Day 12 - Geocaching

Carpe Diem - up and at 'em!

After yesterday's snooze-fest of a day, I wanted to attack today with vigour. So I got up earlyish, dosed my self up with antibiotics, wheetabix and complan, and started my day:

Charlie - Sophie's cat is coming to stay for a few weeks, so I was tasked with cat proofing our house. To start with I went in search of "Sticky Paws" - a double sided tape which you put on stairs/sofas etc to discourage cats from digging their claws in... First stop - Pets and Home in Harlow - but they were about as much use as a chocolate teapot, so after driving round essex trying to find an alternative, I gave up and got creative!

I have set up an experiment. The bottom step is now covered in cling film - to disguise the fact that it is actually made from carpet.... who knows - Charlie might be stoopid. I have also put two strips of standard double sided sticky tape on another likely stair to be targeted. Lets see which one survives longest!

Chores done, I got my self all kitted out to go Geocaching. A friend of mine in Australia has been banging on at me to have a go for ages, so I figured today was as good a time as any!

I was in search of a small lock-tight box at a particular set of coordinates, and I trecked off through the local medows and fields to go find it. My phone was my guide here - giving me a target on a map and a compas bearing. This all worked fine until I reached the wood where the cache was stashed. Under the canopy of the trees, my GPS did not work so well, and the accuracy went from 1 meter to 20 meters!

Once I was "8 meters" (+- 20 meters) from the target, my phone battery died.

Suddenly I wasn't on a Geocache hunt, I was a guy without a map or compass in a forest stomping around in the undergrowth looking for a lunchbox which someone left there at some point in history, and which may or may not have been stolen by some little toe rag a long while ago.

Bravely admitting defeat to my first geocache adventure, I headed off home, getting completely lost in the forest as what I thought was the path disintegrated into a part-time animal track. But by keeping the sun behind me, I happily stumbled out into a field right next to North Weald train station (pictured), and found a much shorter route home!

So. SO. tired!

I'm dismayed at how little energy I have thanks to my op recovery and liquid only diet....

CBT later. Nap time I think...