12 September 2009 (Saturday) - Sumners Ponds

This morning was my Saturday morning to work. So I got that over and done with as quickly as possible, and then home. A quick cheese roll, and then off to deepest Sussex.

For some time a group of friends have periodically been camping at Sumners Ponds, and for some time I’ve been meaning to go see the place. It took about an hour and a bit to get there, and it would be tricky to find without scrat-nav, but it was worth the journey. We arrived to find Colin flying a sea horse. An impressively huge sea horse. It turned out that he’d ordered a five metre kite, and the people who made it sent a 10 metre one by mistake. We then wandered over to exchange insults with Dave who hadn’t spotted us, and then we spent the afternoon just relaxing with friends, flying kites, strolling around, and generally slobbing about.

Having heard so much about Sumners Ponds over the last year, my mission for the day was to “case the joint” with a view to camping there in the future. With a field to ourselves (away from the normal people), a toilet on site, and a café and shower block just a short stroll down the lane, Sumners Ponds is the ideal camping venue. It’s also got all sorts of footpaths going here and there which would be ideal for walks, and the ponds would seem to be excellent for fishing – I saw some rather large carp being landed.

We arrived about 2.30pm, and the idea was to stay until 5-ish. At 6pm I went to Tescos with Dave for some beer. Having had three separate offers to join people for tea, we stayed for the communal barbecue, and seriously considered the offer of staying in the spare caravan overnight.

As we came home shortly after 9pm, I found myself reflecting on camping in general. Each year we have four camping trips. We go from Friday to Monday, because with so much luggage, it’s not worth the effort for one night. But the luggage is mostly the cooking tent and all that goes with it. With a café on site for brekky and the communal barby on a Saturday night, we don’t need a cooking tent. We’d need a tent to sleep in, sleeping bags, and a change of undercrackers. There’s an off-licence just down the road which sells local beers - going for one night would be easy.

Three of my annual camping trips are to kite festivals. And the bits I like most are the Fridays and the evenings - the times when the “normal people” aren’t there. And Bat-Camp is great because being on private land, there’s no “normal people” anyway. At Sumner’s Ponds we’d have a field where it’s just the kiting people. No normal people in the way.

I’ve asked Colin for the dates of the next weekend at Sumners Ponds. I shall be there….

11 September 2009 (Friday) - Making Plans

In the spirit of weight loss and generally getting the knee sorted, I cycled to work this morning. That made my knee ache. As I cycled up the hospital drive there was a woman running down it, shouting “piffle, piffle, piffle” rather loudly. Bless (!)

And then I updated my “dates for the diary” section of the blog. I’ve pencilled in a cycle ride for a week on Saturday – I’m thinking the Flying Horse at Wye. With the kite season over, we’ll soon be into bonfire parades. It does wind me up somewhat that bonfire parades don’t seem to get advertised as early as they might be. I’ve emailed people about Xmas arrangements – and am waiting to hear back before I make any definite plans there. And I’ve provisionally pencilled in a few beer festivals too. The diet will long be over by then.

If any of my loyal readers know the date of next year’s Dieppe kite festival, please let me know. I went last year, and it was really good. I quite fancy going again.

Kites, beer, bonfires. All organised by others. What do I want to do for myself? In the first instance I wouldn’t mind some more bow snarrows. After all, that bow wasn’t cheap and I’ve used it twice. And a few more cycle rides before it gets too cold. And once it is too cold, I wouldn’t mind going to the pub - I’ve pencilled in a session round about my birthday. And camping. Kite festival dates are fixed, but there was talk of doing two bat-camps this year. Now we’ve got a functioning clammy-khasi, maybe we could have a go at Dering Farm in May?

And then I wasted an hour or so watching Doctor Who clips on You-tube…

10 September 2009 (Thursday) - A Dodgy Knee, Diets, and an Anniversary

I was a little later than usual getting up today. I went downstairs to find “My Boy ^TM ” in the kitchen. For once he hadn’t woken the world with his noise. When I commented on the fact, he said that he thought everyone was already up. If that’s not an admission of excessive racket on his part, I’d like to know what is.

The morning’s post brought a letter arrived from HMP Slade. “Norman Stanley’s“ littlun’s birthday was yesterday. It’s missing things like that which seem to upset him more than any of the discomforts of prison life.

To the doctor to get my knee sorted out. Whenever I walk downstairs, my right knee joint makes a horrible grinding sound. I’m sure it shouldn’t do that. As soon as I told the doc what the problem was, he told me to take my trousers off and lie on the couch. That was a result – he’s a fast mover is my doctor. He mauled my leg about, and then said to put my trousers back on. Oh well, it was good whilst it lasted. He then weighed me, and told me I was overweight. I wondered how many years he’d spent at medical school to come up with that. He also did my blood pressure which was 140/80. The 80 bit is good, but the 140 is a bit iffy.

He sent me for an X-ray, which was a bit dull. Whilst the doc couldn’t get my kex off quick enough, the fit X-ray bird wasn’t having any of it. Sensible girl, I suppose. She positioned me at all sorts of rakish angles and zapped me with radiation (she gets paid for that). And then she said I should give the doc a ring in a week or so for the results. If the X ray shows anything, once I’ve lost some weight I might need surgery. If the X ray is clear, once I’ve lost some weight I might get physiotherapy.

It was at this point that I began to detect a pattern. I bemoaned my fate at work with some fellow porkers, and a podge-a-thon has been declared. A podge-a-thon is a bit like a diet, but there’s less fiddling about with calories. During a podge-a-thon, normal rules do not apply, and “salad” becomes a legitimate food item. Provided it’s curried. I’m currently weighing in at 109 kilos (or 17 stone 2 pounds in proper weight) and I need to get down to…. Well, I’ve no idea really. On the Internet it says 12 stone. I can’t see that happening, somehow. I shall just cut out all meat, bread and potatoes and see if my knee is still hurting and making a noise at the end of a month. I had this plan to start cycling to work to lose weight, but I’m not sure if it will play my knee up. Oh well, I’ll give it a go and see what happens.

Bearing in mind the need to lose weight rather urgently, I went to work today with a sackful of cakes and sweeties. The occasion warranted it – today marks twenty five years since I started working at St. Elsewhere’s Hospital. Twenty five years. The original plan had me staying at the place for three years to get my higher qualifications and then moving on. But then family happened, and now I can’t find anything else to do which pays as well. Oh well, bearing in mind I worked at “Hastings Infirmary for the Halt and the Lame” for three years as well, I can get my NHS pension in twelve years time.

I hope my knee will hold out that long…..

9 September 2009 (Wednesday) - A Quiet Night In

Today was rather dull. Got up, did even more laundry, to work, blah – de –blah. Being on an early shift meant I got home early, and then after drafting a witty and erudite crossword to sent into HMP Slade, I just fell asleep in front of the PC.

I woke up to find over an hour had passed, then spent some time in YoVille. It’s a bit like NeverWinter, but without the Dungeons and the Dragons (if that’s possible). And then me and ‘er indoors ^TM sat down to watch a film. Which is far easier said than done. I can’t stick the romantic dribble she likes. And she can’t abide the quality entertainment I like. For a house that is drowning in DVDs, there aren’t many we agree on. We settled for BlackBall, something we saw at the cinema six years ago. If you’ve never seen it, I can recommend it. What happens is….

And then, after a couple of bottles of beer and a decent fraction of a bottle of port, work phoned….

8 September 2009 (Tuesday) - Old Friends

To B&Q to get a battery for the squeaking smoke detector. In the past I’ve mentioned about the retards who cannot cope with the self-service tills in Tescos. Whereas the self service tills in Tescos are entertaining, the ones now installed in B&Q are infuriating. In Tesco, the retard element has the option to go to a till operated by someone else. B&Q have done away with all their cashiers, and now only have self service tills. Which is fine if you aren’t in a hurry. No – that last sentence doesn’t actually convey the truth of the matter. What I should say is “which is fine, if you have at least an hour to spare”. You can see B&Q from my house, and Homebase is three miles away. But with the new tills, it’s quicker to drive across town and buy stuff in Homebase than walk the few hundred yards to B&Q and queue up for half a day.

Meanwhile on Facebook, Barry Deacon has added me as a friend. That’s nice. If any of my loyal readers know who Barry Deacon is, please let me know. I’ve never heard of the bloke. From the mutual friends option, I would guess the bloke is something to do with kite flying, but I could well be wrong.

And this evening Sue came to visit. I’ve not seen her for ages. We had a good old gossip about the good old days, and even a text from the USA whilst she was with us. Can’t wait till next time….

7 September 2009 (Monday) - Photocopying

Up with the lark again. Well,actually, before the lark. I’ve never seen a lark in the morning. Come to that, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lark at all. I expect they are all in bed until long after I’m at work….

Anyway – up early and on with ironing. I left home a tad later than usual to drop more tat off at the tip. The tip doesn’t open until 8am. And this was how I reminded myself why I leave for work so early in the morning. The rush hour traffic is awful. Far better to get to work early & have a cuppa rather than sitting in queues.

And then to arrange the photocopying of the astro club flyer. I phoned the people in Upmarket, because they did all the photocopying for the Snake Club, and Energize News (whatever happened to that?). They quoted me, and told me that Staples could do it cheaper. I phoned Staples who wanted double the price. So I took my dinner break and went to Upmarket. Oh dear… Perhaps I should have paid twice as much. Their photocopier was a tad temperamental. But nowhere near as temperamental as the shop assistant’s small child sitting in the corner playing “FarmVille” on the PC.

I wanted two hundred double sided copies. Once the photocopier had psyched itself up to actually working (and that took some doing), the thing could only do batches of twenty copies before needing a rest. The task was doubly complicated by the small child periodically wandering over and randomly pressing buttons on the photocopier to find out what they did. Staples could have done the job in minutes. I waited for an hour. It was painful. The shop (which offers photocopying as a service) ran out of paper at one point and had to borrow some. And just as the photocopier was getting up a good head of steam at about copy number 150, the small child finally realised that said photocopier was a serious rival for its mother’s attentions. And so in a pre-emptive strike it comprehensively trashed the device.

I eventually got my copies, and took them round to the astro club committee meeting. Technically I’m not on the committee any more, but as I mentioned a few days ago, I shall keep on sticking my oar in. I got given some more jobs to do at the meeting, so I suppose I wasn’t that unwelcome….

6 September 2009 (Sunday) - Chokey Revisted

Yesterday evening, following a rather physically strenuous day, I thought I’d take it easy. I did something I rarely do - I settled down to watch a film. “Brideshead Revisted” has always been a favourite book of mine. If you’ve never read it, I can thoroughly recommend it. It’s a smashing read, and in the 80s there was a twelve part TV adaptation of it starring Jeremy Irons, Antony Andrews and Lawrence Oliver among others. Recently there was a film made of the book, and I’d been looking forward to seeing this remake for some time.

What a load of tripe!! It had been made by someone who had overheard someone else describing his mate’s friend’s auntie’s cat’s opinion of the book. Some of the names of the characters were there, and some of the locations used in the book were featured. But the film was wrong. Oh so wrong. The lead characters in the book weren’t gay. Sebastian wasn’t camp. Charles wasn’t sniffing after brother and sister at the same time. The sister never went to Venice. And that bit on the cruise ship – what was that all about? And the army scenes? I suppose if (like most of humanity) you’ve never read the book, this rant means nothing. But it wound me up.

This morning I ached somewhat. But as always I had two choices. I could sit and bemoan my lot, or I could get on with it. I carried on with the tidying. Today’s plan was to do something with the two spare PCs I unearthed last week. That was easily done. One wasn’t a PC at all, merely an empty case. And the other when switched on tried (and failed) to boot up Windows ME. I shall take those two up to the tip tomorrow morning before work.

And so to the chokey for a family visit. Together with ‘er indoors ^TM and “Daddies Little Angel ^TM ” I went on a visit. Pausing only briefly for a spot of “Crackwatch” (see Facebook) in McDonalds, we were soon at the prison. I was expecting the place to be really busy today, because it was the weekend. It was actually the quietest I’ve ever seen the place. I turned up as usual and… that place winds me up. I’ve now visited five times, and every time the process has been different. Book in somewhere different, get quizzed differently, search done here or there or anywhere. This time I had an Alsatian sniffing round me.

“Normal Stanley” seemed in good spirits. We fed him up with far too much chocolate and crisps and assorted drinks. He’s got a new inmate on his wing called “Stephanie”. “Stephanie” apparently has a rather epic chest, but was sentenced before the surgeons could remove his/her/its meat & two veg. Since Her Majesty’s Prison Service doesn’t cater for “inbetweenies” someone in authority has declared that choppers trump chesticles, and that “Stephanie” is technically male and so goes to a male prison. However he/she/it gets released from lock up earlier than the other convicts every morning so’s it can shower without attracting undue attention. It’s a funny old world, really. I would have thought that having gone to the trouble to swap your junk for wazzo jugs, “undue attention” would be exactly what you would be after. But what do I know?

And as always the two and a half hours flew by, and again we had to leave him behind. And then home. We’ve now finally emptied the bucket of fish food I bought in March. Eighty quid for the summer’s feeding wasn’t bad. They can rough it on bread until I get back to the Koi shop…