This and That

Well, I can't go a day without SOMETHING to write about, but I have been reading 'The Times', and came across a piece which links in with my blog post regarding manners. It is a report about Lord Robert Winston, the fertility expert and exponent on I.V.F. treatment, who was on a train to Manchester when he had to endure a woman having a mobile phone conversation and how he used social media (Facebook in particular) about how this woman's conversation was annoying not only himself but fellow passengers. It turned out that someone on Twitter said he was 'bullying' her and being rude. How stupid can you get? Why do people think it's acceptable to just blather on endlessly and expect others to have to endure this sort of thing? No manners. Can people just not speak so loud on their mobiles? Why does everyone else have to endure such one-sided conversations? Why, just because you can have a telephone conversation, because the technology is available, does it mean you actually have to, and say such things as 'I'm on my way home.' If it's an emergency, or if the train is going to be late, for whatever reason, then there is no problem, but just blathering on about trivial things, then there is no point. I think it goes with the current thing about selfishness. A lot of people seem to think it's fine to 'do their own thing' without thinking about the consequences of their actions. Talking loudly on your mobile in a public space, for example, a railway carriage, being one such instance, regardless of how the people around you are effected.

Having said I read 'The Times' newspaper, it wasn't the print version. I took up and offer to have the paper for three months in  digital format, so I took it up. At just £3 it was too good to miss. I have it on Kindle and also on this laptop. It anything else, it saves having lots of papers cluttering up the place.  I have downloaded the app for my iPhone, but as yet I haven't managed to get it to work. It's taking a while to fathom out the navigation, but in some ways it's easier to read than a print version of the newspaper. Should also be doing my bit for the environment by having it in digital format. I'll have to wait and see whether I continue with a full-price subscription after the offer ends, but you get a lot of benefits such as 2-for-the-price-of-one for cinema tickets as well as other freebies and offers.

If you recall, I mentioned the 'little incident' I had in the carpark at Frost's in Woburn Sands a couple of Saturdays ago, when I was supposed to have run into this man's car when I was reversing out of my parking space and was alleged to have damaged  his car. He was very quick to be taking photos of the 'damage' with his iPhone and his wife was standing with a notebook and pencil and making notes of our registration number and he was keen to get me to 'pay up' to have the aforementioned 'damage' repaired. Well, nothing further has transpired since this incident. I contacted my insurance company and gave them details of the incident, but, as I say, nothing further has happened. No doubt this person went to have the 'damage' scrutinised by a garage to get a quote for repairs, but was no doubt laughed at by the garage as they wouldn't have seen any alleged damage. As for our car, Carol managed to wipe off any signs of damage, a slight knock, or scratch (hardly even that.) So I think we can forget all about it.

I've finally got to the end of 'Goodbye Christopher Robin.' For such a short book, it seemed to go on interminably. I don't like to start books and then not finish them, but this was definitely one which I was tempted to not finish. So it's a definite question of 'Goodbye' to Christopher Robin, and good riddance. Now on to other reading.

We went to IKEA yesterday morning. We have completed the shelving units, as discussed in earlier blog posts. This unit is designed with a series of square sections, which can be used as space to store books, but, by purchasing boxes sold by IKEA which fit exactly into these square spaces, it allows for more flexible storage of other items. We bought three, two with are full sized boxes and the third is divided into two drawers. So now we can store a lot of the clutter we seem to accumulate, which used to sit on the old bookshelves, and in the space in front of the books. Things like the cables which are used with our digital cameras (as well as the cameras, in one of the larger boxes) and things such as staplers, scissors, loose change and so on and so forth.

We were surprised by how busy it was in IKEA. A lot of young children, so we assumed that some schools were on half-term. Possibly it was a teacher-training day or something, from the Primary schools in the area. The café area was exceptionally busy. We had lattes and cakes. Carol had exceptionally nice gateau with cream and I had cinnamon bun. I can see why it's so popular, because the food is incredibly cheap. For example, you can get a very good cooked breakfast for no more than  £1.50. Which is one explanation why it gets so busy, even on a Friday.

Mixed Weather and Other Matters

It's been a good deal milder the past couple of days. Which means we haven't had the central heating on, which can only be a good thing. We have crocuses coming up in the garden, the one's Carol's mum gave us and which were planted in the large round ceramic bowl we bought when we went to Norfolk Lavender several years ago when we went to visit my brother Andrew. The Christmas tree, which has been put outside in the garden once the festive season was over and still in it's plant-pot (and in definite need of a replant in a larger one at some point in the not-too distant future.) appears to be growing quite considerably. But yesterday the weather turned a good deal colder, so we had to put the heating back on. Well, considering we're almost into February (well, it will be tomorrow.) we seem to have escaped the worst of the winter weather. I just hope we don't get another dose of snow and ice. As I write this (at 8.55 a.m.) it is raining and there quite a river running down the road in front of the house.

We are slowly filling up our new bookshelf unit. The boxes of books and other things are being emptied from when we dismantled the old shelves. As I write this, the bits of the old shelves are still piled up on the grass at the front of the house, ready for the Council workmen to take them away.  I'm surprised that nobody has attempted to shift them in the night. There are spaces for baskets or boxes which we will eventually buy from IKEA and these will hopefully hide a lot of the items which previously lived on the shelves, the bits and pieces you can't avoid having somewhere or other in the room, such as the cables which connect our cameras to the computer, glasses cases, spare change, pencil sharpeners and a host of other things you can never do without, however hard you try.

Alfie has become even more clever We gave him a large tin of Baker's dog treats for Christmas. He knows exactly where it is (standing on one of the red IKEA coffee tables near the window.) and what it contains. He goes and stares at it, even poking it with his nose. Or his other trick, taking you to the sliding patio doors in the kitchen which lead out into the garden. Goes out for a wee in the garden and comes in and waits, expecting to automatically get a treat for going outside, but now he just takes you to the sliding door and stares out, and seems to think that alone warrants a treat. Crafty little dog. Also, if he sits in front of either of us, when we're watching television (cleverly in our eye-line) and stares at us, he will get something such as a treat from the tin.

I'm continuing to read 'Goodbye Christopher Robin,' by Ann Thwaite. It was a free book one Saturday when you bought the Sunday Telegraph. I think I might have read it, having borrowed it from Bedford Central Library many years ago. It is the basis for a film of the same name. It's about how A.A.Milne came to write the 'Winnie-the-Pooh' books. I'm enjoying it up to a  point, but then Milne isn't a particularly interesting person. Pooh is a far more interesting, which says a lot about his creator. Milne was a relatively successful playwright before the 'Pooh' books were published, but nowadays the plays are relatively unknown. Milne is not as interesting a person, or so it would appear from reading this book, as, for example, Oscar Wilde, or Noël Coward, who wrote plays which are still being produced and never seem to date. Both came out with witticisms and many quotes come from their plays and other writings. I have to say it's a bit of an effort to read and I'll be glad when I have finished it. I'm interested in the creative process, how Milne came up with the idea for the stories and characters, but that is about all. I do like 'Pooh,' but I think the whimsy does get a bit cloying and mawkish. I prefer children's writing to be more acerbic. Writers such as Roald Dahl, who gave a far more realistic sense to their characters, not in the last sentimental and whimsical in the least.

This last section is being written at 7.35 p.m. The pieces of old bookshelf, which were piled up on the grass at the front of the house have now been removed by the Council workmen of the refuse collection department. It makes me laugh when I knew from hearing them collect the stuff, but then when I went online and opened my emails I saw the Council had sent me an email informing of the fact that the wood had been taken. Good of them to let me know.

Fourth Chemotherapy Cycle

We had a visit from Carol's cousin Andrew yesterday morning. We were interested to hear about his ministry working with children in Romania. Carol is going to be able to help with some teaching material which will be great to give her a focus away from chemotherapy and it's side effects. She has been making some cakes, a really tasty Victoria sponge as well as some cup-cakes. We may buy an electric  hand mixer which should make things quicker and easier. The only problem is, once the cakes are made, resisting the temptation to actually eat them is quite difficult as they are very tasty and somewhat moorish!

This blog post is being written as I'm sitting with Carol in the Oncology Unit at Milton Keynes hospital. I'm making the most of having free wi-fi within the hospital. Writing as things are actually happening allows the post to be a good deal more fresh in my mind that it would have been if I'd written it completely from memory as it might have been if i'd written it later when I'd got home.

We had to be at the oncology suite at 11 a.m. Alfie insisted on running upstair when we were about to leave the house. It would have been better for him to be left in the kitchen but as soon as we said 'kitchen, Alfie!' he ran upstairs to our bedroom and wouldn't be budged. I closed the door, but as soon as I got downstairs he began barking and it was obvious he didn't like being shut in. And who, in all honesty, could blame him?

We gave ourselves plenty of time as it's not always easy to get a parking space later in the day. Which was true when we arrived at the carpark behind the oncology department. I drove in but absolutely no spaces so I immediately drove out and left Carol to take our bags of things in and report to the reception in the Oncology department. So I had to drive round the ring road and find a space at the front of the hospital in the ground-level carpark. I then had to walk round the hospital site to get to the oncology department. You would think that there would be a dedicated carpark for those using the oncology department or at least who use the facilities on a more regular basis. But that would be far too easy.

 It's been a a particularly windy day, which we noticed when we left the house earlier. All manner of bits of paper and rubbish being blown around.

Trying to keep oneself occupied while Carol has her chemotherapy is the main thing about spending several hours in the oncology department. Carol was soon connected to the various drips and was plugged in when I got back from parking the car. Carol has her crochet. She's even made a lovely cover for this MacBook, and is making some sort of bag which can be sold in the Macmillan unit to raise funds. I'm writing this, obviously, as well as reading 'Goodbye Christopher Robin,' by Anne Thwaite, about how A.A. Milne came to write the 'Winnie The Pooh' books in the 1920s. He had been a relatively successful playwright and contributor to such magazines as 'Punch,' but nowadays the plays are almost forgotten, and 'Pooh' is what he's best remembered for today. Rather like J.M. Barrie who's playwriting efforts were over-shadowed by Peter Pan. Even Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle was stuck with Sherlock Holmes, who he killed off at the Reichenbach Falls but had to bring him back eventually because of public pressure.