad object of questionable gender. This one was from some weirdo who was openly selling bitcoins, but not to anyone in the UK.

What was that all about?

For some strange reason I got home fifteen minutes quicker than I did yesterday. “er indoors ^TM” boiled up dinner then she set off out for the evening. I settled with the dogs and watched a film on Netflix. “The Bromley Boys” kept me amused; even if it was half an hour too long.

I shall see how much kip I can get before “er indoors ^TM” comes home…

1 February 2024 (Thursday) - This n That

Another bad night – if the dogs sleep at the foot of the bed we all have space. If they want to sleep next to me (or on top of me!) we don’t. I gave up trying to sleep.

Being the first of the month I got out a fresh razor blade. For all that one lasts all month long, you can't beat having a scrape with a new one.

I watched an episode of “Peep Show” as I scoffed toast, then sparked up the lap-top. The Internet seemed to be fairly quiet. I sent out the birthday video to the one friend having a birthday today, and I saw that someone else had a birthday today as well. Bill Mumy (Will Robinson in the1960s show “Lost in Space”) was seventy today. During a rather busy career he’s been a lead character in “Babylon 5”, he was in “Star Trek”, he’s been in all sorts of things on telly as well as being a successful musician… and everyone thinks of what he did when he was ten years old. That must be annoying – I suppose this goes some way to explaining why so many child stars don’t carry on in show business. If you have effectively peaked before you have left school, you would probably want to try something else.

I then chucked everyone out of the Munzee Clan in readiness for the new game starting on Saturday then did more on my quality management course which is turning out to be surprisingly interesting.

 

Having kept me awake for much of the night I wasn’t impressed to see the dogs sleeping so peacefully as I got ready for work. And then I set off to find where I’d left my car. Every day I park the car somewhere in the general vicinity of home, and then promptly forget where that was.

I found the car just down the road... I nearly walked past it as I had a vague idea it was halfway to the scout hut. I set off up the motorway in daylight (for a change).

As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing one of the head honchos at the British Veterinary Association about the rules concerning XL Bullies that came into force today.

With the RSPCA claiming that tens of thousands of XL bullies may not have the now legally required paperwork (the estimated total in the UK being between fifty and one hundred thousand) it was felt that this attempt to control numbers of the breed is just pissing in the wind.

The RSPCA's estimate looks a tad high to me, but what do I know?

Meanwhile one of the elected ministers at the Ministry of Justice is standing down at the next election following threats and his constituency office having been torched. I can't help but wonder what the police are doing about this. This is clearly a success for terrorism, isn't it?

 

I got to work and did that which I couldn't avoid. If all goes to plan this would be the last ever Thursday on which I worked. I suspect things won't go to plan. I've heard it said that God laughs when we make plans. But as Thursdays go, it wasn't a bad one.

At tea break my phone beeped. I had an email from Kent County Council. Last week I wrote to them suggesting that if they close a road for road works then they work on it until the work is done, and not leave the road works unattended for days on end. Today they replied to say they'd got my message, and would reply by the end of the month. I wish I had deadlines like that...

Sadly having driven into work in daylight for a core shift it was dark when I left work. But the sunset shortly before home time was rather pretty.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of scran which we scoffed whilst watching more “Junior Bake Off”.

I really should have an early night…