21 March 2014 (Friday) - Financial Advice

I was up and loading the washing machine before 5am this morning. And with time on my hands I watched a couple of episodes of South Park. It transpired that the pandemic of American celebrities who are getting up to all sorts of sexually-related shenanigans was due to aliens in the White House. One lives and learns.

I also watched a play I'd recorded from the Sky Arts channel (oh, lar-de-dah!) which featured David Tennant playing the part of an ungrateful little shit finding fault with all of his social circle. It was quite entertaining, and served as an example of how not to conduct one's self in society.

I checked emails and on seeing a new geocache had gone live on my way to work I set off; leaving "er indoors ^TM" orders to unload the washing machine. I found the cache easily enough; it was only a shame that someone else had already found it ten minutes previously.

I then carried on to work; listening to the radio as I went. The news this morning was all about proposed changes in legislation concerning what people can and can't do with their pensions. The Chancellor is taking the line that people will be sensible with their pensions and won't (as has been mooted) piss it all up a wall as quickly as is humanly possible. Whilst he may well be right in that few people are going to recklessly squander the lot, he's overlooked what people will probably do. Most people would take financial advice. That's what I did when I took out a mortgage. I was advised (in good faith) to get an endowment mortgage which ended up costing me thousands.

I wonder if the pension market will be equally badly advised?

And so to work where I did what was expected of me. At lunchtime I went for my now customary walk; I'm quite getting to like this part of the day. Mind you I did find working five consecutive days something of a novelty; I've not done that for over two years.

Once home I took "Furry Face ^TM" for his walk. "er indoors ^TM" came too. We went down round Asda where for the last four nights I've been trying to find a particularly elusive geocache. Tonight I went straight to it.

I had planned to wash my shirts this evening; the new working scheme has played havoc with my laundry arrangements. But I couldn't be bothered. I watched telly instead. I say "watched" - slept through was a better description.

And Kate Bush is going touring. I wonder if I could get tickets?

20 March 2014 (Thursday) - Bit Dull...

I was up well before the lark this morning and watching the latest episode of the re-imagined "The Tomorrow People". For all that it's a really good series I can't help but find myself looking back over the last couple of months and asking myself what has actually happened in that show. And I must admit that the answer is "not much".

The morning's drive to work was dull. I listened to the news as always. And the news had very little to report. There was talk of the Russian annexation of the Crimea which is now a done deal. There was talk of the missing Malaysian air liner, but all the time it remains missing there are no actual facts to report. The Shadow Chancellor was intereviewed about yesterday's budget and upset the pundits by (surprisingly wisely) refusing to comment in depth until he's actually worked out what was actually in the budget speech.

In fact the most interesting news item was the discovery of a new species of dinosaur which (in a thinly veiled attempt to whip up public interest) has been dubbed "the chicken from Hell"

Once at work I did work things until lunch time. My new working pattern gives me a much longer lunch break, and I've taken to going for a lunch time stroll. Today I found a field full of cows which on closer inspection turned out to be all bulls. I didn't realise you could keep bulls together; I thought they fought or squabbled? This bunch seemed surprisingly relaxed.

This evening I took "Furry Face ^TM" for his walk. There's no denying that he's far better behaved on morning walks than evenng walks. I wonder what is different that causes him to play up in the evenings.

And once home I checked my emails. Good news. I was planning to do a load of geocache maintenance this weekend; much of it has been done for me by some geo-buddies of mine who were in the area yesterday. I was pleased about that. There's no denying that I enjoy traking down a concealed sandwich box. And so because I hunt so many I feel obliged to make my contribution to the hobby by hiding caches too.

But with hiding them goes the responsibility of maintaining the ones that I've hidden. This isn't so much of a problem on caches that are nearby or on my way to work. But with the recent changes to my working pattern I have much less time mid-week to spend on replacing missing magnetic key holders and fake ducks; especially ones that are nowhere near where I would normally be going.

Of the seventy-nine caches I've hidden I'm beginning to seriously think about archiving thirty (or so) of them.

19 March 2014 (Wednesday) - New Pound Coin

Up with the lark, and after my morning fix of Family Guy I set off to work. The morning's news was not especially memorable. Mind you there was lots of excitement about the new-look pound coin to be released in three years time. The new coin is to be based on the appearence of the old threepenny bit because the old threepenny bit was incredibly popular. The chap on the radio went so far as to claim that the threepenny bit was voted most popular coin many times during its lifetime.

Firstly I couldn't help but wonder who would be sad enough to vote for their favourite coin; but then I realised that someone else had been paid to run that survey.

And so to work. I did my bit, and at lunch time went for a little walk. When I came back I sat in the rest room and watched the television news about today's budget statement. As with pretty much every other budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave with one hand and takes with the other. I've done a little research and I can't see that I will be noticeably any better or worse off.

With my bit at work done I came home. The evening's news on the radio was all about budget and Crimea. It would seem that the Russian takeover of Crimea is now all but completed; and all that is left is the empty posturing by the western governments.

Once home I popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and took him round teh block. He was especially problematical this evening; picking fights with bicycles as well as the usual motorbikes and juggernauts. With the walk over I had a little sti-down to rest my nerves (they get frayed by that dog) and I checked my emails. I've had an offer of a free saxophone lesson; a "taster" to see how I get on. That will be something to do on Saturday afternoon.

"er indoors ^TM" came home with curry, and we scoffed it whilst watching episodes of Big Bang Theory and guzzling a bottle of Merlot. I dozed off several times. As usual asleep when I want to be awake, and so to bed where I shall spend most of the night wide awake...

18 March 2014 (Tuesday) - Munzees, Russia

Yesterday I mentioned my disappointment with www.musicteachers.co.uk and asked if anyone knoew of a music teacher. I asked in several places on the Internet, and as I checked out cyberspace over brekkie this morning (to my amazement) www.musicteachers.co.uk offered their services.

I also had a message from a friend asking if I knew about the Munzees that had gone live over the weekend. I didn't, and checking the map I saw they were within walking distance. With little else to do but watch episodes of Family Guy I took "Furry Face ^TM" for an early walk, and we got First to Find on five of them before 7am.

And so to work. As I drove I listened to the radio. The world is aghast at developments in Crimea. I am convinced I am missing something vital in this story. From what I can see part of the Ukraine has declared its independence and has asked to become part of Russia.

It seems very odd to me that the western world is all very pro-democracy all the time it is their (our) variety of democracy which is being touted. No one seems to have any problem with the Scots having a referendum for their own independence. How is the Crimean situation different?

There was also talk of making non payment of the TV licence fee a civil offence as opposed to a criminal offence. It would seem that ten per cent of magistrates' time is spent on such cases.

Surely the time has come to abolish the licence fee.

Yesterday I mentioned I'd hidden a new geocache in Canterbury. It was found for the first (and only so far) time this morning shortly after 9am; whilst I was at work.

I did my bit at work, and came home via the pet shop where I stocked up on "Furry Face Food ^TM". And having quicky run my dog round the block the clans gathered. Insults were bandied, and we watched another episode of Merlin. But there's no denying the show is suffering following the recent demise of Sir Bigtits...

17 March 2014 (Monday) - Looking for a Teacher

I would probably have had a decent night’s sleep were it not for the snoring that woke me shortly after 3am. I gave ‘er indoors ^TM  a clout, but by then it was too late; I was awake. I got up after a couple of hours and watched episodes of Family Guy before setting off to work.

I went a little earlier than I might; I wanted to allow myself a little time to go to Morrisons. In the end I had plenty of time. I got to work early and watched the morning news on the works telly. The breakfast TV presenter was showing her ignorance. Apparently science has found that the planet Mercury has shrunk over time. “Twit for Brains” on the telly was disputing the fact. Apparently because Mercury is close to the Sun it would expand, not shrink, because heat makes gases expand and planets are made out of gas.

One lives and learns.

I spent much of the day waiting for a phone call that never came. I’ve been trying to get lessons for how to operate my saxophone. I naively thought http://www.musicteachers.co.uk might be a good place to find a teacher. I was mistaken.

Most of those people listed that haven’t either retired through old age or given up because the noise wakes their baby haven’t actually provided a valid phone number. I finally tracked down one chap listed on that site who seemed bemused that I should ask him for instruction; though he admitted he could play a saxophone. He said he’d get back to me. He didn’t.

If any of my loyal readers know of any music teachers… I am told there is room for improvement.

At lunch time I went for a walk and whilst out and about I found a beautiful little spot that was just crying out for a geocache. So I hid one there. I’m seriously thinking of archiving off caches because I have hidden too many, and here I am putting more out.

And on the way home I went to buy more dog food only to find I’d left my wallet in my locker at work. Woops…

16 March 2014 (Sunday) - Teynham

Over the last couple of weeks I've been frantically solving puzzles in readiness for today. Today we set off to Teynham where there is a series of fifteen puzzle caches. Having solved word searches and sudukus, kukuros and morse code, transcriptions and all sorts of brain benders we thought that going to actually find the tupperware would be the easy part. It wasn't.

We parked up in Teynham and set off. We found a clone of "Furry Face ^TM". Banjo (what a name!) was a little smaller all round than Fudge, but I suspect that's a feature of how much Fudge gets walked. We chatted with the nice people with Banjo for a bit, then carried on with our walk. It was a very good walk; especially scenic as it seemed to be "National Fit Birds go Jogging Day" (to be politically correct).

A little way round the route we turned off to go hunt out some other nearby geocaches. We had a minor incident with one. WIth no hides immediatly obvious we checked other people's logs of the find. Mention had been made about a new fence, and the clue did say it was ten feet high. So having impaled my "flowers and frolics" on barbed wire and having scaled about twenty feet up an old oak tree I wasn't impressed when er indoors ^TM" found our prey knee height along the footpath.

By now it was mid day so we stopped off at the Dover Castle Inn for a pint. The bar staff were happy for us to scoff our picnic in their garden, so we did. I suspect they were gald for the trade; the place looked empty. It was whilst scoffing lunch that an email came in; a new cache had gone live which was about half way home from where we were. We didn't really think about it very much, but carried on with our walk.

It was at this point that we met two other fellow unters of sandwich boxes, and we carried on with them for a while until we reached out forthest point north. Our friends carried on with the cache series; we took a slight detour to pick up an extra one; and we met up with them a bit later when we were rather struggling with one that was eluding us.

Once we were back to the car we had a little look on-line and saw that the geocache that had gone live over lunch time was still waiting for a find to be logged. The lure of a First to Find was too strong to resist, so we had a go. And were lucky. We were first to get there.

The cache was very near the Lady of the Woods; somewhere that I've blogged about before. It's a wooden statue in the middle of the woods that was thought to have been carved during the last war by Italian prisoners of war. It is supposedly a religious icon thought to be carved in the image of the Virgin Mary.

As always, I took a few photos whilst we were out

And so home, where we carried on washing up the camping gear that had got wet over the winter in the leaking shed. And with er indoors ^TM" off bowling I got my saxophone out. I had a trial squawk; but "Furry Face ^TM" wouldn't stop singing along. I the watched the first episode of the new "Cosmos" series. Billed as "weaving rigorous science with visual, emotional and spiritual elements, it will be a transcendent experience – a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale we know", I must admit I thought it was rather rubbish. It reminded me of some of the speakers we've paid to perform at the astro club in the past; it was all fancy graphics to impress the masses, but very little factual content. After twenty minutes I realised I was only watching it because I will be expected to comment on the show tomorrow at work and later with members of the astro club.

15 March 2014 (Saturday) - Got my Saxophone

Yesterday I mentioned that a chap had contacted me about buying his saxophone. Having offered him half his asking price he got back to me this morning with a counter-proposal. He'd accept half the asking price plus some items in trade. Specifically any unwanted gold I might have. Unwanted gold !? Is there such a thing? Was I being hopelessly naive in thinking this was a little odd?

I said I'd get back to him after pay day.

With er indoors ^TM" still asleep I took "Furry Face ^TM" for a short walk. Having obtained a rock to be used as a geo-anchor we went round to the river and re-floated my "luvaduck" geocache. Whilst we were in the area I got chatting with the people from the Environment Agency who were pulling a mattress out of the river.

What sort of pikey throws a mattress into the river? It's actually easier and much less effort to take the thing to the tip.

Once home I sat about killing time on Facebook until er indoors ^TM" was ready for action. We went into Ashford for a mooch. We didn't buy much; just a few odds and ends from Ashford's Cheapo Bargains store. We met up with Bernie and Martin. We went into the girlie clothes shop to bother Cheryl, and we had a rather good spot of lunch in the Gorge. Feeling suitably stufffed we went round to Chill Time for milk shakes. I had a black forest gateau milk shake. That wasn't "black forest gateau flavoured", it was made with actual black forest gateau. I watched them chop a lump off of the cake, chuck it in a mixer with milk and ice cream and blend the whole lot into a milk shake. Very tasty.

I then spent a little while sorting out the shed. I was amazed at what I found in there; some stuff is worth keeping, some is rubbish, and there was rather a lot of staff which would have been worth keeping were it not absolutely sodden.

Over the winter the roofing felt has come adrift several times and despite quite a few repairs the rain has got in. There's been quite a bit of damage done. I had hoped to be able to completely re-felt the shed roof today, but my prime assistant had better things to do. Oh well, it's his fishing gear which was sitting in pooled rain water.

And so to Maidstone. The chap with the saxophone had relented and accepted my offer. His acceptence was rather grudging, but to be fair to him I wasn't paying anything like what the sax is probably worth. He said I could collect the thing this evening (from his mother). So I did.

I've got it home and have had a provisional trial squawk with it. I can get several notes out of it. I'm rather impressed with my impromptu seranade, and my dog sang along too. In fact I've got more notes out of it in five minutes than I did in five years with a bugle.

There's no denying that I have no idea which of the notes is an "A" and which is not, but in many ways figuring out the notes is just piddling details. I've found several You-Tube videos which will give me pointers, and if that don't work I'll take the unprecedented step of getting lessons.

I've unraveled the mysteries and intricacies of TCP/IP protocols, of oxidative phosphorylation, of blood group serology and of differential calculus. I've lectured on herpetology, cosmology and haematology. For all that I work hard to conceal it, there's no denying the fact that I'm a genius.

How hard can it be to play the can-can...?