Lost Phone and More Rain

I had a phone call yesterday, Wednesday, But when I went to answer I could't find it. The landline phone is wireless and it has a base unit near the point where the line comes in and the handset sits in this unit. I usually return it to the base when a call ends, but for some reason it go separated, so when I went to answer I couldn't find the thing so the ringing came to an end. I hunted around  the lounge and the table where the unit sits and then realised that there was a button on the base unit which would find the handset if you pressed it, which I did and there was a 'peep' and the handset was discovered between the sofa and the armchair where I usually sit. So, panic over. No idea who it was who rang, but later I got a call from one of those computerised systems, saying it was BT and they were about to turn off my broadband. But, considering what happened a few weeks ago with my laptop being hacked, I doubt it was genuine. When they rang then and said they were from BT, no doubt this latest call was a scam of some sort, so I put the phone down very quickly.

The weather is as wet as ever. I just hope it improves soon. I want to go to the history festival in Campbell Park this weekend and if it continues to rain that's going to be washed out, unfortunately. Alfie didn't get his routine early-morning walk around Eaglestone Park. I'm not taking him out in pouring rain otherwise we're both going to come back soaked to the skin.

I've been to Sainsbury's this morning. They've moved everything around in there and it's annoying, to say the least. You get used to the layout and then on your next visit it's all been moved around. They know that the average shopper buys basics, such as milk, bread, potatoes, sugar, each shop and these are like points on a compass which you move between. They haven't been moved, I notice. In the personal care and pharmacy area everything is different. I just cannot find bath gel, how ever hard I look.

Friday morning. So, another week almost over. No sign that the rain is going to stop. I left off taking Alfie until I was sure it wasn't raining, or if it was, that it wasn't too heavy that we would get a soaking. After 7 o'clock I peered out of the bathroom window and couldn't see the stream that we usually get, running down the road in front of the house, so I made the decision to venture forth. Alfie is like a coiled spring, he doesn't relish being cooped up indoors.

The bird feeding station is suddenly alive with birds! As I write this and look out of the lounge window I can see at least 6 little birdies on it. I think they're some sort of tit, but not sure. Only problem is, a great fat pigeon insists on landing on the feeder and almost destroying the entire thing. It frightens off the birdies and then a loot of the food in one of the feeders gets knocked and the seeds fall out on the ground. I don't know how to prevent it coming and ruining things. I know what I'd like to do, but I don't think the neighbours would be happy. I might get a pea shooter and shoot it up the backside. Anyway, I took some photos of the birds on the feeder yesterday and uploaded them onto my Facebook profile if you want to have a look.

  

Birds on the bird feeding station

After some thought, I decided to upload a photograph onto this blog post, so here they are, tucking in to the grub in one of the feeders.

I've been out. I have to get flea and worming treatments for Alfie, so I drove over to the retail park at Rooksley. Pets At Home is one end of the parade of units and Smyth's Toys is the other. I walked the length of the parade, past Hobbycraft, one of Carol's favourite haunts as well as Next. A lady was arriving at the Costa's branch and she unlocked and then went inside, locking the door behind her. When I walked back past later I noticed a sign on the door, saying, 'closed due to technical problems, sorry for the inconvenience.' Don't ask me what the problem was, because I didn't know, but probably an electrical fault with some of the machinery they use, a fridge or one of the coffee machines. Not good for business, I'm certain. 

Pets At Home have a subscription service for the flea treatment, which means I will have the phial with the treatment in it delivered via post every month, which means I won't forget to treat Alfie every couple of months. Then I walked along the parade and went into Smyth's toy warehouse. Not actually a good idea, because I was surrounded by so many toys it was impossible to choose what I was after for grandson Eddie. I was after a bath toy, something for him to play with when he's having a bath. I couldn't resit many of the interactive toys, those that make a noise, dance around or otherwise have a button on them to get you to press and get the toy to dance, burp, sing, or make some sort of noise. Something that Alfie would love. So I fell for a  Grumble, which makes rude noises and does all sorts of strange things. If nothing else, it made me laugh, a d probably some other customers in the store!

Second Chemotherapy Cycle

The weather is wet and windy as I write this at 6.30 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The rain has since  turned into snow, which was a bit of a shock when I peered out of the bathroom window a little later. I've been out to clear snow from the car windscreen as we're off to the oncology department at Milton Keynes Hospital for Carol to have her second cycle of chemotherapy. She has a blood test at 9.30 and then, if the results of that are positive, she can begin the actual chemotherapy at around midday. So what exactly are we supposed to do between whiles? Twiddle our thumbs? Just wait in the department? Come home and then go back? You ask me. If it hadn't been for the Christmas holiday, no doubt we'd have been there on Monday so Carol could have the blood test and then the chemotherapy would have begun on Tuesday. But never mind. Our main concern is not being bored as it's quite a long time sitting and doing virtually nothing as the treatment progresses. I've been looking for a Travel Scrabble set as we like playing Scrabble, but my searches have not managed to find a set. None of the local stores, Toys R Us, John Lewis or Smythe's have it in stock. It appears that everyone wants computerised games (which we don't) and a travel version would be easiest to pack up and set up in the oncology department. I just hope that the carpark at the hospital as well as all the paths and other outdoor walk-ways are clear and relatively slip-free as the last thing we need is either of us slipping over. Just doesn't bear thinking about otherwise.

A bit later. We've been to the oncology department and Carol has now had the blood test as well as blood pressure taken. It was busy when we arrived and as a result had to wait some time before there was room for all the tests to be done. We have to be back in the department by around 12.30 for the chemo to continue. Although it depends on the blood test results.

It was raining as we left the hospital to drive home. But now (11.25) it's snowing quite heavily. I just hope it doesn't settle and make life difficult.

Fortunately the snow fizzled out. Probably not the best way to describe snow that doesn't amount to much. A cold description rather than one for possibly something hot, such as a firework.  Given the go-ahead for the next stage of the chemotherapy and as a result it was quite a long afternoon, and we didn't leave the oncology department until about 6.15. Be back there on Friday afternoon. Carol has another pump for the next couple of days as she had at the end of the last chemo cycle.

I have to laugh about the parking. All that effort to get you to pay (it is annoying, but as we get our parking free if we go to the macmillan unit and get the ticket punched.) The barrier at the carpark was raised at the exit. No doubt it can't cope with the freezing temperatures, so drivers can leave without the need to put their ticket in the machine which would normally raise the barrier. I am appalled to learn that N.H.S. hospitals across England make £174 million out of car parking. Just another money-making scam.