18 September 2015 (Friday) - Bit Tired

Last night as I worked I listened to the radio as usual. Said radio served up its usual blend of interest and drivel.

I couldn't beleive a year has passed since the Scots voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. But despite an overwhelming vote to stay, the Scottish Nationalists are still agitating for another referendum.

Don't they realise that they had their choice and was told to get knotted?

And our old friend science has detemined that the most painful place in which a bee might sting you is the nostril and went on to discover that all large mammals pee for the same length of time. Apparently all large mammals empty their bladders in twenty one seconds.

You would think science might have better things to do with its time. Unless it likes that sort of thing.

Having done my bit I was immediately seconded to chauffeur "er indoors ^TM" from the garrage to her work. She's having her brakes seen to. Apparently this is going to cost me six hundred quid.

So much for what I was going to spend it on...

Wiith chauffeuring done I took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. Bearing in mind the conclusions reached by our old friend science I watched my dog like a hawk. He'd not been out for a tiddle yet this morning so I was able to conduct a scientific experiment. I concluded that either my dog doesn't count as a large mammal, or science is talking rubbish. Squeezing out one drop of tiddle every ten yards my Patagonian Tripe-Hound still had plenty in his bladder after an hour.

We walked via the vets where I made an appointment for his booster shot for Monday morning. Today he walkled in there without a care in the world. On Monday I will need to use all my might to drag him in there. How does he know?

We came home, I went to bed. I lost count of the times "Furry Face ^TM" declared "Red Alert" and was barking at absolutely nothing at all. After a couple of hours "er indoors ^TM" asked when I would be waking up as her car was ready to be collected. So I fetched her and took her to the garage.

By one of life's myriad coincidences the garage was next to McDonalds so we had lunch together.

I came home, and didn't really feel like doing anything particularly active. For a moment I felt rather guilty and looked at thee bright sunshine outside and looked at my dog. Then in the space of about ten seconds the sky went black, the rain was torrential and the thunder started. So instead I spent a little time working on my latest Wherigo.

Six hours later I'd created about ten minutes more game play, and "er indoors ^TM" came home. A bit of tea, then catching up with episodes of Bake Off...

17 September 2015 (Thursday) - Baby Jake

I had my cannelloni for tea last night whilst visiting the Folkestonians. It was really good: I'd recommend the stuff. I then went on to work where I did my night shift.

As I worked I listened to the radio; sometimes it is interesting; sometimes piss-boiling. Great fuss was made about the new Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn. Whether or not he's going to be an effective Leader of the Opposition remains to be seen. But yesterday he was filmed refusing to sing along with the National Anthem. He probably thought he was proving some political point but it blew up in his face; he's going to sing it in future.

He then flatly refused to say whether or not he would kneel to the Queen at meetings of the Privy Council; pretending he didn't know the format of the meetings. Even though it is common knowledge that he will be expected to kneel.

A few days ago I was singing the chap's praises; now as far as I'm concerned he's fallen at the first hurdle. After less than a week in the job he's come over as a bit of a twit. Can't we just write him off as a bad move and replace him now?

With my work done I went home via the nearby Sainsburys. Shortly after midnight a new geocache had gone live there. On the one hand a cheeky little FTF brightened up an otherwise dull day. On the other hand having been placed where it is, it has effectively stuffed up hours of work on the Wherigo on which I've been working for the last few days.

Oh well... I suppose I should have reserved the space. I shall just spend a couple of hours setting the thing up in Ashford instead. After all it's not as though the Canterbury masses are clamouring to do the Wherigo I put there a couple of weks ago.

Once home I changed my undercrackers. I'd managed for quite long enough in a pair in which the elastic had gone. I then took an impatient dog to Frog's Island and back again for today's walk. Unusually for us oour walk passed off without incident.

Once home, pausing only briefly to throw honey all over the kitchen floor, I had a spot of brekie then I then took myself off to bed for most of the day. I had a rather restless sleep, when the phone wasn't ringing and my dog wasn't barking, my sleep was filled with dreams (nightmares) of the BBC's children's show "Baby Jake".

"Baby Jake" is the youngest of a hippy commune which seems to be squatting in a rather un-natural windmill. My Grandson likes the program. With animation comparable to what Terry Gilliam did for Monty Python I thought it was frankly scary. "Nibbles" the rabbit looks like it is about to go for Baby Jake's throat, and the less said about the Hamsternauts the better.

According to Wikipedia the show cost nearly two million quid to produce. Two million quid? Surely it could be done cheaper?

I'm off to work for another night shift now. I might have a little geo-adventure on the way. I've seen there's another new geocache on the map *exactly* where I'd planned Thanington's Church Micro...

16 September 2015 (Wednesday) - A Day in Bed

This morning I woke with feet as cold as ice but with my head sweating. How does that work? Over brekkie I had a look-see on line. I found a couple of things which piqued my interest. In a month or so there will be a sing-along Rocky Horror event in Margate. With tickets only (!) fifteen quid each I'm rather tempted to go along. I wonder if I can find anyone daft enough to come along with me.

I also found out some shocking news about an ex-Star Trek actress. "Kes" (in Star Trek: Voyager") was a sweet naive cute little petal. Apparently the actress who played the role has recently been charged with indecent exposure having flashed at children; earlier this year she was charged with evading arrest, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

With heavy rain forecast for the late morning me and "Furry Face ^TM" set off promptly for our walk. We took the back streets to Singleton Lake where (for the first time ever) there was no one fishing there. The idea of walking before the rain was that we wouldn't get wet. My dog didn't hold with this theoory and he chased after the ducks until he was chest-deep in the lake.

I then restrained him from getting in the way of cyclists. I wasn't really paying attention; I should have realised who was on the bike earlier. We then walked round to Viccie Park where we met all the familiar faces. Today OrangeHead had taken it back to basics with only her Chunky Little Friend in tow; none of her posse was to be seen. Fudge had a ding-dong with Chunky Little Friend's dog, tried to have his way with a passing Scottie, and (for no apparent reason) seemed to run in terror from a rather thin labrador.

Once home "Furry Face ^TM" had his breakfast and I spent an hour programming a virtual little old lady to kick a gallant kight in the goolies before taking myself off to bed for tthe afternoon. I dozed fitfully; I gave up trying to sleep shortly after 3.30pm.

I'm off to work for the night shift now. Via Folkestone. I've been promised cannelloni for tea.

I wonder what that is.....

15 September 2015 (Tuesday) - This n That

Over the last two weeks I've spent quite a lot of time (and money) working on a new series of geocaches which will lead people on a walk around Bethersden. With everything finally organised the plan was to actually hide the sandwich boxes today. But the weather forecast wasn't good, and I woke at 6am to the sound of torrential rain. For all that my walk is a pleasant one, there is one stretch where (for several hundred yards) one has a choice of walking on a ploughed field or in grass higher than my dog is tall. Either way, after last night's rain neither would be fun. And there are quite a few other places where we'd get wet and mucky. And the stiles would be slippery. The geo-feds have told me that I have first dibs on my chosen locations for three months so I decided to conceal tupperware another time, rolled over and went back to sleep.

I finally emerged from my pit shortly after 8.15am when my back hurt too much to lie in bed any more. It is a long time siince I've lain in bed long enough to get backache.

Ove brekkie I checked out cyber-space. On the last two days I've had something of a retrospective. Today "er indoors ^TM" was having one. Three years ago we went to Deal and did a wonderul GPS adventure game based on "Dungeons and Dragons". There were some photos of the day; didn't I look thin!

Dungeons and Dragons - a knight's quest. I could make a Wherigo based on that.

I also reflected on other old times; "er indoors ^TM" had found photos of our old house. The place was changed somewhat in the twenty four years since we moved out. It has been bought by a property developer and is now up for rent. Over seven hundred quid per month for a two-bed terraced house !!!

As I scoffed my toast "Furry Face ^TM" jumped up, wiggled himself into place next to me and went to sleep. I then didn't really dare move; not wanting to disturb him until he woke up. It was as well that he slept. If awake he's only have been whinging to go for our morning walk. I'd planned a walk but didn't want to do it until the rain stopped.

Eventually the rain did abate, and we went for a little walk. We set off along the back roads heading south where we spent five minutes standing by a dog poo bin watching a juggernaut getting itself wedged morwe and more into a narrow cul-de-sac. As we watched so an old woman brought her dog to the poo bin to have its dump. I pointed out that the poo was supposed to go in the bin, not just in its general vicinity but the old woman pretended to be deaf.

We carried on through Park Farm and home through Willesborough Dykes where the footpaths were covered in earthworms being eaten by slugs. I never knew slugs ate earthworms.

Having stopped off at Pets at Home (someone got a bone for being good) we came home.

I'd chosen not to go round the countryside today because it would be too wet. Today's walk was all on tarmac paths but even so "Furry Face ^TM" still came home wet and filthy. He had a quick hose-off and then he set about his bone as I had lunch whist watching theis week's episode of "The Last Ship".

Much as I quite like the show it has occurred to me that the baddies could comprehensively stuff our heroes by stopping doing all their baddying on the coast and by moving inland.

I then started making a Wherigo based on Dungeons and Dragons. After four hours of effort I had two minutes of game play programmed, and then the clans gathered in Somerset Road. Nooo-gar (not nougat) was scoffed and we watched the exploits of Captain Kirk; ably assisted by Mr Leslie. Mr Leslie is a much under-rated Star Trekker.

And once home we caught up on the episode of Bake Off from two weeks ago.

14 September 2015 (Monday) - Thirty Four Years Later

On my way home from work I checked out the DNF on my geocache..... A DNF is a "Did Not Find" report made on a geocache. People log one of these when they look for a cache and don't actually find it. Either people just can't find it, or it could be a warning that the thing has actually gone missing.

The supposedly missing cache had originally been hidden in a crash barrier along a little-used country lane. It was very unlikely to be found by chance by any passers-by. And the actual cache itself was squirrelled away inside a Chinese puzzle box that wasn't cheap.

Sure enough it had gone. Sandwich box, Chinese puzzle box, the lot.

The person who reported it as missing had left a rather strange message in her log: "may be missing - I know how to open these boxes - so ????" On reading this you might wonder how she knows what sort of a box it was if she didn't actually find it.

This is the second box of this type that has disappeared from this location. I'm not saying the thing has been deliberately stolen by an unscrupulous geocacher, but I am reliably informed that the last one had been.

Theft of sandwich boxes... it's all a bit sad really.

Rather than coming straight home I stopped off at the opticians where my idiot magnet seemed to be working at full power. One of the receptionists was asking me the standard questions that receptionists ask, but it was difficult for me to hear her (and for her to hear me) as some incredibly stupid woman was also being asked questions. This woman refused point blank to come to the counter; insisting that she sat down and shouted across the store. She announced that answering questions was very stressful for her because she was on benefits, and then rather aggressively wanted to know why I wasn’t (on benefits).

Eventually I got in to see the optician, and I explained that I could be on benefits if it would help. The optician didn’t actually wet herself, but it came close. Once the giggling stopped I had the air blown in my eyes, did the letters and colours thing, and was then told that my eyes have gone off about as much as would be expected since last time.

The new specs arrive in two weeks’ time. That's two hundred more quid I'd rather fritter away on beer.

I came home, popped the lead on my dog, and we went for a walk. We got as far as Bowens Field (five minutes away) and then the heavens opened. We turned round, and by the time I got home I was soaked and my dog looked more like a seal than a dog.

This rain is a nuisance. I had intended to mow the lawn today. Instead I looked at my accounts (and wished I hadn’t), fed my smalls to the washing machine, had a bag of parsnip crisps and went to bed. I woke late in the afternoon to find I was cuddling "Furry Face ^TM" as though he were a teddy bear.

I was quite content to lay there, but the strange voices in my dog's head told him to declare a red alert, and he launched into a woofing fit right by my ear. I wasn't getting back to sleep after that. Instead I got up and methodically emptied the contents of the washing basket into the washing machine.

Once "er indoors ^TM" went bowling I ironed shirts whilst watching "Star Trek: Renegades". I've been watching rather a lot of fan-made Star Trek episodes and films lately. Star Trek: Renegades is by far the worst of the lot and (quite frankly) that was up against some stiff competition. It relied too much on having famous actors and heaving blue breasts and didn't actually bear any relation to the show for which it had been named.

And in closing today I'll make the observation that today is an anniversary. Thirty four years ago I started professionally testing blood. Thirty four years.... (glossing over one particular hiccup) it's not been a bad old job really. The only drawback was that when I first started I was promised a pension after forty years. I was promised that I could retire on full pension on September 14 2021. That's not going to happen, is it?

13 September 2015 (Sunday) - A Day in Bed

Last night I had the radio on during the night shift. There was a lot of talk about the new leader of the Labour party.

No one had a good word to say for Jeremy Corbyn. He seems to be universally despised because (in a novel break with tradition) he seems to believe in what the Labour party was traditionally all about.

When I was a lad politics was rather cut and dried. Leaving aside their ability to actually acheive anything, there used to be a choice in the basic philosphy offered by the two main political parties.

On the one hand you had naked greed and on the other hand you had standing up for the underdog. However when I was a teenager Margaret Thatcher came to power. Her major achievement was to show the underdogs that naked greed was for everyone; not just for the elite.

Unfortunately at the time the Labour party was run by a bunch of half wits, nutters and cranks, and it took seventeen years of Tory rule for the Labour party to finally get rid of their tree-hugging politically correct nonsense. Unfortunately in doing so they also abandoned all policies of social decency and just pretended to be the same as the Conservatives.

And now after years of copying the Conservative party, the Labour party has finally elected a leader who seems to hark back to the ideals on which the Labour party was founded. I'm desperately hoping he's not also harking back to the tree-hugging politically correct nonsense as well.

Time will tell. It always does.

As I left work to come home this morning so the sky was a glorious pink-red colour. Usually that colour in the morning is a herald of bad weather coming later in the day. There's no denying I would rather a wet Sunday be today when I'm on nights rather than when I'm planning on doing things.

I had a bite of brekkie and had a look-see on-line. I then spend half an hour putting right the mileage on my trackable (it's a geo-thing). It had been stuffed up by a scout group from Essex. I'd like to think it wasn't deliberately malicious, but it was the sort of stuff up that would take a lot of doing.

"er indoors ^TM" took "Furry Face ^TM" for a traditional Sunday walk, and I took myself off to bed where I slept until late afternoon. They still weren't home when I got up; I'm used to "er indoors ^TM" never being home. But the house seems empty without "Furry Face ^TM".

I had more toast, then checked emails. I had a DNF reported (it's a geo-thing) so I shall check that out on my way to work. I'm off there now.

And in closing today - consider the date. When I was a lad there was a rather good sci-fi show (that didn't stand the test of time) called Space 1999. The show was futuristic; the action was centred on a base on the Moon, the Moon having been blasted out of Eath's orbit by a massive nuclear explosion. The date of that explosion: September 13th 1999. When I was a lad that seemed so far into the future. Today that date was sixteen years ago....

12 September 2015 (Saturday) - Visitors

I was up and about far earlier than I might have been today because grand-daughter Lacey was coming for the day. She arrived (with little Rolo) shortly after 7am, and whilst we both waited for "er indoors ^TM" to get up we watched "Toddlers and Tiaras". The difference in our perspectives on that show was amazing. Lacey actually took it seriously. I suppose that for the young girls it is a serious business.

And whilst we watched the two dogs played chaotically. Sometimes I worry that Rolo is so small that he will get hurt, but he seemed to hold his own with Fudge today.

"er indoors ^TM" emerged from her pit, and we drove down to Brockhill Park to walk the dogs. And to find two hidden sandwich boxes too. Lacey's trainers let in the water but she didn't seem too fussed. And after an hour's walk we came home via McDonalds for McLunch. We sat outside with the dogs, and whilst "er indoors ^TM" got the dinner we watched the McMinion letting the helium balloons fly off in the wind.

I took a few photos whilst we were out, and the girls then went off to Folkestone to visit Auntie Kat. I took myself off to bed for the afternoon and slept like a log.

I awoke to find that little Rolo had had a little potty emergency. Bless him; he's only a puppy. It didn't take long to dispose of the evidence. That will be our little secret.

I then had a quick look-see on-line. The geo-feds have checked out what I did yesterday and have given me the thumbs-up. So I shall start on Phase Three of my Bethersden project (finalising the cache web pages) when I get chance; with a view to doing Phase Four (actually hiding thirty eight sandwich boxes) when days off and decent weather co-incide. I was thinking about this coming Tuesday but the weather forecast is for heavy rain.

I must admit I'm rather grateful to the "geo-feds" for their help with what I'm working on; for all that I grumble about them sometimes, the unpaid volunteers have a thankless job really.

I'm off to the night shift now.... The last few have been very busy. I wonder how tonight will turn out.