28 March 2020 (Saturday) - Locked Down

The dogs were settled last night, and when they sleep, everyone sleeps.

I stood on the scales this morning – I’ve managed to put on two pounds this week. On the one had I want to lose about three to four stone in weight, on the other hand despite what I do or don’t eat I’ve always been a porker.

I had toast for brekkie (for a change), then peered into the Internet. The geocaching groups were still at each other’s throats about the national lock-down.

This is something which is boiling my piss right now.

Despite the ongoing arguments and bitterness it is possible to leave the house and still avoid spreading the corona virus. You just avoid people. But there is a school of thought which says that people should not set foot outside the house for any reason whatsoever. Many of those who advocate this are extremely forceful in their opinion, but none seem to have a valid reason for what they are saying. There are those who think that the corona virus is like a tiger in that it is crouched behind the neighbour’s hedge poised to ponce on them (much like a tiger might). And there are those who advocate staying at home because “that is the law”, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this law has been devised by someone who is even thicker than they are.

Don’t get me wrong – I am on no way advocating business as usual or civil disobedience, but a little education on matters microbiological would go a long way right now.

I sent birthday wishes to one of my nephew’s three Facebook accounts then had a look at my emails. The geo-feds have given the thumbs up to my latest tweak to the geo-series I am planning. Interestingly with the country on lock-down, the chap who contacted me to say all was well had sent the email before six o’clock this morning.

I also had emails from the dentist and the vet saying they were closing for all but emergencies. I suppose that’s understandable under the circumstances.

Whilst "er indoors ^TM" got herself organised I sorted Lego. I found a huge box of the stuff that I’d forgotten about. There were several sets of wheels in that box; it was a shame that yesterday’s delivery included quite a few sets of wheels that I’d ordered as I thought I’d run out.

The plan for today had been to drive out to Hemsted forest where we’d planned to meet up with friends, but that plan went doubly west. Firstly we aren’t allowed to drive anywhere to walk dogs, and secondly the Forestry commission have closed all their woods.

So instead we went for a little walk locally. Out through Willesborough dykes to the top end of Park Farm and home via South Willesborough and Frog’s Island. We had a fairly good walk, "er indoors ^TM" found a geocache (I’d found that one eight years ago!) and Treacle fell in something. We aren’t quite sure what; it was near the river but we didn’t see her anywhere near the water, but suddenly she was soaking wet and covered in foul-smelling mud.

With walk walked and dog bathed we had a light lunch (scones and jam with coffee) then I ordered some food for the pond fish. It should be here by Tuesday. I can’t help but wonder how many other people are ordering stuff like this on-line. At the moment on-line ordering is great; with "er indoors ^TM" working from home there is always someone at home to accept delivery.

I then played Lego for a bit. With yesterday’s delivery of spare odds and sods I managed to make fifteen more maxi-figures including two which will be part of a statue in the Lego world’s park which I shall make once the base plates arrive.

I then had a message. A little while ago I mentioned that someone from Sweden had been using a VPN to cheat at claiming a find on my Adventure lab cache in Ashford. It would seem that the answers to this Adventure have been posted onto a cheat page on Facebook together with how to trick your GPS to make you think you are miles away from where you actually are. I’ve disabled the thing for now (no one’s allowed out to do it anyway) and shall decide what to do with it if and when coronageddon has subsided somewhat.

Bearing in mind I’d had to re-vamp the end of my geo-walk in Kings Wood I then re-programmed one of the Wherigos and created some of the web pages for the geo-series. I’ve got over half of the web pages done now. I’ve just got to create the last twenty-four web pages, decide what the puzzles are actually going to be, add then to the pages… it will keep me occupied during coonageddon if nothing else.

"er indoors ^TM" boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which I washed down with the bottle of beer I had intended taking out for today’s cancelled walk. As we scoffed we watched a film. “Year One” was something of a disappointment…

27 March 2020 (Friday) - Lego Delivery

I went to the loo in the small hours and came back to bed to find that the entire wolf-pack had made themselves comfortable where I’d been sleeping. I should have hoiked the entire lot off the bed, but instead I wormed my way in between them and tried to sleep despite Pogo’s grumbling every time anyone moved.

Over a bowl of Aldi muesli (which isn’t that good) I watched an episode of “The Good Place” then had a look at the Internet. The new sparks single has been released; like the muesli it wasn’t that good either (unfortunately).

Facebook was fairly quiet; with the world on lock-down no one had been doing much.

I posted a couple of birthday videos to friends (whose birthday was today obviously!), I sulked a bit because today is smallest grand-dog Rolo’s birthday and due to coronageddon I’m not allowed to visit, I saw I had no emails at all, and I got ready for work.

I spent a few moments wiping the condensation off of my car, then set off to work. There was an iffy few seconds as I joined the motorway as a truck of the Green Box recycling company (registration number emailed to the company) followed perhaps five yards behind me as I drove up the slip road, and stayed that close to me for quite some time. I don't know if he thought that by driving so close he would force me to overtake the van in front where there was no space to do so. I wish people wouldn't drive like idiots, but when they do so in the company's van at least you have the ability to bring their idiocy to the attention of someone who can do something about it.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the Chancellor of the Exchequer who made a speech yesterday which was well received. There was talk about the Prime Minister's latest TV and radio appearances looking rather weak in comparison. Doesn't it speak volumes about our political system in that a leader isn't judged by their ability to lead or by the policies they devise, but by how well they amuse the masses?

As I arrived at work so my phone beeped. Those Lego plates I was going to buy from Bluewater last week have now been posted from China. I wonder when they will arrive?

I had a cuppa before I started work. As I did I had a look at Facebook on my phone again. Not much had happened earlier; people had woken up now and there was a lot of concern being expressed in that the vape shops haven't been declared "essential" and have all closed down. Those who like puffing clouds now have nowhere to get their supplies. This was apparently a major issue - has no one heard of on-line shopping?

At lunch time there was some chuckling at work as we got the news that the Prime Minister has succumbed to the corona virus. I say "succumbed"; he's got a cough and a bit of a temperature and is now self-isolating. Will he carry on running the show by video link as an example to us all? And if he goes down with it, who takes over? You'd think that the country would have thought about this before the leader went down with the virus which has been sweeping the nation for weeks, wouldn't you?

I came home and with "er indoors ^TM" still diligently working from home I took the dogs out. I wanted to go to Kings Wood to get GPS co-ordinates to put the finishing touches to my new geo-series, but a blanket ban on supposedly non-essential travel meant that I couldn’t. To be honest I didn’t go to the woods simply because of respect to the Forestry Commission’s request that people don’t go, rather than because of this travel ban.

We went round the park. On Wednesday we walked in the woods for three hours and met two other people; neither of which came within fifteen yards of me. Today in three quarters of an hour walking locally we saw dozens of people, and despite my best efforts twenty-two potential disease-carriers came close enough that I could have touched them.

As we walked home we came past the allotments where social distancing certainly wasn’t being observed, and neither were the rules about avoiding non-essential driving with all the gardeners having brought their cars.

With walk walked I went to feed the pond fish. I will need to scare up some more food for the Koi soon. I really should stop the dogs from scoffing quite so much of it; especially as in his greed, Pogo fell in the pond this evening.

I then spent a few minutes opening the post. Some of my Lego had been delivered today. I had a little look-see to check that what I’d ordered had arrived. All I’m now waiting for are those large base plates from China.

"er indoors ^TM" boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of “Star Trek: Picard”. Now I’ve seen the series I must admit that it was a disappointment… Such a shame. 

26 March 2020 (Thursday) - This n That

I had a rather fraught night. I was woken by "er indoors ^TM" having something of a row with Treacle. I woke in intense pain, and lay in intense pain for some time until I struck on the (frankly genius) idea of rolling over. The pain went right away, and I saw the alarm was due to go off two minutes later. I nodded off and woke seemingly ages later to see it was only three o’clock.

What was that all about?

I watched an episode of “The Good Place” as I scoffed a bowl of muesli, then I had a little look into the internet. Still more people were showing their ignorance on Facebook. It is a sad reflection of our society that any vocal half-wit can become an oracle these days. On a more serious note, one or two people had been laid off as their firms closed up for the foreseeable future as the coronageddon situation worsened. Rather than keeping people on it is cheaper to let them go. I understand that lists of companies doing this are being drawn up. When this is all over we will know where not to spend our money.

I eventually found where I'd left my car and set off to work on a rather cold morning. As I drove the pundits on the radio were making a rather poor attempt at describing how testing for corona virus is performed. One can either test for the actual virus which takes an age and costs a fortune. Or one can test for the body's having had a reaction to the virus. This is relatively quick and cheap but has the disadvantage that the test will remain negative until the body has had a reaction which can take a few weeks after the initial infection. Therefore it will have a high incidence of falsely negative results. Perhaps it's because this is what I do every day, but I can't understand why the people on the radio had such a hard time understanding this. It's all rather simple. In fact this has been the case when testing for glandular fever for about a hundred years ever since messers Paul and Bunnell devised their test all those years ago.

There was also an interesting (if chilling) thought posed by the ex-chief scientific advisor to the government. He said that this corona virus pandemic is going to cause a world-wide economic recession, and attempts to alleviate it will make that recession worse. He went on to say that the corona virus will (for the most part) take out those members of our society who are least economically productive, and that a global economic recession would also cause many deaths. He suggested that by *not* treating the elderly and infirm and leaving them to croak we could lessen the effects of the coming global recession and in the long run have less deaths in total.

Is he right?

Is this really how the government is thinking?

I got to work and found that since I was last there the door now had a lock on it and that my swipe card didn't work on that lock.

As I had a cuppa before I started by phone beeped. The geo-feds had checked the locations of the potential new geocaches I'd been working on and had given me the thumbs-up for most of my plan. That was something of a result. There was a minor hiccup with one bit of what I had in mind; I thought that I might sort that on Saturday until I had an email from the head honcho at the forestry commission. He has announced that they have closed all their forests to the general public for the duration of the current emergency.

Why?

I was in one of their woods yesterday for hours and only met three other people. There's far more social isolation to be had in a forest than there is in the local park.

As the day went on I heard of more lunacy. A good friend of mine is the manager of a branch of (let’s call it) a well-known high street store. He’s been told to close up for three weeks. Another branch of the same store not thirty miles away has been told to stay open as that branch is “key workers”.

I came home via Aldi where I got more supplies. I’m getting better at this shopping and got pretty much everything I was after. Some of it (the chili sauce) went into tonight’s dinner. It was rather good….