Keeping The NHS Busy- Part 1

Monday. 9.50 a.m. I have been out with Alfie, although he was somewhat reluctant to go much further than the piece of grass along Strudwick Drive, but I insisted on walking around Oldbrook Green. As we came to the point where we cross over Oldbrook Boulevard and back along the path towards Dexter House, we saw the lady with Toto. She was sitting in an electric shopping scooter with the dog on her lap. She said she was waiting for a hip replacement operation. Well, to be honest, if it's on the NHS, she's likely to have a long wait, as they are making excuses over any sort of operation or procedure in the wake of the so-called pandemic. 

There seemed to be an excessive amount of traffic along all the roads within Oldbrook. I then discover it's due to our dear old friend, Milton Keynes Marathon. It seems a lot of the roads are closed off to traffic, so that puts an end to my idea of going into the shopping centre to have a look around. More as an excuse to get out of Dexter House for a couple of hours. I think I might leave it until tomorrow. I still don't know why they can't run along the Redways instead of causing inconvenience to everybody, but, of course, that is far too easy.

Tuesday. 6.05 a.m. As it was light outside, I took Alfie out around 5.30 this morning. Yet another mild and pleasant morning.

2.15 p.m. After yesterday when I couldn't drive into the centre of Milton Keynes due to the marathon, I decided to go in this morning. I had a need to just escape from the flat as it can get incredibly claustrophobic. It was good to just wander about and in the shops. I have had really itchy skin and I needed something to relieve it. I found that E45, which is a lotion for such a skin condition, might be suitable. I had looked on the Boots website, but it was apparently out of stock in their Milton Keynes store, so I tried Superdrug, and, hey presto! they had it, so I went into their store and bought some. I now have Superdrug's loyalty card and set up an account when I got back to the flat. The only problem I have with these cards is that they soon fill up your wallet. How many do I have? Probably a dozen or so. The most used are Nectar, which is connected with Sainsbury's and Argos (which is now owned by Sainsburys) Tesco Clubcard, Waterstones, Costa coffee, Body Shop, IKEA, Lakeland, Boots, Morrisons, T.K. Maax, Pets At Home and no doubt many more. The trouble is they take up so much space in my wallet, so when I get to the till to pay at one of these retailers, I can spend a long time rifling through my wallet in an attempt to find the relevant card. Although you can have an app which is supposed to do the same job as a plastic card, I don't always have my iPhone on me.

I have been having what I can only describe as 'mini' angina 'pains', although they're not really pains. I suppose they could be best described as sort of pin-pricks of discomfort in my chest. I know exactly how an angina episode feels and more than sure of what a heart attack feels like, although the pain of a heart attack and heart burn, or indigestion, can feel very similar. I have tablets to check heartburn, Gaviscon, which are actually quite pleasant to suck, unlike a lot of medication and do work. I have them in my medication drawer for just this sort of moment. 

On Wednesday night I was woken up by Alfie poking me with a paw and needing my attention. I realised be probably needed to go outside, but it takes quite a while for me to come round from deep sleep, put on my clothes and stagger out to the grass outside alongside Strudwick Drive. This happened again a couple of hours later, but, unfortunately, he couldn't wait and I ended up clearing up after him. One of the reasons I have kitchen roll handy for such an incident. Then it happened again a few hours after that, by which time my patience was wearing a bit thin, unfortunately, but it was no good blaming Alfie. Well, at least he is capable of telling me, in his own original way that he needed my assistance. This was when the strange angina-like 'attacks' began, and I was thinking I ought to do something about it. Although not actually serious, or so I imagined, it might be advisable to contact my GP and discuss it with him/her.

Due to the weird angina-like symptoms, I thought it might be a good idea to get checked out by a GP. I wasn't expecting that I would get an appointment immediately, but nevertheless, I rang the surgery and found out that they now have a system which allows you to key in a number on your phone's keypad and they will ring you back when your number gets to the front of the queue. It certainly saves having to hang on for what can be hours until you hit the front spot. I spoke to a receptionist, and she listened to my symptoms and said that I would get a call-back from a doctor on Thursday afternoon. But then an hour or so later they rang and said that a doctor would see me face-to-face at 4.40 p.m. The doctor checked my heart rate and stuck that thing on my finger. What is it called? Oximeter or something. He decided I would need to have an E.C.G. and a blood test, just to see what was going on, and I arranged this for the next day with the receptionist.

Friday. 5.00 p.m. I went to the surgery to have my E.C.G. and blood test at 9.20 a.m., but I got there well in time and as a result, I was called into the room to have the tests. The lady doing the bloodletting, sorry, taking my blood, had a real problem finding a vein. So, what's new. In the end, she gave up and said she would need to have a second nurse available to help with this, and I would need to book another appointment. The E.C.G. caused no problems. Well, all I have to do is lie down on the bed and have those contact things stuck on me. No problems. All done and then I went home.

Shopping in IKEA

Daniel is returning home next week. He's got a job-interview in Milton Keynes. He's only here for a day or two and will return afterwards. He's been at university in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. It seems crazy to think he has to come back a good 200 miles for a job on our doorstep. I'm not sure exactly where the company is or what they're called, but never mind. We have to get the spare bedroom prepared as it's currently being used as a storeroom and you can barely see the bed as it's covered in all manner of things, books mainly. I had spent some of the morning cleaning it ready and had to go out and buy a mop and bucket as the floor was in something of a state. On the way to Homebase in Winterhill I took a load of stuff to the tidy tip in Bleak Hall. Old bit of carpet and a bean bag which had definitely seen better days. I think it would have crawled there itself given half a chance, it was so battered and torn and unmentionable. Also a load of cartons, the packaging for some large-scale item we'd had delivered from Amazon or another on-line company or other. Well, I was prompted to do all this because it was bright and sunny, and if the weather is fine it's a good excuse to do some clearing out. I'm not sure what happens when it's dull, overcast or raining. Probably has the opposite effect.

When Carol came in from work I showed her my efforts with the spare room and she was pleased with the results. We usually get a take-away on a Friday and go to the Brother's Fish Bar in Eaglestone. But before going there Carol suggested we visit IKEA to have a look at book shelves as the one's we have currently in our lounge are not really in a particularly fit state and we could do with a new television unit. She said there was one we could have which was a sort of -all-in-one design, having a television unit at the centre with book shelves around it. You get my meaning. Well, I imagine you do. Also, it was a good excuse to replace the bit of rug I'd taken to the tidy-tip. 

I quite like wandering around IKEA. Not everybody's idea of a pleasant outing. I rather like the stupid names the come up with for their products. I'm not so sure of the amount of walking you have to do within their store. If you've never visited an IKEA store, you won't know how strange the layout of the different departments is. You walk in a sort of strange seeming labyrinth of inter-locking rooms or departments and have to go through each to reach the next. It's as well to remember to take a trolley with you and to collect items you want to buy as you go along, otherwise, if you suddenly decide to buy whatever it is that takes your fancy and want to go back, it's not each to remember where that item was and end up walking miles, or what seem like miles.

We started off in the restaurant/café. Carol is diabetic and she said she thought her blood sugar was low so she would need something to eat and drink. We queued in the self-service section of the café and I had a piece of apple pie and Carol had a sort of chocolaty confection-thing made with butterscotch or what looked like butterscotch. We had to get drinks, as you pay once and can fill up your glass or mug several times if you have an IKEA Family card, which we have. Unfortunately we have so many of these loyalty cards that when you get to the till to pay it can take some time to find the correct card. You get points for shopping in Tesco with a Clubcard, another in Sainsbury's if you have a Nectar card, and another in Waterstone's. Every store has one now. Boots has their Advantage card, Costa has one, Holland and Barratt's and so on. My wallet is stuffed full of the things and it gets to the point that we have to leave a lot of them at home or in the glove compartment in the car. They are a good idea and can be good especially when you get money off on certain products or a free paper when you spend so much in Waitrose or a free coffee or tea. We had to spend a couple of minutes searching for the confounded IKEA card.

We sat in an area in the café which had IKEA furniture in it. Well, nothing like being able to try out what a company sells by actually using it. We bought a chair to replace the armchair I used to sit in some while ago. It came with us from the house in Crownhill. It had not worn well; the springs in the seat were coming through and the arms were hanging off and it had been patched up with tape and was certainly past it's best. We went to IKEA to look at a replacement and the one I chose isn't actually as comfortable as it might be, which is a pity. Not something to sit in for any length of time. With my shoulder and neck problem I really need something with a bit more back support. We tried a new model which is more like a traditional wing-back chair and has a good deal more back support and a more padded seat. We'll come back when we have been paid to buy one next month.

Carol went off to find the toilet and I was left with the trolley in the café. There was an older couple sitting nearby, I don't think they spoke one word to each other in all the time I was sitting in there. They looked so miserable. I don't think he wanted to be there. No doubt taken there against his will and wanted to be somewhere else. Quite a few other husbands with wives looking just as miserable. Well, they must have had odd relationships or something to be so grumpy and miserable.

We spent some time looking at rugs in the rug and carpet section. A great many to choose from in every shape and size imaginable in in an absolutely enormous range of designs and colours. We choose a round rug for the spare-room with a sort of spotty design in a radiating pattern and door mats from the front door and the patio door as the old ones had become really dirty and tatty. On the way through the children's section we saw lots of stuffed animal toys. Over the years we have bought all manner of birds, animals and assorted strange stuffed toys, more than one or two mice and rats which the dogs have played with, a couple ending up in the bin due to being over-shaken or sucked by both Alfie and Poppy. We have a rabbit-toy which sits near the television and a few other assorted creatures but Carol saw a puffin toy which we had to buy.

So, we wended our way through the remaining departments and ended up at the checkout where we paid and ended up back at the carpark. We had to decide where to get out Friday-night take-out. We had to drive back towards Eaglestone and the traffic was building up along the road near the football stadium. It took about ten minutes to reach the roundabout where Saxon Street meets Groveway and then near Beanhill, near the junction into the road where Ashfield Medical Centre is located. Not surprising as the time was around 5 o'clock, going-home for most businesses in and around Milton Keynes. We were making for Brother's fish and chip shop and it took us some while to get through the heavy traffic. We parked near the shops in Eaglestone and took some cash out of the A.T.M. machine near the shop and then  noticed that the fish and chip shop was closed, with the shutters down. There was a notice stuck to the shutter. 'Closed due to family bereavement.' Sad to read this, but there was no way we were going to get our weekly fish and chip supper. So we decided we would have to go back the way we'd just come and go to get a meal from the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet near the stadium, which we had only just driven past about twenty minutes earlier. Having collected our K.F.C. meal we drove back home and were glad that we had completed our evening's travels.

Blackberry-Picking and Sunshine

It's been a bright and sunny day today. Having seen blackberries on the brambles all along the Redway, as I walk with Carol to and from the Academy, it was too much for me to ignore them and so I went out this morning and picked quite a few. It looks, though, that others have had the same idea. Probably not as many as there might have been. And you can hardly blame people for getting the same idea as me as it's just a few yards from the back of our house onto the Redway and pick a bowlful of berries.

We have been searching for Carol's Driving Licence. The plastic card bit, which contains her driver's number. I have been on-line attempting to find a reasonable quote for our car insurance which runs out at the end of October. You have to put in your car registration number as it links to the D.V.L.C. database which brings up the make of car, model etc. I have my driving licence card in my wallet where I keep all my cards, loyalty cards such as Nectar and Tesco Clubcard, Debit cards etc. You also enter this driver number to show proof of your identity in order to set up your car insurance when you do this on-line with a number of insurance companies. So we have spent the past day searching the house for this card and eventually found it in the most unlikely of places but then we decided to just ring our current insurance company, Swinton, and decided to continue with our current company, but managing to get a better quote and avoid the hefty excess that was on the current policy. So, it's done and the policy will start at the end of October. The plastic card and the paperwork for Carol's driving licence was still stuck onto the 'Counterpart' paperwork section of the licence, as it had come in the post all those months ago and obviously had never been separated. They always seem to use the most sticky substance to attach these cards to either letters or 'counterpart' driving licences which are really difficult to remove. A gum-substance like chewing gum which then gets stuck to everything else it comes into contact with. Just annoying and unnecessary.

You no longer need to have the paper part of your driving licence. They have done away with this seemingly pointless bit of paper from the 8th June. I could never see the point of having the paper part of your driving licence as it was always getting lost. If the system was completely computerised it seemed a bit of a waste of time having it also on a paper document which was always going to be separated from the neat little picture card which you carried around in your wallet as I do with mine.

I walked to the shop in Galloways in Coffee Hall to take money out of the A.T.M. there this morning. Not only is walking good exercise, but it allows me to think positively about my writing and I've now got some more ideas to put into the various bits of work I'm working on. Well, if walking was good enough for Charles Dickens, who used to do his best thinking for his novels whilst walking, then it's good enough for me. it's so easy to take my iPod and listen to a podcast which I can download easily, but pondering plot-structure seems far more positive and useful. No end of squirrels chasing up and down the trees and on the grass. They come really close to me and I spent some time watching them. We seem to have quite a few of these cheeky, nimble little creatures around Milton Keynes. Also, I find many conkers under the horse chestnut trees along the side of the road and pick a handful up to take home. Do children still go 'conkering' as we used to as children? Do they still tie them onto bits of string and play the game of 'conkers' or have the 'health and safety' people stopped this game? Pity if they have.

I'm actually reading a Charles Dickens novel at the moment, 'Nicholas Nickleby.' I read it over 30 years ago, just before the famous Royal Shakespeare Company production was shown on Channel Four in  it's opening year. A good old-fashioned story that fair cracks along at a good lick and keeps you entertained with some of his most intriguing and preposterous comic creations. I'm sure that Victor Hugo must have read it, along with 'Oliver Twist' as there are some similarities with his 'Les Miserables' which I have also read. 

Haircut

I got my hair cut yesterday morning. The same place I usually go in The Food Centre near the Milton Keynes  shopping centre. I didn't have to wait  long and I feel a lot better after I had my hair cut. My hair had become very long and unkempt and I really like it kept short. I suppose at my age I should be lucky that I have any hair at all, so I shouldn't complain. Most men of my age have very little hair, or they are bald, but I don't have to worry about such things.  

Anyway, they have this incentive scheme there to encourage you to go back again. You are given a card and each time you have your hair cut (or any other service they offer.) you get the card stamped, and then, after you have six stamps you can have a free haircut (or use it for some offer they might have on.) Seems a good idea to me to keep your customers loyal. I have a Tesco Clubcard and a Nectar card and collect points on them, but, to be honest, as a family we're not that loyal to any one supermarket. In Milton Keynes we are spoilt for choice as we have a large Tesco at Kingston, and another at Bletchley, a huge Asda at Bletchley, near the football stadium, a Morrison's at Westcroft (where we did our main shop on Saturday.) and a newish Sainsbury's at The Hub, which is near the City centre, as well as Lidl (see below) which is what you'd call a budget supermarket and they have remarkably good products. Then there are quite a few mini Tescos, or Tesco Express stores dotted around the city, which we use for basics such as milk and buying a newspaper or items we might run out of if the supermarkets are closed.

It's surprisingly mild this morning. It was fairly windy in the night, and there was some very slight rainfall, but certainly nothing to write home about. 

I went to Lidl for some milk and cheese crackers on my way back from the City centre yesterday and  I found that they've rearranged the store. Doesn't it annoy you when you go to a store regularly and you know exactly where everything is that you want and then they have to move it all around? Well, it was like that. They can't move the milk as the refrigerated units are fixed in one place, but I had a good idea where the cheese biscuits were. I had to walk up and down the aisles several times in order to find what I wanted. I have a good idea why it's been rearranged like this. It's partly because they have to bring in Christmas stock, and partly it's because most shoppers only go in (like I do) and by the essential items (ie. bread, milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables.) and if you know precisely where they are, you just go to those places in the store, pick up your items and then go to the next place. It's to make you look at other items you might not necessarily want to purchase, and you search for your essential items. I found the cheese crackers and I was annoyed. They had moved them right next to the entrance! The last place I expected to look for them!

For those who are interested, the barber's website is at www.centralbarbers.com.