Heart attack

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Signs Of Spring!

As the old saying goes: 'when winter comes, can spring be far behind?' As much as I enjoy Christmas, I think it's the dark, dreary days of January and February that comes hard on it's heels that makes things difficult. The waking up in the dark and having to come home from work in the dark that makes this time of the year so awful. I might not be working but I do recall having to go off to do an early shift wherever and having to scrape the ice off the car before driving away, the freezing fog to drive through and the icy road surface that you were liable to slide into the car in front if you applied your brakes too quickly or end up in a ditch somewhere or other.

We are still without the use of the car, and it still sits silent and still on the front drive. No doubt we'll be able to get it going again soon. Being so close to Milton Keynes Academy means that Carol can walk to and from work. The mornings are beginning to get a little lighter as the month progresses. Without the use of the car it does mean that we can't get to the nearest supermarket to do our weekly shop. We would either go to Asda or Tesco for this, but we did do an on-line shop from Tesco, curtesy of Daniel, and this arrived on Monday afternoon around 3.30 and I was able to unload it and put it all away before Carol got home. I have also done a few shops locally, walking to and from the Co-Op at Netherfield, which is a 15-minute walk along the Redway, or to the little shop the other      side of Eaglestone. We also walked to the Brothers Fish and Chips shop over there for our evening meal on Saturday, with me having fish and Carol chicken and a large portion of chips which we shared. We took Alfie and Poppy who waited with Carol whilst I ordered, and then Carol came inside the shop, leaving the dogs tied up outside. Alfie complained bitterly at being left outside on his own and made an awful noise. I can't think what the neighbours thought! There are no end of cats lurking around on the estate and it's as well they didn't appear as Poppy will go wild if she sees them and will chase them if given half a chance! Since I've walked over again a couple of more times to the shop during we week I notice that there are snowdrops in the front garden of some of the houses. I had to get a repeat prescription done as my medication supply is nearing it's end, so I managed to sign up to the Ashlands Medical Centre website and do the repeat prescription on-line and then sent it. I'm not all that trusting of these things, so I rang the surgery to check that they'd got the order, which was fine. This was on Monday, and it takes two days for repeat prescriptions to be ready, so I went back yesterday afternoon around 2 o'clock, but unfortunately the surgery was closed. I believe it was for staff training, 'protected time' as it's called. So my walk there was in vain, but I went to the Co-Op to do a bit of shopping (a short walk from our old surgery, Grove Surgery) and then walked home. I have been to get the repeat prescription this morning and had it made up at the pharmacy which is next door to Ashlands Medical Centre and I was surprised how quickly they managed to get the order completed, and without anything missing. Sometimes you can take a repeat prescription in and they don't always have all the medications in stock so you have to go back to collect the rest of the order


Another sign of spring: there are trees budding along the Redway. No doubt they will be put back if there is a sharp frost or temperatures fall considerably as they might do. No sign of any other spring plants as yet, such as crocuses.

I am shocked and surprised at the amount of litter along the Redway, and particulaly around the Milton Keynes Academy. As I was walking along the Redway I saw  Council workmen (and women)  in bright orange flurescent jackets, with black bin bags and tongs on long handles picking up litter. There were around six of these people and as I walked back towards the bridge over Saxon Street and approaching the Academy, I spoke to them and asked them how much litter they picked up. They said they got around 15 bags of litter from just around the Academy. It seems the children just fling their rubbish anywhere and don't care that somewhat will have to come along and pick it up. The children don't have to do it (as we would when I was at school.) which seems crazy. It might teach them to care more for the environment. I expect it will go against their 'Human Rights.' No such thing when I was a child.



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