Fifth Anniversary Of This Blog

Today is the fifth anniversary of this blog. This is the 415th post and as I write this at 5.26 a.m. on Friday 27th September 2013 there have been 18925 pageviews. I can't believe I have managed to keep it going for so long, and had that many people 'drop in' to read my witterings. It would just be great if more of them would leave some sort of comment as to why they got to this particular blog.

Remembering Louis Fussell- Part 2

Christmas at 35 Rutland Road was interesting. I think Louis rather liked the Christmas season. He didn't have any children of his own, and liked to make a fuss of the children of families who had children who came to learn violin with him, together with any other people around him. I was  to learn quite soon that it wasn't to be anything ordinary. Over the weeks of the Christmas period itself he went to stay with friends in Germany, and in the weeks leading up to his travelling over to Germany he made cakes and food, particularly a Hansel and Gretel house made of ginger bread. It seems amazing when I look back on this particular period and think that he made all this in pieces and then packed it up carefully and then took it to Germany and constructed this house over there, quite why he had to do this as it was rather like taking 'coals to Newcastle' as no doubt the shops there would have been full of such gingerbread houses. The cost of taking it on a plane must have been more than the cost of actually buying one in Germany, but that was one of the eccentricites of Mr Fussell. In German the gingerbread is called 'pfefferkuchen' (translating as 'peppercake') or 'lebkuchen' (translating as 'life-loaf.')

In the weeks leading up to Christmas there was no end of activity as Louis decorated the house. He didn't drive, only possessing a bicycle, and to obtain a Christmas tree he went off somewhere to the depths of Bedfordshire (I thinking about it with hind sight  perhaps the Whitbread Estate at Southill.) and came back with a huge Christmas tree strapped to the bicycle. I can't imagine how he managed to ride a bicycle all that distance with a pine tree tied to the side of the machine. Seems incredible to me. He could have had it delivered somehow or got one of his friends who had a car to drive him there and bring it back on a roof-rack or something. But, no, he was obviously determined to do it on his own. Then this huge piece of fir tree was assembled in his front room along with a vast array of ancient Christmas decorations and lights. The rest of the house was also festooned with ancient decorations which had really seen better days. He spent weeks rehearsing this weird Christmas entertainment with the children and this was put on at the party he held in the last week before he departed for Germany. The first year of my time living in the house I was somewhat shell-shocked by the whole Christmas party process, and in particular the strange game he played with the children. I came home one day to find that there were pieces of paper stuck on doors and other odd places throughout the house, with the names of places on them, mostly British towns and cities. My room door had one on it, but now I'm not sure what place it was, Edinburgh or Glasgow perhaps but I can't actually remember. The afternoon of the party I was in my room when the children began to arrive. Part-way through the afternoon there was the sound of children charging up and down the stairs and banging on my door. I think it had something to do with a game where the names of railways stations were read out and the children had to find that station's name on the bits of paper pinned to the doors all around the house, my door included. I soon learned in future years to be elsewhere when this party was on so as to avoid this assault on my room door!

As Louis was a member of the Bedfordshire Orchestra (I'm not sure of the exact name, so apologies if this is wrong.) and during their season of concerts he would be playing viola. On these occasions he would make a great deal of fuss and I occasionally attended some of these concerts, being a classical music fan. He also wrote music and had some of his symphonies performed in Bedford Corn Exchange. He would often have parties in his lounge and invite people along and spent a great deal of time and effort preparing food. Unfortunately Louis's hygiene standards weren't up to much and as a result I think a lot of the food got uneaten.

New Neighbour Introduces Himself

Had a knock on the front door mid-morning. It turned out to be our new neighbour, Gary, introducing himself, and giving me a bag of cooking apples he'd been given. I said we were surprised by the rapid departure of the last family and he said they'd done a house swap.Previous family went to Cornwall.  Which explains things. I said I apologized for our dog's behaviours regarding their cats, and he just said 'dogs just hate cats!' One of his children will be going to Milton Keynes Academy next year, so no doubt Carol will end up teaching her. I will now be able to make apple and blackberry crumble now I have some apples.

As I write this, it's pouring with rain. The temperature has dropped considerably. I was going out to pick some more blackberries but I'll have to wait until the rain stops. No doubt we'll be putting on the central heating if it gets much colder.

Blackberry Picking

This morning I've done my annual blackberry picking expedition, or I suppose I should say ONE of them at least. Walking along the Redway behind our house and collecting a fair amount  in a plastic box and also from the brambles that grow over our back garden fence. Although 'fence' as a description is rather rich, as what purports to be a fence is just a rather wobbly, rickety example which won't last much longer. Of course, expecting our landlord to repair it would be asking too much. We have done our best to shore it up with the odd bit of timber, in an attempt to keep Alfie in. The shed is also in just as poor a state of repair, and Alfie has a habit of going inside it, and then finding himself trapped. Quite amusing when our other dog, Poppy, comes to tell us where he is whenever we can't find him. The door of this shed has been off it's hinges for all the time we've lived here, and really doesn't do much of a job of preventing Alfie from venturing inside and is also propped up with quite an array of bits of timber and flower pots. Alfie has now found an exit from the back of the shed out onto the no-man's land at the back of our garden, and on several occasions I've had to go round to rescue him, which can be  really quite difficult, as the brambles and bushes there are quite thick and make it almost inaccessable. He does know how to get back through the hole at the back of the shed, but I really don't want him to get out on the road.

Getting Colder

There's a really sharp drop in the temperature over the past couple of days. I suppose we had an exceptionally warm summer this year, so any drop in temperature will be noticeable. It certainly seems very autumnal this morning, although the sun is out. The beginnings of changes to tree-colour. This is generally very striking in Milton Keynes. For a modern city, we are very fortunate to have so many trees, and so many varieties, so when autumn comes around, we get a lot of different colours as the trees begin to loose their foliage.

Statins Cholestrol protecting properties called into question

 The following is an article I found  from the C.B.C. website via Statin Nation through a post on Facebook


 'Cholestrol-lowering statins are heavily promoted for heart patients but new research is calling into question their use as a preventative medicine.

Statins such as atorvastatin (Lipitor), rosuvastatin (Crestor) and simvastatin (Zocor) are among the widely used prescription drugs.

Since the drugs were first marketed 30 years ago in the U.S. for preventing a second heart attack or stroke in those who've already had one, there's been a shift toward prescribing statins for otherwise healthy people in Canada and the U.S.

"These are patients who really haven't had an event, a cardiovascular event, but they seem to be at high risk," said pharmacy Prof. Muhammad Mamdani, who works at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.

"You also get populations where people seem to be relatively healthy, their cholestrol-lowering aren't that high, but for whatever reason, they are placed on a statin. That's a patient population that is a lot more debatable and some practices may not be warranted."

More than 38  mllion prescriptions for the class of medications that includes statins were dispensed in Canada last year, according to IMS Brogan. (Kas Roussy/CBC)

The medical community is debating the pros and cons of using statins for prevention as more independent research comes out on side-effects. This week, a study in JAMA Internal Medicine suggested statins may be associated with an increase in musculoskeletal conditions and pain, especially in physically active individuals. 

"If you look at all the studies that have ever been done with statins for primary prevention, so for people who have never had a heart attack or a stroke, if you give a statin to a patient for about five years we can reduce the chance of a person having a heart attack or a stroke by about one per cent," said James McCormack, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of British Columbia. Shifting focus from cholesterol numbers.

Other potential side-effects include risk of Type 2 diabetes, reversible muscle damage and short-term kidney damage.

In Canada, as in the U.S., the majority of statin prescriptions go to primary prevention patients, not people with established heart disease, said Dr. Lee Green, a professor and chair of the department of family medicine at the University of Alberta who has surveyed doctors on their prescribing.

"It seems we need to retrain physicians, and the public, to focus on actual risks, not on a convenient number like cholesterol level," Green said in an email.

In March, epidemiologist Colin Dormuth, an assistant professor in the department of anesthesiology, pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of British Columbia, looked at the use of high potency statins and rates of admission for acute kidney injury.

"There are a lot of patients out there taking the drugs right now who don't have a history of heart disease who are hoping to prevent heart disease and in all likelihood will derive absolutely no benefit," Dormuth said.

In medical circles, discussions continue. A review published in January by British researchers who combed through trials sponsored by drug companies concluded that "statins are likely to be cost-effective in primary prevention."

People like Jim Matheson, 62, of Toronto, are left to decide with their doctor.

"Within five years he told me that I had a 20 per cent chance of either having a stroke or a heart attack," Matheson recalled. "He offered me the pill but I didn't want to take it."

Instead, Matheson opted to eat healthier foods and exercise more. His brother on the other hand decided to go on statins.

"I have sent him, probably for every article he has sent me on how good they are I have sent him 20 that says how bad they are. We're still having the dialogue," Matheson said.

"We'll see who lasts longer," he quipped.'

 

New Neighbours

I've mentioned our neighbours on here before. Not necessarily for good reasons. Normally they made a lot of noise. Banging. Hammering. Sawing. You name it.  Some people seem to live in a sort of bubble, with themselves in the very centre, and no matter what they do, whether it's loud music, hammering, sawing, or other noises produced by them doing D.I.Y., they just don't seem to realize that they might possibly be causing someone else some distress, particularly when you want rest and quiet, particularly at the weekend. Our dogs have been bothered (if that's the right word.) by their dog. A rather large Staffordshire Terrier. Kept within the confines of the garden and (apparently) never called in to the house. Loud voices from the son of the house (who goes to The Academy so I have to BE CAREFUL what I say. Prone to bad behaviour and has been excluded on quite a few occasions.) The last incident with The Neighbours was when the Man of The House was mowing the lawn. Or at least, attempting to do so. I could see most of this from the bedroom window, but I didn't make it too obvious that I could see. He started the mower, a petrol-engine model, but it obviously wouldn't start. He attempted to try  several times and each time the thing wouldn't run for more than 30 seconds. But when it did, there was smoke coming out of it and filling their garden, ours and most of the other gardens along the street. A really noxious smoke that would have killed most of the wildlife for a mile or two around. Most people would have given up, but no, he kept on. I think the thing needed an oil-change or some more  oil putting in the engine. Anyway, the thing was in a poor state, to produce so much smoke. 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, or shortish. There has been a lot of toing and froing for the past couple of days. Another incident, him breaking up wood into small pieces, the noise of which was driving us to distraction. Why? What? Clearing up the rabbit cages and other odd items in their garden (as I could see most of this activity clearly from our bedroom window.) Noise causing us real misery, and we just wanted to get away from it. One of the reasons we went to Oxford on the bus last weekend, as mentioned in earlier blog post on here.) Also, strange that there had been painters re-painting the outside of the house when we came back from shopping the other week and wondered why.

It all makes sense now THEY HAVE MOVED HOUSE!

On Friday we went for a swim at the gym after Carol finished work. When we got home there was a removal van outside the neighbour's house and new people moving in. So, are we relieved? Hopefully no more extraneous noises, hammering, sawing etc at odd hours or child making noise on computer (generally quite bad language associated with this.) and no more bother from their dog. I'm not sure our dogs will be disappointed but we now discover that the new neighbours have two CATS! Poppy, our Westie/Schitsu cross, absolutely HATES CATS, and only realised there was  one on the roof of the shed until she went out when she went into the garden yesterday afternoon. The cat soon disappeared when Poppy barked at it, but Alfie, our Yorkie, is not so sure because I don't think he's seen a cat. So, these cats will have learned by now to keep well clear our our garden otherwise they will land up as dinner for one or other our our dogs!

Broadband, Landline telephone and television Switched to Sky

We have today transferred our broadband, television and landline telephone contract to Sky. It has been a relatively painless operation. I have to say, all things considered, they have been extremely efficient. It is barely two weeks since we rang to order our package. We have had the multi-channel package for around a week and the engineer who installed the dish and set up the Sky Plus box was very efficient and swift with the instillation, arriving more or less exactly as predicted, although we didn't get a phone call early in the morning to tell us what time he was expected to arrive. As I've mentioned in an earlier post here, we were with TalkTalk, which has probably the WORST customer service of any company I can think of, who really seem to have NO IDEA what they are doing, so I can't recommend this company. It seems to be a case of 'the left hand not knowing what the right is doing.'

Oxford Outing- Part 2

Having spent some time wondering around the Pitt Rivers Museum and being totally amazed by the collection (if you haven't been, I can highly recommend it.) we decided to walk back into the centre of Oxford. We soon discovered that we'd gone in a somewhat roundabout route and that we'd walked a good deal further than we needed. We browsed in a few shops before finding a rather nice cafe and had tea and sandwiches, sitting outside in the street as it turned out to be quite a pleasant and sunny afternoon, despite what the weather forecast had told us. Last year when we visited we saw a television crew in the same area of the city centre, a pedestrianised area. The television series "Morse" was set in and around Oxford. The spin-off series "Lewis" is also set there so it may have been for that. But there was no clear indication what was been filmed at the time.

We headed back towards the bus station, and on the way saw some street entertainment. A band which was playing a sort of combination rock/classical music which seemed to have attracted quite a large crowd, and then further along the street a gentleman was engaged in an act which incorporated the use of a unicycle with catching a handful of flaming juggling batons, with the assistance of two people from the on-lookers. We got back to the bus station. I was in need of the toilet again (sorry, gentle reader, but these requirements happen.) Carol stood in the queue near the bus which had not yet arrived in it's bay, as I went off in search of the conveniences. But no luck. I got back to the queue in the bus station and the bus was in so we decided to board and I went to use the toilet in the back of the bus. As I was about to have a wee the lights flickered and the bus began to move off. Not the easiest of operations trying to wee when within a very dark, enclosed space with the whole vehicle moving! But never mind. It was a rather novel experience, to say the least, and it was as well someone had the foresight to install such conveniences on a bus for such an occasion, otherwise I would have been in a far worse predicament.

I managed to return to my seat next to Carol, with the bus by now heading out of Oxford. Not the easiest operation, trying to walk with a bus moving.

The rest of the journey passed quite uneventfully until we got into Milton Keynes. The bus made a circuit of the Milton Keynes Shopping Centre and came round by the place where Sainsbury's used to be (having moved to newer premises a few years ago.) We saw clouds of smoke billowing across the road, and on closer inspection saw a car in the carpark below the road. We had by now reached the traffic lights so the bus had to stop. The smoke was getting thicker and blacker and then we saw that a car in the carpark was on fire, with quite large flames rising from it. People were crowded around looking, some taking photographs with their mobile phones. Why didn't they move away? What is it that makes people want to watch this sort of thing? At any moment the whole car could have easily exploded and caused real havoc, causing other nearby cars to ignite. Then a siren could be hear as a fire engine arrived and we could see firemen spraying the car with water in an attempt to extinguish the fire. It would have been a real shock for the owners of the car to arrive back from their shopping expedition to find their car a burned-out and charred wreck. It begs the question: what caused the fire? Was it a fault of the electrics of the car? It was a hot and sunny day, so could have been something to do with that? We may never know.

We arrived back at the train station and got off the bus and then Carol realized we didn't have sufficient cash to pay her bus fare back to Eaglestone. We went into the railway station to use the A.T.M. there but discovered both of them had no cash in them so we went to a newsagents near the station and got some cash out of an A.T.M. there and managed to get a bus home to Eaglestone. The end of a rather pleasant day out.

Oxford Outing- Part 1

On Saturday we decided to have a day out and went to Oxford.  The last time we went  was almost exactly one year ago to the day, and as I have a free bus pass (one has now got to the age where one gets such things.) it seemed a good idea to leave the car behind, oblivating the necessity to not  only j driving there but also find parking space, even though there is a 'park-and-ride' scheme in operation in Oxford (we have used this on several occasions.) We got the bus from just outside the Academy in Saxon Street and arrived at Milton Keynes railway station and then had to wait before the Oxford bus came in. It arrived within about ten minutes and then we were off, going through Buckingham on the way, which we drive through on our way to Stowe Landscape Garden, one of our favourite National Trust properties. One advantage of being in a bus is that you sit up a good deal higher than you would if you were in a car, so you can see a good deal more of the countryside and in particular you see over hedges that grow alongside the roads you drive along. We went through Bicester (I went there to do induction for one of the care agencies I used to work for. A bit of a waste of time and effort if you ask me because I didn't get much work out of them as it turned out, but that's another story which I may or may not discuss in a future post.) We went past Bicester Village, the outlet shopping centre as well as Bicester Avenue, which we visited earlier in the year, which is fairly new.
We arrived in Oxford at around 10.00 and had need for the use of the toilets. Sorry to bring this up, but it seems to be a necessity of both of us. We knew that there were toilets in the bus station (where the bus came in at Oxford) but we soon discovered that there was some building work going on there and the toilets were out of operation. They had managed to put notices up telling you where the alternative toilets were and when we got there was a queue of people. On our way home on the bus we realised that there were toilets on the bus itself so that was one problem solved on the way home.
We have visited Oxford on several earlier occasions, a few times to Oxford Playhouse to see productions of Shakespeare plays produced by the all-male company, Propellor, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Twelfth Night." We saw their version of "The Taming of The Shrew" a couple of years ago when Carol was teaching at Stantonbury Campus and we managed to get tickets through the school and went on a coach trip to see that show at the famous Old Vic theatre in London, which was a real treat. The last show of theirs we saw was "Henry V" a couple of years ago when they came to the Milton Keynes Theatre. So we know Oxford fairly well. This time we wanted to visit the Oxford Natural History Museum but weren't sure exactly where it was, so we spent quite some time wandering somewhat aimlessly around the streets in an attempt to locate it. We eventually managed to find it on a map but it was quite a walk out from the city centre and then discovered that it was CLOSED due to the roof being repaired which was something of a disappointment but there was an event going on outside the museum, I believe something to do with the friends of the museum or something, where there were stalls selling food and exhibits and managed to get pizza and something to drink because by now we were hungry and thirsty and it was quite a warm day and all that walking had taken it's toll.