Landlord's Visit

We've been madly cleaning the house for about the past week. I don't think the house could be any cleaner. Every nook and cranny was dusted, polished, and dusted and polished again. You could almost eat your dinner off the floor (if you were so inclined.) We even cut the grass yesterday evening. It was just as well we did it then because it's been raining for most of the day. At one point we were resting on the bed and I was almost asleep. It was raining outside (just as well outside. But you get what I mean, or at least I hope so.) There was an almighty clap of thunder. I jumped, almost out of my skin, and Carol screamed. I have never heard such a loud clap of thunder. Both dogs jumped off the bed. Alfie hid underneath and I don't know where Poppy went. She hates thunder and fireworks even more so.  It continued to thunder and the rain became heavier. It was sounding something like a power-shower, as if it had to be turned up to the highest level. It didn't last too long and then the sun came out.

We got a telephone call a bit later from our landlord, just to check that we'd be at home. We were definitely going to be at home. I think it was to make sure we'd remembered that he was visiting at 6 o'clock. We certainly hadn't forgotten.

By 5.45 we were busily watching television. The waiting was getting too much. There was most definitely nothing else in the house to clean. I pushed the vacuum cleaner around the lounge. We had to get the dogs out of the house because the landlord's wife (who would also visit.) doesn't like dogs and it seemed a good idea to have both dogs out of the way. Carol suggested putting them in the garden, but when they were out there, Poppy began to bark- to be let back in. It was no use, she wasn't going to be stopped, so Carol suggested keeping Alfie outside and she'd put Poppy in the car, which is parked in its normal spot at the front of the house in its parking space. I put Alfie outside, back in the garden.  She scooped Poppy up and carried her to the car and at that exact moment the landlord and wife appeared in their car! I put Alfie back in the garden, because he had come in as soon as Carol picked up Poppy. Poor little dog kept peering in through the shut sliding door into the kitchen, almost pleading to be let back in, as if he'd done something wrong, when, of course, he hadn't.

They were given a guided tour of the house. Nothing to be bothered about. Each room visited a few comments. Very pleased. They were here no more than ten minutes, if that. Drove away. We were relieved it was all over. That's over for another year. 'Contact us if there's a problem' as they left the house.

I went out to the car to release Poppy. She wouldn't come out of the car. She just looked at me as if to say 'Aren't we going anywhere? I usually get in the car when we go off for a walk.' I had to half drag her out to get her back into the house. Crazy creature!

Too Darn Hot!

It's been exceptionally hot for the past few days. Trying to keep cool has been quite a problem, not just for both of us, but the dogs too. They just don't know what to do with themselves. Alfie keeps wandering around the house, attempting to find a cool spot to lie, but not achieving anything. Poppy keeps panting, but she won't let us cut her thick coat, which would alleviate the problem. We have got windows open in all the rooms and have an electric fan on in the bedroom. This morning, as I write this, there is a gentle rain falling and the sound is almost musical. It's cooled the air considerably, thankfully. We just don't seem to be able to cope with warm weather in this country. Having had a heart attack, the excessively warm weather is quite dangerous. We don't want to go out in it. Alfie was whittling to be taken out for a walk, but he can't cope with it so we stayed indoors all yesterday, but hopefully we will go somewhere tomorrow. I spent a good deal of the night reading. I'm continuing with Bill Bryson's book "The Road To Little Dribbling: More Notes From A Small Island." It's definitely one of those books that, once you start reading, you can't put it down.

Carol has gone into Milton Keynes Academy at around 8.45 because today is G.C.S.E. results day. I have no idea what sort of results they have achieved, but I expect I'll learn when she returns later in the morning.

A bit later. Carol returned at 11.45. She was expecting her friend Pauline, who she used to work with her in the Science Department at Milton Keynes Academy. Pauline was expected to arrive at 12.00 to collect Carol so they could go to Waitrose and have coffee in the cafe. You get free coffee if you have a My Waitrose card, but you now have to buy something to eat if you sit in their cafe. Not a bad idea.
It turned out that the G.C.S.E. results were considerably better than expected, so that's good for all concerned. Pauline arrived about three-quarters of an hour later, in her flash new convertible car. Carol was much taken with it and they drove off to Waitrose. The perfect car for a sunny summer's day. I'm not that impressed by cars, I'm afraid. But it is nice all the same. I bet the insurance is high, though.

I was scheduled to go and collect Carol at 2.30 from Waitrose. I left a bit later than I had anticipated and was prevented from getting to Waitrose via Chaffron Way, just below the roundabout, as it was shut off with a 'road closed' sign. I went in and drove through Woolston, a very up-market area of Milton Keynes which I have never visited before. I have had no reason to. All very large houses, many hidden by either high hedges or walls and set back a long way from the road. Exclusivity is written all over the place. No piles of rubbish piled at the roadside as you get in Eaglestone. No abandoned cars or any broken furniture laying around. Anyway, I had to drive right through and exit the opposite side to which I'd gone in and had to drive right round to get to Waitrose at Oakgrove. I was about 20 minutes late and I found Carol, Pauline and another teacher from Carol's department waiting outside and Carol had done some shopping in Waitrose for our tea. We left them and Carol drove back into Oakgrove to show me how they are still building houses and flats in this area of Milton Keynes. Very modern design. Including what looked like a new school or college, probably the 6th Form block for Oakgrove School.

The road being blocked off is because they are currently resurfacing most of the Grid Roads around Milton Keynes. Certainly needs it as a lot of the roads are badly pot-holed.

Reading Bill Bryson's 'The Road To Little Dribbling' and other thoughts . . .

Around 20 years ago I read Bill Bryson's book 'Notes From A Small Island.' It was interesting to read a book written by an American who had a sort of affection for our Green and Pleasant land. I am again reading a book written by Bryson, which is called 'The Road To Little Dribbling: More Notes From A Small Island.' He travels around Great Britain and comments on things that he sees, some of them the idiosyncrasies of life living in Britain. Much of his thoughts are similar to mine and reflects a great deal of  what I write on this blog. It's no wonder the book is so high in the charts, as published in the Sunday Times. As of the past Sunday Times (21st August 2016), the book is number 2 in the General Paperbacks section and has been in the top 10 for nineteen weeks, having sold somewhere in the region of 194,230 copies. I can see why he's so popular. An American, or even an outsider, who gives his own views on some of the quirks of Britain. He often compares America with Britain, particularly in the chapter when he discusses mobile phones (why do Americans refer to them as 'cellphones'?) As George Bernard Shaw put it so succinctly, 'two countries divided by one language.' Why are some words such as 'colour,' 'harbour' spelt without the 'u' in America, for example? Or 'cookie' in America and 'biscuit' in Britain? This isn't in the book, by the way. Just me making the observation. He discusses the obsession people in Britain have with their mobiles, and why they insist, particularly in public places, such as on trains, to have to talk so loudly when having a conversation. Why do we have to have voices in machines such as self-service checkouts at supermarkets, in lifts (elevators in America. Why?) or on moving walk-ways? These are issues I have discussed in earlier blog posts on here, and give me endless pleasure. I enjoy observing the peculiarities of people I come across in my daily activities, such as in the supermarket or when out and about generally.  A real fount of endless amusement. I think you will see this if you read any of my blog posts.  Bill Bryson made some rather uncomplimentary remarks in his earlier book about Milton Keynes, which I find rather annoying, having lived here for the past ten years. He has visited many of the same places that we visit, including Bournemouth, Dorset and the south coast, as well as Avebury, which we visited last week, Stonehenge and many other British places. Anyway, Mr Bryson and I have so much in common, including the fact that we're about the same age, although I'm probably about a year older. This particular book is on offer at the moment in Waterstone's and was one of the books you can select from a range of other books in their which they have in their 'Buy One, get one Half-Price' offers. I can't resist bookshops, and Waterstones in particular. I love books as you will have realised if you've read any of these blog posts. I have many books waiting to be read and if there's an offer on in Watersones, such as their 'buy two and get one free' or 'buy one and get one half price' I just can't resist. Well, who couldn't? But Amazon is where I tend to buy most of my books because they are generally so much cheaper than elsewhere. I know that Amazon has been vilified lately because of not paying their fair share on tax and so on, but when you can have virtually any book and then get it delivered within 24 hours (we have Amazon Prime, incidentally.) and not pay any postage or packing, it is so easy and simple to order as well as finding books that I wouldn't otherwise have found anywhere else. This is worked out because they can recommend books based on what you've ordered or have in your 'saved for later' list on their website.

House Inspection Pending

We received a telephone call from our belovéd landlord the other evening. He's coming to visit. It's the annual inspection of the house. Instead of agreeing to him coming the next day, we told a little fib and said we were going on holiday (this was last Tuesday.) and that we wouldn't be back for a week. In fact, this gives us ample time to get the house clean and ready for his gracious arrival on Saturday evening. There can't be much to give him concern (apart from the roof of the garden shed, the fact that we've replaced the fridge/freezer and the washing machine. The fridge/freezer was replaced last year, which was recorded in one of these posts, and it was here when he last visited (around a year ago. The floor upstairs near the bathroom and the fact we spent our own cash on having the garden fence replaced and the plumbing done under the sink when we had a leak when the washing machine was being used) so he must have seen the fridge/freezer and not been aware. In fact I doubt very much if he even noticed that the thing wasn't the same one which was here when we moved in around six years ago. Not exactly the brightest button in the box, our landlord. Still, he does at least leave us alone, even though he isn't keen on spending anything on th house which might improve things. Never mind. We have begun our cleaning and this morning we have spent some time weeding the front area of the house outside which has got very over grown. I chopped down a rather nasty tree which keeps growing outside the front door and used the lopper I bought from Wickes for the purpose.

A Visit to the In-Laws

Carol's parents live in Bournemouth. We see them infrequently. It's a good three-hour drive there and then back and usually, it's on the same day. We have been to Bournemouth and stayed in a hotel, but that was a few years ago. We last saw them in Southampton during the Easter holidays. We had planned to visit them when we had our holiday down near Petworth which was then abandoned when the weather became really bad. (see earlier post.) So, this time, we organised things so we met up with them in Salisbury, which is about a two-hour car journey from Milton Keynes. They would come up by bus from Bournemouth and arrive in Salisbury at 11.30. We left home at around 8.45 and decided we'd stop on the journey down and choose to visit Avebury, as we were interested in seeing the stone circle. I set the SatNav and we set off, getting to Avebury a little after 10.15. We had coffee and cake in the National Trust café on the site. We weren't expecting the place to be so extensive. We visited the Rollrights stone circle in the Cotswolds a few years ago (see earlier post.) and had seen an item about Avebury on television a week or two ago and then realised that they were close to Salisbury and would make a good place to stop on our journey down. The landscape around that area of Wiltshire is really amazing. We have visited Stonehenge a few years ago and when we went down to Chloe and Steve's wedding in Devon three years ago we stopped at Woodhenge, which is a few miles up the road from Stonehenge and was a good place to break that journey. We weren't at Avebury very long as we needed to be at Salisbury by 11.30.  As our visit to Avebury was brief and also the fact that my Canon camera died whilst I was attempting to take photographs, basically because I hadn't charged the battery fully, we quite intend revisiting at a later date to explore the area fully. We had intended texting Carol's mum to let them know we were on our way, but when I attempted to text, using my mobile, I couldn't find a signal. On several more occasions I attempted to text, as we drove on, having left Avebury, there was no mobile signal. I'm surprised by this situation, considering how mobile technology has advanced, but perhaps it's because it's a relatively sparse area of the country, population-wise. Then we got held up by traffic and especially farm traffic, spending some considerable time stuck behind a tractor and trailer drawing a load of straw which got caught under trees and brought down leaves and twigs and bits of branch as it brushed below overhanging trees.

We arrived at the Salisbury Park-and-Ride carpark. We got there just as a bus was leaving but the next one wasn't much later so we boarded it. I don't have to pay as I have a card which means I get free journeys. I was never sure whether this could be used outside Milton Keynes, but I soon discovered that it can which saves quite a lot in travel costs. We were to meet Carol's parents outside Debenhams, but we got off too early and then had to find where Debenhams was. It seemed that every time we asked someone we met they had no idea, but it was in the Market Square. We saw both Carol's mum and dad, but on the other side of the road and crossed over. We then made for a Wetherspoons pub, the King's Head, to have coffee.

I wanted to visit the cathedral. For one thing, it's so full of history. There is a copy of Magna Carta in there. And possibly the oldest clock in either this country or the world. Or something. And what's wrong with just being awed by the sheer magnificence of such a building? How can you not be, when you think how old it is and how incredible to imagine how they built something that size without the aid of modern technology such as cranes. Also, getting great slabs of stone up to the top of the tower without our modern lifting machinery, safety standards etc.

If you want further information about Magna Carta, here's a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta. There are apparently four surviving copies of this document in this country, one being Salisbury Cathedral, the other Lincoln and another in the British Library.

We sat on a bench in a park near the cathedral. Carol had made up a really nice mixture of rolls and fruit which we ate. The water meadows could be seen across the river and then I realised that the painter, John Constable, had executed several paintings of this very view, but seen from the opposite side. I have found the painting on the Tate gallery website.

Salisbury Cathedral, John Constable, 1820

We wandered the town, looking in stores and then made our way back, as if by some magnetic force, to the Wetherspoons we'd been to earlier and had tea. Unfortunately, it wasn't very nice. I make tea at home, but I can control the various elements such as boiling the water, the brand of teabag used, sugar etc etc but what we had here, or at least, what I drank, was unpleasant. 

Time was ticking on. Carol's mum and dad had come from Bournemouth on a bus and the next one was due to leave to return there shortly. We ambled back towards the bus stop outside Debenham's. We went into Marks and Spencers on the way as Carol wanted to see if they had a knitted top she had seen in their Milton Keynes store. There was a sale on, and, after hunting through the racks of clothes on sale, actually found the same item and bought it. 

The bus was standing at the bus stop on the Market Square near Debenhams, so Carol's parents boarded and the bus left. Soon our bus came in, and we returned to the park-and-ride car park to begin our journey home, directed by the SatNav. It had certainly been a strange day, long and tiring. We arrived back in Milton Keynes at around 6.30.

I am currently reading a book by Bill Bryson. It's called "The Road To Little Dribbling: More Notes from A Small Island." The subtitle refers to his earlier book, which was published 20 years ago. I read it then and enjoyed it enormously. He wanders around Great Britain and mentions many places and makes comments about them. An American who has an obvious affection for the quirks and idiosyncracies of this country. By sheer coincidence I have read his piece in chapter 11 where he mentions Avebury and discusses how it is managed by the National Trust.

Listening to Radio Four- Part 2

Not only is there all manner of drama productions on Radio Four, but an amazing array of comedy shows and panel games. I think the main advantage over television with radio is that you can be doing other things while it is on, such as having a bath, lying in bed or driving a car, doing the washing-up, ironing your clothes or eating your dinner. Television requires a certain amount of concentration to get the best out of it, although people do also surf the internet or use their mobiles whilst watching television, such as Tweeting or using Facebook, but generally, radio does have the advantage. I love shows such as 'Just A Minute' which has been running for around 50 years. It's such a simple idea (for those who don't know the show it involves panel members talking on a subject given by the chairman, Nicholas Parsons, and they have to speak for 60 seconds without hesitating, repetition or deviation and the others on the panel have to spot these mistakes. It must be quite difficult. Over the years the panelists have included Kenneth Williams, Derek Nimmo, Tim Rice, Julian Clary,  Shelia Hancock, Stephen Fry and a host of others. Sometimes the panelists get quite heated, but generally, the shows go smoothly. Nicholas Parsons, which is well over 90, has been the chairman for all those years. I don't actually think 'chairman' is the right chose of word for what he does, he has to keep the panelists in order. Not an easy job. I reckon I've been listening to it on and off since it began, but I can remember it starting sometime in the mid-1960's when I was living at home at Malting Farm. It's always entertaining and amusing.

Frank Muir and Denis Norden were contestants on a panel game called 'My Word.' It ran for years on Radio Four, and probably on the Home Service as it was before it was re-branded in the 1960's. This show was about words (well, the title was imaginative!) At the end of the programme both these contestants had to tell a story, using a well-know phrase or saying, which was given them by the compere. This saying had to be part of the 'punch-line' or closing sentence of the story. When it ended, the contestant who had the longest applause from the studio audience won. I just loved this show. I've always had a love of words, and these two men, who were major scriptwriters, working on BBC radio comedy shows such as 'Take It From Here' which starred Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley, and June Whitfield. It was a sketch show, best remembered for 'The Glums' section, with Dick Bentley as the dimwitted Ron Glum, June Whitfield as his ever-so-patient girlfriend Eth and Jimmy Edwards as Ron's father. Frank Muir became  Assistant Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC and then Head of Comedy at London Weekend Television and Denis Norden introduced the long-running television show 'It'll Be Alright On The Night' which consisted of clips of out-takes and bloopers from television shows and films. I think the best way to describe their comedy would be 'droll' and probably not appreciated by today's audiences as being somewhat tame. Perhaps so, but they had a wit and originality which is missing from today's entertainment, which seems dead-set on being quite offensive (don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a lot of modern comedy, but so much is just out-and-out offensive and crude. A double entendre is one thing, but being crude is another. Using bad language to get is laugh is just cheap. We don't appear to have any boundaries today, anything goes, which is a shame. Muir and Norden then went on to be involved in 'My Music' which used the format of 'My Word' but using music as the theme. Steve Race was the compere of that show.

When I was at Mander College in Bedford in the late 1960's, a friend of mine on the course came to visit me at home and introduced me to 'The Goon Show.' His father had recorded the original broadcasts on to reel-to-reel tape (actually illegal, but never mind. I think everyone did this at one time or other.) and he had transferred these recordings onto the then newly-introduced format of tape cassette. I was able to listen to some of them and was immediately hooked. I just loved the surreal humour of those episodes, probably first broadcast in the 1950's. The characters, played by Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan (who also wrote most of the scripts, along with Eric Sykes.) really captivated me and I have been a fan ever since. I have been a fan of Spike Milligan ever since. He's been called 'The Grandfather of Alternative Comedy' and influenced the Monty Python style of comedy.

I got hooked on the crazy comedy of another radio show called 'I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again', which had John Cleese, Bill Oddie, Graham Garden, Jo Kendal and co in it. This ran from the early 1960's into the 1970's and some of the performers went on to write such shows as 'Fawlty Towers' and from 'The Goodies' on BBC television. They began their careers at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and performed in'The Footlights' revues. I recorded a lot of these shows onto audio cassette and replayed them endlessly until the tapes wore out. Cassettes might be the latest technology in the 1960's, but they weren't very reliable. The tape was extremely thin and often got twisted inside the horrible little plastic cases. The longer the running time, the thinner the tape and as a result, the more likely they were to cause problems. I had a Philips cassette player, which must have been one of the first cassette players on the market.

We've now got digital radio. I won a rather smart Roberts radio, courtesy of Classic FM. It was around 11-12 years ago. It sits near our bed. We listen to Radio 4 Extra on it. They broadcast what I can best call 'back catalogue' or 'archive' material on the channel. It was originally called Radio Seven. I'm not sure why it was re-branded as Radio 4 Extra. Perhaps because most of what it broadcasts originated on Radio 4. They have old episodes of such shows as 'Round The Horne', 'The Goons', 'The Navy Lark' as well as crime series such as 'Sherlock Holmes' (there are quite a few radio versions of the stories, going back several decades.) As well as the occasional documentary and play. It seems to run on a 12-hour cycle, which means it can run 24 hours a day. 'Desert Island Discs' is played on Sunday evenings at 9.15. As this is a series which has been going since around 1942 it could run almost indefinitely. Also, other comedy shows which are on earlier in the week on Radio 4, such as 'Just A Minute' and 'I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue.'

Listening To Radio Four- Part 1

I was thinking to myself the other day how my interest in such things as literature, theatre and comedy have been influenced by BBC Radio Four. Most people, as they grow from adolescence to adulthood, listen mainly to what is commonly known as 'pop' music, and the form of delivery for this is via radio. In the 1960's we had pirate radio, such as Radio Caroline, which operated illegally from just outside the mainland of Great Britain. I do have a slight connection to this station (but only slightly, I may add.) Radio Caroline was broadcast from a ship which was anchored in the North Sea just off the Essex coast near where my family spent it's summer holidays, at Frinton-On-Sea. You could see this ship clearly from the promenade at Frinton, where we rented a beach hut for the two weeks at the beginning of September each year. One year there was a mighty storm at night and the ship on which Radio Caroline was broadcast from came adrift from its anchorage and ran aground on the Frinton beach. It made the headlines in the national newspapers over the next week of or two. In 1967 (or thereabouts) the then Labour government, under Harold Wilson, made pirate radio stations illegal, apparently because they were supposed to interfere with broadcasts for the lifeguard service. Radio Caroline (and other similar pirate stations) were put out of business and the good old BBC was tasked with creating a replacement radio station, which was to be called, rather unimaginatively, Radio One (because the remaining BBC radio stations were to become Radio 2 (formerly The Light Programme), Radio 3 (formerly The Third Programme), The Home Service became Radio Four. No doubt it was the obvious numbering of these stations that gave them their names, so to have a new station called Radio One was logical. I've not actually been a particular fan of 'pop' music, preferring classical music, but I do enjoy some bits of pop. I think if I have to have any sort of pop radio station on I prefer Radio 2, because, frankly, I can't stand commercial pop stations such as Heart which is awful. The adverts are really appalling and seem to play to the lowest common denominator. It was better when it was Chiltern and Horizon. They've just made it into a sort of mush, basically for financial reasons. Terrible. They must think their audience are really dim or something, the tone of the presenters.

Why am I mentioning all this? I suppose because when I was growing up I tended to listen to Radio Four. My parents always had it on in the house.  My father had to listen to the weather forecast because he was a farmer and the weather was important to him, particularly at harvest-time.) It was probably the main source of news and always seemed to be on at lunchtime. We had an ancient radio in the kitchen at Malting Farm, kept on a shelf high up on a wall, which took a time to warm up before it worked (I think most things needed 'warming up' in those days, before transistors became popular and replaced valves in things. The television we had, a black and white model, took some time to warm up. A good many years before the introduction of colour in the early 1970's.)

Radio Four must be unique. It's an all-speech channel. I can't imagine a commercial version because I don't imagine the audience figures are particularly high, so it would never survive on advertising alone. It broadcasts a wide range of material across such things as documentaries, arts, media, light entertainment, comedy (light entertainment covers panel shows and sitcoms and sketch shows.) as well as soap opera (The Archers would fall into this category. It's supposed to be the longest running drama or soap in the world, running for something like 65 years. In fact, it's one year younger than me.)

I got hooked on adaptations of books which were (and probably still are) broadcast on Radio Four. For example, some of Daphne Du Maurier's novels. which lead me to read many of them, particularly 'Rebecca' and 'Jamaica Inn.' I think I'd written them off as being somewhat female-orientated (which perhaps they are, to some extent.) but then, once I'd read them, I discovered that there was far more to them, particularly 'Rebecca' which is really gripping and has a mystery about it. She does atmosphere and character really well. Definitely page turners. The books have been adapted for both radio and television, and of course 'Rebecca' was famously made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, with Laurence Olivier in the role of Max DeWinter. She also wrote another, the later novel which was called 'The House On The Strand' which was done well on the radio. There's something about a radio adaptation, you have to concentrate more than with a visual medium. There's no way you can get away with the scenery dominating, flashy camera-work etc with a totally aural adaptation of course.

Boughton House Outing

We've intended visiting Boughton House for around the past 10 years. We've driven past on several occasions when we've been visiting somewhere else nearby, such as Rockingham Castle, which we visited around 6-7 years ago. You can see the house clearly from the road and it has a sort of inviting  appeal. We planned a day out yesterday, but then it clouded over and began to rain early, and Carol complained of an eye infection so we went to get some drops from Boots which, in the end, meant we stayed at home, but this morning it began sunny and pleasant so we set the SatNav and made up a picnic and drove off early. The house wasn't open before Midday so there was no point getting there too soon. According to the SatNav, it was going to take around an hour to get there. We drove away from Milton Keynes towards Olney and then towards Wellingborough and eventually Kettering. When we got nearer Boughton the SatNav wanted us to enter the estate through an entrance which was closed off with a gate which had a notice on it which said 'private' so it's not always a good idea to follow exactly the route given by this technology. I had programmed the thing with the postcode given on Boughton's website. It just goes to show you can't always trust modern technology. We continued on and took the signs which took us through a couple of attractive villages. Whenever we drive towards any of the historic houses we visit (and we've visited quite a few this summer, as you will know, if you've been following my blog posts on here.) you soon know when you're almost there because all, or virtually all, of the estates they're in have long walls running around them, which is generally a huge give-away. Soon we were at the gates of the Boughton estate, but it was around 11.50 so we drew up on the grass verge along with several other cars. Soon the gates were open and we drove in. The first thing we couldn't help noticing was the huge plume of water shooting in the air. Known as the 'jet del' Eau (Jet of Water. Simple, I suppose.)  This 70 foot plus fountain rises from a lake, called the Grand Etang (which translates as 'Great Pond.') You can't escape this magnificent feature of the landscape of Boughton because it seems to follow you around and can be seen from almost all of the grounds. Well, I suppose it would do, it's a major feature. We were certainly impressed by it.

Jet de l'eau at Boughton House

I'm afraid my photograph, which I've included above, really doesn't do justice to the actual feature. It's difficult to portray the scale of it in a photograph, and certainly not on here. This really doesn't give you any sort of idea of the size of the jet, because it's very impressive.

Having parked the car we decided to eat the picnic we'd bought with us so we sat on a rather convenient grassy bank near the car and once this was finished we walked to the stable block nearby to purchase our entry tickets. As we're H.H.A. members (Historic Houses Association) we didn't have to actually pay. We are certainly getting our money's worth with our joint membership of this organisation this year. We did, though, have to pay to gain admittance to the house itself in order to join a guided tour which was due to start at 1.15. So we had some considerable time before this guided tour so we spent it wandering around the grounds. The landscape comprises a series of walks with avenues of trees, embanked areas as well as canals and lakes, which have, apparently, been inspired by similar features at French 17th and 18th-century houses and palaces, such as Versailles

Really pleasant avenue of trees at Boughton

At around 1.00 we went to find the house entrance in order to get on the guided tour. When we got there we found people waiting and signed in. We left some of our belongings at the entrance with the staff and then the tour began. A truly amazing collection of artworks as well as furniture in each room and the lady who was the guide made it all very worthwhile and interesting.  This tour took around an hour, but it was actually only half of the house. A second guided tour would begin at around 3.15 and take you around the upstairs apartments. We had booked for this also, but as it was so warm and we'd been standing for so long we decided to abandon the idea. You aren't supposed to sit down as you go around, although some seating is provided, but it was, as I said, far too long to spend in the heat although we would have liked to have seen the rest of the house. Maybe we'll return at a later date and see the rest of the house then.

We went to buy icecream in the shop, as it was a particularly warm afternoon. We sat in the courtyard at the stables and began to chat with a couple who came to sit on the chairs at our table. It turned out that they lived in Leicestershire, by sheer coincidence, very near where Carol lived as a child, in the vicinity of Thornton, which is near Coalville. It seems amazing that you can travel miles and when you eventually bump into someone or other, begin a conversation, they tell you that they lived 'up the road' from where you live or know someone you know. Only the other week, when we went to Cambridge and were in the Fitzwilliam Museum, we began to talk to a lady who was standing and looking at a particular picture and it turned out she was also a teacher, like Carol, and she worked at a school nearby to the Milton Keynes Academy where Carol works.

We then wandered around the grounds and gardens at Boughton, admiring the gardens and then made our way back to the car and left for home.

Having followed the instructions of the SatNav, it was strange that it did not take us back the same way as we had come. At one point we were directed to drive through a ford in one of the villages, but Carol decided not to take that route. We were supposed to drive back on the M1, which wasn't the way we'd gone when we were on our way to Boughton. On arriving back in Milton Keynes we went to the K.F.C. at the stadium to buy take-away chicken and chips for our evening meal. 

Non-Existent Customer Service at Currys/PCWorld

As I've posted a few days ago, we had problems with our washing machine. Not really a surprise when you come to consider how our beloved landlord had it installed (see earlier post.) We went to Curry's in an attempt to purchase a new one. I do on-line surveys and had redeemed vouchers to the value of £140 which we wanted to put towards a new machine. We had visited Currys/PC World at their Elder Gate branch in Milton Keynes a week or so back because it was going to take at least a week for the vouchers to arrive and to have a look at what they had on offer. This company seems to have a very poor reputation as regards customer care/service. In some respects it's non-existant. They are probably the last company where you can go to find domestic appliances in a warehouse retail environment, although it's easy enough to buy products like this online. We had even gone to their website to have a look, particularly at availability as the current washing machine needs replacing immediately and we need to do some washing fairly rapidly. The old machine won't spin properly, so that, at the end of a wash cycle you are left with a load which is totally sopping wet. All very well when the weather is fine and sunny as it is at the moment, but how do you dry clothes this wet when it's cold and wet outside and have to resort to drying things on radiators and clothes dryers. Not very convenient if those clothes are wringing wet.

We drove over to the Currys/PCWorld branch at Elder Gate. It was around 9.15 a.m. There appeared to be very few customers in the store. We went directly to the washing machine area. We had decided when we visited a week or so ago that we'd have a Hoover model and had intended ordering it there and then, part-paying for it with the vouchers which came in the post yesterday. No staff came towards us as we browsed, as we looked at other washing machines in the display, but the price of the Hoover model suited our budget. The a male assistant appeared, but as soon as we said we were interested in buying a machine he disappeared, saying he'd get another assistant to help with our enquiries. Then a female assistant appeared. When we asked if we could buy this particular Hoover washing machine she said she would have to look at their computer to find out whether one was in stock. It soon turned out that they didn't have one in stock and they weren't expecting another delivery until Friday. It would be another two days after that before we could have it delivered and plumbed in as well as having the old washing machine removed. She made absolutely no effort to offer us an alternative model at a similar price nor did she attempt to find out stock levels. So we left somewhat annoyed. It was at this point that Carol decided we should complain. When we returned home we found Currys/PCWorld's phone number on their website and after around 10 minutes waiting in a queue I spoke to an agent and I told him the problem we had endured in their store in Milton Keynes. He was very apologetic when I explained how our enquiry had been handled. He said he would pass on our complaint to the manager of the store and we would get a response when the complaint had been dealt with. So I await some sort of feedback. We mentioned how we wanted to buy a washing machine and he said any machines which were in stock would be shown online. Carol found a suitable model which appeared to be in stock and available for delivery (something which should have been apparent to the in-store staff, but wasn't.) Carol began to order it through the website but when she came to enter the long line of digits on the vouchers she couldn't get it to work. So we decided to return to the Currys/PCWorld branch, somewhat reluctantly it has to be said since we had put in our complaint. On returning we went to the customer service desk where a lone lady was on duty. She didn't seem to know exactly how to make the transaction on her computer and needed to be shown by the manager of the store. Not exactly helping with our trust in the company. Eventually the transaction was made and we will have the new washing machine, a Kenwood, delivered and installed on Sunday. We were further annoyed when it turned out we would have to pay delivery when it had said it was free on the website but we managed to get it free. We also added extended warranty for the machine in case it breaks down. We have this for our fridge/freezer (the old one broke down and began defrosting when we were out visiting Twycross Zoo, you may recall if you read my earlier blog post.) But I'm afraid this whole incident has put us off buying anything further from this particular company.

When we walk out of the store and into the carpark, there is a lady about to get into her car, parked near us. She is carrying a pile of shoe boxes. It's evident that she's been to Brantano, the shoe store, which is a few units along from Currys/PCWorld. They have a sale on and she tells us she always buys her shoes in Brantanos sale. We discuss our recent trip to the Doc Marten factory shop in Wollaston where we have bought shoes for really low prices. She hasn't heard of this and says she will have to visit. We mention our recent experiences in Currys and she says she never shops there because of their non existent customer care. It seems the store has a really bad reputation. I don't personally blame the staff. I think the company needs to train their staff better. It seems none of them have any idea how to deal with customers. If you have a customer who is eager to buy a product you don't let them walk out of the store until they have bought something. That is surely a bad salesman or woman. If they can't get a sale then they're not doing their job properly. It seems the first assistant had no idea how to keep a customer. If they could't get the product we wanted she should have made some effort to find out and it was more than annoying that we did eventually manage to find what we wanted through their website.