Visiting Doctor's Surgery

Carol didn't feel well this morning. She began to get ready for work but she began to say she had a pain in her kidneys. Or so it seemed. She wasn't sure whether she ought to go to work or not. I wasn't so sure. I thought she ought to get a doctor's appointment. Not such an easy matter, as I've mentioned in my blog posts on here. As she is diabetic, it's a good idea to take notice of such things, as it could be a sign that something more serious is wrong. You have to ring up the surgery around 10-11 a.m. if you want an appointment that day, and when you eventually get through, they get one of the doctors to phone back to get a rough idea what the problem is and then give you an appointment. I thought it was important that she gets an appointment as soon as possible, so we went to the surgery in Bean Hill just before 8 a.m. an waited until the surgery opened. Fortunately we were able to get seen by a doctor at 11.10, so we went back home and returned just before 11 o'clock. When we returned Carol just had to sign in using the computer screen in the reception area. Well, it was working. It has been out of use the last couple of times we've been in the surgery reception.

The reception-area became very busy. People coming and going. Mothers (and fathers) with young children. Some in buggies. Some children crying and bawling. One young girl, shreiking, for what ever reason. Was it because she was ill, in pain perhaps? Or was she just having a temper-tantrum? Suddenly there was an incident. A young girl, who had been taking with one of the receptionists collapsed. Immediately there were nurses running in, as well as one of the doctors. They crowded around the girl. I'm not sure what had happened. Did she have a heart attack? A stroke? A wheelchair was bought in and she was taken away to one of the surgeries. I have to say I was a little impressed by how the staff dealt with the incident.

Carol was called in. Her name came up on the digital display. Her appointment was delayed because of the incident with the young girl, but considering how many staff came running in to assist, it's not a surprise the appointment was later than originally booked. About five minutes later Carol came back out and she told me that a prescription had been sent via email to Sainsbury's pharmacy. We drove to Sainsbury's in Witan Gate as we had to do shopping and collected the prescription, which turned out to be antibiotics.

Remembering Louis Fussell- Part 3

Rutland Road, in which Louis Fussell lived in Bedford, and where I lived for around 4 years in the early 2000's, is off Midland Road. It's become very run down over the years. The road is in a sort of 'loop' which consists of Rutland Road, Gibbons Road and Grafton Road. It's sort of cut off from the rest of the roads around the area. It's one-way for traffic, coming in from the roundabout on Midland Road and Prebend Street. There is a bridge that links into Queen's Park and traffic filters in to the roundabout. This can be very difficult if you are driving over the bridge at peak times of the day and I can verify this as I had to drive a minibus when I was working as a carer and collected people from the day centre at the Westbourne Centre deep at the back of Queen's Park and this was always at the busiest time of day and coming out over the bridge could be very slow as the traffic built up back into Ford End Road. 

I had a job in a care home in Everton at the beginning of the 2000's and I used to do early shifts there and I had to start at 7 a.m. if I was on an early. It took me a good half-hour to drive to Everton, driving out of Bedford along Cardington Road  towards Willington and then crossing the A1 at Biggleswade. One particular morning I was caught in the one-way system of Rutland/Gibbons and Grafton Roads. It was the morning the dustbin men were out doing their rounds. I got to Grafton Road and I could see the dustcart ahead of me, blocking the entire road. Those roads weren't really designed for modern traffic. None of the houses had garages or driveways, so the residents had to park on the road outside, or as near outside, their homes as possible. This meant that, with cars parked on both sides of the road there was only a relatively narrow 'lane' to drive along in the centre. With a very large Bedford Council dustcart in the centre there was absolutely nowhere for me to pass. And the workmen who were busy moving wheely bins away from their parking spaces near the houses along the street, to be put on the lift on the rear of the dustcart and then be lifted up and tipped into the back of the wagon. They steadfastly refused to budge an inch, and time was ticking by as I had a half-hour journey to work ahead of me. I just had to wait. And they knew full well I was being held up. Well, they did eventually move out of my way, and I did manage to drive out of Bedford and, as far as I remember, I wasn't late for work either. Just as well there wasn't much traffic on the roads at that early hour.

Louis Fussell was something of a penny-pincher. There's nothing wrong with being careful of your money, of course. He seemed to have a problem with mobile phones. I can understand his generation having a problem with them. I don't think he would understand the obsession with this technology. I have mentioned my concerns with these gadgets, how some people seem constantly to be glued to their smartphones, how you see people walking along the street with their eyes glued to the little screens, either texting or looking at something such as Facebook. I don't think Facebook had started at the time I lived in Rutland Road. I think Louis concern was the cost of running a mobile. He didn't like using the thing. I'm sure he didn't have one of his own. I can't imagine him wanting one. Considering how many miles he rode on his bicycle (see earlier posts on this subject.) I can imagine that a mobile phone would have come in handy had he needed to phone for assistance if he had an accident or at least as a safety support measure. 

I have mentioned elsewhere about how Louis had paying 'guests' living in his home. Myself being one of them. He was never concerned about references. As long as you paid your rent he wasn't bothered. Thinking about it now, I think he was opening him self up to all sorts of problems and dangers. But I don't think he was too concerned, as he ought to have been. When I first lived there he had two young men living in the house. One at the front and the other at the back. One of them absconded, without paying his rent. I'm not sure exactly, I imagine he had back-rent to pay or something. I think he worked for a company between Bedford and Ampthill, I believe based at Houghton Conquest, but I'm not sure. Louis had no car for his own transport and went everywhere by bicycle. He found out where this young man worked (don't ask me how.) and went all the way to his employer's headquarters to try and track him down so as to get the owed money. It seemed to take him a considerable amount of time and effort but he did get the cash eventually. I think perhaps his employers made the young man pay it off directly from his wages, so much a month or something.

Another time he had a problem with his phone bill. He seemed to spend an extremely long time sitting on the telephone in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, sitting on a chair, waiting. No doubt it was to get through to a callcentre or something. I think he was attempting to change his telephone provider and I expect it took an extremely long time for him to get through to the call centre. I can relate to this, as we had a similar problem when we finished with TalkTalk. We had a landline telephone as well as the internet. No, I don't think Louis would ever have broadband internet. Modern technology was far too much for him to understand. Not just understand, but to deal with such things as email, social media etc etc.

As mentioned in my earlier blog posts, Louis was a violin-maker, viola player (in a local orchestra) and wrote music. He wrote several symphonies, as well as other styles of orchestral music. These works were written on reams of paper, although someone transcribed his scores to a computer software system called 'Sibelius,' for which he paid. If he had only learnt to use a computer and then the software he might have saved himself a considerable amount of money. Then he would lay the scores on the floor and go through it all to make any corrections, no doubt in much the same way that an author goes through the manuscript of a novel or other work and editing out any mistakes.

There was one young man who came to live in the house. He had the front bedroom. He was French, and seemed somewhat lost. I'm not sure if he wasn't entirely 100%. He was convinced that his girlfriend was going to come and live with him in the house. Her name was Tina. He kept on and on about her. I can't remember where he worked. Probably for a tempt agency, as I had done for a while. No doubt in some warehouse, picking and packing, unloading lorries or similar. There are a number of such places in and around Bedford, such as Debenham's, Argos etc etc. Talk of 'Tina' seemed endless. He kept ringing this elusive female, but she seemed to be playing all sorts of evasive games with him, to such an extent that it seemed obvious that she had no intention of joining him. At last, after months and months, it appeared that he had found a suitable flat for them to live in, I believe on the other side of Bedford, in either Putnoe or Goldington. Then he began moving stuff across town. But he had no vehicle, neither a van or a car. He had, you won't believe this, a shopping trolley! Now, it must be a good four or five miles to Goldington, and would take perhaps ten minutes to get there by car. He put his belongings into this shopping trolley and pushed it there and must have unloaded it and then walked all the way back to Rutland Road for another load! This was on a Saturday, because I recall seeing him in the centre of town with the shopping trolley, and on one occasion he had the basic carcase of a chest of  drawers in  the thing, and a few house later he'd piled the drawers in the trolley, complete with clothes, all thrown in in a huge pile! I don't think 'Tina' ever appeared and I have no idea whether  he actually went to live in the flat on his own.

Visit to Stowe Landscape Gardens

With the sun shining brightly it seemed a real waste to stay in doors so an outing was required. We have been watching the Sky Arts programme ' Sky Landscape Artists of 2016.' Each week they visit a National Trust location and the contestants have to paint a picture in 4 hours. This week they were at Stowe Landscape Gardens near Buckingham. We decided to visit today as the weather is likely to change over the weekend. We couldn't take Poppy, as she is now too old and her eyesight has gone but Alfie was definitely keen to go. However much you attempt to keep our intentions quiet, he soon picks up things and starts howling and barking. Carol got his travelling cage out of the spare bedroom and put it in the back of the car. Fortunately we had done our weekly shop at Aldi's on Friday, as we usually go shopping on a Saturday morning, which meant we were able to go out without having to think about our weekly supermarket visit. The sun might have be out, but it was quite chilly as we drove away from the house.

On arrival at the carpark at Stowe we were surprised to discover that there were quite a few cars already parked and people getting out of their cars dressed in running gear as well as many dogs. It appeared that there was some sort of running event going on, with some of the runners taking their dogs with them. Alfie was quite excited to have the chance to meet other dogs, of various shapes and sizes. He may be small, but he has very little fear when meeting dogs several times his size! We kept him firmly on his lead, though. We walked to the visitor centre, which is a recently-opened building, taking in the restored New Inn which is apparently where visitors stayed around 300 years ago when Stowe was originally opened. A new part of this visitor centre includes a restaurant and a shop as well as toilets and other facilities. We were allowed to enter the gardens early, a good fifteen minutes before it was supposed to open at 10.00 a.m. Before, when you visited, the carpark was the opposite side of the gardens, near the school playing fields, but when they began restoration of Stowe they wanted to make your visit as near to how it would have been in the early days of it being opened and you now have to walk along what is called Bellgate Drive, around a mile's walk to what is Bell Gate, which is the actual entrance to Stowe Landscape Gardens.

View across lake towards the Palladian Bridge at 

Stowe Landscape Gardens

There was music playing as we came out of the visitor's centre. An inflatable construction, like a sort of arch, had been erected, which was presumably where the race began and ended. On our walk towards Bell Gate we came across lots of people either running alone or with dogs. It's not something I've seen before. Alfie so wanted to be allowed to be let off his lead, but dogs are supposed to be kept on their leads at Stowe. I suppose because there are sheep and other livestock in the adjacent fields. When we take him for walks in our local park or along the Redway we allow him his freedom, which he loves, running back and forth, sniffing the trees and cocking his leg against every tree and shrub! But this time we kept him firmly on his lead.

Palladian Bridge at Stowe

I took quite a lot of photographs as we walked around the grounds. We walked towards the Palladian Bridge, which spans one of the lakes. It was around here that the Sky Landscape Artist of The Year show was filmed. They had the view up towards the Gothic temple in the background and the Palladian bridge also. We crossed the bridge, following a Land Rover, no doubt being driven by a member of the National Trust staff who manage the site. I was surprised that the bridge was strong enough to bear the weight of a vehicle such as a Land Rover. We walked on up the hill and it was here we dared to let Alfie off his lead. He was so pleased, barking happily and running ahead of us.
He runs back and forth, never in a straight line, but certainly getting plenty of exercise in the process. Up to the top of the hill and then round to the left where we stopped to sit on a bench near some trees. Great views down towards the lakes and to take some more photographs. We walked on and into the main part of the gardens and then round back towards Bell Gate again and to walk back towards the visitor's centre and back to the carpark and eventually drive home to Milton Keynes.

Corinthian Arch in distance at Stowe

Working on 'Hale and Pace'

In the early 1990s I managed to sign up with an agency in London run by Ray Knight. I had heard that he was taking on new people to go on his books and I wrote to him. Long before email, you had to actually put pen to paper and I enclosed headshots, because if you're going to do walk-on work in television they always need to have recent photographs to go on their books. Nowadays they would be uploaded onto a website. His office was somewhere in north London, and I visited for an interview and I was accepted. As a result I got no end of work, and was doing jobs on such programmes as 'House of Cards' (the original B.B.C. production with Ian Richardson.) and did several days on that, some at the B.B.C. Elstree studios and various locations in and around London. This is described in far more detail in an earlier blog post on here.

Over one weekend I had jobs on two shows for London Weekend Television (LWT). On the Saturday I did work on 'Hale and Pace'. I was to go to a location somewhere in the East End of London. I can't say I remember where it was exactly. Some sketches were filmed in and around the area, but the interiors were done in what looked like a disused office block and they made various rooms within the building to be such places as a dentist's surgery and a sitting room.  I have never ever seen any of the shows when they were originally transmitted back in the early '90's, but having done some research on the internet, particularly I.M.D.B and YouTube, I have at last managed to track the episodes I was in. Hale and Pace had  several continuing characters, particularly Bobby and Billy, who were sort of kids television characters, the sort of characters you'd have in such shows as 'Play School' or 'Play Away' with the two boys dressed in bright coloured bib and braces. In this sketch I was in they were supposed to be policemen and I am a mugger! I must say it's odd seeing it now, some 25 years later! It's all in series 3 of the Hale and Pace show, which was originally broadcast on a Sunday at 10 p.m. and some of the material is what you would call adult, although probably considered somewhat tame by today's standards. I was a man living in a box, a sort of tramp or something. To this day I have no idea what that sketch was about. I hope I manage to find it in one of the episodes on YouTube. Another I was supposed to be a patient in a dentist's surgery and one of the boys sat on my legs on the dentist's chair. I'm not sure whether it was Hale or Pace and I can't remember what else happened in that sketch. They were done in such quick succession, there was very little time in between set-ups and they didn't do a lot of takes. I do remember that one of the production crew, a cameraman or lighting assistant, I'm not sure which, took a liking for the pins I wore on the hat I was wearing. I used to collect pin badges, the sort which are metal enamel with a separate pin which you put inside your clothes and the pin sticks through the fabric and the other main part pins to it. Well, he was determined he was going to have them all, but I insisted they weren't for sale or even barter. Strange what you remember and it wasn't clear whether he was being serious or merely trying to annoy me. Some people are difficult to decipher.

On the Sunday I went back into central London.  I was working on location at Smithfield Market and St Bart's Hospital on an episode of 'Poirot,' the episode which was done for the centenary of the publication of the first Poirot story by Agatha Christie,' The Mysterious Affair at Style's.' It was an extremely hot day I seem to remember, but we were dressed in extremely thick and heavy Edwardian suits and there was no way you could keep cool on the set. It was so warm the tarmac on the road we were working on began to melt in the heat. It was the opening sequence, done with the titles. They used a crane to do a wide shot. As it was a Sunday it meant they could close the streets to traffic. We were supposed to be the walking wounded, back from 'The Front' in France. Some people had plaster casts on their legs and were wheeled in wheel chairs, others had their arms in bandages and I think I had my head bandaged. We were walking in through the entrance to St Bart's Hospital. They did no end of takes, and we had to go back to original positions several times for fresh takes. There was a particularly bossy unit manager (or production assistant or assistant director, I'm not sure which he was.) who kept hasstleing us to get it right. On another set-up they had traffic in the street, all vintage vehicles, cars, busses and bicycles. I was supposed to be on a bicycle, but at the last minute I was taken out from the scene. Perhaps because I was going to be used as walking wounded as it would be odd to have me in two places more or less at once, one minute on a bicycle and able-bodied and the next as a wounded soldier. I don't in all honesty think it would have mattered because you are usually in the background in a scene, although  there is always somebody who will point such things out. 

A Wet Weekend and New Glasses

On Saturday the weather was wet, which meant the outing we had planned was abandoned. No good wandering around outside getting soaked. So we hit on visiting the Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre. We always make a visit in the run-up to Christmas because there is always a display of some sort in the Middleton Hall. We parked in the multi-storey near Debenham's and walked down through the store. We looked in the men's department and there are some items of clothing I have seen which I would like. Carol is attempting to find some sort of bag for work, large enough to carry around books and marking. She wants something strong enough and with several compartments. We looked in Debenham's luggage department but there didn't appear to be anything suitable. We walked through Midsummer Place and browsed briefly in Waterstone's. There are so many books which we both would like, but still, nice to be able to browse. Then we went into the main shopping centre. It was virtually empty of shoppers at 9 a.m. Not all the stores are open at that hour. We walked down one side of the shopping centre and eventually reached the open area between John Lewis and Next, which is called Middleton Hall. This is the area which is used for a variety of events, including the annual Christmas display. Over the years they've had themes. One year it was pirates and Peter Pan and there was a large ship complete with mast and sails, with a model of Peter Pan standing at the top. A great deal of time and effort had obviously gone into creating this display. They have always had a wishing well into which you can throw coins and the money collected goes to a local charity. Father Christmas has a grotto, which your children can visit, but you have to pay. A small railway, chugging around a circular track. Again, you have to book and pay in advance to ride on this. Also, a carousel and a couple of rows of booths or wooden kiosks selling a range of craft items. But I'm afraid the Christmas display is a real disappointment. No doubt the company who creates this has had it's budget cut drastically, and a lot of the animated characters look decidedly second hand a somewhat tatty. The white domes which have coloured lights inside were used last year. Nothing particularly to recommend it I'm afraid. This year's efforts has to be the poorist yet. So if you have to visit, don't be disappointed. It's just not very good. I know it for children, but they might at least put in a bit of effort.

We then went into Pret A Manger which has a branch nearby and had lattes and cookies. Quite a pleasant environment, but by the time we got there the crowds were building up and by the time we walked out the whole place was heaving. Carol pointed out how miserable everyone looked. Nobody seemed to be talking to one another. Most were on mobile phones, more interested in them that speaking to a living human being. People were queuing to buy coffees. Lots had shopping. No doubt Christmas shopping.

We next went into John Lewis. You walk through and the way it's laid out, you can't avoid looking at the products on display. It used to be laid out so it was a direct route, but not anymore. We needed to use the toilets, and, compared with the public toilets further along inside the shopping centre, the John Lewis toilets are a good deal cleaner and more pleasant. On the way we saw a display with a television which was showing the John Lewis Christmas television commercial, about 'Buster The Dog' bouncing on a trampoline. There was a display next to this, of merchandise which ties in with the commercial, mugs and soft toys and amongst it all a 'Buster' toy which you throw or bounce and it makes a noise, similar to the red Comic Relief 'noise' ball which our Yorkshire Terrier, Alfie, loves so much. It is on it's last legs, it's laughing sound mechanics is coming to an end. So I would come back into the shopping centre to buy later in the week.

Lewis's have a great selection of decorations of all shapes and sizes. We had a browse and by the time we'd finished we decided we'd seen enough and so walked back through the shopping centre and ending up back at the multi-storey carpark near Debenham's.

I returned to SpecSavers to collect my new glasses on Wednesday morning, a week after they'd been ordered. I was somewhat annoyed to find that instead of making up one pair each of reading glasses and one pair of distance vision glasses they'd made up two pairs of reading glasses. I know it was a mistake on behalf of the lady who dealt with the order, but it was still annoying. She apologised and said that she'd get the laboratory to re-do the order and make up the distance glasses and they'd be ready for collection today. It would mean we driving into the centre again and parking and having to walk through to the shopping centre this morning. Which I did. But, yesterday morning, when I got home and tried to read with the new glasses I found that they were not good for reading the laptop screen.  Really straining my eyes and leading to a headache as a result. They were no better than the off-the-shelf reading glasses which I bought in Boot's around 10 years ago and have been using ever since, perfectly successfully. On returning to SpecSavers this morning I'm now told I'll need to have my eyes tested again, which is really annoying as I imagined the original test would have shown up a different lens strength for close reading. I will get this done in the New Year as I don't really want it done before Christmas.

Hospital Appointment For Carol

Carol had to go for a hospital appointment this morning. She went into the Academy as usual, but walked home at around 10.45. The actual appointment was 11.30. As the hospital is so close, there was really no point driving, because we'd only have to pay to use the hospital car park, and it would be quicker to walk, what with traffic. It's no more than a ten minute walk there, along the Redway behind our house and then straight through to the path that runs beside the road. The only problem was that it was threatening to rain, a miserable undecided sort of day on the weather-front, overcast and cold.

We had to walk around the front of the hospital complex, to the Maple Centre, which is near the entrance for Accident and Emergency. In through the front entrance and we were inside a typical N.H.S. unit. Why do they always have that air of depression, the same rather strong smell, clean, but unpleasant? Is it the cleaning material they use, or what is it? Over-clean, I think. Obsessively so. It's difficult to see immediately where you have to go. So many signs, go here, co there. Reception desk, do you sign in or not? I would have come with Carol anyway, but in the letter she had for the appointment, it said that she needed to bring someone with her as they would put drops in her eyes as part of the procedure and she wouldn't be safe to drive afterwards and, as a result, also have a pair of dark glasses as her eyes would be sensitive to bright light. At the reception desk Carol gives the woman behind the counter the letter she was sent and the information is put in the computer. Signed in and told to sit and wait. We go and sit in the Yellow Bay. A lot of old people sitting and waiting. It's even more depressing. Nobody talks. Nobody wants to give anyone eye contact. Which is ironic, when you think it's the eye clinic. Carol is here because she's recently been diagnosed as diabetic and they have to check your eyes to prevent eye problems which might result. The place is decorated white, cold, typically N.H.S., standard paintwork. Why can't it be done in more bright and colourful colours? Surely it wouldn't cost anymore. As people walk about the floor seems to move. It's got a strange sort of movement, as if the place is built on springs or something. Why is it like that? The Carol gets called to go in to her appointment. I make notes in my notebook I try to take with me everywhere. This is a good place to study characters, people's behaviours. A woman comes in with a baby in a stroller. I'm not actually sure what you call these things- stroller, buggy, baby-carrier. Anyway, a complicated machine with wheels, lots of levers and handles and the actual bit into which the baby is inserted, padded and comfortable, with straps and looking to me like a sort of coal scuttle. I think it disconnects so it can be put into a car, with the baby safe within it. Then a second lady arrives, and it turns out she is the sister of the other lady with a baby. Why are they here? Is it her appointment, or the babies? Difficult to know.

The Carol calls to me from another waiting area. Green Bay. She says, come in here and sit with me. She has to wait for 20 minutes for the drops she has had put in her eyes to take effect. Green Bay is even more depressing than Yellow Bay. I don't see how you differentiate between the coloured bays, but Carol says it's the door-frames, painted different colours. The green paint in Green Bay is rather insipid, not a proper green to my way of thinking. The place has posters all over the walls, rather too many for my liking. Don't do this, don't do that, information over-kill. They tell you that, if you use a mobile phone, to respect other patients privacy. As if you'd ever not. But I suppose some people have no idea about 'respect.' Probably use their mobile to take a 'selfie'. As if you'd want to in a hospital. There's free wifi, so presumably it's alright to use a mobile. I was always under the impression you weren't supposed to use your mobile at all in a hospital. Something about the radio signals they use interfering with the computers and other equipment. But there is no evidence that this is true.

It's so gloomy. Nobody wants to talk to you. People being lead about, rather like the blind leading the blind. More deep irony. We just want to have a laugh. Why are the people in here so miserable? I know, a hospital isn't a particularly laugh-out-loud sort of place, and especially a department like this.  But please, just lighten up. I think I'd go completely nuts if I couldn't have a laugh. So many old people, just looking miserable, is enough to drive you completely doo-lalley. There's not even a television to watch or a coffee machine. Nothing to while away the time.  A pile of ancient magazines, most more or less past their best before day, if they ever had one in the first place. Can't the N.H.S. employ a stand-up comedian to get people to at least SMILE? laughter- supposedly the best form of medicine. Then Carol gets called back into the room to have a chat with the clinician or whatever he's called about her eyes. They take photographs of her eyes, which is why they put the drops into her eyes so that your pupils dilate which makes taking the photographs easier. I had this done when I had my eyes tested the other week.

Which reminds me, also on an eye-related matter. I have been to SpecSavers, on Wednesday, in Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, to have the prescription I got when I had my eyes tested the other week, and I'm having two pairs of glasses made up, for £69 (a really good offer.) One pair will be for distance work (for example, driving, watching television etc.) and another pair for reading, using the computer etc, more close work.) These will be ready next Wednesday.

So, having been back in to chat with the clinician, she comes back out and we leave. It's a matter of finding your way out into the hospital campus and trying to decipher the various conflicting notices, some saying 'Exit' and 'Way Out.' It's bright sunshine when we get outside and Carol puts on the dark glasses she bought with her. We stroll back home through the hospital grounds and back into Eaglestone and along the Redway and home. 

Broken Glasses

I mentioned that I had my eyes tested a few posts back. I had intended getting new glasses made up from the prescription in a month or so's time, possibly in the New Year. At any rate, once the expenses of Christmas was out of the way. But, unfortunately, I managed to break my glasses yesterday. I don't know how, exactly, but I was clearing up a load of magazines and papers which are in a basket under the table I had next to my armchair in the living room, and somehow or other my glasses got dropped on the floor and when I picked them up I found that one of the arms (for want of a better word. I don't know what the correct term is for the arm that is joined to a pair of glasses and has the hook bit that goes over your ears.) got bent up in an awkward position. I attempted to bend it back carefully, but without success, because it broke off the main frame of the glasses completely. I had thought it might be able to be repaired with super glue or similar, but having had another closer look this morning I can't see how it could be done. I'm just going to have to go and order a new pair in Spec Savers in Milton Keynes, where you can have two pairs of glasses for £69. So I can have one pair for reading and another for driving, watching television or when we go to the theatre or cinema (which, incidentally, we do very infrequently.) I had hoped to have a pair of bifocals, which have both in one pair of glasses, so I can read things like product labels in the supermarket when we go shopping, which we do a lot these days, to check on such things as sugar content, as Carol is diabetic.

The weather has got a good deal colder over the past few days. We've had to put the central heating on.  I put it on early this morning when I was making our mugs of tea. It's on most of the day if I'm in the house. There was a real chill in the wind when I was outside about to take Carol to work. This morning I had to melt the ice off the windscreen of the car. The leaves are virtually finished falling off the trees and things are looking a little bleak.

Comedy- Best Medicine- 2

I mentioned 'The Goon Show' in my last blog post. These, and many of the classic BBC radio comedies, are broadcast regularly on the digital station BBC Radio Four Extra. Not only 'The Goons' but 'Hancock's Half-Hour,' 'Round The Horne,' 'The Men From The Ministry,' 'I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again,' 'The Burkiss Way,' Radio Active' and many more.

Quite a few comedies start life on Radio Four (the main channel) and then get transferred to television. The most famous of all must be Hancock's Half Hour, which made the transfer in 1956, hence the 60th anniversary of this fact this year. As a result they did a series of revivals and one-offs of famous sitcoms, such as 'Are You Being Served?", "Porridge", "Goodnight Sweetheart" and a 'prequel' of "Keeping Up Appearances" called "Young Hyacinth" with the character, originally played by the brilliant Patricia Routledge,  by Kerry Howard. I didn't see it, and, frankly, didn't see the point. Why can't the BBC come up with new sitcoms? In the 1960's they used to do a series called "Comedy Playhouse" which generally consisted of what were, in effect six pilots for potential series. This is how shows such as "Steptoe and Son" began. They also did another series called "Six of One" which were, again, pilots for shows which starred Ronnie Barker. Two became series, one being "Porridge" and the other "Open All Hours." A couple of years ago they did a one-off called " Still Open All Hours." Having Googled this just now, it appears that they are making a third series of this. Personally I don't see the point, when it can't be as good as the original because Ronnie Barker, who made Arkwright, the central character in the original series, died several years ago, and no matter how good David Jason is in it, it can never be as good as that 1970s series. Still, I suppose if it gets the BBC high ratings, that can't be a bad thing.Perhaps it's the nostalgia of the thing that attracts such a big audience, the security of something familiar in a fast-changing world. ITV revived "Birds of A Feather" with similar high audience figures and it seems to be as popular as it was when originally shown on the BBC in the 1990s, and with most of the original cast members in place. Mention of Ronnie Barker reminds me that he was born in Bedford, about a 20-minute drive away from where I live, here in Milton Keynes. He also began his professional acting career in repertory theatre in Aylesbury, another 30 minutes away from here in the other direction, and when the newly-opened Waterside Theatre was opened there a few years ago, a statue of him was unveiled outside, sitting on a wall outside which means you can see him at street level, rather than up on a plinth. His comic timing and acting ability must have been learned because of his time in 'rep' due to him having to play a wide range of characters over a long period, do doubt doing weekly 'rep', meaning playing one show during the evening whilst rehearsing another during the day. All good experience for a young actor. He appears regularly in episodes of "The Navy Lark," yet another brilliant sitcom which is broadcast on Radio Four Extra, alongside another comedy legend, John Pertwee.

So, what exactly constitutes a 'sitcom'? There are a few key criteria I would suggest. They normally run for no more than 30 minutes, although there are examples of sitcoms running to 50 minutes or so. A sitcom is generally set in what I would call a 'closed world,' for example, a prison ('Porridge'), a department store ('Are You Being Served?') or a family ('Bread', 'My Family', 'Two Point Four Children', 'Outnumbered.') etc. The characters don't always get on with one another. This creates friction, conflict. There is generally a hierarchy, class divisions ("Keeping Up Appearances,' the class-snobbery of the Patricia Rutledge character thinks herself far above her relations, Onslow and Daisy, who she looks down at as they are 'working class' while she thinks of herself as 'Middle Class.' In 'Dad's Army' Mainwairing sets himself up as the platoon leader, because he is a bank manager, but has a chip on his shoulder because his Assistant in the bank, Wilson, went to a public school while he went to a state school.

Comedy . . . Best Medicine-1

There's nothing like a really good laugh. Well, as they say, 'laughter is the best medicine.' I'm not sure who said it, but it's surely better to be happy and have a good laugh than sit and be miserable. The world is full of enough misery as it is without sitting around moaning with a long face and feeling depressed.  When you laugh, your body releases endorphins, hormones or neurotransmitters, chemicals that pass along signals from one neutron to the next and eventually gives you a feeling of euphoria. So, no bad thing, when you think of the horrible things going on in the world today.

Looking back, what are the things that make me laugh, particularly on television? Or, come to think of it, radio? Well, as regards radio, I can think of 'The Goons.' A college friend introduced me to them way back in the 1960's. His father had recorded many of the original broadcasts onto reel-to-reel tape and then they were rerecorded onto cassettes, which is how my friend gave them to me. Those shows are really funny, performed by such original comedians as Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and in the original line-up, Michael Bentine. Each of them went on to establish careers away from 'The Goons,' most particularly Sellers, who is perhaps best known to movie audiences today for his portrayal of the inept police inspector, Clouseau. Spike Milligan was responsible for the scripts, and on occasion was joined by Eric Sykes in producing material. The characters and situations in 'The Goons' were totally surreal. How could you avoid laughing at the antics as such classic characters as Eccles, Bloodknock, Moriarty, Grytpype-Thynne, Neddy Seagoon, Henry Run and Minnie Bannister. The show spawned a whole host of catch phrases, such as 'He's fallen in the water!' 'Needle nardle not', 'You rotten swine! You deaded me!" "You silly twisted boy!" I think it was the fact that only three men did all the voices, with only one female character (Minnie Bannister, voiced by Milligan) that is so amazing, looking back on it. It could only really work on radio, because you had to work hard, as a member of the audience, to create pictures of what the characters looked like and that's half the fun. There was an attempt at a television series, I do remember, based on the show, and called "The Telegoons" but it just could never come up to the quality of the radio version. It used rather feeble puppets and they didn't seem to fit my idea of what the characters looked like at all. The bit that might surprise modern audiences might be the fact that these shows had musical interludes, where the action stopped and you had a performance given by a musician, a singer or harmonica player. It was a hang-over from other radio entertainment shows of the period where you had a series of sketches and these linked by musical interludes. It does take a bit of getting used to, having the story (such as they were. Some are better than others. Most, if not all, are totally surreal.) broken up like this, rather like commercial breaks on ITV. Musicians included Max Geldray and Ray Ellington, although at one stage, apparently, Harry Secombe provided musical entertaiment, and  he was perhaps more renowned as a singer rather than merely a comedian. I remember seeing him in the stage musical "Pickwick" where he played the central character of Mr Pickwick. The shows had narrators or announcers,who were sort of foils for a lot of the gags, and these were Andrew Timothy and Wallace Greenslade.  The  producer of the earlier shows was Dennis Main-Wilson, who later moved from radio to television and produced such shows as 'Sykes" with Hattie Jacques and Eric Sykes. He went on to produce television comedies such as "Citizen Smith" starring Robert Lindsey and written by John Sullivan who went on toe create "Only Fools and Horses."