Eventful Afternoon . . .

Friday. 8.40 a.m. I was up out of bed and out with Alfie by around 5.45 this morning. It's getting lighter and lighter each morning, so what excuse do I have? No use lounging around in bed. I have never been one to waste the day and can always find something to do with my time. It's particularly sunny and bright at the moment, although, as I write this, the sun has gone in, there's no sign of rain or wind, thankfully.

11.30 a.m. I've been to get my hair cut at Central Barbers. I always feel a good deal better once I've had a haircut. Just looks better and takes around 10 years off my age.

It's still quite mild. Fortunately, no rain, but it's still bright but not overly sunny.

Saturday. 3.25 p.m. Oh, dear! I feel really stupid. Well, you can agree if you want to. I don't care one way or the other. I had decided I would make another batch of chocolate cookies. The last ones weren't a great success. I hadn't taken into account the fact that they would spread out during cooking, so the batch came out of the oven a more or less one big cookie, but I did manage to cut them up into individual cookies. I went to Aldi this morning and bought some additional ingredients and set to with weighing out everything. I have to sort the kitchen out before I start as there is very little space and work surfaces are at a premium. I managed to get to the dough stage and put it into two metal trays. Then I had to sort out the oven, as the temperature isn't easy to set. I have an oven thermometer which I put in the oven, but then I found that the markings on the control knob have worn off, so it's even more of a guess when it comes to setting the oven. After the recommended twenty minutes, I checked the oven, but the cookies weren't cooked. They were still raw dough, so I put them in for a second bake. But I think I set the oven too hot and, as a result, after twenty minutes, there was smoke coming out of the oven when I opened the door. As a result, it set off the fire alarms, which went off throughout Dexter House. So, it was my turn to set the alarm off. I took Alfie out and after a few minutes, I heard a fire engine coming from the sound of its siren. I have to say I felt somewhat responsible for wasting their time. I went in through the main entrance with the lead fireman who came into my flat and told me to open the windows, which I did, and the breeze eventually dispersed the smoke and after a couple more minutes, the alarm stopped. That is the final attempt at cookie-making, as I don't want a repetition of this afternoon's events. Then, ten minutes later, a lady knocked on my door from the emergency alarm company to find out if I was alright, which I was, It just goes to show that we have all the facilities available here in case we have either a fall or a fire. Not really my favourite way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Sunday. 6.45 a.m. I ordered a DVD from Amazon on Friday. The new Stephen Spielberg version of 'West Side Story.' It was due to be delivered yesterday, before 10 p.m., or, at least, that was what the website told me, which tells you such things, so you can track a parcel's delivery. I had hoped to watch the film yesterday evening, and I waited in expectation of its arrival. I have had a look on the website once more, and it tells me that it has been handed to the recipient. Well, no it hasn't. I have not received it. So, I have to ask where on earth is it? Someone isn't doing their job properly. So I will have to do some investigations and discover its whereabouts. These delivery drivers don't read the address labels properly and if they don't know where the correct address is, it seems they post them through the nearest letterbox, just to get rid of them. Just laziness on their part.

On the way to church this morning, I drove towards Chaffron Way as I usually do and then left at the junction, coming out of Strudwick Drive and then I got to the roundabout which intersects with Saxon Street and discovered that I couldn't double back on myself as I would normally because it was coned off because of a running race/marathon. I was totally unaware of this and had to drive towards the centre of Milton Keynes and then along Childs Way to get to Shenley. Never mind. It was a bit of an inconvenience, but also quite a pleasant journey in the spring sunshine.

5.25 p.m. Alfie and I have been watching Crufts on Channel 4 this afternoon. I attempted to get a photograph of his nibs actually watching, and it wasn't easy (results, although not brilliant, on Facebook.) I had to entice him onto my knee with treats so that he would be in some sort of position to look in the direction of the screen, but he wasn't playing along. Carol and I went around 14 years ago, and we saw the agility being done by small dogs, especially Yorkshire Terriers, and it was this which lead to us getting Alfie. Carol was involved in an accident in her car, the Hyundai Matrix which she had at the time we first met. She was driving along Watling Street and if I remember right, taking Sam to school. I'm not sure if she'd just dropped him off, but she was approaching the roundabout which intersects with Childs Way and there was a queue of a few cars waiting to get onto the roundabout when the car was hit from behind by another car which didn't slow down in time. The force of the collision forced the Hyundai to collide forcibly with the car in front, to such an extent that the Hyundai got caught on the tow ball on the first car. Carol received a whiplash injury, and it took the emergency services quite a while to detatch our car from the car in front. I had just finished with one of my home care calls and had just come out of Beanhill and onto Saxon Street when my mobile rang and I pulled into a lay-by to take the call (bearing in mind that this was during the busy rush hour and the road was nose-to-tail up to the roundabout at Standing Way.) It was Carol saying she had been in a car accident and that she was at the A and E Department of Milton Keynes Hospital. I immediately drove there (not far from where I was at the time of the phone call.) and got there relatively quickly, although the traffic was heavy. This was bought to mind because we had to have a courtesy car when the Hyundai went to be repaired as a result of the collision and we had the use of a Ford Focus which I got to drive and we drove in it to Crufts and then when we went on holiday to Yorkshire. Just shows how something like that incident can spark a memory.