Wet and Cold

 Tuesday. 3.25 p.m. I wasn't going to keep this blog going over the Christmas period, but I now think I will write something. It has been raining continuously since early this morning. It hasn't been heavy rain, but thin and miserable nonetheless. I have taken Alfie out several times, but whenever he discovers it's raining, he turns tail and returns indoors. I can't blame him.

Wednesday. 3.35 p.m. Not a particularly exciting day today. It has been a good deal milder than of late. The sun even shone, which always lifts my mood. The last couple of days have been overcast and gloomy, which is definitely par for the course in late December.  I will be glad when Christmas is over, basically because when Carol was around things were busy, with us going out to visit such places as Waddesdon Manor, where they always put on some sort of extra effort with decorations in the manor and a Christmas market within the grounds. 

I have now watched the final episode of 'The Crown.' I have seen all six seasons of the Netflix series. I have to say, the final season wasn't up to the high standard of the earlier seasons. It seemed to run out of steam and I think they should have ended it with the fifth season. For all that, it had extremely high production values, such as sets, costumes, photography and so on. You could definitely see where the budget was spent. 

Thursday. 8.50 a.m. I am about to go to Sainsbury's to do a bit of shopping. I'm rather concerned that it might be extremely busy, considering we are only days away from Christmas. 

The weather has done another flip. From bright and sunny yesterday morning, to wet and windy this morning.

1.55 p.m. I went to Sainsbury's. I picked up everything I wanted, which was on a list. I would have preferred to have used a manned till to complete my shop, but, as usual, there was one of these tills open, but it had a long queue of customers waiting. I was left with no alternative, and so regrettably went to use a self-service till. All went well to start off, scanning each item and placing them in my shopping bags. But on three occasions the confounded thing stopped working, for the slightest fault, and I had to get assistance. This is why I don't like using self-service tills; they keep on breaking down, and you have to wait for assistance from a member of staff.

3.50 p.m. We've had a tea party here at Dexter House. As we sat and stuffed our faces with mince-pies and drank tea, a raffle was drawn, with the proceeds going to Willen Hospice. I have won a battery-operated fan, which will be useful in the summer when we get warm weather.

Friday. 10.30 a.m. It's my turn with the washing machine. I had my laundry ready and in the machine at around 7.40. I am supposed to start it at 8, but I'm not very good when it comes to waiting. I went back an hour later, to discover the machine stopped and nothing to indicate it was working, whether it had finished the wash cycle, with the clothes rinsed. The door wouldn't open as it should. As you can imagine, I wasn't a happy bunny, because I wanted my clothes out and in the drier. My only answer to the problem was to ring Mears, who are responsible for maintenance at Dexter House. I went back to my flat and rang their number. I'm sorry to say, I wasn't polite to the woman I spoke to, although I did apologize. She was going to email Vashti, the S.H.O., to see if she would be able to get the washing machine opened. I was concerned that, if the clothes were left inside the washing machine, wet. If they were left long enough, they would get mouldy and I would be without anything clean to wear. Well, that isn't exactly correct, I do have SOME clean clothes. It was because everything will close down over the Christmas and New Year period and nothing would be done about the washing machine. The woman I spoke to told me it 'wasn't an emergency.' Well, it wasn't a life-and-death matter I suppose, but to me, it was an emergency.

I returned to the washing machine, and it was working! Apparently, there had been a power cut, but then I discovered that there were workmen in Dexter House, and they'd turned off the power! But nobody told me, hence the situation with the washing machine. I managed to get the clothes spun and when the cycle was over, I put the clothes in the tumble drier and the situation was resolved.

Approaching Christmas

Monday. 10.25 a.m. It's a rather overcast and gloomy day. Certainly not as bad as it was a couple of days ago, but not what you would call inviting, by any stretch of the imagination. I have been to Sainsbury's, basically to top things up which were running low.

Tuesday. 2.55 p.m. I went to the Bridge Builder offices to complete my D.B.S. application. It appeared to go without a hitch, and I will have to wait until the certificate comes through before I can go further with my volunteering with Bridge Builder.

It is a wet and cold day. It has been raining more or less continuously since this morning.

Wednesday. 12.40 p.m. It was quite icy and slippery along the path towards Oldbrook Green when I went out with Alfie at around 7.25 this morning. It was quite deceptive and the leaves need to be more helpful. It really is about time that the Council workmen sweep them up. If they don't, they will begin to decompose and then become a hazard, becoming slippery, and then they will have to answer to those who fall over as a result.

I am learning the monologue I have been given as part of the Bridge Builder 'Christmas Cracked' presentation which we are taking into local Primary Schools. I have to wait until my D.B.S. certificate comes through before I can go to school. It's one of the formalities you now have to go through because of the possibility of someone abusing children. It's a sad world we live in, but without this piece of paper, you aren't allowed in and schools would want to see this.

Sunday. 8.45 a.m. I haven't written anything on here for a while. I did say in an earlier post that I wouldn't be writing much from now on.

Tuesday. 8.40 a.m. Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of Carol's passing. I was invited to a Christmas meal at The Barn by Ross. He had texted me about this, which was for the Monday Club people. It was a really pleasant meal. I'm not used to eating a full meal at midday because I always have my meal in the evening so in that respect it was great to not have to make a meal in the evening.

Apparently today it was four years ago since the General Election. I had forgotten this fact (not that I'm that bothered one way or the other.) But Sir Kier Starmer, the Labour Party leader, was on BBC Breakfast, when I put the television on at around 7.15. He was speaking from Milton Keynes, but I wasn't sure where he was. From what I could see in the background, it looked like a warehouse.

Wednesday. 2.15 p.m. At 9 o'clock, my car was booked to have an oil change. The traffic driving there was a good deal quieter than I was expecting, especially at the roundabout crossing Standing Way. I sat in the waiting area as the work was done, and it was ready to drive away at around 9.50. Paid and went home.

As I write this, it's really windy and wet outside. 

4.30 p.m. We have had a group from M.K.C.C. ( Milton Keynes Christian Centre) come to give the tenants here at Dexter House, me included, a really great Christmas teaparty. My friends Margaret and John, who go to Shenley Christian Centre (and it would appear, M.K.C.C. I knew John from when I was a helper on Alpha, which was run at M.K.C.C.) Part of the proceedings was a quiz and I won quite a haul of prizes!

Saturday. 12.30 p.m. I went with group from Shenley Christian Fellowship to the Nut and Squirrel in Westcroft for a Christmas meal. The group was made of of mostly those who are in some way or other involved with the Acorns playgroup. We were scheduled to meet at 7.30, but some people were ill, I think probably with covid.

Two ladies were already sitting at the table when I arrived, and the rest of the party arrived over the next half-hour or so. But, due to some of the staff at the Nut and Squirrel ringing in sick, only one waiter was available to do the waiting duties. Not just for our party, but, it would appear, for the rest of the restaurant, and, for what I would tell, serving behind the bar. He was literally rushed off his feet for the entire evening.

Anything Goes!

 Wednesday. 8.35 a.m. A bright, but chilly, morning.

Thursday. 8.35 a.m. It's quite frosty and cold this morning. A good deal colder than yesterday morning. The car windows are frozen over, so I have been to scrape some of the ice off, so I can drive to the Oaktree Centre after 9o'clock for our regular Bible study.

I got the printed bank statement with my address on it in the post yesterday morning from Nationwide. I wasn't expecting it, so it means my D.B.S. can be completed at Bridge Builder on Tuesday.

Friday. 10.15 a.m. It's yet another frosty and cold morning, but it's also foggy. You can't see the central shopping centre from my kitchen window, because the fog is so thick. It doesn't look as if it's going to clear at all today.

I am watching David Tennant in the central role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's  production of 'Hamlet.' Patrick Stewart plays Claudius as well as The Ghost. As they are meant to be brothers, it makes sense. It is on the BBC iPlayer, as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations for the publication of the First Shakespeare Folio. There are quite a few programmes on Shakespeare, a three-part drama/documentary on Shakespeare's life, which is very good, and I have discovered a lot of new stuff, one fact being that one of the Gunpowder plotters was a relative of Shakespeare and was executed because of his involvement. Also, a Simon Shama series about the Bard.

I might have mentioned this before, elsewhere in these blog posts, but I am something of a Shakespeare fanatic. I also 'collect' productions of Hamlet. I can't now remember how many I've seen, over the years, besides being an A.S.M. on a production when I was at Liverpool Playhouse in 1971. Carol and I went to see a National Theatre production of the play, which had Rory Kinnear in the central role. I find it intriguing to see how many ways it can be staged. It never seems to lose its power. They have more recently staged what's called 'gender blind' (not sure if that's the right term though.) with Maxine Peake playing Hamlet, although, in that production, I wasn't sure she was a 'he' or 'she'. Thinking about it, having second thoughts, her version might have been transexual. Thinking further, in Shakespeare's time, the female roles would have been played by male youths, because women were forbidden from appearing on stage. Some of the other roles have been gender-swapped, such as Polonius, becoming Polonia. 

Sunday. 12.30 p.m. It is a particularly unpleasant and wet day. I have just returned from the Oaktree Centre. I was scheduled to do tea and coffee, but an entire family were doing just that, so I had time to chat as it was what is called 'Cafe Church', which means there was no workshop, but a time of fellowship. 

My friends Margaret and Mike had invited me to lunch, so I came home to take Alfie out and as I got to my front door, I discovered a parcel, from Evri. It was difficult to read the label because the print was so tiny, so I had to get my reading glasses, but someone had put the wrong address on it. It was for the flat opposite.