15 July 2023 (Saturday) - Busy, Busy...

I slept right through until backache made it too uncomfortable to stay in my pit. Waking with backache is always a sign that I’ve had a good night’s sleep. Going away on holiday is very nice, but you can’t beat your own bed… or your own toilet, come to that.

I made toast (with peanut butter and marmalade) and peered into the Internet. I’ve kept up a passing acquaintance with it this last week, but today I had a look-see to find out what I had missed. So many emails; none of which were of any interest to me. I unsubscribed from seemingly a million and one mailing lists. Does anyone read the corporate drivel these companies and charities send out?

Being Saturday we drove round to the Repton estate for Dog Club. As we drove so the heavens opened, but we thought we’d chance it. Attendance at Dog Club was down, but a dozen dogs ran riot for half an hour or so. Morgan got rather over-excited as he does; Treacle grumbled at all and sundry as she does. But a good time was had by all; even if most of it was spent standing under the trees sheltering from the rain.

As we drove home Steve was doing the Mystery Year on the radio. I thought it was 1980 but it might just possibly have been 1981. It was 1984.

We came home. I put a load of washing in to scrub, had a cuppa and a bit of cake, and had a look at the final accounts for Dad’s estate. Here’s a tip. If ever you find yourself being an executor, when you chase up companies and councils for outstanding money and you are told that the bills are all settled and there are no refunds, wait a while and ask again. The pension people gave us a bung a month ago when they said last year there was no more money to be paid out. And the council tax people who told me the bill had been finalized last year have now told me they owe us over five hundred quid.

I then decided to take the bull by the horns and had a serious look at the new pond pressure filter. Every week or so I run out the hose and give it an emptying, but according to the instructions the thing needs a “deep clean” a couple of times a year. So, deep cleaning it was. I knew it was going to be a mucky job and without going into graphic detail, let’s just say that there was fish shit everywhere and I had to send for an utterly unimpressed “er indoors ^TM” who was wearing a dustbin liner for protection.

The biggest problem I had was that because the electrical extension I’d installed specifically for the new filter didn’t work I’d buried the filter’s electrical cable to channel it to another power socket. I’d mistakenly  put most of the slack cable at the wrong end and had left myself an incredibly short length of cable with which to work. Oh how I laughed when I found that the reason that the electrical extension didn’t work was that I hadn’t plugged it in.

Having had a go once I now know how I will proceed in future. I shall turn it all off, disconnect the hoses and the leccie, carry the whole thing to the drain and upend it into the humungous flower pot (suspended over the drain) that I used to use for cleaning the old filters. Being a sealed pressure filter I will be able to get the device to the drain without making a mess on the way.
With most of the fish shit mopped up, “er indoors ^TM” took the dogs to the Warren with Cheryl. I would have liked to have gone too, but instead I finished up the clean-up and then dug up the filter’s cable (when I installed it I’d buried it!), and made that all good. A few seconds to type, an hour to do.

With cable sorted I hung out the washing. Just as I finished, my phone rang. It was Cheryl. Would I drive over to them with my keys to the “er indoors ^TM” – mobile? “er indoors ^TM”’s set was locked in the car. I would have driven over *if” I had my set of keys, but they would have been either in the key cupboard or in my pocket. They were in neither place. As an emergency locksmith was phoned for so I ransacked “er indoors ^TM”’s handbag collection (she has a few) and found her set of keys. Clearly she’d taken mine… though how remains a mystery.
With emergency locksmith cancelled I drove over to the Warren and opened the car.

We came home, had a bit of dinner, and sat by the pond for a bit. And then realizing that gardening doesn’t do itself I cracked on cutting back the jungle overflowing from not-so-nice-next-door, and then re-arranged the rockery a little.

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the first two episodes of the new re-make of “Quantum Leap”; not so much re-make as a continuation some thirty years later. It was rather good…

14 July 2023 (Friday) - Coming Home

Bearing in mind we needed a quick getaway this morning I set my alarm for the first time in a week. It didn’t take that long to bundle everything together, and the cars were swiftly loaded. I must admit I felt sick when I took a load of luggage out to the car only to find the puppies running loose on the lane, but they were swiftly rounded up.

Rather than heading straight home we drove to Framlingham where we had a little wander around, doing a spot of geocaching as we went. There was an Adventure Lab series around the town and we followed it around to one or two interesting places. And we found a virtual geocache too. You don’t find many of those.
It was only a shame that the forecast rain came in an hour or so earlier than it might have done.

We said our goodbyes and headed homewards. The drive of a hundred and thirty miles took about two and a half hours and was truly tedious. I *really* don’t know how people can drive for a living; I’d go stir crazy.

Once home we quickly unloaded. The dogs were soon all fast asleep. “er indoors ^TM” set off to a booze-up with a load of people with whom she used to work. I threw out the milk we’d forgotten about and left in the fridge all week (yuk), watered the rather parched garden, then started the necessary but dull job of feeding laundry to the washing machine.  

I’m worn out… I’ve had a rather good week away but will be glad to go to bed. I’ll wait until the washing machine has won its fight with my pants though…

13 July 2023 (Thursday) - In Between the Rain Showers

If we ignore the hour between three and four o’clock when I was wide awake uploading photos and writing diary I had a rather good sleep. We all had something of a lie-in this morning, and Karl cooked a very good Full English breakfast. Seeing a glorious morning I laid the table on the patio in readiness… then hurriedly moved everything inside as the rain started.

We had a good bit of brekkie on the kitchen table, then had a rather lazy morning peering out of the window waiting for the rain to stop. When it stopped we put on our boots, went outside… and seeing the downpour that had started went back inside again.
We set off on our little walk an hour later.

The plan was to wander down the lane from the cottage, do a circular walk of the nearby common and walk back to base. And that was what we did. We wandered down a quiet country lane, seeing a deer as we went. As we walked Bailey set off after a pheasant (I wish she wouldn’t), and on a couple of occasions we all hid under a tree waiting for the rain to pass.

With our walk walked we went back to base, and what had been a rather dull and overcast early afternoon gave way to blue skies and bright sunshine. We spent the afternoon playing cornhole and quoits and chewing dog toys and drinking beer in the sunshine. Five minutes after the preparations for dinner were started we all ran inside as the heavens opened with probably the heaviest downpour of the day (and that was up against some pretty stiff competition).

The stout was opened (6.5% - oh yus!) and we had a very good curry. The evening got progressively more vague as it went on (I wonder why) but I can distinctly remember watching an episode of “Benidorm”, an episode of “The Weakest Link” and watching bats in between the rain.

I took a few photos today… in between (and during) the showers.

12 July 2023 (Wednesday) - In The Back of Beyond

I slept through till when “er indoors ^TM” went for a tiddle at half past four. I then lay awake for half an hour before I too went to the loo. Whilst I was up, I uploaded yesterday’s photos which went up straight away, then went back to bed for three more hours. Bailey eventually woke me by trampling my chest and licking my nose. I could take a hint, so I took her outside. 

It wasn’t long before we were all up. We had a rather good al-fresco brekkie, then set off on a walk. There was a series of geocaches only three quarters of a mile up the road, so it would make for an easy day. Or so we thought.
We had a very good walk along quiet country lanes and across fields following well-marked footpaths. Sadly geocaching-wise was a different story. The series of caches we were following had been put out over ten years ago, had been replaced and changed in the intervening years, and today bore little relation to the original. The difficulty and terrain ratings seriously need updating; it speaks volumes that we had three resuscitation caches today (being the first to find it in over a year). I have often said that when hiding geocaches, some people want the things found, and some don’t….

It was only a shame that whilst spending perhaps too long looking for a more elusive cache that the dogs got bored and went wading in a swamp. 

After six miles and fourteen thousand steps we were back at base. Dogs got bathed (whether they liked it or not), a pint was enjoyed in the garden, and t hen the rain started. The rain had been forecast so we couldn’t really squabble. We adjourned inside to carry on with the jigsaw. The jigsaw is a thousand piece one which lives in the holiday cottage. We’d found a note inside it from previous occupants of the cottage saying they’d given up after four days, so the girls were seeing it as a challenge to get the thing done before we go home.
As we jigsaw-ed so the sun came out.

Rather than eating in, we all had a wash and brush up, and drove a mile down the road to the Rumburgh Buck where they serve a rather good drop of mild. As we perused the menus for dinner so “er indoors ^TM” spotted something; a rather large tick had embedded itself in Bailey’s neck. Fortunately Karl had a tick removal tool and as I held poor Bailey in a grip of iron so we conducted surgery to get the thing out. It was soon thrown on the paving slab and stamped on; it was gross. 

After the excitement we had a rather good bit of dinner al-fresco. Fortunately there was a shelter in which we scoffed as the forecast thunderstorm hit half way through dinner. Personally, I thought it was rather fun.
And with our scoff scoffed we went back to base where (once all checked for more ticks) the dogs had their dinner, and we finished the jigsaw. I saw “we” as I fully intend to share in the glory and bragging rights even though my contribution was somewhat less than that of others(!) 

As always I took a few photos today. And had another relatively early night. I’m finding being on holiday rather tiring; but not as much as the dogs are. For three dogs who sleep most of every day they haven’t stopped all week and are noticeably beginning to flag.

11 July 2023 (Tuesday) - Southwold

Having walked the most amount of steps that my watch has ever recorded yesterday I slept well last night and wasn’t up for an hour uploading photos and writing diaries at four o’clock. So it was a shame the my watch felt the need to wake me at six o’clock to tell me that I was asleep. It really did vibrate (rather vigorously) and tell me that it had detected that I was asleep.
I got up and said goodbye to Victoria who had to go back to work today (which was a great shame, but there it is…) and then spent a rather frustrating hour fighting with the cottage’s wi-fi. It took five goes to upload yesterday’s photos.

The dogs were rather quiet this morning (tired from yesterday!) but eventually perked up when a full English breakfast appeared. As did I. We had a rather good bit of brekkie.

With brekkie scoffed we went out. It had rained hard overnight so again somewhere with firm ground underfoot would be a plan. We went to Southwold and had a look around. With four Adventure lab cache series there we had plenty of things to guide us around and help us explore. Series of cannons, old residences of the aristocracy, cannons, and haunted hedgerows…
It was a shame that the ad-lab geo-series had all been created utterly independently of each other. One was a straightforward run down the coast, the other three were rather random, one was sadly more an exercise of using Google, but that’s geocaching’s adventure labs for you.

We had a rather god ice cream and then headed back to base just as the drizzle started. As the girls jigsaw-ed I sat in an armchair and snored (loudly, I am told) for three hours. I was woken in time for dinner; and a rather good bit of dinner it was too.
I then offered sage advice to the jigsaw puzzlers, then sat outside watching the bats until the cherry pie was ready. A very good cherry pie.

I took a few photos today. These posted up first time. Today was rather more restful than yesterday had been, but I was still work out at the end of it. I had an early night. I needed one.