A Little Win

 Monday. 8.55 a.m. I haven't done the National Lottery in a long time. I can't even remember when I last played it. When I lived in Bedford, I used to buy a ticket in W.H.Smith in Midland Road. You had to buy a paper ticket and you held on to it and didn't lose it (some people did and then their numbers came up and then panicked when they couldn't find it to prove they had the all-important winning numbers. How crazy! To loose out on a life-changing amount of cash!) I have downloaded the app and have played once. It is so much easier as you don't even have to leave your home to play. You have to sign up and create an account and use your bank card (credit or debit card.) and then put money on your account (up to a limit of £500, although I don't put much more than £5 on mine.) As the price of a ticket has increased from £1 to £2 and I think some games are probably £1.50.) I decided this week to play. I had tickets for the main game, Lotto, and another for the Set For Life game, where you can win something like £10,000 per month for 30 years or something. I forgot all about it until Sunday morning when I looked at my emails as normal and there was an email from the National Lottery to inform me that I had won! I was excited as you can imagine and it took a while to sign in to the app. I had won £5! But My earnings were reapplied to my account and I got a free 'Lucky Dip' draw for later in the week. I remember the very first draw, I think, back in around 1994. I won £10! I won several of these £10s, but nothing higher. I think it would be better to let people win smaller amounts rather than millions of pounds going to one winner, just a few thousands, particularly when there's a roll-over or even several roll-overs.

Oh well, there's always next time, of course. . . 

Thursday. 10.15 a.m. I haven't posted anything for the past couple of days, as you will have noticed. Just discussing the same old seemed a bit pointless, so I didn't, but here I am again.

It's been really warm the last couple of days. I packed away my shorts and though to myself that autumn was upon us, but, lo and behold! It's been bright and sunny, so got them out again. It was actually too hot for me at one point. I took Alfie out, and we didn't get far, well, not much further than the start of the circuit of Oldbrook Green, when I developed a really horrible headache, so we returned home. I have worn my sun hat, but it didn't make a lot of difference.

My FitBit isn't functioning properly. I had it working successfully, but it has decided not to work correctly. The time is totally out. It is supposed to communicate with my iPhone via Bluetooth. It decides it will connect but then nothing more happens. It's getting to the point that I can't be bothered with it. I keep attempting to sort it out, but it might just as well be at the bottom of a drawer if it can't behave itself.

3.25 p.m. I've been out with Alfie. It was dark overhead and I think I felt a few drops of rain. If it wasn't, then I really ought to know what it was. 

My writing is still at the planning stage. I think I now have the scaffolding and can hopefully start the actual writing. That's the bit I enjoy most, but, as I've said in earlier blog posts, I can't begin the process of writing until I have a sort of roadmap in place. A bit like going on a car journey without knowing where you're going. Making sure you have a route planned out. But I still don't know how it will end.

Monday. 8.50 a.m. Goodness gracious! It's Monday again! What is going on? We seem to be spinning out of control. As Hamlet says, 'the time is out of joint.' Very much so. I can't believe we're halfway through September. We'll soon be seeing the usual junk in the shops, ready for Christmas. But we have to endure the total rubbish which is sold for Hallow'een first. The things that shops attempt to flog us just to make a quick buck is appalling. 

I had another attempt at the National Lottery. And hey presto! I draw another couple of numbers which have already been entered for a lucky dip. I just hope that eventually I might win more than a few quid, not a lot, a few hundred would be nice. Just top up my bank account somewhat. The thing is, with the app it's far easier to have a go at the Lottery rather than going out to buy a paper ticket. You don't even have to leave your home.

Things Are Getting Better! . . .Or Are They?

Thursday. 11.20 a.m. It's quite bright and sunny, but not particularly warm.

I've been doing a bit more writing. I have a good idea where it will finish, but not how it will begin, which is often the case with writing. It's a bit like a journey, you know where you want to end up, but not where to start. In fact, a story is fairly well as a journey of some sort. During the journey, you have a sequence of highs and lows, good and bad. You keep on the straight and narrow but then get diverted, get lost in an unknown place but end up at your destination and you have learned something along the way. By the end of the journey, you should have changed.

I decided to download the National Lottery app recently. I haven't played the Lottery for years, but I thought I would have a go. If you have the app you can play without having to go to a shop to buy a ticket. You pick your numbers on the app and pay using your debit card. I have played twice now. But this morning I got a call claiming to be from the National Lottery. I'm pretty sure it was genuine, but with the number of spam calls I get, I was somewhat wary. I was going to be given several free lines in the Lottery but for £12 a week I could have a syndicate and have perhaps a thousand lines, each for about 5p each. It sounded too good to be true and it could have been a scam. I was assured that it wasn't and I was virtually talked into setting this up with my debit card. I decided at the last minute that I didn't go ahead with it. It would have been around £50 a month, which is a lot on my pension, and for that, I could buy food for a week or more in Aldi or Lidl. I didn't like the somewhat aggressive approach to selling this. I managed to avoid it but someone else, perhaps with Alzheimer's or with a learning disability might have gone ahead with it and caused them financial hardship. I'm sure it was genuine, but, as I say, it was a hard sell.

Boris Johnson says that there's nothing in the data to suggest that further lockdown restrictions won't be lifted on 21st June, but scientists are saying that we have to be cautious. The infamous Indian variant is playing centre stage and making a bit of an act out of it and wants full parity with Equity members and full pay and overtime. We will have to wait and see what happens. If it doesn't get what it wants it will go on the rampage and have a hissy fit and might take to the bottle and spent the night in a drunken stupor and fall into the gutter outside a nightclub and get caught on camera by the press and land up plastered all over the tabloid press, ending up being interviewed on breakfast television and selling its story to the Sunday papers.

Friday. 5 a.m. Not much to report. I can't hear wind or rain, so I presume it's still and calm outside. Alfie has crept into my bed. Making himself very comfortable, which I don't blame him!

Later. You may recall I mentioned I had trouble buying pooh bags so I could clean up after Alfie. I always do, regardless I just think if you have a dog you are responsible for it, even down to cleaning up the mess when this happens in a public space. There are obviously quite a few people who just couldn't care less and don't do the right thing. It's not the dog's fault. It's a pity these people don't get caught and fined. There used to be bags above the bins which are dotted around, not unfortunately not anymore. I expect the Council needed to cut down on such items, but in all honesty, dog owners should buy their own and carry them when they take their dogs out. I always keep a bundle in my packet and they don't cost a great deal. I did mention that I couldn't find them in Sainsbury's over the past few weeks, which is why I went to Morrisons to buy some a few Sundays ago. I noticed they had them in Sainsbury's this morning when I was in there, but not the type I usually buy. They have been replaced by thinner, biodegradable ones. I think I've worked out why. No doubt it's Sainsbury's attempting to get rid of plastic. I don't think the original type was biodegradable, which makes sense. They more or less got rid of plastic carrier bags, and if you need them you have to pay 5p-10p, which goes to charity. I always take my own 'bags for life,' but I have discovered that actually, some of these reusable bags have more plastic in them than the traditional plastic bags. Which is somewhat crazy. But regardless of that, I have plenty, bought over the years, which are still going strong and have done goodness knows how many shopping trips. I bought a bag in Aldi the other week, which can be folded into a tiny little bag which means it takes up very little space and can be put in a pocket for when you go shopping and is therefore readily available to put things in when you are out and about.

Later. 9.30. I have been out this evening! I can't remember when I last went out in the evening. Carol and I used to go out for a drive, usually to Woburn and go through the deer park, but then we weren't out for long and it was a way for her to destress if she had had a difficult day at work at Milton Keynes Academy, which was quite often. Probably something to do with a member of staff, sorting out someone else's mess. This evening a group from church met at my friend Margaret and Mike's home in Downhead Park. They have been really good friends and support to me since Carol's death. We walked along the canal, down one side and back on the other. Observing the wildlife, in particular a family of geese and another of swans and ducks.

I drive home and walk back inside the flat, to be greeted by a very happy Alfie who goes slightly bonkers, playing with his toys and throwing them around, shaking vigorously and wagging his tail excitedly. It's such a lovely welcome home! It makes having a little dog so worthwhile. It certainly lifts my spirits. Such a loving little dog.