Yet Another Week of Lockdown

(Thursday) I've been to Waitrose this morning. There's things I can't get elsewhere, such as soap and I like their bath foam. Good value, considering it's  a Waitrose Essentials product. There was the obligatory queue system to get in, similar to that at Sainsbury's. I was in and out quickly and I used a manned checkout as I'm not sure about the self-service machines. It was a clear run down Chaffron Way and it was odd that there was virtually no traffic, as Marlborough Street, where it crosses Chaffron Way, is usually chocker-block at around 8.30a.m, which is around the time I'm driving to Camphill on a Tuesday morning. None of the nose-to-tail along the road, people obviously going to work. At the moment they will do doubt be on lockdown.

(Friday) Seems amazing to think it's 1st May. How did we get here so quickly? It doesn't seem that long ago that we were celebrating Christmas.

I'm having a bit of a Shakespeare festival currently. I know it was The Bard's birthday last week (how old would he have been? I think around 456 or something like that.) and I watched the National Theatre's production of Twelfth Night with Tamsin Greig as Malvolia, The Globe's version of Romeo and Juliet and, on BBC iPlayer, 'Hamlet.' As for other productions, available, free, on YouTube, I saw the National Theatre's 'Frankenstein' with Benedict Cumberbatch as 'The Monster.' It was a good production (I say 'was' because it's no longer in the National's repertoire. I'm not entirely sure how long ago it was on. I believe Twelfth Night was around five years ago.) but the only problem I have with watching via YouTube is that it doesn't work too well. I suppose I shouldn't look the proverbial gift-horse in the mouth, but generally speaking you don't get the full 'live' theatre experience seeing these plays on television. Well, you can't expect too, but it's great that they are recording these performance because once a live show finishes, there's usually no record of it for future viewing or for future generations to enjoy or for those who wouldn't normally go to the theatre.

(Saturday) It doesn't feel like the weekend. It doesn't feel like any particular day of the week. It's probably due to the lockdown, when each day seems to melt into one another. There's no focus to the week, such as going to Camphill on a Tuesday or church on Sunday.

I have been watching 'The A Word' and today watched two more episodes of the first season. I know there's a new, third, season due to start in a week or two so I want to have watched the second run before getting to the new season. Having worked almost exclusively with people with autism, I can identify with the problems of the family it's about. The little lad who plays Joe is amazing. I can't think how they get such a brilliant performance out of a child of around 5 or 6. They must have a great deal of patience.

(Sunday) I was out with Alfie before 6 o'clock this morning. He kept looking at me, which is usually his way of telling me he needs to go out. It was quite mild, thankfully. I usually do washing up from the night before, so I did that and the kitchen is again sparkling clean.

I have now seen the final episode of the first run of 'The A Word,' and I will start on season 2, probably this afternoon. I don't watch episodes back-to-back, but iPlayer almost insists that you with the next episode as soon as the previous episode is finished.

Having the windows open has it's disadvantages. Some delightful person drive up in their car and parked right below my window and had thumping pop music playing on their radio (it might have been a CD or from a mobile, but never mind.) This sort of thing is annoying. Please don't do this at such an hour of the morning. But Noel Coward was right when he said 'strange how potent cheap music is,' which is a line from his comedy 'Private Lives.' Just awful thumping news. People never play something calm, a bit of Beethoven or other classical music, and why play it so loud that it interferes with out people's lives, and in my case, concentration?

Having had a scan of what's on iPlayer, there is no excuse to say 'there's nothing much to watch.' Just overwhelming by the stuff you can watch.

Alfie insisted on another outing, as he was staring in his usual way so I felt obliged to take him out as soon as I'd finished watching 'The A Word.' I have to say, having worked with people with autism, it seems a very accurate portrait of someone with the disability. I'd be interested to know whether the writer had first hand experience of life with an autistic.

Bright and Sunny

I've done a great deal of writing in the last couple of weeks. Some of it rewriting and editing material which I have handwritten in a couple of notebooks. I'm transcribing it onto my MacBook and using the newly-acquired iPad. Dictation is speeding things up, but I have to keep checking as it has a tendency to come up with some hilarious alternatives to some words.

The idiot building the shed in the garden along the street is banging and sawing like crazy. I think it's a substitute for something, working off his frustration with the hammer and saw, but it's annoying me. I think some people don't realise that their D.I.Y. activities can be so irritating and annoying, they are so focussed, sort of O.C.D., that they don't realise it has an effect on those who are close by. Probably due to having to endure lockdown.

I've taken Alfie out but I am beginning to get somewhat bored with Oldbrook Green. Alfie loves to stop and sniff virtually every tree and lamppost, as most dogs  do, but I'm concerned when he picks things up in his mouth, and on several occasions he's picked up what I suspect are chicken bones, thrown aside by people who buy fried chicken. But they can be lethal to a dog as the sharp bits can get stuck in their throats or further inside their system and could kill them. I have had to extricate several bits from his mouth when he's picked them up and it upsets me that they could have devastating effects on my best pal.  I don't think people realise the danger of their actions in this regard and I have to be vigilant in removing these bones when Alfie picks them up.

Yesterday morning it was misty as I stood and washed up at the kitchen sink. I can see quite a distance from that standpoint. It's not so clear now because the trees are in more or less full leaf. You can see the Milton Keynes shopping centre and Debenham's building, but the mist was obscuring most of the distant buildings, which includes Sainsbury's. I know that it's that because it has an orange block of colour which stands out quite clearly.

This morning (Saturday) as I write this, it's again quite over-cast, but it's mild. Not exactly as the title of this post states, but at least it's mild.

I've been watching the BBC sitcom 'My Family.' First two episodes of the first series, which are on BBC iPlayer. I had seen later episodes, but not from the beginning. I can't believe there was so many series and episodes. It's not actually a brilliant series, but Zoe Wanamaker and Robert Lindsey are great actors. Any other actors in those parts wouldn't have made it as good, as Ben and Susan Harpur. It's actually being rerun, on Fridays, on BBC1. I image the BBC is running short of new material to show, because so many shows are furloughed due to the pandemic lockdown. It seems amazing to think that this series began 20 years ago and ran for an amazing 11 series. Some really hilarious lines and good storylines which other sitcoms can't compete with. There is one thing that bothers me, and that the actors who play the children seem far too old, or at least seem too old, for the ages they're supposed to be playing, and why is Nick still living at home with his parents? How old is he supposed to be? Surely in his twenties. The daughter seems far older than 16. Just not realistic, but does it really matter.

I have also watched the first episode on 'The A Word,' which, again, is on iPlayer with entire seasons available, so it's possible to binge watch. A drama series which I haven't seen before and interested me because it features a child who has autism and that was the specialism I dealt with when I worked in care with people with learning disabilities, so I have a fair amount of experience of the subject. It's great to have a drama series which isn't about cops and robbers, car-chases and men in lycra and is believable and the characters interact well and is well written and acted.

(Sunday) The iPad has decided to go into dull mode. What I mean is, I want to use it early this morning and I can barely read the screen. I can't reset it so it's bright enough to read. I think it's supposed to do this to allow you to read it at night without eyestrain, but actually it's making it worse so I can't read it and it's creating more eye strain. I'm going through the various settings to allow me to re-set it to counteract this, but, as I write this, that is not possible.

(Later) I managed to sort out the iPad. It was obvious really. I just restarted it and it came back on in the bright mode. I can't think why it wouldn't work with the brightness setting because I hadn't set it to be in dark mode. The problem was that I couldn't see what was going on and it was more or less impossible to read anything on it. Never mind, it's now fixed.

I've carried on with more transcribing of hand-written material, but I have now found quite a lot of my stuff on Google Drive, which I had forgotten about. I think it's like iCloud, meaning it will work across different computers and saves having to store on discs or other media.

The lovely D.I.Y. I have mentioned earlier has continued, but at 3.45 this afternoon, there is no sound, fortunately.

I took out Alfie and I saw people playing some sort of ball game. Oh dear, they're not supposed to be doing that. Either they are ignoring the legal requirement to not be gathering in such places as Oldbrook Green, or else they have not seen the sign (a permanent one, no doubt erected by the Council, either Milton Keynes or the  Campbell Park Parish Council cil, which clearly states that 'no ball games, barbecues etc.' in a very curt and rather puritan sort of fashion, as most of them do.) The notices which are put up around the park, on the outdoor gym equipment, are written in the typical officialese sort of language, but it wouldn't hurt to put 'Please' and 'Thank you on them,' but I don't expect the bureaucrats who write these sorts of notices to do such a thing.