No White Christmas! Good or Bad?

 Saturday. 8.10 a.m. Cold and snowy conditions continue here in Milton Keynes, but, according to BBC Breakfast, it's going to get warmer next week. So, if that's the case, we won't get a traditional 'White Christmas.' 

11.15 a.m. I needed to get an ice scraper and more de-icer spray. I managed to get a can of spray in Sainsbury's yesterday, but no scrapers to be had. So I thought it might be an idea to look elsewhere and then decided on going to Halford's. I drove to the store in Rooksley and had a good look around and eventually had to ask a staff member who directed me to the last remaining stocks of these essential winter items. I grabbed two bottles of de-icer, just in case I couldn't get any more later on as well as the scraper and paid. I had problems keying in my PIN on the card reader, and the lady on the till told me that the keys were worn down because of people using hand gel. Which made me think if that was what it did to buttons on a card reader, what would it do to the skin on your hands? I suppose it's because most of it is alcohol-based. Worrying.

From Halfords, I drove to Sainsbury's because I had to collect a repeat prescription from Lloyd's pharmacy, which is within the store. Upon arrival inside the store and eventually arriving at the pharmacy, I found a notice informing me that they weren't opening the pharmacy until 10.30, which meant I would either have to return home and come back until 10.30 to collect my prescription or wait within the store. I didn't want to go home and then come back, so I spent the 40 minutes browsing the store, bought a string of Christmas lights, which I had been looking for anyway and also bought a few items I knew I'd need. The prescription was important because I was concerned that the order wouldn't be made up in time for the Christmas holiday when everything closes for at least two weeks.

1.35 p.m. I've been out, and it appears that the snow is gradually melting away. I do hope so, as it makes life difficult underfoot.

Sunday. 9.45 a.m. Under normal circumstances, I would have driven off to church by now, but there is no service this morning. Instead, there is to be a carol service, with candles, I believe. My only problem would be that smoke, given off by the burning of candles, would cause me to cough, so I will watch it online instead.

It's certainly a good deal milder this morning. There are definite signs of a thaw. The next problem is likely to be flooding.

2.05 p.m. There's even less chance of there being a 'White Christmas because I have been out with Alfie and it's now raining, although very thin. The grass alongside Strudwick Drive is gradually disappearing, so if it keeps on in this way, tomorrow morning it will have completely disappeared.

Monday. 3.05 a.m. I am awake, well, almost. I needed the loo (What's changed in that department?) Once I'm awake, I can't always get back to sleep. So, no point attempting to sleep. I have a shave and that makes me even more wide awake, but worth it. I do my Bible reading, 'The Bible Through The Year With Nicky Gumble', which I have on my iPad. It's he who was one of the originators of the Alpha Course at Holy Trinity Brompton. 

I'm not sure about the weather, but, having looked out of the kitchen window when I did the washing up yesterday evening, I saw that most of the snow had disappeared. At that moment, I can hear the wind, whistling and roaring around the building. 

8.00 a.m. It's windy out. The snow is gone and it's so much milder. I'm glad because it means I don't have to scrape ice off the car before I drive off to Bleak Hall Motors so that it can have its annual service. 

Rainy Saturday

It's difficult to believe that last week we were basking in glorious sunshine, when we went for our day out to Bekonscot model village and today it's miserable, wet and cold. The car's windscreen wipers were worn out. The driver's side one in particular was not doing it's job efficiently and to me there's nothing worse than driving when you can't see out through the windscreen properly. We'd put off having the things replaced for the past week, but I was determined to get this matter sorted before we needed to drive on a long journey and there was the possibility of there being rain and spray from other vehicles. We've gone to Halford's at Rooksley on several occasions to have lightbulbs fitted to various cars we've had, so it seemed the obvious place to go to have new windscreen wipers bought and fitted. I suppose I could do it myself, but it's always easier to let someone else do the job for you, even though it costs a few pounds. But never mind. I wanted to get there extra early to avoid the crowds. Fortunately it was easy enough to park near Halford's store. None of those idiots around who get in the way. Probably because they don't get out of bed too early on a Saturday morning. As it was drizzling the idea of having the new windscreen wipers fitted was even more of a good idea. I was parked and then inside the store fairly promptly and then had to go back to the car to get the registration number so the assistant to find the correct part for the car. I can never remember the reg number of any car I've owned, but it was soon done and sorted. I had intended going next to Aldi's which was over the other side of the road, but when I got there I soon realised I didn't have a £1 coin for the trolley so drove out and on to Sainsbury's. It wasn't busy there so easy enough to park the car and then walk into the store with my shopping list and a handful of bags and did the shopping and was soon out, packing the shopping in the back of the car and on the way home.

I got back in the house and unloaded the shopping. Carol has finished the piece of crochet she's been working on for quite a while. A really nice blue top. She's sown the two pieces, front and back, together and put it on to show me. A great deal of work has gone into it. She's done quite a few bits of crochet work. She made a blanket, made of various shades of wood as making Alfie his own blanket, as well as a case to put this MacBook in to keep it safe when we are out and about.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday . . .

We didn't do much this weekend. It has been really wet and windy, and very cold. We stayed in the house all Saturday. We did, however, take the dogs to Stockgrove Park for a walk on Sunday. There was someone there selling Christmas trees. All profits are going to Stockgrove Park and these trees are grown locally, so we may buy our tree there next weekend. As we were talking to the man in charge, somehow or other Alfie managed to get off his lead. He must have pulled and pulled and slipped the collar. He ran around and round, and we hadn't noticed that he'd managed to extricate himself. Not a real problem, but this was in the carpark and he has no sense and could have got run over. We walked up over the top of the park, the longest way round and met lots of people exercising their dogs. Alfie has no brakes as regards introducing himself to other dogs. He barges in and sniffs even the biggest dogs. I think that some of these dogs, in particular a couple of really beautiful chocolate-coloured Labradors, were overwhelmed by his antics. We headed down towards the lake and the path round the other side and back to the carpark, but had to put Poppy on her lead as she has a tendency to jump in the lake and have a swim, which wouldn't have been such a good idea as it was so cold. Alfie was alright off his lead. I don't think he'd like the water that much and didn't even look at the lake, or make any attempt to chase the ducks that were on the water. We got back to the car and headed back to the centre of Milton Keynes.

On Monday I had to take the car to be M.O.T'd. I can't believe that it's a year since it was last done. Last year it was failed because there was a tiny chip on the windscreen, right in the line of vision. We managed to get it repaired by someone at the local retail park (where there's Halfords, Comet and other stores.) and they managed to fix it with a liquid solution. I had to go to the garage to book it in and the appointment was at 3 o'clock. The car failed this time because the windscreen washer wasn't working. I sat at the garage from just before 3 until nearly six. Carol telephoned to say that her friend Minette would give her a lift to the garage and she arrived about half an hour later. The garage have told us that they will have to order a new pump for the windscreen washer, and I have since spoken to the garage and they are trying to get this part and that, hopefully, once they have the part they will be able to replace the old pump sometime today.

This morning I have been to the doctor's surgery and had my swineflu lab. I have taken Carol to work at the Academy, and we found that there was frost overnight and had to scrape some ice off the car's windscreen. The first really sharp frost this winter. Fortunately we had a scraper in the glover compartment of the car. I have already had the seasonal flu jab. I fit the criteria to have these jabs as I've had a heart attack. The appointment was for 9.10 and it was rather difficult to park the car as the surgery is right next to a primary school and there were a lot of parents dropping off their children, hence no parking spaces, but I went round the block and came back and then found a convenient space. The surgery waiting room was heaving with people waiting for their doctor's appointments and there were more people there than usual and waiting to have their swineflu jabs. I didn't manage to get into the nurse's room for the jab until around 9.40, but at least it's done. I was told that I ought to wait in the surgery for 10 minutes, just in case there was a reaction, which there wasn't.

The garage has since rung me to say that they aren't going to be able to get the part for the car until tomorrow. So I will have to wait until they ring tomorrow so that I can take the car back to the garage to have the pump fitted.