A New Day, A New Dawn!

 Tuesday. 6.20 a.m. What a cliché! I couldn't resist today's post title. I think I will see if I can find as many as possible to use as post titles.

Thursday. 8.20 a.m. Yet another hot day. My digital thermometer currently reads 28ºC. The  BBC Breakfast weather forecast came from a lavender field somewhere in the Cotswolds. Today may very well become the hottest day so far this year.

The results of the bowel cancer screening test came back yesterday. Nothing to report, thankfully, and next time I have to do a test I will have to ask my doctor if I can have one, for some weird reason. Probably because, by then, I will have been over the age of 75. Why does that make a difference?

Friday. 9.25 a.m. Yet another hot day. My digital thermometer currently reads 27ºc. 

Since this current heatwave began, I have had some really unpleasant skin irritation. I think it's just because of the heat and my skin sweating so much. It has got to the point that I needed some sort of relief from it. Having a shower tends to help, but it still comes back. I was trying to think of something to help relieve this irritation and Piraton came to mind. I have some in my cupboard, but I think these tablets are well past their 'best before' date. So, thinking further, I decided I needed to find a pharmacy to purchase some new Piraton. The pharmacy in Sainsbury's would have been ideal, but that has since closed down, unfortunately. I also had to bear in mind my heart medication, as it was important there were no reactions to these with this new mediation. I decided to drive over to Bradwell Common and go to Boots, which is next door to the Milton Keynes Medical Centre. So, I drove there and went into Boots branch. A queue at the counter and the issue the person had seemed to go on endlessly. Also, I had to contend with someone behind me playing horrible music on their mobile. NöelCoward was right when he said, 'strange how potent cheap music is!' Too right. From his play 'Private Lives.' Ironic, because it was said, with the song 'Someday I'll Find You' playing in the background, and which he composed.

Saturday. 6.25 p.m. It's hot. Apparently it's the hottest day of the year. I can well believe it. My digital thermometer currently reads 30ºc.

Sunday. 2.55 p.m. Milton Keynes has been hosting the Bludfest at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes. No, don't ask, because I have no idea what it's about, but yesterday I could hear 'music', that is, if you can call it that, for most of the day and right up until around 11.30 p.m. At first I thought then music was coming from far closer, but then I realized that it must have been from The Bowl. (As I write, I have a feeling its continuing. Usually the drumming which I can hear, and it can depend on if there's a wind. It's around three miles from here in Dexter House, so you can imagine that, at that sort of distance, what the volume of the music must be.

Driving along Chaffron Way on Thursday morning at around 9.30, I noticed a crowd of people walking along the Redway which runs alongside the road. I have a feeling they must be going to something connected with this festival, probably going for some sort of training, to be stewards, parking attendants and so on, but, of course, I might have been wrong.

On the way to church this morning, again driving along Chaffron Way, the road was blocked off, just after the roundabout where Chaffron Way crosses Grafton Street, which meant I had to take a detour back towards the city centre and then along Childs Way and back into Chaffron Way before I could drive into the OTC car park.

Yet Another Week of Lockdown

(Thursday) I've been to Waitrose this morning. There's things I can't get elsewhere, such as soap and I like their bath foam. Good value, considering it's  a Waitrose Essentials product. There was the obligatory queue system to get in, similar to that at Sainsbury's. I was in and out quickly and I used a manned checkout as I'm not sure about the self-service machines. It was a clear run down Chaffron Way and it was odd that there was virtually no traffic, as Marlborough Street, where it crosses Chaffron Way, is usually chocker-block at around 8.30a.m, which is around the time I'm driving to Camphill on a Tuesday morning. None of the nose-to-tail along the road, people obviously going to work. At the moment they will do doubt be on lockdown.

(Friday) Seems amazing to think it's 1st May. How did we get here so quickly? It doesn't seem that long ago that we were celebrating Christmas.

I'm having a bit of a Shakespeare festival currently. I know it was The Bard's birthday last week (how old would he have been? I think around 456 or something like that.) and I watched the National Theatre's production of Twelfth Night with Tamsin Greig as Malvolia, The Globe's version of Romeo and Juliet and, on BBC iPlayer, 'Hamlet.' As for other productions, available, free, on YouTube, I saw the National Theatre's 'Frankenstein' with Benedict Cumberbatch as 'The Monster.' It was a good production (I say 'was' because it's no longer in the National's repertoire. I'm not entirely sure how long ago it was on. I believe Twelfth Night was around five years ago.) but the only problem I have with watching via YouTube is that it doesn't work too well. I suppose I shouldn't look the proverbial gift-horse in the mouth, but generally speaking you don't get the full 'live' theatre experience seeing these plays on television. Well, you can't expect too, but it's great that they are recording these performance because once a live show finishes, there's usually no record of it for future viewing or for future generations to enjoy or for those who wouldn't normally go to the theatre.

(Saturday) It doesn't feel like the weekend. It doesn't feel like any particular day of the week. It's probably due to the lockdown, when each day seems to melt into one another. There's no focus to the week, such as going to Camphill on a Tuesday or church on Sunday.

I have been watching 'The A Word' and today watched two more episodes of the first season. I know there's a new, third, season due to start in a week or two so I want to have watched the second run before getting to the new season. Having worked almost exclusively with people with autism, I can identify with the problems of the family it's about. The little lad who plays Joe is amazing. I can't think how they get such a brilliant performance out of a child of around 5 or 6. They must have a great deal of patience.

(Sunday) I was out with Alfie before 6 o'clock this morning. He kept looking at me, which is usually his way of telling me he needs to go out. It was quite mild, thankfully. I usually do washing up from the night before, so I did that and the kitchen is again sparkling clean.

I have now seen the final episode of the first run of 'The A Word,' and I will start on season 2, probably this afternoon. I don't watch episodes back-to-back, but iPlayer almost insists that you with the next episode as soon as the previous episode is finished.

Having the windows open has it's disadvantages. Some delightful person drive up in their car and parked right below my window and had thumping pop music playing on their radio (it might have been a CD or from a mobile, but never mind.) This sort of thing is annoying. Please don't do this at such an hour of the morning. But Noel Coward was right when he said 'strange how potent cheap music is,' which is a line from his comedy 'Private Lives.' Just awful thumping news. People never play something calm, a bit of Beethoven or other classical music, and why play it so loud that it interferes with out people's lives, and in my case, concentration?

Having had a scan of what's on iPlayer, there is no excuse to say 'there's nothing much to watch.' Just overwhelming by the stuff you can watch.

Alfie insisted on another outing, as he was staring in his usual way so I felt obliged to take him out as soon as I'd finished watching 'The A Word.' I have to say, having worked with people with autism, it seems a very accurate portrait of someone with the disability. I'd be interested to know whether the writer had first hand experience of life with an autistic.

1360th Blog post. Still Sunny!

This will be my 1360th blog post! Why should that be so important? Well, it isn't, but it's quite an achievement to have kept this blog going for so long.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing! What more can one want? I can do without wasps, flies and other insects which invade the house. I can also do without pop music blasted at me from whatever quarter. People have their windows open, which means there is a leakage of boom-diddy-boom-diddy-boom-bom-boom. You know, or perhaps you don't, that drum beat that a lot of pop music seems to have. It's right what Noel Coward said, 'strange how potent cheap music is!' which is a line from his play 'Private Lives.' The joke is, if you know this play, that the music which is playing in the background is 'Some Day I'll Find You,' which he wrote! So it's sort of turning things on itself. But, regardless of all that, I do agree. I suppose that the sentiment in that line is that popular music has to be potent, in the sense of probably, a drug or alcohol, it has to work it's magic by being repetitive or overwhelming. Anyway, my thing is that drum beating in the distance can be just annoying and puts me off whatever I'd doing, probably attempting to plot a piece I happen to be writing. Then there's those crazed individuals who insist on having pop music blasting from the speakers in their cars as they speed by. So loud it makes the car vibrate and all you get is the booming sound, no music to speak of. Why can it never be Beethoven or Mozart of any other composer's music you care to mention? But if that's the case, why have it so loud that everyone else has to put up with it, regardless of whether they want to or not.

Later. Yesterday evening (Thursday) I went to S.C.F. for another session of The Bible Course. There are three more to go. I was undecided as to what to wear and in the end I didn't wear my new shorts and short-sleeved shirt. As I left the house, I was suddenly hit by the heat. I was around 6.45 and it was quite intense, not helped by the fact that when I got in the car I found the interior hotter still, by quite a few degrees. It made my heart rate increase. I was feeling quite unwell, not exactly helped by the other drivers who insist on tailgating me as I drove up Chaffron Way to the Oaktree Centre. I had to have a drink of water on arrival and I found the main hall cooler than the café area and by the time we started the course I was feeling better. But I think it's a warning to be more careful when the sun is so hot and I was shocked by how hot it was so late in the day.

(Friday) I was quite insistent that I get a lie-in. I was more than determined that I wouldn't get up before 6a.m. I actually took Alfie out at 7 this morning! He wasn't exactly pleased, but it was worth the extra time asleep. I hope to continue with this regime.

Too good to stay indoors today. I had to get out, even if it was just a trip into central Milton Keynes. I had to first go to get some change for the carpark. I do have the RingGo app on my iPhone, but it doesn't always work, so I had to have change for the machine. I went to the Eaglestone shop to use the A.T.M. outside but when I got there, it wasn't working. No cash in it. I know these machines have a tendency to run out of cash, but it was somewhat annoying because I then had to drive all the way to the One Stop shop in Coffee Hall. Fortunately the machine was working, but because the sun was so strong it was next to impossible to read the screen, but fortunately I was able to extract £30 from the maws of the mighty machine and then go into the shop to buy two bags of wine gums and fruit pastilles in order to get change.

I arrived at the carpark and then I found the RingGo app wouldn't work, so I was glad that I'd had the foresight to get change for the parking meter. This technology can be great when it works, but when it doesn't, it's just a waste of time. So it's as well to not always rely on it and use a different method of payment. I walked into the shopping centre and paid some money into my Metro Bank savings account. From there I went into Midsummer Place and as I was waking through I heard my name 'John!' but at first I didn't respond. Then one of the guys from Campbell ran up to me. He said he was about to catch a bus to Peterborough. It's great that they can respond to me and we have long chats when I'm there. I told him he'd better not miss his bus, so he went off, presumably outside to the bus stop. No doubt I'll hear more about his visit (which I believe is where his parents live.) when I'm at Camphill on Tuesday.

Next. Something to eat. Waterstones was near so I went in and as there was nobody queuing I decided to order a latte, toastier and a bun. Very efficient staff and I was soon sitting at a table. As I had my iPhone with me I was able to connect to the internet and look at Facebook and Twitter. Are these devices such a good idea? In some respects, yes, but when people spend a long time on them and disregard those around them, for example, in a work situation, with family and friends, they are more of a distraction and aren't really a replacement for face-to-face conversation, but can be useful for keeping in contact with family and friends and if you want to be easily contacted, ideal. But being in a bookshop it's an ideal place to have a café. Put me near books and I'm quite happy, so once I'd finished my snack I had a browse of the tables that Waterstone so craftily has set up which entices you to look at the books on display and then I went upstairs to the history section to have a further browse. I left before I purchased a book. I have to be honest that I have more than enough books in my bookshelf and could easily buy more. I have several which are waiting in a queue to be read.

From Waterstones I went into the main shopping centre and walked along the mall towards John Lewis and was interested in a store which is going to open soon, called Typo which I have discovered sells stationary. As Staples has since disappeared from Milton Keynes, which is a disappointment because where am I to buy fresh stocks of computer ink cartridges, paper and all the other paraphernalia, pens, pencils etc etc? I'm not sure when it's due to open, but I will have to visit once it's up and running. Also, I had to go into The Works, because they're stock changes rapidly and you have to buy whatever catches your eye when you're there because otherwise it's gone and by the time you return it will be gone, which is the same with T.K. Maax, another store I love browsing in as well as their partner store called Homesense. A good place to go if you're looking for kitchen items, such as saucepans, baking tins etc. 

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.

Sunday Sunshine

We woke this morning to more news of a terrorist attack in London. Only a few weeks ago another similar attack happened at a concert in Manchester. It makes the heart sink. Our immediate response was to text our children to see whether they were alright. None of them were anywhere near London at the time of the incidents. Just needed reassurance that they were fine. It's getting to the point that you don't really want to switch on the television news as the BBC and other television companies seem to insist on blanket coverage of such incidents.

The day began bright and sunny. Then we had the merry sound of hammering next door. I can't imagine what on earth they're doing. Laying a patio or something and there's a large pile of tiles or bricks for the purpose of patio-laying. On Friday we came back from shopping in town and found a large flat-bed H.G.V. parked opposite the house next door with rolls of turf on the back. I'm not sure if it was intended for 'next door' or not. It's not just the hammering and banging we have to contend with, it's the added music which we have to endure. People can't seem to work without pop music blasting. Well, it's not exactly blasting. As Nöel Coward so succinctly put it 'strange how potent cheap music is.' From his brilliant play, "Private Lives," and actually about his own composition 'Some Day I'll Find You" which was supposed to be playing in the distance, so it was a sort of side-swipe at himself in a way. Irony. Never mind. I digress.

As the morning progressed, we had another load of banging and hammering. Not immediately from next door. Carol said that someone was dismantling a shed a few doors further down. Things can't get any worse, we thought to ourselves. Carol suggested packing things up, a few rugs, cushions, food, books and so on, and de-camping to a secluded spot, possibly in a field, away from the hustle and bustle of the town, in the country somewhere. In other words, somewhere as far from all this noise and annoyance. I suggested Campbell Park. Carol, not too keen. Then we decided to go to Nuffield Health. 

It was a great idea to just swim up and down the pool at Nuffield. Not too many people there, fortunately. I have to say it's a far more friendly environment than D.W. Fitness, which we used to be members of. No children are allowed to this branch at Kent's Hill. You get a towel as you enter. There's no loud booming pop music. The jacuzzi and other facilities are always in good order. Unfortunately, at D.W., the two jacuzzis (spa pools) were invariably out of order or at least one was closed off for some reason. The place was beginning to look tatty, even though it was a fairly new building. At Nuffield there's a spa pool, a steam room and a sauna (D.W. didn't have one).  Anyway, the outing to Nuffield was a good idea. At least we got away from the noise for a while. The shed-dismantling was complete but unfortunately the other sounds continue.

I attempted to read my book. I'm currently reading the fourth book in Peter Ackroyd's series "The History of England." It's called "Revolution" and covers what is called the 'Glorious Revolution' and covers such things as the foundation of the Bank Of England, the beginning os coffee houses, invention of the novel as a form of literature and many other things. But I found it quite difficult concentrating with the constant noise from next door.

Family Summer Holidays- Part 2

Just looking at the road map and in particular the route to Frinton along the A120 evokes a lot of memories for me.  Mention of the names of the places along the route, such as Baldock, Buntingford, Puckeridge, Bishop's Stortford and so on wakes up a lot of memories. I knew the route well enough as a child and then again in the early 1970's when I used to drive it when I was an A.S.M. at Colchester Repertory Theatre and used to use this road when I went home for the weekend.  (Colchester Rep is no more. It was replaced by the Mercury Theatre in the early 1970's The foundation stone was laid by Eric Porter, who played Jolyon Forsyte in the 1960's BBC series."The Forstye Saga". I remember this from when I was working there. The old rep building, which was in the high street, had been an art gallery before it was converted into a theatre, and is now a building society or bank, I can't remember which.) It probably was quite dangerous in those days, particularly late at night (I used to leave Colchester after the evening performance, which would end around 10.30 p.m.) so driving on the A120 wouldn't  have been been very safe as I don't imagine there were many street lights along the long sections through open countryside.

I do remember that there was one thing that sticks in my mind. Somewhere in Dunmow or Coggeshall there was a tree at the side of the road which had been shaped into what appeared to be a table. I don't know whether it is still there, but it was something that, as children, we always managed to point out on the journey. I imagine you wouldn't be able to find it now, if it is still there, as it's most likely to be in the centre of a town and you now use a by-pass and not see it. That's one of the drawbacks of by-passes. You don't see the sights that you would have seen if you drive through the  centre of places and by-passes always seem to be routed through cuttings with high banks so you never see much of the surrounding countryside.

We had another sort of 'game' which was whoever saw the water tower which was near the entrance to Frinton and whichever of my brothers saw it would get a bag of sweets or something. Silly now, I suppose, but I imagine my mother, who would be driving the car, needed something to keep us occupied on the journey.

To enter Frinton you go through some gates, which are in actual fact part of a level crossing which goes over the railway line, and Frinton's railway station is one of the first buildings you see when you enter. As such, the railway line is the sort of 'outer wall' of the town, if you like. You drive in and down Connaught Avenue, which is the main shopping  street and runs right down to the beach. There is a sort of air about the place as if you've stepped back in time. Probably then, but not so sure now, as I haven't been there for at least 30 years. It's sort of stuck in a timewarp of the 1930's. Very genteel, and dare I say it, middle class. When we used to visit there were no pubs. I can't remember if there were any fish and chip shops, which seems very odd, considering it is a seaside town. You always associate the 'seaside' with fish and chips. Well, at least I do. There were bars in the hotels, but these seem to have been frequented by a very select few. A sort of feeling of one of those Agatha Christie mysteries. If not the setting for one, you can imagine  a television or film production company  using it for the location of something set in that period. A lot of the houses are built in the classic Art Deco style. Somewhere, also, you can imagine Noel Coward frequenting. Perhaps being the setting for one of his plays such as "Private Lives" although I know that was supposed to have been set on  the French riviera.