Getting Much Colder

It's certainly beginning to feel a good deal colder. There's a keen wind which is quite chilly on the skin. I'm putting the central heating on, but it's not exactly the most efficient system. Our beloved landlord put in a new boiler last year, which is good at heating the water for what ever purpose, such as washing-up, having a bath or even to have a shave, but as regards heating the house, it seems to not be up to much. I think perhaps the radiators need bleeding or something as there might be an air pocket somewhere in the system. It just doesn't seem  very warm. Outside there's a definite nip in the air. Oh well, we are into November now and the nights close in around 4-4.30p.m. so it's not surprising. 

The shops are beginning to stock up with Christmas stuff. I expect we'll have the John Lewis Christmas television commercial out any day now. It will be given stiff competition from the likes of Debenhams, Next, Sainsbury's, and all the rest, but theirs will no doubt top them all. It apparently has a budget of £7 million, amazing when you think about it. Although that isn't just for the commercial. It will be all the associated material that they put with it, such as window dressing and general store design and merchandising and no doubt there will be toys as there was last year with the 'Buster' commercial. We got Alfie one of the noisy ball toys, which he loves. It has a 'Buster' face and when you either bounce it or hit it, the thing makes a doggy sort of noise. Carol did some desperate surgery on one of the 'Comic Relief' laughing toys which he loves. She undid one of them and did a sort of heart transplant on another one so it still works, but as you can't replace them, as they're no longer sold, it was the only alternative. The original one must be 4-5 years old now, and they haven't bought out new ones, apart from the 'Dinosaur' toy which growls or roars, supposedly like a dinosaur, but that was several years ago. We bought two of the 'Buster' toys and keep one in reserve so Alfie has always got one to play with, but when we let him have any of these toys he isn't allowed to have it to play with for too long, basically because of the howling noise he makes, and also, because it's got small parts inside, we don't want him chewing it to the point where it comes apart and the electrical components become exposed and are a risk to him swallowing them.