The Other Stu

I'm afraid that 35mm film cans are akin to Italians on 20m Stu M0MMZ

Am I the only person who takes the car? But seriously, like most others, I need a phone. I'm terrible at finding caches so i frequently need a PAF.

I think I speak for Hazey when I say that the Cheshire event is open to anyone who wishes to camp. It's not cliquey and anyone who would want to camp (and has never geocamped) would be most welcome and would be made to feel welcome if they joined in. The problem becomes those who a. don't read the forum and b. don't have bookface (or don't use the geocamping group) because we can't advertise it through the weekly email which is where most people find out about events. Can we advertise it through our own caches? I know we're not allowed to mention commercial things, but surely this doesn't fall into that trap?

Firstly, I know it's not my thread and I'm sure Nobby Nobbs could hold his own on this one.... Nothing could be further from the truth. If truth be known Nobby Nobbs held an unofficial camping event. Quite a few people attended. It wasn't necessarily cliquey and a lot of people were invited, in fact I'm sure in the future we'll open them up via facebook groups to anyone who is a member of the UK Geocaching Camping group (free to enter an join). There have been some that haven't been listed on GC.com by other people. I didn't know the people, but I considered going. Unfortunately, we've done about 10 this year and as I'm sure you can imagine, running a campervan and camping every other weekend doesn't come cheap! Anyways, back to the thread. Whilst I understand that we can have day charges for campers, I have another query? I recently held a camping event which coincided with my Birthday. Because of this, I picked up the tab for the food/hall in the evening. However, in the future, we may hold this event again, but have a charge to attend which will include a Buffet. There will be of course camping on site for those who want it for a small additional charge, but it's not mandatory. Are we saying that that would be OK? The other thing is what if I hold a camping event on a campsite that doesn't allow day visitors? As someone said, many don't allow day visitors (go have a look at UKcampsite).

I have added my response to Keehotee's request (and quoted one of the events here). I think that rather than being to the detriment of events, it could improve some. What is this whole "event smileys" thing about anyway? I know that many of us care about how many caches and so on we've found, but events? Does anyone actually care that you've attended 43 events in the last 6 years? I've often found too that the people that complain about events, ALRs and suchlike are the ones that have found 000s of caches, put out 3 and never held an event. Out of interest, can someone quote me the rule that says that event caches must be open to all? I've been reading the new, amended rules and they state as follows: I've bolded the words "open to other geocachers". It doesn't say "open to all geocachers" neither does it say "open to some geocachers", however, the inference of open to all has been removed. Let's say that 'cacher X puts out a new event. This event is at the top of an open building, hundreds of feet in the air, I wouldn't be able to attend. I don't like heights. So there you have it. I can't go. It's not open to me. And I'll leave this one here. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=4f7925b1-413b-400b-8db8-5759c1d891ef It's called the "Boat only" event and not only implies, but confirms this. From the cache page: I no longer have a boat, so I can't come.

I'm sorry you didn't post this last week or you could have come to my Birthday party in Ridgmont. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=88ec8809-7d56-4393-b4e8-2616b5b6a3ba Anyways, we have a monthly meet for Beds, Bucks and Herts cachers. They are generally central to the whole are, often on a Wednesday or Thursday evening. This month's is supposedly being held in Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead, but it's not out yet. In the past, we've held them in Leighton Buzzard, Wendover, Aylesbury, Luton and beyond. I was going to suggest at some stage that we hold one of the monthly events either in Ridgmont or Stewartby as they're easy places to get to (not to mention that there are a number of local cachers). We're currently on event #44 (I think).

Ha ha ha. I've set the photo as my Bookface profile pic. And thanks for all the "ooh, you look good in that" comments

yup, I'm replacing mine. Key safes are worse than 35mm film cannisters for keeping logs dry. They end up being a bunch of mush. Useful because they already have magnets on but that's about it.

We currently have way too many hobbies.... Currently, doing our intermediate RSGB licence Dawn's collecting WAB squares Fixing up the campervan (a never-ending story) Gardening / Allotment Cubs Lots of other things like Golf that I wish I had more time for, but do try And somehow, we try and fit camping, geocaching and running a house around this not to mention both working full-time......

I'm with Mark and Lynn on this one - I like the difficulty idea. What I do try and do and I think some advice should be given on this is consider (as someone else pointed out) BPC - before paperless caching. I often come across hints which I'm lucky, we have a Colorado, but some people have GPSers that don't do paperless or choose not to use that side of things. "Low in ivy" is perfectly valid. "When you get to Ground Zero, you will see a lovely house towards the green valley. Look up at the chimney and it will remind you of a place in Egypt. When you have that place in mind, think of the person that should be buried there. Then think of your Uncle Jimmy and think what he might have thought of the current governments power sharing. When you've done all this, then the cache is somewhere between the devil and the deep blue sea." is probably not a valid clue (I've actually seen worse!) Consider that some people might actually enjoy decrypting hints.

We had a resolution last year to do 500 caches in a year. Doesn't sound difficult for many, but we don't have just 1 hobby and I have my kids every other weekend who don't like caching. I work so that makes caching in the week difficult which leaves us 2 days every other week. We almost always have something to do on 1 of the days so that leaves us just 26 days caching a year. That's an average of just under 20 each time we go out..... Needless to say we missed it. I think we did about 400 which I didn't think was bad going. Next year, however, we have a new mission. To cache as many 10k OS squares as possible and to try and only do quality caching. So if this means finding 1 cache a day, that's fine, as long as it's a good quality one.

I always believe everything I read on the internet, especially when there's nothing to support it on the police web site. And Facebook is an especially reliable source. Careful now, one might think you might be an expert in Computer Security Talking of which, our local Police kindly forwarded the email on about PCS charging £315 for calling to collect your parcel. A 2005 part myth that was killed off in court in 2006........ I replied to them asking if they had anyone who did IT Security in Bedfordshire Police or at least someone who read security reports (or even knew how to Google "Urban Myths")

And, to be fair, the other way round too. I have seen some really difficult mental puzzles and challenges as 5/5 - which doesn't actually reflect the final which is often a quick hike through some woods.

A lot of these people are going to have a massive shock if the "Right to Roam" laws get changed (as is expected)

That, I would agree with. The Tiger will tell you that I'm pretty good at self-navigation - take me somewhere twice and I'll never need maps or sat-nav to get me around. Problem is, if you've been using Sat-Nav, there's a huge danger that you don't actually become aware of your surroundings and you don't learn.

And people like me in Bedfordshire who are for some things are East Midlands, East Anglia, Southern England, Home Counties and South-East England. We're odd people, us! And I drive 14 miles to work in the morning with something like 8 boundary changes.

Not sure about that... I have a series of 8 caches, all can be logged in their own right but they have to be found in sequence. The first is listed as a traditional as the co-ordinates quoted give the location of the box. That box contains the location of the second cache. The second cache contains the location of the third and so on. The second and all subsequent caches in the series are listed as 'multi-caches'; the quoted co-ordinates for them being a parking place suitable for the whole series [the same quoted co-ordinates for all 7 subsequent caches]. They were listed as multi-caches on the advice of the reviewer at the time. Yes, I agree. The additional caches cannot be found as "standalone" caches so they are multis. I think we're all agreeing on this.... I'm with Mark too - if you have 6 trade caches and a bonus, the bonus is simply a multi. I'm hoping that Paul will pop back on and explain a little more.....

I asked this question a while ago - if I was to set a series with the final being something you have to grab coordinates from each cache, I was told it was a multi. If there are additional things (like doing a search on the interweb) then it becomes a puzzle. Unless I've been told wrong.... If you read the guidelines of a Multi-Cache, it says in this case, surely finding 10 containers (even if they are individually logged as 10 individual traditionals) is covered in that wording?

Kev, In fairness, you live in micro land - in so much that it's actually very difficult to place anything but (although some have been successful) I'm grumbling about people like me who live in the back end of nowhere who end up chasing nanos on streetsigns when there's a huge evergreen bush next to the sign!

Oh how I want to second that one! Or it goes dark (like it did to us 3 times last week when I was off) and we didn't have any torches because ours were all in our campervan which was at the doctors.....

I don't think other people would be particularly impressed if I replaced theirs!

OK, I've become a grumpy old git (and I'm not yet 40 - honest!) I really enjoy caching and I especially like a series where there are very few micros. My kids also appear to grumble considerably less. I'm not saying there isn't a place for micros and nanos - in urban areas especially, there is often a call for them. I've got 2 series out at the moment - the Woburn Series and the Leighton Linslade caches which can be done in a circle if wished. I've started a project whereby I am going to replace as many nanos and micros as possible and replace them with proper plastic and metal boxes. I guess the aim of my scheme is thus: When you're placing caches, remember the magic slogan: Why place a micro when you could place an Ammo Can? Anyone else care to join me in my amnesty scheme? Also, before placing a cache especially in urban areas, perhaps people should consider whether or not there is any merit with bringing people to a particular site.

You're really not committed are you? Saying that, Snow causes muchness problems. As for the nanos mentioned above: I've just started a project to convert as many of my nanos and 35mm film pots as possible to proper tupperware (Ammo cans where necessary). I think we should all consider whether we could all do the same? in fact, I'm going to start a topic

Do you lot realise how hilly the Lakes are? It's 112 miles of absolute killer terrain.... now if anyone was to do a similar idea in Norfolk.......

I'd be interested in this - providing they really were drive bys (see the "nano" thread). Searching for 20 minutes on hands and knees isn't really a drive by. And yes, I'm sure I mentioned the "Drive in the Country" series in my earlier post. In all honesty, drive-by series for me should be possible with a TomTom only (other brands of Navigational aid are available). I see them as being full-size caches, full of lovely tat and toys and all being as near to 1/1 as possible. I'd put a series out myself, but the cache police round my way would complain that they "weren't in keeping with mindless urban nanos"