19 March 2016 (Saturday) - Busy Day

I slept well, but woke feeling like death warmed up. I wondered if I was sickening for something? But (as ever) when not feeling quite on top form I have two choices; I can get on with life or I can sulk. So I got on with life. Or brekkie (to be precise).

"er indoors ^TM" took her car for its MOT; I drove round to collect her. having sat outside the wrong garage for ten minutes I then drove to the right one.

Whilst the garage did their thing we came home. "er indoors ^TM" had a bit of a tidy up whilst I fiddled about with the astro club's accounts. I had quite a bit of cash to pay into the bank, and some bills to pay. Rather then mucking about walking to the bank and then getting cheques signed I thought I'd pay our creditors in cash. It is suprising how soon I ran out of that cash... I then messed about on-line until mid-day.

Being a geo-calendar we took "Furry Face ^TM" for a little walk. I'd seen three caches on the map in the general vicinity of Harrietsham that looked like they might make a good walk. They did; however they were somewhat "old skool". Only three hides along a route which could (in all honesty) have taken fifteen.

We then drove to collect the "er indoors ^TM"-mobile and with "er indoors ^TM" off to get a haircut I tried phoning the vets to organise a tick-repelling collar for "Furry Face ^TM"...

..."tried" was the operative word. When we took him on from "My Boy ^TM" the vet's staff refused point-blank to change any of the details about his keepers, address, etc. Apparently it is far too difficult to do so. When I asked why they rolled their eyes and reluctantly tried to do so on their computer. They obviously stuffed something up. *Every single time* we contact the vet they have terrible trouble finding his details. After fifteen minutes of trying to locate him on their system they gave up and said they would phone me back.

They phoned back over an hour later to say that someone had contacted them to cancel his details.

It's all sorted now though....

In the meantime I wasted some time working on (yet another) Wherigo. This one is quite involved, but it is now pretty much ready. I doubt it will get many takers at it will probably take two to three hours to complete. But here are those who seem to like the kind of nonsense that I create. And Ashford does need to maintain its reputation as the Wheri-centre of the country.

This evening we met up for Jose's birthday bash. A lot of the old gang were back together. Must do that more often...

18 March 2016 (Friday) - Hawkinge, Sheep

I slept well; finally waking shortly before 6am in desperate need of the loo. I tried to go back to sleep afterwards, but I foundd myself laying wide awake fretting about what might be and what might have been. So I got up, had brekkie and nearly choked on it whilst watching this week's installment of "Raised by Wolves". This week Aretha decided to go to school. She chose the best school in the area; rated best as it had acheived the OFSTED target of one chair per pupil. The family then took on a home deliveries round and together almost acheived the efficiency of a single postman.

I do like that show.

I popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and we drove down to Hawkinge. He needed his walk, I needed a to find a geocache as it was a calendar day. Earlier in the week I'd asked if anyone fancied coming for a walk with us. Five of us met up. I was expecting six; I wonder what happened to the sixth one?

We did't walk far; just under two miles. We only walked for an hour or so. But it is always good to walk and hunt tupperware with friends even on a day which is as cold as today was.

I took a few photos as we walked. I can't help but feel they would have looked better had the sun been out.

Just as we finished walking my phone rang. "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" was distraught. From Hawkinge I drove round to see her.

On one of our regular walks we go along a clearly marked public footpath which goes through the South Willesborough and Newton Young Farmer's Club's farm. The animals in this farm can come right up to the fences which border this footpath.

This morning "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" were petting the sheep through the fence when one of the sheep butted the littlun. As luck would have it his mum was videoing him at the time. I've seen the footage. On hearing "attacked by a sheep" anyone's immediate reaction would be to laugh, but it was a rather nasty butt; especially when you are only a year old.

He got a bruised cheek and a seriously mangled hand. I say "seriously mangled"; it was puffed up like a balloon and I thought his index finger was broken.

Auntie Fia drove them to the hospital.

Over lunch my piss boiled. Kent Police refused to do anything about the incident. Even though a small child was involved.

I try to be a law-abiding model citizen, but in all honesty I would have more confidence in self-appointed vigilantes than I do in the legally consitiuted local police force. In years gone by I was seriously injured by a kick from a horse which Kent Police refused to investigate. They refused to do anything about the security staff at the Ashford International station who assaulted my son (and the incident was filmed on CCTV). They flatly refused to come out when a family friend's car was smashed open. They arrested "My Boy ^TM" (and threw him in a cell for eight hours) on the grounds that a crime had happened along the route he walks to work, and when we complained about the arrest we were told (by the police) not to make complaints.

What exactly* is the point of Kent Police?

My mobile rang. Auntie Fia had stayed at the hospital as long as she could, but she had to go. Could I collect them all?

I drove to the hospital; littlun had stopped crying. His hand is (probably) not broken; just badly bruised (I must admit I agree with the decision not to needlessly X-ray) and the swellings on his face will go down with time.

The general consensus was that after his experience he deserved Chicken McNuggets, so we went for some McScoff. I quite lilked my McScoff even if my banana milkshake was a curious shade of green. However "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" took her pop back to complain. It tasted odd apparently.

We came home; I had vague plans to have been tackling the laundry this afternoon, and with laundry tackled I was going to dust off my C.V. But neither of these things happened. By the time I'd done the geo-admin from the morning's walk and put the photos on-line the afternoon was all but done.

I found myself asleep in front of the telly when "er indoors ^TM" came home with curry. It was good. Far better than the episode of "The Aliens" we watched as we scoffed...

17 March 2016 (Thursday) - A Day Off

I woke in a cold sweat shortly after 6am. I had been having a rather odd dream in which the King of Germany had invited me on a cruise around the Isle of Wight. Half way round the voyage the ship ran out of lager and things became particularly nasty. I wonder what that was all about?

I got up and had brekkie whilst watching the SkyPlus box's offering. "Dad's Army" usually amuses. Corporal Jones was having problems with people sneering at his brawn. I then had a look-see on-line. Social media wound me up (as it often does) with so many people pretending to have some Irish heritage so they can claim some sort of connection to Sant Patrick's Day.

Mind you I did see that "Gotham" has been given a third season so there was some advantage in tuning in to Facebook this morning.

I had a look at the BBC's analysis of yesterday's budget. From what I can work out I shall be £6.63 better off each month from now on. A minor result, I suppose.

I popped the led onto "Furry Face ^TM" and we went for a walk. Usually on a day off we'd collect "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" for our walk but they had a better offer.

As we walked down to Park Farm we saw what looked like goldfinches. I've not seen them round here before. We also saw small children who cried in terror at the sight of my dog. That's happened two dayss running; what's going on.

We replaced a missing geocache in Park Farm, and checked on one which I thought was fine only to find it wasn't.

On the way back we had a phone call. "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" s plans had gone west, and so she and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM" were up for a walk. So we carried on up through Willesborough Dykes to find them. Together we had an hour's stroll; as we walked we met a dog which looked not unlike my one. Although the same age he seemed half the weight. This prompted me to weigh my dog, so on our way home we stopped off at Pets at Home where I popped "Furry Face ^TM" onto the scales. On the one hand he's lost 0.2Kg since his last weigh-in. On the other hand he is still three kilogrammes overweight.

I treated myself to KFC for lunch. After my "intestinal adventures" earlier this week it was quite nice to be feeling hungry again. And being at a loose end I then watched this week's episode of "Extant". This show blows hot and cold. It is quite enjoyable... but would any politician *really* set a load of killer robots loose? Apparently the show has been cancelled..

I drove the baby car seat round to "Daddies Little Angel ^TM" then collected "er indoors ^TM" from work and we drove up to Maidstone. There was a geo-meet this evening to celebrate one of our number's having obtained British citizenship.

We arrived to see a friend marching up the hill; obviously on a mission. Had a new geocache gone live for the evening? Pressing refresh on my NeonGeo app I chased after Matt. Sure enough he was chasing a First to Find. And I was chasing him. Rather cheeky of me, but a joint FTF is never a bad thing.

We then went back down the hill to the pub in which everyone was meeting. It was good to spend a little while chatting with friends.

The plan was to have had dinner in the pub but.... Call me an old skinflint if you will, but the price of one meal in the pub was more than the price of two meals (plus desserts) in McDonalds. And I like McDonalds. So once the meet was over we went for McDinner.

The chips were cold. "er indoors ^TM" took them back...

16 March 2016 (Wednesday) - Stuff

What with three hours sleep immediately after work followed by an early night I probably had three times more sleep than usual last night. I woke feeling rather chirpier than when I went to bed. Mind you I didn't feel up to eating toast for brekkie so I settled for muesli. It was somewhat easier on a tender stomach.

I had a quick look-see on social media. Not much had happened really., so with a little time on my hands I popped the lead onto "Furry Face ^TM" and took him for a quick run round the park. There was a minor incident when a passing toddler started crying when he saw my dog; he seemed to think Fudge might attack him. Fudge just walked past him in total oblivion.

Once home I still had over an hour to spare. Normally when on a late shift I go find something to do before work. But today I didn't really fancy doing much; I wasn't feeling quite one hundred per cent. Instead I set the dishwasher going and watched drivel on the telly for a little while until I got a message about ticks. Ticks are becoming a serious problem for dogs when out walking. Apparently babeosis (a tick-bourne disease) has been confirmed in Essex, and furthermore my dog's monthy flea treatment doesn't work against these ticks.

I phoned the vet and they said the flea treatment *does* work. Let's hope it does.

I emptied the dishwasher and set off to work. I thought twice about going; I (again) seriously considered phoning in sick.

As I drove to work so "Women's Hour" was on the radio. This show winds me up somewhat.

It started off with the latest theories about settling babies for a good night's sleep. All the so-called experts gave their learned and sage opinions,, and then it transpired that not one of these people telling the public how to care for their babies had any experience whatsoever of having had a baby to give them a sleepless night.

There was then an interview with some of the people who had been involved in the making of the recent TV drama "This is England". I quite liked that TV show; however it was a shame that the *only* aspect of the show discussed on the radio this morning was the hairdressing.

And people wonder why I'm not a fan of Radio Four's "Women's Hour"

The next article on the radio was an expose on the craze for mindfulness meditation. Apparently if it is not done right it can have harmful side effects. They interviewed some woman whose mother had had to carry her home from a mindfulness session after the mediation brought on an attack of the screaming ab-dabs. The radio's mediation guru said that about a quarter of the people doing this mindfulness nonsense in the UK are experiencing various degrees of untoward side-effects.

Somewhat worrying?

I got to work, smiled a lot, and came home again. Once home I scoffed a pizza for dinner. Haivng cooked it I wouldn't waste it, but fennel in pizza? I suppose the fact that I could actually eat it means I'm on the mend...

15 March 2016 (Tuesday) - Dire Rear

Having been laying wide awake for what seemed like most of the night I gave up trying to sleep and got up shortly after 5am. My little dog was on the sofa downstairs; he looked at me as I turned tthe light on. He looked *so* tired. He heaved himself up and hobbled to tthe back door. I was feeling so guilty that I'd walked him too much this weekend, but when I opened the door he flew down the garden like a bullet from a gun, shouting and barking as he went.

As I picked at my toast I watched "The Last Man on Earth" which started again last night (the SkyPlus box is a wonderful thing). I'd forgotten how much I'd liked that series.

I didn't eat all my brekkie; my inards weren't feeling right. Yesterday evenning I treated myself to a packed of dry roasted peanuts. This morning I wished I hadn't. I spent a few minutes in the smallest room wondering about phoning in sick, but just recently I've hardly been at work at all. I really shoulld turn up from time to time.

And so to work. Going to and from work is the only time get to hear any news. Today's was interesting; there is talk of all the local councils in the east of Kent merging into one super-council. I can't honestly say that I'm aware of having much to do with Ashford council. Some county-wide thing will be even more remote from me.

Once at work I didn't have a good day. Not only incredibly busy, buut I found myself wilting as the day went on. I ate nothing, and drank loads. But I managed util home time, and once home I went to bed for three hours.

I got up, forced a bowl of soup down my neck, spent more time in Trap One, then had an early night.

I hope I improve for tomorrow....

14 March 2016 (Monday) - Toys Hill

After yesterday's exertions I slept like a log. Unfortunately the rest of the household were feeling it too. If it wasn't the snoring of "er indoors ^TM" keeping me awake it was that of "Furry Face ^TM" .

I scoffed my raspberry curd over brekkie, then looked at the geo-map to make plans for next weekend. If anyone fancies a walk round Surrey next Sunday do drop me a line. I tend to forget to invite people; it's not deliberate, just absent-mindedness.

I then went and woke my dog (he needed his brekkie) and we drove up to Toys Hill. Being a geo-calendar day and needing to use up my annual leave, a week or so ago I asked if anyone fancied a small geo-wander. Some friends were free, and so five of us (and two dogs) met up in the car park at Toys Hill this morning. I'd had a look on the map and seen two seperate series of geocaches and a couple of stand-alone caches in the area. So last night I'd studied the ordnance survey maps and worked out what seemed to be the easiest route to walk to find all fourteen geo-targets.

Our walk started off well enough, we kicked off with a visit to an old tower which is now used as a home for bats. From here we had to find the road and cross it. A simple enough proposition?

Through the wonders of pinpoint accuracy sat-nav positioning it soon became painfully obvious that the footpaths marked on the maps toward the north of Toys Hill bore no relation whatsover to the footpaths that are actually there. For our second and third geo-targets we followed the sat-nav arrows blindlly through thickets and jungles. Fortunately for my nerves by the time we found our fourth sandwich box we were back onto footpaths. We were grateful for that...

We soon found ourselves walking through the National Trust land around Emmetts. Very unusually we found some toilets as we walked. We took advantage of those. From Emmetts there was quite a bit of upping and downing as we went along; I didn't realise that Toys Hill is one of the highest points of Kent.

We saw some rather spectacular views, we found a ram-pump, and for a short while even acquired a third dog.

After five miles and three hours we found ourselves back at the car park. It had been a rather good walk. We said our goodbyes, and made our various ways home. Once home I set the washing machine doing its thing and watched a rather thought-provoking play on the telly. If the chance arose would you steal thirty five thousand pounds?

I took some photos whilst we wallked. With lunch scoffed I put them on-line, then dozed on the sofa until "er indoors ^TM" came home. She boiled up a rather good bit of tea, then fought with the printer. Apparently wireless printers don't like Windows 10. She stressed with it until she gave herself hiccups, then went off bowling (as she does on a Monday).

I then spent the rest of the evening watching telly. Monday is a good telly night...

13 March 2016 (Sunday) - Dormansland

I spent most of yessterday evening fast asleep in front of the telly. I slept just as well for the remainder of the night. I got up just before 7am and hobbled downstairs. At some point on yesterday's mission round the Earth Engine I managed to bash my left leg; it was rather painful this morning.

Yesterday I whinged about the incredibly over-priced raspberry curd I'd bought from English Heritage. I had some more for brekkie this morning all the time hearing my cousin's words ringing in my ears "who pays over three quid for a jar of jam!?" I know I shan't do so again.

We put the lead onto a rather excited "Furry Face ^TM" and collected Suzy Woo (and her associate) and drove out to deepest Surrey. Funnily enough as we drove we saw some geo-friends doing their thing but I don't think either Wayne, Lynn or Dave saw us. We had to make a minor change of plan on the way; we received reports of "bible bashers" where we wanted to park. But we negotiated this ecclesiastical hazard, and soon nine of us (and two small dogs) were ready for the off.

We'd seen a geo-walk on the map, and some judicious cartography allowed us to expand our walk somewhat. What with weekend working and Mothers Days I've not been for a serious Sunday walk for some time. Today's walk was excellent. Beautiful scenery with great company, and we could see that spring is definately here; the leaves are budding from the trees.

I must admit to the odd pang of jealousy as we walked. Being in serious stockbroker country we saw some rather posh houses. I'd never be able to afford some of the mansions we walked past.

The weather was glorious; despite all the recent rain we found ground dry enough to sit on for lunch time. Mind you we also found quite a bit of mud as well. I had been thinking of leaving my wellies at home; I was glad I didn't.

We started walking at 10am; thirty six geocaches and eight and a half miles later we found ourselves at the pub for a pint of "Kent's Best" straight from the barrel. You don't see that very often, so we had a second one.

I took a few photos whilst we were out; once home I posted them on-line, and then did the geo-homework for today's little mission. As I did this my little dog snored rather loudly. He is rather cute when he sleeps. Also as I did this I was rather conscious of my face glowing. For all that it is still only March I caught the sun somewhat today.

I then spent a few minutes preparing for tomorrow's walk. It would be as well to have some idea of what we'll be doing. And I think an early night wouldn't hurt right now. This walking lark can be rather tiring...