14 May 2018 (Monday) - Before the Late Shift

I woke in something of a panic realizing that I didn’t wash the undercrackers yesterday evening. I’m not sure why such a trivial matter would have bothered me quite so much, but the washing machine chowed down on my shreddies as I scoffed toast.
I then had another fit of panic when I realized that where I’d parked my car becomes a “no parking” zone at eight o-clock and went out to move my car to somewhere legal (whilst still in my jim-jams).
I then looked at Facebook and my heart sank…
I can remember when I came back from a three-week holiday to Canada with the scouts. I came back to work to find a new trainee. That chap was cheeky, friendly, the life and soul of the party. He was a pleasure to work with and a delight to know. Over the years he’s progressed in the profession and as he’s progressed he’s changed. This morning his place of work is going live with some new way of working and he’d posted words of encouragement on Facebook using typical management-speak. The sort of thing a manager would do using the sort of phrases that managers say because they are expected to say them, but don’t fool anyone.
Whatever happened to that happy carefree lad of eighteen years ago?

I got the dogs organised and we went for our usual loop of the park. Over the last few weeks it has been fashionable to run down Ashford council on Facebook recently, but again the park was immaculate and there were council employees out and about keeping the place tidy at half past eight.
We did our walk; we played with other dogs. We came home and barked at the fish in the pond, then as the dogs settled I did some more of my cryptography course. Vigenere ciphers and the Enigma machines… all rather interesting if you like that sort of thing.

As I do when on the late shift I left home with time to spare. I drove down to the Ellingham industrial estate. There is a hand car washing service there; for some years they had a *huge* sign advertising "The best hand job in town". The sign is unfortunately long gone, but I am shallow enough to fall for such blatant advertising. I gave the nice man fifteen quid and they scrubbed my car inside and out. I came away with that "new car" smell. I don't get my car cleaned very often but when I do, I am never disappointed by the nice people in Ellingham.

As I drove toward the motorway "Women's Hour" was on the radio. Some woman was bleating on about how she hates being fat. So do I. However without wishing to be mean, us fatties have a choice to make. Some people are naturally thin. Some are naturally fat. I am one of nature's porkers, and as such I have a choice. I can either suck it up and be fat, or I can diet. And "diet" means eat a *lot* less food than I used to.
That's how it is.
The woman on the radio was banging on about trying all these diets... I've tried the lot. the only ones which work are the ones which involve eating a *lot* less food. And putting up with the hunger pains that go with it. I found myself getting annoyed by this woman who couldn't seem to realise that her cake hole was bigger than her bum hole, so I turned the radio off and sang along to my odd choice of music instead.

I drove up to Aylesford where there is a geocache (no surprises there!). Mind you I say "there is a geocache"... I solved the puzzle over a year ago. I've got the answer right - I've got the "thumbs-up" on the checker. I've found a location which agrees with the given hints (fir tree)... I can't find the thing. I've been there half a dozen times now, and *again* I met with failure this morning.
Mind you I did find the one by the river that I went for after my failure. It was a cache on its own; with none nearby it doesn't get hunted out very often, which is a shame. It is in a beautiful location just by the river.

I then went for some McLunch. Chicken select and McChips - six hundred calories can't be bad.
And then the late shift...

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