Undecided

The weather, as usual, is being very undecided. It was bright sunshine here yesterday morning, then, mid-afternoon, it rained briefly, but then the sun came out later. We haven't fortunately had the torrential rain other parts of the country have had, but no doubt the local rivers are overflowing. I'm not sure about the Grand Union Canal, which is not far from here. What happens with canals? Do they open sluices as they do with rivers, to let out the excess water? I never know how they keep canals topped up with water. How are they fed with water? What happens in a drought? The technology intrigues me, locks and so on.

As a result of the weather, you never know exactly what to wear, because it's quite chilly first thing in the morning, then, as the day progresses, it seems to get warmer so if you put on a thicker jacket, you get too hot. It's certainly very autumnal. It's now getting darker earlier and it's getting light in the morning a lot later. Also, the leaves on the trees are beginning to change colour, and if past years are to go by, they'll be quite vivid when they do change colour.

Rainy and wet

It's amazing how quickly the weather changes, from a really beautifully warm and sunny day on Saturday, to bleak, gray and wet today. Yesterday wasn't particularly dry. Also, there is quite a breeze blowing. As a consequence of all this, we have had to put the central heating on for the first time this year. A sign that autumn is on it's way, or even that it's arrived.

Visit to Oxford

It's been another really warm and sunny day, so we went to Oxford. We didn't take the car, instead opting for bus travel. I now have my concessionary bus-pass (yes, one is now at the age when one can travel by bus for nothing!) and we caught the bus on Saxon Street which took us into the centre of Milton Keynes next to The Point, and then to the railway station, where we boarded the bus for Oxford, and within around an hour and ten minutes we were at Oxford Bus Station. So the entire journey there and back cost around £12.50, and without the hastle of driving, the cost of petrol, finding somewhere to park, or at least not having to use the park-and-ride system into the centre of Oxford. We have been there on several occasions, usually to visit the theatre, The Oxford Playhouse, or a performance of Creation Theatre (who perform in something called the mirror or spiegeltent.) and we've seen a show based on stories by the Brother's Grim and the theatre set up in the carpark of the B.M.W. car plant, and another show based on Shakespeare's  'Saints and Villains' and performed in a city centre church. The other shows we've seen have been at the Playhouse, and performed by Propellor, and all-male company who stage Shakespeare productions, and we've seen 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'Twelfth Night' there, as well as 'Henry V' at the Milton Keynes Theatre, as well as 'The Taming Of The Shrew' at The Old Vic, when we went with a party from Stantonbury School when Carol worked there.
Oxford on most sunny summer's days must be quite busy, particularly as it is very likely to be one of those places that attracts tourists, from whatever country, as it is a particularly historic place, featuring in many events over the centuries. Also, it has been used in many films and television drama series as well as being the setting for many novel, notably the "Inspector Morse" novels and the television series. C.S. Lewis, author of the "Narnia" books and J.R.R. Tolkein, of "Lord Of The Rings" and "The Hobbit" fame were professors here and were part of a literary group known as "The Inklings." Lewis Carrol was Dean of one of the colleges during the 19th century and wrote the "Alice" books. And also Philip Pullman used a version of Oxford as a background to his "Dark Materials" trilogy of novels. So, it wasn't at all surprising that we saw groups of people being taken on guided tours of the city centre. We also saw a film unit parked in one of the main streets. From experience as a television walk-on and supporting artiste I know what one of these looks like, and the amount of space all the vans, lorries and other paraphernalia looks like. We couldn't see exactly what the film or television series was they were filming, but I have an idea it might have been the "Inspector Morse" spin off, "Lewis."

Autumnal Day

It is certainly feeling much more autumnal. It's bright and sunny first thing in the morning, but there is a definite chill in the air. There are blackberries ripening on the bramble bushes along the Redway, so I will have to go out and see whether they are ready to pick yet. The thought of blackberry and apple pie is very tempting.

Numbers

Today this blog has reached it's 290th post. There have been 6711 page views. Last month there were in total 849 page views. Just though that those who read this on a regular basis might be interested in these figures. I'd just be interested to know who visits this blog, and for whatever purpose. If you read my posts on a regular basis, do please leave a comment, as I'd be really interested to know why you read this, where you are and anything else you care to leave. Thanks.

Back-To-Front

I had instructions from the company through which I did the IKEA catalogue deliveries come in the post yesterday. Makes a great deal of sense that I get the instructions AFTER the job is done and finished. Also, a map of the area, which is a good deal clearer than the one I had printed off Google maps, as it shows the roads together with their names. Also, a list of said roads, with the number of houses in each road. Why didn't I have this last week? Crazy.

Finishing Delivering IKEA catalogues

It's been really warm for the past week or so. Considering what an awful summer we've had, it was certainly great to be able to get outside without worrying whether you were going to get soked. Having said that, though, it has been rather TOO hot for my liking. It's been really difficult to sleep, and with the windows open, the dogs can hear allsorts of stray noises, and keep on barking at other dogs and odd noises outside.

On Saturday we got the IKEA catalogues almost all delivered. We went into the hospital campus and had to deliver to some of the staff houses there, and then the nurses accommodation, but these can't be completed until today as you need to have permission from the accommodation office which is on-site, so I will go and finish there this morning after 9.00 a.m. (in around half-an-hour's time.) There are some places where we're not going to deliver, the secure unit and the carehome (which I was totally unaware of when we moved to this house. I wonder how many other residents are aware of the secure unit not many yards from their homes? Having worked in care I'm very clear about what this place if for and the sort of people who live there! We have a few bundles of the catalogues left, and I reckon we've been given more than we need as nobody has worked out exactly home many homes are in this gridsquare, whether estimated from census records or from Milton Keynes Council tax records.

On the way back into Eaglestone on Saturday morning, we couldn't help but notice a police car turn up with no fewer than four police officers inside it, heading straight for the house which was raided a few days ago. And this morning, as I was coming out of the estate, yet ANOTHER police vehicle was coming in. We are still none the wiser as to what has been going on at the house which was raided, but we noticed piles of chairs and other furniture outside as we drove past. No doubt all this will come out in the media at some time in the future. Whatever has been going on, it all seems extremely mysterious.

New glasses!

I hadn't heard anything from Boot's opticians as regards my new glasses being ready so I went into Milton Keynes Shopping Centre mid-morning. I have continued to deliver the IKEA catalogues, and managed around 60 more along the Chaffron Way side of Eaglestone. It's easier when you have a clear map, which I don't have. Google Maps is useful, but even that doesn't mark all the names of the little alleyways and roads. The photographic version is clearer as you can see the actual houses. I have done another 'block' of houses this morning, so that leaves a block coming back towards home for tomorrow and there's some flats within the hospital grounds that need to be delivered to.

I got to Boots and asked at the reception desk. I had been told that it would take two weeks from the original eye-test for the glasses to be made up, and was told that they would telephone when they were ready for collection, so, when I still hadn't herd anything, I decided to go to the store to find out what was going on. The lady on reception looked on their computer but could find nothing. They seemed to be having trouble getting into the system to track orders. I sat and waited, and after around 10 minutes they told me that my glasses were indeed in. I had to try them on, and they fit perfectly. The old ones, as I've already mentioned in the earlier post, fell apart, and not only that, they had kept slipping down my nose and making life really difficult. These, thankfully, remained on my face and didn't slip down my nose! So, I wore them as I left. Mission accomplished, and now I can see the world clearly again, thankfully.

More police in Eaglestone

I took Carol to work. Printed off some material which will be useful regarding delivering the IKEA catalogues, maps which clear up where exactly I have to deliver as most maps don't show clearly where the little alleyways and so on are in the estate. I drove home, to find a police car at the entrance into the estate, so I decided to come in round near the shops. I can't decide whether this is connected to yesterday's police action at the house further along the road from us, but there were a further two police vehicles outside that house again earlier and further round a policeman was talking to someone in a car. THEN the phone rang, but I couldn't get to it quick enough as it rang off. A couple of seconds later it rang again. It was Carol 'People are saying there's police cars outside as they were coming into the  Milton Keynes Academy.' (They have two day's teacher training, yesterday and today, before the children start back tomorrow.) I tell her I don't know what is going on, but I'm keen to be able to get out to continue the IKEA catalogue deliveries. Strange how gossip spreads. No doubt there will be news of all this in the local media. We would just like to know what is going on, that's all.

Delivering IKEA catalogues

We spent two hours on Saturday morning delivering the IKEA catalogues which I mentioned were delivered to our house on a pallet which came by H.G.V. on Thursday morning. There are around 900 individual catalogues, bound into packs of 20, which are banded with plastic strapping and then over-wrapped in vacuum-packing plastic. We started along our road and did a good deal of the main outer service road which encircles Eaglestone, as well as some of the roads and closes which run off this road. It was generally easy going and we were surprised home much we managed to do. Yesterday, Sunday, we went out after church and did some more further round the estate. The houses have longer gardens with paths up to their front doors, so it took a good deal longer. We took the car with a load of the packs of the catalogues in the back and then transferred some of these packs into the trolley we bought in IKEA. You can get three of these packs into the trolley and we had a carrier bag on the back to take the strapping and plastic wrapping when we undid each bundle, cutting this with scissors we carried in the carrier bag. It took a good deal longer to deliver to this area as not only did the houses have longer paths but also gates to open and close, and there were far more steps to go up and down.