Christmas Madness

 Wednesday. 10.40 a.m. It's bright and sunny, but there's also a gusty wind. I went out to my car to drive to Sainsbury's a little before 9 and the wind was enough to blow your head off.

Thursday. 9.25 a.m. It is bright and sunny and no howling wind.

Saturday. 6.00 p.m. Well, not a great deal to report. We had a Christmas party on Thursday morning at The Oaktree Centre. The usual Thursday Morning Life Group were there, and we had games and lots to eat. One game took me back to around the age of probably 8 or so, pass-the-parcel. If you don't know, the person in charge wraps a present in lots of layers of paper and everyone sits in a circle. Then the parcel gets passed from one person to the other as music plays. When it stops, whoever has the parcel has to remove one layer of paper. This continues until the final layer is removed, and whoever has the parcel and removes the paper wins the prize.

We had a 'Secret Santa.' If you don't know how this works, everyone had to buy a present, costing no more than £5 and wrapped, put into a pile, and you pick a present, but you don't know who bought it. I got a cuddly Christmas pudding! I know, a bit crazy, but that was the idea.

A good time was had by all.

Monday. 1.20 p.m. Yesterday morning at church, we had a 'Carols By Candlelight' service. There are no real candles, but electronic ones. Just as well, because real candles can cause smoke and fumes which make me cough.

My friend Margaret at church asked me if I could sit with her husband, Mike, who has Parkinson's. She was going to the hospital visiting and when she came back we shared dinner together. A really pleasant evening.

Tuesday. 5.00 p.m. I had one or two items to get in Sainsbury's this morning. It means I'm ready for Christmas Day. The place was heaving. I thought, if I went early enough, it would be far easier. How wrong could I be? People had trolleys full to the brim, and more. It's like they had the idea that things were going to run out, so grab it and put it in the trolley.

Someone wasn't doing their job when I went to get a trolley. There is usually a young man who collects the trolleys and brings them up to the store on the travelator. Two rather ratty trolleys, a couple with wonky wheels which makes pushing them difficult.

One of the items I had on my shopping list was a Christmas cake. Probably a small one, or at least a wedge of Christmas cake. I looked in the bread and cake area of the store but could not find a small cake. But eventually if went for a whole cake, which came in a box with a clear window so you could see the cake inside. On unpacking this when I got home, I was somewhat surprised to find that the cake was a good deal smaller than the packaging suggested. Looking through the window on the packaging, it was clear that they were deceiving customers because the cake was on a sort of plastic base and there was a lot of space around it. It was certainly not as large as I was expecting.

I'm waiting for my dinner to finish cooking. Pork chops are in the oven, green beans are done and roast potatoes are done.

Wild, Windy and Wet

 Saturday. 6.30 a.m. Another storm raging across the country. This one is called Storm Darragh. I'd really love to know who comes up with these names.

3.50 p.m. I went to Sainsbury's this morning. Milk was running out and there were other things I needed. It's the best time to go, just after 9, because it's never busy on a Saturday morning. The self-service I used was behaving itself, which made things easier than usual.

The wind has been raging around the building all day. I think it must be the extractor fan in the kitchen which makes strange noises which are rather scary. Very blustery out and quite dangerous, with the possibility of tiles coming off roofs and bits of tree falling on you. Perhaps it's best to stay indoors, and I hope the wind settles down soon.

Sunday. 9.10 a.m. The wind was howling around the building all night. As I write this, it seems a good deal quieter, but still a bit gusty.

I have been unable to connect my Panasonic Freeview box to my new Vodafone Wi-Fi router. I have attempted to put the password into the relevant place, but it doesn't work. A really difficult job, because the password is so long, and you have to put in upper and lower case. Annoying and fiddly. I am also having a similar problem with my Canon printer. It is virtually impossible to connect the thing to Wi-Fi, so I think the only solution is to use the cable which I already have, so I will use that and forget the Wi-Fi connection. These things seem to cause no end of problems, but the cable is the best solution. There is supposed to be a way to connect via the Canon app, but I have spent some considerable time attempting to get the thing to connect, but nothing.

Tuesday. 7.30 a.m. Here I am, shaved, and dressed, Alfie has been out and sitting here writing this.

I have been doing more writing. Some things have prompted me to restart writing, one being a survey I did online, which was about food for older dogs. Alfie, being such a dog (can't believe he's 17. I don't know what that is in human years.) and part of it was to imagine I was Alfie and write a piece as if I was him and see the world as he sees it. I had real fun writing it and I think I got quite carried away. Hence, I ordered some new Pukka pads from Viking, the online stationery company, and have managed to write about a page and a half. I have had the idea circulating in my head for ages, so it was relatively easy to write. 

The weather seems relatively calm at the moment. I just hope we don't have the gale-force winds we have had over the past few days.

Friday. 9.25 a.m. The past couple of days, it's been overcast and gloomy. It's misty or, at least, thin and foggy outside. It would be great if the sun shone but don't expect miracles, as we are in December, so the weather can be expected to be cold and gloomy.

Saturday. 1.15 p.m. It's not so wild, windy or wet today, fortunately. The sun is shining as I write this and it's quite pleasant out.

I had a doctor's appointment at 10.30 this morning. As usual, I arrived early and it was worth it, because I was called into the doctor's surgery about 15 minutes early. The doctor said I was in good health, but I should lose some weight. I suppose he's right. I've never been into sport, but I suppose I could go for the occasional swim. I might look out for a gym which has a swimming pool. Carol and I used to belong to two gyms, one down near the football stadium and then Nuffield Health at Kent's Hill. Each of these gyms had the usual gym facilities, but also swimming pools, saunas and jacuzzis. I cancelled our Nuffield memberships after Carol died. It might be a good idea to get back to swimming as a form of exercise.

On the way back from the doctor's I dropped into Sainsbury's which actually wasn't such a good idea, as it was heaving, people in there no doubt making sure they had sufficient mince pies, Christmas puddings and wrapping paper before it all ran out. Not likely, but it seemed like it. The travelator wasn't working so I had to walk up without it moving and then come down in a lift when I had done my shopping.

New Month. Almost Christmas

 Monday. 2.30 p.m. Yesterday was Café Church at SCF at the Oaktree Centre. I was on refreshment duty. We had a few problems with the new coffee machine. The thing has two cartons inside, one with mild and the other with coffee in syrup form. It is operated with a touch screen, similar to an iPad. I was given the secret code which will open the thing, so the cartons can be replaced when they run out, which they did during the morning.

Tuesday. 9.05 a.m. I saw the weather forecast on BBC Breakfast yesterday morning, and they mentioned that it was going to be a good deal colder with a chance of frost. I have been thinking that I ought to check the antifreeze in my car because I don't want the water in it to freeze and then damage the car. I was constantly being told by my late father to 'check your tyres, oil, antifreeze', whenever I was going out in my car and his voice always seemed to be at the back of my mind. Bearing this in mind, I went to get fuel for the car at the ESSO station in Child's Way and picked up a bottle of antifreeze. I then had to wait for the car to cool down before attempting to open up the bonnet to put in the antifreeze. When I eventually got outside to check under the bonnet, I wasn't sure where to put the antifreeze. After some thought, I thought it would be a good idea to drive to the Renault dealership near Morrison's in Westcroft, a short distance from The Oaktree Centre. When I got there, I found it almost impossible to park. I drove around behind Brayleys, the Renault dealership, but I couldn't find anywhere and then thought it best to park in the car park which is for people shopping in the shopping centre which includes Morrisons. It was extremely busy, considering it was a Monday morning. I assume it was people doing their Christmas shopping, but the amount of traffic coming into the car park and leaving, made things difficult. I eventually found a space, parked the car and then walked to Brayleys. 

I wasn't sure which door to enter, but went in the first one I came to but eventually found the spares department, quite a walk across the yard which was full of cars, closely parked and making me think that it would be difficult to move any of them, particularly those at the back of the site. It made me think it would be rather like a game of Tetris, move one to move another which moved into the first car's space and so on.

I got to the service and parts department and was confronted by two people, sitting behind computer screens. I spoke to one and asked about the fact that I wasn't sure where I should put the antifreeze. I was told that he would come and show me, but I would need to bring the car from where it was parked near Morrisons. So I walked back to the car, and it took me some considerable time to get out of the car park, due to the amount of traffic coming in and leaving the car park. I eventually drove towards Brayleys and, after some time, eventually found a parking space, behind Morrisons, and near their loading bay. I then walked back to the service department and the gentleman came with me to the car I lifted the bonnet, and he showed me where antifreeze should be poured in, but then he said, as the plastic bottle showed, there seemed to be plenty of antifreeze already in it and I needn't put any more in. I also asked about turning on the digital message which keeps appearing on the car's dashboard, telling me that the car needs servicing in 10 days. He said that it would need to be brought into the garage so that they can use a device which is used to adjust the digital screen. I would need to bring it in at a later date to have this adjusted.

So, I thanked him for his help and I felt better knowing that there was no need for antifreeze in the car.