Signs Of Spring

It's still windy, but not quite as windy it has been lately. The sun is shining. It's getting light earlier each day and it's light till quite late.

Having said all that, it's gone very overcast as I compose this. The dark clouds are gathering. What with coronavirus, Ireland in (almost) in 'lockdown (well, schools closed. The children must be losing it! Probably not so the parents.), Italy in 'lockdown,' (I feel somewhat sorry for the tourist industry, which must be a large part of their economy.) and the United Kingdom moving from 'containing' to 'delaying,' amid criticism of this move (there's always someone who has to complain about things.) Whatever the government does, then someone will pick holes in it, whether right or wrong.

There are daffodils blooming or at least beginning to bloom all around Oldbrook at the moment, along the grassy areas which edge in particular Strudwick Drive and then there's a different yellow flower blooming on the opposite side of Oldbrook Green to The Cricketers public house. I don't actually think they are daffodils, but Alfie likes wandering in them whenever we go out.

The 'mystery building,' which has been built on the opposite side of Oldbrook Green and which I have walked past since it was begun several months ago is now complete. I'm still somewhat intrigued to know what it's purpose is. It has a wall which encloses a yard with a metal gate and the wall has metal spikes along it's top surface, giving a somewhat sinister and almost militaristic feel to the structure, so if that's there then no doubt it is intended to house something of value.

(Saturday) I've been to the Men's Breakfast at the Oaktree Centre this morning. I needed to get some cash out. Well, £5 for a great cooked breakfast can't be bad. I thought I'd go to the cashpoint outside Tesco's in Oldbrook Boulevard, which must be the closest. I got there and parked and then went to the machine, put my card in, and nothing happened, a lot of whirring and strange noises. No cash appeared and I began to get a bit concerned. You usually get you card back before the thing spits out your money, but still nothing after around 5 minutes. I press 'Cancel,' and the card is regurgitated. much to my relief. It did make me wonder if it was some sort of scam. I don't know, you have to guard your P.I.N. number when using an A.T.M., who knows if some criminal has the where with all to 'clone' your card if you put it in a cashpoint machine? I then went to the A.T.M. machine at the Shell petrol station along Grafton Street, but worked fine and I was able to drive off to Shenley without any problems. There was no sign on the machine at Tesco to say it was out of order and whatever. Although that did come up after I took my cash.

We had our usually fantastic cooked breakfast at the Oaktree Centre and then we watched a video (I have an idea it was on YouTube) which had Eugene Petersen talking to Bono about the Psalms.

(Sunday) Having said at the beginning of this post that the weather is becoming 'spring-like,' as I write this at 4.30a.m., I can hear a howling wind outside, together with a little dog snoring his head off on the sofa next to me. Alfie is stretched out fast asleep and for such a small dog he can't half make a lot of noise!

(Later) I went to church as normal. There's meant to be a quiz night on Friday, but with the threat of coronavirus there is a vague possibility of it being cancelled. I hope not, because I was looking forward to this event. It was postponed from just before Christmas when there was a low number of people signing up. I'll just have to wait and see whether it goes ahead. From the Oaktree Centre I drove to Sainsbury's. I had to endure a car tailgating me all the way down Chaffron Way. She, for it was a female driver, was virtually touching the back bumper of my car, but I wasn't moving out of the way for her. Arriving at Sainsbury's, I was really surprised by the volume of cars entering the underground carpark. I have never seen such numbers of cars arriving. It seems that Sunday is very much a normal shopping day for some people and there were even more people going up on the travelator into the store and then even more customers pushing trolleys and many with large packs of toilet rolls in them, even though there was a sign up at the entrance reminding customers to buy more realistic amounts of 'certain products,' which would be referring to hand sanitiser as well as toilet rolls. But it seems people don't read these notices or just become selfish (there would be plenty of everything if people would purchase at a reasonable level.

Baptisms and Sunshine

It's a perfectly beautiful sunny September day. It's just amazing that it's so warm and sunny. We went to church at Milton Keynes Christian Centre, going to the first of the three Sunday services, at 9 a.m. Thee were to be around 40 people being baptised during the service. It's always busy so it is advisable to arrive early in order to get a seat and we always like to get as close to the front as possible to be able to watch.

During the sermon, George Ridley said that £600 was needed to replace the roof of a church somewhere in India. As a result we went to the cashpoint at Tesco's in Oldbrook Boulevarde and returned to give it to George. When we returned, having had to park in the road opposite the entrance to M.K.C.C. which was actually coned off with yellow 'no parking cones' (because people aren't supposed to park in the neighbouring roads as part of the agreement which was made with the local council when planning permission was given to build the church.) we walked back towards the church building and as we got to the front door Carol saw one of her former pupils who was going to be baptised during the second service. We handed over the £10 to George Ridley who was with his wife Pam sitting in the coffee shop at the entrance of M.K.C.C. Carol said she wanted to stay and watch the baptisms during the next service (which was due to start in a little under 15 minutes.) I had to go back to the car and drive to the carpark at Milton Keynes College (where we had parked originally earlier in the morning before the first service at 9 o'clock.) I then drove over to the college car park through the busy traffic which was heading into the church carpark as well as out onto Chaffron Way. When I got to the carpark I had to walk back along the Redway and back to M.K.C.C. By the time I got there the service had started but I managed to walk in and found Carol. She had found us two seats near to the baptistry so we could watch the baptisms and I took some photographs with my mobile phone. It actually turned out that two of Carol's students from Milton Keynes Academy were baptised during the service.

We returned home, having left immediately after the baptisms. We then drove to Woburn Sands to visit the Wyevale Garden Centre there to have a break and something to eat in their restaurant for a lunch break. We were somewhat surprised to see Christmas stock being set up in the garden centre.It seemed far, far too early to be thinking about Christmas this early in September. Especially as it was so sunny this afternoon. It seems some people will buy the general tat that is considered acceptable Christmas fare, and usually very over-priced. It gives us a good laugh, looking at this sort of stuff. Now that B.H.S. has gone, affording us some considerable pleasure in the run-up to Christmas, when we had to visit the B.H.S. Christmas department to look at the offerings they sold, but, alas, this year, now they have closed down, our entertainment of this sort will have to be elsewhere. Singing Christmas trees and tacky tinsel, over-coloured tree ornaments and One Direction knick-necks will have to now be diverted elsewhere.

Deep and Crisp and Even

The snow started falling slowly around 9 yesterday morning and didn't stop until early evening, so we are now well and truly snowed in. We had to take Sam to work and went to Tesco's at Oldbrook to get a few essentials. Fortunately I had heeded the warning in the forecasts for the week ahead and had already stocked up with groceries from Lidl's, such items as milk, bread and a chicken which we had roasted yesterday evening. Carol got the message around 7 this morning that the Academy would be closed, so she has a day off. It seemed totally unlikely that any of the local schools would open, due mainly to health and safety issues. The gridroads around Milton Keynes have been fairly clear of snow, although Grafton Street was like a cart track as there was a lot of snow which had not been melted by passing traffic. We had to go to the Shell petrol station along there to put some fuel in the car, and it was really quite treacherous, somewhat slippery where the road out of the petrol station joined the gridroad. The roads have been gritted but it takes moving traffic on it to work the grit into the ice and snow so that it is kept clear. Standing Way was generally snow-free, basically because it is a busy road with enough traffic moving on it to work the grit into any snow that falls on it and so thaw it. As I write this (9.50 a.m.) the snow has stopped falling, but I imagine the temperature is well below freezing outside. This is when it becomes dangerous, when the road surface becomes icy and then really slippery. The inner road around Eaglestone is very snowed up, essentially due to the fact that these roads don't get gritted by the Council. Our front drive is around 6 inches under snow and the car has a thick layer of snow on top of it.