Hunkey Dory!

 Monday. 9.35 a.m. It's a good deal cooler this morning. The digital thermometer currently reads 24ºc. 

The drains are to be cleared. Oh, happy day! That is, along the corridor in which my flat is. We can't flush the toilet, have a shower or wash up in the kitchen and let out the water. I have already done the washing up, so there's no problem with that, don't currently need a shower, but I don't know about flushing the toilet. Such is the fun at Dexter House.

Tuesday. 8.00 a.m. It's a good deal cooler again this morning. My digital thermometer currently reads 22ºc, so a 2º drop on yesterday's temperature.

3.55 p.m. I've just taken Alfie out, to the usual spot on the grass alongside Strudwick Drive. There were quite a few people walking along the path, a lot of them from Milton Keynes Academy, which is just the other side of Chaffron Way. Then I saw a group of around three youths, on electric scooters, the sort I mention regularly on here, riding along the road. To me, this is extremely dangerous, because they could easily get hit by a car, or fall over in the road. If this was to happen, the chances are they would be killed. As they rode on, going past The Cricketers public house, one of the male youths was weaving in and out of the centre of the road and at that point, a few cars were driving behind the group. As I have said, it only needed a slight misjudgement and a wobble, and that youth could have fallen off his scooter and into the path of one of those cars.

Wednesday.2.25. p.m. I booked a haircut this morning, online, and have been to the appointment, which was a 1.40 p.m. I drove to Unity Place, where the barbers is. I parked the car and then walked to the ticket machine. I thought it would have a slot for my £1 coin, but there wasn't one, so I attempted to use the card reader facility. You have to key in your car's registration number, but I still have no idea whether it worked. No ticket issued and nothing came up on the screen. Just so annoying. I walked into Unity Place, and saw a statue of a cow. What on earth is the significance of a COW?? I have absolutely no idea.

Friday. 8.35 a.m. Washing in washing machine, washing-up more or less done. Floors mopped (actually partially) Alfie asleep in his bed, the sun is out and it's still warm. My digital thermometer currently reads 27ºc. 

4.35 p.m. Unfortunately, when I went to do my washing this morning, I found the drier I normally use was out of action. So, I had to use the second one, which I rarely use. By the time my washing was done and I need to use the dryer, I put everything in it and hit the first button. There is no help anywhere to show which button does what and for how long, so when I came back an hour later, the load wasn't entirely dry. I put the drier back on for ten minutes, but even then it didn't dry completely. This meant I took the load back to my flat and put most of it on the drying rack in the bathroom.

I have been continuing with editing and revising my writing. It's going well. I am rounding out some of the characters and adding some new ones. Also, doing a bit of research to get some details right, and this should help give the piece some realism.

Easing Lockdown

So, the lockdown is being slowly eased. We can apparently meet six people in open spaces, such as parks and gardens. Horray! As it is, we can't remain in lockdown forever, otherwise the country is going to become bankrupt. It will be great to be able to go shopping for what they term 'Unessential items,' for example, clothes, which, as far as I understand aren't unessential unless you want to go around stark naked, which might not be such a good idea, although with the weather so warm it wouldn't be such a bad idea but just don't try it!

I am taking Alfie out through the side entrance which goes out directly into Strudwick Drive. He's a bit shocked I think to find himself outside on the grass area next to the road, but at least it's quicker than going through the front entrance and walking round along Dexter Avenue.

Some delightful soul has seen fit to break glass and all the pieces are on the pavement as I walk Alfie towards Oldbrook Green earlier this morning. Fortunately I was able to move some of the larger and positively lethal pieces onto the side so that Alfie and anyone on a bicycle doesn't run over them. If they got in his paws he could be horribly cut and it wouldn't be pleasant for him. I saw hi-vis clad council workers in the distance as we approached the crossing onto the green and at first thought they were streaming the grass, but it appeared that they were picking up rubbish. The amount has got worse since the lockdown began. As we got to the furthest side of the green I saw that one of the workmen had put black bags into a shopping trolley. I saw a Morrisons and Lidl trolley left abandoned a few days ago and it seems rather odd because if they were taken from either supermarket then whoever used them must have walked quite a distance to unload their groceries and then take them to abandon them in the middle of Oldbrook. Doesn't make a lot of sense.

(Saturday) They continue to drone on relentlessly about the pandemic on BBC Breakfast. The issue of Dominic Cummings is still being raked over by all the media, probably because they can't talk about much else as there isn't much else TO talk about. The BBC becomes more and more biased against the government as the days go on.

(Wednesday) I can't believe I haven't written anything since Saturday. It is becoming rather repetitive, hence the lack of anything fresh to say on here.

I've been to fill the car up with fuel, going to the ESSO station on Childs Way. I decided to go there because of getting Nectar points. Virtually no traffic on the roads and then I went to Waitrose to buy some fruit as I eat at least several pieces a day. There was a short queue and it was in and out relatively quickly. Actually improved when the place is virtually empty of customers and this means no queueing at the tills and it's easy to move around the store.

(Friday) Nothing much to report, except that it's quite blustery out this morning when I took Alfie out at just turned 7 o'clock, which was a bit of a surprise.

I was due to have a hospital appointment today at 1.20 at the X-Ray department. It was to be a scan rather than an actual X-ray. I was all prepared to go and I knew from the letter I received from the hospital offering me the appointment that I wasn't to eat anything after 6 hours before the time. But I have cancelled the appointment, mainly because of a fear of catching the wretched virus. I have managed to get this far without anything, so I'm not going to get infected. I know it wouldn't be the staff's fault and that they would have sufficient Personal Protective Equipment, but I will have to get the doctor to refer me again for another appointment in probably two month's time when the risk is likely to be very much reduced.

I can spend ages hunting for ideas for stories, or at least, where a story I'm working on should go next. But I would never have believed that I would dream ideas. This has happened twice recently, but I won't give away what the dreams were about and where those story ideas are being used. I think it's best to write down these dreams and even if I don't use them immediately then I never know when they might be used in the future. I'll wait and see if and when I have dreamt another story idea.

Warm and Sunny Weather

(Wednesday)The weather is continuing to be warm and sunny. But lets enjoy it and not find any negatives. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, when you have the window open, you have to endure all manner of annoying sounds, people running the engines of their cars immediately below my window, children screaming, chatting people (actually quite good for someone who writes as there's dialogue and story ideas from this, so in some respects i'm not complaining. Alan Bennett has said that he used a few of his parents choice saying in his plays, so who knows what's going to come out of an over-heard conversation. I must learn to take my notebook and pencil out when I'm walking Alfie. I was following a couple down Strudwick Avenue and they were having quite a heated conversation, which, unfortunately, I didn't quite catch and then a couple, he dragging along one of those wheeled suitcases that people take with them on holiday and which you see on television when they show footage of airports, people about to board their planes or railway station concourses. It looked to me as if she' just thrown him out of the house, she walking ahead and him walking along behind. Another bit of over-heard conversation, again, quite heated. So, what was the reason? What storyline could I get out of it? What had he done wrong? Were they splitting up? Had she thrown him out of the house? Where was he/they going? To another house? To the station to catch a train? All these ideas stirring up my imagination. Could lead to a story somewhere along the line. You can't make these things up.)

Later. I had wondered what had happened to the appointment I was supposed to have had at Milton Keynes Hospital. I have mentioned this in a previous post. I had a blood test done when I moved from the hopeless Ashfield Medical Centre to Central Milton Keynes Medical Centre in Bradville Common. The doctor suggested I have a blood test, just to check my normal functions, which included cholesterol. It turned out that I needed to have a hospital appointment to have a test to check my liver, as the blood test had shown something not quite right (don't ask me what) which would have been caused by one of the medications I take for my heart condition. Typical that you get side effects caused by the medication. I have to take one tablet which protects my stomach because one of them can hard the lining or something. Anyway, I hadn't heard anything and it was some time ago, I this morning I decided to ring the surgery. I couldn't remember the telephone number, so I went to their website to discover you can leave messages on the website, giving your basic details such as date of birth. I gave a brief description of what I wanted to know, making sure it was clear that it wasn't urgent. I didn't expect to get a response for a couple of day, but this afternoon I had an email and it connected to a reply, saying that the original appointment had been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is what I had imagined had happened, but I was never informed of this. Regardless of the pandemic, I still need to have this test and they will attempt to arrange a new appointment.

Later still. I have picked up the writing, having got somewhat stuck with where things were going. I had a vague idea where it was going, but not how. I find that, when I go out with Alfie for our walks around Oldbrook Green that I suddenly get ideas for plots and story arcs. The actual writing itself isn't always too difficult, but unless you have what I suppose you could call tent poles, which, if you like, hold up the 'canvas' of the story. Apparently Charles Dickens is supposed to have gone on long walks, sometime going for 20 miles around London, and he got ideas for his novels during these walks, so I can say I am just following his technique for writing. I think it's probably because your mind is allowed to run free when I'm in the open air. I don't know wether the current lockdown situation is actually increasing my creativity but it would seem that might be the case. I suppose another way to describe story creation is to describe the basics as a bit like scaffolding. When builders start work on a house or other construction, they put up scaffolding and work on that as the bricks go up which is perhaps the best description. Without the basic scaffolding in place you can't 'build' your story. Or perhaps it's similar to a journey. You have to know where you going when you start, following a map of a satnav does help.