19 October 2015 (Monday) - Kermit

Despita a fidgetting dog I slept better than I usually do when "Furry Face ^TM" has sneaked up during the night. He really should spend the nights in his basket, but am too soft on him. I finally woke when next door's baby started crying around 6am. There are those who would whinge about it; I think its quite sweet really.

Over brekkie I watched "Dad's Army" in which no one liked it up 'em. I then hadd a quick look-see on-line. There were some really nice words said about the Wherigo I put out in Canterbury a couple of months ago. It is a shame that only two people have had a look at this; it took me many hours to create. Still, such is life.

There were also yet more complaints about the early stages of the geo-walk I put out round Bethersden. I've now officially disabled that part of the walk and will go out and have a look-see tomorrow.

And so to work. As I drove the radio told me what I'd missed in the wider world over the weekend. Terrible news (!) McDonalds' days are numbered. There has been a staff survey taken recently in which the rank and file "Johnny-no-stars" have expressed no confidence whatsover in the management of the organisation. Apparenlty the decision to do all-day breakfast has been a bad thing.

It is no secret that I love McDonalds; it would be a disaster to see it go. Mind you it is so popular I can't see it going soon. It is a sad reflection of our times that meaningless nonsense behind closed doors in boardrooms is taken far more seriously than the core business of the company (i.e. feeding the masses).

Also the Government has got the arse since the Department of Work and Pensions has put an awful lot of effort into making a website of advice about pensions which no one is accessing. I suppose if the Department of Work and Pensions told their target audience (i.e. me) about their website then people might have a look. People don't go looking for websites about which they are utterly unaware.

I stopped off at Morrisons for some stuff. I carried my stuff out in a "bag for life"; they cost ten pence as opposed to a standard carrier bag which costs five pence. Since supermarkets have to charge for carrier bags I've taken to buying "bag for lifes". It feels as though I now have more "bag for lifes" than sense. I've counted. I have four, so I probably really have got more bags than sense.

I got to work, did my thing, and came home again. As I do. Once home I took "Furry Face ^TM" round the block, and with "er indoors ^TM" off to the bowling league's bunfight I made a start on making five gallons of stout for Christmas. And with the stout in the barrel I watched the first episode of the latest resurrection of The Muppets. I quite liked it... but I will say that for all that it was billed to be on from 8pm till 8.30pm I think the show itself actually ran for less than twenty minutes.

18 October 2015 (Sunday) - Whitfield

I felt a little ropey over brekkie this morning; can't imagine why. As I devoured my toast I spent a few minutes wracking my brain. My attempts to solve a geo puzzle are faltering. I know the puzzle is based on Mah-Jong, but all my attempts to solve it aren't working. I've event resorted to non-traditional means (i.e. to blag it) but no one who's actually logged it as found has either solved the puzzle themselves or will tell me how to solve it.

I let "Furry Face ^TM" out for his business (its a dog thing) and on seeing how it had rained overnight I thought I might use my gaiters on today's walk. I then wasted half an hour trying to find where they had been hidden. I found one. Having only one is no use to me. I shall get some more gaiters; that is a sure-fire way to make the missing one appear.

The plan for today had been to hunt for sandwich boxes in Alkham and then Samphire Hoe but with a sizeable proportion of the team crying off with various maladies we had a last-minute change of plan.

We took my dog for a walk round Whitfield. We started off at the church where we had to solve a puzzle based on the tribulations of the Cross family. There is a gravestone in the churchyard which lists the deaths of the eleven children of that family. The longest surviving child was only five months old when she died. It was a rather sad tale.

From there we had something of a stroll to find another puzzle cache. I'd actually solved this puzzle some time ago. Regular readers of this drivel may recall 23 August last year when I'd narrowed the location of this sandwich box downn to one of a dozen possible places, and whilst checking all twelve places "er indoors ^TM" lost her phone. None of those places were right, but shortly after that I found the error of my ways, and today we went back and did the secret geo-ritual.

We made our way back to the car via a farm shop where we stocked up on cheap vegetables, then went into Folkestone for a walk round the harbour with Baby Jake and his entourage. I had no idea that the end of the harbour arm has been renovated and now featured stalls and live music and a double-decker bus which has been converted into a Greek restaurant. I will certainly be going back there soon.

It was only a shame that Buster (Kat's Staffie) and Fudge had to have the mother of all ding-dongs once we got back to the flat. Both dogs were fine but at the time it looked rather nasty. And it pains me to admit that my dog was one hundred per cent to blame for the fracas...

I took a few photos today; once home I put them all on-line. There are those who decry Facebook. It is worth its weight in gold if only for the free photo storage. I then fed my undercrackers to the washing machine and spent a little longer wrestling with the Mah-Jong-based puzzle I mentioned earlier.

It's giving me a headache now....

17 October 2015 (Saturday) - Hastings Bonfire Parade

I woke at 3am and lay awake, bursting for a tiddle, for half an hour. I finally got up, did my thing and went back to bed where I lay wide awake. After an hour I got up and head an early brekkie whilst watching South Park on the telly. The idea was that after a llittle fiddling about I might be tired and want to go back to sleep. It was an idea that didn't seem to work.

I eventually took myself back to my pit just after 5am, and I surprised myself by nodding off.

I emerged from the land of nod a few minutes before 9am, and was surprised to see "Furry Face ^TM" was still asleep. I waved his collar and lead and him, and he heaved himself up. We went for out usual walk round the park; I'd forgotten that being a Saturday the joggers would be out in force. We got to the park and found it was skin tight lycra and bouncing boobies as far as the eye can see. It was a good job I'm a paragon of virtue and not some sad old pervie.

Mind you, as always, there must have been over a hundred people jogging and not a single one looked to be enjoying it. Every single one looked to be in serious pain.

We came home where my dog got his brekkie, and as he scoffed I popped down to Tesco for some bits and bobs. At the checkout was a rather burly-loking thug bellowing into his mobile that he didn't want to do that because he didn't want to get stabbed again. I was intrigued as to what it was that he didn't want to do, but I thought better of actually asking him.

Once home I had a quick look-see on-line. A few days ago our old friend science found some aliens. This isn't the first time that science has found aliens, and usually having found them, science then publishes a retraction. But so far there has been no retraction. Perhaps there really is an enormous starbase in orbit around KIC 8462852 some one thousand five hundred light-years away. Perhaps there isn't. But is is quite possible that this will be the only way we'll ever have any dealings with aliens; just seeing something inexplicable in the *far* distance.

I also fiddled a little with my wherigo-in-progress, and then spent a little while playing with geo-puzzles. Some I solved, and some I didn't.

Jimbo and Steve arrived, and we sset off for Hastinigs. We stopped on the way for geo-purposes but soon enough we were in the Old Town. A few beers were sunk in the FILO (stranger thinngs have happened), and soon the family arrived. We cheered the bonfire parade, and then we wandered down to the sea front where we watched the fireworks.

It was an excellent display, but on reflection it was clear that a lot less money had been spent on fireworks this year compared to previous years.

I took a few photos whilst we were there, and slept most of the way home. I shall have a headache iin the morning..

16 October 2015 (Friday) - mankybadger dot co dot uk

My dog looked absolutely knackered as I scoffed my toast this morning. Perhaps he's getting old, but I don't think he's a "morning" dog.

As I scoffed toast I watched "Toddlers and Tiaras"; I *lve* that show. Today's installment was focussing on a family who run a turtle farm in the back of beyond in deepest Oklahoma. The mother seemed to have a nervous twitch and a very loose head. She was ranting that every small girl should have beauty pageant experience in her portfolio (whatever that is supposed to mean). She also was very keen that her child should become Miss America, and (for some reason) the show's producers introduced mother to Mrs Oklahoma who said that she'd never dream of entering her own children into a beauty pageant. That went down like a lead balloon.

I'd never heard of "Mrs Oklahoma" before; apparently she is the MILF version of Miss Oklahoma. One learns something new every day.

It was rather dark and dismal as I left home this morninig. I drove to work through torrential rain whilst the radio's weather forecasters were raving about what a beautiful morning and day we were going to have today. The radio (as usual) spouted the standard stream of news and opinion. Israelis and Palestinians continue to kill each other. They have been doing that for as long as I can remember and show no signs of stopping. The Turkish are being made all sorts of promises about EU membership provided they keep all the Syrian refugees to themselves.

I went via the petrol station where I got petrol (obviously). Usually petrol prices are very competitive. Today Morrisons were knocking the stuff out three pence cheaper per litre than the Esso station not half a mile up the road. It pays to shop around.

Work was busy; I spent much of the day looking out of the window at the rain. Usually the BBC's weather forecasts aren't too bad. Today they were just a little off the mark. The rain didn't let up all day, and was still pouring hard when I came home.

I popped the leaed onto "Furry Face ^TM" and walked him round the block. We both came home soaking wet. Once home and dried I had a look on-line. During the day the nice people at 123-reg had worked their wonders and www.mankybadger.co.uk is now all circuits go. There's not actually very much there yet; at the moment it is little more than an archive for nine years of blog rantings. But I expect I shall do something with it eventually; if only put up photos of my dog...

I'm off to bed in a minute. I've nearly finished the e-book I bought the other day. I had a little trouble keeping track of who was what in the plot, and it is obviously building up to a climax.

I wonder when the second book will be released.

15 October 2015 (Thursday) - A Day Off

My piss boiled (just a little) as I read social media this morning. One of the signs of getting old is exasperation with the younger generation. This is human nature; Pliny the Younger commented on it two thousand years ago so I am in good company. I get very wound up when.... well, I won't say who but I'm sure there are those of my loyal readers who know a certain someone in his early twenties who spends his every waking hour pontificating bollox on Facebook whilst spaced out of his skull on funny fags having deliberately made himself unemployable by dresssing as Coco the Clown.

I agree with him that in a perfect world people wouldn't judge others by their initial appearance. But this isn't a perfect world. If it was, young lads wouldn't lay around all day spaced out of their skulls on funny fags having deliberately made themselves unemployable by dresssing as Coco the Clown.

I took my dog for a walk. I was gripped by uncertainty as to where we might walk. In the end I decided to track down a geocache in the Shadoxhurst area. I’d seen this one go live a few months ago. Having had plans to put out a geo-series first in Chilham then in Bethersden, Kingsnorth and Aldington only to be scuppered by other geocachers, I hadn’t been best pleased to see this one go live right in the middle of where I was about to put out a series.

I *could* have put caches out around any of these locations. But when I put out a series I don’t want other cacher’s efforts around what I am doing. If their efforts are crap I get tarred with the same brush in everyone’s minds.

We parked up not a million miles away from where I used to go fishing, and walked along a bridleway for about three quarters of a mile. It was a rather wet and muddy bridleway, and there were a few too many pheasants for my liking (and my dog’s nerves).

We eventually got to where the cache allegedly was; near a memorial to a crashed plane. It was a rather beautiful site to visit. It was a shame that a thirty minute search turned up no hidden sandwich boxes.

We gave up, and took a slightly different walk back to the car. In all we walked about three miles. There could easily be a series of fifteen to twenty caches along that route. Part of me wants to put one out; part of me still feels the area has been taken.

We came home via the tip; on Monday I’d loaded up the car with a consignment of rubbish from "Daddies Little Angel ^TM"; I got rid of it today. And with the car unloaded we went home where Furry Face ^TM" had a bath and I hung his lead out to dry.

Seeing today was a day’s holiday (work operates a “use it or lose it” policy) I treated myself to a KFC lunch which I devoured whilst watching the third episode of “You, Me and the Apocalypse”.

I then spent the afternoon playing on the computer. I put up a small album of photos I took this morning whilst we were out then messed about with my latest project “mankybadger.co.uk”. I *think* I’ve stuffed up the web forwarding. Unfortunately it can take up to a day for the changes to take effect. I shall have to stage the grand opening some other time. In the meantime I've emailed the nice people at 123.reg to tell them exactly what I think I've done wrong and to ask for their input.

Rather than carrying on stressing I carried some of "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" paraphenalia out of tthe livinng room up to the loft into storage. I managed four up-and-downs before a combination of heavy lifting and dog pulling after pheasant made my elbow too painful to continue, so I settled down in front of the telly and alternaately solved geo-puzzles and dozed until "er indoors ^TM" finally came home.

I might have a bottle of beer with dinner if only to try out my untappd app...

14 October 2015 (Wednesday) - A Bottle of Wine

In complete contrast to Monday night I slept well last night. After about seven hours sleep my back was hurting too much to carry on laying in bed. Backache is usually a sign that I've been in my pit for too long. I got up, and spent a little while trying to find where "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" has put everything. I *hate* being tidied up. I might live in a total mess, but I know where everything is. An especially valuable geocaching trackable was on the living room table when I left home yesterday. It has gone now. I've even emptied the bins across the floor searching for it. The thing has travelled a thousand miles just to have the most recent fruit of my loin "tidy it up"

When I finished swearing I watched yesterday's episode of "Chewing Gum" in which Tracy tries to get on with her life despite her religious family background. It's actually a very good comedy, but I recognise so much from my own "religious nut" days. The line "I don't neeed to read the Bible because I go to church" rerminded me of so many people I've met. And I did giggle when Tracy's boyfriend turned out to fancy Jesus.

I had a quick look on-line. Amazon dot com was still trying to sell me that which I had already bought from them. I wish they wouldn't do that.

As I drove to work I found myself being tailgated by a lorry from Qik toilet rentals. If any of my loyal readers ever want to rent a toilet, I'd suggest renting from someone else.

Despite running the risk of a portaloo up the khyber I listened to the radio as I drove. And again the Labour party shows how it has gone from being a plausible government to being a laughing stock by having a U-turn on supporting the government's deficit policy.

Surely it makes sense not to spend more money than you've got? they government is trying to make it illegal for any UK government to spend more money than they have (in "normal" times). It strikes me to be common sense, but apparently the crackpot loonies who now form the Loyal Opposition think it is a bad idea. Or some of them do. The more sensible ones are looking set to vote against their party.

I know - I should have stood for parliament.... Maybe next time...

I stopped off at Morrisons on my way to work this morning. As well as razor blades I got a box of choccie biccies for work (as it is Hastings Day today) and a bottle of (supposedly) decent red wine as it was up for sale at half the usual price.

I came home through the rain and took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk. We only went round the block, and both came home soaked. "er indoors ^TM" eventually came home and over a rather good bit of dinner we had that bottle of wine I got this morning. In retrospect that bottle was over-priced at six quid. In fact it was bloody awful.

I'm glad I didn't pay the full price. Last week's bargain rot-gut was far superior. But that's wine I suppose. Why is it that a bottle of wine that costs four pounds actually tastes better than something which costs thre times the price?

And in closing today our old friend science has found some aliens. It's a shame they are so far away...

13 October 2015 (Tuesday) - Nudey Ladies

I slept like a log and woke feeling raring to go. I looked at the clock and saw it was 1.10am. I then just dozed fitfully for the rest of the night; finally giving up and getting up shortly before 6am. I set the washing machine loose on my smalls and then threw honey all over the kitchen floor. Having a small dog comes in handy for clean-up.

Over brekkie I watched last night's episode of "The Last Man on Earth" and then "Toddlers and Tiaras". One of the toddlers today was names Cearliegh which was (apparently) pronounced "Curly". I did laugh when that one was called up to collect her prize. Having first seriously gloated at her competitors she then ran to the podium and fell flat on her face.

As I drove to work I listened to the radio. The Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, has surpassed the expectations of even his staunchest critics. Having refused to join the Privy Council because he won't bow to the Queen he has (quite rightly) not been allowed the title of "Right Honorable" and now has decided to demand the place on the Privy Council that he refused to take last week.

It never fails to amaze me how the one party which stands for common decency has the ability to deliberately make themselves unelectable time after time.

There was a report from the scene of the current test match. Did you know there was a test match going on at the moment? No - neither did I. Pakistan are playing England. The chap giving the report pointed out that there were only about fifty people in the crowd watching the match. He then wondered if such a poorly supported event should really get coverage on prime-time national radio.

So did I.

But surely the most important news of the day is that Playboy magazine is going to stop publishing photographs of nudey ladies without any clothes on. Apparently people aren't paying good money for nudey pictures when serious filth is freely available on the Internet, and Playboy wants to become a serious respected publication.

Good for them. What is the moral high ground for, if not for claiming?

I got to work after forty minutes driving. If I leave home at 7.15am I get to work shortly before 8am. If I leave at 7.30am it takes nearly an hour. I'd rather get there early and spend time reading my e-book rather than spending time burning petrol and boiling my piss listening to the radio in traffic jams. After all, I'm usually up early enough.

I read my e-book, did a little work, and came home again. I do that.

I came home to find "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" was visiting. She'd done a little tidying up so once she'd set off home I spent a little while finding where everything had gone. I then wasted a little time fighting with domain names, and as "er indoors ^TM" went off to the Tuesday gathereing I ironed a few shirts. Tonight's gathering was to be a late start; what with the 1am wake up this morning the clans were gathering at about the time I would be nodding off so I gave it a miss.

I could do with a good kip tonight...