When we go out we usually have to leave Alfie behind. Going to the oncology department at Milton Keynes Hospital, for example, we obviously can't take a small dog, for hygiene reasons, although we'd love to take him and I'm sure the other patients would love him and he'd be spoilt rotten. He usually stays in the kitchen, where he has his nice warm bed, some food and water and it's generally quite pleasant for him. Sometimes, if I say 'kitchen' to him he goes all pathetic, ears laid back with his tail between his legs. I think tone of voice could suggest that he's done something wrong, even when he hasn't. If I say this, he sometimes forgets where the kitchen is and runs upstairs to our bedroom. Well, you can't blame him for preferring to lay on our nice comfortable bed to being in the kitchen. But yesterday morning, when we were about to leave the house for the hospital, I attempted to get him into the kitchen. You have to have the door into the front hall shut, and get him into the kitchen from the lounge through the door from the lounge. But he wouldn't comply. He usually goes in there without any fuss and bother. But he'd picked up fairly early on that we were going out and leaving him. He goes into the trembling-dog mode, all pathetic and really crazy. I had to attempt to open the kitchen door and just put him through, but he just wouldn't stay, with as much effort as he could, he rushed back through into the lounge. For such a small dog he has quite a lot of strength, surprisingly, so we decided to leave him to it and have the door between the lounge and the kitchen left open so be could wander about safely when we were out, so at least he had food and water and a choice of either laying on the sofa or using his own bed in the kitchen.
So, yesterday Carol started her eleventh chemotherapy cycle. Just one more to go and all twelve will have been completed. We got to the oncology unit far too early. We were due there at about 11.30, but as there can be a real problem with parking we got there about an hour too early and, fortunately, we were able to park quite easily. There were several vacant spaces. We went to the Friend's shop which is near the restaurant, and bought sandwiches, drinks and crisps so we had something to eat at lunch-time. It was really warm in the oncology department. I know cancer patients need to be warm because the chemotherapy they have to undergo can have the effect of making heat and cold quite unbearable. This was particularly evident over the winter months as Carol had to wear gloves and a scarf, usually over her mouth when we went outside. But it's quite warm at the moment and the doors and windows were open in the department when we arrived but had to be closed as one patient, a fairly elderly lady, insisted on having them closed. A bit unfair on the rest of those in the department.
Today (Wednesday) I've spent some time cutting the grass with the new cordless grass trimmer (as mentioned in an earlier post.) I'm having to deal with a lot of brambles growing up near the fence to the left, because the trimmer isn't powerful enough to cut these branches. It's good at cutting the grass, though, and from my experience of using a Strimmer or at least a cutter that uses fishing line, it's more efficient and I haven't had to stop to deal with the cutting blade (similar to that which is in the mower we have.) With trimmers with fishing line in them, this line tends to brake very frequently and you have to stop and deal with it, pulling out the line before continuing with the job in hand.
This week I'm doing an on-line course through something called 'Futurelearn.' It's called 'Shakespeare: Print and Performance.' It's a course run by King's College, London in association with the British Library and Shakespeare's Globe. I've done several of these courses before, an earlier one on Shakespeare called 'Shakespeare and His World' and another about Hadrian's Wall. Most of these courses are free, but they've started to keep them free for the duration of the course, but then you need to pay to continue to have access after this period. There are video 'lectures' on various topics as well as downloadable material which you can print out as well as points where you can join in discussions and make comments on various topics. A really interesting course as it covers two subjects which I have an interest in, Shakespeare and history. Learning a lot of new stuff about Shakespeare I didn't know about before as well as about the history of Tudor theatre. I never realised until doing this course that there were so many theatres in and around London at this time, because you only seem to know about The Globe Theatre when studying Shakespeare.
So, yesterday Carol started her eleventh chemotherapy cycle. Just one more to go and all twelve will have been completed. We got to the oncology unit far too early. We were due there at about 11.30, but as there can be a real problem with parking we got there about an hour too early and, fortunately, we were able to park quite easily. There were several vacant spaces. We went to the Friend's shop which is near the restaurant, and bought sandwiches, drinks and crisps so we had something to eat at lunch-time. It was really warm in the oncology department. I know cancer patients need to be warm because the chemotherapy they have to undergo can have the effect of making heat and cold quite unbearable. This was particularly evident over the winter months as Carol had to wear gloves and a scarf, usually over her mouth when we went outside. But it's quite warm at the moment and the doors and windows were open in the department when we arrived but had to be closed as one patient, a fairly elderly lady, insisted on having them closed. A bit unfair on the rest of those in the department.
Today (Wednesday) I've spent some time cutting the grass with the new cordless grass trimmer (as mentioned in an earlier post.) I'm having to deal with a lot of brambles growing up near the fence to the left, because the trimmer isn't powerful enough to cut these branches. It's good at cutting the grass, though, and from my experience of using a Strimmer or at least a cutter that uses fishing line, it's more efficient and I haven't had to stop to deal with the cutting blade (similar to that which is in the mower we have.) With trimmers with fishing line in them, this line tends to brake very frequently and you have to stop and deal with it, pulling out the line before continuing with the job in hand.
This week I'm doing an on-line course through something called 'Futurelearn.' It's called 'Shakespeare: Print and Performance.' It's a course run by King's College, London in association with the British Library and Shakespeare's Globe. I've done several of these courses before, an earlier one on Shakespeare called 'Shakespeare and His World' and another about Hadrian's Wall. Most of these courses are free, but they've started to keep them free for the duration of the course, but then you need to pay to continue to have access after this period. There are video 'lectures' on various topics as well as downloadable material which you can print out as well as points where you can join in discussions and make comments on various topics. A really interesting course as it covers two subjects which I have an interest in, Shakespeare and history. Learning a lot of new stuff about Shakespeare I didn't know about before as well as about the history of Tudor theatre. I never realised until doing this course that there were so many theatres in and around London at this time, because you only seem to know about The Globe Theatre when studying Shakespeare.
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