Shops and Shopping

Before internet shopping, 'click-and-collect' and out-of-town retail parks and supermarkets where you can buy everything in one weekly shop and they sell virtually everything from baked beans to toasters, tablet computers to baguettes, buy a pair of trousers, a shirt and pair of boxer shorts and you can get your eyes tested, order a repeat prescription at the pharmacy and when you leave, get your car filled up with petrol, you had to go to a variety of different shops around town to do your shopping. Where we lived, in Cardington, there was a small village shop in one of a row of houses on the village green, run by an elderly couple called the Misses Stonebridge. I would be sent by my mother for the odd packet of butter or bag of plain flour or some such item if she happened to be baking a cake and had run out. As a reward, I would be given 2d (old pre-decimal coinage.) and be allowed to spend it on sweets. There was a row of glass bottles on the shop shelf, well out of my reach, and you could make your choice from a huge variety of fruit chews, lollipops, chocolate bars or other delectables. It was amazing how much you could get for your 2d. Those old-fashioned favorites such as sherbert fountains, which came in a yellow tube with a licorice tube sticking out of the top and you sucked on the licorice to draw out the sherbert. Or gobstoppers. I don't think my mother approved of them. As you chewed them or avoided chewing, they would change colour and make your mouth turn bright green or red. You couldn't speak because they were so large, no doubt the reason they were called gobstoppers.

As I've already said, this was before the days when you drive to an out-of-town branch of Tesco or Sainsbury's and park in their own carpark and then push a trolley around the store, selecting each item as you walk round, probably taking a list of items you've made before you left. My mother used to shop at a variety of shops (I may have mentioned this in an earlier post on here.) some being at what was called The Boundary, on the road going into Bedford from Cardington. This was (and is. I'm sure the shops are still there, a good 50 years later, but whether they are the same selection of shops when we lived around there, I very much doubt.) As I probably said in that post there was a greengrocer, a chemist (Peter Meiklejohn) a baker's and I think a butcher, although we shopped at another butcher's, a little further along Harrowden Road, run by a friend of my father, Dick Wood. He was a large gentleman who often came to tea with us and was something of a hypochondriac, to say the least. If there was any sort of illness going around, he had it, but not just a little sniffle or bout of flu, he had it worse than anyone else. He ran an old-fashioned butcher's, none of this pre-packaged meat you get in supermarkets, all wrapped up in cling filmed polystyrene trays. You'd go in and ask for a couple of pounds of, say, stewing beef to make a hotpot or a couple of pounds of pork chops and he'd go into the back of the shop and return with a great big bit of beef or pork and chop it up in front of you with a huge cleaver on a wooden chopping block and it would be good quality meat. I think my mother would ring and order a week's worth of meat over the telephone and then it would be delivered by a van during the week.

Going back good many years and my mother shopped at grocers in St Cuthbert's Street called Fred West. A really old-fashioned business where they had real shop-keepers standing behind counters and they got everything for you rather than YOU having to get it all in a wire basket or trolley. She must have rung in a weekly shopping order or went in with a list and they made the order up. We must have gone to collect it in the car and park behind the shop and it was all packed in boxes. Those were the days when a customer was treated with respect. Companies go on endlessly about 'customer care' and so on, but those were the days when you'd be called 'Sir' and 'Madam' and there was a chair for you to sit on while they put your order together.

I think a good deal later my mother shopped for groceries at a company called P and A or something.  It was in Lovell Road, just off Cardington Road, or at least somewhere in the estate around that area. Considering this was before Tesco's opened their two stores in Bedford, one in Cardington Road on land which was used for the Bedfordforshire Agricultural Show and the other going out of Bedford towards Great Barford, at Goldington Road, this was quite a step forward as it was self-service, but all the produce was kept in it's original boxes of the shelves. Quite cheap for the time. I think she occasionally ventured into the centre of Bedford and shopped at the International Stores in the High Street. In those days you could park in the High Street, which seems amazing today. I think you could park virtually anywhere on the streets in those days (probably late 1950's early 1960's.)

Dudeney and Johnson had a grocers store in the High Street. It would be about where Lloyd's Bank is today. In fact, I think perhaps the bank took over their old building. You could buy virtually any sort of food in there. I think it had a sort of snobbish feel to it, rather like Waitrose today. Upstairs there was a large function room which was used for dances, wedding receptions, and parties. Affectionately know as The Dujon.' I remember going to birthday parties in there as a child. Further down the High Street was the Cadena Cafe which is now a Costa coffee or Starbucks. I haven't been to Bedford for  a good many years so I can't say for certain which now has that unit. You could get really nice cakes and bread there and there was always the smell of roasting coffee as you walked past. I think there was a restaurant upstairs.

Yet another shop which my mother used was Saxby's which I'm fairly certain was in Silver Street. I think the unit it was in is now a branch of Next. I'm not sure what became of Saxby's, whether the brand is still in existence of whether it just went out of business (probably taken over by a company such as Unilever.) This was where she bought such things as sausages and sausage meat for sausage rolls as well as buying pork pies. 

E.U. Referendum and Brexit

I don't usually mention politics in my blog posts, but on this occasion, I feel I need to say something about today's events. All I can say is, thank goodness the E.U. Referendum is over. We've had around six weeks of squabbling, bitching, back-biting and thoroughly nasty behaviour, I did vote to remain, but we now know that the result is we'll be leaving the E.U.  Or, to use the horrible word 'Brexit' to refer to Britain Exiting from the European Union. It is no doubt as a result of Greece possibly leaving the E.U. and that being referred to as Grexit (Greek Exit.)It was a very narrow margin between both sides, which, had it been a General Election I imagine we'd have a government with a tiny majority of perhaps 10-15 seats. Well, it's the will of the people, so they'll have to go with the result. I have to say that the E.U. is it's worst enemy. It's just a huge faceless bureaucracy, very distant, and whenever there is any sort of news about it, it's always negative and makes the headlines in the tabloids, whether it's some health and safety issue or the fact that you can't sell bent cucumbers or some such pointless bit of red tape. And these are the things that get made into issues by the likes of the 'Euro-Sceptics' and the Nigel Farage's of this world. Thinking about it further, it does seem crazy in a way that we've been members of the E.U. for around 43 years and it seems mad to now leave it. It has its bad points but I think the good outweigh them. It was a very different organisation in 1975 when we had a referendum about whether we joined and I now learn that we had joined a few years before so why did the government of the day decide we needed a referendum to remain in? I don't think I had many ideas of what that referendum was about at the time and I don't think I had much interest in politics and don't remember voting. But it's a much bigger organisation with far more member countries (I think 27, I may be wrong, but around that number. I'll have to do a bit more research.) There was no single currency, The Euro and it was called the E.C. (European Community.) Up until then, it was always referred to as The Common Market. It's rather like being in a club, a union or even a marriage. You don't leave, or get divorced, just for the sake of it. Over something minor, you should sit down and sort out any differences because the good things outweigh the bad ones. There must be quite a few things in Britain that have been funded by E.U. cash, such as infrastructure, probably road repairs, tourism and education. So it will be interesting to see what this will mean when this cash dries up.

I don't usually continue writing a blog after it's published. But I feel I need to write a bit more on this subject. I have been reading that some people, who voted in last Thursday's Referendum (either to Remain or Leave the E.U.) are now saying, because they voted 'Leave', now wish they had voted 'Remain.' Well, are they totally stupid? How can you vote for something, which in this case is going to have ramifications for each and everyone living in the United Kingdom, and then turn round and say you didn't even know what the Referendum was about, and some people DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE E.U. WAS! It would seem that a great many people are more interested in their mobile phones, Facebook, Twitter and other social media, celebrity and taking selfies of not only themselves but each other than the important issues, things that matter, such as politics, government etc etc. When we go out and about, visiting various places, such as National Trust properties, Whipsnade Zoo and generally to shopping centres and other places, we so often see people with their mobile phones, more interested in taking pictures of themselves rather than the place they visit. Why spend quite a bit visiting, for example, a zoo, and stand in front of an enclosure full of some of the most amazing animals and just take photos of THEMSELVES? It's narcissism gone mad! Then you see people walking around with their mobiles in their hands, and not engaging with the world around them, or others with headphones stuck over their ears. I have even seen people riding their bicycles whilst texting on a mobile or with headphones on. Isn't that dangerous? Aren't they more likely to get run over by a car or they walk in front of a vehicle on the road because they're not paying attention or can't hear a car approaching?

I've seen a piece which shows how much money the E.U. contributed to certain projects around the United Kingdom, for example, the Eden Project. I wonder whether that project would have gone ahead without the E.U. funding? So, where is the cash going to come from to fund other similar projects which create jobs and thus help the economy of this country?

Another Outing To Woburn Abbey

Carol has had a really horrible cold over the past week or so. She thinks she caught it off someone in her department at Milton Keynes Academy. That, as well as the miserable weather over the past couple of days, particularly last Saturday, meant we didn't get out of the house, but on Sunday morning we had a real need to get out and decided on a visit to Woburn Abbey. As we are now members of the H.H.A. (Historic Houses Association) it meant we could get in free. This works in a similar way to the National Trust (which we are members of) and English Heritage (which we used to belong to but are no longer.) you pay a yearly membership and then can get into the properties they manage without paying. So, on average you can pay something like £75 for a year for both of us and when you consider that Woburn costs £16 per person, you can see that, if you visit enough properties over the year, how much value there is in these memberships. 

We drove over to Woburn and went through the entrance and then took the two-mile drive through the deer park, driving at around 20 M.P.H. We managed to get some great shots of some of the deer, using my new Canon camera with the macro lens which I have recently bought, meaning I can get some far closer shots than with the lens the camera came with. Fortunately, the weather was fine, which was just as well, because as I write this post it's raining heavily.

We parked up in the carpark and went into the Abbey grounds, through the shop. I have noticed that they have improved the range of items for sale and particularly a book about Woburn Abbey which costs around £35 which I think I'd prefer rather than having the guide book as it looks as if it's far more detailed. We had coffee and a snack in the restaurant. Called the Duchesses Tea Room, because it was one of the Duchesses of Bedford, Anna, the 7th Duchess, in the early nineteenth century, who is supposed to have introduced the idea of afternoon tea to this country. We were intrigued by the ducks who came wandering into the restaurant when we were in there. They were mingling with the customers outside as well as in. I did manage to take a few photographs of them.

The whole of the grounds at Woburn Abbey seem to exude peace and quiet. I can't think of many places which are so quiet. No sound of traffic can be heard. It's like a sort of oasis of calm, which is great when you think how noisy everywhere is, particularly if you live in a town such as Milton Keynes where you are always surrounded by traffic and the constant noise it makes.

We went into the main house. We have visited before, but it was quite a few years ago, and there's so much to see you couldn't possibly see it all in one visit. We were really enthralled by the antique furniture and the amazing paintings, some from virtually every era of English history. The room stewards are very well-versed in their knowledge of each room we visited and what they contained, for example, the furniture and the paintings. Some places we have visited the staff can be a bit off-hand, or snooty, to say the least, but these people are very friendly and willing to chat with you and answer any questions you may have. Another aspect  I noticed was that the toilets have been improved and up graded. If there's one thing that can put you off visiting such places as Woburn Abbey and that's when the toilets don't come up to standard. They are really clean and pleasant. I don't think it can take much to just keep them up to date and in top-notch condition. Just a little care and attention to such things wouldn't hurt in other places we visit. When you consider how much the cost of entry to such places is, surely they can spend some of their profits on upgrading the facilities. Woburn particularly must be one of the leading tourist destinations for foreign visitors, particularly from America, so it would give a poor message to them to pass on to friends and family if the toilets are not up to standard.

Acrobatic Squirrels and Stalking Yorkies

We have had some real entertainment in our garden  regarding the bird-feeding station which we set up fairly recently. We keep replenishing the various hanging feeders which are on it. We got four feeders which came with the set (purchased on Amazon) and have since added a round wire peanut feeder as well as half-shell coconuts. We get a variety of birds visiting the feeding station, mostly starlings, blue tits and some unidentified birds as well as a couple of pigeons and even a very large crow which sat on the thing briefly as well as a magpie. There are two more bits of the feeding station which I have since removed, a water bowl which fits onto the upright of the station by means of a circular arrangement which clips on to the stand as well as a wire bowl which has a similar attachment and is meant for seeds or other types of food which don't go on the hanging feeders. I took them off because we had a couple of pigeons which visited and sat on these bowls and hogged the entire feeding station. The pigeons seem to have given up attempting to eat the food since these items were removed. Then the other day I went into the lounge and looked out of the window into the garden and saw a squirrel sitting on the feeding station. It was a surprise as I couldn't work out how it got onto the thing. I was soon to discover when I saw one of the other squirrels (I think there are three living around here, possibly with young in a nest (dray) somewhere in the trees and bushes which fringe the Redway which runs behind this house.)  I was really shocked to see a squirrel climbing up the metal support of the feeding station! Then at the weekend, when Carol and I were sitting in the lounge, no doubt watching television, a squirrel came and sat on the shed which forms part of the dividing fence belonging to our neighbours to the left (Shelley and Gary). Then it did a spectacular leap right onto the feeding station! It's a wonder it didn't impale itself on the finial on the top of the feeding station, and then it proceeded to do a wide range of acrobatic stunts, hanging upside down at one point and scrambling all over the thing. Quite amazing.

The bird-feeding station, minus birds

Starling on the bird-feeding station (taken with my newly-acquired macro lens.)

 Starling eating from coconut shell

Acrobatic squirrel climbing DOWN the pole 

from the bird-feeding station!

Alfie, our Yorkshire Terrier, about whom I have mentioned in many of my blog posts, has quite a thing about the cats which come into our garden. Mentioned repeatedly that he and Poppy, our other dog, don't really like pussycats and particularly those who drift into their territory and sit on the shed roof and walk along the top of the fence. Quite pleasant and friendly in their way and totally oblivious to the fact that the dogs are barking furiously at them. But the other day Alfie showed a particular behaviour which I have never seen before. He went out through the patio doors from the kitchen and stood staring at the cat which sat on the shed, diagonally from him at the door. Then he moved very slowly towards the cat, almost in slow-motion, stopping every few feet and just staring and standing with one forepaw raised (a bit like a Pointer.) He did something similar a few days ago, just standing, stock-still, with a forepaw raised and just staring at the cat. Really odd. I suppose it's terrier behaviour and would have been instinctive as Yorkshire Terriers were bred to hunt down and kill rats and mice in cotton mills in Yorkshire. We've seen how good he is at dispatching vermin when we lived at the house in Crownhill, when we were inundated by rats and he managed to kill one, a good deal bigger than himself, one morning. The way he shook it (similar to the way he plays with his toys, by shaking.) was quite startling and very surprising.

Watching Amazon TV Series 'The Man In The High Castle'

Besides having Sky as our 'television provider' we also have Amazon Fire, which is linked to Amazon Prime. A couple of years ago Carol bought a Kindle Fire, and as part of the deal, we got Prime free, which meant we got anything we purchased through Amazon came with free delivery as well as Amazon's 'on demand' television service. When the first year ran out we had to decide whether to continue with it and pay £79 a year and to purchase a Fire Stick. This we did and set up the Fire Stick which connects to our Sky wifi router. You then get a wide range of 'apps' which allows you to watch television shows and films free but also some which you have to pay for through the Amazon account. There are quite a few similar services besides this Amazon service, including Netflix. We can get the main channels 'on demand' such as BBC, through their iPlayer as well as Channel 4, Channel 5, as well as a few more besides. Very good, except you can't download and keep the programmes as you can with your Sky+ box. I'm not sure whether the newer Fire box which Amazon recently introduced allows this, but it costs a good dea than the Fire Stick (which I originally bought from Argos and costs around £34 which, considering what it does seems very reasonable, particularly if you don't have Sky, Virgin or any of the other 'television providers.') We used to have Freeview at this address but found that, because we didn't have an outdoor ariel, the signal was poor. So we looked around for a solution and found that Sky was perhaps best. It was when we were searching around that we discovered that Virgin wasn't available in this area because Milton Keynes, although a modern city, didn't have a cable network to carry the Virgin television or telephone network.

It's great having Television 'catch-up' services such as iPlayer and similar as you can not only watch programmes you might otherwise miss when they are originally broadcast (usually up to a month.) but there is quite a lot of what I'd call 'back-catalogue' material. We've watched 'Doc Martin' through the Fire Stick which also means you can miss the advertising. We did start watching 'Downton Abbey,' having recorded episodes on the Sky+ box but the adverts we so annoying and irritating that we didn't bother to watch any further episodes but eventually caught up with the final series when it was on the I.T.V. 'player.' It now appears that all six series are on Sky+ 'box sets.' With Netflix producing a remake of the B.B.C. series "House of Cards" with Kevin Spacey in the lead role, and the fact you can 'binge' watch all the episodes and don't have to wait a week before the next episode is available to watch, you can see why companies such as Amazon are making their own television shows for 'instant' download or steam. (Incidentally, I was a 'Walk-On' in the BBC version of 'House of Cards.")

I am currently watching an 'Amazon Original' series called "The Man In The High Castle." It's based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, who is best know for writing the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," which was the basis for the film "Blade Runner." That film was directed by Ridley Scott, who is also Executive Producer of "The Man In The High Castle." I am enjoying this series immensely. It is set in an alternative future where the Nazis won the Second World War and rule America jointly with the Japenese. This shows that television can beat cinema when it comes to story-telling because you can the time, over 10 hour-long episodes, to allow the narrative to breathe and characters to develop over time, which you cannot possibly have with a film which for no more than three hours.

This is dark and brooding and has a real chill to it. I think it's because it's believable. We know that the Nazis obviously didn't win the war, but this could so nearly have happened. It's this that gives it the edge. Only only criticism is that many of the scenes are in almost impenetrable darkness, to such an extent that you can barely see what's going on. I realize that this under-lit quality adds to the suspense and atmosphere, but it doesn't really help that you can't see clearly what's going on. I do like the fact that you, as the audience, has to actually work hard to make out what's going on, they don't give everything away. I like being able to make conclusions for myself. A lot of modern television and cinema is far too obvious. It's almost as if the makers assume you don't have the intelligence to work things out for yourself. It have a certain cinematic look, well photographed and the set design and costumes are well executed. I would imagine they had a fairly large budget to be able to give it that 'look.'

Better Summer Weather and Bad Tempered People

The weather has taken a turn for the better. In fact, it's positively heatwave-time! We managed to sit outside and have our evening meal at our new table yesterday evening. It certainly makes a change from the rotten weather we've had to endure for about the past week. It seemed unfair when you consider it was Half Term, as well as the fact that our holiday we'd hoped to have at the booked cottage over Easter was aborted due to the awful weather.

On Friday, we drove to Worcester to see my daughter Chloe and my new grandson George. The journey there was less stressful than it might have been, due to the fact we went via Buckingham and then the Motorway. It took less than two hours. When we drove there for Chloe's graduation ceremony (well over 7 years ago, or maybe more, I'm not sure now.) the journey seemed to take a good deal longer, travelling via the M1 and around Birmingham. Admittedly it was mid-week and during the heavy volume  travelling time and it was a really awful journey. This time, it seemed a much better route and we will be going that way on 10th July as we're going to George's Christening on that day.

On Sunday, we visited Whipsnade Zoo again. Carol's Fellowship subscription runs out next week and she'd got a letter from Z.S.L. (Zoological Society of London) reminding her of the fact and so we went with the letter and paid the annual fee so we're able again to visit both London and Whipsnade Zoos without paying any entrance fees. We drove the car in again. As it costs around £25 per person together with £20 for the car, that's a saving of £70 each time we visit. We arrived at 9.45 a.m. (the zoo opens at 10 a.m.) and there was a queue of cars waiting. We were on the end of the queue and you just had to sit patiently in the car and wait for the gates to open and drive in. Quite easy you would imagine. But this rather unpleasant individual drove up and seemed to think it was his right to barge straight in. He wound down his car window and hurled abuse at us, for no other reason that he imagined we should get out of the way for him. Not a nice situation and Carol was understandably upset by the incident. He presumably drove to the car park and walked in with his family, but all the time we were in the zoo Carol was concerned that this unpleasant individual was going to find us and hurl a further load of abuse at us just because we'd got there first. There are really some crazy self-obsessed people out there. Sad really.

I actually got to wear my shorts on Saturday. I bought them last year in Debenhams and because the weather was so awful I hardly got to wear them at all last summer. Lets hope the weather is better this year so I get more wear out of them. I've been to Tesco at Kingston and bought a new sun hat because I need to keep my head covered when it's really sunny. The hat I have is a few sizes too small and if a hat is too tight on my head I get a headache. 

Wild, Wet and Windy Wednesday

Carol is on Half-Term from the Academy this week. We had planned to have a day out in London and had spent quite a lot of time researching where we wanted to go when we got there. We would have gone by train and booked via the internet, but when the day broke it was a very wet and wild morning that greeted us as we peered out of the bedroom window. We had seen trailers for the Disney animated film 'Zootopia' and being Disney fans Carol went on-line and found that there was a showing at 10.50 a.m. at the new Odeon  cinema complex at the MK Stadium which we had yet to visit. We drove towards the stadium and parked nearby. It was reasonably early and the car park was filling up fast, surprisingly. I suppose the reason being that it was Half Term and parents were taking their children out. We entered the Odeon complex which is in the centre of the newest parade of businesses within the Milton Keynes stadium complex. This is a bright and breezy building with all modern conveniences within. We were able to book our tickets on a sort of A.T.M. and as a result, we got the tickets printed out immediately. We could have booked on-line in the same way we had booked our rail tickets a couple of months ago when we went to Southampton to visit Carol's mum and dad. We had some time to spare before the film began and had coffee and pastries in the branch of Costa which is in the cinema complex. We went into the cinema auditorium, number 8, around ten minutes before the programme was due to start. We had booked Premium seats, which meant we had far more leg-room to sit, which suited me because I'm 6ft 2in tall and usually, whenever we go to the cinema, which is rare, or the theatre, which is far more frequent, there is barely enough leg-room. Milton Keynes Theatre has very little leg room in any of the areas of their auditorium and it is annoying in a modern theatre that you can't sit without having to stand up to let other people through. This wasn't the case in this new cinema. The sound quality when the film began was excellent (7.1 Dolby sound I believe) and a pin-sharp image. The film was good, but quite honestly it was far too long and they could have trimmed around 20 minutes off the running time. It couldn't decide what sort of audience it was aimed at. If it was mainly for children a lot of the gags would have gone over the children's head, frankly. But considering the number of times we've been to the cinema over the last few years it didn't matter as it was good to have some quality time together. The last film we saw was "Les Miserables" and that was 2012. We then went to T.G.I. Friday's which was a few doors along from the Odeon cinema and had a meal.