21 February 2014 (Friday) - Happy Birthday to Me

The GP never did phone back about that referral to the sleep clinic yesterday. I remembered that as I was lying awake shortly after 4am this morning.

After brekkie I took “Furry Face ^TM “ round the park for a walk. He liked that; and so did I; this morning’s walk was rather uneventful apart from one minor episode. Some rather odd woman had lost the dog she was looking after for a friend. She had this idea that if all the dogs in the park could be gathered together her missing mutt would feel left out and try to join in. Together with the more seasoned dog walkers in the park I know the main ingredient for a dog fight (lots of dogs) and no one was very keen to join in. I left other dog walkers dealing with the stressy fit that ensued from the newby dog-sitter.

Once home we settled the pup down to sleep, and we drove to Rye. A while back I’d won a meal for two at Marino’s in Rye, and today we thought we’d take advantage of the offer as we often go out for a meal on this day every year. Can’t imagine why….

There was a minor embarrassment in the restaurant when firstly the waiter claimed that the (undated) voucher had expired and then secondly when the proprietor of the place claimed that the voucher was nothing to do with them; they had never issued the thing. Fortunately they honoured it, and we had a rather good bit of fish and chips. It wouldn’t have been that serious if they hadn’t honoured it; it’s not as though I can’t afford a bag of chips but…

I’d won the voucher in the astro club’s raffle. (As well as hawking it I take part too). I wouldn’t have minded if I had ended up with an iffy voucher, but I would have been mortified had one of the punters been faced with a worthless voucher. Obviously the astro club would have reimbursed them for any costs, but would we have been liable for anything else? Could we as a club have been sued for the embarrassment of having presented a duff voucher?

I shall have to take advice.

Whilst in Rye we played Munzee. There are loads of Munzees in Rye; I got First to Find on three; ‘er indoors ^TM  FTF’ed four. All of these had been hidden last June. Compare that to geocaches which are usually found within a couple of hours of going live.

And talking of geocaches we found a few of those too.

As it was on our way home (sort of) we came home via Peasmarsh to see if we couldn’t find two geocaches we couldn’t find two weeks ago. We found both. One was tricky; two weeks ago three of us were in GPS agreement to within a couple of feet as to where the thing was hidden and we couldn’t find it. Today my GPS (with the same co-ordinates) took me somewhere twenty yards away on the other side of the road and I found the cache in less than a minute.

The other one was odd. We logged we couldn’t find it. The chap who’d hidden it went out and declared it was lost and put out a replacement. We then found the original.

And so home. After filling up with fish and chips at mid day we weren’t hungry, so I slept in front of the telly whilst ‘er indoors ^TM  started preparing party food for tomorrow.

There’s a party tomorrow apparently…

20 February 2014 (Thursday) - Lasagne

I woke at 4.30am this morning, and lay there trying to get back to sleep. With nothing on the agenda until after a delivery arrived (due from 11am to 1pm) I lay in bed and wasted precious time. I get so angry. I wasted all of yesterday afternoon fast asleep in front of the telly; there are albums of photos of me fast asleep when I could and should be doing stuff.

And when the rest of the world is fast asleep I am wide awake.

I looked through this blog; it’s been three months since I went to the doctor. I had a look on-line to find out how long I should expect to wait to hear from the clinic; the maximum wait I should expect is eighteen weeks; I’ve only been waiting for twelve. Nevertheless I phoned the surgery to see what was going on. I got the distinct impression that it is their policy not to chase up referrals like mine; presumably most people just get better regardless (or die).

They said they would phone me back.

‘er indoors ^TM  was off work today; my idea was to go do something. She agreed; the something to be done was her hair. So whilst she went for a short back and slap I mooched round some on-line forums. Several years ago on-line forums and newsgroups played a large part of my life. Through them I got in contact with some very dear friends; but I don’t have anywhere near as much involvement with these things anymore; they just make my piss boil so much.

I see that nothing has changed with on-line discussion. Keyboard warriors complain bitterly about trivial faults in others which are far worse in themselves, and then lambast others for doing what they themselves have been doing for years.

After ten minutes I could feel the urine beginning to simmer, so I went and played Jelly Splash and Worms until the delivery arrived at five minutes to one.

With ‘er indoors ^TM having only taken four hours for a haircut we took “Furry Face ^TM “ round the park for a walk, then drove out to Pluckley for some geocache maintenance. Most of my caches are on regular dog walks or on the way to work. The Pluckley ones are a little off of my beaten track; but three of them needed maintenance. Or so I was told. I must admit that I was rather miffed to find two false alarms. But they are all good to go now until something else goes wrong with them.

And in the evening we drove down to Cheriton where we had a rather good dinner with Jose and Maria. And having scoffed myself silly we watched a film: “Gravity” was quite watchable; as is anything with Sandra Bullock (woof!). The film might have been better had the makers consulted a physicist about how gravity works; or even better about how things work in the absence of gravity, but you can’t have everything. Reality makes dull entertainment…

19 February 2014 (Wednesday) - Swans

I slept reasonably well, and after brekkie was raring to go. The original plan for the day was a trip to Saltwood to pick up those puzzle caches I’d solved yesterday. But with my henchman (henchgirl?) feeling unwell I didn’t fancy going alone.

Instead I went out with “Furry Face ^TM “  . As we walked through the park I could see a woman walking towards us. I heard her before I saw her; she was bellowing into her phone. When she was only a few yards away she threw the phone into the distance and then loudly announced “It’s official – God hates me!” She then proceeded to give me a blow by blow account of her sorrows and woes.

I’ve had a few of those myself lately, and so could sympathise with her frustrations, but ranting at innocent bystanders in the park isn’t going to solve her problems. I made my excuses and left her haranguing an indifferent universe whilst I went round to bother Cheryl and Lacey

Lacey is on half term holiday this week, and we took some bread round to the lake to feed to the ducks. Lacey was keen to geocache (good girl!) so we did a couple. Whilst at the lake Fudge and a swan started shouting at each other. Cheryl had to intervene quickly as Lacey was about to lob a rock at the swan for daring to disrespect her dog-brother (as she calls Fudge).

Whilst we were out Cheryl told me a rather sad tale of our time. The other day whilst she was out driving a chap flew round a corner far too fast and crashed into her car. This fellow pulled out a phone, gabbled into it, and within ten minutes there were a dozen of his fellow countrymen (something eastern European) all round Cheryl’s car pointing at her and shouting. She was terrified, and so phoned the police. She explained what was going on and they didn’t want to know.

Let’s be clear on this - a young woman on her own was being threatened and intimidated by a dozen foreign men and the police flatly refused to attend.

So much for the concept of the police force - time to have a different way of maintaining public safety perhaps?

The afternoon was something of a let-down. Over a spot of lunch I watched a documentary about the making of Star Trek. I say “watched” – I scoffed lunch whist watching the show, and woke up at 5pm.

Which reminds me – I need to chase that sleep clinic…

18 February 2014 (Tuesday) - Goodbye Ron

I had planned to get up in the night and put some washing on. I woke at 4am; thought better of it and went back to sleep. I got up shortly before 7am, had brekkie and put the lead on to “Furry Face ^TM “ and took him for a walk. Rather than going out locally we drove out to Boughton Malherbe (near Lenham) for a little walk round the countryside. We parked up near the church in Boughton Malherbe and walked across some fields enjoying some wonderful views as we went. And we picked up some geocaches as we went. And gave offence too.

When one finds a geocache one is required to write a little story about the visit, about how the walk was; how the cache was found, the entire experience. And one is not supposed to give away any spoilers about the thing either. Most people just do cut-and-paste generic accounts. That’s what I do; I’ve rigged my geo-app to give a generic polite comment with a link to this blog for those who are actually interested in what I did today.

The whole writing a report thing is somewhat farcical because regardless of whether anyone just pastes blather or waxes lyrically, no one ever reads the write-up except to try to get a hint for when they can’t find a particular cache.

The hider of one of today’s finds took issue with my generic way of caching; specifically my comment of “But am I being cynical in wondering if anyone reads logs for any reason other than to get another hint ?” Apparently this fellow reads the logs because he likes to know if people enjoyed finding the cache, if they had any problems with the coordinates, what the footpaths were like, or any problems they came across. Admirable sentiments. All of which would have been answered had he waited till the evening when I would publish my day’s rantings. I wouldn’t have taken such umbrage if the chap logged his finds with any alacrity. But after a bit of rather silly squabbling all was well that ended well.

It was all a tad trivial, and the fellow in question has since apologised. I probably got a tad precious myself. I wish I could be like others and not have my piss boil about the most trivial of things. I’ve since deleted that line from my generic comment.

So, to fill in some details about the day, the fields were muddy and the hills steep. At this time of year quite dangerously so; especially when one is being dragged about by a small dog intent on worrying sheep. The cache hides themselves… here is where it becomes tricky and why I prefer a generic blog rather than specific descriptions. All three were unique in their own special ways; one more so than others. I *really* cannot say more without spoiling the fun.

Our trip home was fun; as we came down a rather small country lane we found a huge juggernaut coming the other way. I pulled my car in as tightly as I could, the juggernaut tried to pass, and we both got wedged in place. Fortunately after ten minutes or so a passing normal person shouted directions at us and helped us get free.

It was with a sense of relief that we came home and I bathed “Furry Face ^TM “ before finally solving the mystery of Feigenbaum’s bifurcation theorem and turning WSSEENNESWESENNEWSSEENNSENSSENEWNEWSSE into a set of co-ordinates.

I fancied kebab for lunch. Unfortunately the kebab shop was shut. It usually opens about 2pm; just after every other shop has had the lunchtime rush. So I had a sandwich instead. Over lunch I watched a film. “Control” was a film about the lead singer of “Joy Division”, not a band I particularly like, and I slept through the first half of the film, and gave up three quarters of the way through.

After a quick belt of pancakes (what else on Shrove Tuesday) we went round to Queen Street where the clans gathered. They do that.

And in closing today it seems that I missed Ron Dell’s funeral. If I had known it was today I may well have made the effort to have attended. When I first got into kite flying (all those years ago) Ron was one of the first to welcome me into the game. He started up the Teston kite festivals so many years ago. I didn’t see him that often, but when I did he was so friendly and welcoming; I can distinctly remember him turning up at our camp one Teston kite festival; bearing a huge fruit pudding and asking if we would want it as he had too many.

A true gentleman; the world is a sadder place with his passing. Would that I would be missed as much as Ron will be

17 February 2014 (Monday) - Canterbury

I had to go to Canterbury for very dull reasons this morning. So I went only to find I had wasted my time. I had originally planned to take the train, but it’s very inconvenient and actually costs more than driving. So I drove.

Having realised I’d wasted my time I thought I’d make the most of a bad episode by seeing what geocaching I could do. There was one cache in a park which I knew was missing, but I’d emailed the C.O. and asked if she would mind if I replaced it for her. She was happy for me to do so, and so as I was passing I popped a new cache in place.

I then made my way round to the cathedral. There was a cache based on the place. There was a puzzle based on the entrance to the place. I solved the puzzle and came up with an answer about half a mile away. So I walked that half a mile to find myself in a rather grotty back alley in one of the less salubrious parts of town. The hint to find the cache said to rummage in a certain place. I rummaged only to find a discarded hypodermic syringe. I didn’t bother looking any more. I logged “did not find”; I think I might have been forgiven had I logged “Needs Archiving”. Perhaps I’m being harsh, but there are very few caches hidden in Canterbury. There must be dozens (if not hundreds) of better places than that.

Whilst in the area I called in to Golding Surplus for a pair of trousers. I found they sold ammo tins too. Might get one at some point.

I carried my walk round past the railway station where I spotted another cache from several yards away. My plan was then to look at a multi-hide along by the river, but the riverside walk was closed. So instead I went to McDonalds.  Whilst in there I logged my visit on Facebook as “Enjoying the freak show”. It may sound harsh, but it was a fairly accurate summary. I reviewed the place on Facebook as “Good food. Shame about the shrieking harpie clientele”. There were half a dozen women in their late twenties pretending to be in their early teens screaming at each other. There was a O.A.P. convention trying to spread four people across the entire building. And there were two rather thick gentlemen who, on discovering that chips were filled with potatoes, were asking everyone and anyone why they don’t make chips with different fillings.

I came back to the car via Canterbury Castle (which I could now get in to), and once home I had a cup of coffee and watched a film. Pi was an odd film. The premise that irrational numbers contain a message from God is not a new idea, and it is a story which has been done better. But I only slept through about half of the film, which for me is something of a glowing endorsement.

I then did this week’s part of my course about the history of the Internet. Week Three was all about early browsers and Mosaic. I got full marks in the quiz; and felt rather smug about it. I then popped the lead onto “Furry Face ^TM “ and took him round the block. He seemed to like that.

And with those who bowl doing that sort of thing I settled down and watched Star Trek IV on the telly. I’ve not seen that film for a while. More holes in the plot than I could count, but its Star Trek and can be forgiven a few hiccups…