Happy Bunny!

 Friday. 8.35 a.m. I mentioned that I was having problems getting Blogger to work, so I could write more posts. The problem is now solved. I used to use Safari to work on my posts, but I realised that Google owns Blogger, so I used their browser, Chrome, and it works perfectly. It makes sense, as you would want all your products to work together.

Saturday. 9.20 a.m. It's the 1st of November. The sun is shining, but I'm not sure how warm it is out. I will go out later. I have a regular prayer triplet on WhatsApp at 10. 

The digital thermometer currently reads 23ºc.

2.45 p.m. For some reason, probably technical, Mike was not able to join the prayer triplet at 10 o'clock this morning, but my friend Richard was able to make it, and we had a long chat. Technology is great when it works, but it's not so good when it goes wrong and causes a certain amount of frustration and stress.

Tuesday. 1.50 p.m. It's quite mild and sunny at the moment. How long it's likely to last is anyone's guess.

The digital thermometer currently reads 24ºc.

I am currently transferring my writing into word processing, as I mentioned earlier in recent blog posts. I am editing as I go and adding new stuff. It's going well, and the fact that I leave it for a few days helps me to come up with new ideas. I'm cutting out a significant portion of what I originally wrote and rearranging the order in some cases.

Saturday. 11.15 a.m. It's unseasonably mild at the moment. The digital thermometer currently reads 23ºc.

We had our monthly men's breakfast this morning at the Oaktree Centre. As usual, plenty of eggs, bacon and all the trimmings and then a discussion around the table.

The trees are rapidly turning colour, a wide range of browns and yellows. The leaves are falling fast.

2024 General Election (and other Minor Distractions)

Saturday. 7.45 a.m. Well, I sat up and watched the BBC's coverage of the General Election on Thursday night. The polling stations closed at 10 p.m. and I had been to cast my vote at 7.15 a.m., at the Oldbrook Community Hall, which is on Oldbrook Boulevard and opposite the Green. (No, I'm not going to reveal how I voted, it's between me and the ballot box.) I watched about the first couple of hours of the coverage and when the exit poll results were announced at 10, just after the polling stations closed, suggesting that Labour would have a landslide majority and the Conservatives were likely to get no more than 120 seats, I went back to bed.

I woke later to continue watching the election results as they came in. It was around 2 a.m. that it was clear that Labour had won, that Keir Starmer would be our next Prime Minister, and that the Conservatives conceded defeat. It has been revealed that it was the largest defeat of the Conservative Party in its entire history. 

Saturday. 2.25 p.m. My genealogy research is going well. Actually, I should say more than well. I am nearing 10,000 people on my tree. I am surprised how many of them, particularly on my paternal side, went to America. One was a soldier in the Civil War and, as far as my research goes, another during the American War of Independence. On my maternal side, one branch, the Gylkes, was a Quaker family and Thomas Gylkes was a clockmaker, some of his clock are valued at well over £1000, according to my Google searches.

Friday. 6.05 a.m. As you will have realized, I haven't posted anything on my blog for quite a while. One reason is that the browser I use most, Safari, has not been working properly. I can't scroll up and down, which makes it virtually impossible to view many websites and in particular, the functions on Blogger are difficult to deal with.

Saturday. 7.20 a.m. I have been struggling to find out why Safari has been playing up (not scrolling up or down.) I have been looking at the settings and trying different settings to see if any of them will work and after a great deal of effort, I have solved the problem! I can't see how this particular setting got altered but it has worked and things are back to some sort of normal. I have been using two other browsers, Firefox and Chrome and find all of them have advantages over each other, but, as I have fot used to Safari that's the main one I have used more or less since the first time I got an Apple Macintosh computer.

I must have mentioned that I had an appointment with a consultant at the cardiology department at Milton Keynes Hospital a few weeks ago. As a result the consultant suggested I have an implant in my chest which would monitor any irregularities of my heart rhythm and hopefully prevent me from having a further episode of either a heart attack or blackout which I had in the early days of 2024. Yesterday I had an appointment to have this procedure done. It was scheduled for 12 mid-day. It was easy enough parking, immediately outside the department. That was one of my biggest worries, not being able to park the car and then having to find a space somewhere else and then not be late for the appointment.

Monday. 6.20 a.m. It is taking a good deal longer than usual to complete writing this post. I will attempt to do so now.

I digress . . . Continuing from the above. I waited for a brief moment in the waiting area in the cardiology department, before a nurse came out and called me in with another patient.

I had to change into a hospital gown. I hate these things! I know they get you to wear them if you have to have a procedure done or have an operation, but they only tie up with a few lengths of thin tape and the back is open, that is, if you don't manage to hold on to it to prevent your behind being exposed. I took off my shirt, remained in my underwear and socks, and just waited. Other patients in the six-bed unit came in and then disappeared to have their procedure done. Above all else, it was just boring sitting and waiting.  Eventually, at around 1.30 I was called in by a nurse, who took me into the (I won't call it an operating theatre. It did remind me of the room where I had the stents fitted after I had my second heart attack in September 2018, at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.)  The nurse got me to take off the gown and lay on a bench (for want of a better name. It was more like a bed, padded and not too uncomfortable. A surgeon, dressed in a gown (perhaps called a smock, but I don't know, also with a face mask and, one again, reminding me of the stent-fitting, with the surgeon wearing a green gown and a face mask. But the memory of face masks is related, to me anyway, more to the face masks we were expected to wear during the covid pandemic lockdowns, and the second heart attack was around 18 months before all that happened. The surgeon cleaned my chest and then said that I would experience a slight sting, which would have been when he made an incision in my chest, on the left, just over my heart, and the procedure was over, and I returned to the unit to wait, yet again.

A nurse came to talk to me about the gadgetry I was given, which communicates with the implant in my chest (I.L.R. or Implantable Loop Recorder.) I have a box, which looks vaguely like a landline telephone which includes a separate handset which sits in the cradle on the box, as well as a remote device, small enough to fit on my keyring and should go with me everywhere. If I hold the remote device over the implant when, or if, I have a irregular heart rhythm, the device will record an electronic measurement, similar to the reading that is given by an E.C.G. and this data is sent to the cardiology department at the hospital. I was also given a letter, telling me that a remote appointment had been arranged for the 23rd of August, and that I have to send data from the home monitor (the gadget I describe above, and which sits on my bedside table. So, having had the implant and given instructions on the various aspects of its use, which are also included in several leaflets I was given, I got dressed and then left the cardiology department.

A Change In The Weather

The weather has changed considerably over the last few days. This morning (Saturday) it was quite chilly when I took Alfie out around 6.20. I have started wearing my chinos, having spent more or less the entire summer in shorts. A big difference felt.

(Wednesday) Well, excitement at the moment as I've had news from one of my film/television agencies that I might have work as a double on a film being made at Pinewood Studios. Can't reveal any more at the moment, but will probably have to go for a costume fitting if all goes according to plan.

(Friday) Well, I've been off this blog as you may have realised if you're a regular reader. I decided that my posts were becoming more and more repetitive as there simply wasn't much to report. Well, I'm back. Not exactly with a bang, but nevertheless, back.

The weather is currently warm and relatively sunny. Early mornings a chilly, not frosty (as yet) but I'm not in my shorts that early, but wear them occasionally. I don't think I have ever spent a summer almost entirely wearing shorts. 

Google has seen fit to mess around with Blogger. I don't like it. The same with Facebook. They fiddle with these sites at their peril. Too much change all at once. Why don't they consult the users of their software/sites and then get feedback? Surely not asking much.

(Sunday) Bright and sunny at the moment (8.53a.m) but it's chilly at 6.15 when I take Alfie out. He has a doggy friend, called Toto (I know you're going to say 'Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!' the line from 'The Wizard of Oz.') I keep on meeting him and his owner whenever we go out for a walk across Oldbrook Green. Yesterday they were on the opposite side when we arrived mid-morning and I could see them on the path. We approached and Toto, who was off his lead, ran to meet Alfie and was excited when they greeted each other. He is a shitsu, which was part of what Poppy was (crossed with a West Highland Terrier. I think she was more shitsu than Westie. I think Toto has many of Poppy's characteristics, such as being stubborn when called. He is a lighter colour than Poppy, with a beautiful fluffy pom-pom-like tail.

(Monday) A really unseasonably warm day. I went for a walk with my friend Mike from church. We walk from his flat in Downhead Park to the rather nice cafe in Willen and walk along the canal path. There is a family of swans on the canal. The parents and no less than seven signets. I wanted to photograph them and last week took my Canon digital camera with me, but there was absolutely no sign of the swans. But this week- of course- they showed up! I did attempt to take some shots with my iPhone, but they weren't very good and certainly not as good as I might have got if I'd had the digital camera with it's telephoto lens. Just they way things turn out, but I might probably have another go at a later date.

(Thursday) Yesterday there were council workmen trimming the hedges near the children's playground on Oldbrook Green. It now looks considerably tidier, except it appears they have not done all of the hedges as there's a lot more to trim going towards Fishermead. Perhaps they will return at a later date to finish the job.

Wednesday) I know I haven't posted anything for a while, but thought I'd add something to this post which has been waiting to be completed for quite a while. It's getting very autumnal and early mornings are darker when I go out with Alfie. The past few days there has been a mist over Oldbrook Green as I walk with him along Strudwick Drive. Quite a few leaves have fallen and the weather is definitely changing. 

Easing Lockdown

(Wednesday) So our dear Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announces in the Commons, that some of the lockdown restrictions have beed eased. The two metre social distancing regulations have been lowered to one metre, but the thought of going to a pub or restaurant is not something I would bother with as it's so complex I'd rather stay at home, thank you.

Blogger, which is owned by Google, and which is what this blog is created on, is to be upgraded, if that's what it's supposed to be called. I have been using it for a good many years and have got on well with it, so why does it suddenly have to be changed so radically? It's the same with Facebook, which has been changed dramatically and is now more difficult to use. I really don't like it and why change things when the work well? You never get any sort of help with how to use any of these sites. It just because they can change things that problems occur. As the saying goes if it ain't broken, don't fix it. You have to learn yourself what the various 'buttons' and gizmos do without any sort of instruction, which is the same with most things you buy, which includes computers. When I bought my iPad recently went of YouTube to learn how to do things.

Out walking with Alfie this morning at about 9.30. We stopped for a rest on the furthest side of Oldbrook Green and sat on the very conveniently placed bench. I was shocked by the amount of litter strewn all over the ground nearby. Somebody had sat and eaten a takeaway meal and there was definite evidence, paper, polystyrene containers, Pepsi bottles and goodness knows what else. As there was a litter bin nearby, within arms reach, it would have taken long to put their debris in this when they had finished, just laziness. I have also seen disposable gloves thrown on the ground, also near a bin. It's not just the fact they were thrown aside, expecting someone else to deal with them, but environmentally harmful, especially if small mammals get stuck in them or try to eat them. I digress- as I seem in the habit of doing, and as I sat with Alfie on my lap, I saw a large lorry moving along Oldbrook Boulevard and turn into Strudwick Avenue and then into the yard behind The Cricketers pub. Obviously about to make a delivery, ready for the pub to reopen since the pandemic restrictions have been lifted. A definite positive sign that things are going to improve.

Later. It's far too hot. Wait a minute. This is crazy. We wait most of the year so we have some warm and pleasant weather, and all we do is complain that it's TOO HOT! The problem I have is I'm more of a temperate person. I don't like getting too hot. As a result of the weather, I decided to pack Alfie into the cage in the back of the car and drive the short distance down Chaffron Way to the Ouzel Country Park. I knew the moment I opened up the car that it was going to be far too much for Alfie and certainly not good for me. I put on sun block, the sort you spray on and donned my sun hat. Alfie was really suffering and so was I. We walked along the gravel path and met a group of ladies pushing someone in a wheelchair and they weren't sure whether they could go through the gates, which I told them it would be fine, so long as they shut them behind them. Some have cattle grids to stop livestock going through. There were sheep in the meadow we were walking through, several groups sheltering under the trees and Alfie started to bark so I decided to walk in a different direction. The sheep began to stir. I don't think they like dogs. I suppose they think of them as a threat. I didn't want Alfie to cause them stress, so I walked on.

I don't think it was such a good idea to bring Alfie out in such heat, or, if it comes to that, it wasn't good for me either. I was told by one of the cardiology nurses who looked after me when I went to a rehab session after my first heart attack in 2006, that I should keep out of the sun and always wear a hat. At one session, when it was really hot, about as hot as it has been today, I very nearly passed out and had to have first aid, which really frightened me.