End of Term and Great News!

Term ended at Milton Keynes Academy on Thursday, so all the staff gave a huge sigh of relief. It has been as exceptionally long term, basically because of the lateness of Easter this year, and the fact that MK Academy has a totally different year calendar to the rest of the schools around Milton Keynes. On Wednesday there was a fantastic party to thank all the staff for their hard work, including hog roast, pork, salad and all the trimmings and someone who did caricature sketches for free. They did a similar thing last year, but very few people turned up, which was the case at Christmas when a party was laid on for staff. We went to pick up Sam and his girlfriend Emmeline from Shenley and they came with us, as well as Daniel.  It did at least mean we didn't have to cook when we got home. There were staff with their partners and children there, and the children seemed to enjoy the bouncy castle and other games, such as Jenga, which were provided.

We went to bed on Wednesday, and at around 9 o'clock my mobile rang (which is set to alarm for the morning and sitting on the bedside table.) I answered it to find Chloe on the other end. She had some great news for us. She and Steve were on holiday in Scotland. Steve 'popped the question' (as to whether Chloe would marry him, obviously.) when they were up Ben Nevis, to which she replied in the affirmative. This is something we have been waiting for, so it wasn't exactly surprising, but she did say that the wedding wouldn't be for at least another two years. Congratulations to them both!

Writing Novel

Things are progressing well. I wrote around three more pages yesterday.  I've written a further third of a page this morning. It's easier than I'd imagined. Once the thing flows, I just have to keep on writing. I write with a pencil, on a ringbound pad, A4. I have written with a ball-point or a black pen, but I prefer pencil as it's easier to rub things out with an eraser and correct.  I have several pencils and keep them sharpened at all times. I don't like things to be too fixed at this early stage, which is why I don't like ink to write with.  I have worked in the lounge and sat in an armchair to write. It's important that there isn't a lot of noise to distract me. I don't need complicated technology to write on, although I have written other things directly onto word processing software on my computer. I can type reasonably fast. I have now cleared a space in the spare room in this house, and yesterday afternoon, which was a really productive day, I sat at the desk and wrote. I have a comfortable office chair in there. I have an electric dictionary which is good for spell-checking (It's a Franklin Collins English Dictionary, Express Edition,  I got it from Amazon.) I go back over what I have written several times and rewrite if I think it's necessary. Then, when I have quite a few pages, I transfer the whole lot onto Word on the iMac. It's at that point I am able to print it off and read it in draft, and can make further corrections as I read.

Talk Talk Poor Internet Connection

My internet service provider is Talk Talk. We have had quite a few problems with the internet  We have a wi-fi connection. It seems to be fine for other internet-connected computers and gadgets, including Carol's iPod Touch and Daniel's laptop. The iMac has been set up in our bedroom, but the wi-fi signal seems to drop out several times over the course of the day. You have to turn off the Airport on the iMac, and then the actual modem which is downstairs in the lounge, so there's quite often a fair amount of running up and down stairs until the thing resolves itself, but then there can be absolutely no internet connection for a whole day. This has been going on for several months now, but I rang TalkTalk to try and get them to resolve things. There is a point where you have to do something about this sort of thing, so I rang their number and then had to go through quite a few  'menu options' before I managed to speak to a human. I was THEN put through to someone in the 'Technical Department' and they decided that they'd do a test of our line to see if they could detect a problem, because they told me that it wasn't the wi-fi which was causing the problems (but I personally doubt it.) We had to unscrew one of the telephone line boxes, the one in the hall, and then plug the 'splitter' in to the socket which was underneath the cover.
They had my mobile number, because the phone was cut off during this 'line test.' About half an hour later I got a phone call from TalkTalk to say that they'd tested the line and that there had been a poor connection or something somewhere or other and that it was now sorted. So we put the front panel back together and reconnected the splitter (the thing that splits the line into 'broadband internet and telephone, so they can be run together from the one telephone socket.) It seemed to work fine. But I have since found that the iMac upstairs didn't connect any better. Infact, it was just as confounded awkward as it was before the line test. I'm more than ever certain it has to be something to do with the wi-fi and I have since bought the computer downstairs and connected it direct into the modem instead of using the wi-fi. The internet connects quickly and there's no problem. So, to conclude, I reckon that it has to be the wi-fi that has been causing all the problems.

Handle With Care- or perhaps not

The other afternoon I went to the Academy to fetch Carol. As usual, I waited in the reception area and sat on one of the benches. There were many people coming and going, parents come to collect their children, other children leaving (they're not supposed to go out through the front door or through the gate through which cars drive into the campus, for health and safety reasons, but the children still do. Well, it's their fault if they get knocked down and hurt.)  and teachers going home. As I sat and waited, a young man who works there, (a sort of porter/janitor or something, carrying around boxes and putting stuff away when it has been delivered.) was putting a pile of boxes into a trolley, which is one of those all-purpose trolleys used to cart around bags of rubbish, and heavy items. Anyway, there he was, more or less throwing these boxes into this trolley. I imagined at the time that perhaps they contained printer paper or something, and that they must have weighed a fair amount, and, indeed, it wouldn't matter how much dropping or throwing about they received, as the contents wouldn't be damaged in any way.  He was making a great deal of noise about it, as the boxes banged on top of one another in the trolley. He then pushed the trolley away, up the ramp, and around to the entrance to the science department where Carol is based. He came back several times, having, I presume, emptied the trolley (and making as much noise unloading it as loading it, no doubt.) I mentioned this all to Carol, and she was also surprised at the amount of noise he was making about doing the job. She then told me that he was Polish, or at least from one of the former Russian states. Also, that he didn't speak much English, or perhaps one or two words, and his reading of English was even more basic, to say the least. Not that I would hold that against him. If people are prepared to move here and then get a job, I really admire them. It's when they come to this country and expect to take advantage of our welfare system and take all they can from the Benefit system, that's when I object.

 Anyway, to return to the young man and his portering skills. Carol told me that these boxes were clearly marked 'Fragile.' So goodness knows what condition the contents of the boxes were in after all the banging and crashing given to them. She only hoped that the boxes didn't contain glass, bottles of chemicals for the science department, otherwise there would  be leaking bottles and broken glass to contend with. It was the fact that he could barely read English, or perhaps not at all that made me rather anxious. Had nobody thought to at least teach him some basic words of English, particularly 'Fragile' and 'Handle With Care' before they employed him?

Writing Novel

I've written quite a bit today, around a page I suppose (750  words approx.) and I'm going to leave it before I continue as I like to let the thing 'brew.' It is rather like brewing a cup of tea, you let it stand to infuse and the flavour to come out, very similar to composing a story. The longer you leave it, the more you can consider where the characters and plot are going so by the time you return, you have more you can include in your composition.

Noisy Neighbour- Mowing and generally making extraneous noises

Our neighbour is mowing his lawn. Fair enough, you may ask. It may need doing and it is sunny and bright this afternoon, so make the most of it. He can come and mow our lawn any time he likes, particulalrly the front lawn. I can't do it myself, my heart condition won't allow heavy lifting or pushing (a good enough excuse, you may be thinking, and you'd be right.) They make all sorts of odd noises, particularly hammering, sawing, running all manner of electrical equipment, such as something which sounds as if it's a sander or planer. Their dog annoys our dogs, usually Alfie, who stands and stares at the fence where I presume they have their rabbit cages (I think he can hear their rabbits scrabbling around in their cages.) and then, when their dog comes out of their house, it picks a fight with Alfie, who stands his ground and barks loudly. For such a small dog he is extremely brave. The fence, which is between them, is in a really bad state. Not only can Alfie see the other dog, but the fence is at the point of giving up under the assault from the neighbour's dog. I have told the agency about this, but they have done nothing to repair the fence.

Neighbour's son is at home making more noise. Carol teaches him. I begin to wonder whether he's been sent home due to behaviour issues. Or perhaps he's sick. I don't know and I'm not really bothered.

Reading My 'Novel'

I have read Carol some of my 'novel' this morning. I'm not sure whether 'novel' is the right word. It was really strange, because I've been writing this for around a year now, and have kept it to myself for so long, and she's had no idea what it's about, so it's a bit like 'letting it out' into the wider world.  It is very strange. The whole process of writing is so peculiar, you create your own world and then people it with your own characters, and it's so private, to suddenly release it is somehow liberating, if that makes sense. It might be better to call this work a 'sequence' as it's a series of stories set around the same location, and how these intercut with each other. I can't explain it better than that. Once I get going, it's actually quite difficult to stop writing, the words just 'flow.' The planning of the thing is quite important and you have to have some idea where the story is heading, so I have got quite a lot of 'story arcs' planned out, which makes the writing a good deal easier.

Visit To Bedford- Part 2

Having parked the car and paid the extortionate parking fee, I walked to Nick's flat.  I didn't get any change out of that confounded machine, I realise. Bedford Borough Council owes me 10p.

It was a relatively short walk down Chaucer Road and across Bromham Road and then down Ashburnham Road. I got to Nick's flat and he let me in and we spent some time chatting and had a cup of tea together. We then went into the centre of Bedford, where I haven't been for a good four years. I have been over to Bedford briefly on several occasions, one of which was to go to the funeral of Louis Fussell, my former landlord in Rutland Road, but I didn't spend much time wandering around the town centre. So we was interesting to see what had happened to Bedford in the intervening years. I had lived at Beauchamp Court, a block of flats within a stone's throw of the bus station, and was interested to see what had happened as regards the redevelopment of that area. I noticed that two of the blocks of flats had been demolished (over the road from Beauchamp Court.) and that was about all. I can't see how it can take that long to get this work underway and still only have the blocks of flats demolished. Oh dear, things take an exceptionally long time to get done in Bedford, for some weird reason. It took over sixty years for the by-pass to get built, and most of that was because there was endless wrangles over the proposed route.

We ended up in Costa's coffee, which wasn't there when I lived in Bedford (in what used to be Clayton's menswear.) and then we walked through the town centre to Silver Street. What posessed the local authority to put that weird sculpture in there, I can't imagine. It's near Debenhams's and facing the High Street. It's of two enormous faces, made of shiny metal, facing each other. It would look fine on the side of a hill somewhere, and seen from a distance (perhaps behind a few hedges and a tree, to hide it completely, perchance.) But stuck in the centre of Bedford town centre, it looks really out of place. There is another sculpture on the roundabout near the bus station (not far from Beauchamp Court) which I saw as we walked past, and that looks a little better (I think there was a fountain there once upon a time, but that went long ago, sadly.)A little more in keeping with the surroundings than the awful monstrosity in Silver Street. I bet there was an outcry from the Council Tax payers of Bedford over these items, as I bet they cost quite a bit.

I was somewhat shocked at the shabby state of everything. Bedford has been totally neglected over the years, what with empty shops everywhere as a result of the recession (the one in the 1980's and not necessarily the last one, or the current one) as well as the result of the Credit Crunch. There are many new cafes and eating places, which I don't understand. If there's really no reason to visit the place (nothing much in the way of attractions, such as in Oxford, Cambridge, York, Harrogate or similar-sized towns.) why would anyone want to eat there? No theatre, concert hall or anything of much artistic or cultural interest (apart from, perhaps, concerts in the Corn Exchange or  exhibitions at the Cecil Higgins art gallery.) There is the Civic Theatre, which seems to remain steadfastly open, but I can't think why, as it's the most moth eaten place to see a show you could wish to find. I have discovered that the Bowen West Theatre, which was part of DeMontfort University and in Lansdown Road, is empty and awaiting, I presume, the demolition ball, as a result of what is now Bedfordshire University selling all their propeties around there to fund the new buildings in Polhill Avenue. But what a waste of a perfectly good theatre. Why didn't the local authority take it over and keep it as a venue, as it's of a good size, with reasonable site-lines etc, and would be far better than the tatty Civic Theatre which has all the appeal of a village hall with cramped seating, awful backstage facilities and has to contend with the sound of traffic thundering past.

Apart from all of this, you have to contend with traffic thundering through the town. I know there is the newly opened by-pass, but why does traffic still have to come down the High Street and round that idiotic one-way traffic system, which must try the patience of many a passing motorist?

I knew the parking ticket on the car was due to run out at 12.50, so we walked back to my car and I bade farewell to Nick. I had one or two items to buy in Sainsbury's at Clapham Road, which was a short drive from where I'd parked. I got the things I needed and then drove out of Bedford along Shakespeare Road and went out of town via Bromham Road. I then realised that I could get to Milton Keynes by using the relatively new link road from Bromham to Kempston and then to the M1 at Brogborough (the way I'd come into Bedford.) I drove with one of Beethoven's piano concertos playing on Classic Fm, which I tend to have on when I'm driving, and could see some spectacular cloud formations and rain moving across the landscape as I drove back to Milton Keynes.

Visit To Bedford- Part 1

I drove over to Bedford yesterday to visit my friend Nick. Hi Nick if you're reading this! 

I was attempting to leave the house before 9.30, but I couldn't find Alfie. I wanted to put both the dogs in the kitchen, as we don't want them in the sitting room as we have a brand new rug and they have a habit of leaving bits of grass all over it and it takes ages to Hoover it. Anyway, Poppy complied with me and went into the kitchen and I shut the door. Then I called for Alfie, but I couldn't find him anywhere. He wasn't behind the sofa, a favourite place to hide, and he wasn't in the garden. He generally comes when you whistle or call. I looked around the house and called. Then it occurred to me that he might be in our bedroom and under the bed, so I went upstairs to the bedroom and knelt on the floor to have a look under the bed. And sure enough he was there, cowering. He looked really upset, depressed almost. He wouldn't even look at me, and he looked so sad. I think he had an idea that I was going out and leaving him. He really hates being left in the house on his own, even if it's with Poppy. We have recently bought him a bed and put it in the kitchen, as he quite likes to lay on a cushion here, neat the sliding door which leads into the garden. I called Alfie again, but still he wouldn't come out of under the bed. So my next tactic was to go downstairs and fetch a doggy treat, and sure enough he came out! I had to pick him up and carry him downstairs as he was really reluctant to go  on all four legs. So, eventually placed in the kitchen, and having checked that they had adequate water to drink, I shut the door, checked I had my mobile, wallet, loose change and my mobile, went out of the front door, which I locked behind me, and got in the car to begin the drive to Bedford.

I drove out of Milton Keynes towards Kingston, along Standing Way, past Tesco's at Kingston, and out towards the MI at Junction 13, past the Amazon warehouse (having bought quite a lot from Amazon, it seems absurd to think it all comes from that huge warehouse you see at the interchange with the MI and all the other roads, and only a few miles from our home.) There has been considerable work done on the roads here, and it's so much easier and quicker to get to Bedford on the vastly improved dual carriage way. Infact, you can get to Bedford, the A1 and Cambridge really fast now, going via the Bedford by-pass without getting in those awful traffic jams in the centre of Bedford.  It probably takes no more than 40 minutes, all told, from our house in Milton Keynes, to the Black Cat Roundabout on the A1. How many people go past and don't give the town a second thought.?I don't actually blame them, as there isn't a great deal to do there. It once had a good shopping centre, but, sadly, with the recession and now the infamous Credit Crunch, the place has got really run down and rather depressing.
Just as I got on to the new stretch of road towards Bedford near the MI the heavens opened and it rained. The windscreen wipers on our car are somewhat unreliable, and bits have come off the rubber, so they aren't as efficient at removing rain from the car's windscreen as they should be, but at least they worked. As cars and lorries went past me they threw up great clouds of mist and water, making visability even more difficult, but the rain didn't last long, and I was soon driving along in sunshine again.

I'm really surprised how quickly I got to the outskirts of Bedford, and came off the bypass at Kempston. I really didn't recognise the road, the new layout, or, indeed where I was at first, until I went over a roundabout and through a set of traffic lights and found myself in Ampthill Road. It was a fairly fast journey into the centre of Bedford, but then I got stuck in a traffic jam along Prebend Street and over the River Ouse, and then along Midland Road, Ashburnham Road and towards Shakespeare Road, where I had intended parking my car. It always used to be free to park around those streets, Milton Road, Spencer Road and Chaucer Road (my old school, Rushmoor, is not far away in Shakespeare Road, not that I want to be reminded of the awful place. More like Dotheboys Hall in Charles Dicken's novel "Nicholas Nickleby.") I then discovered , having found a suitable place to park, that I had to PAY. I looked vainly for a machine. I do remember that when I lived in Bedford the Council, in all it's eagerness to make a quick buck out of the already hard-hit Council Tax Payer, they'd introduce a pay-to-park scheme. When I did eventually find the machine, I could have paid using my mobile phone, and to add insult to injury, I'd incur a 20p fee into the bargain. It was going to cost me the princely sum of £3.20 for a couple of hours (up until 12.50, to be exact.) It was fortunate that I had the correct coinage on me, put the three one-pound coins into the machine, which were instantly rejected! After a couple more attempts the machine graciously accepted my thee pound coins and I was reward for my time and effort with a printed ticket, which I duly affixed to the inside of the windscreen of the car.

Visit To Brighton and Worthing- Part 3

We spent some time wandering around Brighton, and, as I've said in the last post, we went to see the Royal Pavilion, but didn't go inside. That can wait for another visit, although I have been inside in the past and it is quite remarkable and spectacular. We were going to get something to eat but decided that we'd wait until we got back to the hotel in Worthing and have our meal there. 

What we did find, quite by accident (how often serendipity plays a part in our lives, as with discovering Fanny's Farm and other places we've been to.) was an amazing ice-cream parlour called Cloud 9. I'll give them some free advertising here, as it's at Unit 15 Brighton Place, Brighton, BN1 1HJ. They do an amazing range of icecreams, probably quite expensive, but it's all made in store, and made of real ingredients. I had a double scoop of vanilla and honeycomb and I have to say that it has to be one of the best icecreams I've ever tasted. Some many commercial icecreams taste artificial and nasty, but this most certainly didn't. The cone itself was huge and really tasty in itself, not those horrible cones you usually get which taste as if they're made of cardboard (not that I've actually tasted cardboard, you understand.) A really large portion, almost a meal in itself. The shop is painted in really muted colours, stripes and ice-creamy colours, and there tables and chairs to sit on, those rather attractive clear plastic tables that look as if they're made of glass, as well as deep leather armchairs and sofas that we sat in to eat our icecreams. Also for sale a range of brightly-coloured cupcakes which seem to be all the rage at the moment as well as some delicious-looking chocolates of all sorts of shapes and flavours. The website you can visit is www.cloud9brighton.co.uk and you can find them on Facebook and Twitter.

We didn't hang around much longer in Brighton. We did get to the seafront, but it was so windy we could barely stand up. So we decided to head back to the busstop and get back to Worthing. The bus didn't take to arrive, so we were able to find a seat and enjoy the journey back along the coast to Worthing.

Something about Worthing I didn't know until we did some research on the internet before we went. Oscar Wilde visited the place at the end of the 1890's and wrote his final play "The Importance of Being Earnest" there. Which might explain why the character John Worthing is so named.


On arrival back at the hotel we had our meal in the restaurant. Not exactly busy. Infact, we were the only guests in there.

The following morning we had around an hour or so to kill before the parking ticket ran out so we walked along the beach at the front of the hotel. We took some photographs and then we decided to head off home. On the way we had decided that we might stop off at a National Trust property. We stopped at a Tesco to get some cruissants and Danish pastrys to eat on the way home. And so we hit the road back to the M25.

When we originally decided on going to Brighton and Worthing when Daniel said that he'd pay for our hotel for a night, we had planned to visit a National Trust property. There are plenty we could have visited on the way down south and on the way home, one of them being Petworth House, which is within easy reach of Brighton, but it turned out the journey down was taking far longer than anticipated, so we didn't make it to this particular house.

Instead of a National Trust property we made for Arundel. The castle was the inspiration for the castle in Gormenghast, the series of novels written by Mervyn Peake. It just so happens that this year is the centenary of his birth. We could see the town, and the magnificent castle that stood above the town of Arundel, so it was easy why it could be such an influence on an author such as Peake.

We soon found a carpark. The place isn't that large, so finding parking wasn't too difficult, fortunately.

 

Arundel Castle

There were signs up for 'Flower Carpet' and 'Corpus christi' which we didn't understand. What was it all about? We were intrigued to know why the carpark should be so signposted. We decided to walk into the centre of Arundel and have a look around, and perhaps have something to eat and a coffee somewhere. The town is built on a hill, and it was a steep climb up towards the castle which loomed over all. We stopped in several bookshops, and took in the history and architecture of the place. We saw lots of coaches going up the hill, and quite a few people going in the same direction. Could it be something to do with this 'Carpet of Flowers' which we soon discovered was in the cathedral, further up the hill past the castle. We stopped and chatted to a lady who was coming DOWN the hill, and she told us all about this 'Carpet of Flowers' in the cathedral.

 The  Corpus Christi Flower Carpet in Arundel Cathedral

It turned out that the day was Corpus Christi (as I'm not a Catholic I don't know what it's about.) and the 'Carpet of Flowers' was put down the central aisle of the cathedral. More intriguing than anything else. As it was about to rain, we decided to shelter in the porch at the front of the cathedral, where other people were gathering and where coaches were setting down their passengers and people were queing to go into the cathedral. So, we decided to follow and go inside the cathedral.

The place was thronged with people snaking around the cathedral. We joined the queues, and saw some quite amazing floral decorations, and then we saw the Floral Carpet. I can't actually do it justice here and I'll attempt to put some photographs on here if I am able to upload what we took as we went round the cathedral. This carpet of flowers stretched up the central aisle of the cathedral and had a complex pattern in it's design.

Having had a good look round, and managing not to trip over the countless zimmer frames of many of the visitors, we left the cathedral. We had a further wander around Arundel. Carol had wanted to have a walk around the castle, but I had to persuade her that it was going to be very much longer than she anticipated, so, the rain having stopped, we walked back down the hill to the centre of the town. We found a really nice cafe to have a coffee and we bought some pasties to eat in the car on our way home. We returned to the car and made our way out of Arundel.

 Arundel: The main street

The journey home was quicker than the journey down. We stopped in the carpark of one of the service areas on the Motorway, and came back through Aylesbury and High Wycombe. We got home to find the house surprisingly tidy, considering what Daniel and his mates must have got up to the previous night. The dogs were pleased to see us, although I think they must have been wondering where we'd gone and why we'd gone off without them!