Disappointments and Frustrations

Sunday. 5.55 p.m. Yesterday the men's breakfast group met at the  Harvester  Fountain inn in Loughton. It's just off Watling Street and just along the road from where Carol and I lived when we were first married, in Crownhill. 

Just a matter of interest. It intrigues me that Loughton is pronounced as it sounds (Low-ton) while Woughton-On-The-Green, the next village going out of Milton Keynes (both being villages now swallowed up by the new town of Milton Keynes), is pronounced Woof-ton. Just makes things difficult for anyone new to the area. Probably one of the quirks of the English language. Try explaining that to an American, or any other foreign visitor!

Thursday. 7.25 p.m. I haven't been keeping up with things in these blog posts. On Thursday I drove to Camphill with the hope of meeting the drama workshop guys and the new drama team. I went to the office and was told that I could do my Disclosure online. But then when I got home I had an email from Camphill to say that there had been another change of plan. Due to the disruption of the pantomime which is being performed in the Chrysalis Theatre over the Christmas period, I would not be able to meet the team, so I will have to arrange another day to visit and do a taster day (which is what I did originally when I first went to Camphill as a volunteer in around April 2019.) After that, I can do the disclosure and hopefully get back to working in the drama workshop.

I had an email on Wednesday morning saying that I had been 'put forward' for walk-on work at Pinewood Studios on a Disney production. No name or anything much. I needed to upload several photos to the Pop website, the casting site. I got Barbara to take these shots on my iPhone and then managed to upload them successfully. I would have to go to Pinewood on Friday for a costume fitting and the filming day would be on Monday. As usual, a wait to get a response, and then today I got another email telling me I had been released (i.e.; not selected.) Ho Hum! It was what I expected, but one always hopes one will eventually get selected. Just one day on something or other would be great. Such is life!

Saturday. 11.35 p.m. I have been interested in something called 'Portal,' which has been created by Facebook. It's a technology that allows you to video chat with people, your family, friends, and others by using a screen with a camera attached. OK, you can do all this on your PC or laptop and I have used Zoom during the various lockdowns we've had during the past eighteen months or more, especially for church meetings and bits of market research I have done.  It is connected to Facebook live video. Except I wouldn't want to have another gadget as I already have enough gadgets. I had imagined it would be great to be able to video chat through my television set if I was able to have a camera attached to my set so that I could use Zoom or other similar video conferencing software on my MacBook and that connected somehow to my television set.  The only problem with Zoom on a laptop is that staring at a small screen and then the tiny postage stamp-sized images of the other people in the meeting can be quite a strain. So, what amazement was it to find that Facebook had released such a piece of technology and called Portal TV? Zoom will work on it and as it's on a large television screen it would be far more comfortable to use looking at a larger image. Not only that, but you can video call family and friends using this technology. Then I found that this gadget was going to be available at half price for Black Friday. (Why does Black Friday last for several weeks? Not just one particular Friday? And could someone explain why it's Black? No, please, don't. I don't want to get into such a discussion on here. . . ) I could buy one at this low price via BT. Which is what I did. Paid for, and it would be delivered by Mailforce, part of Royal Mail. Simple. Or so I imagined. It wasn't the ordering that was difficult. Just the delivering. The thing was ordered on Wednesday, and it was scheduled to be delivered on Friday, between around 12.30-1.30 p.m. Which I learned via email and text message.

I waited in expectation of the delivery of the parcel. At around 12.30 I got a buzz on the intercom from the front door of Dexter House to say the aforementioned parcel had been delivered but to the wrong address.     Not my flat number, but the house opposite. This is constantly being a problem. The gentleman from the house opposite had a card with my address on it, and it said I could collect my parcel after 24 hours! Looking at the card it had my correct address, so why didn't the delivery driver merely turn round and see that Dexter House was opposite? Well, it was merely a matter of reading the address correctly. No real excuse. So, I was annoyed that I would have to wait a full 24 hours before I could collect the parcel.

The next day I drove into the Centre MK to meet up with my friend Nick who came to Milton Keynes on a bus from Northampton. I intended to park in the Secklow car park next to The Point and normally have no issues using the RingGo app on my phone. But for some reason, it would not work because you have to put in more identity before you pay. So it was fortunate I had sufficient coins in my jacket pocket to put in one of the ticket machines. Yet another of life's frustrations. When technology works, it's fine, but when it doesn't or is changed for whatever reason, it can be annoying.

Having met up with Nick I then drove to the mail delivery office in Brinklow. I have had to collect several parcels from here, so I was hoping that I could pick up the parcel and then return to my flat to set up the Portal TV on my television set. But no. Having taken the card which was left when the drive was going to deliver the parcel to the wrong house, I then learnt that I would need to collect the parcel fro the Parcelforce unit in Tongwell. So I got back in the car and drove across Milton Keynes to Tongwell, to just opposite Willen village. But, lo and behold! I was told by the rather disinterested girl on the reception desk that my parcel was at the Post Office in the centre of Milton Keynes! This was beginning to get somewhat repetitive. Why on earth wasn't I given this information in the first place?  I could easily have collected it when I was with Nick earlier in the day. Another car journey into the centre. But where to park? I had no change on me, thanks to having to use the payment machine in the Secklow car park when the RingGo app didn't work as it should, so I drove around aimlessly hoping there might be a free spot to park whilst I went into the Post Office to collect the parcel. No luck! Then I found myself driving into the newly-opened multi-storey car park next to John Lewis. There was no alternative but to drive in and park. I first had to negotiate the barrier, having to put my debit card into the machine. I later found that I should have taken a ticket from the machine and once I'd collected the parcel I then realized I had to put this ticket (which I didn't have.) in one of the payment machines to then pay with my card. Oh, what an adventure the entire afternoon had been. But I did manage to get out eventually, managing to get a ticket from the exit and then putting it into another machine to lift the barrier, so I could get out!

On arriving back at Dexter House I then found that some kind person had parked their car across the entrance to my parking space, which was so nice of them, but later in the evening, I went down to move my car onto my space once the car had driven away. Just a wonderful end to a long, and difficult afternoon.

Technical Problems and Medication

I've been having technical problems with my Panasonic Freeview set-top box. I think I've mentioned that I replaced Sky with Freeview. It made sense, because I didn't get the best value from their service and it was costing quite a bit for the privilege of having their service, and Freeview is, well, free. The new set-top box has been working perfectly successfully, but they keep on upgrading the software (I presume that's what it does, you keep getting messages to do this and then when you try to find channels, they have moved them around or added new ones. Somewhat annoying.) But after one up-grade, for some reason or other the box wouldn't connect by wi-fi to the internet router, which meant that I couldn't use the catch-up facility which it has, so couldn't use BBC iPlayer or ITV Hub and all the other similar services.  No amount of fiddling with the various settings would re-connect to the router. I have now got it working again, not connecting via wi-fi, but by connecting a cable to the box and plugging it in to the router. The cable purchased from Amazon and ordered on Thursday and delivered yesterday evening. One of the advantages of having Amazon Prime, you get next-day delivery on virtually all that they sell. The Freeview box is now working as it should and I'm enjoying watching a lot of archive material on the BBC iPlayer.

I recently up-graded my Fire Stick to one which now has Alexa voice control. This was bought for half-price during Amazon's Black Friday period, so it seemed a good enough excuse to get one. Not only do you get the range of video material but by using Alexa you can have games, which are voice-operated. I was surprised how easy it was to set up and get running. I'm really glad that I bought this when I did.

I have mentioned that I had been prescribed Sertraline and Temazepam. The first is a anti-depressant and the second is a sleeping tablet. I took the Temazepam for only a couple of nights but found that there were unpleasant side-effects. I don't think it helped me sleep, even though I had a hot bath and a hot-milky drink before going to bed. I still wake at around 4a.m. and was then unable to return to sleep, but the next morning I felt really nauseous and got horrible shakes, which didn't go off completely until around midday. I stopped taking it a day or two before I was due to drive to Worcester for Christmas, because I don't think I would have been safe to drive the car.

Later. I took Alfie out for his usual early-morning walk, walking along Strudwick Drive and across Oldbrook Boulevard and I couldn't help seeing 'that woman' who stands in the road stopping cars and asking for money. This must be the sixth time I've seen her. I was keen to get back to Dexter House without the possibility of her stopping me or even following me back. She's dressed the same way as she has been before, tidily dressed, wearing dark trousers or leggings, a short top, like a bomber jacket, has short-copped hair, mousy-coloured, aged mid 40's early 50's, height around 5' 8. When I got back to the flat I rang 101 and told the Police of this woman, because I'm concerned for her safety, either getting run over or even stabbed by someone (unfortunately these things happen.) She must live somewhere nearby in Oldbrook and presumably in a residential home for people with either learning disabilities or mental health issues. If so (and it seems more than likely.) she must have a key worker or at least a support worker, or even a social worker who would look after her care.

Later still. Having sorted out the Freeview box (as explained above.) the Fire Stick was playing up on Sunday evening. It would not connect to the wi-fi router. I could not get a connection until I restarted it (having gone to the Amazon site and searching for 'help.' This worked and it soon joined the wi-fi router and the problem was solved.

Attempting to Get Doctor's Appointment

I have been attempting to get a doctor's appointment for Carol this morning. Our surgery has a new system which means you don't need to queue up outside before 8 a.m. before the surgery opens. You have to telephone and they use a triage system whereby you have to tell the receptionist what your symptoms are and they decide what sort of priority it requires and then the doctor will telephone you during the day and after a discussion will decide whether you need to have a face-to-face appointment. All very well and good, as it will weed out the time wasters, those with minor ailments, sore throats, cut fingers and so on (which are so minor the patients with these sort of ailments should go to a chemists and speak to the pharmacist and stop wasting the doctor's time so that more serious ailments can be dealt with or at least be seen by a nurse at the surgery. There us a walk-in centre at Milton Keynes Hospital which is only a short distance from Ashfield Medical Centre or else if your needs are more serious you should go to Accident and Emergency.) 

I started ringing the surgery just after 8 a.m. and all I got was a sort of engaged tone, similar to what you get if you were to keep the phone 'off the hook.' It took half a dozen more attempts and by 9.30, by which time I had almost given up all hope of getting through, I managed to get through to a recorded message which lead to a menu with several options and from that I got to a further selection of options and a horrible repeating message and music (not as bad as some orgnisations, but bad enough when it keeps on playing over and over.) I eventually got to speak to a human and after some explination as to why Carol needed an appointment or at least a doctor to speak to via telephone, the woman told me that she would need to phone when he got home from work. So, all a waste of time and effort to be told that and I hope Carol can get through when she done ring. Who dreams up this sort of sytem in the first place? Do they have any idea how stressful it is when you can't get through? It's not easy if you're working and you need an appointment and particularly if you're too busy, as Carol is, to ring the surgery. Also, it seems the Academy doesn't like it if you go for an appointment during the day which means you have to arrange to go for an appointment outside work hours, which isn't easy. 

I've been reading back some of the material I wrote months ago. I haven't looked at it for a while and I'm really surprised by how good it is. Or at least, that's what I think of it. I'm attempting to find a way to develop this particular storyline further and have written a couple more pages. It needs editing, infact, quite heavily. But at least it's no worse than it could have been which is great. 

I'm not getting involved in Black Friday, or whatever it's called. I went to Tesco at Kingston yesterday morning and they had signs up all over the store telling you that the store would be open from midnight tonight for customers. It's just an attempt to get as many customers as possible buying madly before 25th December. When you see how totally mad some people can get when these sales are on it's something that I'm keen to avoid at all costs. It does annoy me that companys put their prices up so people buy stuff just for one day's worth of presents and then a few days later those same companys have to start their January sales and the self-same items are reduced considerbly. You might just as well wait and buy your presents then and get th discounts.

Dreary December Day

So we're now into December. Only a couple of weeks until Christmas. We managed to do our  grocery shopping in Morrison's on Friday rather than on Saturday as we usually do. It was strange being in there then rather than our usual time on a Saturday. They have a promotion on which they have done for the past couple of years. You have to spend £40 each week for four weeks and get four vouchers to get £25 off your Christmas shop. We have ordered our Turkey roast which we have to collect on Christmas Eve. The £25 voucher will cover the cost of this roast.

Carol had a hair appointment at 12 noon on Saturday, but we decided to go into the Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre and parked in Debenham's multi-storey car park. We walked down through the store and Carol looked at some clothes. It is Black Friday weekend and Debenham's were running a sale so it seemed good excuse to buy something at a greatly reduced price. Carol bought a rather nice Mantray sweater with a sort of wintery design of pine tree on it. We walked through the shopping centre and went into Waterston's and went upstairs to the Costa coffee shop and had lattes and browsed the books. It was very busy.

It's incredibly dull and over-cast this morning. Quite dark, as I write this at 9.20 a.m. It's like early evening.