All In A Day's Work

 Saturday. 7.20 a.m. I woke up really late for me, around 6.30. 

8.55 a.m. The sun is out. It would appear that it's warm, but I have a feeling, when I go out, it will most likely be chilly, so I will need to put on a fleece or something. It's very deceptive.

5.15 p.m. I have no end of 'bits' of my manuscript, which are the various elements of the writing project I have mentioned in these blog posts. I use what is called 'clip' folders, which means you don't have to punch holes into the printed pages which you have to do if you use a ring binder, which I absolutely hate because the pages get torn and then look tatty. I remember from my days in college, years ago now, and my problems with the ring binders I used for the notes I had from the different classes I went to. So, being able to put my printed pages into the clip folder and no need to punch holes in the pages they are helped securely with a sliding metal clip and come in a neat and professional plastic folder with a transparent cover so you can see the title page through this clear cover. Problem solved. I have been searching all over the place to buy these folders, in W.H.Smith, Sainsbury's, Asda and anywhere else I could think of. We used to have a branch of Staples in Milton Keynes, but that has since closed down and gone online only. I think Staples merged with Office World, which had a warehouse which I used to past when I used to drive to Milton Keynes when I lived in Bedford. I'm not entirely sure if they still exist. I have bought stationary from a company called Viking, so I looked on their site, and, hey presto! They had clip files, so I have ordered a few and hopefully, they will arrive in the next couple of days.

Sunday. 12.40 p.m. There wasn't any worship as such at The Oaktree Centre this morning. Instead, we had what's called 'Café church, which could be described as 'open fellowship', with coffee, tea, pastries and biscuits and a chance to chat with anyone and everyone. The idea is to invite the 'unchurched' and be in a relaxed situation. It certainly was all that, and more. So much so, that there were so many people around in the café area that at one point you couldn't hear your own voice. Not that I'm complaining. It was good.

Monday. 7.25 a.m. A very mild and pleasant morning. The trees around Milton Keynes are rapidly changing colour, with amazing browns, yellows and a whole host of variations in between. Looking back towards Dexter House as I walked along the path beside Strudwick Drive, I could see the sky, which was a beautiful red. Where does the old saying go? 'Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning?' It also goes on 'Red sky at night. Shepherd's delight.' We'll just have to wait and see if all that is accurate as the day progresses.

10.25 a.m. I may have mentioned in these posts, the fact that I was supposed to have an extractor fan fitted in the kitchen window when my kitchen was refitted. As I write this, no extractor fan has been fitted. It was at the beginning of July that the work was done on the kitchen and a good month or so before that, the two ladies who did the initial assessment for the refit came to see me and I mentioned the possibility of having an extractor fan installed, basically because without one, when I cook and there is the possibility of smoke or steam being produced, it sets off the fire alarm with all that entails, the arrival of a fire engine and the annoyance and embarrassment that causes. I rang the company responsible for this work around a month ago and I was informed that they would contact the installers, but nothing happened. I have this morning contacted Mears yet again and this time they tell me 'an order has been raised.' So, let's hope that this time something eventually gets done. But don't hold your breath.

Another Sunny Day

(Thursday) So, we're allowed to meet up with family and friends outside, since some of the pandemic lockdown restrictions have been lifted. Thank goodness. It's like being locked up in solitary confinement. Well, let's be perfectly honest, it is solitary confinement in some ways. I took Alfie out for his last walk around Oldbrook Green and there were far more people around than there have been in ages. Youths playing football and others in what appears to be family groups but some not adhering to the 2 metre social distancing regulations. Several of the notices which had been attached to various  bits of exercise equipment were laying on the ground and people sitting in the covered shelter  but it would appear that things are gradually going to return to some sort of normal.

(Friday) It's 7.10a.m. I'm waiting to take Alfie out, but I'm trying to avoid him making a noise because a certain person who lives in Dexter House again complained about his barking (Alfie, not this idiot. Although, thinking about it, Alfie behaves better.) It's sunny and warm and I don't want to have BBC Breakfast on when all they go on about is the pandemic, which seems to have totally engulfed their news broadcasts. There must surely be more to report on in the news. This 'person' (for want of a better description.) leaning out of his flat window when I came back with Alfie yesterday afternoon, and hurling abuse at me. Just not acceptable and almost like something out of a Shakespeare play or even Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

I have had a delivery from Staples of a paper rack and a couple of pads of paper which came yesterday lunchtime. Ordered on Wednesday and surprised that the parcel was delivered barely 24 hours after the order was made, on line. I'm still waiting for the Apple pencil, which was ordered via Very almost a week ago. No notification from Very to let me know where the item is in the system, not even that it's not in stock. The iPad came within two days of ordering, so I don't see what the problem is. I realise that these businesses are working within social distancing guidelines, so some deliveries are likely to be a lot longer in arriving, but not being kept informed is not very good customer care in my opinion, The order from Weird Fish, of the shorts I ordered through their website was supposed to have arrived yesterday before 6 o'clock, but still nothing, so I assume that is on it's way.

The paper rack is now put together, but causing problems because the screws that hold it together won't tighten sufficiently so I have had to improvise making cardboard washers and putting them on the screws and tightening the screws with a Phillips screwdriver and it seems to have done the trick. It now means I can organise the handwritten pages of my writing which need putting into order so I can transcribe it all onto my MacBook and in the process make some amendments.

Later. I have 'Good Morning Britain' on, ITV's answer to the BBC's breakfast programme. I'm not sure which is better, but I think their set is a bit more imaginative. It make me laugh that it comes to the former BBC's Television Centre, which they rent from the new owners and then re-rent to ITV. It seems bonkers.

Walking with Alfie around Oldbrook Green, there was a ride-on mower cutting the grass. It seems they cut the grass several times in succession. The only problem is that they leave the cut grass and it has a tendency to get on your shoes and then walk it into the flat and there's piles of cuttings all over the floor. Nothing much you can do about it except sweep it up or pick up with the vacuum cleaner.

I have begun to sort out the handwritten pages of my written material. It's got really muddled and I will need to get some plastic wallets to put these collated pages in otherwise they will get muddled up again. Some were numbered but other are not which makes it far more difficult to sort out. I have begun to transcribe more of these hand-written pages into word processing.

(Saturday) 6.15a.m. It's another reasonably bright and sunny morning. The flat window is open and I can hear the birdies singing merrily. Alfie is expecting to be taken out, but I must wait because it will only upset someone who shall remain nameless. Just doesn't need winding up, but it's so easy. I have managed to get Alfie out by carrying him until we get round the corner into Strudwick Drive. It's preventing him making a noise and if you carry him (which he doesn't like) he can't, or simply won't, bark. It's restricting his natural tendency because that's what makes his character and I don't like stopping him. I have written a shopping list which sits on the coffee table and I intend going to Sainsbury's after 8 o'clock as there's no point going earlier because of the queuing system and I know that NHS frontline staff get preference between 7a.m and 8a.m.

Later. I was at Sainsbury's at around 8.15 this morning. The queue didn't stretch as far as when I first went when the lockdown restrictions were first put in place, when the queue was right back to the lower level of the carpark. This morning things moved reasonably quickly and I was inside the store and finished within about 30 minutes. I think it may actually have been less. I'm getting far better at using the self-service checkouts and I have a feeling that since the pandemic they are keeping them in better order so you don't get so many glitches, none of that 'unknown item in bagging area.' I'm definitely more confident and can scan each item faster. The trick I find is being able to discover where the bar code is on each item so it's easier to scan.  I have  now got the wallets so that I can sort out the different stories I have written which are in handwritten form, some of which need collating into their correct order, which, hopefully, these wallets should help with.

I got back to the flat and put all groceries away, most importantly the frozen things which needed putting in the freezer section of the fridge/freezer. I took Alfie out for a walk around Oldbrook Green and then started watching the video of 'Cats' which is being shown for 24 hours via YouTube as part of the 'Show Must Go On' project. I didn't watch the entire show but paused it and completed watching an hour or so later when I was eating my lunch. I saw the original London production at the New Theatre probably only weeks after it opened in 1981. I saw the touring production which came to the Derngate in Northampton a couple of years ago.

Pandemic Continues

Well, I'm awake at 2.10a.m. It's Wednesday morning, 22nd April. Each day, during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown is merging one day into another. Each day is becoming very much the same as the last and then the next. I couldn't sleep, so I got up to make myself a cup of tea. I turn on the television and, would you believe, someone attempting to sell me a Rug Doctor and telling me it can get rid of all that deep-down dirt, even bacteria. What about viruses? I doubt it. Live television is just boring. There's no excuse moaning about daytime television, constant programmes about antiques, people attempting to sell their house, because they've got more money than sense, so they decide to move to darkest Somerset, Dorset or Yorkshire. Selling their 2-bed semi in Maidenhead, because the kids have flown the nest and they've discovered the house is worth silly money. Then, they eventually move to the country and then discover that the nearest Tesco is a forty-minute drive from their new home, the mobile signal is weak and there's no broadband and that their family doesn't want to visit them, necessitating the new house having too many bedrooms with en suite bathrooms for them to stay in and they don't like being woken at 4a.m by the sound of bleating sheep or cockerels crowing, nor the fact that, if they do decide to drive to Tesco or the nearest town to buy a wooly jumper when it gets cold, they have to get stuck behind a tractor and trailer, crawling along at 5 miles per hour and there's now way they can overtake because the roads are narrow and there's nowhere you can safely overtake.

What I'm saying is, you don't have to put up with all this daytime stuff, just there to fill up space in the schedule. Come on, you've got catch-up television, BBC iPlayer, which has a rich variety of back-catalogue material to whet your appetite, not just more recent stuff, on their from the previous day, but some of it going back several years. (Oher catch-up services are available, such as ITV Hub, as well as streaming services such as Netflix and the newest service, Britbox. Then there's Amazon Prime video.) I scrolled through what was available on BBC iPlayer. There's stuff from the last few days and months, but it seems the BBC has realised that it has a great back catalogue of material which it can upload to iPlayer because people are relying on television for entertainment because of having to stay at home due to the lockdown. Channel 4 has box sets of their own stuff and, as something of a fan of Time Team, there's virtually every episode of that to watch. I have seen two of the first episodes of the original series and I'm shocked that Tony Robinson looks so young! Not surprising as it started in the early 1990's. I watched 'Scarborough,' the new BBC1 sitcom set in the Yorkshire seaside town. Having visited Scarborough on a couple of occasions and done a month in a summer season at the Spa Theatre, I know it reasonably well. This sitcom has a certain reality about it, probably because it's shot on location and it has characters what you can relate to and a good mix of ages, not all young and they have cast older actors such as Stephanie Cole who is probably best know for shows such as Tenko, Waiting For God, Doc Martin and Open All Hours. There isn't the usual studio audience cackling away in the background which there seems no real point in having and wouldn't really work in a show like this. I think she would be described as a character actor, as she can take on a wide range of parts and not get tied to a 'type.' It has a sharp script and the author, Darren Little,obviously has a keen ear for dialogue.

So, it's now 5.15.m., and I'm somewhat bored and still can't sleep, hence sitting and writing this. It's getting light outside and I've done the washing-up and the kitchen is sparkling clean. I'm finding things to keep myself occupied and I've even done the one job I detest above all others, changed the bedding. Putting a duvet cover on is one of the worst jobs but at least it's done and it can go in the wash later this afternoon.

(Thursday) I'm awake earlier than yesterday. It's 4.45, although I was awake far earlier. I've been reading my book, 'The Age of Decadence' by Simon Heffer, covering the period 1880 to 1914. A thick book of some 750 or possibly more pages and written in amazing detail. I have washed up in the kitchen and even had a shave and I have just learnt from the BBC website that social restrictions are likely to go on for the rest of the year. If that's the case, we're just going to have to get used to it, although I'm not sure how church is going to cope and how many people are going to cope if that's how things are likely to remain.

I've done the washing up as well as some other housework. I mentioned yesterday that I'd changed the duvet and bedding. The excitement is too much (irony here) and it's washed and back in the airing cupboard.

I watched the Globe Theatre production of 'Romeo and Juliet,' which is one of the free-to-view theatre productions being streamed via YouTube. I enjoyed it, plenty of good sword fights (I noticed, the fights were arranged by Malcolm Ranson, who was an A.S.M. or at least on the stage management team when I was an A.S.M. at Greenwich Theatre in the early 1970's.) This production had plenty of energy, good chemistry between the actors playing Romeo and Juliet and I loved the use of live music and the singing to underline some of the action. They really brought out the comedy some of which is actually quite raunchy, particularly the way The Nurse is treated. She is usually played by a much older actor  but in this production she is a good deal younger than usual.

I have been watching another episode of one of my favourite, and I think probably the best sitcoms, 'Outside Edge.' I have mentioned it somewhere on here in the past. It was made during the 1990s, by the now defunct ITV company, Central, and is based on the stage play of the same name. It revolves around a village cricket team, although not entirely about cricket (thank goodness, as I can't stand it. Memories of school enough to put me off entirely, unfortunately.) It has Brenda Blethyn and Robert Daws as one couple and Timothy Spall and  Josie Lawrence as two sets of married couples (there are others, but these two are the central characters.) I just think it's brilliant, and not your classic 'sitcom' in the sense that it's not set in a house, no sofas and no cackling studio audience and it's filmed on location which gives it a more realistic feel. I don't know how many episodes there where, but the one I saw earlier would seem to be one I haven't seen before, where the Timothy Spall and Josie Lawrence characters are set to re-take their wedding vows and it's all arranged, everyone is in church ready, and they can't make it to the church because they're in the loft of the lady who lives next door, attempting to find her cat which has decided to get itself stuck. As usual in a sitcom, there are complications and misunderstandings, but it ends up sorting itself out as any decent and respectable comedy should. The recent comedy I mentioned in an earlier blog post, 'Scarborough' is similar in that it doesn't have a studio audience and it's filmed on location. Brenda Blethyn is in an ITV sitcom, set, again, in a seaside town (why so many sitcoms set in seaside towns?) called 'Kate and Koji' and set in a café, although, having watched the first two episodes, I can't say I'm that impressed. It tries to hard and it's not particularly funny or well written. One-set, not particularly interesting group of characters and the storylines aren't that brilliant either.

I ordered some clip files and permanent marker pens from Staples. They don't have a bricks-and-mortar presence any more and the Milton Keynes branch closed some while ago. I went on line to order these items and was expecting them to be delivered in a week or two because of the pandemic and was a little surprised to see the delivery van draw up outside when I looked out of the window. I always ensure that I get the address correct when I order, but the driver thought the address was for another house in Dexter Avenue, so I went down to the front door and got the parcel.

Later. I've just been out with Alfie. As we were walking along Strudwick Drive on our way to Oldbrook Green, Alfie was surprised to see a cat in the garden of Dexter House, through the metal gate which is used by the mowers when they come to cut the grass. The cat was only a few feet inside the garden and laying in the sun, as cats seem to do, and Alfie pulled on his lead and refused to move, and began barking, but the cat steadfastly refused to budge an inch. I had to insist on Alfie moving away, but it took quite an effort of get him away from the gate.

Arriving at the other side of Oldbrook Boulevard, I noticed a group of youths playing football, or at least, some ball game, on the area of tarmac which is partially enclosed by fencing, and to me they didn't appear to be obeying the social distancing regulations.

Friday. I'm watching the National Theatre 'Twelfth Night' which is being streamed free on YouTube. A very clever staging, using the revolve and Tamsin Greig is absolutely amazing as Malvolia. A really stunning performance. Too good to miss. I know the play from doing it for 'O' Level and to degree level. When I first got to know Carol (we met on line.) and she was teaching at Stantonbury. she had to teach Twelfth Night and had no idea how to plan lessons, so I helped because of my knowledge of the play. I have seen quite a few productions over the years (if you know me I have a bit of an obsession about Shakespeare, from the historical as well as the literary angle.). But this one is a real knock-out.

Out For Lunch

We were invited to lunch by Carol's work colleague Lois. It has been another really hot day. We went shopping in Sainsbury's really early as we wanted to avoid the crowds you tend to get on a Saturday. It would appear that most people tend to do their shopping later in the day, generally the afternoon in most supermarkets. We managed to get in and out within an hour and got home and unpacked. We managed to have a better night as it wasn't anywhere near as warm as it' been for the past couple of nights. Then we drove over to Lois's home in Bradville as she had invited us to a barbecue in her garden. She goes to our church, Milton Keynes Christian Centre, but we go to the 9 a.m. service so we never seem to meet her. She is a teacher in the science department at Milton Keynes Academy where Carol also works as a science teacher. Lois wasn't in when we arrived. She had gone to the shops to buy meat for the barbecue we were having in the garden. Her daughter let us into the house. She then arrived and spent some time attempting to find the various parts of the barbecue which were necessary to get it going, some grill or something. It was excessively hot outside so we sat in the house drinking fruit juice. She eventually managed to find the bits that made up the barbecue and spent what seemed like a long time lighting the thing with paper and wood as well as charcoal. When it was at the right temperature they began to put the meat on and cook it. We soon at and ate the food and drank the drink whilst watching Wimbledon on the large flat-screen television (a good deal bigger than our set which we got over a year ago. We eventually left as Carol wanted to go to Staple's, the stationary superstore on the way home.

Weather Changes and Flu Jabs

I had to be at Ashfield Medical Centre at 8 this morning as I had to have my annual flu jab. Because of having had a heart attack I am one of the 'at risk' groups who automatically get a flu jab before winter starts and there is a likelihood of being infected. It can be quite life-threatening if you have flu whilst having a heart condition, apparently. I arrived with around 15 minutes to spare and got the car parked and then stood in the queue which had already started to build up, with around 20 people standing on the steps outside the surgery door. It was all good natured and the rain clouds were building up as we waited and hence there was a possibility we might get wet. I did feel what might have been a raindrop, but I'm not sure. We got inside once the doors were open and then there was a wait of a few minutes before I got to the lady on the reception. She put my name in the computer database and registered me and I had to wait a further ten minutes or so before being called into the doctor's surgery. The actual jab was totally painless and I was out again within two minutes and driving home. Fortunately there was virtually no traffic as I drove back to Eaglestone.


The television forecast has been correct: it is now very much colder and wetter today than it has been for the past few weeks. The Indian Summer is now over. It's been raining, not particularly hard, but it's been raining nonetheless. We went to Staples to buy some computer printer ink cartridges and other items and it was reasonably dry and we went out, but on getting back home, having been to Waitrose, which is a mile and a half further down Chaffron Way from home, it was raining quite hard.