Window Cleaning

We now have a window cleaner who comes regularly to . . . clean the windows. There's a surprise. He turned up one evening and Carol answered the door.  He was doing cold calling so as it build up his round in this area. As we've been living here for the best part of four years and have never actually cleaned the windows properly, except the back windows and then only using Windolene, it seemed a good idea to get them cleaned properly as we've been spending so much time getting the house tidied along with the garden. He has managed to clean the upstairs windows using a ladder which he had to bring through the house. The sills of the windows upstairs have got very black and dirty and to have that muck cleaned off makes things look clean and fresh. He even cleaned the front door. He just turned up when I was working in the sitting room and I heard the ladders clanking outside and then thought it must be the window cleaner. The dogs barked and I had to have them locked in the sitting room as Alfie in particular will just run off up the road if the front door is left open. So that means we will get a monthly window cleaning session. As we don't have our own ladder it would be more or less impossible to reach the upstairs windows and it's no use me climbing ladders with my heart problems and anyway, where would be store a ladder?

Vinny Jones Funny C.P.R. training video

This is an excellent video which shows how to perform C.P.R. (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on someone who might have had a heart attack. Funny, but it does at least put across a very serious subject in such a way that it's easier to take in.

Cut Grass and Sultry Weather

Our neighbour came to our rescue on Saturday and cut the grass for us. He's made a really good job. I suppose it did help having a really efficient lawn mower which cut through the over-long grass without any problem. There is a paved section of path up the right-hand side of the garden which I don't think has seen the light of day for quite some years and we've never seen it because it was so covered in grass. The place is beginning to look really neat and tidy.

The weather has been somewhat unsettled for the past few days. We have had some hot and sunny periods, and the nights in particular have been humid, making sleep somewhat difficult. On Sunday evening there was a concert at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, by the Kings of Leon which went on until 10.30 p.m. Not as noisy as the last concert there by a somewhat noisy and unpleasant band called The Prodigy which was actually quite offensive. We must be around three miles from the stadium so the amplification they use must be very powerful. We could hear the thump thump of the drumming but not hear any of the  actual song lyrics. I think they had to finish by 10.30 as there was a curfew or something, no doubt because of complaints, but they don't have concerts on that often to make much trouble. I have no idea about how people managed to park or how long it took the crowds to disperse afterwards.

N.H.S Changes Advice on Asprin

Here we go again. This morning's BBC Breakfast reported that the  N.H.S. has changed it's advice on the use of aspirin for those with a risk of having a heart attack. I have been taking soluble aspirin as part of my medication routine since I had my heart attack in May 2006 so the news was of great interest to me. The Daily Telegraph reported it as follows:

'More than a million people with a common heart condition have been told not to take aspirin to guard against stroke, in a reversal of previous N.H.S. advice.'

'New medical recommendations warn that the pills are ineffective in reducing the danger for those suffering heart rhythm disorders and that the risk of side-effects outweigh the benefits.'

'Up to 7, 000 strokes and 2,000 premature deaths a year could be prevented if patients were put on new drugs instead, experts said.'

'Until now, adults suffering from arterial fibrillation have been advised to take a daily dose of aspirin- a blood-thinning drug- as the heart condition often causes clots, leading to a risk of stroke that is five times higher in other people.'

But revised guidance from the National Institute of Health and Care  Excellence (NICE) says a new generation of drugs is far better than aspirin at reducing the danger for such patients and is less likely to cause side-effects including internal bleeding.'

'Patients are advised to seek medical advice from their GP before stopping their current medication, but the guidance recommends that anticoagulant drugs which prevent clots should be prescribed instead.'

I will not be stopping my use of aspirin until I've spoken to my doctor as I don't obviously want to risk having a blood clot again which could cause another heart attack. All this chopping and changing over the use of various medications such as aspirin and statins which I take to prevent another heart attack is just a little bit confusing and annoying, to say the least.

Up-loading Writing

I have discovered a website where you can post your own writing and get people to read it and leave feedback. It is called Shortbread and I have around a half-dozen responses to one of my stories already. I have posted two more bits of writing but as yet they haven't appeared yet as they have to be approved before being posted. This is what I wanted, to have some sort of feedback, constructive criticism. I have discovered several good stories and left comments myself which is what makes it so good as a site. I can recommend it. It is also free which makes it all the more successful.

Cutting The Grass

This saga drags on. We have given up the search for someone to come and cut the lawn for a reasonable amount of money. We have borrowed our neighbour's Strimmer and began the task of hacking down the grass when we got back from church yesterday morning. For those who don't know what a Strummer is, it's a gadget with a handle and has a reel of fishing line in the base which spins at speed and cuts grass and weeds. Strimmer will be a trademark for Black and Decker but I expect there are variations on the same gadget made by other companies. As it cuts the line itself gets shorter as bits get worn down, so you have to keep stopping and pulling out more and more line. Some come with an automatic feed which allows the line to fed out of it's own accord. I don't think it's actually that successful because the grass is now so long an extremely tough so it has real problems cutting it. We have been using a pair of garden shears intended for hedge-cutting but they are better at cutting through this tough grass. Once all the grass has been cut down sufficiently we will then have to rake off the loose grass and then use the lawn mower to keep the grass to a reasonable length.

Attempting to find a gardener to mow the grass

We've been attempting to find someone to come and cut the grass. We did get someone to come and do it several months ago. Carol was given the name of someone by the lady whose children she has been tutoring. She was given his card with his mobile and land-line number on, together with email address and so I rang both numbers recently but only got voicemail. I left messages on both and then sent an email, but some two weeks on I've had nothing back. We then looked in the local Milton Keynes newspaper and Carol saw an advert in there for someone who was supposed to do gardening, including lawn-mowing, but the same thing happened; no response and no call-back when I left messages on answering service. Do these people want the work or not? It does seem odd that if someone puts an advert in a newspaper, which must cost quite a lot of money, they don't make any attempt to answer their phone. Doesn't make sense. Then I decided to go on line and found something called RatedPeople or something, a service which even advertises on television and left details on there. It won't take much more than two hours to do the job and shouldn't surely cost more than £60. I put on there that the cost was below £100, but absolutely no response. We then rang yet another number from a newspaper ad and were told it would cost at least £120. Excessive over-charging and greed if you ask me. Would never bother with RatedPeople as it seems totally pointless and useless.

Dogs Visit Our Neighbour

The lady who lives next door came to visit yesterday evening. She knocked on the door and the dogs went wild, barking madly and running around. I went to the door and she was on the doorstep. I feel awful as I don't know her name. Shameful, considering we've lived here around four years. She wanted to see Carol about something. She wanted Carol to witness her signature on a legal document or something, relating to probate for a will of a relative of hers who had died, and as Carol is a teacher she would be a person 'of good standing.' I suppose if you are a teacher you have a sort of responsibility that other members of society don't have, or at least you should have. A role model and all that. Well, you would have been when I was growing up. It probably applies still. If you wanted a reference you would go to a teacher, a vicar or 'Man of The Cloth', doctor or someone else you could rely on who was a professional person. Anyway, Carol told me that the dogs, Poppy and Alfie, had paid her a visit. Now we know where they go, through the hole in the fence and into her garden. She had been writing and suddenly Poppy or Alfie were snuffling about her house. I know what Poppy can be like, very demanding, snuffling and being very 'in-your-face.' Alfie likewise. She wasn't that bothered about their visit but we're now going to have to make some sort of temporary or permanent repair to the fence as we really don't want them wandering into other peoples homes uninvited.

Bye-Bye Rental Agency

When the landlord visited the other week he was not pleased to hear about the lack of activity from  the rental agency who are supposed to manage our house. He now wants to do away with their management and have us pay our rent direct to him. He telephone me the other evening to say that he was going to speak to them and end their management of the house so it would mean we contact him direct with regards maintenance of the property. This will mean he will have to give him his bank details so the rent can be paid direct to this account and not the rental agency. He was not pleased to hear of the bad attitude of the guy who came out and was criticising every thing that he could regarding the cleanliness of the property. Both the landlord and his wife are happy with the condition of the house so we will continue to live here although the rent is being increased slightly.  It seems that the agency were making money out of the management of the property and doing next to nothing as regarding managing the house. They should have been able to get the work done as regarding the maintenance, repairing the fence, plumbing problems and one or two minor things. We need to get the fence repaired and the grass cut at the back of the house. The grass has now grown to such a length that we can't get the mower to cut it. I have tried to contact the young man who came out around a year ago to cut the grass but, having left messages on both his landline and mobile answering services and sent an email I have had no response so we will have to find someone else to do the work. We have now had the dripping pipe connection near the washing machine fixed so that is one less problem to resolve.

Alfie has done his disappearing act again. The hole in the fence was temporarily mended. By 'mended' I mean we had managed to prop up a few oddments of the broken, dilapidated fence against the hole and then placed a pile of white plastic garden chairs which were part of the property here when we moved in against it. But a recent wind blew it al down and Alfie's ability to be tempted became far too strong and it was obvious to me that he wasn't where he should be in the garden a few days ago. I called him, and I heard distant barking, coming from outside the garden perimeter and presumably within either the strip of trees along the Redway or from the Redway itself. He really has no sense of direction it would seem and managed to come back towards my calling voice and he came through the gap which has opened up between the neighbour's garden fence near their gate and our fence. He came back all upset and barked as he came in. The grass has become so long in the garden as I've already mentioned above. It has begun to seed which might explain why Carol is sneezing a lot at the moment and has got a rash on her skin. No doubt the grass has caused this. She has got some ointment from the doctor for the rash and medication to spray up her nose for the sneezing. Both dogs get lost almost entirely in the grass and sometimes when they are outside in the garden you cannot always seem them in the grass.

Statin Controversy Rumbles On

More about the statins-controversy on B.B.C. Breakfast this morning. I'm not sure putting perfectly healthy people on statins is such a good idea. I know I was put on them after I had my heart attack in 2006, which I take to prevent a further heart attack. But I'm not sure the health benefits are worth the risk. What with muscle pain, cramps in my legs and so on which are the side-effects of taking them are such a trade-off for those who have no family history of heart problems. Why not put people on more natural products such as food with stanols in, such as Benecol and non-branded health drinks and yoghurts and get people to eat more healthily, such as being on a low-fat diet, eat more fruit, vegetables, less red meat and foods which have high levels of fats and cholesterol in such as butter, cheese, eggs and so on. Of course the drug manufacturers would want us to take more tablets of all kinds, including statins, as it undoubtedly increases their profits. If any of the research is done independently of the manufacturers, all well and good, but I don't tend to agree with just handing out more and more medication.

This was posted on the BBC Breakfast Facebook page this morning.

'Plans to extend the use of statins should be scrapped, according to a group of leading doctors and academics. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs should be extended to save more lives.

But in a letter to NICE, the experts said the benefits of statins don't justify putting up to 5 million more people in England and Wales on the medication.'

Landlord Visits

We got up early this morning and cleaned the house from top to bottom. The place was gleaming and smelling sweet and at a little before 10 a.m. the landlord and his wife turned up in their car. They came in and were pleased to see the house in such pristine condition. We now learn that the agency hasn't been doing their job. They hadn't been for a meeting on Good Friday with the agency as we had been told after the agency inspection a few weeks ago, and were annoyed to hear about the un-truths that they have been saying about the cleanliness of the house and the rudeness which I received at the time of the first visit several months ago. As a result we are going to be paying our rent direct to them and the agency will no longer be managing the house (if that is the way to describe their part in all this.) We can contact the landlord direct if there are any more maintenance problems with the house.