Everything's Coming Up Roses! (Or Is It? Probably not . . . )

 Friday. 2.00 p.m. It's been sunny and pleasant so far today. When I took Alfie out at around 6.15 there was a rosy-red sky.

I wanted to go to Lidl after 9 o'clock this morning. I usually drive around the block and onto Oldbrook Boulevard along Truman Place, which runs alongside Dexter House, but, on arrival at the roundabout on Oldbrook Boulevard, I discovered that the road was closed and an army of workmen in bright orange overalls. This meant I had to return to Dexter Avenue and then onto Strudwick Drive, turn right onto Chaffron Way, go right around the grid, and enter Oldbrook from Grafton Street. No real problem in all this, but a bit annoying as I wasn't aware of the road closure until I got to it. This seems to happen regularly all around Milton Keynes, mainly when they have been resurfacing parts of the grid road network.

I took Alfie out again a few minutes ago and I could see the workmen with a large lorry with 'Tarmac' written on it and another machine which I believe lays the new surface. I have to say I quite like the smell of tar. Is that odd? I seem to remember a play I did in Liverpool in the 1970's, which I think was called 'June Evening' (I covered the book for this production.) and one of the characters talked about tar being used to clear the chest of a baby, who was held over a barrel of hot tar. Strange how such things come back as a memory.

When I had completed my shopping in Lidl, I had to use a self-service till (they had only one manned till open, even though the store was busy.) I had problems getting items to scan, but a young lady who is there for such an incident managed to scan my shopping. I don't know why this happens. It's odd, though, that you are supposed to scan from right to left, which isn't the standard way of doing things. Or is it just me? Most things are operated from left to right, which seems more logical.

Saturday. 7.50 a.m. Another bright and sunny but cold, which I discovered earlier when Alfie and I went outside.

Sunday. 7.25 a.m. I had no idea that the clocks went forward today. I think it happened at 1 a.m., so I suppose that means it's today. There was nothing about it on the news yesterday, and no sort of reminder. Also, it's Mothering Sunday. Please, not Mother's Day, which is an American institution. Whatever it is, it's yet another way for businesses to make money, similar to Valentine's Day or, dare I say it, Hallow'een. 

I have a subscription to The Daily Telegraph. It's for digital, meaning I don't have the print paper and can read via the app and also the website. My current subscription ends in April and I had an email to inform me the next year's subscription would be around £200. I was keen that this amount didn't come out of my bank account and was prepared at that point to cancel the subscription. So, yesterday morning I rang the callcentre to discuss cancellation. The friendly man the other end was understanding but then wanted to offer me a cheaper deal. He first said '£150', but I refused that. The £99.' Again, I refused. Gradually it went down until it was £39, which I accepted. It just goes to show, you don't need to go with the first offer on something like this and it makes you wonder how many people take the first offer, not knowing that you can beat them down. I presume he didn't want me to disappear and not have a subscription, but it was worth it in the end.

Lockdown Fallout

 Thursday. 7.05 a.m. I've been out with Alfie.

2.15 p.m. I've been to the Oaktree Centre as I have for quite a few months now, helping to set up and pack away the gear for the Acorns playgroup. Then, at 10 o'clock, into one of the side rooms for Bible study. I drove home and had some lunch, watching an episode of Bargain Hunt, which I hadn't seen in ages. It's been running on BBC1 since about 2000. Two teams of two have one hour to find three antiques at an antique fair or in an antique shop and then sell the items for a profit, which, if they win, they keep. Each team has an antique expert who helps them decide which items to buy and then, once the teams have bought their three items, the experts go off with what cash they have left and then buy another bonus item which the teams can either decide to sell or reject. The profit, or loss, is added to the cost of what they sell. More challenging than it seems. Along the way you learn about various items and at the midpoint of the show the presenter, in this show, it was Charlie Ross, goes somewhere local to the site of the antiques fair, such as a country house, museum or other historic site and gives a talk about some aspect of that place or a style of antiques, furniture, pottery or whatever.

Friday. 5.15 a.m. I'm wide awake because there is a sound coming from one of the nearby flats. I can hear music, possibly a television on, and a voice. I look out of my door and a man comes out of the flat. I thought I could hear the sound of one of the alarms going off, which all the flats in Dexter House have. I don't know what is going on. I will no doubt discover during the course of the day.

6.05 a.m. I've done some more transcribing my handwritten writing onto word processing. I was awake, so  I thought I'd do some more. It's going well. Now I need to find a way to incorporate this into the rest of my writing. I have some ideas, but at the moment I'm not sure where it's going. Time will tell.

7.20 a.m. So, we're now being able to read the WhatsApp messages which were sent to the then Health Secretary, Matt Hancock to various members of the government during the COVID-19 lockdowns. And which are currently being published in The Daily Telegraph.  It would appear that some ministers as well as government scientists attempted to stop lockdowns because they believed that they would not help the spread of the virus. Also, the use of face masks was said to not be effective. It seems we've been treated like infants and the collateral damage caused by lockdowns, not least the financial damage, caused by closing down businesses, such as pubs, shops, theatres and a whole host of other places of work, not least the mental health damage which has been caused and the destruction of school children's education as well as their mental well-being. We became a police state at one point, with police having the power to fine members of the public for doing innocent things such as taking their dog for a walk, having a picnic or merely having a cup of coffee. There really was no logic to this, because the virus would surely be dispersed by the breeze in the open air. It wasn't like having people crowded together in a confined space, such as a room in a house, an office, or even a lift in a tall building, where people could be in close quarters with other people.  I think people became like sheep, they didn't question any of the lockdown restrictions or lockdown in general. All of these smack of Nazi Germany or life under Stalin or any communist regime. Then we read that certain members of the government, who should have known better, were contemptuous of those who got caught contravening the lockdown regulations. Of course, we then had to find out that Boris Johnson, when he was Prime Minister, along with many other members of his Government, was caught holding parties in 10 Downing Street. Johnson had to own up to all of this and had to pay a fine, although he did his utmost to wriggle out of the truth of all this. You would imagine that members of the government, which forced through the various bits of legislation which set up the regulations, which included people not meeting in groups of around six, with no parties allowed etc would have known that such a party was illegal. Or did they wave it through without thinking and then, if they had a party, no one would find out? Except someone took photographs which proved they did. Shows even more contempt for the public.

All this had a marked effect on my mental health. I lost my lovely wife, Carol, to cancer in December 2018. I spent most of 2019 attempting to come to terms with being on my own and building a new life for myself, starting volunteering at Camphill (which I have mentioned in these posts on many occasions.) But then, having everything held in suspended animation in the early part of 2020 when the first lockdown was introduced. I ended up having to use antidepressants (which, incidentally, I have stopped taking.) Being shut in my flat, not seeing anyone, not being able to go to church, although services were relayed via Facebook, and we had Zoom meetings (although, having access to Zoom was brilliant, and I learned very fast how to use it, and I still do, for certain events which are put on  Zoom.) But, generally, it was very difficult for me, not to be able to interact with other people.

Mystery Lorries, Foggy Mornings and Fixing Drips

 A very large H.G.V. was parked up just opposite the house last night. (Thursday) I could  see something from the bathroom window and there was one of those orange flashing lights which drew my attention to whatever it was that was going on. The lorry had garden fencing and goodness knows what on the back of it. I don't think lorries of that size and weight should really be parked in the estate. Apart from the size and weight of it, they would take up valuable parking spaces for residents. I couldn't work out what was going on and opened the window, because I couldn't see clearly through the frosted glass of the bathroom window. There was a second vehicle, a van, with the back open, and a man in overalls doing something or other. I thought at first he was filling in potholes, but it occurred to me, why would anyone be doing that sort of work at around 10p.m. on a Thursday in February? It was the fact that I couldn't get to sleep and had gone downstairs to make myself a hot drink, Ovaltine, which helps me to get to sleep. It was when I needed to go to the loo that I decided to go upstairs to the bathroom that I then noticed the flashing orange light through the frosted glass. I wondered at first if it was an emergency vehicle, such as a police car or even an ambulance, which was what got my curiosity raised that I had to open the window to get a closer look. I gave up on what was going on and went back to bed.

This morning (Friday) I got myself ready to take Alfie out and had to again use the bathroom. Not going into too much detail, but I couldn't understand why the bathmat was so wet as I stood minding my own business at the loo. I thought perhaps I had got the mat too wet when I'd got out of the bath last night, but it couldn't have been that. The mat was really wringing wet so I moved it out of the bathroom to deal with later. Alfie was confined to the lounge, as I usually have him as he gets so over-wrought when he knows he's about to go out. It was when I'd moved the mat that I found a large puddle on the floor and soon found the source of the leak. A junction in the plumbing under the toilet cistern was leaking slowly but gradually. I think it may just require a spanner taking to it to tighten the connection. But I don't have any tools to do this job and I know that if I ring my landlord he'll only get himself in a stress and it'll be an age before he sends a plumber to fix it, so I texted Garry next door because I know he has the required knowledge and the tools to fix the problem. So I've put towels on the floor to absorb the water and just have to leave it until it can be fixed successfully.

All was revealed to me as to the situation regarding the large lorry when I got to take Alfie out this morning. It was very foggy out and you could barely see across the road, but the fog has since gone as I write this at 7.35a.m. on Friday morning. Alfie made his usual din as I opened the door. As Alfie game out of the house, barking crazily, that the drive of the H.G.V. came across the road from his vehicle to speak to me and make a fuss of the loudly-barking little dog. He told me that he'd had a tyre blow-out as he was driving past on Saxon Street. He made the comment that the other vehicles were driving fast and he needed somewhere to park up safely, hence the vehicle being left over-night opposite my home. The van I saw from the bathroom window, as described above, had been from a firm which had managed to replace the blown-out tyre and he had to spend the night asleep in his cab. I took Alfie across Eaglestone Park as normal and by the time I came back to enter the house, the H.G.V. had gone. The H.G.V. driver commented on the speed of the traffic, to which I agree, making the response that I thought the speed limit was far too high and really ought to be lowered to between 40-60 m.p.h.

Later. I went next door and asked Garry if he could deal with the leak for me and he came round. Fortunately he was on a late shift and wouldn't be at home later. The leak if from a junction between two pipes and it was a worn washer that was causing the problem. So it's fixed and the bath mats and towels are in the washing machine ready to wash and the floor mopped. Not completely dry but it's a least not one large puddle!

I had a fairly substantial amount of cash arrive in my Nationwide account a few days ago. No explanatory letter to give details of what it was for except the initials 'TP' next to it. I assumed it would be for Teachers' Pensions. I had no idea how to access Carol's pensions until I got a telephone call from the caseworker at the N.A.S.U.W.T (I still don't know what the initials stand for.) I was told that I could download a form from the Teacher's Pensions website, which I did, and then had to get Carol's employee number from the Academy and I think her National Insurance number, which I duly put on the form which was completed and sent off. I had only meant to go to the Nationwide account to look at the balance, as I often do, otherwise I would never have known it was there.

Having had the money appear in my bank account I would have expected to have had a letter or at least some sort of statement from Teacher's Pensions to give me an idea how they worked out these amounts (there was a smaller amount also on the statement on line). So I had this morning rung Teachers' Pensions and I have been told that a letter should have been sent out, but obviously wasn't but one will now be sent to me. Whether this monthly payment will make up the difference of the rent payments with Housing Benefit, I'm not sure, but at least it means I have some more cash to play around with, to pay bills and general living expenses. I was expecting there to be some sort of need for me to identify myself, but I just gave them Carol's National Insurance number and that was all.

I went into our local Waitrose. A loaf of bread and a few other comestibles. I walked past the newspapers on display and saw the headline in the Daily Telegraph 'Churches can scrap Sunday Services.' Did make it read a bit like bus companies not running services on a Sunday. No, wait a minute. So, what exactly is the good old C of E going to put on instead? Bingo, or community sing-a-longs? What are the vicars going to be up to on a Sunday? I didn't even realise they were legally required to put on services, the General Synod voted to end the law that has existed since the 17th Century.

It's been a bright and sunny day here today, which was great, considering the day started out foggy. It's generally a sign at this time of year, that the weather will improve as the day progresses, if it starts foggy or over-cast. So, as a treat for Alfie, I decided to take him for a second walk. It must have taken him by surprise, as we don't usually go for a second walk. As a result I've done well over 7000 steps. It's interesting to see different people, although none speak. A weird youth wandering the path, looking as if he's got nothing better to do. No doubt would be in school, but as it's Half-Term, looking lost. Several other rather lost souls. Discovering a lot of bits of Eaglestone I've never been to before, some looking somewhat run down.I think quite a few of th properties are rented, and don't look as if their tenants look after them particularly well. A lot of litter and the front gardens full of broken machinery, old cars which have been repaired or had parts taken from them and then left to rot. Not particularly encouraging if you were looking to buy or rent a property and to see that as you drove up for the first time.

Warmer Weather

A real increase in the temperature as the weather improves. I can't believe I'm going out without a jacket on. I've managed to cut the grass. It seems to grow a good deal faster once it's mown. I still refuse to term it a 'lawn.' It has absolutely no attributes for a lawn, such as very short grass, with those distinctive stripes and ironing-board flat. It's more like a meadow, but without the cattle chewing the cud. Or sheep, roaming about. It's got so many undulations, it's more like a scale model of the Pennines. 

We've begun to fill the collection of pots we have scattered around the place. Several had been sitting on the front bit of paving for I don't know how many years. We were given some by someone who worked with Carol at the Academy as well as a rather nice planter which originally had a Christmas tree in it but then the tree died and the remains of the tree were still in it. We never seem to have any success with Christmas trees. I suspect it's because, once Christmas is over, being the middle of winter, any chance of the poor little fir tree surviving is so remote because the weather is so cold. When I lived in Cardington we always had a real Christmas tree, and once the festive season was over the tree was planted out in the garden and lasted for many years until it grew far too big to be brought indoors. Ours always seem to die and I'm not sure what we can do to prevent it happening again. Anyway, we have had quite a few plants from various garden centres we've visited over the past few weeks, including strawberry plants and bedding plants which were free from Homebase with an offer which was in last weekend's Daily Telegraph. 

I have also been clearing all weeds and moss off the front drive, in between the paving slabs and the block paving where the car stands. It's beginning to look really clean and tidy. Quite a hard job, but now I've started it I want to complete the job. I don't think this has been done in a long time. Certainly not in all the time we've lived in the house.

We have a bird feeder in the garden. We had one a few years ago, but I'm not sure what happened to it. This thing is described on the box it came in as a 'dining station.' We got it from Amazon. I always thought of Amazon as being the place on-line to buy books, and nothing more, but it seems you can buy virtually anything on there. I got a case for my Canon digital camera. To keep it safe when I carry it about. I used to own a traditional film S.L.R. Camera, a very good Olympus, and it had it's own case which it lived in, which was fixed to the body of the camera by the screw underneath which you used to fix it to a tripod. Nothing, unfortunately, like this for a digital camera. The Olympus case was made of a fairly rigid material which kept the camera within safe from knocks and folded down when in use. Unfortunately, you have to remove the camera completely from the Canon case and won't fold out of the way like the Olympus case.

As I was mentioning, the bird 'dining station' came with a central metal pole which you stick in the ground and then attach the feeders onto the hooks at the top and then fill each of these wire feeders with nuts or other food. It has proven very popular with the small birds which live in and around the garden. We had a group of starlings who seemed to enjoy the coconut we had hanging on the dining station.' So much so that they have completely devoured the coconut and as I write I can look out and see the completely empty shell of the coconut. I will have to go out and buy some more. The content of the feeders needs replenishing.

I got a knock at the front door earlier this morning. A man dressed in bright orange work gear, the sort of  colour used for people who work in possibly dangerous situations. I can't think as I write what the term is, but I'm sure it will come to me once I've finished this.  I have now remembered what the term is, and it's 'High Vis' a shortened version of 'High Visability'. I can see why they wear it as it's very bright and they are certainly 'Highly Visable.' It turned out he was an employee of Anglia Water. He said he was working with a gang further along the road and, as their van was blocking our exit, if I wanted to move our car, to just let him know. I'm not entirely sure what they're doing. I thought it might have been something to do with water meters or something unless someone further along the street has a water leak. Never mind. At least he had the decency to let me know, as a lot of people never bother to tell you, and then when you want to drive out, you can't, because their vehicle or other equipment is in the way.

I'm currently reading 'The Lady In The Van' by Alan Bennett. I bought the DVD of the film which was based on the book and play which he wrote and about Miss Shepherd, the old lady who lived in a van in his garden. She is played by the amazing Maggie Smith. I've always been a admirer of this actress. The part is light years away from the character she plays in 'Downton Abbey.' I also love anything Alan Bennett writes. I'm really surprised he had the patience to put up with such an eccentric old woman living in such strange accomodation in his garden, and for fifteen years.

Garden-Tidying and Milton Keynes Marathon

We were informed, by reading yellow signs on the Grid Roads around here, that the roads were to be closed over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend ( Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd May.) From experience we are used to having Golden Drive closed off on marathon days, meaning we usually can't get out in the car at such times. We are also usually informed through the medium of a letter put through our letter boxes well in advance. This didn't happen, although a leaflet was put through our door on Saturday evening, too late to be of any real use. It turned out that, in the end, the runners kept to Saxon Street and didn't come into our estate at all. Which meant we could get out if we'd wanted to. But it would appear, having read the leaflet again, Golden Drive will be closed off tomorrow for another marathon. It's all very well and good, and there's nothing wrong with any of this, but it is beginning to become somewhat tiresome. Why can't they use the Redway, which runs only a few yards away, behind our house? It would surely mean they don't have to cause so much inconvenience to anyone and it must be safer in the long run (sorry about the unintentional pun. These things just happen that way.) as the Redway system was designed in such a way that users don't have to cross the Grid Roads, being designed to utilise bridges and under-passes. 

I have bought a Strimmer. Well, actually it isn't a Strimmer as such. It uses the same technology and is actually a Qualcast Grass Trimmer, 'Strimmer' being a trademark of a particular make of grass cutter which uses plastic fishing line, revolving fast inside a hand-held device run on electricity and enabling the user to trim generally inaccessible grass around a lawn, under trees etc. I purchased it in Homebase earlier in the week. I had a voucher which meant if I spent £30 or more I could get extra bonus Nectar points, so it seemed a good enough excuse to buy the machine and claim the extra points. I have been using the thing and it's making a good enough job of tidying up the grass at the back of the house. As we now have the fence repaired it seems a good enough excuse to start on sorting out the garden. I have also been clearing the weeks and mess from the front of the house. Weeds and grass have been growing between the cracks in the paving slabs at the front of the house and I've been using the hoe we bought in Wickes the other week to scrape the weeds out. It's quite a difficult job but it seems well worth it. The Daily Telegraph has had an offer in the paper this weekend, you cut out a voucher and take it to Homebase and receive bedding plants free, so we went early this morning and picked the plants up, pansies as well as strawberry plants. We also got a rather nice ceramic strawberry planter which will go well on the patio in the garden. We went to Dobbie's garden centre yesterday afternoon and got trays of plants as well as another visit to Staple's garden centre near Flitwick later on this morning and got another plant as Carol has been busy sorting out our collection of pots which we've had sitting around the garden for far too long, steadily growing weeds inside them, but now have some fresh and colourful flowering plants in them. 

Potting Compost STOLEN!

We've been attempting to solve the problem of the dogs 'arguing' with next door's dog. 'Arguing' being the operative word. Alfie is actually responsible. I have mentioned in earlier posts that he has escaped through holes in the fence. I think what it is is that he can hear our neighbour's rabbits scuttling around, just the other side of the fence, and when their dog comes out of their house he can see him/her/it through the fence. Alfie, being the terrier that he is, stares (!) through the gaps in the fence then begins to bark at the dog. We usually rush out and attempt to get him back into the house, and as the neighbour's dog continues to bark, and run into the fence, the whole construction begins to move. Nobody from the neighbour's side of the fence attempts to stop their dog barking. As a result of all this we have been trying to find a way to stop these 'attacks' (For want of a better word.) As this is a rented property, we don't want to spend too much, and I have already contacted the rental agency to try and get the landlord to repair the fence, but, so far, they seem reluctant to do anything about it. Presumably, as they don't want to spend any money. The fence in general is in a pretty poor state of repair.

One solution we have come up with, is to buy a planter, which is made of whicker, and which we got in Willington Garden Centre the other week. The idea is to put this right up against the fence, so that it hides the gaps in the fence, the weight of the soil/compost inside it protects the wobbly fence from further attacks from either side, and we also get somewhere to plant some tomatoes (which came as a result of a really great offer in last week's Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph. Next week there's three packets of free seeds.) We purchased three bags of potting compost from Aldi last week. These we got with our shopping, and they were unloaded at the front of the house and have been sitting on the paving for several days. I managed to hoist them out of the car, but, having a heart problem, I can't lift heavy weights, so they had sat at the front of the house until Daniel, my stepson, could move them into the back garden.

Yesterday morning I was about to drive to Church, when I noticed that two of these bags of potting compost were missing. It occured to me that they had been stolen. I know we should have moved them out of the way, out of prying eyes, but that doesn't excuse them being stolen. I have an idea when they were taken. I went to the bathroom at around 10 p.m. on Saturday, and the dogs started barking, just as a car drew up at the front of the house. I couldn't see exactly what was going on, as the bathroom window has frosted glass in it, but it was there for only a few seconds, but, thinking about it now, it must have been then that the bags of potting compost was lifted.