X marks the spot

Went geocaching with the usual suspects yesterday evening - a first for all of us, so we went for an easy cache that was within walking distance. Of course, we would have found it much faster had Chris a) entered the correct cache coordinates, b) entered the coordinates correctly (he mistook degrees and decimal minutes for degrees, minutes and seconds), c) set the GPS to the correct datum and d) not bounded off towards the nearest suspicious-looking thicket like an over-enthusiatic labrador. On the other hand, chasing after Chris (who was holding the GPS) was probably good exercise, even if a labrador would have come to heel more readily. We left a green and silver plaster whelk containing a dollar bill and some batteries, and took the small toy car. Hopefully we've seen the last of this spring's heavy frosts, so the batteries should be okay.

As soon as I can, I'm going to borrow Steve's GPS so that ias and I can try and locate some of the Bath caches - we could do the one by the Royal Crescent without any problems, we already know where this one is, and the one at Sham Castle is less than ten minutes walk from the house.

X marks the spot

Went geocaching with the usual suspects yesterday evening - a first for all of us, so we went for an easy cache that was within walking distance. Of course, we would have found it much faster had Chris a) entered the correct cache coordinates, b) entered the coordinates correctly (he mistook degrees and decimal minutes for degrees, minutes and seconds), c) set the GPS to the correct datum and d) not bounded off towards the nearest suspicious-looking thicket like an over-enthusiatic labrador. On the other hand, chasing after Chris (who was holding the GPS) was probably good exercise, even if a labrador would have come to heel more readily. We left a green and silver plaster whelk containing a dollar bill and some batteries, and took the small toy car. Hopefully we've seen the last of this spring's heavy frosts, so the batteries should be okay.

As soon as I can, I'm going to borrow Steve's GPS so that ias and I can try and locate some of the Bath caches - we could do the one by the Royal Crescent without any problems, we already know where this one is, and the one at Sham Castle is less than ten minutes walk from the house.

Blogs need Best Before dates

The last few weeks have been hectic, workwise. For the best part of a month, I've been working stupidly long days (twelve to fourteen hours), so haven't had the opportunity to gather my thoughts and make anything resembling a coherent post about any of the the things that have pleased me, irked me or otherwise passed me by. The ones I can still remember:

• ias and I went on the demo that followed the outbreak of war in the Gulf. We made our own placard ("THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS", with possibly too flippant small print reading "Wooly Liberals Against Bad Things"), rather than be faced with a scramble to get a placard representing an organisation that we wholeheartedly support (CND, the Stop the War Coalition) as opposed to one from a group who brought their other agendas to the demo as well as the core don't-attack-iraq message. For example, MAB ("Don't Attack Iraq", and "Free Palestine"), the Socialist Workers ("Don't Attack Iraq" and "Smash the State"), the Greens ("Don't Attack Iraq" and "Solar Power Not Oil"). I'm not saying that we don't agree with some of the messages - we do with MAB and at least in part with the Greens - but those weren't the reason we were marching.

  (besides which, having your own unique placard makes it easier to spot yourself in the news - you can see our placard on page 5 of the media section of The Guardian on 31st March).

  Also on the march with us were a motley group of Potterphiles of ias's acquaintance, all of whom were jolly good sorts, even if they were all lightweights and didn't get as far as the speeches. Tch, youngsters. Tried to keep a count of the number of different socialist organisations, but lost count somewhere above a dozen.

• Various comments about the war, most of which have been said elsewhere by persons far more eloquent than myself. My personal favourite was William Gibson's comment about the AWOL US Navy minesweeping dolphin. Life imitates art?

Blogs need Best Before dates

The last few weeks have been hectic, workwise. For the best part of a month, I've been working stupidly long days (twelve to fourteen hours), so haven't had the opportunity to gather my thoughts and make anything resembling a coherent post about any of the the things that have pleased me, irked me or otherwise passed me by. The ones I can still remember:

• ias and I went on the demo that followed the outbreak of war in the Gulf. We made our own placard ("THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS", with possibly too flippant small print reading "Wooly Liberals Against Bad Things"), rather than be faced with a scramble to get a placard representing an organisation that we wholeheartedly support (CND, the Stop the War Coalition) as opposed to one from a group who brought their other agendas to the demo as well as the core don't-attack-iraq message. For example, MAB ("Don't Attack Iraq", and "Free Palestine"), the Socialist Workers ("Don't Attack Iraq" and "Smash the State"), the Greens ("Don't Attack Iraq" and "Solar Power Not Oil"). I'm not saying that we don't agree with some of the messages - we do with MAB and at least in part with the Greens - but those weren't the reason we were marching.

  (besides which, having your own unique placard makes it easier to spot yourself in the news - you can see our placard on page 5 of the media section of The Guardian on 31st March).

  Also on the march with us were a motley group of Potterphiles of ias's acquaintance, all of whom were jolly good sorts, even if they were all lightweights and didn't get as far as the speeches. Tch, youngsters. Tried to keep a count of the number of different socialist organisations, but lost count somewhere above a dozen.

• Various comments about the war, most of which have been said elsewhere by persons far more eloquent than myself. My personal favourite was William Gibson's comment about the AWOL US Navy minesweeping dolphin. Life imitates art?