16 February 2016 (Tuesday) - This n That

For all that I slept for over seven hours last night I still woke feeling like death warmed up. Perhaps I'm sickening for something?

Over brekkie I had a look-see on-line. A new geocache had gone live locally. But after yesterday's debacle I didn't go chasing the FTF. One went live yesterday afternoon and appeared to have been found within minutes. A couple of hours later I received a message from the supposed finder asking if I'd got the First to Find. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing it appeared that the thing hadn't been found at all, and I never did figure out why it had been claimed as found when it hadn't. It later transpired that it had actually gone missing before it was ever found.

I've left both of these two new ones. They will come in handy as calender-fillers.

I then drove over to the hospital for yet another out-patient appointment. I'd had another aspiration of my neck a few weeks ago. The one they did several months ago biopsied part of my neck with which I never had a problem but supposedly couldn't rule out anything nasty and so for the last eight months we've been messing about with a problem that (realistically) never existed. Today I saw a new chap that I'd not seen before. He gave me the all-clear, so having had the all-clear I politely suggested they might now examine the lump that *was* giving me grief. The specialist immediately found the lump. His immediate comment was that this was nowhere near where they've been biopsying.

I sighed, and explained that I've been saying that for months.

This chap sent me for an X-ray of said lump. The feeling is that his lump is a blocked salivary gland; not entirely unlike gall stones or kidney stones. I've got to go back for a dye injection and more X-rays. But at least the right lump is being investigated now.

I then drove round to see "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM". My mum and dad were visiting; we bandied insults and when they wet off homewards I took a car load of their rubbish to the tip (including a broken chair). When we got to the tip the "helpful" tip staff watched me struggle to get the broken chair into the skip. They *could* have got off their arses and help. They chose not to. Whilst I struggled I managed to gash my hand on a broken protruberance on the chair. there wasn't *that* much blood.

I came home and took "Furry Face ^TM" round the park for a walk. As we walked I checked up on one of "er indoors ^TM"'s geocaches (we usually walk past it). It wasn't there. Mind you I soon located it. The previous finder had clearly thought it would be better hidden a little way away. I wish people wouldn't do that.

Other than that that the walk passed off without fuss. With our walk done I filled the washing machine and then scoffed a sandwich whilst watching this week's episode of "Mrs Biggs". I do like that show; Sheridan Smith is *very* good in it.

I hung out the washing then spent the afternoon on week two of my Coursera course. The lectures on creation of elements were quite familiar, but the ones oh the Higgs boson were not. The professor seemed to go from very familiar ground to stark nonsense very quickly indeed. But I passed the tests (which is the main thing).

I then spent a little while struggling with a geo-puzzle. I have a plan for a walk in a couple of weekend's time. There is a puzzle cache icon right in the middle of where I am planning to walk. After an hour or so I solved the puzzle only to find that we won't be walking within two miles of the actual final position.

Pausing only briefly to put salt on my pancake we had a quick bit of scoff before the clans gathered for the Tuesday thing. I've missed that quite a bit recently...

15 February 2016 (Monday) - The Big Bang

Over brekkie I had a look-see on-line. For all that I an an avid hunter of tupperware I don't actually go on many geocaching e-groups. Let's be honest; the hobby is a tad silly..... someone goes and hides a sandwich box and everyone else goes to find it. It always amazes me how so many people get so nasty about the topic. On Saturday nigt I read a particularly vicious rant from someone based in Brighton who was cursing a good friend of mine about being unable to find one such box. This morning I read a rather nasty squabble about who did or didn't get FTF on something in the Liverpool area.

I suddenly realised just how wonderful the Kent geo-group is. There is no nastiness. There are disagreements, but people disagree and give reasons and discuss the matter. The line taken is the line I try to take: "I disagree with you for the following reasons" not " I disagree with you because you are stupid".

In retrospect the Kent geo-group is probably the major reason why I keep up this daft hobby. Were the locals as argumentative as everyone else I would long since have packed up.

I get enough arguments everywhere else...

I popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and we walked over to Newtown where we met "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM". Together with Sam, Sid and Buster we walked over to the orbital McDonalds. It was a cold day; we've been spoiled by the last few weeks being so mild. But McBrekkie warmed us all up, and we had a rather pleasent walk along the river on our way back again.

I had planned to spend a little time emptying the rubbish from the front garden this morning but "er indoors ^TM" had done that over the weekend. So instead I sterilised the beer barrel (a job I should have done a month ago), made a start on the laundry and then had a spot of lunch. I say "lunch"; I just scoffed whetever leftovers I could find laying round the kitchen whilst watching last week's episode of the re-booted "X-Files". I never really liked the original series of the "X-Files"; I'm not sure if I like this new version. But I shall give it a chance before dismissing it out of hand.

I then spent the afternoon learning. It has been a while since I did anything with Coursera. I've enrolled on a five-week course: "From the Big Bang to Dark Energy". It is provided free by the University of Tokyo. The first week was all about stuff I already knew, and today I completed the first week's worth of lectures and got full marks in the test. I was pleased about that.

Rather than carrying on with the second week's worth of lectures I had a little tidy-up. Or that is I intended to have a little tidy-up. I would have done much better had I been able to put stuff in the loft space. I couldn't do so as my ladder has gone walkabout. I can remember leaving it with "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" in her flat in Folkestone. When they moved there was talk of the thing going into storage. I wonder where it has gone?

And with so much more I could be doing on a precious day off I had a little sleep; night shifts, day shifts and poor sleeping had taken its toll so I took myself off to bed for a couple of hours.

I woke still feeling a tad grim, so I spent the evening slobbing on front of the telly. "Killjoys", a documentary about trainees joining the Royal Navy, and "Gotham" is on later....

14 February 2016 (Sunday) - Still At Work

Another restless night waking long before I really needed to. Over brekkie I watched a rather lame episode of "Dad's Army" in which the writers hadn't really thought the plot through. Even though they didn't like it up 'em.

I then had a look-see on line and checked e-messages. And I sighed. Sometimes being in a minority of one does get tiresome. Why do people keep asking my opinion if they have already know what they want to hear?

As I fiddled about I was rather conscious of a smell. Before brekkie I'd done "Furry Face ^TM 's flea treatment. It involves putting a drop of jollop on the back of his neck. the stuff does have a strong scent. Usually I don't mind it, but today I found it rather overpowering.

I set off to work through the rain. This morning was surprisingly damp. As I drove the pundits on the radio were alll a-twitter that a previous Pope is alledged to have had a "lady friend".

The BBC has found some story digging the dirt on Pope John-Paul II. Bearing in mind the media's previous dirt-digging I suppose we should all be releived that he was alledgedly carrying on with a consenting woman of legal age as opposed to the usual sort of scandal that the pundits tout.

But (yet again) those that spread these stories wait until the star of their tales is safely dead before saying a word.

I got to work; and we didn't have the best of days. In much the same way as yesterday I spent probably too long looking out of the window. It rained quite a bit yesterday. Today was variable; alternately sunny then gloomy and overcast and rainy. It is amazing how much I notice the weather when I would rather be out in the stuff.

But the day passed. I came home to find "er indoors ^TM" hadn't gone bowling. Instead she'd boiled up a rather good bit of scoff. It went down rather well...

13 February 2016 (Saturday) - Long Day At Work

Bearing in mind how busy yesterday had been I didn't really sleep at all well. I was wide awake from 4am, and gave up trying to sleep shortly after 5am. I came downstairs and pootled on-line for a little. Not much had happened overnight.

And so to work. Last night as I left from Steve and Sarah's I'd had to scrape ice off of my car. I was expecting to have to do the same this morning, but the temperature must have risen overnight. The car was thankfully ice-free.

As I drove I put the radio on. There was a load of drivel about the various problems facing British farmers. It could possibly have been interesting. But it didn't grip my attention so I turned it off and squalled along to my music instead.

Being a geo-calendar day I needed to hunt down a geocache at some point today, and being on a rather long shift I thought I might as well get my find earlier rather than later. So I took a rather long-winded drive up to Hastingleigh where someone had magnetised a little container to a road sign. That kept me constructively occupied for two minutes. I've not got any more geo-calendar days for two weeks, and have now only got twenty-seven more days in total to fill on that geo-calendar. Mind you twelve are on days I'm at work. And there are fewer and fewer targets between home and work.

I then drove on to Morrisons. As I drove I lost count of the amount of birds that nearly (but not quite) splattered themselves on my windscreen. The entire avian population of Kent seemed to have a death wish this morning. Once at Morrisons I got my shopping, and the whole experience passed off rather uneventfully for once.

I got to work and did my thing for twelve and a half hours. The "nights and weekends" cycle of my working pattern does give me a *lot* of time off, but when I work the shifts are rather long. Todays seemed especially so. I ached for much of the day. Presumably that was an after-effect of yesterday's efforts in the garden with the fence.

I also spent quite a bit of the day looking out of the window at the rain. There's no denying that I don't mind working at the weekends half so much when it is raining. Mind you I did have a minor sulk because not finishing work until gone 8pm meant I would be missing out on a party this evening that a lot of friends would be attending.

I came home to find "er indoors ^TM" missing (as usual) and my little dog too tired to move. Presumably he's had a good walk today? He didn't want to go out his evening, and that suited me.

A quick bit of tea, bed, and another twelve and a half hour shift tomorrow...

12 February 2016 (Friday) - Fence, Poker

Over brekkie I saw a new geocahe had gone live in Lenham. That rather suited me as today waas a geo-calendar day. I resisted the temptation to go chase the First to Find; instead I took "Furry Face ^TM" for a walk found the park.

As we walked I noticed that white heron has flying around again. I've not seen it for a while. There were also blue tits in the trees. There's been a lot of those about lately. My dog was rather well behaved this morning; not getting into any trouble at all. That made for a pleasent change.

WIth dog walked I drove up to Lenham to get my calendar cache. It was an easy find, and I had been right not to go chasing the First to Find. Those who actively hunt FTFs had been there before I'd even seen the email about it.

I then made my way back to Ashford. As I came round the tank roundabout some twit in a Volvo XC90 (who had been in the wrong lane) cut me up then did an emergency stop, got out of his car and started threatening me for supposedly insulting him. As he got back to his car I photographed his number plate (just in case). He drove off and I followed as I wanted to go down Chart Road anyway. At the first roundabout we reached he made a point of doing a complete circuit so he was then behind me and he then followed me at a distance of a few inches.

He eventually lost interest and drove off in the direction of Clockhouse. I know his registration number; I shall give it a few days then go look for his car and post a dog turd through his letterbox.

I then collected "My Boy ^TM" and we went round to Brookfield cafe for second brekkie. I've not been there for a while; I'd heard the place had gone downhil. But today's fry-up was rather good.

We then made a start in the back garden. Two fence panels had blown down. On closer inspection two panels had been blown to destruction and the post between the two had snapped. We then consulted the nice lady next door to get her input before we ploughed on. She said she was of the opinion that it was our fence. I thought it was our fence. I *hoped* it was hers, but I thought it was ours. She said she was happy for us to fix it however we saw fit. I'm sure she will regret giving us carte-blanch in that way...

The nice lady went indoors and we reviewed the fence that I had now inherited. Two panels were in fragments. Another had been bodged together some time ago by the last people who lived next door. And five others looked as though they would fall apart if anyone was to fart in their general direction.

So we got the wreckage of the broken bits of into the car (that took some doing) and took it all to the tip. We then came back via B&Q where we priced up the job in hand. I was very surprised to find that it will cost me about a third of whhat I'd been expecting to have to pay. But rather than rushing the job we planned it out (wasn't my idea!). We thought we'd affix a temporary dog-proofing for now (to keep "Furry Face ^TM" contained) and do the proper fix when we had time to do so. Pausing only briefly to get some dog-proofing and a sexy green hammer (with thirty five per cent extra) we then returned to the back garden fence.

We still had a couple of hours spare, and the obvious first job was to remove the concrete in which the broken fence post had been embedded. So we dug. And dug. And heaved and strained. "My Boy ^TM" managed to get a rather serious cut to his hand and I've done something to my back. But after two hours we have exposed a lump of concrete which is about a foot square by about two foot deep. We can rock it, but we can't lift it.

With time running out we put a plank of wood over the hole in the ground and put some temporary fencing across the hole in the fence. I then drove "My Boy ^TM" home.

"Daddies Little Angel ^TM" currently has my drill. I've told her I shall need it back on Monday so's we can use it to drill the concrete. "My Boy ^TM" says that if we drill it to b*ggery we can then twat it to destruction with my sexy new hammer. I'm lucky in having a son who understands all the technical jargon.

As I'd messed around digging I'd got rather grubby so I popped my dirty clothes in the washing machine. I can't have done a very good job of emptying my pockets because when the machine finished I flooded the kitchen. I then messed around with towels whilst extracting several dog poo bags from the washing machine's filter.

I watched some drivel on the telly, and then went round to Steve and Sarah's. A bit of Chinese, then an evening spent playing cards. You can't beat a bit of poker...

11 February 2016 (Thursday) - Leybourne Lakes

This morning I intended to go on-line as I scoffed my brekkie. I turned on my laptop and it immediately started updating itself. I wish it would ask me before doing that.

An hour later it had only got to thirty two percent done so I left it fannying about and scrounged a lift into town with "er indoors ^TM". I had the astro club's money to pay into the bank. I'd tried to do that on Saturday only to find the opening hours they advertised on-line bore no relation to reality, so having paid the money in I had a little whinge at the bank staff. A rather aggressive harridan employed by the bank wasn't having any of it. She told me (rather firmly) that she was sick of people looking up the bank's opening hours on the Internet and then complaining to her that they were wrong.

I gently suggested that the bank might do something about it but she didn't see it as the bank's problem in any way.

I made my way home via Burger King (and a frankly disappointing caramel latte). Once home I popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and we drove up to Leybourne Lakes. I'd heard good things about these lakes, and there were ten geocaches iin the vicinity. Seven of us (and two littluns and two dogs) met up and had a rather good stroll. The area was beautiful; the day was crisp and sunny and the company was excellent. We had a really good walk of a couple of hours around somewhere I've never been before.

And as an added bonus our last geo-find was in the immediate viciniity of a burger van. A sausage baguette went down very nicely as a spot of lunch.

Must go back there sometime.

I came home to find the laptop was *finally* finishing its update. It started the update at 7.20am; and finished it at 2.15pm. It took seven hours to seem no different to how it was before.

I then had my orders from the fruits of my loin. First of all I popped round to see "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" and Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" to drop off my drill. They needed to hang a few things and I'd persuaded them that clouting nails into the wall wasn't a good idea.

Whilst we were there "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" turned the telly on and showed me the recording of this morning's Jeremy Kyle show. I don't normally watch that sort of thing but this one *really* boiled my piss. A year or so ago a cousin's daughter married her girlfriend. They seemed happy; I was happy for them. This girl's wife then became pregnant; it was a planned pregnancy and they were both delighted. I was pleased for them. I must admit I was rather curious about the logistics of how it happened (as were many people) but in all honesty the mechanics of tthe deal were none of my (or anyone else's) business.

On this morning's Jeremy Kyle show the two of them appeared on national television and explained precisely how the deed had been done and outlined all the rights that the sperm donor might or might not have oveer the child. Jeremy Kyle asked all sorts of probing questions which they answered openly and in a very forthright way.

I can't help but think they will regret having made this TV appearence. They have taken a matter which (up till now) has been nobody's business but theirs and made it a matter of comment, discussion, debate and ridicule for all and sundry.

I then drove round to "My Boy ^TM" and we drove Lacey to her gymnastics lesson. As we drove we saw the wreckage of what must have been a rather serious accident on the ring road. I wonder what happened there?

"er indoors ^TM" came home and went out again. She does that. Being left home alone I found myself at something of a loose end. I had planned to get the telescope out this evening as the forecast had been for clear skies, and the sky was indeed cloudless. But a combination of waning interest in things astronomical, cold, and lack of company put me off the idea.

I toyed with the idea of going out for something of a booze-up, but I'd left it rather late to organise anything. I wasn't going to be Billy-no-mates on my own, and (more and more) I find myself fast going off the idea of spending a small fortune just to make myself feel ill.

So I spent the evening ironing my shirts whilst watching drivel on the telly...

10 February 2016 (Wednesday) - Bit Tired Today

I stopped off at Morrisons on my way to work last night. As I bought this and that I saw a mad woman loudly telling her invisible friends to wait for her by the bakery. As she walked off her invisible friends must have followed her as she took them back to the bakery and told them to stay put. She then went off on her errands again; periodically popping to within view of the bakery counter and shouting at her invisible friends.

I spent much of the rest of the evening sniggering about his.

After a rather dull night shift I turned on the car radio to find the pundits were transmitting from a hospital. They were running a big feature on today's strike by junior doctors.

Much as I sympathise for the doctors, they are effectively being faced with that which the rest of the hospital staff have had forced onto them over the last few years. All this talk of weekend working is utter drivel; hospitals have been working every hour of every day of the year for as long as I've been working on them. It *really* bothers me that those calling the shots for the NHS don't seem to realise this. But (quite frankly) I'm sick of hearing about it, so instead I turned the radio off and I listened to Ivor Biggun and sang along with rude songs as I took a rather long-winded drive home.

Being a geo-calendar day I needed to hunt down a geocache at some point today, and not really having much of a plan for the day I thought I might as well get my find earlier rather than later. Hastingleigh wasn't *that* far out of my way home, and having made my quick find for the day I came home and took my little dog for a walk. We met up with "Daddies Little Angel ^TM", "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" and Sid and walked with them for a while before leaving them to do their thing as we carried on with ours.

This morning "our thing" was checking on two geo-thingies of mine in the WIllesborough area. Other hunters of tupperware hadn't been able to find them so I was expected to go have a look-see. One was where it was supposed to be; one had gone walkabout.

As we walked home we found a random armchair on the pavement on Birling Road. I tried to get "Furry Face ^TM" to pose on it but he wouldn't.

As we came along the river "Furry Face ^TM" was straggling. As I do in these cases I shouted "come on you!" down the path at him. A passing looney took this as a chance to strike up a conversation and he spent five minutes telling me how he doesn't vote because he doesn't agree with the war that Britain has been fighting for the last thirty years.

If any of my loyal readers know what war this might be, please let me know.

Once home I was feeling a tad tired. Rather than falling asleep in front of the telly I thought I'd go to bed for an hour. But only an hour; I had stuff to do in the afternoon.

I woke up at 5pm.

I woke feeling rather groggy so I watched Monday's episode of "Gotham" and then had a look on-line. I'd had a friend request from Soo Law on social media. Not knowing anyone of that name I had a look to see who she was. Apparently I have four Facebook friends in common; none I've seen for three years. Apparently she is a kite flier. On-line kite fliers annoy me. Everyone wants to be your friend on social media but if you see them in real life most of the ones I meet won't even say hello.

I deleted the request. I'm rather fussy as to who I have on social media.

There was also consternation on the geo-forums. A few days ago I heard about some people based in Germany who were pretending to have found thousands of geocaches in the UK. Some of mine were amongst those they claimed. I'd been told they were lying about this so (out of interest) I went and had a look at the paper logs. These Germans hadn't signed my ones so I removed their e-logs at the time and posted about this on the Wherigo group I manage. Whilst a faked log on yet another film pot under a rock isn't a major issue, Wherigos take a *lot* more effort and so I thought the matter worth mention there.

The matter has now been blown out of all proportion. What particularly boiled my piss was that what I had originally written for one forum had been misconstrued and then re-posted elsewhere quoting me.

After all is said and done it was a matter of utter triviality whiich now looks as though I am being utterly pedantic over something which barely warranted a mention.

"er indoors ^TM" came home and picked up what postie had left. There was a letter from the garage reminding me the car's MOT was due. I shall have to phone them in the morning; haven't they seen that I've already booked it with them? And my geo-parcel has arrived. I can start on my new project soon.

We then had a rather god bit of dinner spent watchin more episodes of "Benidorm" and speculating on the career of Tim Healy. He's been in quite a lot of things I never knew about...