Sunny Summer Sunday

A bright and fairly dry Sunday. I say 'dry' because it makes a change to actually get a summer's day without rain. Carol has broken up from Milton Keynes Academy. We decide fairly early today to take the dogs for a walk. I had suggested taking them to Rushmere, a place we've been with them on quite a few occasions. But we have the problem of Alfie, who, as soon as he realizes we are going out for a walk, even if we don't actually mention the word 'walk', begins to change considerably, barking and running around the house. If you so much as go near the dog's leads, which hang on a hook in the kitchen, he will be more than ever excited and may even try to bite the lead you pick up for him. If we had gone to Rushmere it would mean I would have to put the cage in the back of the car and that is upstairs in the spare bedroom, so he would have to be kept away from being able to see me go out with it. So we abandon that idea so Carol suggests taking them along the Redway towards the Grand Union Canal, about a mile or so's walk. The process of putting both dogs on their leads goes relatively painlessly, even though Alfie makes a considerable amount of noise. Once out onto the Redway behind our house we let the dogs off their leads and they can enjoy their freedom. Poppy ambles along while Alfie runs ahead. We get down to the road near the canal, going under the Marlborough  Street underpass, noting the interesting comments some clever graffiti artist has written along the walls. We have to put the dogs back on their leads briefly. Walking up the incline which leads to the bridge over the canal we have to step aside as a group of cyclists ride past, giving us barely time to get out of the way. I'm not impressed by their behaviour. I think they might at least been a bit more considerate and if we hadn't stepped aside the dogs would have got run over or at least there might have been a nasty accident. We walk on and come out on Woughton Green and see a running approaching. It seems that the place is over-run with people either running or cycling. We then take the path off the road across the green to the left and walk towards the canal. We bought a bag of bread with us and Carol puts the contents on the top of a drain cover and we sit at a picnic table. A large group of geese had gathered in the grassy space under the trees and walk off and swim away along the canal. We sit and watch as a crow comes down and takes a piece of the bread we put down. Several other crows appear and eat the bread. We have sat for ten minutes or so and then walk on along the towpath beside the canal and back to the bridge over the canal and then back along the Redway and home. Both dogs are exhausted by their walk and as it so happens, so are we.

After we have some lunch Carol decides she'd like some icecream as by now it has become quite sunny. It appears that the next few days are going to become quite sunny. A mini heatwave or that was what we were told on the Breakfast weather forecast. We decide to drive to Willen Lake. We had forgotten that for the next ten days or so Milton Keynes will be hosting the annual I.F. (Milton Keynes International Festival of Arts.) and we discover that the carpark at Willen Lake is extremely busy because there is a sort of festival village set up with a wide range of artistic exhibitions to look at. The place is teeming with people wandering about. We walk along the lakeside and find a gym which has a swimming pool attached. As we are currently looking for a new gym with a swimming pool to join since we ended our membership of D.W. Fitness, we enquire. We may or may not join. We find a cafe to buy ice creams and when we finish eating them we return to the car and drive home. As we come out of the carpark Carol mentions Nuffield Health, who has a site at Kent's Hill and I am reminded that I think that was a place I used to take one of the people I used to look after when I was a carer. Indeed it is, and it seems a very suitable place to join and use for swimming. We might join after we've done more research into other facilities around Milton Keynes.

Lack of Manners

When I was growing up we were expected to have manners in regards behaviour. One was that whenever an adult came into the room you stood up. You certainly didn't talk until spoken to, you never argued with your parents or other adults and if you were travelling on public transport, such as a bus or train, you'd give up your seat for an adult and in particular a lady. Where have manners gone? Out of the window it seems in most cases. I'm  not suggesting for one moment that everyone has bad manners, but it seems that quite a few people  I meet and very much in particular, young people, manners seem to have gone out of the window. I have mentioned the 'tail-gating' incidents that I've encountered whilst driving around Milton Keynes, whereby some drivers insist on driving right up behind you and attempting to get you to go faster or just get out of the way for you. On the odd occasion I've been cut up on roundabouts, where driver cut in front of you to get through faster. I have been run into because it seems I haven't moved onto a roundabout fast enough, which can be quite scary, particularly when you are waiting at a very busy roundabout and at times of heavy traffic. This can be worst when you can't see the traffic coming round and would be helped if there was a clearer view with the removal of trees and bushes on the centre of the roundabout. Some people can get very aerated if you don't do what they want you to and you often get someone waving their fists at you or hooting their horns. All it does is increase your blood pressure and your own. Stupid really. Sometimes I'm walking along the Redway around  Milton Keynes and you encounter someone on a bicycle. They should slow down or even stop if they meet pedestrians. They seem to think you'll immediately get out of the way for them. Or at least slow down, because I don't fancy being run into by a bicycle travelling at speed. Also, cyclists riding on pavements. I was always lead to believe that pavements were meant for pedestrians and roads and cycleways were for cyclists, or perhaps I got it wrong.

Carol tells me about the children she teaches. Some talk over her when she's attempting to teach, others can be just downright obnoxious. They drop litter. When challenged, they answer 'I didn't do it.' or 'someone else can pick it up.' Surprises me, because I was under the impression that today's children were conscious of the environment and the damage litter can do.

One of the worst offences I come across is when you are in conversation with someone and they get their mobile out, perhaps to answer it, either a text or a call, and then continue a conversation on the mobile as if you weren't there. Worse still, texting and completely ignoring you. Please, just say, 'excuse me' before answering a call or text message. Can't a call or text wait until the conversation with you is over? Another one is people with earphones stuck in, sometimes on a train or bus, and the thing making noises, music that comes out of the earphones in a sort of buzz or insect-like noise, or people ignoring other's eye-contact because their so busy with an iPod or mobile phone. What has happened to the art of conversation? Modern technology seems to have caused a generation to become incapable of proper speech.