(Monday) A bright but chilly morning. I took out Alfie before 6. I rang Bleak Hall Motors a little after 8 and got the car booked in for it's annual service tomorrow (Thursday). I'll have to get it there for 8 tomorrow and get a taxi back to the flat because I don't want to have to sit and wait there for hours and hours whilst it's being done. The Renault has this annoying computerised system with a digital screen right in front of my eyeline as I'm driving, with the annoying message that keeps reading 'Service now due,' with an orange light which remains on with a spanner symbol, in case I'm in any doubt that this work is required. Well, it's not driving at full capacity because of needing work doing, so I'll be glad when it's done, in time to drive to Worcester for Christmas with Chloe, Steve and the grandchildren. I'm looking forward to going, even if it's not for as long as last year.
A little later I drove into the city centre and parked near The Point (it really is looking terrible. I know I've mentioned it before, but this iconic building, which was the pride of Milton Keynes in the 1980's when it was one of the first multiplex cinemas in Britain, but now is an empty wreck, and the pyramid is just a rusting shell. Please, someone, do something with it, even if it's to demolish it and build something else on the site. Driving into Milton Keynes at night from Bedford you could see if from distance as it was lit up.) I was going to the Central Barbers in the shopping centre to get my hair cut. They don't open until 9.30, so I had a good 15-minute wait, sitting on the seats conveniently placed outside. Getting chilly, but it's interesting to see the people who walk past. The Middleton Hall is now completely taken over with the traditional Christmas display. It seems somewhat mundane. It used to be excellent, with some sort of theme, one year it was pirates, or was it Peter Pan, with large masted ship, with Peter Pan standing on it. But they seem to have run out of ideas or at least, originality, and it's just a sort of large-scale snow-dome in the middle, with Santa's grotto somewhere and a excuse to make money out of parents when there children insist on visiting.
Eventually got into Central Barbers and was sitting in the chair having my hair cut (so, what else would I be doing? No surprises there.) Very pleased with the result and soon paying and back out and walking back along the shopping centre and taking £20 out of the A.T.M. at the Nationwide Building Society, because I will need the cash to pay for a taxi once I've dropped off the car at Bleak Hall Motors tomorrow morning. Then, once the car is finished being serviced, I can get another taxi back home to the flat.
From the shopping centre I drove to Bradwell Common to do some shopping in Aldi's. Of the two discounters, Lidl and Aldi, I think I prefer Aldi. I'm not sure why, but they have a better range. I like the fact that there's no fiddling about at the checkout. The way they whisk the items through and you can pack your items on a shelf rather than actually at the checkout is a good idea and the way they put larger barcodes on each item is brilliant. They don't spend an age searching for tiny barcodes that you get on the products on any of the larger supermarkets such as Sainsbury or Tesco. And the bill is usually a good deal cheaper. Probably around a third of what it would cost in Sainsbury's.
Then home and unpacking shopping and one small Yorkshire terrier desperate to go out for a walk. You can't really avoid his gaze, or his yapping when he thinks it's time to go out. So, lead on, shoes on and out walking along Srudwick Drive. As we near Oldbrook Green, I notice a large black crow on the grass. It is standing near a discarded clear plastic package, no doubt containing food that some thoughtless person has thrown there, having eaten the contents and not bothering to put it in a rubbish bin. The crow is having a good time, tapping the package with it's long, sharp beak. I stand and watch, totally intrigued by the antics of the crow. I manages to turn the box over and it attempts to gain entry by stabbing it with it's beak. It doesn't manage to get inside, although from where I'm watching I can't see if it has the remains of food inside. So why is it going through this business? Can it smell the remains of the food, or is it merely playing with this shiny item it has come across? who knows, but it makes good entertainment and I only wish I had my mobile with me to be able to video this incident. We walk on, to traverse the park, but by the time we walk past where I saw the crow with the plastic package, there was no sign of the bird. It probably lost interest and merely flew away. It just goes to show how intelligent these birds are.
(Thursday) I couldn't sleep last night. Nothing wrong, but just awake at around 2 a.m. I have sleeping tablets but the doctor gave me some new ones and says they can be addictive, so I'm reluctant to take them and I was concerned that I would be sleepy this morning because in the leaflet you get with them it says. 'Do not drive or use machinery if you feel sleepy the next morning.' It also makes me laugh when you get the label on the box they come in which say 'Can make you feel drowsy or sleepy.' Well, there's a surprise! Sleeping tablets which make you feel sleepy. Just tell me, what do they put on packets of Viagra? No . . . please don't reply to that! Just amuses me that now you can have Viagra without a prescription (incidentally, I can't have it because of my heart medication. And funnily enough, it was created for the treatment of heart problems, ironically.) Anyway, whenever I go to collect my medication from Lloyd's pharmacy in Sainsbury's, there's advertising all over the place for Viagra. You can't miss it.
I've taken the car to Bleak Hall Motors for it's service, which I managed to book by ringing them yesterday morning, as mentioned above. I got there in good time, gave the keys to reception and got a taxi home, because it's going to take around half a day to do the service. Then, when I got hack I immediately took Alfie out for a walk around Oldbrook Green.
For a couple of days, when I've been out with Alfie around Oldbrook Green, I've been stopped by a woman who keeps asking for money. At first I thought it might be for something like the use of a phone, but there's no telephone box anywhere to be seen. You just don't see the iconic BT telephone boxes any more, probably because most people have a mobile phone. She asked me for £1.50, but at this time I had no change on me. I don't usually carry change of any kind when I'm out with Alfie. Then, yesterday, she was out near the road crossing from Strudwick Drive over Oldbrook Boulevard. This time she wanted £2.50, but, again, I didn't have any change. She was standing in the road and I had to tell her to move out of the way because there were cars attempting to get past. This is when I thought that perhaps she wasn't mentally stable. It made me wonder whether she was from a residential home or perhaps from the Campbell Centre, which is part of Milton Keynes Hospital. By this time she was stopping cars and asking for cash, and there was a build-up of several cars because she was talking to one of the drivers. I don't know whether she got the cash she was asking for. She was well dressed, didn't look in any sort of distress, so it was unclear why she was behaving like this. When I lived in Bedford there were a couple of people who used to stand and constantly ask for cash. One became quite aggressive and had to be given a court order which prevented him being a nuisance, because he was putting off customers to certain businesses in the town centre. I don't know how they managed to stop either of these people being what were, in effect, aggressive beggars. I can't think where the woman came from, but presumably somewhere within the Oldbrook area of Milton Keynes.
Later. I got the call to tell me the car was ready for collection at just gone 11 o'clock. I rang for a taxi so I waited outside in the road and around 5 minutes later it turned up. I was somewhat surprised that the driver couldn't find Bleak Hall Motors. I was always under the impression that taxi drivers knew virtually every place in the town they operated in, but this wasn't the case with this driver. We eventually found it (I usually drive in from the opposite end. It's in a sort of service road and can be tricky to negotiate because of lorries parked all the way along and some pulling out of the various units along it's entire length.) I was somewhat shocked that the cost of the service was considerably more than anticipated, but they have done a good job, changing the oil, topping up water, brake fluid and replacing some parts, so it's done for another year. It will leave me rather short of cash for the rest of the month, but I will have to manage. I can't have the car not running efficiently, breaking down or not working properly, what with the winter weather coming up, so, in the end, it was worth it.
Eventually got into Central Barbers and was sitting in the chair having my hair cut (so, what else would I be doing? No surprises there.) Very pleased with the result and soon paying and back out and walking back along the shopping centre and taking £20 out of the A.T.M. at the Nationwide Building Society, because I will need the cash to pay for a taxi once I've dropped off the car at Bleak Hall Motors tomorrow morning. Then, once the car is finished being serviced, I can get another taxi back home to the flat.
From the shopping centre I drove to Bradwell Common to do some shopping in Aldi's. Of the two discounters, Lidl and Aldi, I think I prefer Aldi. I'm not sure why, but they have a better range. I like the fact that there's no fiddling about at the checkout. The way they whisk the items through and you can pack your items on a shelf rather than actually at the checkout is a good idea and the way they put larger barcodes on each item is brilliant. They don't spend an age searching for tiny barcodes that you get on the products on any of the larger supermarkets such as Sainsbury or Tesco. And the bill is usually a good deal cheaper. Probably around a third of what it would cost in Sainsbury's.
Then home and unpacking shopping and one small Yorkshire terrier desperate to go out for a walk. You can't really avoid his gaze, or his yapping when he thinks it's time to go out. So, lead on, shoes on and out walking along Srudwick Drive. As we near Oldbrook Green, I notice a large black crow on the grass. It is standing near a discarded clear plastic package, no doubt containing food that some thoughtless person has thrown there, having eaten the contents and not bothering to put it in a rubbish bin. The crow is having a good time, tapping the package with it's long, sharp beak. I stand and watch, totally intrigued by the antics of the crow. I manages to turn the box over and it attempts to gain entry by stabbing it with it's beak. It doesn't manage to get inside, although from where I'm watching I can't see if it has the remains of food inside. So why is it going through this business? Can it smell the remains of the food, or is it merely playing with this shiny item it has come across? who knows, but it makes good entertainment and I only wish I had my mobile with me to be able to video this incident. We walk on, to traverse the park, but by the time we walk past where I saw the crow with the plastic package, there was no sign of the bird. It probably lost interest and merely flew away. It just goes to show how intelligent these birds are.
(Thursday) I couldn't sleep last night. Nothing wrong, but just awake at around 2 a.m. I have sleeping tablets but the doctor gave me some new ones and says they can be addictive, so I'm reluctant to take them and I was concerned that I would be sleepy this morning because in the leaflet you get with them it says. 'Do not drive or use machinery if you feel sleepy the next morning.' It also makes me laugh when you get the label on the box they come in which say 'Can make you feel drowsy or sleepy.' Well, there's a surprise! Sleeping tablets which make you feel sleepy. Just tell me, what do they put on packets of Viagra? No . . . please don't reply to that! Just amuses me that now you can have Viagra without a prescription (incidentally, I can't have it because of my heart medication. And funnily enough, it was created for the treatment of heart problems, ironically.) Anyway, whenever I go to collect my medication from Lloyd's pharmacy in Sainsbury's, there's advertising all over the place for Viagra. You can't miss it.
I've taken the car to Bleak Hall Motors for it's service, which I managed to book by ringing them yesterday morning, as mentioned above. I got there in good time, gave the keys to reception and got a taxi home, because it's going to take around half a day to do the service. Then, when I got hack I immediately took Alfie out for a walk around Oldbrook Green.
For a couple of days, when I've been out with Alfie around Oldbrook Green, I've been stopped by a woman who keeps asking for money. At first I thought it might be for something like the use of a phone, but there's no telephone box anywhere to be seen. You just don't see the iconic BT telephone boxes any more, probably because most people have a mobile phone. She asked me for £1.50, but at this time I had no change on me. I don't usually carry change of any kind when I'm out with Alfie. Then, yesterday, she was out near the road crossing from Strudwick Drive over Oldbrook Boulevard. This time she wanted £2.50, but, again, I didn't have any change. She was standing in the road and I had to tell her to move out of the way because there were cars attempting to get past. This is when I thought that perhaps she wasn't mentally stable. It made me wonder whether she was from a residential home or perhaps from the Campbell Centre, which is part of Milton Keynes Hospital. By this time she was stopping cars and asking for cash, and there was a build-up of several cars because she was talking to one of the drivers. I don't know whether she got the cash she was asking for. She was well dressed, didn't look in any sort of distress, so it was unclear why she was behaving like this. When I lived in Bedford there were a couple of people who used to stand and constantly ask for cash. One became quite aggressive and had to be given a court order which prevented him being a nuisance, because he was putting off customers to certain businesses in the town centre. I don't know how they managed to stop either of these people being what were, in effect, aggressive beggars. I can't think where the woman came from, but presumably somewhere within the Oldbrook area of Milton Keynes.
Later. I got the call to tell me the car was ready for collection at just gone 11 o'clock. I rang for a taxi so I waited outside in the road and around 5 minutes later it turned up. I was somewhat surprised that the driver couldn't find Bleak Hall Motors. I was always under the impression that taxi drivers knew virtually every place in the town they operated in, but this wasn't the case with this driver. We eventually found it (I usually drive in from the opposite end. It's in a sort of service road and can be tricky to negotiate because of lorries parked all the way along and some pulling out of the various units along it's entire length.) I was somewhat shocked that the cost of the service was considerably more than anticipated, but they have done a good job, changing the oil, topping up water, brake fluid and replacing some parts, so it's done for another year. It will leave me rather short of cash for the rest of the month, but I will have to manage. I can't have the car not running efficiently, breaking down or not working properly, what with the winter weather coming up, so, in the end, it was worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment