28 July 2015 (Tuesday) - Doddington

I slept well, and over brekkie watched an episode of "Dad's Army" that the SkyPlus box had recorded. If the BBC are playing them in order we are now past the black and white episodes and on to the colour ones. I had no idea so many had been made in black and white.

I had a little look-see on-line. Not much had changed in cyberspace overrnight. Mid you the nutters at MessageToEagle (dot com) were pushing a theory that ancient aliens visited Earth to steal all the gold to make black energy. (No - I have no idea what black energy is either)
However in reality there was consternation. Overnight Kent Police had activated Operation Stack again. For those of my loyal readers who aren't aware of the fun we're having, "Operation Stack" is occurring seemingly all the time now. Whenever it is not possible to cross the channel (for various reasons) the local motorway is closed and used as a car park for all the traffic which is waiting to cross the channel. It is incredibly annoying to those stuck in traffic, effectively stuffs up the entire county's traffic, and in true British fashion people have a good old whinge about it on social media.
Personally I feel they'd do far better by following the French example by actually doing something; after all to express displeasure at their misfortunes the French cause Operation Stack for us.
Mind you I'm not sure exactly what we could do. Maybe blockade the M20 at Junction 1 southbound to stop the lorries coming our way in the first place maybe?

Bearing in mind the traffic chaos I set off a little earlier than I might have done for today's little walk. A couple of days ago I'd posted on a geo-forum asking if anyone was free for a stroll in the week. I suggested a few possible routes, and there was some interest in a little walk near Doddington. The geo-series was one I'd originally seen go live on Good Friday. But I was working then. Today seven of us (and one dog) had something of a geo-toddle. Rebecca and Chrissie and four under-fives came with me on a Wheri-wander. I had this idea that the Doddington Wherigo would be ideal for the littluns. It would be fun and appealling to them as it was based on helping the Easter bunny, and because it was billed as an hour's walk it wouldn't be too much for little legs.
Our plan was to do the Wherigo, and pick up any geocaches we walked past on our way. Perhaps I'm an old softie, but I absolutely loved walking with the littluns. I had to consciously slow myself down; I tend to race ahead at the best of times, but I managed to walk at a sensible pace for much of the time. A combination of SmartPhones, wheri-compatible Garmins and a tablet kept the littluns attention and despite a rather biting wind I think the littluns had fun. They enjoyed the geocaching and the hunting out of clues for both a multi and the wherigo.
We found seven geocaches (four icon types) over three and a half hours, (I even took a few photos whilst we were walking). Not the most prolific of days, but I really enjoyed being out with the littluns. If only the fruits of my loin would be more keen on walking (and hunting sandwich boxes) I could take the grandchildren up hill and down dale occassionally.

All too soon it was home time. I took a rather circuitous route hme via Hothfield just to make sure I would be nowhere near Operation Stack's overflow, and having got some petrol we came home. "Furry Face TM" went straight to sleep and over a spot of lunch I watched last night's episode of "Dark Matter" in which our heroes discovered a rather saucy sex-android. They all then did what those of dubious morals would do to sex-androids. Personally I wasn't the least bit surprised when the sex-android went haywire and tried to kill everyone. Possibly I've watched too much sci-fi over the years but most androids tend to run amok shortly after discovery. It seems to be a feature of androids. Hopefully scientists yet unborn will solve this problem when eventually they start making the things for real.
And hopefully they will have enough of a moral compass to just say no to the entire concept of sex-androids.

As the sex-android went haywire for the umpteenth time I had a phone cal from "First Solutions" who wannted to speak wiith me about the loan I took out at some unspecified date during the last thirteen years. Soometimes I just hang up on these nuisance phone calls. Other times I deliberately waste their time for as long as possible; I see this as a public service saving others from the harrassment.
Today I strung them on for at least ten minutes before telling them I had been deliberately wasting their time.

"er indoors TM" came home, woke me up, and told me a new geocache had gone live only a mile away. We popped the lead onto "Furry Face TM", flew out chasing the First to Find and pipped Smidge (or Smudge?) to the post. FTF - happy dance.
With our usual Tuesday plans on hold we then took "Furry Face TM" down to Ham Street for a little walk. I ache a little now...

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