Christmas Day EU/Britiish Trade Deal At Last!

(Thursday 24th December. Christmas Eve) So, it seems that a trade deal with the European Union has been struck. I heard this on BBC Breakfast this morning and a statement is due to be made by Boris Johnson but as I write this at 10.05a.m. there is nothing and everyone is waiting. The BBC had cameras outside Downing Street and they kept cutting from the television studio in Salford to Downing Street. Felt a little bit sorry for the policeman who stood outside. The Downing Street cat got a walk-on role and at one point we even saw a fox slink past! If this goes ahead it will be a very nice Christmas present for Boris Johnson. It's seems amazing that they've been negotiating a deal for most of the year and it's four-and-a-half years since the Brexit referendum and the country voted to leave by a very tiny majority.

This afternoon it was announced by Boris Johnson that the Brexit deal had been done. So, at least he has lived up to the mantra he had keep on about during last year's General Election (just over a year ago.) 'Let's Get Brexit Done.' It seems to have been a tortuous effort to get this thing sorted out, but it now has to be ratified by the EU parliament as well as the British parliament. Let's just hope it doesn't get voted down otherwise we will have to endure more negotiations. I feel sorry for the politicians, as the document which outlines the 'deal' is some two-thousand pages long and it will take them some time to wade through it.

(Christmas Day. Friday) I've been out with Alfie as usual and we found it to be quite chilly. There was ice on the pavement leading to Oldbrook Green, but that horrible patch of water I keep mentioning has gone. I think it might be cold enough for snow.

I have my Christmas dinner all ready to cook and have already peeled the potatoes. I have a turkey roast, not a turkey. There was no point getting one as I wouldn't have eaten a whole one, let alone got one small enough to fit in my electric cooker. It's supposed to take around 75 minutes to cook so I will have to work out when to put it in the oven if I want to eat my meal at around 4 o'clock. I did the Brussel sprouts yesterday evening. A really fiddly job. My father grew Brussel sprouts on the farm at Cardington. A lot bigger than those they sell in Sainsbury's. I used to feel sorry for the men who used to pick them, working in horrible wet and cold conditions in the fields. Then they were bagged and went to Covent Garden. A lorry used to come and collect them, the company who bought them called Bennet and Hawes. I don't know why people make such a fuss about Brussel Sprouts. I rather like them. I know if they're cooked to death they they can taste bitter, but I can't remember them being bitter. We had no choice, we had to eat everything put in front of us. I've seen a programme on television showing a machine that picked Brussels and probably no more than two people operated the thing as it moved across the field. No such technology on the farm and it must have taken quite a few men to do the picking.

Later. My Christmas lunch has been a great success. The Brussels were cooked to perfection. Certainly not bitter, which they can be. My roast potatoes were crisp and the parsnips just as i like them. I had to take Alfie out for a walk around Oldbrook Green after the first course. Some odd person on the grass miming boxing. Well, I think they were miming or just training, but it did look odd. A lot of people over the past months exercising around Oldbrook Green, some doing strange things which do look odd to other people who don't know what they're actually up to. A few women who walk around waving their arms around as if they're being windmills is another oddity.

Blood Test Can Improve Heart Attack Diagnosis

B.B.C. Breakfast the other morning ran an item about a new blood test which can detect whether a patient with chest pain has had a heart attack. I publish below the following gleaned from several websites:

According to the B.H.F. (British Heart Foundation), a clinical trial which they have funded at the University of Edinburgh has shown that using a very sensitive blood test could rule out a heart attack in around two thirds of people arriving at A & E with chest pain. 

The research, published on 8th October in 'The Lancet,' involved over 6,000 people at 4 Scottish and U.S. hospitals with chest pain. The researchers evaluated the best way to use a blood test to measure troponin, a protein released from the heart during a heart attack and found the threshold at which they could rule out a heart attack and safely send people home.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, from the B.H.F., said "A faster and more accurate diagnosis of whether chest pain is caused by a heart attack would be better for patients and save the N.H.S. money. No-one wants to be in hospital unless they have to be."

"What's important about this study is that the evidence shows you can quickly and confidently rule out a heart attack without compromising patient safety."

Taking Car to Perry's in Bletchley

We had the car booked in at Perry's in Bletchley this morning to have the E.S.P. fixed. As I mentioned in an earlier post on here, we ran over a pot-hole a week ago when we went to Ascott and it set off an alarm and the E.S.P. light came on on the dashboard and every time you switch on the car you get the alarm come on. (E.S.P: Electronic Stability Programme. To help prevent sideways skids. Supposed to lock wheels so they rotate together or something. Not exactly sure myself how it works or what it does precisely.) The trouble is, the more sophisticated they make cars today, the more there is to go wrong. We had gone over to find Perry's on Saturday morning, as they are the main Peugeot dealers for Milton Keynes. The car had to be at Perry's for 8 a.m. We went to Asda early this morning (they are open 24 hours a day so it's really handy to get the odd item and so we bought sandwiches for our individual lunches and lasagne, salad and garlic bread for our dinner this evening.) The we drove to Milton Keynes Academy to deliver Carol to work and then a went home, took my medication and then went over to Perry's to take the car. Fortunately the roads weren't too busy, the sun was shining and arrived on time. The car signed in, and impressed by the service. Young lady checked the car to make sure there were not signs of damage, marks etc and then put label inside the car and covers on seats. I waited in the reception area and had a coffee and biscuits and watched B.B.C. Breakfast on the television and then was driven back home. On the way the driver had to take someone else to Caldecotte Lake Business Park and then myself back home. I am impressed by the customer service of Perry's. Anywhere else we'd taken the car I would have had to get a cab home, but will have to get a cab when the car is ready to be collected later this afternoon.

Severe Weather

At 6.15 this morning we had a very violent rainstorm here. We were sitting in bed watching the  B.B.C. Breakfast programme and drinking our tea when the sound of the most intense rainfall could be heard outside. It sounded as if the roof of the house was going to be torn off. I suppose it lasted a couple of minutes but it was actually quite frightening and we were more than pleased when it eventually came to an end. As I write this at 9.05 a.m. there is still the sound of rain outside. It has gone very dark and having seen the weather forecast on television no doubt we will get more rain. Over the past few weeks we have endured some extreme weather and we were due to visit the in-laws in Bournemouth over the Christmas and New Year break but decided that it might be a good idea to postpone the visit and perhaps go down in the spring when, hopefully, the weather improves.  We usually go out and visit somewhere ever the Christmas break, but due to the wether we haven't been anywhere, unfortunately. We had a very strong wind a couple of weeks ago which tore down part of the garden fence. Our beloved landlord has absolutely no intention of replacing any of the fence, although it is in a very poor state of repair. We managed to stand the fence panel up which was blown down, wedging some old garden chairs against it in an attempt to make it safe. This happened for a second time, and the section of fence seemed to have been lifted up further into the garden by the wind but we had to stand it up again, suggesting that the wind must hvave been extremely strong.  The entire fence is now in such a poor state of repair that it is well past the point where it actually needs to be completely replaced and has sections of old table and other odd bits of timber leant against it to prevent the dogs getting out. Our main concern is for the safety of the dogs as they have a tendency to wander off if given the chance. Alfie, more than Poppy, would be off up the Redway if he got out. Poppy has wandered off, having got out presumably through the back of the equally dilapidated garden shed, as the neighbour's cats seem to enjoy using it as somewhere to sleep, and the door to this shed is off it's hinges and it is something of a trial keeping it in place and so keep the dogs out. Whenever the cat appears in the green, all hell is let loose when the dogs see it, but it seems to have the upper hand as it knows full well that they can't get to it as it sits on the roof of the shed or walks along the top of the fence.

Coughs and Sneezes

Carol has been off work since Wednesday with a really sore throat. At one point she could hardly speak, so it was really no good her going in to work as she would never have been heard by the children she teaches. There is enough problems with behaviour at the Academy, without problems being able to speak. 

It is bright and sunny at the moment, but the temperature has been dropping gradually over the past week or so. According to the BBC Breakfast news there has been snow in parts of North Yorkshire and Scotland, and it would appear that we are going to get snow here before the weekend. They had a report this morning on television from Pickering in North Yorkshire, an area we know well as we had a holiday there a few years ago and went by steam train from Pickering to Whitby which was a great journey up over the Moors. 

We had severe snow and ice last winter and as a result many of the roads within Milton Keynes became potholed, many of which have since been repaired. It took the Council quite some time to get round to repairing these holes, but many have only just been dealt with. I have seen Council workers out repairing the road near here, so I suspect someone has decided that it would be best to repair any remaining holes before the wintry weather hits hard.