Saturday Morning Frost

(Saturday) I went out to the meter cupboard to check the gas meter. It was fine and didn't need credit putting on it, fortunately. It was quite chilly and there was a light frost on the car's windscreen. The first frost of the autumn.

I went to Sainsbury's early. I got there at around 8.45. Not busy at that early hour. I had to pick up my repeat prescription. I forgot to tell them at the pharmacy that I'm no longer taking Ramapril and now on Candesartan. It needs to be put on their list of my new medications. I now realise that Carol had a repeat prescription which needs collection and should have been ready. For some reason another of my meds wasn't available., Oxybutin. I can't think why, because I've only about four left. It's Ashfield Medical Centre just being awkward for now real reason. Or perhaps they just don't have any in stock. They said I couldn't have any until 27th October, so that's nearly in a month's time.

I got home, unpacked my shopping and then drove to the hospital. Carol seemed in a better frame of mind. I think at last the nurses have got on top of her pain relief medication.

As we sat quietly in the room, I was aware of someone entering  behind me as I sat in one of the chairs near the door, without our permission. One of the patients, who must have a learning disability. It was a bit of a shock. He came in and started looking at Carol's belongings on the bed-side table and touched the bed. He was followed by a carer, who apologised, and got the man out. The man didn't make any sound, didn't talk or anything. The type of patient I would have been caring for at one or other of the houses I worked in for the N.H.S., but they were usually those with extreme challenging behaviour. This man has been wandering about the ward all day and has two support workers with him. Carol was upset he had come in. The carers shut the room door to prevent him coming in and came back to again say they were sorry he had come into the room. It would be somewhat unsettling to have your personal space invaded like that.

I took Alfie out for his, by now, routine run across the park. I didn't go the whole circuit, because I felt a certain amount of discomfort in my chest. Not an angina attack, but I wasn't keen to risk being out. I always carry a G.T.N. spray, nevertheless. It has been mild, with  weak sun shining on the scene. A lot of leaves now fallen and definite signs of autumn. I can't believe it'll be October tomorrow.

This evening I have managed to put my medication out ready to take. I have looked at the repeat prescription I collected this morning and find that my Bisoprolol dosage hasn't been changed with the new order, it is still at the original, higher dosage of 5 mg, but it had been lowered to 2.5 mg by the doctors at John Radcliffe. Also, I got Ramapril, which has now been replaced by Candesartan. It's obvious that Lloyd's didn't know about the Ramapril being replaced, but the surgery hasn't looked carefully at the Bisoprolol dosage and it needs changing to the correct dosage. I think I will need to go back to Lloyd's in Sainsbury and get this rectified. No doubt it will require the surgery to make this change before Lloyd's can change it. So more aggravation.

When I got home I found a pile of post. One of them a letter from John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
I have an appointment there on Monday 8th October at 2 o'clock to have a Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Test. Seems to be similar to Carol's scans and the whole process takes 4-5 hours. My concern is that I don't relish having to drive all that way, and then, all the way back home afterwards. I would hope Carol could come with me, but considering her health at present I'm not sure. When she had a scan at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford all those months ago, we went via a hospital ambulance/minibus. However, it wasn't the most comfortable journey, but if it means I didn't have the stress of getting to Oxford I would be more than happy to go on that ambulance. Unless someone at church could volunteer their services, but that's a big ask, considering the length of time the procedure is likely to take. I'll have to look into the options. Until I got the letter today I had never heard of this particular test.

The Waiting Game Continues . . .

I've just returned from taking Alfie out for his morning trot across Eaglestone Park. I wasn't going to take him, having first peered out of the window. A somewhat gloomy and over-cast sort of day on the weather-front, which was really enough to put me off going out, but he hasn't been out since Wednesday. He follows me around the house and when I get dressed in the bedroom he's got that expectant look he has when he thinks he's going out. It is a bit unfair on him, being left alone in the house when I got to the hospital to see Carol. He must have wondered where on earth I was the Sunday I had my heart attack and didn't come home. Then Carol keeps on disappearing and he must miss her. He usually sleeps on my bed, but over the past week and a bit he's been sleeping on the sofa or he goes into his bed in the kitchen. Must be totally confused, poor little dog.

Anyway, we got out of the house and into the main part of the park where I usually let him off his lead. We did the full circuit, until we came across a man walking a whippet, which was looking somewhat nervous. Alfie bounds up to the poor thing and just wants to be friends, as usual, but the poor dog wasn't interested. I had to quickly put Alfie back on his lead. I apologised to the dog's owner and walked on. 

I could feel spots of rain. It was over-cast, but the sun was making a very weak attempt to come through. It's a good deal colder than the past couple of days. If it was attempting to rain, it wasn't making much of an effort.

I'm concerned about the amount of pain Carol is experiencing. The pain management team are working on getting this under control with various strengths and concoctions of drugs at their disposal, but all this is pointless if, when Carol asks for pain relief, the nursing staff don't act quickly to administer it, or if they do, it isn't always the correct dosage. This really needs to be sorted out. I just hope that today she's feeling a little more comfortable. She now has a special air mattress which is to help relieve this discomfort. It is plugged into the mains supply and sometimes automatically adjusts itself by filling up with air. Quite intriguing how it works.

Later. The weather has held off for most of the day. Any rain didn't eventually fall and the sun has been shining, although rather weekly.

We were hoping that Carol's consultant, Dr Saka, was going to visit her on the ward. He came last Friday, but only after I'd gone home. He wanted me to be with Carol when he told us what the next stage of her treatment was going to be. Apparently he came around 4.30, but to be honest I couldn't wait much longer as I was gradually falling asleep. Carol had quite a few visits, including her manager at the Academy, Kevin, who hasn't visited before. She was quite tearful. She so misses her job. He was being really lovely, he's a good man and it's obvious that he thinks a lot of her. He should do, she's a brilliant and highly respected teacher. They talked about how things were doing at the Academy. A lot of changes, staff leaving and new science laboratories now built and opened. Then Sarah, who is one of the hospital chaplains, turned up. We've had several visits from her, and then Dr Ben came in (I'm not sure of his surname) who is part of the palliative care team and he deals with pain management. He was being shadowed by a lady who I presume is going to work in his team, finding her way around the hospital, which must be quite a challenge as it's all corridors, many of them long and it's like being in a sort of maze if you don't know where you're going.

By 4.30 it was quite obvious that Dr Saka wasn't going to appear, so I collected my bits and pieces together, such as they were and bade Carol farewell and left for home. Let's hope we get something from the Oncology Department or Macmillan early next week or that Dr Saka does list Carol on Ward 19.

Something which sparked my sense of humour (if you can call it humorous, which some might not, but anyway, my sense of irony.). Walking about the hospital, as I do because of visiting Carol in Ward 19, I see lots of those yellow, plastic signs, usually triangular in shape, which are put down when the floor is being cleaned and is likely to become wet, or when there is a leak. They usually have wording printed on them, such as 'Beware, wet floor,' or 'Trip hazard,' or 'caution: Wet floor,' or words to that effect. Well, they are a good idea, to protect you from slipping over and damaging yourself. But then, why do they put these yellow signs up directly in the way, where you can trip over them, say, in the middle of a door-way, usually leading to a toilet, so you come through the said door and -trip over it, making the thing even more dangerous than the hazard they are supposed to be warning you about?

Waiting For A Call

I rang Ashfield Medical Centre several times after 8a.m this morning. The first couple of times I just got an engaged tone. It was obvious that their phone system is taken off the hook (you might say) until around 8.15, by which time I did at last get through and was in a queue of 5 other callers and the eventually got to speak to a receptionist. I explained why I needed a doctor to ring me back (not really needing a face-to-face appointment at the surgery) to get a doctor to change my medication from Ramapril to anything similar (probably Candesartan), because the Ramapril is causing an unpleasant cough that will not go away. 

So, here I am, well over two hours later, still waiting for the call from Ashfield. I just hope it isn't going to be much longer, although I was told it could be anytime, morning or afternoon.

11.20a.m. I had a call from Doctor Haye from Ashfield. I explained what I needed, to possibly change the medication from Ramapril to something that doesn't cause a cough and he said he wanted to see me and I now have an appointment booked for 2.30p.m. I can understand why, as it would be a dereliction of duty if something happened to me, considering I've recently had a heart attack. So, hopefully this matter can be sorted out and a prescription produced so the cough can be reduced and hopefully eliminated so I can get a good night's sleep.

Later.  I had gone upstairs to have a rest, but fell asleep and woke in something of a start. I looked at my watch to see it was 1.50. I needed to be at Ashfield Medical Centre for 2.30 and decided to leave at around 2.10 as I always think there is always a vague chance I'll be seen before the allotted time if I manage to get there sooner. Having parked in the rear carpark, which is far easier to get in and out of than the carpark at the front of the surgery, although coming out it fraught with the possibility of hitting another vehicle because the entry is very narrow and you can't see what's coming in. They ought to have a mirror so you can see round the corner.

Well, I walked to the surgery and signed in using the computer and I found I was seeing one of the practice nurses and not a doctor. Well, at least they can write prescriptions so there was no problem. It was the nurse who did my blood test a few weeks ago.

Then a lady came to talk to me.  It took me a while for me to recognise her, I couldn't for the life of me remember her name, but Carol used to tutor her daughter. The lady worked at the Academy. She had been a cleaner and worked her way up to be supervisor. I'm not sure if she didn't still work there, but Carol used to go to her house in Oldbrook, just a short walk from M.K.C.C., usually on a Saturday morning, to tutor her daughter with English so she could get into college, or something. Carol had to stop because of her contract with the Academy for some reason or other. Anyway, the lady was with the daughter, who knew about Carol being in hospital. No doubt this was learned as these things do, via the 'grapevine.' Anyway, I didn't have time to talk, because my name came up on the digital display, so I had to leave them and go in to see the nurse. But she said she would telephone so she could visit Carol.

I left them in the waiting room and walked along the corridor to the nurse's room. I discussed why I'd come for the appointment, about how I'd had the heart attack barely three weeks previously and how I'd been discharged from the John Radcliffe with new medications, one of which was Ramapril, which appeared to be going me the awful cough. She took my blood pressure, which appeared fairly normal, considering. She viewed my notes on the computer, copies of letters from the hospital to Ashfield and then a list of the medications prescribed. I have to come back to the surgery to have my blood pressure checked in two week's time.

Candesartan was one of my medications before I had the recent heart attack. It does the same job as Ramapril. It seems odd that I was taken off it when it had no side effects, whilst Ramapril gives me such an unpleasant cough, or so it seems. I have no other symptoms which you'd have if you had, say, a cold, such as a temperature, feeling feverish, although I have a runny nose, but certainly not as a result of a cold. The nurse went to speak to a doctor and came back and said that I should be put back of Candesartan and to stop the Ramapril. So she printed out a prescription which I took to Cox and Robinson, the pharmacy which is a short walk from the surgery. I had to wait about 10 minutes for it to be made up.

I drove home, and parked the car on the drive and then walked to the hospital, because, by now, it was gone 3 o'clock and I knew for certain that I wouldn't be able to park. It is only a ten-minute walk and I'm surprised how close the unit in the hospital is, just a walk along the Redway which runs through the grounds.

More Unnecessary Aggravation

(Wednesday) I've mentioned on an earlier blog post, that I went to our doctor's surgery a week or two ago to find out whether they had received notification from the John Radcliffe Hospital regarding my new medication so that when I made a new repeat prescription it would be up-and-running and there would be no problems. The discharge information was given to me when I left the hospital and a copy would have been forwarded to my doctor's surgery. I was informed when I went to speak to the receptionist she looked on the computer system and assured me that the new medication was record. Little did I realise that actually this wasn't the case. Or if it was, then part of the information was missing, or at least it would appear so.

I went to Sainsbury's early this morning and went to the Lloyd's pharmacy within the store, which is our nominated pharmacy for all our repeat prescriptions. We've been using them for several years now. But when I went to give them the new order I was informed by their pharmacist that they couldn't do the order without first having it on THEIR system. I would need to ring Ashfield Medical Centre and speak to them to have the new medications recorded before the pharmacy could make up the order. As you can imagine, what with having had a heart attack three weeks previously and also having Carol in hospital, this is only adding to stress and frustration which is certainly not what I want at the moment.

Having completed my shopping in Sainsbury's, I returned home and immediately telephoned the surgery. I was expecting it to take some while to get through, there also was an option on the menu which you have to select when you ring, to phone a special prescription help-line, but this 'after 11 a.m.,' which didn't exactly please me as I wanted to go and visit Carol and if left too late it would be difficult to find a parking space for the car. I just rang the normal telephone number intended for making appointments, but told the receptionist my repeat prescription was urgent. I ran through what I wanted to order until I reached Ticagrelor, which I had been prescribed especially because it's supposed to protect the stent I had put in at the John Radcliffe. The receptionist had never heard of it, which was a surprise. It now seems a doctor will have to approve this additional medication before they can make out a prescription, which will then be sent electronically to Lloyd's before the repeat prescription can be made up. There seems to be some sort of bureaucratic glitch in all this somehow.

I'm having problems with a cough, which I have mentioned in earlier blog posts. Apparently it is a side-effect of taking Ramapril. I spoke to the pharmacist about this matter, because I spent most of last night awake with this horrible cough. Nothing seems to alleviate it, no amount of cough linctus or cough sweets. I just concerns me that it might spark off something like another heart attack. The pharmacist looked at all my medication already held on their system and she saw I was on Candesartan. Which apparently does the same job as Ramapril, but without the side-effects. So it does seem odd that the doctors at John Radcliffe should charge this medication regardless of the fact that I had no problem with the Candesartan but now have to endure a horrible cough with Ramapril.  I decided to go into the Cardiology department at Milton Keynes Hospital when I went to visit Carol this morning, with the intention of mentioning this to the cardiology nurse I spoke to last week. I was fortunate to be seen by her briefly when I went in. She said that  the cough would most likely be as a result of the Ramapril but she couldn't change it for me, I would need to speak to my GP. It would appear that Ramapril is a standard medication given to patients after they've had a heart attack. So, I need to telephone Ashfield, how ever long that is going to take, and ask my doctor to see if he can change the Ramapril for Candesartan or a similar drug.

Having said in the previous post that it was getting colder, it's actually been quite warm for the past couple of days. The weather is getting so confused. I came out of the hospital yesterday and there was bright sunshine, similar to what we have today (Wednesday.)

It's Getting Colder

(Sunday) It rained early this morning. so there was no question of me taking Alfie for his walk across Eaglestone Park, even though he kept staring at me when I was eating my breakfast as I watched BBC Breakfast at around 7.30. For a start, Alfie doesn't like getting wet, so there was no point in us both getting deluged. If you open the patio door to let him out into the garden, if it's raining, he won't go out unless he absolutely has to, he will poke his head out and decide that he won't bother, thank you very much.

I was determined to go to Shenley Christian Fellowship this morning. I needed to return, three weeks after my heart attack. Obviously I didn't want a repetition of that Sunday morning.

It's been raining most of the morning, but by the time I got to the hospital the sun was shining.

On arriving back home after visiting Carol, I found the house somewhat cold so I put my fleece on, the first time this autumn.

(Monday) As I've said in the last bit, it is considerably colder. Alfie was quite insistent that he was going to get his routine morning's walk across Eaglestone Park. I took it slowly, but I was fine, considering things. I put my red Regatta fleece on and we went out, with a weak sun shining, but there was a definite nip in the air as we walked down the path and into the open space where I usually let Alfie off. No chance that anyone will be allowed to sleep, with Alfie yapping and barking madly. We cut across the park, not going the full circuit. I rested briefly on one of the pieces of outdoor gym machinery, and texted Carol on my mobile, just to give a brief word or two about Alfie's walk with me. Not so much a walk for Alfie, as he runs madly about, but always comes back when I call him. He still must wonder where Carol is at the moment. He must have wondered where on earth I was when I was whisked off to the John Radcliffe in Oxford three weeks ago.

I got back to the house and suddenly found that it was really cold. I think it will be necessary to put on the central heating for the first time this autumn when I get back from the hospital late when I've seen Carol.

Later on Monday. It's quite sunny and pleasant now. The weather at this time of the year can be really strange. It may be cold one moment and then warm and sunny the next, although even with the sun out it can be deceptive, seeming warm but underlying it can be quite chilly.

Not The Best News

Alfie was quite insistent that he was going to be taken out for an early-morning walk. I got up as usual and he was sitting on the sofa watching me like a hawk, following me around the house, staring  at me and it was quite clear what his game was. He wouldn't let me off the hook, so I had no real choice but to put on my jacket and shoes and then connect his lead to his harness and then go out the front door. I haven't been on a long walk since my heart attack, so I walked relatively slowly as I did have a vague feeling of an angina attack, but nothing more. I even took my mobile with me, just in case. Eaglestone Park is beginning to show real signs of autumn. I also had my G.T.N. spray in my jacket pocket.

I had to do some shopping early, so I went to Sainsbury's, going at around 8.40 and avoiding traffic as well as dawdling shoppers which you tend to get on a Saturday morning. A few items as I'm having to make myself a meal of some sort with Carol in hospital at the moment. A few odds-and-ends to stock up on, those things that having a bit of running out when you least expect it.

Once I'd returned home I put the food items away, some in the fridge, as I didn't fancy the idea of them sitting in the back of the car when I parked at the hospital. It was around 10 o'clock when I eventually drove into the hospital campus and drove around to the ground-level carpark near Cardiology. I think we're becoming extremely familiar with the layout of the hospital of the last year or so and I've discovered where exactly Ward 2 is in relation to, say, the Macmillan unit as well as Oncology and Cardiology (which is handily just opposite Oncology.) You can see the windows of the ward as you walk through the courtyard on your way through and Ward 22, where Carol was a couple of weeks ago, can be seen through the window of Ward 2.

Carol had a visit from Doctor Saka, the cancer consultant with whom she was supposed to have had an appointment yesterday morning (Friday.) Unfortunately I wasn't with her when he came to the ward. We've now learned that the tumour has increased in size unfortunately, as shown on the recent scans. The plan is for her to have 6 months of more chemotherapy, but a more intense treatment which will leave her with no hair as well as possibly making her feel quite sick. Not something we are looking forward to. We were expecting her to have radiotherapy at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, but none of this can be started until the pain she is experiencing is under control. But we know we can get through this, however difficult it turns out to be. Me having my recent heart attack hasn't exactly helped matters. I am feeling fine, apart from the occasionally twinge. I have become very aware of my heart-rate when I'm lying down and I can feel quite nauseous at times, which is as a result of the medication, also, feeling a little bit light-headed, but all in all I'm not feeling too bad, perhaps getting tired easily, but if I rest it makes things easier. Just something I have to live with, and, anyway, I went through similar things after my first heart attack in 2006.

Ward 2 is a short-stay ward. During the afternoon Carol was asked if she would like to move to a side-room? Her answer was that she would love to get away from the noise of the ward. There are a couple of elderly ladies who make a lot of noise in the night, and one was moved to a side-room because of this. So we bundled up all her belongings and a porter trended her off up the corridor. It's  Ward 20, which is opposite the first ward she was on last year, Ward 20, and just above the Macmillan unit and extremely handy for me coming in to park near the Cardiology department so that should make things easier. 

Jody Whittaker as 'The Doctor' and Watching 'Quatermass'

I've just seen a trailer for Jody Whittaker as the new Doctor, and for what I've seen, it looks good. I won't even go there regarding the fact that a female has taken over this iconic role. Jody Whittaker will be absolutely fine, although she has a difficult job, following on from all the other versions of the character. Just make the role her's and she'll be great. But, please, can we now stop making an issue out of it now being a female character and just enjoy the journey, which is bound to be fun. I had my doubts as regards what it looks like, even in a short trailer of barely a minute or two, it has a sort of cinematic gloss, a look the show hasn't had in years. Definitely a Doctor for the 21st Century. If I have a quibble with how the BBC handles 'Doctor Who,' and that's can they stop giving away plot details, what the monsters are going to be like? It's a bit like reading a novel and suddenly jumping a few chapters forward to find out what's going to happen. In the old days of 'Doctor Who,' half the fun of the show was when the Doctor and his companions were travelling to their next adventure, whether in the past or the future, and we had absolutely no idea where they were going to end up, when the Tardis's doors opened, we saw the new 'world' for the first time, it was all a mystery, we had to discover who the villains were, or what the monsters we were about to encounter would be like. Today it's all spoilt by giving away far too many details and ruining the anticipation. Please, BBC, don't spoil things. If they do anything, the stories need to be better. It's a pity it all has to be played out within a 45-50 minute time frame. It must be an extremely tall order for the writers to tell a story decently in such a length of screen-time. The old Doctor Who was in a 25-30 minute slot and most adventures ran for about 4-6 episodes, giving a far better running time. But of course, in today's broadcasting landscape, everything has to fit the American format for television. Of course it's 45-minutes so when they sell the show to a commercial network they can put 15 minutes of advertising in to make the show run for an hour. With the shorter episodes the writers can have cliff-hangers at the end of each episode which keeps you guessing as to what happens in the next episode.

I couldn't believe that Bradley Walsh was to be cast in 'Doctor Who.' When I first heard about this, I didn't believe it, because I don't believe everything I see on the internet. After all, Bradley is best known as a comic as well as presenter of 'The Chase' on ITV. He's well known as a corpser, a giggler when some unusual or unsavoury answer comes up for the contestants to guess. He has done 'straight' acting, especially in 'Coronation Street' but not in anything such as 'Doctor Who,' so it will be interesting to see what he's like in this show.

The BBC has seen fit to put some of their classic material on iPlayer, in the archive section. I think this is an attempt to counter what Netflix and Amazon are doing with all episodes of a series downloadable so that viewers can 'binge' watch, shows such as 'The Crown,' and 'House of Cards,' (all, at least the new version, although I see the BBC version of 'House of Cards' is available in the archive section. Other stuff includes the brilliantly funny 'Nuts In May,' a really classic Mike Leigh play with stars Alison Steadman, which I clearly remember seeing when originally broadcast in the 1970's.) I'm currently watching 'Quatermass and The Pit,' which comes from the late 1950's. I think I've seen the Hammer version of one of the Quatermass stories but have never seen this television version of a later story. I'm surprised it survives in this 6-episode form and it's quite clear that it must have had an influence on the early 'Doctor Who' series and shaped it's development. Some of the acting and the sets are a bit creaky but nevertheless the story does grip and it's quite scary. Considering the technology of the period it was made and the fact they couldn't edit tape like they can now, it stands up remarkably well. It beats a lot of modern stuff. None of those annoying whip-pans and strange camera angles which add nothing. I believe it was broadcast 'live,' which must have been quite stressful for the actors and technicians. Some sections were on film and would have no doubt have been put in so that actors to move to other sets and cameras moved around the studio. I'm certain that the BBC attempted to restage one of the 'Quatermass' stories 'live' on BBC Four early in the 2000's, at about the time I switched over to digital when I got a Freeview box and I seem to remember watching it and it had David Tennant in it, before he took on the central character in the revived version of 'Doctor Who.'

Another Visit To A&E

(Wednesday) Carol has been in a great deal of pain for the past couple of days. It's really difficult for me to see her in so much agony and not be able to help get at least some respite from it. She has taken a lot of pain relief medication, but it doesn't seem to work. Some can work for a couple of hours, but then the discomfort comes back. If we wanted to get a doctor's appointment for her it would be a real effort to first get through to Ashfield Medical Centre, probably a 30-minute wait to actually get through and then, having explained to the receptionist why she needed an appointment in the first place, she would be offered a doctor's telephone call some time later, possibly 3-4 hours later, who would access what the problem was and possibly ask her to come into the surgery for an appointment, maybe at the end of the afternoon, say 5 or 6 o'clock. By which time the pain would have become so intense it wouldn't make much difference. So the alternative was to go to Accident and Emergency at Milton Keynes Hospital. Which is what we did.

Carol drove and we managed to find a parking space in the ground-level carpark which is, fortunately, directly opposite the entrance to A and E, and a relatively short walk. Once in I reported to the receptionist while Carol sit down because she was in so much pain. We then sat down in the waiting area and watched some daytime television, something about people who re-let their council homes, illegally. I think Dom Littlewood was presenter. It's called 'Council House Crackdown,' which was followed by 'Homes Under The Hammer.' By which time Carol was called into the triage nurse's room and she described what her problem was. Then we just had to sit back in the waiting room area. There was a sign up near the reception desk which said that waiting-time was between 3 and 4 hours, which didn't exactly make things any better. Also, the chairs in these places aren't the most comfortable. Is this deliberate, I wonder, to deter time-wasters? Probably not. By the time the next programme came on after 'Homes After The Hammer,' (which gives you some idea how long we had to wait.) we were called into another room by a doctor, who took a great many detailed notes and managed to access Carol's notes on the hospital computer system, one of the great advantages of this technology. From there we went into the depths of the A and E department where Carol had cubicle 9 to herself, and was able to lay on the trolley in there. Things began to move a good deal faster and a nurse came and put a canala in her wrist and because they had by now pinpointed the possible centre of the pain as being a urinary infection two nurses came and put in a catheter which can't have been particularly pleasant. Another doctor's interview and then Carol was eventually moved into a new area of the A and E department, called the Observation Unit, which had five beds in it and when we arrived Carol was the only patient but it gradually filled up with other patients. The idea of this unit being that the staff would observe a patient before deciding what action to take regarding their care plan.

The lady doctor who has been helping Carol manage her pain came to see her in the Observation Unit. She seems very keen to help Carol find something which will control the pain she is experiencing and spent a lot of time discussing the matter.  It was decided that Carol would move to another ward sometime that evening, probably Ward 8, but as there presumably wasn't a bed available there would be no chance of her being transferred that evening. I was about to leave for home and would have to telephone in the morning to discover where she was going to finally end up.

(Thursday) I had to ring the hospital to try and discover which ward Carol had eventually gone to
over-night. I rang the reception and attempted to get through to the Observation Unit, but they weren't answering. I gave it 20 minutes and rang again and this time I got an answer. The nurse I spoke to took some while to discover where Carol had been taken, Ward 2. So I drove into the hospital campus and parked in the multi-storey carpark and walked into the main entrance and managed to find the ward without too much trouble.

What's so awful about daytime television?

Generally, daytime television seems to get a bad press, that it's cheap, lazy, time-filling programming, watched only by the elderly, house-bound, students, the unemployed and those who have nothing better to do with their time during the day. Which may be true, up to a point. The BBC doesn't do a copy of what ITV does with their programming, and manages to put out a fairly wide range of programmes from when Breakfast ends at 9.15 a.m. to around when the evening news is broadcast at 6p.m. If anything there seems to be an over-abundance of shows related to antiques and selling houses and make-overs. 'Homes Under The Hammer' is at least worth watching if only to see how prospective developers manage to make a good (or bad) job of restoring and decorating houses that at first glance are little more than disaster areas. It does at least encourage people to do up properties which were wrecks and so add to the housing stock instead of green space being built on. It's always interesting to see the results of developer's hard work and effort and it's not all about making vast profits from selling the properties in question. On the other hand, another house-selling show comes on mid-afternoon on BBC1, 'Escape To The Country,' where couples with more money than sense, having decided they want to give up city living and sell their homes and move away to some idyllic spot in the countryside. The presenters show them three properties which fit certain criteria, such as it has to has space for granny or grandpa, room for a herd of alpacas to graze, or perhaps have stabling for several horses or ponies as well have an ample-sized kitchen and perhaps views over rolling hills, meadows or the sea. I often wonder if they're just keen to show off their homes to their friends and family, and buy somewhere they can retire to which has far too much space and umpteen bedrooms which their guests can use when they visit perhaps once a year. Do they never think, when they're viewing these fantastic country properties, how far the nearest supermarket is, or the doctor's surgery or indeed, the nearest urban settlement, how much farm traffic they're likely to encounter on their way to work (wherever that may be) when they're very likely to be stuck behind a slow-moving combine harvester, tractor and trailer or herds of sheep being moved from one field to another, or even what it's like mid-winter then there's six foot of snow and the roads around their beloved property are closed off due to drifting show or there's ungritted road surfaces to deal with.

The BBC has a couple of shows which use recycling as the basis for their format, such as 'Money For Nothing' where the presenter, who is usually a designer/maker, visits a tidy-tip or recycling centre in a town and search out pieces of furniture and other material which people are bringing in to be scrapped and manages to remove these items before they are skipped. Then it is taken away to be restored and redesigned into new and improved pieces of furniture or whatever. What makes it remarkable is that these items, once they're tarted up, are sold on at profit and the money made is given to the people who dumped the items at the tidy-tip in the first place. A good example to us all that what we throw away and might find useless can become amazing once restored and given a new life, so saving them from land-fill.

There are some daytime television programmes which are useful, not merely in the schedules to fill up space. One such might be 'Fake Britain' which is sometimes shown in peak viewing time. It deals with consumer matters, mostly about items which are fake (hence the title, obviously) and some are items which you wouldn't otherwise think of as being faked, such as passports, electrical equipment such as hair straighteners, mobile chargers as well as websites which offer tickets for concerts and shows at knockdown prices but which turn out to be worthless. Also, all manner of scams which would go unnoticed until shows such as these alert the public to them.

Antiques seem to be something of an obsession on daytime television. 'Bargain Hunt' has been around for what seems like ages, first presented by David Dickinson and then Tim Wannacott, and more recently, since he left, it has been presented by a wide range of antiques experts which keeps it fresh and lively. Two teams of couples are given £300 to spend in an hour on antiques at various venues across the country and then attempt to make a profit at auction. Each team has an expert who helps them select their items and then, once they've bought their three items the expert spends what's remaining of the £300 on a bonus items which the teams can either accept or reject at auction. You can actually learn quite a lot from these sorts of shows as the experts discuss the various antique items the teams select. I had never heard of many of makers such as Lalique, Moorcroft or Clarice Cliff before I began watching this show. Later in the day there's 'Flog It' and later still, 'Antiques Road Trip' which is a programme where to antiques experts cross the country and stop at various towns with antique shops in them to buy items which are then sold at auction. The profit made is then given to charity.

There are now far too many gameshows on both channels. ITV has three which run one after the other, 'Tenable,' 'Tipping Point,' and 'The Chase.' It just seems cheap and simple for them to churn out this stuff, nothing wrong with either, although some of the questions on 'Tipping Point' and embarrassingly easy and an insult to anyone's intelligence, for example, 'what colour is the sky?' or' which month does Christmas fall?' Why do so many of the gameshows have such garish sets? The set for 'Tenable,' for example, is a really bright green. All have similar digital graphics and almost all have equally annoying sound effects, particularly when contestants win or something else happens during the course of game-play. Repetitive sounds which really get on your nerves, to say the least. 

Cardiology Nurse Appointment

(Monday) Carol came with me to my first appointment with one of the cardiology nurses at Milton Keynes Hospital this morning. We've walked through the cardiology department quite a few times because it's immediately opposite the entrance into the oncology department which is where Carol came to have her 12 sessions of chemotherapy, so we know it fairly well, usually acknowledging the lady on reception as we walk through.  So it was rather off for me to be there for my own appointment this morning. At least we could park the car easily because we were so early and we went into the Macmillan unit which is further along the corridor to get the parking ticket clipped so we didn't have to pay to park.

We sat down in the waiting area, having reported to the reception desk. There was one other person waiting. Which I assumed would mean I would be next to be called in. But a couple came in, a woman in an electric wheelchair, and her husband (I presume that they were husband and wife.) was called in almost immediately. The letter I'd received giving me the appointment (although I had been telephoned to giving me the appointment. They sent the letter as a reminder.) told me I should arrive a good 10 minutes in advance of the appointment so they could do the, by now, routine observations, such as blood pressure, temperature etc.

Then I was called in by the nurse, Lucy is her name. I had bought all my medications with me in a carrier bag, along with the discharge information from the John Radcliffe. I discussed what had happened leading up to my recent heart attack two week's previously.  It didn't seem to follow any particular pattern, for example, I had difficulty distinguishing between angina, indigestion and any other sensation which lead to it happening. We went through all my medications and discussed any problems I had with the, including the fact that the Ramipril was giving me an annoying cough. She also checked my blood pressure, which appeared very good, considering. She then went through the rehab course, which I can join, but at the moment I can't start because it would appear they don't have any space so it's not likely to start until the end of October. I can't give a clear date to begin this because we don't yet know what Carol's treatment plan is likely to be and probably won't know anything until we've had the consultant's appointment on Friday. So, it's rather open as to when I can begin, but I will go to the hospital gym for this. I wasn't even aware that there was a gym in Milton Keynes Hospital. But when I go I will be checked out to see whether it's safe for me to do this by having a cardiogram done. Then we went on about food and diet in general and then the appointment was over, but it's nice to know I have someone to go to if I need advice since having my heart attack. I will receive a letter soon confirming the day and time I have my first cardiology rehab session.

I saw a piece on BBC Breakfast on Monday morning, before we went off to the hospital for my appointment, about the Highways England campaign called 'Don't Be A Space Invader,' which is to attempt to stop tailgating, something which I have experienced and mention in my blog posts, where a driver will come up far too close behind me when I'm driving. It can be extremely intimidating and in some cases, really frightening. There are, apparently, around 100 people killed or seriously injured in crashes caused by drivers who drive far too close to other vehicles, Highways England says. Around 9 out of 10 people say they feel 'victimised' by this. Police would fine motorists £100 for driving too close to the car in front, in response to concerns over an increase in antisocial driving on motorways and A-Roads. As a result of this, I'm glad that something is being done about this. Apparently you are supposed to give a 2-second space to the car in front when driving on any road. There are markings on the M1 coming south when we come down the motorway, chevrons, that is, markings on the road, which are supposed to give you an approximate distance to keep from the car in front.

Such Is Life!

To be honest, there's not an awful lot to put in a blog post at the moment. Carol let me take Alfie out for his walk across Eaglestone Park on my own yesterday morning. I don't think she wants to let me go anywhere much on my own since what happened two Sundays ago. I suppose I can't blame her. She's not feeling too well herself. She's experiencing a lot of pain which is as a result of taking the antibiotics, or, at least that's what we've discovered by reading the leaflet which comes with these tablets. I don't understand how antibiotics can have that effect, but it's a good idea to always read those leaflets which come with packets of medication just to see what some of the side-effects might be.

I haven't driven the car since the 'Incident' two Sunday's ago. Not that I don't want to, because I do. Carol has been driving. I haven't been back to S.C.F. yet. I hope to go again next Sunday. I don't think Carol likes the idea of me going off on my own since what happened. We'll just have to wait and see. I have been feeling incredibly tired since the heart attack. Which just goes with the territory, unfortunately, but I don't feel as tired as I did after the first heart attack in 2006. The bruising is beginning to receded as the days go by, but none of the bruises are as swollen as they were when I left hospital. Some of the medication can make you feel quite unsteady as well as effecting my appetite and making food taste peculiar, particularly making things tasteless.

I mentioned wanting to by a long-sleeved top in Marks and Spencer's in my last blog post. We went to their central Milton Keynes branch on Friday and couldn't see any of the rugby tops, two of which I have already. It seemed odd that, if you go on their website, you have a good selection, but then these garments aren't available in their stores. The Carol suggested going to their store at the football stadium and it was the same there. Yesterday we drove to Kingtson hopping centre and went into the M&S store there and there as a much better selection and I chose and bought a plain blue shirt in a similar style to the Rugby shirts with long sleeves. When we came out of the carpark there was a long queue coming out onto the grid roads, but I have no idea why it was so busy, perhaps we had just come out at a particularly busy time. It would seem most people, on a Saturday morning, don't go out shopping until a good deal later, say 10.00-11.00 a.m., by which time we've normally been shopping in wherever we go, for example, Sainsbury's, when it is relatively free of other shoppers and you can get in and out easily.

Alfie's taken to running upstairs and hiding under our bed. I can't think why. Perhaps he thinks he's done something wrong. If we're about to go out and I say 'Alfie, Kitchen!', he has a habit of running upstairs, but sometimes, he will obey and comply and go into the kitchen and then get in the bed he has in the corner by the patio door. I think it must be very snug and comfortable for him, so I can't see why he would go and hide under our bed on the cold floor. Although there are a couple of storage baskets under there where I have sometimes found him hiding. Funny little dog.

We've been back over to the Kingston Centre because Carol needed some pain relief medication so we went to Boot's, which opened at 10a.m. Being a Sunday, shops open later than during the week. We were confronted by the sight of hoards of starlings in the trees around the carpark and some wandering around on the ground. I reckon they were preparing to migrate which they do at around this time of year. They were making a lot of noise, sounding to me a bit like an audience in a theatre before the show starts. One we saw busily eating the dead flies caught in the front of the radiator of a car parked immediately in front of us.

Strange how I started this blog post not knowing what I was going to write, and end up with writing quite a lot, regardless how much garbage I actually end up writing. Such is life!

Sunny But Chilly

Thursday.It has been sunny but somewhat chilly this morning. We took Alfie out for his morning trot around Eaglestone Park and came across children being walked to school by their mums and dads, on their way to the primary school. Alfie was overwhelmed by all the people passing by and kept running up to them, running around in circles and enjoying the attention he was getting. I think he forgot that he was with us as we walked along the part of the Redway which crosses the park. Also, the children and parents seemed amused by his antics. He just wants to be friends with everyone he meets. I wore a long-sleeved shirt for the first time this morning. It was a necessity as it was, as I said earlier, fairly chilly, but as the morning progressed and the sun remained out, it got quite warm.

Carol had an appointment with the stoma nurse at Milton Keynes hospital at 10.00 a.m. in the Out-Patients' department. We got there far too early, as we almost always seem to do and parked easily in the multi-storey carpark. Just fortunate that someone was coming out of a space as we drove in, which made it easier. Any later and we wouldn't have been so lucky.

Friday morning. My Casio G-Shock digital watch has been showing signs of running out of power. The light which comes on when you press one of the buttons, for example, in the middle of the night when it's dark, doesn't work and the display had faded completely, so I thought it must be the battery needed replacing. The only place I know which will do a new battery as well as put it in is a small shop within the Central Shopping Centre, as they've done this before. I don't have the right screwdriver to open the back of the watch to install a new battery. I'm not going to H.Samuel or whatever the jewellers name is,  which I've used before because a few years ago I purchased a digital watch from them, I think another Casio, very nice, with a good, sturdy strap (which is the part that seems to wear out quickest.) and I bought the watch with an extended warranty. The watch malfunctioned, it just stopped working, for whatever reason (I don't think it was the battery.) so I returned it with the idea that it would be covered by this 'extended warranty.' Samuels refused to repair or replace the watch, making some sort of excuse as to why this was the case, so I was not pleased, as you might imagine. Surely that would be the whole point of paying extra for an 'extended warranty.' So, I refuse to buy anything from them. Paying a bit more for your watch, as a sort of guarantee that if it goes wrong it will be either replaced or repaired, free of charge, was sort of putting my mind at rest that the watch would be reliable and therefore repairable. But no.

So we decided to drive into the Milton Keynes centre and park where we always do, near Debenhams, in the multi-storey carpark which is currently being renovated. We walked along the mall to Boots as Carol needed some painrelief tablets and then we went to The Watch and Clock Shop to get them to replace the battery for me. It was going to take at least 30 minutes, they gave me a numbered ticket to identify my watch when I returned to collect it and we then went to Patisserie Valerie for lattes and really nice almond and chocolate croissants. They recently moved from their old unit further down the shopping centre to their new location. I was really surprised that they had a waiter service, which I don't think many other similar restaurants offer in this day and age.

I needed the loo. As one does. So I left Carol in the restaurant and went out into the main shopping centre and into the newly-opened toilet block. Very smart. They recently moved the main toilet block from one side of the shopping centre to the opposite side. I needed to wash my hands and they've craftily hidden the soap and water under the mirrors over the row of sinks. You just put your hand under where they're marked on the bottom of the mirror and water comes out as well as soap. I reckon some people would find this difficult to find or get to operate. Then I wanted to dry my hands. I hunted around for the hand-drying machine, but in vain I couldn't find one. Then I returned to the sinks and they'd hidden them under the mirror-edge, next to the soap and water. It was marked but not clear enough and not somewhere you'd think to find a hand-drier. Also, operated when you put your hand underneath the sensor.

I returned to Carol in Patisserie Valerie, we paid the bill and as we walked out we saw that there were toilets with the store, so I needn't have left to go to the toilets in the shopping centre.

We walked towards John Lewis and ended up in Middleton Hall, where there was a jobs fair on and had a browse around the stalls and then walked back along the centre and went into Marks and Spencer. I was looking for a long-sleeved Rugby shirt, of which I have a couple already, the idea being they are ideal for when it's cold in the winter. Particularly ideal wear for when we're out and about and probably when we go to Whipsnade Zoo, because it can get really cold up on Dunstable Downs. We searched high and low in the men's department, but couldn't find one long-sleeved shirt I liked. You would think that they would have them in stock by now as the days get colder, but it seemed they only had summer stock in. When I got home I went on the MacBook and found on the Marks and Spencer website that they had plenty, which begs the question, why not in their bricks-and-mortar stores? We left Marks and Spencer's and made our way towards Midsummer Place and Debenhams and went up the escalator to the multi-storey carpark to our car and drove home.

Checking On Ashfield, (and other matters)

(Monday)Because I have had some changes to my medication, since I had my recent heart attack and was cared for in the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, I needed to check that our doctor's surgery at Ashfield Medical Centre had received the letter from the hospital which has a list of the amendments. I just don't trust them to have this organised so that, when I need to put in a repeat prescription I get the new drugs on the list. We drove to Beanhill and went into the surgery and I asked as the reception desk whether the amendments had been made to my medication and the receptionist looked on the computer system and it had been up-dated, which means our GP had received the information plus a letter from the John Radcliffe which I'd received recently regarding my heart attack last week.

(Wednesday) I'm still managing to find the remains of the adhesive that they use to stick those contacts on your body when you have to have an E.C.G. when your in hospital, on my body, usually where you can't get at it easily. It's a sort of sticky residue which will wear off given time, but it's quite difficult to get off except when you use soap and water. I found I still had several of these contacts on me when I got home from hospital.

I'm still suffering somewhat from a dry cough, caused, I'm almost certain, as a side effect of some of my medication. I do occasionally get a twinge in my chest, no doubt caused by the stent, but it soon settles down. Certainly not as bad as any angina attack. I still have bruises on both my knees which were caused when I collapsed in church. A bit black and blue, the right knee is more swollen than the left and a good deal more painful. It has been difficult to bend but I can walk a good deal easier than when I first left hospital. I seems odd, but when I was supposed to have had a heart attack, in all honesty I can't remember any real pain as it was going on, no shooting pains up my arms as you're supposed to experience.  When I had my first heart attack in 2006 there was definite excruciating pain then and afterwards, when I left hospital after a week I could barely walk. This time I was able to walk without any problems. After the stent was fitted I was very drugged, no doubt as a result of local
anaesthetic, and felt really horribly woosy for some time and couldn't walk unaided, but it soon wore off, thank goodness. At one point it seemed as if the whole room was spinning round and round. Quite unpleasant. I had to sit down and rest before it went off.  I also have a bruise on the left of my forehead which is somewhat painful to the touch but not too bad at the moment. When I was in hospital they did check these injuries out but they decided that there was nothing serious in them.

On the weather-front, it's a somewhat overcast sort of day (as I write this at 8.00 a.m. on Wednesday 12th September.) I'm not sure whether we'll get sunshine today as it's sort of cloudy and I think it rained slightly overnight as the ground outside is damp.

I've had a telephone call this morning from the Cardiology department at Milton Keynes Hospital checking me out to see how I am after my heart attack. It would appear that the John Radcliffe in Oxford have been in contact. I had a short interview to discover how I am at the moment and I bought up the matter of the dry cough and the lady I was speaking to said it would be a side-effect of the Ramipril, one of the additional medications I am currently on since being in hospital. So, at least I know where this cough is coming from, considering I'm not feeling inwell due to a cold or 'flu. She said that I could ask my doctor to change this medication, but I mustn't stop taking the Ramipril. She asked me about diet and then gave me an appointment for next Monday at 9.20 a.m. As it's only a 10-15-minute walk to the Cardiology department from our home at least there should be no problem either finding the department or finding it. We have usually entered the hospital through Cardiology when we've been to the oncology unit when Carol was having her chemotherapy sessions. All this showing how rapidly the various N.H.S. departments have got on my case to get me up-and-running with rehab.

What's On Television?

As the days draw in, the children go back to school and everyone (presumably) stays in and watches television, the new Autumn television schedules start in earnest. 'The Great British Bake-Off" started it's latest series on Channel Four on Tuesday. I can't say I'm all that bothered with it. I can't say I'm that interested in cake-baking competitions. I did see some of last year's episodes, but I don't know why this has taken the nation by storm. I know there was a great deal of fuss when the BBC lost the show to Channel Four because, basically, the makers of the show got greedy and wanted more for making it. I still don't see how it can be worth something in the region of £5 million pounds. After all, they don't have to pay actors, writers and all the host of production staff that you would need for, say, a costumer drama, or any other sort of drama. Nor would they have to do endless takes as you have to have when making drama. I actually prefer the similar show where potters have to produce ceramic items. 'The Great British Throwdown' or something. I think it's made by the same production company that makes 'Bake Off,' called Love Productions. They also do something else called 'The Great Sewing Bee,' both shows were on BBC2. Having done a Google search I find that the pottery competition has been cancelled after two series and another says that the company who makes it is 'looking for contestants.' So, which one do I believe? I know you can't believe everything you see on the internet, but it seems a pity that the BBC had to fall out over 'Bake-Off.' Independent production companies are great, but I think some have let things go to their head. Money, that is. The format of 'Bake-Off' isn't exactly original, let's be fair. We all know it's 'formats' for television shows like this that sell. Different television 'territories' around the world, remake their own versions and the originating production companies make a lot of money from this. No doubt there are many versions of 'Bake-Off' being made in other countries. But if it wasn't for the broadcasters, such as the BBC, ITV or Channel Four, they wouldn't be able to survive without their money to make their shows, which they seem to forget. If the BBC hadn't commissioned the show in the first place, and looked after it on BBC2, where it started life, and then, eventually, moving it to the higher-rated BBC1 where it really took off, then they couldn't have managed to hike the price when it caused the trouble when the BBC realised they could no longer justify the higher production costs, hence the move to the commercial Channel Four, who can at least recoup the costs with sponsorship and higher advertising revenue. 

We have a host of new drama series coming up, most notably ITV's Sunday evening costume drama, Vanity Fair. I notice it's also being shown on Mondays, so presumably they're hoping that viewers will be so hooked on to it on a Sunday evening that they will want to switch on the next evening. But surely, with catch-up technology, it makes no difference when you watch. I also see it's in seven parts, which at least means they're giving it enough air-time for the story to be allowed to breathe. I was concerned that it might only get four episodes, which certainly wouldn't be enough, because it's a long and rambling novel which has lots of subplots, similar to a Dickens novel. Having read it, Thackeray, it's author, spends ages going somewhat 'off-topic', wandering off from the plot to discuss certain pertinent matters, a bit like Victor Hugo in 'Les Miserables,' where he also spends whole chapters discussing things that aren't all that central to the matter in hand. (This is also going to be adapted for BBC television, as a non-musical version, by Andrew Davies, who has adapted many of the more successful BBC classic dramas, such as 'Pride and Prejudice.') 'This 'Vanity Fair' is  being co-produced with Amazon money, so no doubt you'll be able to see it if you have an Amazon Prime account and a Fire Stick. This is at least the third version of Vanity fair done by television. I remember that the BBC did a version in the late 1970's which had Susan Hampshire playing Becky Sharp and it was probably the first classic serial they did that was in colour, no doubt on BBC2 which was the first channel to go over to colour in 1967. There was a production in 1987 and then a more recent one in 1998. It therefore seems quite a popular book to adapt for television. The newest one is the first done by ITV who don't seem to do a lot of costume drama, unless you count 'Downton Abbey' which definitely isn't (or wasn't, as it has ended it's television run) a classic drama. No doubt the thinking behind this being adapted is that audiences love classic, costume drama, which the BBC seems to have the lead in producing them, when one thinks of the 1995 version of 'Pride and Prejudice,' which has become the blueprint for adaptations of this type. I even hear that ITV is now developing a new version of this Jane Austen book, although one wonders how they can better the BBC, Andrew Davies scripted version. Perhaps it's because these novels are now in the public domain so they don't have to pay royalties to produce them.

I've now seen the first two episodes of 'Vanity Fair.' Having enjoyed the BBC's adaptation which was broadcast in 1998, which I enjoyed enormously, and read the novel, this new version had plenty to live up to. Part from the opening sequence with Michael Palin as Thackerary, and the vision of a carousel and so on, it wasn't particularly inventive in style or production and no more different from any other classic period drama series.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by what they'd done with 'Vanity Fair.' It must be difficult to do a classic novel such as this which has had so many previous adaptations, all having been produced by ITV. There are people on social media, such as Twitter, complaining about nit-picking things such as, why have C.G.I. in a 19th century serial? Doesn't make sense. Nor does the fact someone doesn't like having characters speaking directly to them, breaking the proverbial 'Fourth Wall.' But this has been done plenty of times before, in such shows as 'Lovejoy' and 'House of Cards.' All very petty and why not just enjoy the story and not find fault with things?

The BBC has 'The War Of The Worlds' in the pipeline, the H.G.Wells classic novel, which has been adapted quite a few times, notably the Orson Wells Mercury Theatre radio version which caused panic across the U.S.A. in the 1930's because of the way it was produced, as a sort of 'live' radio broadcast. Then it was made into a 1950's movie and more recently Stephen Speilberg made his own version, starring Tom Cruise. All these had in common was that the story was set in a contemporary period, but this new television version is to be set in the Virctorian era, like the original novel. Great that they are at least setting this production in the period in which the novel is set. I'm intrigued to see how they do the alien war machines and other sci-fi things such as the heat rays, and in particular, the way they do the opening scenes with the Martian spaceships crashing into earth and making the crater and the unscrewing of the capsule which gets buried on Horsell Common. With C.G.I. effects at their disposal they can make the war machines a good deal more realistic than trying to use miniatures which can look really pathetic. Wells gives the novel quite definite locations in places in and around London which gives it a reality amidst the fiction. That is why it works best being set in England and not in America as the two Hollywood films do.

As for comedy, well, sitcom in particular is rather thin on the ground at the moment. That is, if you mean by sitcom something shot in a studio with an audience, more like a stage play and it's done more or less 'live.' In this vein I can recommend 'Upstart Crow,' which is a sort of spoof on the life of William Shakespeare and starring David Mitchell as The Bard Of Stratford-Upon-Avon. It takes liberties with the perceived knowledge about his life and how his plays were written, but it's very funny and can even mention anachronisms which make the whole thing work. It's now in it's third series, which surprises me, because I was almost certain when it was announced that it would be produced in 2016 as part of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death that it wouldn't survive much more than one series. How wrong could I be when it seems to have become almost to have gained a cult following, similar in style and tone to 'Blackadder." Indeed, it is written by one of that show's co-authors, Ben Elton.

Weekend Dog-Walking and M.R.I. Scan

I haven't taken Alfie out for his early-morning walk since last Saturday. Well, if you're a regular reader of my blog posts you'll know why.  Alfie has been itching to get out and has been following me about the house but couldn't understand why he's been ignored as regards his walk. Frankly, I have't been exactly up for any sort of walk, because of the pain in my legs due to the bruising and Carol wasn't over-keen for me to go out alone with him. Also, it was raining very lightly, although I don't think we would get wet because it was so light. It didn't seem fair on poor little Alfie to have to be denied his walk, so Carol suggested we all go together. She didn't want me to go on my own, considering I'd only had my heart attack less than a week ago, so I'm not really surprised she wanted to go with us. Every time I moved around the house, from getting dressed, going into the bathroom to get shaved to going downstairs, I had a pair of little eyes watching my every move and when I put my jacket on and then my shoes he knew we were about to go out. Which turned  Alfie into a version of the Tasmanian Devil when he goes totally mad, barking, getting hold of the lead with his teeth and generally making a terrible noise, which continues as we go through the door and into the road outside and continue down the path towards Eaglestone Park, where we release him from the lead. For Alfie at least, it's not so much a walk, but more like a mad gallop around the park. 

Carol had another M.R.I. scan this morning. We were supposed to be at the unit at 10.45. We drove into the hospital campus and parked in the multi-storey carpark. Because it was a Saturday there were plenty of spaces. I was noticed how run down a lot of the hospital buildings look, comparing it with the John Radcliffe in Oxford. I think Milton Keynes hospital must have been built on the cheap, as most of the buildings are presumably pre-fabricated. I may of course be wrong. I still can't see why they didn't build a couple of high-rise blocks as there is an incredible amount of wasted space, hence, the amount of walking you have to do to reach various wards and clinics within the campus.

We walked down to the M.R.I. unit, run by In Health. I can't work out how this works. Are they an independent company, working for or in partnership with the N.H.S.? Does the hospital pay them for their services? Not sure I'm over-keen on a private company making money out of the hospital. I'v e learned, from Carol's friend Pauline, who is a colleague of her's who is a science teacher at Milton Keynes Academy, (which is sponsored by a private company, that this company is paid something like £300,000 a year by the Academy, for their services, such as administration etc.) It seems a crazy way to be funded, considering that this organisation has no experience of anything education-related. Why isn't this money used to fund teacher's pay, or, at least paying for extra staff, such as teachers or teaching assistants?

Carol's scan took over an hour, a good deal longer than the last M.R.I. scan she had when she was in hospital. The unit is just over the road from Ward 22 where she was a patient for nearly 5 weeks.

Sunday. I didn't go to church this morning. I woke with a nasty cough, which is a side-effect of one of the tablets I take. I'm not entirely sure which one it is. Seems that nearly everything you take has a nasty side-effect. One even says 'heart attack,' which is somewhat worrying, when you think I've already had two of those. Is that a side-effect? Crazy.

Later we took Alfie for his customary walk. We visited the shop to buy some bread for lunch and some Imodium tablets (because the Atarvastatin seems to be giving me the runs, rather unpleasant. See previous blog post.) I had an idea that any statin tablets I was prescribed would probably have this sort of side-effect, which I can honestly do without. Enough problems without constantly running to the toilet. Also, just plain tired and want to sleep. Which is just part and parcel of having a heart attack I'm afraid.

As I write this, at 3.15 p.m. on Sunday, it's quite bright and sunny, although there is a keen wind blowing.

Changes To Medication

What I haven't mentioned, since describing in fairly accurate detail, my couple of days in the John Radcliffe in Oxford, were the changes  made to my medication. Some were added, whilst some were removed and some had their dosage changed.

I had taken Isoborbide Mononitrate 20mg, Bisoprolol 5mg, Candesarten 4mg, as well as Lansoprazole 20mg. and soluble Asprin 75mg.

The Candesarten has now been removed and the dosage of the Bisoprolol reduced to 2.5mg. I now have Ramipril 2.5mg and a statin called Atorvastatin 80mg as well as a drug to help protect the stent called Ticagrelor 90mg which I have to take twice-daily and they've told me that I have to take this for a year as it's to prevent any clotting around the stent which could lead to further complications.

I was reluctant to continue with any type of statins because I have had side-effects. At the time of my first heart attack in 2006 I was put on one called, I believe, Clopodrogel and a statin called Pravastatin (I may be wrong as to brand name or which is or isn't a statin.) At that time, during the week I was in the C.C.U. unit at Bedford Hospital, I began to develop what seemed like flu-like symptoms, so the nursing staff moved me off the main ward and into a side-ward, as they thought I might be infectious. As it turned out it wasn't actually flu but the side-effect of the possible use of the statins I was on. I have been tested over the last few years to keep my cholesterol levels as low as possible, but I had side-effects from taking which ever type or brand of statins it was (at the moment I have forgotten the brand name, but possibly called Plavix.) Because I managed to have my cholesterol levels at a well-controlled level, done mostly by eating healthily, taking a fair amount of exercise (we used to be members of a gym, and used the swimming pool regularly until Carol's cancer diagnosis.) I got the cholesterol levels in my blood to around the target of under 5mmol. So my doctor took me off the statin drug because I had muscle pain and some digestive problems. I got a certain amount of discomfort in my stomach, for example. The lansoprazole capsules are to protect my stomach as a result of taking most of the other medications.

As I have only been taking the new medications for a few days, I haven't experienced any side effects. I do get a dry cough which comes from nowhere. I'm not sure which medication causes this. But yesterday evening, after I'd taken the medications for my 6 o'clock administration, I had very violent diarrhoea. Sorry, but there's no other way to describe it. I'm fairly certain it was caused as a result of one of the medications I was on, possibly the Atarvastatin or a combination of that and another medication. I had to take Immodium to control this. As I write this post at 6.35 a.m. on Saturday I feel queasy and just hope I don't get the 'runs' again. 

Emergency Trip To The John Radcliffe In Oxford- Part 3

I can't remember exactly when I had several canulas put into one of my hands and my left hand. I think this may have been done when I was in the ambulance when travelling to Oxford. They are used to connect you to drips and in several cases to take blood. Also, I had several contacts stuck to my chest and other points on my body which were used to connect me to a monitor for heart beat and other body functions. A bit annoying that I had to contend with the cables when I lay in bed and had to disconnect them when I needed to go to the toilet and then the connection block got in the way and could be incredibly uncomfortable. Then the monitor, which all patients in the ward had these over their beds or at least nearby and they also gave off incredibly annoying bleeps which made it incredibly difficult to sleep. Not just these monitors, but many other electronic devices within the ward. There seemed no way you could either reduce their volume or turn them off completely.

It was odd not seeing the other patients in the unit. Being in a single room meant I was somewhat cut off from others on the ward. You could see people being moved around as they were shunted around in their beds. A bit like I was, all my belongings (such as they were. Not a lot, but still put in a large plastic bag) and then pushed by either a nurse or a porter to the vacant place on the ward.

Monday.

You get worken early in any hospital. I think I was awake already, but because there's always some noise on a ward, monitors buzzing along with outer machinery, staff moving about (they do try their hardest not to wake people) and the fact that I had a blood pressure cuff on which kept on automatically inflating to take my blood pressure during the night, I don't think I got a particularly good night's sleep. Then they begin to come round doing patients' 'obs' and at around 7.30-8.00 someone comes round with tea or coffee and breakfast. But for some reason you don't get toast, which i would have liked. A pity, but I bet the old Health and Safety rears it's ugly head, perhaps because of the possibility of fire, over-heating etc etc. Some wards I've been on had toasters in their kitchens, so it would have been out of the way to prevent accidents.

At around 10.00-10.15 I was visited by one of the doctors and given a brief explanation of what had happened to me and it was by then that I had actually had a heart attack myocardial infarction, to give it the correct name.) He explained what the stent was there for and the new medication I would be put on as a result of my recent episode. He had quite a lot of information which came from various E.C.Gs which had already been taken, as well as from my blood pressure and so on. You get regular observations ('obs'), taken by the nurses, covering temperature, blood pressure and heart rate, all taken with digital equipment. I was told by the doctor that I could possibly go home the next day (Tuesday) but I would be having a scan which would show the state of health of my heart and from this they could decide whether I could drive after a week or a month from having the heart attack on Sunday.

I was told that I would be in hospital until at least Wednesday. Not much to do. I had no books to read, no mobile phone, so I couldn't speak to Carol and there wasn't any television to watch, unless you had access to the in-hospital system which required you to pay, and similar to the dreadful Hospicom service at Milton Keynes Hospital. Also, I had no cash on me, nor either of our debit cards, so I couldn't even buy a newspaper.

I had breakfast on the ward. As I've mentioned, it's quite difficult to sleep with all the noises going on in the night, so I'm usually awake early. Partly because, having been bought up on a farm, life starts early so I'm used to it and it doesn't bother me. I'm a morning sort of person anyway. You get offered tea from a trolley and they come round regularly with the trolley and there's always water to drink with medication. No fear of dehydration. You have to fill in a menu for the next day's meals, lunch and dinner. Usually a fairly good selection of options.

Later in the day, probably 9.30-10.00 I was told I would be moving out of the single, en suite room and moving down to the Cardiac Rapid Response Unit, which is on the ground floor of the department. Everything was bundled up and I was pushed out of the room by a nurse and a porter, taking me down in a life and along a long corridor. Eventually entering the more open ward, with 6 beds in it, each bed facing another bed. It made a real change from being in a single room and it made a change to have other patients around. It was beginning to get slightly claustrophobic where I was. Much more space to inhabit that was the general amount of space patients were expected to inhabit in Milton Keynes Hospital.

Tuesday. Another night of attempting to sleep, due to the noises on the ward. But this wasn't really much of a problem, because I could sleep all day if necessary.  I was again told about the scan, an echocardiogram, or 'Jelly Scan' as Carol told me when I phoned later. Then I had the problem of how I was to get home. I asked one of the nurses whether I would have transport back to Milton Keynes but I was told that I couldn't have transport because I lived outside their official catchment area. A bit unfair, seeing how I had no choice of where I was taken by the paramedics after my heart attack. So I spoke to Carol via telephone and she said she would speak to Ross, Pastor at S.C.F. and he would come later to pick me up. Which is what happened.

The echocardiogram was done. I was expecting to go to another department to have this done, but a technician came with a portable machine and he did the scan with me laying on the hospital bed, with he curtains drawn around me. It's also referred to as a 'Jelly Scan' because they use a sort of jelly to put on your chest so that the probe device can slide across your skin more easily. I think it was KY Jelly, but I'm not sure.

The admin staff on the ward did the paperwork for myself, giving details of my care and my health condition which would also be sent to my GP at Ashfield Medical Centre as well as ordering additional medication and details of how it was to be administered. It was some while before the scan was analysed and I was told by one of the doctors that my heart looked healthy enough and that I would be able to drive after a week and not a month.

Around 3 o'clock Ross and Carol arrived on the ward. I wasn't too sure how long it would take them to drive over from Milton Keynes. So, having been given a bag full of the new medications, which had been sent from the hospital pharmacy, we walked out of the ward and out to the carpark and to Ross's car and we left Oxford to drive home to Milton Keynes.

I'm feeling fairly well, having undergone the trauma of the heart attack. I must have collapsed quite heavily, because I have bruises on both knees as well as the left side of my forehead and all these bruises are really painful and make walking quite uncomfortable and as I write this (4.00 p.m. on Thursday) they are beginning to come out quite blue and the pain is going off.

Emergency Trip To The John Radcliffe In Oxford- Part 2

I can't recall how I got onto the trolley which the paramedics used to get me out to the ambulance. I think I must have been helped to stand up from the floor and then helped to walk to the trolley. I was then wheeled out to the ambulance which was parked outside in the carpark. I have no recollection of which door I went out of. It's odd how details like that just disappear from your memory, probably because of the trauma of the incident. Perhaps it's just as well you don't recall the smaller things. This is why I'm writing this as soon as I could so that I can record as much as possible for this blog.

Inside the ambulance the paramedics did an E.C.G. (electrocardiogram) of my heart. They did a series of other tests, including asking me questions as to what the intensity of the pain was, on a scale of 1 to 10. They always do this in the N.H.S. when there is a need in any sort of incident where there might be pain. This information was then sent ahead to the hospital. They then had to wait to see which hospital I was being taken to, either Milton Keynes University Hospital, or the John Radcliffe in Oxford. Of course I would have preferred it to have been Milton Keynes because we live just 10 minute's walk away. After some wait they were told I should be taken to John Radcliffe. So, with that decided, and me well and truly strapped in to the trolley inside the ambulance, we pulled away from the carpark outside the Oaktree Centre (the building occupied my S.C.F., Shenley Christian Centre.) and made, at some considerable speed, for the main road heading for Oxford. I had absolutely no idea where we were on the road at any one time because you couldn't see out of the ambulance, except a vague glimpse out of a side-window as we sped along. I expect we went via Buckingham, the main road which we had only recently drive along the day before, Saturday, when we'd gone to Stowe Landscape Gardens.

All the way to Oxford the paramedics sent details of my situation. I heard a vague mention of 'stent' and that was all. At the time it didn't really sink in what they were likely do for me when we arrived at the John Radcliffe hospital. When I had my first heart attack in 2006 I was taken to Bedford Hospital. We have been to the Churchill Hospital when Carol has had scans, which was the first time I'd been to any of the Oxford hospitals, having had no previous need. I didn't even know where it was exactly, and had no idea how we got there. Some of the journey was uncomfortable, because the road surface somewhere was extremely bumpy. I think this was somewhere where roadworks were in progress. It was fortunate that there was minimal road traffic, due to the fact that it was a Sunday. At one point I was given a tablet to chew, I think it was to stop any further clotting of my blood or to help with pain. Not a pleasant taste, but it stopped any further problems arising.

About an hour since leaving Milton Keynes we arrived at the entrance to the Cardiology department of John Radcliffe Hospital. We went through the door into what is known as the Cath Lab. I only know this now having done some research on the internet. I was taken through into a sort of anti-room where I was prepared for an angiogram. I have had this before when they put this in through my groin. This new procedure was to be done through the wrist of my right arm. I didn't entirely take in what was happening, as it all went so fast.  They removed my shirt and after they had done further prepping I was then taken through into the lab. More like an operating theatre, with lots of glass windows leading into offices (I presume.) and what appeared to be an X ray machine in the ceiling on a sort of armature system so this device could be easily moved. They transferred me from the trolley onto a narrow bed arrangement. I was still wearing my chinos, socks and shoes, I must add, throughout all this, although a sort of material cover was put over me, no doubt to keeps things clean. Then the surgeon arrived, a short man dressed in blue and with a white paper hat on to presumably keep his hair out of the way and a white gauze mask over his mouth. He spoke to me and said that he was going to put a local anesthetic into my right arm, which was placed on a sort of clear plastic surface at the side of the narrow table. I realised that something was going to happen. He asked me if I'd had an angiogram before, and I said, yes, after I'd had my first heart attack in 2006. He could see my veins within my body by looking at a monitor from the X Ray machine, but I wasn't going to look as I, honestly, had other things on my mind at that precise moment. The area of my wrist where the aesthetic had been delivered became numbish and then the surgeon began the procedure, inserting a stent into the vein in my arm. I had more pain (although fairly mild) from the pressure he was putting on my arm on the side of the table. The stent was gradually being inserted further into my chest. I could feel a certain amount of it's movement within my body, but no more. Then the surgeon said he could see the clot in one of the veins in my heart. I'm not sure how long all this lasted, probably between 30-40 minutes. I felt incredibly relaxed throughout, which, looking back, is amazing, because me and needles and operations don't mix that well. Looking now at the right wrist as I write this post, there is really so little sign of anything except a very small entry-point for the stent. I had a sort of wrist devised put over the entry-point when the procedure was complete which I kept on for a day or two. Then the surgeon said the procedure had been successful and complete. I was left on the table for a while after the procedure was complete, all the staff left and it seemed odd to just be left on that bench/table. It was quite cold, particularly as I had no shirt on, also weird that I still had my trousers and shoes on throughout!

Eventually I was transferred onto a hospital trolley and wheeled into the coronary unit where I remained for several hours until eventually I was moved into the C.C.U. (Coronary Care Unit.)

The unit is modern. I'm not sure how long ago it was opened. I think probably about 5 years or so. It doesn't have the feel of Milton Keynes Hospital. They've taken some thought about how much space each patient requires. We found it really difficult in some ways with the lack of space when Carol was on Ward 22. Very little space around the bed, lack of hanging for clothing (I don't think there was any, thinking about it.) and generally nowhere to put personal belongings. In this first room it was plain and the windows had Venetian-style brands instead of curtains or those Roman blinds that they had in the single room Carol had early on when she was in hospital.

Then, around 10 o'clock that night I was moved upstairs to an on-suite room. A rarity, surely, in any N.H.S. hospital. The only problem was, for me at any rate, the sound of traffic moving past the window which kept me awake at night. There were two manhole covers (I assume they were those) in the road outside and you'd get a double 'clink-clink' as a vehicle moved over them. Somewhat annoying.

When I left Milton Keynes I had no time to collect anything from home. No basic necessities such as toiletries,  shaving requisites such as razor, shaving foam, flannel, toothbrush, toothpaste etc, or night-attire, or a simple change of clothing. I had on the same clothes which I had put on earlier that morning and which I had on when my collapse at S.C.F. earlier that morning. All I had to wear in the time I was in the hospital was a hospital-issue gown, which is the type you have to put on sort of back-to-front and ties up at the back. Not easy when there's nobody to help, so I put this on. Although I did get given some pyjamas but didn't change into them. Also, no slippers, so I had to walk about bare-footed, which isn't something I like doing at home.

Emergency Trip To the John Radcliffe In Oxford- Part 1

It will be a Sunday I won't forget in a hurry, and, no doubt will the members of Shenley Christian Fellowship.

I left Carol asleep and left a note for her to see when she woke up and drove off as I usually do at around 8.40 a.m. on my way to S.C.F. One horrible driver coming up far too close behind me as I make my way along Chaffron Way. Why do some drivers think it's acceptable to do this, attempting to make you drive far too fast? I avoided him by going round a roundabout and returning to my route before the turning for the National Bowl where this driver was heading as he soon joined the queue of cars entering that site. So, after all that he had to slow down. Stupid really. This type of behaviour only increases any stress which is not good if you have heart-health problems, which leads well into what was to happen later. Some people just want to control the road, always want to be in front, always need to cause stress.

I should say that I'd had a few attacks of angina over the days leading up to Sunday. We'd walked down to the gardens at Stowe along the Bell Entrance drive (all described in a previous post.) and had to stop to use my G.T.N. spray (Glyceryl Trinitrate), which usually works sufficiently for me to continue. Then, over Saturday into Sunday night I got a few more 'attacks', not anything to be really too concerned about. I also got a bout of indigestion which I dealt with by taking a Zantac tablet which seemed to relieve the discomfort. I should say, when I had the first heart attack in 2006 I did find it difficult to differentiate between the feelings in my chest of indigestion and the actual heart attack, both are very similar and in much the same position in the centre of my chest. But there was no crushing pain and I never had any pain in my arms or any other part of my body, nor any sweating which are supposed to be signs of a heart attack as described by others and given in any information on the internet or literature which deal with any symptoms.

Anyway, to jump forward to Sunday at S.C.F. The service began as usual at 9.15 (for the first of two Sunday services, the second beginning at 11.15 a.m.) I didn't feel any discomfort at that particular time and we started off with about 25 minutes or so of worship songs. Then, just as Ross Dilnot, our Pastor, got up to begin his sermon (probably at around 9.50) I got a slight twinge in my chest, and, in an attempt to avoid an angina attack. I discreetly used my G.T.N. spray which I had with me in my trousers' pocket.

I have no idea exactly what happened next, nor the time-scale of events, but the next thing I recollect was lying on the floor, with people standing or kneeling around me, with the service ground to a halt.  It was an odd position for me to be in, staring at the ceiling and having people looking at me. Having at one moment being standing facing forward in church, to then coming round at floor-level was somewhat mystifying, to say the least, when at first you don't know how you got there. I had collapsed, no doubt because of my blood pressure falling because I'd used the G.T.N spray too often. I'm not sure I had the heart attack then. I didn't feel any pain in my chest, just a sort of tightness, as if I was being sat on. (I don't really know how else to describe it.) Someone put me into a recovery position (having been trained in First Aid myself I know this procedure.) and having some questions asked of me, such as, 'where was the pain?' and so on. I don't remember anything else, but I certainly don't recall collapsing. So someone must have seen all this going on, as they had moved the chairs out of the way around me. Then the paramedics arrived, so someone had obviously rung for an ambulance. The paramedics then too over my care. I am so grateful to everyone at S.C.F. Everyone seemed to know how to deal with my First Aid. I don't know in particular who was First Aid trained and knew to put me in a recovery position and handed over to the paramedics when they arrived. Don't ask me how quickly they came, from the original 999 call, but it must have been quick.

Saturday Morning At Stowe

A bright and sunny morning again. We were quite prepared to make the most of it. We chose to visit Stowe Landscape Gardens near Buckingham, about a 30-minute car journey from home. There are a lot of other National Trust properties we considered, but in the end Stowe was where we eventually chose to visit.

It's a quite spectacular drive when you turn off the road from Buckingham onto the avenue that leads to the magnificent Corinthian arch which you see from the distance. The road goes between two lodges either side of the road and out into the tree-lined avenue. As the road makes it's way you loose sight of the arch as you dip down because of the hilly landscape and then it comes back a couple more times as you approach. Today it is lit by the sun which almost makes it seem to glow. It would have been even more astonishing back in the 18th century when visitors approached via horse-drawn carriages. Ir would obviously have been a good deal slower than modern-day mechanical transport, such as cars and coaches, adding to the excitement before you arrive at the entrance, which was originally through this arch.

You now park in a more recently-built and opened carpark from where you parked your car when we used to visit years ago, near the Stowe School playing fields and enter through a temporary building on the opposite side of the gardens. This was intended to replicate how visitors came to the gardens back in the 18th century, when some would have stayed in the inn, which now forms part of the visitors centre, which includes a café, toilets, shop and garden centre area outside and then you can walk down the road which leads into the gardens, or you can take one of the several buggies which ferry visitors the short distance if you don't want to walk. We saw many visitors walking with children in pushchairs as well as walking dogs, as this property seems to be a favourite dog-waking venue. This lane is known as Bell Gate Drive, because it leads to a gate into the gardens which used to have a bell which visitors would ring in order to be let in by a servant who lived in the near-by house. All the planting near the carpark is beginning to mature and the bushes and trees have grown considerably since we last visited. Also, the surfaces of the paths have been given a far more substantial finish, better for walking on or pushing wheelchairs or buggies on. We also noticed that there seem a few more ride-on buggies for those who prefer not to walk and some which circulated within the garden. A good idea, because it is quite a long way to walk if you come from the carpark along Bell Gate Drive and then go across to, say, Stowe House, which is on the opposite side of the gardens. Today we walked down but took the buggy back when we left to go home.

We walked quite some way within the gardens. Some areas which we have never visited before. It's such a large place that it's surprising that we saw parts we had never seen before. Everything looking well cared for and tidy, a good enough thing to notice particularly as we're National Trust members.

We had intended having ice-cream or coffee in the café when we arrived back at the visitor centre, having had a lift on the buggy. I went off to the toilet and Carol went to see what was on offer in the café, but by the time I got back to her she said that there was such a long queue that we'd have to wait too long and it would be better to just return home. Which is what we did. On arriving back in Milton Keynes we went to the One Stop shop in Coffee Hall to buy milk and Cadbury's Dairy Milk ice creams which we took home and sat and ate in the sitting room.