Wet and Miserable Bank Holiday Monday

Rain and more rain. A typical Bank Holiday Monday. I feel sorry for Carol. She's back at work at Milton Keynes Academy. Two days of teacher-training, which she detests, as it's so boring. We've had to stay indoors for the past couple of days, being without the car as been bad enough, but the weather has made things even more miserable. Looking on the bright side, even if the car had been in good working order and we had been able to get out, the weather would have certainly put a damper on it. Her friend at work, Lois, has come back from Guyana, and has the name and address of a car mechanic who should be able to fix the car for us. Let's just hope that it's not going to cost too much. On Sunday we didn't get to church because we had planned to walk there as we did the previous week, but the weather didn't look too promising and we didn't fancy getting soaked if it should come on to rain, but we managed to see the first, 9 a.m. service through the internet, which was interesting, to say the least.

During the week we had another telephone call from Mr Singh, our landlord. He says we can expect  an estate agent to call to make an appointment as he's having the house valued/surveyed so as to have it re-mortgaged. It makes us wonder what on earth is going on. Are they going to sell the house? Does their son, who came last year when the house was inspected and at the time that Smart Move, the rental agency who originally 'managed' the house (if that's the right word. They did very little actual 'management,'which led to the landlord taking the work away from them because of their total lack of actual 'management'. More like incompetence. Makes you wonder how much they were earning for not actually doing anything.) wants the equity out of the property and it was handed over to the landlord for us to rent direct. Or, more likely, to raise extra cash to have the fence and other maintenance done on the house. Or is that wishful thinking on our behalf? It would be nice if they would just tell us exactly what is going on, so as to put our minds to rest.

Bus Trip To Oxford

Being without the car certainly has it's problems, but in some ways it has it's up-side. It means that we have to find some other way to get out and about if we want an outing. So we decided on taking the bus to Oxford, a city we've visited on several occasions. But, before we left the house we did out shopping on-line through Sainsbury's website. Another job which is made easier because they do all the hard work for us, pick the items we order for us and deliver when we want. What could be better? We had a discount voucher which was emailed soon after our last order, for £9, that is, if we spent £60 or more. Which is what we managed to do, and then booked a delivery slot on Saturday for 6.30 p.m. It's surprising how quickly you can do the order now we've got a 'favourites' list on the website and it craftily knows our 'likes' from what we buy the most often. From using our Nectar card which collects data every time we shop using the thing.

We left the house at around 9.15 and caught the bus into central Milton Keynes. I didn't realise that my bus-pass wasn't valid for free transport before 9.30, so I had to pay 90p which was a surprise. We got into the shopping centre and just managed to miss the Oxford bus, the X5. The next one was due to leave from outside the Point at around 9.45, so it gave us just enough time to nip into the shopping centre to get some cash out of a cash machine and then go into Boot's as Carol wanted some travel sickness tablets. Last time we went on the bus to Oxford, for some reason she felt travel-sick, so some sort of tablet was the solution. But in Boot's we could see anything on the shelves and had to go to the pharmacy counter as it was probably going to be the sort of tablet you could only purchase 'over the counter.' There was one woman at the till, seemingly gossiping to the assistant who was really not interested in speeding up the transaction and was more interested in the conversation that worrying about us standing behind. The time was approaching rapidly for us to get back to the bus stop, probably less than 10 minutes, so we left the two gossiping. Not the sort of thing I would have expected from Boots as they generally seem to employ staff who do a good job. Bu this particular staff-member wasn't interested in customer care, more in the conversation with her friend. We hot-footed it from the premises and got to the bus stop ready to board the bus.

It took a good deal longer than the last time we used the X5, probably because of the amount of traffic on the road.  Did it really matter if it did, as we were just pleased to be out of the house and able to enjoy the sunshine. After the rain we've had over the past few days, it was a real pleasure, and we intended to make the most of it. But it's a great journey, and, being a good deal higher up than the car, you see things that you wouldn't otherwise see. I must say we are spoilt around her with some fantastic landscape. Probably not as dramatic as, for example, Yorkshire or Devon or Dorset, but, all the same, really beautiful. We wanted a snack on arriving in Oxford. We managed to find the perfect place in a small cafe called Taylor's of Oxford (apparently it's a chain of cafes and they have a few other branches throughout Oxford, we later learned) and had coffee and filled toasties. It's in Gloucester Green, just behind the bus station. Don't ask me why it's called that. It's a large square which has shops and restaurants all around it and nothing to indicate 'green' in the slightest. No grass or even trees. Never mind. We shall remember this place and use it again when we visit Oxford again in the future. Not to be confused with another Taylor's, the tea and coffee people who are related to Betty's in Harrogate, another fantastic catering establishment we enjoy when we visit Yorkshire. Having revived ourselves after our journey we made our way to the Ashmolean Museum and spent some time meandering around this fantastic place. You can get quite lost within this museum and forget the time it is so enthralling. More wandering and ending up in the covered market which Carol had wanted to visit. She is currently looking for a new handbag to replace the one she has at the moment which is not large enough to carry everything she wants. She saw one she liked but may look around to see what else is on offer. Then we found a shop and cafe called Pieminister, which sells really amazing and tasty pies of different descriptions. We tried some of these pies some while ago when we went to Bicester Avenue garden centre and I didn't know they had cafes as well as selling through Sainsbury's. We bought a couple of their pies with different fillings for our evening meal. another wander around the city, ending up in  Blackwell's, one of those bookshops in which you can loose yourself and you go up and down stairs and into so many different departments that it's a sort of maze. I managed to come across a good selection of books which I would probably buy and read, but not on this occasion. So time was indeed marching on so we decided we'd seen all we wanted but before we left Oxford we found a Cafe Nero branch and had a cold drink each and got back to the bus station and caught the next X5 back home to Milton Keynes. The traffic was getting quite busy as we left Oxford and got back on the main road out of the city and were only too glad that we neither of us had to drive! The bus arrived at the railway station and, once we'd alighted we had to find a number 5 going towards Bletchley. This duly arrived and we found it almost completely crowded and had to sit at the rear, which meant over the engine. A clapped-out bus it turned out to be and it was hot where we had to sit, do doubt because it was over the engine. I was surprised by how jerky and uncomfortable the ride was back home to Eaglestone and it seemed that every bump, pot-hole in the road and jolt made by the road-surface contributed to a really uncomfortable ride. This, not helped by the speed bumps around the city centre. It seems amazing that the roads around Milton Keynes, which is supposed to be a modern city, should be in such a poor state of repair.

Tidying The Garden

I have spent some time this morning tidying the garden, front and back, clipping the long grass along the fence as well as lopping the straggling bramble branches. These, in particular, are very tough and they take a good deal of effort to cut off. The thorns are very sharp and if you're not careful you get your hands and fingers snagged on them as well as your clothes. I managed to put most of the rubbish either in the wheely bin at the front of the house or over what remains of the fence and into the area behind and running alongside the Redway. As it's organic material it will rot down naturally. I have cut the untidy grass which has grown up along the front of the house and under the kitchen window as well as pulling up the weeds which have grown between the paving slabs. Fortunately it was dry when I began this work, but it is now raining (1.40 p.m.) so I'm pleased I did this work when I had the opportunity. As they say 'make hay while the sun shines.' Never was a saying more appropriate, although I wasn't exactly making hay, but near enough with all the grass.

Trip Into Milton Keynes Centre

As we were unable to use the car  at the moment(as described in the earlier blog post.) we decided to go into Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre on the bus. As I have a free bus pass (now being of a 'certain age'.) it seems sensible to use it (Carol has to pay full price for a bus ticket.) and we left the house at around 9.30. It was unsettled, weather-wise, and we had to put on jackets. It wasn't raining as we left, but the sky was becoming very over-cast, with dark clouds. We got to the bus stop in Saxon Street and soon caught a bus. It took us to near the Milton Keynes Theatre where we got off and went into the Central Shopping Centre. Carol wanted to go into Pret a Manger, the coffee and food outlet in Middleton Hall, as one of her former pupils worked there and had said, if she visited, she could have free coffee. Which is what happened. She was so pleased to see the young man, who was very well-mannered and she was so happy that he is doing well. I presume he is working, like my stepson Daniel, who is at Newcastle University and has a part-time job to supplement his student loan. We had really come into the shopping centre more as a way to fill in time, and to 'window shop' as we can't currently buy much until payday this Friday. We did browse in The Works, which always seems to have an amazing selection of books at discount prices and the stock changes so rapidly you have to keep returning because of snapping up any bargains. We went into Hotter Shoes as Carol needs a pair of comfortable shoes for work. She tried a pair on and finds it difficult to get shoes in her shoe size, which is very small. Expensive shoes, but very well made. Good that they are all manufactured in this country. I think you get what you pay for. Later we went into Tiger, the new store further along from Pret A Manger. I mentioned that we visited the last time we were in the shopping centre. It would appear that their stock changes regularly because a lot of what we saw last time, and it was only a week or two ago (when we had walked into the centre along the canal.) and the stock was different then. We looked in at W.H. Smith, but compared to the stock in Tiger, such things as pens, ring binders and notebooks are a good deal cheaper in the other store compared to Smith's, which looks really boring and bland in comparison. Carol's favourite store in Paperchase and we had to visit, even if to just browse, and I was pleased to find that they had a particularly good selection of notebooks as well a range of pens which I have only just discovered called Lamy. I have purchased a mechanical pencil and ballpoint pend via Amazon as well as buying Carol a ballpoint which had free engraving. Actually quite expensive, but worth it, as they are well made and feel good in your hands when you're writing.  Next we visited Gregg's and had baguettes and sausage rolls. We then saw a display in a shop called Mr Simms' Olde Sweet shop, of sugar-free sweet in their window, so we went inside and bought a small amount of sugar-free sweets as Carol was recently diagnosed diabetic. It was quite encouraging to find such a great range of such products. We  gradually walked as far as Marks and Spencer which is at the opposite end of the shopping centre to John Lewis and purchased some bits and pieces for our dinner later in the evening.  I was most impressed by the cashier, because when we'd arrived at the checkout, Carol decided we needed some soy sauce to go with the stir-fry we were having that evening. The lady got up from her seat at the till and went to find Carol, who we could see struggling to find the soy sauce, and the lady managed to point out the location. That's what I call going beyond the call of duty and was really impressed. Not many staff in a shop would go to such lengths to help a customer. It had by now begun to rain quite heavily and we had to get to the bus stop next to The Point (which is in a really poor state of dis-repair. Sad to think such an iconic building left to deteriorate so badly. Shame on whoever owns it. Surely it could be restored to it's former glory and be put to some use or other.) and managed to return home, through the rain-soaked streets of Milton Keynes and were glad to get back and I made us tea.

Unseasonal Weather

This is blog post number 690.

The weather is playing all sorts of tricks at the moment. Nothing unusual for weather in Britain. It has gone from cold and over-cast over the last seven days or so to being  really hot yesterday. We stayed in the house. We couldn't go anywhere because of the car being out of action (as it is likely to be for at least another week, until we can get it repaired.) It was so hot last night we had to have the bedroom window open and the fan on. Not such an easy environment to sleep in, what with the dogs barking as they could hear all sorts of noises outside as the open window bought in no end of extraneous sounds. Then, this afternoon, after we'd been to church, going to the 9 a.m. service at M.K.C.C. and walking there and back, there was a torrential rainstorm. No thunder or lightening, but quite a heavy storm nonetheless. It is a good deal cooler as I write this (8.52 p.m.) on Sunday Evening. Let's hope it remains cool all night so we get  decent sleep.

Thankfully I managed to mow the grass at the back of the house early on Saturday morning. the grass-cutting was the only thing the landlord who visited us for a house inspection the Saturday before, could mention. The house was immaculately clean so neither he nor his good lady-wife could fault our cleanliness. As regards the fence, there seemed a glimmer of hope that it might be repaired but I doubt anything will be done as he continues to make endless excuses as regards cost. Just a cheapskate. Considering how much we pay in rent, it's wouldn't hurt the man to spend what it takes to repair the fence. In all honesty, a certain percentage of the rent should go on maintenance. Even if it was £20 a month, which isn't much when you think about it, over the four years or so we've lived here, works out around £980, which would be more than enough to buy a decent fence instead of having to put up with the tumble-down wreck we currently have to put up with. I think if I owned a house and rented it out and the fence was in such a disgraceful state of dis-repair I'd want it fixed as it's just an eyesore and an embarrassment.

Recent Reading . . . and Some Writing . . . Part 3

I have an interest in history. Not because of anything educational. I was doing 'A' Level History and 'A' Level English Literature at Mander College in Bedford as I was supposed to have gone on to do a drama degree at Bristol University but didn't get on with any of the course and left to go to work as a student  A.S.M. at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham instead of doing a degree course in 1969. I have to say that the 'A' Level courses I did were so boring they would have put anyone off English literature, particularly Shakespeare, possibly for life. We were studying Othello and The Tempest. Just plain DULL for an 18 year old. The history course, just the same, so dull it would have driven anyone to not want to look at history again, American history as well as European. I think I have got my interest in history from being a member of the National Trust and visiting their properties. I came across a book called "The Real Oliver Twist: Robert Blincoe- A Life That Illuminates an Age" by John Waller. There is no actual proof that Charles Dickens read about Blincoe and that he used it as a basis or background for his novel "Oliver Twist", but it certainly gives you a good idea of what life was like for those working in factories during the Industrial Revolution in the early years of the 19th Century. A real eye-opener. I have to say that I prefer 'real' history rather than 'historical fiction.' I never got all excited over the 'Wolf Hall' novels of Hilary Mantel or the television series or, for that matter, the R.S.C. stage productions. I think perhaps I know the Tudor period it covers too well. I did see the first episode of the B.B.C. production but didn't get drawn in to watch any more of it. There is far too much material available, such as documents, letters and archives, to start making up fiction to really interest me. Another book I read which I found in the amazing The Works shop in Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre is "Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth" by Mary S. Lovell. An amazing lady living during the Tudor period. She was married at one time to a husband who was responsible for inspecting the monasteries and other institutions at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and for keeping Mary, Queen of Scots imprisoned during  the reign of Elizabeth I. A really fascinating read and I can highly recommend.

I am a subscriber to "B.B.C. History Magazine" and have been reading it for several years now. The first couple of years you got a free book with your subscription and the first year I had the first of Peter Ackroyd's series of books on the History of England called "Foundation" and then the following year it was "Tudors" and the most recent volume "Civil War," which Carol bought me as a Christmas present last year. There are to be six volumes which presumably brings the history right up to the present day. I'm not sure when the fourth volume will be published, but, considering the number of books that Peter Ackroyd writes I imagine it will be until next year. Just have to wait and see when it is released.

Having delved into the world of Sherlock Holmes and his side-kick Dr John Watson, I then got into other crime literature. I have read and enjoyed P.D. James's novels, the Adam Dalgliesh series, with "Devices and Desires" and "The Private Patient." Then the Dalziel and Pascoe books written by Reginald Hill and the television series which starred Warren Clark as Andy Dalziel. The part was made for him and he seemed to inhabit the character. Colin Buchanan played his opposite number, Pascoe. I like the books because they have an underlying comedy which so many 'whodunits' and crime fiction seem to lack. I have also read quite a few of Val Mcdermid's novels, "The Grave Tattoo" being one, but the last two I read, "The Skeleton Road and "Vanishing Point" were not as good as her earlier work and rather a let-down. Too predictable and formulaic as far as I was concerned, as good as her earlier work and rather a let-down. I don't think I'll bother with her newest novel when it comes out.

As regards my own writing, I have been working on a project which I have been developing slowly for the past couple of years which has multiple 'layers' or story, seen from different perspectives. It's set in one location, much like a soap, with characters who come and go. I have up managed to publish some of this on a website called Shortbread so at least it's got people reading it and making some comments.I  have  been keeping notes on story ideas and doing observations for characters which is useful for developing my own material. I did a one-day creative writing course at Milton Keynes Art Centre nearly two years ago and that sparked off a lot of ideas and shoed me how to get started with writing. I had signed up to do a 10-week follow-up course which would have been even more useful, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the lady who lead it being ill. It has not, unfortunately, been re-scheduled, which is a real pity. I did, however, sign up to do another course run by Milton Keynes Council and running over 8 weeks at the Milton Keynes Academy last September (2014) but I just couldn't get on with it and didn't complete the course. I have since bought a book on creative writing and used some of the exercises in that as well as doing a free on-line course run on something called Futurelearn which was quite useful. I have since done several other of their courses, one on Shakespeare and another on archaeology.

I read "Les Miserables" a couple of years ago. I managed to get the Vintage Books paperback edition which is in a translation by Julie Rose. I saw the original London stage musical back in around 1989 or thereabouts and loved it and have since seen the film version, which I was very impressed by. I had grave doubts that it would ever do justice to the original stage show, because, on balance, the film versions of musicals never seem to be as good, usually because they seem to insist on using actors who were never in the original or at least can't sing. In the movie they didn't use 'dubbed' voices for the singing of the songs but used a system whereby the actors sang 'live' and had tiny ear-pieces through which they could hear a pianist playing 'live,' which meant that the finished performances were far more spontaneous than having the actors dubbing to a pre-recorded soundtrack. You always seem to have the feeling in a lot of  musical films that the actors are miming and in some cases they don't use their own voices. Think Audrey Hepburn's voice being dubbed by an actress called Marni Nixon for "My Fair Lady." I was surprised how well Russell Crowe managed to perform and sing the role of Javert in the film of "Les Mis." I was determined to read the novel first before I saw the film when it came out in 2012 and as a result it made the story a good deal clearer. Actually, that was another thing I noticed about the film version: the story was a good deal clearer. I wasn't aware that Gavroche and Eponine were the children of the Thenardier's. The book is some 1100 pages long and, to be honest, there are huge tracts of it which are extremely heavy-going and it took some effort to skip. Victor Hugo, the author, does tend to put his point of view in far too much, intervening in the story many times. I know Charles Dickens does use his novels to point out social issues in his novels, but he doesn't let his 'voice' get in the way of the plot. There are certainly many chapters which are nothing to do with the story at all but talk about subjects related to the plot and nothing more. In some ways the film improves on the original because these bits are cut out, thankfully.

Recent Reading . . . and Some Writing . . . Part 2

I mentioned in the last post how I was influenced by radio drama for my selection of reading material. I suppose the same could be said of what I watched on television. The first big drama adaptation I remember was 'The Forsyte Saga" which would have been one of the really big serial adaptations done by the BBC in the early 1960's and I think opened on the new channel BBC 2. We didn't have BBC 2 at the start of it's broadcast in 1964 as you had to buy a special set as it was in 625-lines as all other channels were 405-line and you had to have a duel set that could receive the new channel as well as having a special ariel which we didn't have, so I would have had to wait a few years later for this series to be shown on BBC 1, perhaps around 1967-8. I read all the novels, written by John Galsworthy. I think there must have been around 9 or 10 books and the television adaptation ran for some 26 episodes. I cannot imagine a television adaptation running to that many episodes today. Something like 'Downton Abbey' runs for no more than 8 episodes a series, although the next series, the last, will be the 6th. 

The B.B.C., in all it's infinite wisdom, always showed some sort of adaptation of a 'worthy' classical novel at teatime on a Sunday during the 1960's, and over the years many Dickens adaptations were shown. I don't know why they imagined that Charles Dickens would be suitable for children, but I suppose it was aimed at what you'd call a 'family' audience. Today if they do an adaptation of a classic novel, Dickens, Austen, Eliot or whoever, they schedule it much later and as a result the productions are a good deal more hard-hitting. These productions were also done in much longer runs, say 12-13 episodes, which actually suits a Dickens as the novels were originally published in serial form. Today you'd be lucky if a production is 4 episodes or even less. I remember as a child they did 'Great Expectations' (and there have been numerous versions done over the years since.) and being terrified by the opening sequence where Magwitch, the escaped convict, meets the young and innocent Pip in the churchyard. I think I would have been as terrified in much the same way as Pip. I got to read the novel and from that began to read further Dickens novels. In the early days of Channel 4, around 1982, the year it opened, they showed a television version of the R.S.C. stage adaptation of "Nicholas Nickleby". It was done on stage in two parts and the running time was something like 8-9 hours. A truly memorable version. I read the book before it was shown on television. I am again reading "Nicholas Nickleby" and enjoying it very much. It is so full of some wonderful characters and, although you might say that Dickens does somewhat 'over-egg the pudding' with some of his writing, and it's not particularly fashionable, but it cracks along at a fair old pace and you can't call it boring in any way. It's hard to believe that Dickens was in his 20's when he  wrote it and also that it was published in episodic form, which makes me wonder how much he had planned the storyline in advance and how, once the episodes were published, did he wish he could go back and alter bits of the story? Also, he was writing the next novel, which I believe was "The Old Curiosity Shop," which would have overlapped "Nicholas Nickleby." It must have been very complicated to have two novels being written and published concurrently. No doubt he had started writing "Nicholas Nickleby" as the previous novel, "Oliver Twist" was being written and published. The thought doesn't bear thinking about. He must have been very organised.

I worked on an episode of "Sherlock Holmes", one of the Granada series which was made during the 1980s, when I did a lot of 'walk-on' work. It was "The Man With The Twisted Lip" and shot in King's Lynn. As a result of that I decided to read some of the stories and had a complete volume of the stories (since lost) but I now have an annotated set of volumes which has been edited by Leslie S. Klinger. I have been working my way through the stories gradually (not completed as yet.) The Granada series is being repeated on one of the digital television stations we can get through Sky (I think it is ITV Encore, which shows a lot of back-catalogue shows, including "Downton Abbey.") So I am able to see the stories in really good adaptations, although I must say some of the acting is somewhat 'over-the-top.' I'm not over-keen on the modern version of the Conan Doyle stories, "Sherlock" which stars Benedict Cumberbatch. I'm  afraid I prefer the original stories and don't like them being fiddled about with. I did see the first series and quite enjoyed them but the last series, for me, was a disappointment. I won't be watching the next series which is due out around Christmas.

Recent Reading . . . and some Writing . . . Part 1

I have quite a wide taste in what I enjoy reading. I've had a passion for good reading since I was quite a young age. When I was at school we were always supposed to have something to read, taken out of the school library or else bought from a local shop. Infant, it's a habit which I have continued to this day. I always have a book to read and once one is read I have another to read.  I read Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" and the later books which featured the same characters. "We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea" which I believe was set in and around Essex, along the coast from where we used to go on holiday when I was a child, Frinton-On-Sea, Walton-On-Naze and all the little inlets along that stretch of coast. The characters were real to me, and the stories were good. I'm not sure whether children read them today. I think they were written in the 1920's and 30's so perhaps they wouldn't appeal to modern children, bought up with iPads, Gameboys, Nintendo etc. My father was a sailor and had yachts which were sailed along that bit of coast, around the Colne Estuary, Brightlingsea as well as Frinton (see earlier blog posts on our family holidays.) So a series of books featuring children who sailed was of interest to me, not that I was a sailor myself. My father put me off, to some extent, as he wasn't the most patient of people, when it came to his children in a boat he was sailing. When I went to work as a D.S.M. at Century Theatre in Keswick in the early 1970's they were in the process of making a film version of "Swallows and Amazons" on Lake Windermere, although I was too busy with the season of plays we were producing to be able to watch any of the filming, which was a real shame.

I got hooked on anything with a really good plot. I was a radio drama fan (something I doubt children of today can say.) Radio Four (or the good old Home Service it was named up until about 1967 when the B.B.C. introduced us to Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4. No doubt it was easier to give the stations numbers than to come up with any other name.) I think it's the fact that, with a radio adaptation, you have to use your imagination far wore than when it's done in a visual medium, such as film or television or even stage. For that I think Radio Four is quite unique. Where else can you get such a rich selection of drama? Nowhere I can think of. I got hooked on adaptations of novels, done as "Saturday Night Theatre" as well as a Sunday night adaptation of books as well as stage plays. It was through an adaptation of "Rebecca" by Daphne Du Maurier, that I discovered not only that novel, but all, or about all, her other novels, such as "Frenchman's Cove", "Jamaica Inn" as well as her later novels such as "The House On The Strand." Such an incredible author, how she could evoke a place, such as Cornwall where most of her earlier novels are set. "The House On The Strand" is a particularly clever piece of writing, and it worked so well as a radio piece and wouldn't work as a film or a television series (thankfully.) and knowing today's television it would be ruined. "Rebecca" is perhaps best known as being made into a film by Albert Hitchcock and starring Laurence Olivier as Max DeWinter. It has been adapted for television a couple of times, the first with Joanna David as "The Girl" and then much more recently with Charles Dance. More of Daphne DuMaurier's stories have  been made into films, most famously, another Hitchcock adaptation being "The Birds" as well as "Don't Look Now" with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland and directed by Nicholas Roeg. It's a really scary film and, although a good 40-plus years old, well worth a view if you get a chance to see it. It's shown regularly on television although you could get it on DVD. I supposed DuMaurier would be considered a 'woman's novelist' and I suppose, when I first came across her, not having then read anything of hers, it would have put me off,  as I think I might have thought the novels to be sort of 'Mills and Boon-ish', but how wrong could I be, as her books are so well plotted and the characters so captivating, particularly "Rebecca" that I was soon hooked and had to read more of them.

In the late 1960's Radio Four did a quite brilliant serialisation of the J.R.R. Tolkien novel "The Hobbit." It was done in eight episodes. I have recently managed to purchase this adaptation of a set of CD's from "The Works" in Milton Keynes. As a result of the radio adaptation I read the book and later on I discovered "The Lord of The Rings" (also adapted for B.B.C. Radio and part of the CD set.) I had it originally in a very thick paperback edition which I think I bought on a trip into London and took with me when I went to work as an A.S.M. at Liverpool Playhouse in the early 1970's. I read it every decade or so after that, and had it in three hard-bound editions, I think purchased from Book Club Associates and later I had an illustrated, one volume edition. So I know the trilogy very well and enjoyed the Peter Jackson movie trilogy which was pretty faithful to the original. At the time of writing this I haven't seen "The Hobbit." It seems unnecessary to me to make it into three films, because it's a relatively straightforward book. No doubt it was done for financial reasons, which seems a shame. I may eventually get round to viewing it on D.V.D.

Walk To Church On Sunday Morning

We awoke a good deal later than we usually do yesterday morning. No doubt due to all the cleaning we have done over the past couple of days, due to our landlord's visit to inspect the house. As a result we had our breakfast too late to get to the 9 a.m. service at M.K.C.C.  (Milton Keynes Christian Centre.) so we went to the 10.45 one instead. We walked along the Redway because the car has been out of action for the past week due to breaking down on the M1. Actually a very pleasant walk along the with the sun out and noticing along the way the blackberries ripening rapidly in the hedgerows. It will soon be time for me to pick them. A very lively service, as usual. Two speakers this morning, as part of the series "Have You Heard The One About . . ." on the Parables of Jesus. The first on "The Pharisee and The Tax Collector" and the second on "The Great Banquet." It was interesting to compare the earlier service we usually go to with this middle one. It was a good deal fuller. Infact, I think it was a 'full house.' I don't think I could see any empty seats. 'Discovery Kids,' the children's church which is usually on at the same time as the service in the main auditorium, was not on as it's closed during August, so all the children who normally would go there were in, but it was surprisingly undisturbed, no babies or children making too much noise, or not that I noticed. Infant it was fuller than I would have expected as I would imagine most people would have been on holiday. A further walk back home. It takes no more than 25 minutes to do the walk. We are actually deciding that not having the car at the moment does have benefits because we are getting some very good exercise. It's surprising how lazy having a car can make you because it's so easy to just get the car out to drive even the shortest of distances, for example, to the local shops, either at Eaglestone or Coffee Hall and it's not just ourselves who get the exercise because if we take the two dogs they also get some exercise.

Landlord and Wife Inspect the House

We spent a good deal of the day making last-minute cleaning efforts to the house. We were expecting our landlord to appear sometime after 4 p.m. as he had rung back to say that he'd come to inspect the house today after 2 and then rang to say it would be after 4. As it turned out, their car arrived around 3.25 and I had only just Hoovered the carpet in the lounge and Carol had been asleep upstairs when they drew up outside the house. She had only just woken up and came downstairs as I was about to make tea. Both mugs of the freshly-brewed tea remained on the worktop near the kettle as our landlord entered with his wife. Nothing untoward came from their visit which lasted all of 10 minutes, except a comment that the 'grass needs cutting' which had actually only been done on Monday as well as some Strimming yesterday was well as clearing some of the brambles and weeds as mentioned in the last blog post. We have to have the boiler checked for safety (a legal requirement of all landlords of rented property) which should be checked and certificated annually and the landlord said he would find someone qualified to inspect gas installations to do the check. Nothing further to report and so they left, no doubt to not be seen for another year, although they did say that they would sort out the fence for us which is now in a perilous state of repair (they had promised this last July and nothing further has been done about it.)

Rainy and Wet

I managed to use the Strimmer I borrowed from Gary yesterday and to tidy up some of the tufty bits of grass around the edge of the garden whilst Carol went into the Academy this morning at it was 'A' Level results day. I must say the garden now looks a bit tidier than it did before our work. Have had to cut back a lot of the brambles which is a horrible job as the thorns have a tendency to get caught in your clothes and stick into your hands if you're not careful. Unfortunately it started raining as the day progressed, beginning thin and weedy and now quite torrential. No thunder or lightening as I write but perhaps we'll get that as the night progresses.

Landlord Arranges Visit and House-Cleaning

We had a call from our beloved landlord yesterday morning. He asked if he could visit. He didn't say what it was about. We said, could he come later in the week? He wanted to come that evening. Legally landlords have to give you 24-hour's notice. He's coming on Saturday afternoon. So we have spent most of today day cleaning the house. So most of the rooms are a good deal less dusty,  nd much more tidy etc etc. Floors mopped and carpets Hoovered. Our next goal was to tidy up the garden, to get rid of the weeds which have spring up outside the patio doors. They were beginning to get quite big, along with some rather insistent twiggy trees which have started to infiltrate the fence-line. So, having been stuck indoors again today, and after our cleaning duties, we needed a good excuse to walk to one of the near-by do-it-yourself stores in order to buy strip to go along the bath-edge (the edging strip we put on some while ago, infact it must be over a year ago when the landlord visited and is showing signs of coming adrift.) some dog mixer biscuit and gardening gloves as well as some sort of cutting instrument such as a lopper or pruner to deal with the saplings which I have already mentioned earlier.

Having walked to The Range along the Redway and past M.K.C.C. and then stopping to buy cans of drink in the forecourt of Wickes, where we had gone to search for the bath edging strip but not having any success in there finding it, decided to walk on to The Range further along the road within the Winterhill retail park. We were somewhat surprised to find it really busy considering that it's a Wednesday afternoon and the carpark is really full. We browsed the store and found the food for the dogs (actually cat food mixer, but don't tell either of the dogs that! Why is cat food generally cheaper than dog's? Never could fathom out why?) as well as two pairs of gardening gloves, one for myself and the other for Carol, which pair were quite colourful while mine were just dull and boring. Then gadget to generally deal with cutting the largest saplings that grow along the garden fence as well as some tiresome blackberry brambles which I found interfering with my mowing which I did early yesterday morning. Glad I did now as it would have had to be done with the landlord coming, although, to be honest, I don't suppose he will even notice the grass at back and front has been cut.

We were going to return home and had booked a taxi cab using my mobile phone (for all my annoyance by people using their mobiles inappropriately and the obsession that people have with the things, we couldn't have done without this gadget for this purpose over the last couple of weeks, as we've used it on several occasions to book cabs in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and to call the breakdown truck when we were stuck on the M1 with the broken-down car on Saturday afternoon.) when we saw our neighbours, Shelley and Gary, drive into the carpark as they'd come to buy curtains in The Range for their daughter who is currently on holiday in Great Yarmouth with her grandmother and Gary is decorating her bedroom as a surprise for when she gets home. So they said they'd give us a lift home so we cancelled the taxi. No sooner done than a cab turned up and we felt a bit guilty that we'd wasted the driver's time, but we had phoned to cancel it so they shouldn't have been so efficient in sending the cab so quickly. Then Gary said we needn't have bought the lopper as he had one in his garden shed we could borrow so I took it back and got a refund and we then got in their car and we were driven home. Gary had lent us the lopper as promised along with his Strimmer which should help us tidy up the rough grass around the edge of the garden. We started to cut back the brambles and to pull up the weeds and generally tidy up and I must say it's beginning to look a good deal better. Let's hope that our beloved landlord tells us that he's going to get the fence repaired as he'd more or less promised over a year ago as we are looking after his property for him and we've good tenants he can rely on. But something tells me this isn't going to happen. So we'll be left with a fence which isn't much use and will get blown down during the winter if we get another strong wind as we did when the fence the opposite side of the garden last winter when a large section got blown down.

A Walk Beside The Grand Union

We were without the car. We were told not to drive it, after our adventure on the M1 on Saturday. It hasn't gone anywhere. It was left on our drive when we were bought back home by the rescue truck on Saturday evening. It will have to remain inoperative until we can find a mechanic who can let us know the extent of the fault and how much it is going to cost. Regrettable, considering that it's a little over a week ago since the confounded thing had to have the clutch repaired when we visited Daniel in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

As a result of all of this we were determined to not let it upset our time together, with Carol on summer holiday. We wanted to have some sort of walk and hd taken both dogs for walks to the shop in Galloways in Coffee Hall as well as the local shop in Eaglestone. We decided on walking into the centre of Milton Keynes and take the route along the towpath that runs alongside the Grand Union Canal, which is only a short walk along the Redway which runs behind our home.

The weather was overcast, but at least it was dry when we set out. We took the minimum of items with us, but had intended visiting Marks and Spencers in the shopping centre as we needed to get fruit. Without the car it was going to be difficult to do our usual weekly shop, as with the amount we generally buy it fills the boot of the car, so we had ordered using Sainsbury's on-line, and booked the delivery for Tuesday morning. 

It's a fairly steady walk along the canal path and we didn't meet many people, except for a couple of people walking their dogs. We couldn't have taken our dogs with us because we ow;don't have been able to take them into the shopping centre. We had been surprised by how many dogs there were at Calke Abbey last Saturday. We were even more surprised, as well as shocked, when we saw two dogs which had been left by some visitors to this National Trust property's car park, because we know it is unwise to leave your dog in your car as it can be fatal to a dog if left in a hot car interior, although it was particularly hot last Saturday.

We arrived in the city centre and walked into the shopping centre through John Lewis. We had coffee and chocolate croissants in a new-by Cafe Nero branch and then visited a new store which had opened next door called Tiger, which, it turns out, is a Danish company. They sell a very reasonably-priced range of products such as stationary, toys, artists materials, games and food. We purchased some things and then walked towards Marks and Spencers which is at the opposite end of the shopping centre. We went into Superdrug and then Marks and Spencer. By now time was moving on so we decided to have something to eat in M and S, really tasty roast meat in burger buns. Actually some of the best we've tasted. We managed to go into the Marks and Spencer food hall and buy food for tonight's dinner.

We had spent a couple of hours in the shopping centre and then caught the number 5 bus back home from just outside the shopping centre. It had begun to rain, but not very heavy thankfully. 

Calke Abbey and Car Break-Down

The sun was shining. Why spend a Saturday indoors when you could be outside, visiting a National Trust property? Visiting Whipsnade or even London Zoo or any of the attractions in and around Milton Keynes and the adjacent counties? We had looked in the National Trust handbook and on-line at their website and decided on Calke Abbey, which we had intended visiting a while ago and had given up on the journey up the M1 as it was in the middle of being widened or some other roadworks on it's length for I don't know how many miles going north from Milton Keynes and junction 14 on. We left home at around 9.30 a.m., having filled up with petrol at our usual Shell station in Grafton Street. We got on the motorway and the journey wasn't too bad but the confounded roadworks we eventually met meant we could only travel at 50 m.p.h. I don't know why they have to have these coned-off sections or why you have to drive so slowly and at one point along what would have been the hard shoulder. It really put a damper on the day's outing. We came off the motorway at junction 23 and headed for Calke Abbey and Ashby de la Zouche. Infact, it turned out to be not far from Twycross Zoo, which we visited a few months ago (see earlier blog post for details.) We arrived at Calke Abbey to discover the carpark overflowing. You drive in through a very attractive avenue of trees and through a park with sheep in it and at one point these sheep were laying down in the shade of the trees and one sheep in particular looked as if it might be dead rather than asleep and almost in the path of our car and others who followed into the carpark. We had to get a timed ticket in order to visit the house (it is to prevent too many people walking around at once.) Our time slot was at 1.45 which gave us time enough to have a drink and a sandwich in the very nice restaurant (there are actually two, as we discovered.) as well as browsing in the shop and then watching a video about Calke Abbey. I think it was actually a video of a television programme from a series that has been shown on the Sky Arts channel on National Trust properties and narrated by Martin Jarvis. I'd know his voice anywhere as he seems to make a living doing voice-overs and narrating books on B.B.C. Radio 4 Extra. We'd seen a couple of these documentaries and saw one on Waddesdon and another on Stourhead, two places we've visited at one time or other over the years. We wandered around the gardens, very beautifully kept, with attractive flower beds and all the rest and then wandered into the house. I'm not sure whether I liked it as much as some places we've visited, perhaps because it has been left in a  somewhat decayed and unkempt manner. Some of the rooms a a little too over furnished and in the Victorian style whereby there are too many ornaments for our taste. Some of the upstairs rooms are in a very poor state, but it's good that they are allowing the public to see how they go about restoring not only the structure of these old properties but also the artefacts within them, such as tapestries and pieces of furniture. A pity that so much of the house has to be left in almost complete darkness. I realise that they want to protect the interiors and furniture and other items from the damage which can be caused by light, but in some cases it's so dark you can barely see what's in some of the rooms.

We finished our tour of the house. We spent more time meandering around the grounds and then had a further rest to have ice-cream and a drink and then left for home. It took some while before we hit the correct road which lead to the M1. We again had to endure the confounded 50 m.p.h. zone through the roadworks. After a fairly short distance Carol, who was driving, said there was a problem with the car. An oil light came on on the dashboard and then a 'stop' sign lit up on the display. We've got used to the alarm which keeps coming on which shows there's a problem with the E.S.P. mechanism (described in greater detail in an earlier post, after we had visited another National Trust property at Ascott a few months ago.) What were we to do? Were we to continue with our journey, or find somewhere to draw into at the side of the motorway and wait for a recovery vehicle to come and rescue us as the signs kept on telling us on the boards all along the section of roadworks on the M1? There seemed no option but to pull over between the cones which sectioned off the lane which would in another situation been the hard shoulder which is intended for breakdowns. This is what we did and fortunately we have our own breakdown cover with Swinton insurance. I used my mobile to call for assistance which took a long time to connect. By the time I'd done this a breakdown truck had arrived and we had to be taken off the motorway at junction 16 and left in a truck-stop lay-by which fortunately had a pub where we could get a drink and a sandwich as well as very convenient toilets. We had to re-arrange the breakdown rescue from Swinton as they had been directed to collect us from the motorway. We we then informed that it would be a good two hours before they could arrive. But by then we were relieved to have been rescued from the motorway roadside as it was somewhat nerve -wracking, to say the least. Not something I would ever want to repeat, even though the traffic was moving at 50 m.p.h. through the roadworks it was still extremely heavy-flowing and dangerous. I have never, in all my driving career of some 45 years or so, broken down on a motorway and had to be rescued. Indeed, I think in all that time I have perhaps had no more than three callouts or had to use my car insurance for some incident. The rescue truck did eventually arrive and the car was lifted up onto the back of the truck and we were taken home. A very upsetting and annoying end to what had started out as such a pleasant day out and, considering what had happened to the car exactly a week ago in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne not something we had anticipated happening again. The driver who took us back to Milton Keynes had a look at the car when it had been delivered safely onto our driveway and said he thought it could be the head gasket that had caused the problem.

Locker Key Panic

We went a good deal later to D.W. Fitness this morning and it was great to find the place virtually empty. None of the crazy people who hog the pool and make a lot of noise into the bargain and no children doing swimming classes. I realise they have to learn at some point, but the woman that teaches them has a really loud voice and it's just not pleasant. I managed around 15 lengths of the pool. We sat in the jacuzzi for a good 20 minutes and one lady, who must have been in her 70's, if not older, said she'd swam a mile. I'm not sure how many lengths of the pool that was.

There was a problem with my locker key. When you use the changing rooms to change you have to put all your belongings in a locker and use your membership card to release the key in the lock. You take the key with you into the gym or swimming pool, and it should have a ring on it with a number which corresponds with your locker. I didn't notice that the key today had no numbered fob on it. I attach the key to my swimming shorts (in one of the pockets) so that I don't loose it. When I came back to the changing room after the swim I didn't realise there was no number on the key ring and could not remember which locker it was. I began to panic as I was getting cold and wanted to get dried and dressed. I eventually had to ask a member of staff to find the locker by going along the row of lockers. I had just forgotten exactly which location it was in. Just going to have to be careful this doesn't happen again when we go to D.W. Fitness. Not a pleasant situation to be in, unfortunately, but it resolved itself in the end. I'll just have to be sure next time I manage to find a locker with a key with a numbered ring on it so as to avoid at all costs a similar incident.

Incidentally, this blog post is number 680.

Woburn Abbey Visit

We're just getting over our trip to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne over the weekend. I have to say, in normal circumstances we would never have driven so far in so few days. We would have no doubt had a holiday after our work shifting Daniel's belongings from flat-to-flat, much as we did when we went down to Devon for Chloe and Steve's wedding two years ago (incidentally, exactly two years to the day.) so that we had around a week between the journey there and back. We've had a couple of days just resting up. So we decided to have a trip out, even though it wasn't going to be far, to Woburn Abbey, no more than a fifteen-minute car ride away down the A5. We haven't been to the Abbey for quite a while, three or four years at the least, although we do occasionally drive through the park to see the deer.

 Statue of horse "Mrs Moss"

 Fallow deer in the park

 Carol in the Hornbeam Maze

Cockerel which followed us around the gardens

Having parked the car we went into the gardens, through the gift shop (how is it that so many stately homes and in particular those run and operated by the National Trust and English Heritage, always insist on you having to go through their gift shops or at least having to make a detour which has you ending up in the shop? Very crafty ploy to get you to spend your hard-earned money.) We spent around an hour and a half wandering around the magnificent gardens and saw some enormous fish in the fish-pond. Presumably carp. It was difficult to get any really decent photographs due to the reflection of the water. There seem to be quite a few alterations since we last visited, particularly several Chinese-style follies which I'm sure we haven't seen before and a new garden section. We heard a cockerel crowing and then saw it and then it came to find us and insisted on following us across the lawns towards a caged area which contained some extremely colourful birds which I presume are pheasants of some sort. Then the cockerel wandered away, fortunately, as it was beginning to get quite aggressive and who knows what a cockerel is going to get up to. No doubt it was after food.

The place was virtually deserted, no doubt because it was mid-week, but there were quite a few cars in the carpark.

Then we went to the restaurant and had coffee and cake, although to be honest it was somewhat over-priced for what it was and the coffee wasn't very warm. We did look at the sandwiches but they were really over-priced at nearly £4 which seems somewhat excessive. Not impressed, I'm afraid, considering how many visitors they are likely to get and the fact that Woburn Abbey is supposed to be perhaps the leading visitor attraction in Britain, or would be on a tourist's list of places to visit when in Britain. No doubt many American tourists would visit the place when in Britain amongst others. Then into the gift shop on our way out and, frankly, that wasn't exactly brilliant as it hasn't got a very exciting range of products when I compare it with other places we've visited recently, particularly National Trust properties such as Waddesdon Manor, Basildon Park and Packwood House which we've been to in the past few months or even Whipsnade Zoo which has a smart new shop and visitor centre. It seems that Woburn haven't made a lot of effort. The toilet block you come to from the carpark doesn't look very inviting either although the toilet I used within the grounds, I think it was intended for disabled visitors (although, in all honesty, how anyone in a wheelchair would manage, particularly one of those electric self-drive wheelchairs, how would they manage the narrow doorway, I have no idea.

One area we discovered which we were not aware of when we last visited was the Hornbeam Maze. Though, to be honest, it may have been restored and had perhaps been left to get somewhat over-grown. 

The visit overall was pleasant as the place is very quiet and relaxing and no doubt we'll be visiting again soon. We came last time when they had a sculpture exhibition in the garden but this time this wasn't on. As it's so close to home it is certainly a pleasant place to visit but next time we'll forgo visiting the restaurant and take our own picnic and eat it in the car in the carpark or perhaps sitting at one of the many picnic tables dotted around the grounds.

Sojourn To The North-East

Daniel, my step-son (Carol's eldest son) is currently at Newcastle University doing a degree course in computing. (I'm not exactly sure of the name of the course, but it's to do with gaming.) His current tenancy of his flat was about to expire and he had found another flat in Newcastle and needed to move his belongings this weekend, so we were asked if we could drive up to help him move his things in the car. Obviously we couldn't not help. We were originally going to go on the Friday and do the move with him and then drive back that evening, but as it's at least a 5-hour journey there it would have meant another 5-hour drive back and it didn't seem such a good idea to do it in one day, so we asked our neighbours, Michelle and Gary if they would mind keeping an eye on our dogs, Alfie and Poppy, coming in and feeding them and letting them out a couple of times a day. Just one of the disadvantages of having pets, I suppose. They agreed, so that put our minds at rest, and meant that we could spend a night in Daniel's flat once we'd done the shifting of the belongings.

We packed up our things to take with us, not much as it would be just the one night, and set off at 5.30 a.m. on Friday. We were expecting to drive up the M1 to the North East, but when we drove to the Milton Keynes entrance at Junction 14. Having driven all the way there we then found that it was closed off. We later discovered that there had been a major accident on the motorway and it was closed off up until the next Junction due to 'exploratory work.' So we didn't know exactly what to do as we didn't want to drive up to the Northampton Junction in an attempt to get on the M1 there only to find that the Motorway was closed further north there, so we came to the decision that we would have to travel north on the A1 and drive across to the Black Cat roundabout. This is the roundabout on the A1 between the A1 and A421 (formerly A428) just south of St Neots. We had to cut across Milton Keynes and head towards Bedford and the by-pass. We had to waste a good hour or so in the process, but at least it meant we were travelling north towards Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. We stopped after about a further hour's driving and had breakfast in one of the many service areas and then proceeded with our journey, arriving eventually in Newcastle at around noon.

The next problem was that we didn't have Daniel's address. Neither did we have a street map. Instead we rang his mobile and he directed us to his flat via him speaking through the speakerphone and we eventually found the flat after some convoluted directions. It was then that the real problems began, because as we were about to drive away from his flat to go to the agency for him to pay his deposit for the flat Carol said there was something wrong with the car. She wasn't sure what, but she was having difficulties shifting the gear leaver or something. We thought at first it might have been due to the extra weight of having Daniel sitting in the back of the car. We drove into the centre of Newcastle as at first Daniel needed to go to his bank to withdraw the cash for the deposit on the flat. We parked in the most peculiar carpark which was like a spiral and it made me for one feel really giddy as we kept driving up and up and round and round and eventually found a place to park. It was after we'd parked than Carol again said that there was definitely something wrong with the car.

We drove to the new flat, which is in an area of Newcastle with an odd name. Spiral Tongues. I stayed behind in the flat as Carol and Daniel were going to the old flat to get some of his things in the car and it meant that, without me, they would have more space to transport stuff.

It was at least three hours later that Carol and Daniel reappeared, along eh Lauren, Daniel's girlfriend who had caught up with them in the city centre.  They had come back, having got a cab as the car had broken down. I had imagined as I waited for them that perhaps they had gone to a garage as Daniel had mentioned that there was a Kwit-Fit auto centre not far away and we should take the car there. It turned out that the car had eventually broken down in the centre of Newcastle and they'd ended up at a garage some way out of the city centre where it was left to be repaired, as it was the clutch which had caused all the problems. It was going to cost in excess of £300 and it wouldn't be ready until the next morning, Saturday. We walked into the city centre, a good distance, through the university campus and saw a great many interesting sculptures and managed to arrive at a Wetherspoon's pub called the "Five Swans" where we had dinner. Having walked all that way we got a taxi cab back to the new flat, and Daniel went back to his old flat to sleep. We had to make do as best we could at the flat, without much kitchen equipment or food. Next morning we walked into the city centre and found a Tesco's open near the  St James' Park football stadium and bought some food which we ended up eating as we sat in the rather picturesque Leazes Park where we heard the most pleasant flute music which turned out to be played by a young man near the lake where there were a lot of geese and ducks. It looks as if this park is currently being restored which is good because it is in something of a poor state of repair. A great shame to let such delightful places become so dilapidated.

It wouldn't be until around midday before we eventually get a call via mobile phone to say that the car had been repaired and was ready for collection, so we ordered another taxi cab and went to the garage where we paid for the repair work and drove away, back to Daniel's old flat where we loaded some of his belongings into the car and drove to the new flat and unloaded it.

By now we had realised that the work of ferrying Daniel's belongings to the new flat was going to take longer than we had originally intended, due in most part because of not having the car for over 24 hours, so Carol and I decided that we would need to stay a day longer to get the work done and so would have to return home on Sunday and trusted that Gary, our neighbour, would have realised something had happened to delay our return and would continue to keep and eye on our two dogs. Daniel had to go to work at 6 o'clock at the near-by Holiday Inn and wouldn't be ready to continue with the move until around 8.30 on Sunday morning (his shift at the hotel finished at 2 a.m.)

On Saturday evening we went to get chicken and chips from a near-by chip shop to Daniel's new flat in Spital Tongues and we slept the night at the flat.

We had to phone and text Daniel after 8 o'clock to make sure he was awake and ready to continue with the moving of his stuff to the new flat and we eventually arrived outside at 8.45, taking some time to rouse Daniel who wasn't feeling very well, unfortunately.

After several further loads of belongings, including his iMac computer and a load of other related items including the carcase of a four-drawer chest of drawers.

By the time we'd completed the move it was time to depart Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and drove back to Milton Keynes and got back at around 4.30, having stopped twice, once at Ferrybridge and the second, near Leicester.