Winter Draws Nearer

Saturday. 8.20 p.m. The weather is getting colder. There is the possibility of snow in some parts of Britain, according to the weather forecast on BBC Breakfast this morning.

I have been baking a traditional Christmas fruit cake. It's not something I have made before, so I had to have a look for a recipe and chose one by Delia Smith. I got most of the ingredients in Sainsbury's during the week. Except I left out the mixed dried fruit, which I don't like. I couldn't get brandy or port, or, at least, in small bottles. Do they call them half bottles? I'm not certain. I had bought a high-grade spring form tin to bake the cake in. Because my oven is difficult to get an accurate temperature, I bought an oven thermometer from Amazon. I think it's vital to have your oven set to the recommended temperature before you decide to make a cake or, indeed, anything you are about to cook. It required a good four hours to bake, which meant I needed time to mix up the ingredients and then allow plenty of time to bake the cake. So on Thursday, I began to follow the instructions in the recipe at around 9 a.m. It came out of the oven at around 6.30 p.m. I had managed to get a small bottle of port from Aldi when I went to Curry's to buy some leads for the Portal TV for when it arrived and would be required for setting it up. I mixed in some port to the dried fruit before stirring up the cake mixture and putting it in the tin and then the oven.

I have removed some over-cooked outer layer of the cake. I may have to have another go at scraping off some more more before I attempt to ice it. I remember my mother used to make Christmas cakes and ice them, with a first layer of marzipan and then the whole thing covered in white icing, I think it's called royal icing. You either like it or you don't. I don't mind so long as the icing isn't too hard. 

Tuesday 4.15 p.m. I have booked my car in to be serviced at Bleak Hall Motors. I have managed to arrange it via their website and paid, getting a discount in the process. It's booked for 8 a.m. this Thursday. I then went to Sainsbury's and bought marzipan and rollable icing which should make the cake icing a good deal easier. I don't think you could get pre-made icing or marzipan when my mother was around making Christmas cakes. Not only that, but I think you just roll each layer out and use warm apricot jam as a sort of glue to stick on the marzipan onto the cake surface. 

Wednesday. 4.10 p.m. I have managed to have a fascinating Zoom session from Bletchley Park on my new Portal TV about Britain and America and the Battle of The Atlantic during World War 2. It works really well and makes things a good deal better than having to peer at a small laptop screen instead. There are a couple more documentaries to go in a four-part series, and then they will be uploaded onto YouTube. Very pleased with the purchase of the Portal TV, which was on offer due to Black Friday offers. I have also bought the sixth and final book in the Peter Ackroyd 'History of England' series called 'Innovation,' which came from Amazon this morning. So, I have that to look forward to reading, although I have plenty of other reading material to read first and, looking at the pile of books atop my bookshelf, it should keep me occupied well into 2022.

Thursday. 2.25 p.m. I took the Renault to Bleak Hall Motors for the 8 a.m. service today. It has had to remain there until tomorrow because they discovered two rear springs which need replacing, and they can't get the parts until tomorrow. I walked back to Dexter House as it isn't particularly that great a distance and will wait until tomorrow when they should ring me to let me know it's ready. I was told I could have driven it provided I didn't go far or over any speed bumps at speed, but I didn't want to risk further problems if the remaining springs were to break. I was fortunate I took the car for service when I did because it could have broken down on the motorway going to Worcester over the Christmas period. Better to get it repaired rather than leave it.

Definitely a good deal colder today. Probably cold enough for snow. I hope not, but could be. There was a light icing on the car windows this morning before I drove to Bleak Hall Motors.

Friday. 8.a.m. Really very this morning. Storm Arwen about to strike, but according to BBC Breakfast it looks as if it's the north-east of England and Scotland which will be struck the hardest. They show it on the maps on the weather forecast in bright yellow which makes me think of those horrible plastic rain coats you used to have which made you hot and sweaty. Pac-A-Mac? I can't say I remember.

2.00.p.m. I had been waiting in expectation from the garage to ring to tell me they'd finished with the car. Then at midday I just happened to glance at text messages and they had sent a text to say the car was ready to collect. There was no point hanging around, so I walked to Bleak Hall. It has been threatening rain. It took me barely half an hour to walk the distance, and it was paid for and I came home soon after. As I write this, the wind has become stronger. I have taken out a few minutes ago, but as soon as we got outside, and I deposited him on the grass, his majesty turned round and came back inside. I don't blame him, but it was funny. He just doesn't like rain or cold.

Blog Post 1600

So, yet another landmark! This is blog post-1600. Still going strong. I know a lot of what I write is very ordinary, but probably it's that which keeps me writing. 

Thursday. 3.55 p.m. 

I took out Alfie as usual and one round of Oldbrook Green before I had to take the car to Bleak Hall Motors for its MoT. I am somewhat annoyed that some thoughtless person thought it a good idea to break some glass and leave shart shards all over the path at the Evans Gate side of the green. I think it might cause problems with cyclists as glass is likely to puncture their tyres. I managed to avoid it as I didn't want Alfie walking over it and cutting his paws. 

I took the Renault to have its MoT which had been booked for 2.30 this afternoon at Bleak Hall Motors.. I got there around 10 minutes early and they soon had it in the workshop. Barely 45 minutes later I was being informed that it had passed without any problems. I have looked at the certificate and it states that there is light rust on the exhaust. But at least I'm not having to spend out vast amounts to get it through its MoT. Now to wait until November to have it serviced. I will use some of my winter fuel allowance to pay for it as I did last year. I intend to keep it in good order, so service does at least keep things like brake fluid and engine oil replaced and filters replaced.

Friday. 7.15 a.m. The weeks go past at a rapid pace. Can't believe it's Friday again.

I didn't wake up until gone 6.30 this morning. I had a feeling that it had rained overnight, but it was relatively dry when we went out later.

Having done washing I took Alfie out and it was drizzling. You know what I mean, surely? Thin and watery rain (well, rain is watery, but meaning, less than proper rain.) Alife wasn't over-pleased so we went back to the flat. 

2.30 p.m. Really heavy rain as I write this. Alfie really not going anywhere when we went out at around 1.45. Even togged up in his rain gear he wouldn't go further than the door out of Dexter House. Even the workmen building the ark (sorry, bike sheds. Not, not that sort of bike) have given up and gone home. Just too wet.

Later. The rain did ease off later and I was able to take Alfie out. I think he was relieved (in more ways than one. Nothing further to report. So, goodnight Vienna!

Haircut and Car Service

(Monday) A bright but chilly morning. I took out Alfie before 6. I rang Bleak Hall Motors a little after 8 and got the car booked in for it's annual service tomorrow (Thursday). I'll have to get it there for 8 tomorrow and get a taxi back to the flat because I don't want to have to sit and wait there for hours and hours whilst it's being done. The Renault has this annoying computerised system with a digital screen right in front of my eyeline as I'm driving, with the annoying message that keeps reading 'Service now due,' with an orange light which remains on with a spanner symbol, in case I'm in any doubt that this work is required. Well, it's not driving at full capacity because of needing work doing, so I'll be glad when it's done, in time to drive to Worcester for Christmas with Chloe, Steve and the grandchildren. I'm looking forward to going, even if it's not for as long as last year.

A little later I drove into the city centre and parked near The Point (it really is looking terrible. I know I've mentioned it before, but this iconic building, which was the pride of Milton Keynes in the 1980's when it was one of the first multiplex cinemas in Britain, but now is an empty wreck, and the pyramid is just a rusting shell. Please, someone, do something with it, even if it's to demolish it and build something else on the site. Driving into Milton Keynes at night from Bedford you could see if from  distance as it was lit up.) I was going to the Central Barbers in the shopping centre to get my hair cut. They don't open until 9.30, so I had a good 15-minute wait, sitting on the seats conveniently placed outside. Getting chilly, but it's interesting to see the people who walk past. The Middleton Hall is now completely taken over with the traditional Christmas display. It seems somewhat mundane. It used to be excellent, with some sort of theme, one year it was pirates, or was it Peter Pan, with  large masted ship, with Peter Pan standing on it. But they seem to have run out of ideas or at least, originality, and it's just a sort of large-scale snow-dome in the middle, with Santa's grotto somewhere and a excuse to make money out of parents when there children insist on visiting.

Eventually got into Central Barbers and was sitting in the chair having my hair cut (so, what else would I be doing? No surprises there.) Very pleased with the result and soon paying and back out and walking back along the shopping centre and taking £20 out of the A.T.M. at the Nationwide Building Society, because I will need the cash to pay for a taxi once I've dropped off the car at Bleak Hall Motors tomorrow morning. Then, once the car is finished being serviced, I can get another taxi back home to the flat.

From the shopping centre I drove to Bradwell Common to do some shopping in Aldi's. Of the two discounters, Lidl and Aldi, I think I prefer Aldi. I'm not sure why, but they have a better range. I like the fact that there's no fiddling about at the checkout. The way they whisk the items through and you can pack your items on a shelf rather than actually at the checkout is a good idea and the way they put larger barcodes on each item is brilliant. They don't spend an age searching for tiny barcodes that you get on the products on any of the larger supermarkets such as Sainsbury or Tesco. And the bill is usually a good deal cheaper. Probably around a third of what it would cost in Sainsbury's.

Then home and unpacking shopping and one small Yorkshire terrier desperate to go out for a walk. You can't really avoid his gaze, or his yapping when he thinks it's time to go out. So, lead on, shoes on and out walking along Srudwick Drive. As we near Oldbrook Green, I notice a large black crow on the grass. It is standing near a discarded  clear plastic package, no doubt containing food that some thoughtless person has thrown there, having eaten the contents and not bothering to put it in a rubbish bin. The crow is having a good time, tapping the package with it's long, sharp beak. I stand and watch, totally intrigued by the antics of the crow. I manages to turn the box over and it attempts to gain entry by stabbing it with it's beak. It doesn't manage to get inside, although from where I'm watching I can't see if it has the remains of food inside. So why is it going through this business? Can it smell the remains of the food, or is it merely playing with this shiny item it has come across? who knows, but it makes good entertainment and I only wish I had my mobile with me to be able to video this incident. We walk on, to traverse the park, but by the time we walk past where I saw the crow with the plastic package, there was no sign of the bird. It probably lost interest and merely flew away. It just goes to show how intelligent these birds are.

(Thursday) I couldn't sleep last night. Nothing wrong, but just awake at around 2 a.m. I have sleeping tablets but the doctor gave me some new ones and says they can be addictive, so I'm reluctant to take them and I was concerned that I would be sleepy this morning because in the leaflet you get with them it says. 'Do not drive or use machinery if you feel sleepy the next morning.' It also makes me laugh when you get the label on the box they come in which say 'Can make you feel drowsy or sleepy.' Well, there's a surprise! Sleeping tablets which make you feel sleepy. Just tell me, what do they put on packets of Viagra? No . . . please don't reply to that! Just amuses me that now you can have Viagra without a prescription (incidentally, I can't have it because of my heart medication. And funnily enough, it was created for the treatment of heart problems, ironically.) Anyway, whenever I go to collect my medication from Lloyd's pharmacy in Sainsbury's, there's advertising all over the place for Viagra. You can't miss it.

I've taken the car to Bleak Hall Motors for it's service, which I managed to book by ringing them yesterday morning, as mentioned above. I got there in good time, gave the keys to reception and got a taxi home, because it's going to take around half a day to do the service. Then, when I got hack I immediately took Alfie out for a walk around Oldbrook Green.

For a couple of days, when I've been out with Alfie around Oldbrook Green, I've been stopped by a woman who keeps asking for money. At first I thought it might be for something like the use of a phone, but there's no telephone box anywhere to be seen. You just don't see the iconic BT telephone boxes any more, probably because most people have a mobile phone. She asked me for £1.50, but at this time I had no change on me. I don't usually carry change of any kind when I'm out with Alfie. Then, yesterday, she was out near the road crossing from Strudwick Drive over Oldbrook Boulevard. This time she wanted £2.50, but, again, I didn't have any change. She was standing in the road and I had to tell her to move out of the way because there were cars attempting to get past. This is when I thought that perhaps she wasn't mentally stable. It made me wonder whether she was from a residential home or perhaps from the Campbell Centre, which is part of Milton Keynes Hospital. By this time she was stopping cars and asking for cash, and there was a build-up of several cars because she was talking to one of the drivers. I don't know whether she got the cash she was asking for. She was well dressed, didn't look in any sort of distress, so it was unclear why she was behaving like this. When I lived in Bedford there were a couple of people who used to stand and constantly ask for cash. One became quite aggressive and had to be given a court order which prevented him being a nuisance, because he was putting off customers to certain businesses in the town centre. I don't know how they managed to stop either of these people being what were, in effect, aggressive beggars. I can't think where the woman came from, but presumably somewhere within the Oldbrook area of Milton Keynes.

Later. I got the call to tell me the car was ready for collection at just gone 11 o'clock. I rang for a taxi so I waited outside in the road and around 5 minutes later it turned up. I was somewhat surprised that the driver couldn't find Bleak Hall Motors. I was always under the impression that taxi drivers knew virtually every place in the town they operated in, but this wasn't the case with this driver. We eventually found it (I usually drive in from the opposite end. It's in a sort of service road and can be tricky to negotiate because of lorries parked all the way along and some pulling out of the various units along it's entire length.) I was somewhat shocked that the cost of the service was considerably more than anticipated, but they have done a good job, changing the oil, topping up water, brake fluid and replacing some parts, so it's done for another year. It will leave me rather short of cash for the rest of the month, but I will have to manage. I can't have the car not running efficiently, breaking down or not working properly, what with the winter weather coming up, so, in the end, it was worth it.

Trip to Bekonscot Model Village

Carol is really determined to get out as much as possible. Considering that she's been off work since August last year and has been stuck indoors for most of this time. except for hospital and doctor's appointments, who can blame her? We search on Google for somewhere suitable to visit, and as a result came across Bekonscot Model Village in Beaconsfield. I'd heard of this place, but had never visited. We took the satnav, which has been sitting on the shelf in the lounge unused for some time now. I was hoping we might be able to use the satnav which is in the Renault, but for some reason we just can't manage to operate it. So we set up the Garmin and then found that the part that fits on the back and allows it to stick to the inside of the windscreen was missing. So I had to have the thing on my knee as we went along with Carol driving.

We drove out towards Aylesbury as we knew that Bekonscot isn't much further from the route we know reasonably well, particularly going to such places as West Wycombe, a National Trust property, as well as the hill that over-looks the village as well as Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

We arrived in Beaconsfield and it was only by chance that we saw a sign for Bekonscot, otherwise I doubt we'd have found it. I was somewhat surprised that it was in a rather affluent-looking housing estate, putting me very much in mind of Frinton-On-Sea, where my family used to go on summer holidays when I was a child. It has that 1920s-1930s sort of feel about it, vaguely Art Deco designed houses, and all quite large. Fortunately we could park the car opposite the model village, in a church carpark.

Having paid our entrance fees we went into the model village. First we had something to eat, buying drinks and paninis from the café and sitting at one of the tables outside. It was good to see so many families with children enjoying the sunshine. Then we began our walk around the model village, along the paths between the exhibits. Some truly amazing models, with so much detail. Again, a sort of 1930s feel, almost like going back in time to a period of seaside holidays with Punch and Judy on the beach, cricket on the village green, horses and carts instead of lorries and vintage-looking cars. How on earth they manage to keep the place in such good order is quite amazing. Some of the exhibits have moving parts, such as a coal mine with coal being loaded onto a train. Yes, and throughout the whole garden, a fantastic railway with trains moving about. And on the lake in the middle, an area to represent a harbour, and little yachts  sailing across the water as well as other types of boat and ship. Someone had a real sense of humour with the names of businesses, the shop fronts bearing all sorts of names, puns almost. Several churches, one which you can see inside in, with the choir and a tiny vicar, another model of a circus, again, you can view inside, with acrobats and horses revolving as if in a circus ring. Further over, a farm with a threshing machine, probably a bit out of days by today's farming standards, but all working and to minute scaled detail.

Carol was keen to have some ice-cream. Being on chemotherapy, anything cold, such as ice-cream, would be impossible to eat, so we went to the ice-cream stand and she tried a small spoonful. It seemed fine, no reaction, so we both ordered some for ourselves, two scoops each. Very delicious. We sat at a café table. Then we went towards the exit and had a browse in the obligatory gift shop, but bought nothing and then made our way out and back to the car and home.

We were surprised how many families there were in the model village. Also, how few people taking 'selfies'. For some reason it seemed that nobody was busy with such crazy things, more interested in what they'd obviously come to look at. No smartphones much in evidence at all, apart from a few people taking photographs with their phones of the model buildings on display and a young boy who was with his dad who had a Canon camera (a more advance and probably far more expensive model than one, which I took photos of the buildings with). He was taking similar photos, but was being quite clever and experimental they way he was lining up shots, no doubt influenced by his dad.

So, we drove home, quite happy with our day out.