Fa-la-la-la it's a lovely day

Today I broke the back of the housework (vacuuming, laundry etc) while Ned walked the dogs, so we decided to take the rest of the day off to play. We went up to Burton Dassett to complete the 'James Bond' cache series which we'd had to abandon a few weeks ago through running out of time and because the microcache part had been abducted to the Hainault area. Luckily we know Burton Dassett reasonably well, so could work out roughly where each waypoint would logically be, and had a thoroughly nice (if steep) time strolling in the sunshine proving ourselves right. We found the cache still safely hidden where it should be, though SimonG's signature bookmark had been exchanged for a pair of bifocals.

It was good to have an excuse to go up to Burton Dassett again, because it's a fantastic place. We used to go there quite a lot when the Boy was small, to walk the dogs, and fly kites, and go rock-climbing (only mini-cliffs of about 10', but enough to make a five-year-old feel really brave!), and sledging in the winter. He and his chums still go up there to sledge when it's snowy, and it's also ideal for 'wargames' where they go up at twilight (and don't have to pay to park!) and play with BB guns and paintballers. Last time they did that, though, someone phoned the police saying that there were 'youths' shooting the sheep, and the lads were very alarmed when a police armed response squad arrived and pointed real guns at them! Once everything was explained, and the policemen (as relieved that it was a false alarm as the boys) had offered cigarettes all round to calm everyone's nerves it seemed like quite an adventure ...

The final happy thing is that Pandora the guinea pig, who hasn't been at all well for a couple of days, seems much better and is talking to us again. Hurrah!