13 February 2024 (Tuesday) - An Unexpected Early Shift

In between listening to the snoring last night I had an incredibly vivid dream in which I net up with someone with whom I used to work forty years ago. Known to all and sundry as “Frankie Abbott” (from The Fenn Street Gang) because of his endless telling of implausible made-up stories he didn’t drive and walked everywhere. Walking everywhere in Hastings involves going up a lot of hills and getting rather sweaty. “Frankie Abbott” was sweaty and smelly. He had a particular rather distinctive odour about him, and I smelt that in my dream.

 

I got up and made toast and watched another episode of “Peep Show” before peering into the Internet. It was still there. There was another memory form the old days in Hastings to be had this morning. An old friend from primary school was having a birthday today. I sent out the birthday video, and idly speculated on having a reunion of the old primary school gang bearing in mind we are all having a big birthday this year. There’s half a dozen people from my old primary school on my Facebook list. One is now a vicar in the west country, one is in Sweden… I won’t ever actually organize a reunion, but I can waste time thinking about having one.

 

The car had iced up again overnight, but this morning it had melted somewhat to something of a thick sludge. With that scraped I set off to work up the motorway.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the state of the country's finances. More and more people are in arrears with mortgage payments. I'm so glad mine is all paid off. As the conversations with various experts went on I found myself again thinking that I really should do a Coursera course in economics as all the talk of money on the radio leaves me baffled. I have formed the distinct impression that our entire society functions on the principle that those with loads of money lend it to those without, and charge them through the nose for doing so, and all else is piddling details.

It can't be that simple... can it?

And there was talk of Azhar Ali. Originally the prospective Labour candidate for the upcoming by-election in Rochdale, the Labour party have thrown him out. He's now standing as an independent as (legally) people get nominated, not political parties, and nominations closed some time ago and it is too late for anyone else to stand. He got chucked out for supposed anti-Semitic comments that he supposedly made... Did he? Yesterday I mentioned that Israeli troops in Gaza were filming war crimes and putting them on Tiktok seemingly without repercussion.  I've since heard that journalists who pointed this out have got in trouble for doing so and it is now claimed that this is propaganda by the Palestinian side.

It seems to me that it is rather difficult to get to the truth of the matter these days.

 

Work was work, but after a rather convoluted mishap I’d been asked to cover the early shift at short notice, so I got out rather early. It was a shame that it was raining, but you can’t have everything.

I came home and made a cuppa for me and “er indoors ^TM”. As I brewed I discovered a jar for the decaf coffee. We’ve only had it for two years (or so I am told). It’s amazing what you miss if you don’t pay attention.

I sparked up my lap-top. I’d had a message from the geo-feds about my Earthcache project. There were one or two trivial things to adjust (which I did), and then I looked at a message I had from the council. A few weeks ago I complained about their allowing several sets of road works to be allowed in close proximity to each other, and then the road works being left obstructing the traffic with no one actually doing any road works. Their response was “blah blah corporate catchphrases” and they claimed they had done spot inspections and had always found someone working when they looked. I suggested they looked before 11.30am and after 2.30pm.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the final of “Junior Bake Off”, and then more “Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly”. I finished my Coursera course on Quality Management and passed with a score of eighty four per cent.  And then I had a message. The geo-feds have given my Earthcache the thumbs-up. I’m quite pleased about that. That’s two elements of my plan for my March geo-meet sorted… five more to go.

12 February 2024 (Monday) - An Afternoon Off

I had an early night last night, but woke at two o'clock and spent the rest of the night listening to snoring. I gave up with sleep, got up and made toast and scoffed it whilst watching an episode of "Peep Show". I do like that show but one of the main characters winds me up. A sponging freeloader who goes through life with his hand out shamelessly expecting everyone else to pay his way for him... Having met one or two of that ilk I can't help but wonder who the daft one is. Perhaps I should try it?

 

Bearing in mind that major road works were due to start today I set off for work early. And was immediately thwarted by my car which was covered in ice. A frost hadn't been forecast last night. After five minutes I'd scraped most of it away and was driving up the motorway listening to the pundits on the radio.

There was talk of the war in Ukraine this morning. It would seem the Ukrainian army is running short of volunteers. Bearing in mind how their President has been shamelessly demanding international aid to finance his war, I can see him demanding troops next.

And there was talk from the war in Gaza where it would seem that Israeli soldiers are torturing and humiliating their Palestinian captives and then being stupid enough to put their war crimes onto TikTok. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to remember that the Israelis went into the current bout of this decades-long war as the victims, isn't it?

Closer to home it was suggested that bosses of water companies spilling raw sewage into rivers and seas might not get performance bonuses in their pay packet... There's a novel suggestion, eh?

 

As I got close to work it was apparent that the major road works that we'd all been warned about hadn't started, and I drove straight through where there were supposed to be serious delays. Not that I'm complaining.

 

Work was work; I didn't do much today. With annual leave to use up and being on an early shift I was on my way home by half past eleven. Sadly there was little other than drivel on the radio so I drove home singing along to Ivor Biggun songs. I took a little diversion on my way to find one or two specific features of geological interest that I could include in my Earthcache write-up. I found something that should do the trick; but for the most part rocks are on the dull side.

 

I collected the dogs, and took them up to the woods for a walk. Usually we walk round Kings Wood fairly early in the day, and there is a reason for that. Generally speaking, the later in the day we go, the more “normal people” we meet.

Within yards of starting our walk today we met a group of “special people” and their carers. Some of them were making strange howling noises which fortunately the dogs ignored. But Morgan made the mistake of looking at one of them and this one went absolutely mental; constantly shrieking “it’s looking at me, it’s looking at me”. One of the carers looked at me in a pointed sort of way. I looked back, asked “seriously?” and we kept walking. I didn’t want to hang around, bearing in mind that one of these carer-types once attacked Pogo with a length of bramble and then reported us to the police because his “special one” was frightened.

We had a good walk round the woods; we met other dog walkers; some chatted, others blanked us. And as we came back to the car park so we had another “episode”. The one who had supposedly been so scared of Morgan erlier came running out of the car park at us making strange howling noises. When he got to within five yards of us he loudly announced “oh my God oh my God” and ran back to the car park. He then turned, and ran at us again making strange noises until he got close enough for the “oh my God oh my God” to start again. And so this continued until I got the dogs into the car boot. As I tried to give them a treat so this one was alternately sticking his head into the car’s boot making odd noises and then running away.

Bearing in mind the last time I had any dealings like this I ended up with a load of paperwork from the police I thought it best to just ignore what was going on, and hope it would all soon go away.

It did.

As the “special one” was driven away by the carer so I saw another dog walker coming out of the woods. “Thank f… they’ve gone” the chap exclaimed. Apparently they’d had an episode as well.

 

We came home where I re-wrote the verbals for my pending Earthcache, put the finishing touches to my plans for my geo-meet planned for March, and dozed underneath a pile of dogs until “er indoors ^TM” went bowling.

I cracked on with ironing shirts until she came home twenty minutes later having totally forgotten that this week is half-term and they don’t do bowling at half-term.

Once the washing machine finishes I’ll hang the laundry round the radiators and have an early night.

11 February 2024 (Sunday) - Early Shift

If I wasn't listening to snoring last night I was listening to the rain hammering on the window. Part of me was glad we'd had the roof done recently; part of me was wondering if we'd had the roof done properly.

I gave up trying to sleep, made some toast and watched an episode of "Peep Show" before peering into the Internet. On-line was rather quiet, as you might expect it to be at six o'clock on a Sunday morning. Mind you as I set off to find my car I saw that there were lights on in not-so-nice-next-door. She keeps odd hours; the upstairs lights are on when I come home from work in the evening, and there's lights on very early in the mornings. Mind you I'm up to see those lights, so who am I to be judging?

 

I went on a little Munzee mission round town capping POIs. I've now pretty much done all I need for this month's Munzee Clan War. Some people in the team like to spread the requirements out over the month. Others (like me) prefer to crack on and get it done.

And with it done I set off to work up a very quiet motorway. As I drove the pundits on the radio didn't have very much to say for themselves. The King has made an announcement thanking everyone for all the kind wishes concerning his cancer diagnosis. That was good of him; I somehow couldn't imagine the late Queen doing that.

And in the aftermath of the attack on a woman and two children in Clapham earlier in the week, security camera footage followed the attacker to the Thames where it is now thought he drowned. Since then two bodies have been found in the Thames; neither of which were his. This rather begs the question "who were they then?", doesn't it? No one seemed particularly interested in finding out.

But it is amazing how many people just drop dead unnoticed. Many years ago when I was a lad there was an old woman who went missing near Rye. In the search for her the nearby rivers got netted and the bodies of two dead men were pulled out. No one ever seemed to bother about those two either. Funnily enough that part didn't appear on screen when her who played Hyacinth Bucket starred in a dramatisation of the affair.

My mother in law used to run a doss house in Hastings. London councils would pay tramps to relocate to the seaside; these people in their fifties and sixties would just turn up with all their worldly good in a carrier bag. Every so often one just wouldn't be there at breakfast time. No one knew where they went.

Many years ago there was the lower half of a human leg found on Dover beach. No one ever claimed it or found from where the thing had come.

 

I got to work and had a rather busy day. In between doing that which I couldn't avoid I peered out of the window at a day which was alternating between bright spells and blustery downpours. Having effectively been held hostage by the weather yesterday I could have done something today... most likely gone out during a bright spell and got soaked by a blustery downpour.

Mind you I found a couple of minutes to watch a pigeon having a wash in a puddle on the flat roof outside the blood bank window. That place isn't so much a flat roof as a bird bath, and can be quite entertaining.

 

I came home, and harvested some dog dung before “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs came home. As I had a cuppa so my phone beeped, An email. My attempt to create an Earthcache has hit another snag. The idea of a geocache is that I give the masses a geology lesson. Having had a total thumbs-down on river erosion in Buxford meadow I’ve been looking at relatively nearby church. The paths to that church are one sort of limestone, and the war memorial over the road is another. But it isn’t enough to say “have a look at the two rocks and tell me how they differ”; I’ve got to pick out specific features… Ho hum… I shall persevere for now and make the observation that only ninety-eight of these things have passed the geo-feds in the UK in the last five years.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the semi-final of “Junior Bake Off” which I watched with a faint feeling of “I could do that” although I know I never will all the time I can buy cake in Sainsburys.

10 February 2024 (Saturday) - It Rained

With “er indoors ^TM”, “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” and the dogs up in the attic room last night I thought I might get a better night’s sleep. Had they all stayed up there I might well have done. But they were up and down like things possessed. Or that is “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs were. I didn’t hear a peep out of “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” all night.

 

Once up I made toast, and peered at the Internet. “Sylvanus” had sent me a friend request on Facebook. “Sylvanus” claimed to be a professional dominatrix mistress who loves to humiliate and “pegged for my pleasure”. I found myself wondering that if he she or it does that nonsense professionally, what the hourly rate might be?

 

I went and woke the girls and the dogs. We got ourselves organised and set off to Dog Club. The rain held off for us, but the constant rain of the last few days had taken its toll on the field where we meet. It was muddy, to say the least.

Dog Club went rather well; the dogs had a great time, and we had three new dogs along today. One seemed rather more timid than the others; it is such a shame that when any dog shows the slightest fear then Morgan gets very over-excited. It was also a shame that Bailey had to roll in fox poo.

 

Usually as we drive home I try to guess the mystery year on Steve’s radio show, but by the time we’d loaded dogs and baby into the car we turned on the radio just in time to hear the answer being given out.

We got home just as the forecast rain started, so we had a cuppa. Littlun announced she wanted to go and wreak havoc in the attic bedroom, so whilst “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs went with her to supervise I cracked on with my latest geo-project.

Having been told that a fish ladder wasn’t a suitable topic for an Earthcache I thought I might compare and contrast the limestones in certain structures not a million miles from where I’m staging March’s geo-meet. I got a first draft ready and sent it through to the appropriate geo-fed. Hopefully this will be acceptable.

 

I then did some more of my Coursera course until favourite smallest granddaughter came downstairs, and all too soon it was time for her to go home. As her grandmother loaded up the car, me and littlun stood in a downpour singing “Rain, Rain, Go Away”.

 

Whilst I waited for “er indoors ^TM” to return I tried (and failed) to solve geo-puzzles. “er indoors ^TM” eventually returned and boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we washed down with a bottle of plonk whilst watching more “Junior Bake Off”.

 

Treacle is being rather quarrelsome this evening. Morgan is taking no notice, but I’m keeping Bailey with me; she tiddles in terror whenever Treacle has an episode.

 

And it is still raining. We could have done so much today if it hadn’t been raining since dog club.

9 February 2024 (Friday) - Young Ladies

Some nights “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs come to bed making enough noise to wake the dead. Other nights they are as quiet as mice. I woke to the sound of rain at four o'clock to find them all fast asleep, and as the rain subsided so they all started snoring.

I got up and watched a bit of telly. I found myself engrossed in some infomercial about some gadget which vacuum-seals food. The grinning idiot advertising the thing made it sound rather good, but he was rather reluctant to say how much it cost. They so often are, and when they finally tell you the price it only takes a few seconds to find the same thing far cheaper on Amazon.

 

I watched an episode of "Peep Show" in which him out of "Ghosts" tried to pork Dobby. Not the Dobby out of Harry Potter; another one. To be fair to him out of "Ghosts", if my back was up to it I might try to pork Dobby too. Not the Dobby out of Harry Potter, that is.

With telly watched I sparked up the Internet on my phone. I had a friend request from someone claiming to be called "Goddess Tudde". Like so many of these supposedly women of dubious morals this one was wipe-clean, but was missing a glove. And (in all honesty) didn't come anywhere close to Dobby on the porking stakes (either the one on Peep Show or the one in Harry Potter)

I also saw a friend had commented about the Bash Street Kids (out of the Beano). "Fatty" and "Spotty" are now "Freddie" and "Scotty". Seriously?! Why not leave them alone? And why not call a kid "Fatty"? I was called that for years when at school. There was rarely any offence or bullying in being called that name, and on the very few occasions when there was, the one causing offence or trying to bully was shown the error of their ways. With a slap. I can remember one such wannabe bully going to show my mum the black eye I gave him.

 

I set off through the rain on a little Munzee mission. As I Munzed I had an errand to run. I had to post a letter. I went to the post office in the town centre; are there any post boxes any closer to home these days? I couldn't think of any.

And then it was up the motorway to work listening to the pundits on the radio asking if President Biden is too old for the job of being President. He's eighty-one.  Amazingly no one made the observation that his rival in the upcoming election (that idiot Donald Trump) is only four years younger. Bearing in mind that a term of office is for five years, if Mr Biden is too old, then so is Mr Trump.

Personally I'm looking to retire and I'm over twenty years younger than Mr Biden.

 

I got to work and cracked on with that which I couldn't avoid. At tea break my phone beeped with the news that an old mate's mum had died. But looking back Rene Small wasn't just my mate's mum. She was a dinner lady at school, she was one of the leaders when I'd been a kid in the Boys Brigade. She was a friend at church (before I saw the darkness). She was a fixture at the occasional meet-ups from the old days. She was one of those people in your life who are always there... until they aren't.

Then a colleague on maternity leave came in with her new baby... and I realised that Rene had to go to make room for the littlun (I suppose).

And mundane reality came calling as I had the news that despite my arguing, the geo-feds don't like fish ladders, and another young lady of presumably dubious morals sent me a message asking me to in-box her.

I didn't.

 

With work done I got home just as “er indoors ^TM” was arriving home with “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM” who had come up for a little sleepover. We had pizza and pasta, trifle, party rings and iced gems, and some of the kidney that was the dogs’ treat.

When “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” and “My Boy ^TM” were small they were in bed and asleep by seven o’clock. It is fast approaching half past ten and littlun is showing no signs of flagging.

I am… having a toddler about the place is hard work…

8 February 2024 (Thursday) - Rostered Day Off

I had a rude awakening in the small hours as Treacle got tangled up in the hose of my CPAP machine. Despite the noise of the rain on the window I eventually nodded off again and woke to see it was eight o’clock. I rolled over for a few more minutes kip and woke at half past seven. How did that work?

 

I made toast and had a look at the Internet. I sent out birthday wishes to a couple of friends, and then my piss rather boiled as I read an advert. My Facebook feed is often getting adverts from the MP for Milton Keynes. I have no idea why, but it is clear the chap has a very low opinion of the electorate. He really would seem to want to have us believe that pretty much everything good in the world (birthdays, summer picnics, little puppy dogs) is a direct result of Conservative policies. But everything bad in the world (debt, toothache and car crashes) is directly attributable to the Labour party. Sadly he’s probably got the right idea in that a lot of people will believe him. I remember my old mum once believing everything some politician or other said because she really thought that they weren’t allowed to tell lies.

 

Despite the rain I took the dogs out. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about shoplifting which is rife in parts of Britain. Organised gangs are targeting shops, no one wants a job as a security guard as it involves being threatened by the thieves, and the police are claiming to be too busy to get involved.

The answer here is obvious. Don’t hire security guards who are afraid of being threatened. Pay a thug (who likes a scrap) to be a security guard. Apparently they are allowed to use “reasonable force”. I’m sure that there’s enough who would be up for it.

We got to the woods and had a little walk. Ironically as we walked I met a pair of people doing some sort of a forest survey with a Forestry England van nearby. I got chatting with them and explained that I’d been trying to organize a litter pick in the woods but had given up as their admin staff operated too slowly. In my line of work I’m used to dealing with stuff which needs to be done right away. “Any time today” really is taking it easy; sometimes an hour later is too late in my world. The Forestry people were very nice, but they (very politely) pointed out that things are very different for them, and hinted that a year between my initial enquiry and getting formal permission might be more realistic.

I’m glad I decided to have the meet-up in a pub.

And as we drove home so my phone beeped to say that the meet had been accepted by the geo-feds. If you are at a loose end in a few weeks’ time…

 

We came home. The dogs had a hot shower and their brekkie and went to sleep. I got myself a bit of lunch and watched a film on Netflix. “Submarine” was described as a “comedy-romance”… but it wasn’t described as that by me. I would describe it as “a bit crap”.

With film watched bearing in mind that I’d had the thumbs-up from the geo-feds for my Plan B for the March geo-meet I started sorting out one or two of the details of that Plan B. That passed what might otherwise have been a rather dull afternoon. The rain which had soaked us this morning didn’t let up all day long.

I’ve set up seven new geocaches, one of which would seem to have already had the thumbs down from the geo-feds. I shall argue, but you win some, you lose some…

 

“er indoors ^TM” came home and boiled up sausages and chips which we scoffed whilst watching another episode of “Junior Bake Off”. We are getting to the end of that series now; the kids in it seem to fall into two groups. There are those who just sail through somewhere in the middle, and there are those who are very good one week and very bad the next. One week they are star baker, the next week out on their arse.

 

It’s still raining.

7 February 2024 (Wednesday) - The "H" Word

I would have slept better last night if not for the torrential rain. But once it finally stopped I nodded off shortly after two o'clock.

As I watched "Peep Show" this morning I remembered something I spotted on the Internet yesterday. Apparently there was a reunion of the cast last week...  a reunion at which most of the cast didn't show up.

 

With telly watched I got ready for work and set off. I took a circuitous route round Ashford capping POIs (it's a Munzee thing) before going to Sainsburys for petrol. With the Sainsbury's filling station near work closed for rebuilding I'm going to the Sainsbury's filling station in Ashford. I can carry on building up the Nectar points, and in all honesty it is rather amusing watching the attitude of the old bat behind the till. Some people really shouldn't work in retail.

 

Unlike the last couple of days the motorway wasn't blocked up with juggernauts slowly and dangerously overtaking each other. As I drove there was an interview with one of the head honchos of the British Dental Association who was being rather scathing about the government's plans to cajole dentists to move to the poorer parts of the country where dental services are lacking. The problem is that the NHS pays dentists for "units of dental activity", and there's quite a bit of disagreement about what should constitute a "unit of dental activity". Apparently dentists get paid the same amount for an NHS patient who only needs one filling as they get paid for an NHS patient who needs an entire gob transplant. Consequently there's little money to be made by dentists operating in the poorer parts of the country where the punters don't look after their teeth and are more likely to need entire gob transplants. Dentists would rather work in more well to do areas where the NHS patients brush their teeth and so require less effort on the dentist's part for the same money, or where the punters can pay for private dental care (like I do). 

 

There was then an interview with Sir Ed Davey, the leader of  the Dribbling Democraps, who was the minister responsible for the Post Office during the time of the Horizon computer system scandal.

To be fair to the bloke, he claimed that when post office workers told him their concerns he went to the officials responsible for the computer system. With hindsight it is now apparent that these officials lied. But at the time they said that all was well with the computer system. Who was Sir Ed supposed to believe? IT experts or people blaming the IT system? He was getting quite a load of stick on the radio this morning. On the one hand as the minister he was responsible for the failings of the IT system. On the other hand he cannot possibly be responsible for the functioning of the IT system; that's why the government employed the experts. Implicit in an expert being employed is the assumption that they won't tell lies.

 

I got to work and did my bit. At tea break I had my usual root around the internet; albeit a little later than usual. There was consternation on one of the "Dad's Army" related Facebook pages. Apparently you aren't allowed to mention Hitler over there. Bearing in mind when that show was set and who they were fighting against, I would have thought that was a name which would have come up with some regularity, but apparently not. Apparently the mention of the name sets off Facebook's automated censoring software and gets anyone mentioning it banned for a week.

And I saw some friends were moving house today. Going from Brighton down to somewhere in Somerset. I've seen precious little of Dave and Tracie over the last few years; I wonder when we will next meet up? This is the trouble with living where I do - everyone else is so far away.

 

This morning the motorway wasn't blocked up with juggernauts slowly and dangerously overtaking each other. As I drove home this evening it was.

I got home and spent a little while fiddling with the leccie to the shed. Somehow in the overnight storm it had all got unplugged and blown a fuse. It is sorted now, which is a minor result. I then spent a little while revamping the county geo-meet for March. I’d volunteered to organize it and had hoped for a picnic in Kings Wood following a litter gathering session. But the rules state that we would need the landowner’s permission, and (sadly) Forestry England have been less than co-operative over these last few weeks and months. It really was as though they didn’t want an army of volunteers clearing away litter.

Organizing another venue took five minutes. We’re going to the pub.