25 April 2024 (Thursday) - Little Pond Finished

I found myself in a rather thoughtful mood as I scoffed toast this morning. Facebook told me a friend was having a birthday today. I first met this chap in September 1984 when I started working with him. We worked together through thick and thin until August 2011 when I was sent to work elsewhere. Having been in very close company for twenty-seven years, that was it. I ran into him totally by chance once morning several years ago when I was doing a spot of geocaching before a late shift, but apart from that, I’ve not seen him at all in thirteen years.

Another Facebook friend was also having a birthday. Someone who I would see regularly on holidays ad high days back when I was into kite flying. Again, someone I’ve not heard from in years.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

 

There wasn’t a lot happening on Facebook this morning. Seeing it was eight o’clock and she’d slept through her alarm again I kicked “er indoors ^TM” out of bed. Once the dogs had scoffed brekkie we went off for our walk.

As we drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing the Shadow Transport Minister who was talking about Labour’s plans to re-nationalise the railways. She made the point that at the moment when a train runs late it could be a problem with the train, the track, the signalling, or an issue somewhere else. All of which are run by different companies and there are three hundred lawyers currently employed to sort out who is to blame. That’s one saving that could be made right away.

As we drove through the town centre there were countless children on bikes on their way to school; all with those silly white things in their ears. Let’s not pretend to be surprised when they get splatted, eh?

 

We got to the woods, and had a rather good wander round the woods. A shorter walk today; just over three miles. As we walked up the slope back to the car park we met a youngish lady and her dogs and Morgan and Bailey had a great game of chase with them. And when I shared treats with them, Treacle was quite happy for me to do so. Before we started Dog Club there is no way she’d allow a non-family dog to have a treat.

We’d started our walk early today as rain had been forecast. As we drove back into Ashford so the heavens opened.

 

We came home for a cuppa, then leaving “er indoors ^TM” having a finance meeting I went to Bybrook Barn. Needing a length of black hose for the new little pond’s filter (ninety-nine pence) I spent over sixty quid. Four phlox plants, some garden ornaments, bird feeders and bird food too. “er indoors ^TM” has this idea she’d like to watch the birds as she works, and a bird feeder might entice our feathered friends. It might… at the cost of those fat balls I hope it does.

 

With the rain stopped I thought I might crack on in the garden. I disassembled the new pond’s filter waterfall thingy and plumbed in the new hose. As planned, being black it is nowhere near as obvious as the one it replaced. I then arranged a few rocks and stones around it.

Then I sorted the shingle. Having scraped it all out of the way last Friday, I scraped it all back again today. Then I rearranged rather heavy stone garden ornaments before emptying weeds out of the smaller stone planters and putting the phlox in them. I took a deep breath and then swore at the dogs as they tried to dig them out again.

After three hours I decided that enough was enough and painted the sleepers. With them painted that would stop me walking across them and doing any more fiddling about.

I put the new garden ornaments onto the shed, then logged into the wi-fi booster. Hopefully this will allow us to use the house wi-fi in the garden. If it don’t I’ve still got gigabytes of mobile data I never use.

 

With my back aching I came in and made us both a cuppa. I had cake (I’d got some when at the garden centre earlier). “er indoors ^TM” didn’t; she had a Penguin biccie. Each to their own, eh? More cake for me.

As I swilled cake I priced up what I’d spent on the little pond. Bearing in mind I got the waterfall at half price (as it was ex-demo) and that some of the odds and sods were recycled or already licking about in the shed, by the time I’ve paid for the fish (hopefully next week) it will have cost me two hundred and fifty quid. That’s not bad, really.

I then had a stroke of genius (I have those from time to time) and bodged together a little bracket to the old upright which used to hold the insect house (until it fell to bits). I was about to set up one of the new bird feeders on it, but rain stopped play. I’ll do that tomorrow.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching another episode of “Taskmaster”.

My face is glowing… I seem to have caught the sun today. Somehow. 

24 April 2024 (Wednesday) - Busy, Busy

I slept well, and made toast in a toaster which did that which was expected of it this morning. A minor result.

I scoffed toast whilst peering into a frankly dull internet. Squabbles abounded on the Facebook pages I follow. Garden ponds, Radio Four programs, no matter what the subject someone will argue about it.

I downloaded bank statements, got some cable ties from the shed, and got ready for the morning.

Seeing the geo-feds had given me the thumbs-up for what I’d planned yesterday I thought I’d better get that new geocache into place so I took the dogs to the woods. As we drove the pundits on the radio were talking about shoplifting in the UK. Apparently you can’t prosecute anyone for nicking anything worth less than two hundred quid from a shop, and the scum element know this. There was an interview with some chap who runs a co-op in Islington who said that shoplifting costs him tens of thousands of pounds every year. He also said that he calls the police every time he catches someone thieving and they turn up maybe three times out of every ten times he calls them.

This tells me that it is time that we as a society admit that the police force isn’t fit for purpose, and need to think about a better way to make the world a better place.

 

We got to the woods and walked a round trip of four miles. Once we were away from the car park we didn’t see anyone other than the forestry workers. I think one of them told Morgan off; as we were walking up to where they were working Morgan came running up to me (he’d been running free up till then) and he stayed by my side whilst we walked past where the work was going on.

Mind you, the forestry workers don’t help themselves. They make a point of throwing food to the dogs when they are on a break, and then wonder why the dogs want to go see them the next time we pass.

 

With the fake owl geocache tied to a tree we came home, and I unplugged the water pump for our new small pond and extracted it, and wired in the new power socket I’d bought yesterday. I then plumbed the new filter which arrived this morning and was amazed that I’d spent over three hours on what would seem to be such a simple task. I’m not sure I like the water feature head, and the white hose to the waterfall needs to be replaced… but I’ll worry about that tomorrow.

As I worked my phone had beeped with the news that the geocache we put out this morning had gone live, and as I got on with the ironing so I got a message that the thing had been found. There’s always something of a sense of relief when someone finds a new cache that I’ve hidden… it shows I’d done it right.

 

As I ironed I watched the last two episodes of “Gunpowder”. When you think about it the Gunpowder Plot was frankly ridiculous, but what is more worrying is that a lot of people still take that sort of religious twaddle seriously.  

I then got busy in the kitchen and boiled up dinner. “er indoors ^TM” came home and we scoffed it whilst watching the first episode of the new series of “Taskmaster”; five new contestants of which I’ve heard of one.

 

I might have an early night…

23 April 2024 (Tuesday) - This n That

I slept well. I woke to the sound of “er indoors ^TM”’s alarm, then went back to sleep. As did “er indoors ^TM”. I woke an hour later, woke everyone else, and made toast. The toaster was being difficult again; it cooked the toast but wouldn’t let it go.

Once I’d extracted it I scoffed it as I peered into the internet. I saw that there’s a minor issue with the geocaching app I use. For some reason it is no longer available on Google Play, and the chap who made it says it isn’t financially worth his while to re-list it. He intends to launch it as a new product, and rather than making a one-off payment he wants people to pay a monthly fee. The chap is talking of a tenner a year or a quid a month.

I will happily pay as I use the app not just for geocaching but for finding my way all over the place… but when you think about it you see the chap ain’t daft. Why settle for a one-off payment of ten quid (which I paid years ago) when you can get a regular stream of cash every month?

And there was a load of jingoistic ranting about St George’s Day on one of the local Facebook pages from those who haven’t realized that the British Empire is long gone.

 

I got the leads on to the dogs and we went for our walk. When I made the decision to archive loads of my geocaches that were all over the place and put out loads in Kings Wood, it was because having them all there would make maintenance easier. I could do it on a dog walk. And that’s what I did today. Over the weekend I’d had two reports of issues. One missing cache and one broken cache. Neither were anywhere near a car park and they were a mile apart. In a round trip of four miles we replaced both and found a spot for another cache. The dogs chased squirrels… I say “chased squirrels”; for every squirrel they chased there were a dozen shadows.

 

We came home for a cuppa, and then I managed to get all of the rubbish I intended to get rid of into the car and set off to the tip. Unlike many previous visits, today’s tip run passed off rather uneventfully, which was something of a result.

And then I went to B&Q…

I needed an outdoor power socket. They weren’t where they used to be. I asked an assistant where I might find them. He grunted and waved in the general direction of the other end of the store. I eventually found what I wanted, but couldn’t find a plug to go with it. I asked another assistant who just said “aisle eleven”. I explained I’d been up and down aisle eleven but couldn’t find them. She repeated “aisle eleven” and turned her back. As I was again looking in aisle eleven a third assistant came past. I asked for help; she snapped she was too busy to help me. I told her not to worry; I would go to Wickes. As I walked out three more assistants were sneering at the customers struggling with the self-service tills. So far this year I’ve spent over a hundred quid with them… can’t say I’m very inclined to spend much more.

 

I drove into town. Having a few minutes spare I went into Starbucks and treated myself to a fudge Frappuccino. It was rather good.

I then went on to the bank. Sadly the woman on the phone yesterday wasn’t much help, but the chap I spoke with today was rather good.

I came home via Wickes where the staff were cheerful and helpful, and I got what I needed. The outdoor power socket I bought has a wi-fi booster so maybe I will be able to use the house wi-fi in the garden. That will be fun…

 

Once home I took the dogs up the garden to do the “Feed The Fish”; fish feeding has become one of the highlights of their lives. I thought about cracking on in the garden, but decided to have one day of not doing hard physical labour. Instead I wrote up the website for the new geocache I found a location for this morning. I shall hide the thing tomorrow.

 

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a very good dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the last episode of the current series of “Hunted”. It strikes me that these contestants make hard work of it. If I was a contestant, once I’d got away at the start (and that would be the trickiest bit) I’d lie low for a few days shave my head and grow a beard… and that’s the face recognition CCTV stuffed.

22 April 2024 (Monday) - ... Treason and Plop

The toaster had a little episode in that it wouldn't actually toast anything this morning. I have a vague recollection of “er indoors ^TM” having had a fight with it yesterday claiming something inside had caught fire. I gave it a clout and it eventually did that which was expected of it. I just hope that when the machines rise up the toaster will have forgotten this morning's altercation.

After I'd gone to kip last night “er indoors ^TM” had been at the new telly, and it all works through the Sky-Q handset now, and starts up in Sky-Q mode (as it should) rather than in some strange Amazon thingy mode.

I scoffed toast as I stared at the telly. It was playing the first episode of "Fat Friends"; a show originally broadcast over twenty years ago. I won't be bothering with the second episode; it boiled my piss. Being a fat sod myself (and having been so for most of my life) there is nothing more irritating that people banging on about how fat they are when in fact they are quite substantially thinner than I am.

 

I set off to work. As I drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing the leader of the Scottish Green Party. This chap had come on to the radio  having already decided what he was going to say, and he started talking and talking about heaven only knows what. When asked any questions he just kept talking. He spoke over the interviewer every time the chap tried to say anything, and flatly refused to answer the questions put to him.

He won't be getting my vote... 

 

I got to work and cracked on. As I peered down the microscope I made a few phone calls.

I phoned the pension people. Apparently I won't get any formal notification about my pension payments; there is no equivalent of a payslip which comes with the wages. I asked how I find out what tax I've paid on my pension... it seems I don't.

I phoned the bank's helpline to arrange an appointment at the local branch tomorrow. It wasn't easy. I *think* the woman I spoke to said to just turn up at the branch and that I didn't need an appointment, and that I should also book an appointment on-line.

I booked one on-line just in case.

I left a message for the ENT people at the local hospital to chivvy up the date of my nasal re-bore. They sent me a text to say I should send them an email.

And I booked a slot at the tip tomorrow. I've got a poggered telly to get rid of.

 

As I worked I was introduced to a new boss. Back in the day when I was management I was a "chief biomedical scientist". These days we have an "operational lead". How times change. To be honest I never thought I was much good as a "chief biomedical scientist" (which is why I gave it up); I know I would be hopeless as an "operational lead".

 

I came home, and “er indoors ^TM” boiled up sausages and chips before going off bowling as she does. I sparked up the new telly. Netflix told me that based on what I’d told it I liked, it thought I might like to watch “Gunpowder”; a drama series based on the Gunpowder Plot.

The first episode was rather good…

21 April 2024 (Sunday) - New Telly

At some point in the heavy lifting of the last few days I poggered my left wrist. It really hurts. I gave up trying to sleep and thought that if I got up and did something then the pain might ease.

I made toast and had my usual look at the Internet. I had an email. My credit rating went up by eleven points this week. That’s nice. I had another dodgy friend request on Facebook from a young lady who would seem to be all tits and no sense. I sent out birthday wishes to people with birthdays today, and wrote up some CPD until “er indoors ^TM” and the dogs emerged.

 

We got ourselves organized and drove out to Lyminge where we went for a little walk following a series of geocaching Adventure Labs. A rather good walk of half an hour or so. It was a shame we couldn’t find the cache at the village sign. We tried for that one seven years ago and failed then as well.

 

We came home for a cuppa, then “er indoors ^TM” helped me with (did all the work) lining the little pond / water feature.

Leaving her tidying up I popped out to B&Q for two more bricks, and then on to Bybrook Barn for more rocks and some pond plants. And with those in place my little pond / water feature is almost complete. There’s pictures of it here. I’m quite pleased with how it came out. I’ve got to arrange the gravel around it a bit better and I want to landscape a rockery in front of it. And I need to take the water pump of off the circuit it is currently on with all the other water features, and have it running all the time. And in a week or so I shall look at introducing some fish.

 

And then the fun started. Our telly has been on the blink for a few days and last night it packed up altogether. We first got it on 24 May 2021 when I wrote “Bearing in mind we got the last telly on 16 January 2010, I’m wondering if this new telly will also do us for another eleven years”. Well, it didn’t. It didn’t last three.

We set up the new telly, and after an hour’s farting about it was ready to go… and it couldn’t connect to the Sky-Q box. We used the “contact Amazon” option and got through to a most unhelpful woman whose only suggestion was that the problem had to be with the Sky-Q box as there was no way that her company’s device could ever be at fault. I was all for taking the thing to the tip, but I had a quick look on the Internet instead. Several people had reported the same problem; and all had cured it by doing a factory reset.

Eventually we had the thing going but it wasn’t easy. Back in the day when you got a new telly the company would send a man to set it all up for you.

 

“er indoors ^TM” popped to the kebab shop to get dinner which we scoffed whilst watching one of the new extended “Bottom” episodes. After the fun of the afternoon it was good being able to watch anything at all.

I’m off to work for the early shift tomorrow… an early night might be a plan. My wrist is better than it was… but still hurts.

20 April 2024 (Saturday) - Worn Out

I had a rather good night’s sleep. Not fighting for any bed space helped. I woke… and could only account for two dogs. Morgan usually huddles up close to me but was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t downstairs or in the garden. Eventually it transpired he’d dossed down on the other side of “er indoors ^TM”.

 

I made toast and had my usual rummage on the internet. I sent out birthday wishes to those having birthdays, and hard cash to those with birthdays coming up. A colleague is doing a sponsored run for her birthday, so I sponsored.

And then I found myself pondering. “The Red Pig” has closed down. The Red Pig is a little van which sells rather good food at Pett Level. We’ve been in it on occasion. The menu is excellent and the people friendly. Three days ago they were advertising for staff. Yesterday they posted on Facebook saying they had closed for good and today the business is up for sale. It’s none of my business, but I’m a rather nosey person and can’t help but wonder what is going on.

 

We set off to Dog Club. There had been a message that there was a fox den in the top corner of the paddock we use. I went and had a look and couldn’t see anything. Mind you our group operates at the other end of the paddock. We had a great time. There were about fifteen dogs along today. Treacle had her ball, Morgan and Bailey scrounged treats, other dogs wallowed in mud. Dog Club is such a simple idea, and the dogs love it so much.

Having a birthday today Steve wasn’t on the radio. His stand-in wasn’t the same. The “Mystery Year” was 1968…  who remembers anything from then? And the “Guess the Lyrics” competition might as well have been from Beethoven for all that I knew.

We took a circuitous route home via various Munzees getting Level Three on this month’s Munzee Clan War. Not much more to do for Level Four.

 

Once home we had a cuppa then I cracked on in the garden. I sawed two of the sleepers in half, then painted the sawed ends. And then remembered that when I’d painted the sleepers the other day I’d intended to come back to them and paint the ends that were on the ground. So I painted those. And whilst I was ai it I painted the water feature I’d moved yesterday.

I then scraped all the gravel out of the way for the new water feature/mini pond (that took some doing), and built the box. As space is tight where it is going, I built it in place. “My Boy ^TM” would have been so proud of me – I used a spirit level. With the box in place I enlisted the assistance of “er indoors ^TM” and we took an old blanket to protect the bottom, and then got the liner roughly in place. Even roughly took some fiddling about. To get the liner in place better we three-quarters filled it with water…

And stopped.

Four hours was enough. It can settle and leak-test overnight

 

I had a little sit down whilst “er indoors ^TM” went to fetch “Darcie Waa Waa ^TM”. “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM” is being bridesmaid at a wedding and this afternoon was make-up practice. Is this a new thing? I never had make-up practice when I got married.

We had a fun few hours with littlun. We started with the obligatory dog snogging, then played “Hide and Seek”. Littlun would go into the bathroom, count to whatever number she fancied in the strange numbering system she has made, then come and either find me in the toilet, or her grandmother behind the kitchen door.

She thought this was hilarious - this went on for over an hour before she lost interest.

We then played a game where she climbed up and down the stairs and I supervised to make sure she didn’t fall. That only lasted half an hour.

I was worn out when it was time for her to go home.

19 April 2024 (Friday) - Rain Stopped Play

After yesterday’s eighteen thousand steps and a lot of heavy lifting in the garden I rather ached this morning.

I made brekkie and had my usual peer into Facebook. There was mild consternation on some of the Rye-based Facebook pages as their Town Crier (an old schoolfriend of mine) had been photographed with a large bottle of water in his trouser pocket, and the photo was getting entirely the wrong sort of publicity.

 

Seeing the Microsoft and BBC weather forecasts were at odds with each other I took pot luck and took the dogs out anyway. Both forecasts predicted rain; but differed in how soon.

As we drove to the woods Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis were being interviewed on the radio. Their long-running “Now Show” is finally coming to an end, and they were saying how difficult it can be to make a funny current affairs program. With pretty much nothing but the war in Gaza having been in the news for months, and war not being particularly amusing they were saying it is tricky to find anything the public has heard about to which they can relate.

I can remember going to see Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis at the Lees Cliff Hall when they were part of “The Mary Whitehouse Experience” and they were hilarious. But that was thirty years ago. About twenty years ago they were at the Gulbenkian theatre in Canterbury when they were just smug. Hugh Dennis is rather good as a straight actor… perhaps it is time to give up the comedy? Sadly I’ve not found them funny for years.

There was also a lot of talk about how many children are using social media. There were quite a few knee-jerk reactions on the radio this morning. It strikes me that rather than banning what we cannot ban, we should look at how to deal with the reality of it.

 

We got to the woods. Admittedly an hour earlier than yesterday, but the car park was much emptier, and once away from the car park we walked for an hour and saw no one. We walked a rather shorter walk today; I was conscious of the weather forecast. But we got back to the car with no rain.

 

Once home I made us both a cuppa, and then went into the garden and made a start on rebuilding the water feature I’d moved yesterday. But after a few minutes the rain started. I came in and fiddled about on my lap-top. I updated my map of sink holes in Kings Wood. I’ve now found sixteen of the things ranging in size from a couple of metres across to twenty metres across.

I had a look at my bank account. There was a lot more money than I thought there should be. It would seem my pension has been paid. That’s a result.

And then I saw the rain had stopped. I went back into the garden and got that water feature rebuilt. I’ve not got the shingle round it just right yet; it needs a lick of paint and the wood got rather wet as I was testing. I then started scraping brindle chippings about in readiness for the next phase of gardening… as best I could. Treacle did insist on getting in the way.

And then the rain started again.

 

I gave up and came inside and put a load into the washing machine. I cracked on with the ironing whilst watching a couple of episodes of “Tribes of Europa”. Let’s just say that the viewing figures were bad enough for it not to be confirmed for a second season, and with the ironing done I slept through most of the second episode. I shan’t be bothering with the third.

“er indoors ^TM” boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching “Bottom Exposed”; a one-off documentary about the TV show “Bottom”. It was rather good apart from two glaring omissions about which I won’t give any spoilers.

 

Yesterday I ended by whinging about how I ached. Yesterday I ended up doing eighteen thousand steps. Today I only did eleven and a half thousand… but I still ache.

Oh – and the Foxy Morons have got to Uluru… or Ayers Rock as I thought it was called.