15 August 2025 (Friday) - Before the Late Shift

I had a rather good nights sleep for once; it was a shame that the bin men had to make quite so much noise when they came up the road at six o’clock. Some people really do have this mind-set that if they are up then everyone else should be up too.

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. Someone was asking the pond groups on Facebook about how to get clear water in their pond. And as always there was as many answers as there were people to give them. The “change the water regularly” brigade were out in force today with a theory that you should save rain water in huge tubs which you leave to go stagnant and green, and then half-empty your pond and use this muck to top up your pond. So many people were adamant that this was a good idea; not one was able to explain why it wasn’t a silly idea.

 

And then I had an email - a notification about a new geocache half a mile up the road…With everyone else fast asleep I hopped into the car and voomed up the road. Parking where I probably shouldn’t have I had a quick search and soon had the thing in my hand. First one to find it – result !!! I’m actually amazed I found it so quickly – I could imagine this one being rather tricky.

And with that little excitement done it was time for dog walk. The dogs had got up by the time I got home.

 

We went down to Orlestone where we had a good walk. We met two other dog walkers. The first bloke was one big bundle of stress. On turning the corner and seeing us he was all “ohmygod ohmygod” and trying to get his dogs onto their leads for no reason that I could fathom, as his dogs and mine were all saying hello nicely as dogs do. The chap was still panicking and faffing with leads when we were fifty yards past him.

The second chap said hello and our dogs all ran up to each other and had a little game.

It is nearly always the people and very rarely the dogs that cause any episodes.

But once we were past the second bloke we walked for two more miles and didn’t see anyone. Unusually my app detected five different sorts of birds today.

As we walked I passed the six thousand steps mark. I do that most days… my watch told me I’ve done it every day for the last three weeks which was something of a milestone.

 

As we drove home the pundits on the radio were talking about how your subjective age is different to your actual age and explains why some people are decrepit in their mid-thirties whilst others (like me) walk miles every day. Once home I tried to calculate my subjective age, but every calculator I could find wanted my email address and wanted to bombard me with spam.

I did find the NHS heart age calculator though. Apparently my heart is five years older than the rest of me.

 

I Munzed; our clan has reached the second of our monthly targets. I got Wordle (level) on the fifth attempt. I did some CPD, I did a YouGov survey, I set off to work…

And as is so often the way when on the late shift, the day was practically over before noon…

14 August 2025 (Thursday) - Carpentry

I slept well for a change. As I scoffed brekkie I saw something that made me roll my eyes. Someone was commenting on Facebook about the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie. Someone else was fed up with people who didn’t know it was actually a TV series, and that person was getting serious abuse from those who maintained it was originally a series of books (a trilogy in four parts – later six). No one seemed to realise it all started as a radio show.

I Munzed, got Wordle (knell) on the fifth attempt, and got ready for the day.

 

With another hot day forecast I wanted to get the dogs out early. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Apparently (so it was claimed) a growing proportion of Israelis feel the war is nothing to do with them and is being staged purely for political posturing. Are they right? Possibly.

 

We got to the woods shortly after eight o’clock which was early for us. We walked our usual circuit. I tried my birdsong app three times. Every time it only detected pigeons. We covered over four miles and we only saw two other groups of people; one of which made me chuckle. I’ve mentioned before how dog tracking apps won’t work in Kings Wood as there’s very little internet signal. Several people have got round that issue by attaching bells to their dogs’ collars. We could intermittently hear the bells in the distance, but the sound might have been echoing and coming from anywhere, to the dismay of the person whose dog was running riot. I was reminded of my old tattoo artist friend who got one of these detectors so he could trace his hawk when it flew off. He detected his hawk… it was on the roof of the nearby school (which really didn’t help him at all),

As we walked Bailey found a deer’s leg bone, but soon lost interest in it. Treacle found a dead squirrel and carried it for two miles all the way back to the car; clearly very pleased with herself.

 

We came home via the town centre where I Munzed a little more; we need the points this month. I had a quick cuppa then cracked on with my plan for today.

The other day I revamped the rockery as I rebuilt the walls of the bog filter. Earlier in the year I’d put rockery plants into little plastic planters around the rockery, but they never really worked as they were added as an afterthought, they were too small and dried out too easily. A few weeks ago “My Boy ^TM” came round with quite a few old timbers he didn’t need and wondered if I might like them.

I took two of them this morning, sawed them into shape and built a little planter which was just the right size to fit on the side of the bog filter and hold the liner in place. I quite like sawing and drilling… I keep saying that I should take a course in carpentry. Sadly when I was younger I was told that (being at a grammar school) I was far too clever to do anything practical. So rather than being taught carpentry I was taught Latin; over the years my “O” level in Latin has proved to be utterly useless to me.

 

I got the box of the planter to shape, dobbed on some wood paint and whilst it dried I had a spot of lunch (two carrots and some garlic sauce stuff I found in the fridge) and watched an episode of “Orange is the New Black”. And with telly watched I lined the planter with some garden membrane and painted it again before watching a bit more telly.

Once the paint had dried I put the new planter in place and put one of the rockery plants in it, and (flushed with success) I sawed up another two timbers to size, made them into the sides of another new planter and got those painted. I stopped at that point; I was hurting.

 

I came in and wrote up some CPD, and decided that I might as well crack on with the next planter. I got the thing built and got a second coat of paint onto it. Once that is dry I shall line it then put it in place on the other side of the pond to where the first one went.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up burger and chips which we scoffed whilst watching this week’s episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” which was one of the best episodes of Star Trek for many years.

Such a shame that this season is over half-way done…

13 August 2025 (Wednesday) - Early Shift

I had an early night last night, but was wide awake at half past two this morning. I managed to nod off again, but had a very vivid dream in which I went on a foreign holiday with someone with whom I used to work thirty years ago, and I was clad only in a bath towel. I woke up in a sweat just after three o’clock, and despite trying to get back to sleep, that was it for the night.

 

I made toast, watched an episode of “Orange is the New Black” then had a little look at te Internet. I’d missed a birthday yesterday; Ron Mael (the one with the moustache in Sparks) was eighty yesterday. Eighty, and he’s still touring the world and performing. He either must need the money, or he loves it.

There wasn’t much else happening on-line (it was probably far too early) so trying not to wake anyone I got ready for work.

 

I drove up the motorway on a rather foggy morning. As I drove the pundits on the radio were talking about a government initiative to provide everyone aged under twenty-two with free bus transport… which would be all very well *if* there were buses on which to get free transport. Various experts were wheeled on bemoaning how few buses there are these days, but no one seemed to want to tackle the underlying issue that buses aren't a public service any more. They were all sold off to private investors as money-making businesses many years ago, and like any money-making business if they don't turn a profit then they stop running. Some councillor from the West Country was whinging that where he lives there is only one bus every two hours. I looked at a bus only the other day and commented to “er indoors ^TM” that it was a rather huge vehicle to be carrying only one passenger. It ain't rocket science, is it?

And there was talk of a new quantum computer which can do in a second what a so-called super-computer would take years to do, and the thing uses less power than an electric kettle. The thing works very differently to standard computers, but the details were rather sketchy. What wasn't sketchy was the implication that the average person in the street would be too stupid to understand how it worked. I thought that was rather harsh (and rather rude) for national radio, but looking it up on Wikipedia that might have an element of truth in it.

 

I stopped off in Sainsburys where there was a minor row kicking off. Some item had been priced at seven pounds, but the self-service till wanted thirteen quid for it. The young assistant was shrieking at the supervisor asking what she was supposed to do. There's never anything as amusing as other people's problems, is there?

I got my usual coronation chicken sandwich, hummus dip and bottle of water and saw that the meal deal was twenty pence more expensive than it was the last time I got one. That's a five per cent increase.

 

I went in to work to a surprisingly busy early shift which was rather complicated by the vagaries of the Miltenberger blood group system. But being on an early is always a result.

The plan was to come home and take the dogs to the woods. Instead I came home to torrential rain. It didn’t last long, but long enough that the woods would have been a mud bath. So instead I just did my twenty-minute chair workout and worked up quite a sweat.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good chili which we washed down with a rather decent (if rather cheap) bottle of plonk. And with dinner scoffed I shared some cheesy biccies with the dogs.

As we scoffed and drank we watched another episode of “Lego Masters: Australia”. There’s some seriously talented people on that show…

12 August 2025 (Tuesday) - The Heatwave Continues

I did my oh-so-regular thing of waking up feeling full of energy and raring to go only to find it was twenty past two. Morgan jumped off the bed so I got up thinking he wanted to go out, but it was just a ruse so as he could then jump back on the bed to get the spot I’d been lying in.

I organised him and the other two dogs and then dozed on and off till seven o’clock when it was getting too warm to stay in bed.

 

I made toast and had a little look at the Internet as I do. There was a squabble about fish tanks that I read and rolled my eyes. So many people have perfect tanks, then for no apparent reason buy a water testing kit. They then find that this water testing kit claims the tank has issues and people then trash what was a perfect set-up by adding all sorts of chemicals, and once the kit says the water is right, they then chuck out half the water and start again.

And a chap living relatively locally (Rochester) was selling a full-sized Tardis. It would go rather nicely at the end of the garden, but three thousand pounds for a little toolshed? (and that’s not including getting it home from Rochester).

 

I saw a new geocache in the general vicinity of Charing. Bearing in mind we really needed a shorter shaded walk for today, Longbeech woods would do, and this new geocache wouldn’t be much of a diversion.

As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing Nicola Sturgeon who has just published an autobiography. She was keen to talk about it; the woman conducting the interview was looking to stir up a fight.

I drove along some rather narrow lanes and eventually found a space big enough for the car. After a little walk and a little search I soon had the new geocache in hand. First to Find too, which was a result.

 

From there it was only a short hop to Longbeech woods. The trouble with Longbeech Woods is that unless you are prepared to walk down the road you can’t make a circular walk. Not that that’s an issue really. We walked down the road a little, then walked into the woods. We saw quite a few ants today, we heard a (relative) lot of birds…apparently it isn’t just my imagination; birds really do go quiet in August. It would seem I got the birdsong app just at the same time that birds got noisy.

It was as well I took the water bottle for the dogs; by the time I got back to the car the car was telling me it was twenty-seven degrees. We’ve officially got another heatwave.

 

We came home. My plan for the day had been to revamp the bog filter with the sleepers I got yesterday, but it was too hot. I wrote up some CPD, went over my plans for my geocaching adventure lab in Chilham, played a little Tetris, played a little chess, got incredibly bored. I get so bored so easily.

So I went out and revamped the bog filter anyway. It wasn’t as much hard work as I thought. I just took the decorative rocks off of the sides of the bog filter and lifted the liner away from the sides, put the new sleepers in place and secured them, then put it all back again. It took a couple of hours and went a lot quicker and easier than I thought it might. The only hiccup was that the sleepers for the front of the filter were a little too long, but nothing that a saw couldn’t put right. And like every gardening job it looked -pretty much the same at the end as it did at the beginning. If you look closely you’ll see that the thing is about four inches taller. The water depth is the same; it’s just got a little more height to prevent overflows (hopefully).

As I fiddled about I saw we’ve got a frog living in the bog filter. I tried to get a photo but he hopped into the depths.

 

I then had a stroke of genius. Those timbers that “My Boy ^TM” gave me the other week are the right sort of colour to blend in with the rockery. I could make some planters out of them and they would blend into the rockery quite nicely. That’s my next project. I was tempted to make a start today, but I ached too much. Being semi-retired and having free time is all very well, but it doesn’t take much to have me knackered.

 

It would have been good to have gone to the woods this evening, but it was still too hot. I wouldn’t have minded, but the dogs suffer in the heat; particularly Treacle. It’s bad enough for her in the morning when it is still cool, but it was far too hot to take the dogs out this evening.

 

I suppose I could have a look at the night sky later… it’s the Perseid meteor shower this evening. Sadly it’s a full moon as well. As I was driving about this morning the pundits on the radio were interviewing some expert on the matter. I don’t know who this expert was, but she claimed that what with the full moon you’d be lucky to see more than one or two shooting stars an hour.

I won’t bother. I’ll have an early night. I ache.

11 August 2025 (Monday) - Sleeper Bargain

I woke a few times in the night; finally getting up at seven o’clock. I made toast and had a look at the Internet. It was still there. A couple of friends had posted photos of what they had done over the weekend. Another had been to a theme park and hidden little toy ducks for children to find… and had been lambasted on social media for doing so. She seemed rather upset by this. Sadly no good deed ever goes unpunished. But this is social media in action. Generally these sort of comments come from people who are too nasty to do anything decent themselves, too stupid to write a coherent sentence on social media, and too cowardly to actually say anything in person.

And there was a question on one of the work-related pages asking about how often anyone might give blood. Answers ranged from every few weeks to once a year. Reading these replies, the answer could have been absolutely anything. Students reading anything work-related on-line need to be very wary... for every correct bit of information there's several that are just wrong.

I Munzed not only did I get given fifty zeds (worth about forty pence), I got a mini greeterbot (result!) and our clan has reached the first of our monthly clan war targets. And I got Wordle (south) on the third attempt.

 

I took the dogs out. We went to Orlestone for a shorter walk. We had a good walk. Pogo was with us and he taught everyone else how to tiddle on other dogs’ tiddle. We had a funny five minutes where all four dogs tiddled at least twice on the same spot until I chased them all off of it.

As we walked we took a different route; the walk at Orlestone isn’t long so I had this idea of combining some of the routes there to make a much longer walk. I managed to add about three quarters of a mile onto our usual trek round there.

It was only a shame that Pogo and Treacle had to go straight into the deep puddle right at the end of the walk. Once home they had a bath.

 

I then went round the edges of the lawn with the strimmer, and went over the lawn with the lawn mower, then had a go at the patio with the bionic burner before making us a cuppa.

I ran Pogo and his entourage home, then took a circuitous route home via the first of the Harry Potter geocaches that went live last week. The idea is that as you go round you play a sort of game of Cluedo, and the sheets you need are all in the first cache. I thought I’d get one before they either ran out or went damp and got mouldy.

 

Once back home I cleaned out the pond filter, and had a little look at the bog filter. I need to add another layer of sleepers as it doesn’t take much for the thing to overflow. I had a look on Wickes website – the sleepers were six quid cheaper (each) than what they were this time last year. I zoomed round to Wickes and got the last three. It was a shame that as I loaded them into the car I managed to break my long-handled snow scraper, but there it is.

I brought them home, had a quick measure-up and sawed them to shape. Sawing sleepers is hard work. And once sawed I gave them a quick coat of paint.

I made a cuppa, wrote up some CPD, and woke up over an hour later.

 

I’ve had a headache all day. I blame the heat…

10 August 2025 (Sunday) - Rolvenden

I slept rather well; finally getting out of my pit at eight o’clock. Yesterday as I scoffed toast I mentioned that we found a brand new unpublished geocache with which we did the secret geo-rituals. This morning as I scoffed toast I saw that the thing had been published, so I logged it.

I also saw (via Facebook) that the pub where we had last month’s geo-meet has had a drunk driver drive his car right through it, and some rather aggressive woman in Gillingham was not only asking for free turfs, but wanting people to deliver them as well. A tad cheeky when you think that turfs go for a fiver each in B&Q. I was reminded of when we dug out our biggest water feature we had loads of soil left over. I offered it on one of those Freecycle sites and I had quite a bit of abuse from some chap in Challock who was incensed that I wouldn’t deliver the stuff.

 

I munzed, and got Wordle (minty) on the third attempt which was rather impressive for me.

The plan for today had vaguely featured an early start and going to a geo-meet staged by Ralph in honour of a little canoe-ing trip down the Medway. But going there would have entailed being in Tonbridge by nine o’clock which would have meant leaving home by eight o’clock at the absolute latest…

We decided against that idea.

 

In the last week someone mentioned that one of “er indoors ^TM”’s geocaches had gone missing… well, not so much gone missing as they’d dropped it inside a post. You’d think people would carry spares, wouldn’t you? And then the next person to go looking for it logged that they couldn’t find it. As I said a couple of seconds ago, you’d think people would carry spares, wouldn’t you?

So we loaded the dogs into the car and went down to Rolvenden for a little walk to replace it. Whilst we were at it we had a look at another of her caches which had had reports of being difficult to find. The description was “behind the log” - when we got to with four feet of where my phone said we should be there was a log. And behind it was what people claimed they couldn’t find.

But, if nothing else, we had a good walk. As we walked we got chatting with one chap in his garden who gave us a handful of plums each. They were rather good. The walk round the Hole Estate in Rolvenden is a good one. Three and a quarter miles through some beautiful scenery (including a Christmas tree farm) in less than two hours with a pub at the end (we skipped on the pub today).

I took a few photos as we walked.

 

We came home. I hung out the washing and we had for a cheese roll for lunch, then had a lazy afternoon in the garden. I dozed for an hour or so, then we scoffed dips that we’d got in for last weekend’s garden party. I voomed round the garden with a watering can, gave myself a haircut, and just when she wasn’t expecting it I gave Bailey’s nose a trim. She’d got some wispy fur that was making her eyes water, so that came off.

She didn’t like it.

I then had a go at my twenty-minute chair workout. As I’ve said before, for all that my arse doesn’t leave the chair, it gets my heart going and has me sweating.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the first episode of the latest season of “Lego Masters: Australia”. I had no idea it started three weeks ago – catch-up TV is such a bonus…

 

9 August 2025 (Saturday) - Edenbridge and Games Night

I was out like a light and fast asleep (for once) when Morgan had a sneezing fit at three o’clock this morning. That woke Bailey and we had quite a bit of stomping round before everyone eventually settled. And just as I was nodding off again so Morgan had another sneezing fit.

We got up early. As I scoffed toast I had a look at the Internet. It was still there. Not much was going on really, which was probably for the best. I sent out birthday wishes to three people, had a quick Munz, got Wordle (nasal) on the fourth attempt and we got ready for the off.

 

With a walk in Edenbridge today we were giving Dog Club a miss. I must admit I wasn’t keen on missing Dog Club; it has become the highlight of the week. But there it is; we can’t do everything.

We set off up the motorway and were well out of the broadcast range of Radio Ashford long before Steve took to the airwaves. As we drove we were overtaken by the Fruitcake-mobile as we joined the M26 and we drove in convoy to Four Elms.

 

We parked up and it wasn’t long before we were off on our walk. To begin with there were loads of stiles, and getting the dogs over them was something of a mission. But after a mile or so the stiles gave way to kissing gates which were far more manageable. There was some lane walking, and a couple of busy roads, but nothing that presented a serious obstacle.

Just like home I noticed that there was a dearth of birdsong…   and then I heard a squawk which my app identified as a sparrowhawk. Had that one done for the birds?

We had a rather good picnic lunch… the bottle of Fullers ESB at nearly six per cent was a tad keen.

As we walked I had a brainwave. The geocaches we were hunting were regularly spaced except at one point where there was a gap… and an obvious place where you might hide a geocache. We had a look and found one exactly where you might expect one. A brand new one. I messaged a geo-buddy who lives locally who said that a friend of his put it out yesterday and it would be published tomorrow. We signed the log, and we’ll claim a find at the earliest opportunity. There are those who might say this is a tad cheeky of us. To them I would say that I agree with them.

We had a very good walk; it was only a shame that the two smaller dogs got stuck in a thicket. It’s the sort of thing they do; normally I wouldn’t worry, but this time they were properly stuck and Morgan started crying. That bothered me far more than it should have done. I scrambled into the hedge as best I could and rescued Bailey whilst “er indoors ^TM” rescued the one who was crying.

..

As we walked I ran my “Map My Walk” app. At the end of the walk it disagreed with my GPS; the two were half a mile adrift. Is that good or bad? Mind you I’ve always thought my GPS over-estimated distances.

After seven (or seven and a half) miles we were back where we started. We said our goodbyes and I dozed for much of the way home.

I’d taken a few photos as we walked, and once home I told the Internet about them, and after a quick cuppa we got ready for the evening.

 

Steve, Sarah and Chris came round and we had a very good evening playing on the Infinity table. Game of Life, Sorry, Ticket to Ride, Yahtzee… I even won a couple of games.

Today has been busy…