No luck. Had a great GPSr fix, and found two places that I thought would be perfect cache hiding places, but one was empty, and the other was full of the litter of some inconsiderate
barbequers: I wonder if the latter used to be the location of this cache, and that it was destroyed by these litterbugs when they left their plastic cups, plates, and burnt-out
disposable barbeque there?
I wasn’t carrying so much as a backpack, or I’d have done a litter-pick. Makes me sad to see such a beautiful landscape being destroyed by folks who won’t take their rubbish home with
them.
I don’t know what chrisabarker is talking about: it was a little blustery, but wonderful weather for a quick job up Sugar Loaf Hill! I went up on the morning, as I woke up earlier than
the folks I was training during an away weekend for a voluntary organisation I’m part of, and loved finding this wonderful cache (and in
such a beautiful area!). TFTC.
My 100th cache find turned out to be also my most-Southerly find so far, and also turned out to be a most-spectacular little hiding place. After walking up and down the path a bit with
fleeblewidget and her mother, while our GPSrs got their bearings, we managed to pinpoint the
location almost exactly, but we were still clueless. Eventually, it was fleeblewidget‘s mother
– completely new to caching – who decided to investigate what turned out to be exactly what we were looking for! A most-wonderful cache; thanks!
Coming up having just found Not Much Room, we didn’t think to continue along the footpath and instead took the road,
leading to a long double-back: whoops! Found the viewpoint easily (although recent tree growth has somewhat blocked the view), and – soon afterwards – the cache. Took a copy of the
address of the Carstens in Nindorf to send them a postcard, and signed the log. TFTC.
Is this really the most-famous visitor to Jersey? Didn’t Queen Victoria come here? Arguments about relative fame and influence aside, fleeblewidget and I were able to do most of our research on the Internet, and got her mother to find
the stone and extract the numerals as we walked nearby. fleeblewidget‘s mother didn’t feel up
to the trek up to the cache, so she stayed behind. Not having a map, fleeblewidget and I
weren’t able to pinpoint the cache location by any more than its direction and distance, and we took a wrong turning and looped around about twice the distance we meant to before we
found the path upon which the cache resides. Found it quite easily on the way back, despite distraction from a pretty noisesome thrush, singing his little heart out up the tree above.
Lovely place for a cache. Thanks!
Log’s looking a little damp; I should’a brought some silica gel.
I’ve had a few weekends fully of party. It’s no wonder I’m knackered.
Andy’s 30th
First, there was Andy‘s 30th birthday. Ruth, JTA and I slogged our way over to Cardiff to celebrate in style with pizza, booze, and
dancing.
Dancing to Black Lace at Andy’s 30th birthday.
Siân‘s got more to say on the subject, but suffice it to say this: it’s been a long, long time since I’ve found myself dancing in a nightclub until
half past two in the morning, then grabbing a thoroughly disgusting-looking (but remarkably good-tasting) portion of fried food as an after-club snack. Oh, and Alec drooled all over himself long before he
ended up sharing a bed with me.
Honestly, I didn’t think I had it in me to party like that any more: I’m such an old man (having myself turned thirty a good year and a bit prior). Didn’t stop me from getting up before anybody else the following morning
for a quick
geocaching expedition, though…
Summer Party On Earth
The following weekend was the Summer Party On Earth: an event that
started out with Ruth saying “Let’s have a summer party!” and finished as a nostalgia-themed marathon of epic proportions.
This… was a party with everything. It had kids’ toys like Brio wooden railway, Lego bricks, and a marble run; it had soup and buffets and a barbeque and cakes; it had board games and
party games and drinking games; it had beer and wine and cocktails; it had the world’s tiniest and most-nettley geocaching expedition… and from the time that we first started
entertaining guests to the moment that the last of them left, it lasted for an exhausting 36 hours.
Some early guests play Ca$h ‘N’ Gun$, a live-action game of gun-toting gangsters.
It was particularly interesting to get together with people from all of our varied social circles: workmates, former workmates, local friends, distant friends, partners of friends… all
kinds of random folks coming to one place and – for example – pointing foam guns at one another.
Gareth, Rory and Adam put the finishing touches on their (second) wooden railway layout. I’m pretty sure we ‘lost’ them for more than half of the party as they disappeared into the
‘playroom’.
In order to help us identify, classify, and dispose of some of the vast collection of booze that Ruth has recently inherited, JTA invented a drinking game. What can I say about it?
Well: it certainly brought us all a lot closer together to suffer through some of the drinks we were served…
Everything seems a little blurry, and Alec isn’t grimacing as much as he did with some of the other drinks he’s been forced to try.
As usual for any party at which Ruth caters, everybody was required to consume their own weight in (delicious, delicious) desserts, and we only just finished eating the very last of the
party food, almost two weeks later.
Matthew & Katherine’s Wedding
Finally, then, just the weekend after that, was the wedding of two folks I know via the Oxford Quakers: Matthew
and Katherine.
Matthew and Katherine cut the cake in the garden of the Quaker Meeting House.
I turned down the curious “What to expect at a Quaker wedding” leaflet as I entered: after all, I felt like an old-hand now, after helping make Ruth & JTA’s wedding into one of the most spectacular events ever. Well, maybe I shouldn’t have, because every wedding is as different as every bride
and groom, and Matthew and Katherine’s was no exception. They’d clearly put so much thought into exactly what it is they wanted to do to celebrate their special day, and – with their
help of their friends and family – had pulled everything together into a beautiful and remarkable occasion.
The céilidh. More weddings should have cèilidhean.
For me, particular highlights included:
One of the most adorable couples ever.
Not just a “vegetarian-friendly” meal, but one where vegetarianism was the norm (and guests were required to state if
this wasn’t okay for them).
Catching up with folks who I don’t see as much of these days as I might like (and meeting new people, too).
A céilidh! More weddings should have these (although it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a “first dance” where the bride and groom were given
instructions on what steps to do right before the music started).
After a few nettle stings and a little bit of stretching, found this little cache and dropped off a travel bug. Maybe somebody could help it find its way to an airport?
The “hardest” cache on our list for this morning turned out to be the easiest, as we walked along and just spotted it (we were helped by the fact that it appeared to be disguised in the
same way as “Trainspotting”, which we’d just come from). Strangely, it doesn’t seem to fully fit its description here, but it was definitely in the right place and was certainly signed
by some of the recent visitors, so I guess we found it!
Not too many nettles to sting us, this time, but a few.
After we didn’t find it immediately, my friend and I looked at the hint, and it threw us completely off course! Knowing something about the cache led us to look on entirely the wrong
side of the road! We eventually found it after bunster18 (the cache placer) appeared and pointed in its direction. What an embarrassing start to our morning’s caching!
Woke up early while visiting friends Restlessboy and pickettywitch, so went out for a walk and found this lovely little cache while I was out. Took “Vegas
Here We Come!”, because anywhere I leave it has to be closer to an international airport than here! TFTC!
After a few years break, I’m once again heading up to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. As on previousocassions, I expect to spend a lot of time enjoying Peter Buckley Hill‘s Free Fringe, which is just about the best thing to happen to the
Fringe ever. And this time, I’m going to be better-prepared than ever. I’ve made a map.
You can be better-prepared, too, because my PBH Edinburgh Free Fringe Map 2012 is here for you, as well.
Sharing is caring, so I’ve made the map available to you, too. Click on the picture to see the map. Because it’s in Google Maps it ought to work on your mobile phone. If
you’ve got GPS then you can get lost in Edinburgh in high-tech ways you never before thought possible. Click on any given venue for a web address where you can find a list of events
that are occurring at that venue.
Or if you’re really nerdy, you can download the KML and go geocaching-for-comedy. Just me? Okay then…
Update: you can now view the map on the frontpage of the Free Fringe website, too.
Second of my three quick cache runs this morning while running ahead of a lunchtime appointment. My pen had stopped working, though, so I couldn’t sign the log. Great hiding place!
Found with some difficulty as there’s been scaffolding erected in front of the cache: takes some reaching to get past it, and also attracted me some strange looks from passers-by: not
sure it’s going to remain a good place for a cache while the scaffolding is there! Pen had stopped working earlier in the day so I couldn’t sign the log. TFTC.
Found with fleeblewidget, pacifist_049, and misterjta (the latter of which spotted it in no time at all despite the low light). TFTC: it’s been a
while since I’ve been out on the hunt!
