Back To Normal?

So, what is 'normal' after something like eighteen months of various forms of lockdown? We're obviously not going to return to life as it was before the pandemic, that is for certain. It would be great to think we will, but I'm certain our beloved politicians will want to keep us under some form of regulations for as long as possible. Never in peacetime has Britain had so many regulations in place to restrict citizens' rights. And with nobody making any sort of effort to question any of these laws and regulations. We seem to have rolled over and just comply. It makes you wonder what would happen if we were invaded, as we were very nearly during the second World War.

Saturday. 3.40 p.m. I was sitting reading, minding my own business, just after I'd had a bite to eat for lunch. Then, for no reason, the fire alarm went off throughout Dexter House. Alfie doesn't like it. He hates loud noises. Our other dog, Poppy, was similar. She was scared witless by fireworks and around the time of Bonfire Night, November 5th, she would hide in any place she thought she was safe, like under our bed. But this fire alarm is so loud and ear-piercing (well, I suppose it has to be, particularly if it went off at night and you were fast asleep. Enough to wake you up.) But it gives me a splitting headache, so I decided it would be a good idea if we went out, hopefully, until it stopped. Which we did. Ending up doing three circuits of Oldbrook Green. No doubt someone in another flat had burnt their toast or forgot to take something out of the oven. But as I sit here, several hours later, I have a sneaking suspicion someone in one of the flats below me IS SMOKING! Well, what people do in their private space is up to them, but when it comes through into MY private space, that's another matter. I'm beginning to wonder if it's that which set the fire alarm off. I don't know who managed to stop the fire alarm. Last time we had a similar experience the fire service turned up. I went out and stood with Alfie on the pavement outside until we got the all-clear to return to our flat. Perhaps some people just should never be left alone with matches.

Monday. 7.35 a.m. What's this? Nothing for Sunday? Probably because there wasn't anything to report. Now, there's a thing.

12.40 a.m. I've been cleaning the kitchen. Well, the excitement is too much. But it had to be done. I've cleared away a great deal of clutter. Some have gone in the cupboard in the area where the kettle is, along with the tea-making equipment plus mugs. The sugar canister which I purchased in T.K.Maax several years ago had begun to get rusty. That's the problem with anything metal. So I decided it had to be retired and replaced and I drove to Waitrose as I have been in their homewares department and thought I could get just the thing to replace the old canister. It's perfect and made of pottery, so it's not going to rust. Just right and looks quite stylish. No rubbish in my home! I also needed to get some easy-peelers, those small easy-to-peel oranges (or are they satsumas or tangerines? I'm not sure.) Around a year ago, probably more, but around the time we had the first lockdown (probably March 2020.) I thought it would be a good idea to eat more fruit, possibly the 5-A-Day the government recommends. I hit on at least three of these small, juicy citrus fruit, together with an apple and probably fruit juice. Sainsbury's have them, but also most other supermarkets. Some are better than others. Some can be very pithy and almost inedible. You occasionally get a not-so-good batch, but most are very tasty. Good as they have vitamin C in them. I also take a vitamin D tablet with my morning medications, as directed by my doctor and I've taken them for well over a year.

Tuesday. 6.45 a.m. I'm determined to reach my daily target of 10,000 steps, recorded by my FitBit. I think around six circuits of Oldbrook Green must be at least that many steps. It's supposed to equate to around five miles, so it makes you realize how far I must have walked since I've moved to Oldbrook. Alfie has become somewhat reluctant to walk that far, insisting some morning that we return home directly once he's done what he needs to do (I don't need to describe what I'm referring to.) He is a very determined little person, amazingly strong when he wants to be.

Wet and Windy

We are almost into November. (Well, we were when I began to write this blog.) The clocks have changed so that it's now light earlier in the morning so I can take Alfie out at around 6.30a.m. The leaves are falling fast and there's a carpet of them on the grass at the side of the path we walk along at the side of Strudwick Drive as we approach Oldbrook Green. The  leaves on the trees are rapidly turning colour, some bright orange, others yellow and a whole range of hues in-between.

(Saturday) It's wild and windy out on this Saturday morning. I have taken Alfie out but we didn't get far because, when he realised it was raining, he turned tail and bought me back to the flat! I bought myself a raincoat off the Regatta website. It's dayglo yellow and a week or two later I decided that Alfie should have a waterproof coat of his own and bought one on the Regatta site, but I made sure I measured him before ordering. It arrived really quickly and it fits perfectly and even has a button hole so that the ring on his harness can be attached to his lead. Absolute perfect fit. But it didn't really impress him when we went out in today's wind and rain. I think King Lear would be in his element (pun intended!)

Boris Johnson is giving a news conference later this afternoon. Because coronavirus infections are growing (I don't believe a word of this.) he will have been told by his scientist advisors that a further national lockdown will be needed in order to slow the virus down. So, more social distancing and more regulations. Which just tells me that it's not working and as a result the economy is being destroyed along with people's mental health (mine included.)

(Saturday 13th) I am finding it increasingly more and more difficult to find anything interesting to put in these blog posts. 

During the evening I heard fireworks being let off and when I took Alfie out for his first walk of the day at around 7 o'clock, the remains of fireworks would be seen stuffed into the rubbish bin as we got to Oldbrook Green. Don't the people who do this not realise that November 5th is Bonfire or Guy Fawkes Night? It's too late to be letting them off on the 13th November (unlucky or not.) I've since discovered that it might not be connected with Bonfire Night but more likely Dwali. Which is the Hindu festival of light. I know nothing more on the subject.

(Thursday 19th November) It is sunny as I write this (at 1.15 p.m.) but it has been raining and Alfie doesn't like it. I took him out for his early-morning walk but we didn't stay out too long and then two more jaunts, but by then it was raining, so he turned tail and we came home to the flat.

(Friday) So, will Christmas be cancelled this year? It's in the air. Boris is self-isolating in 10 Downing Street and we're supposed to come out of Lockdown 2 on 2nd December. 

Car Repair

My Renault Captur needed work doing on it. I was told some while ago that it would need the timing
belt replacing. I don't even know what a timing chain is or what it does. I've been driving for 50 years and owned several cars but never come across this item in the engine. Well, I only drive my car and don't entirely understand how the thing works. The same with this MacBook Air, on which I write this blog. How on earth does the internet work? It's beyond me, but all I know is that it does work, miraculously. Anyway, I had to wait until my pension was paid into my account and then I went to Bleak Hall Motors to make an appointment for the car, which was yesterday (Friday). I was told it would take quite a long time, so there was no way I was going to sit in their waiting room until the work was finished, so I called for a taxi and went home and waited. I thought it might be a couple of hours, by which time the garage would phone me to tell me the car was ready to collect. This eventually came at around 4.15, and I then had to get another taxi to convey me back to Bleak Hall.  Bill paid and then I returned in the car, glad that the work is complete. Now the car needs servicing, basically because it's no point in having a car that doesn't operate properly, and anyway, with the computerised read-out on the dashboard constantly telling  me that it needs servicing in 20 days or so, I don't have much choice. It's sort of nagging me to have it done, so I will have to abide by it. I'll either go into Bleak Hall motors to arrange this or I can always ring.

(Saturday) Been out with Alfie at around 6.45. It's light enough at that time in the morning and the poor little dog was eager as ever. A cloud of seagulls on the green near Oldbrook Boulevard. I think they're probably after the worms or something, but they make a lot of noise and it makes me think of the seaside.

Someone coughing their lungs out in a nearby flat. I think it caused by smoking, so it begs the question: if that is the result, why smoke? If I get a load of smoke in my lungs, then it causes me all sorts of problems, and I was told, after I had my first heart attack, that if I'd smoked, then my heart attack might have happened around 5 years earlier.

Last night I heard fireworks being let off. Thank goodness Hallowe'en is over. A really nasty import from America, just a way to make money out of a load of tat which then ends up in land-fill. I think some individuals don't know the difference between Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes Night.) and that you don't have fireworks as part of Hallowe'en. Hopefully the rubbish being sold in the shops will now be gone, but we now have all the Christmas tat in the shops, endless shelves full of mince pies, Christmas puddings and wrapping paper and other stuff you don't need immediately for Christmas.

Later. I've been to Sainsbury's and I wasn't there long. The carpark was virtually empty. The store wasn't busy. I don't think the average shopper goes to a supermarket early on a Saturday. Most are tucked up under their duvets. But I suspect it's more to do with the rugby match in Japan, England v South Africa. I'm not sure what the time difference is between the United Kingdom and Japan. It does interest me, a good deal more than football, but I can take it or leave it.

I got hame and unloaded my shopping and was on the point of taking Alfie out for a walk, but the weather is foul as I write this, raining and there a high wind, but that wouldn't put off our Alfie.

Went to an archaeology exhibition in the Church of The Cornerstone. I've been inside the building, but not inside the actual church and was surprised by how small it was. It seemed an odd place to hold such an exhibition. It would have been better in the Middleton Hall, which is part of the main Milton Keynes shopping centre. Discovered that a Roman villa has been unearthed in a village called Piddington in Northamptonshire. It's just off the Bedford/Northampton road and not a long journey from here. There is a museum attached to it and I may visit in the near future. It's surprising what you discover when you visit such an exhibition and what other archaeology is going on in this area. I think I've driven along that road many times but knew nothing of this discovery, which was made around 40 years ago. Even so, nothing in the local papers to even mention it.

Alfie Traumatised

I walked back home from the hospital at around 5.15. Unfortunately it's hallowe'en. I think you'll have realised I don't hold with this so-called 'tradition.' I don't honestly think it's acceptable for children to be let loose on the streets and be allowed to bang on people's front doors and demand what is, in essence, money with menaces. I mean, 'hand over some sugar-fuelled gift, sweets or chocolate, or if you don't, I'll wreak havoc on your house', for example, over-tip your dustbin. Also, going around dressed in really cheap and totally pathetic costumes, pretending to look like either Dracula, Frankenstein or the Walking Dead is not my idea of ideal entertainment. And, during all this totally imported nonsense, what happened to the more traditional British holiday of Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night? When I was growing up we always had a bonfire party on 5th November, or at least the nearest Saturday to the date, with fireworks, hot cocoa, baked potatoes, bonfire toffee and all the works. It was usually in one of the fields behind Malting Farm or next door at Porter's house. We'd spend weeks going around collecting wood and all manner of rubbish to be used to build the bonfire and then we'd build a Guy out of old clothes, and this effigy was put atop the bonfire and when it was really dark, lit. So, why has this been taken over by hallowe'en? Well, to be honest, it's just another way for companies to make a bit more money, out of all the junk that is connected with it. It's just something that has crept in via Hollywood. An American 'tradition' because, basically, they don't have a long history and need something to make up for it. I think a lot of these things have been copied because they're featured in films such as 'E.T.' which I'm sure has a sequence where the little E.T. creature is part of a 'Trick or Treat' evening. It's the same with schools having 'Proms' at the end of the school year. No such thing when I was leaving school in the late 1960's. I still don't know why they call it a 'Prom' which to me is a concert held in the Royal Albert Hall every year and the singing of 'Land of Hope and Glory'.

As I was saying before I wandered somewhat from the track. I arrived home. The central heating was on because it's getting a good deal colder. Before I walked in there were a few children wandering about the street, going about their 'Trick or Treating.' I said 'please don't come to my house' and they seemed to get the message that I wasn't going to fall for that 'thing'. I walked in and Alfie began barking. He had gone upstairs to our bedroom when I got ready to leave the house earlier in the afternoon. He has a good idea what I'm going to do when he sees me putting my shoes on to go out and I try to get him to go in the kitchen where he's safe when the door is closed. But if he's aware I'm going out he shoots upstairs into our bedroom. I found him there the other day, under the bed, and in one of the storage baskets we have there. Quite funny to see him curled up in there. At least if he's in the kitchen he has water and something to eat in his bowl and we got him a really cozy dog bed which is in one corner. He seems to like it as it's warm and he doesn't have to be in a draught. Anyway, Alfie shot down stairs when I walked in. He didn't leave my side all evening. He couldn't get much closer to me and wanted to sit on my lap when I sat to look at my laptop to read emails. Mind you, he tried to push the thing off with his nose so he could sit on my lap and when he couldn't he attempted to climb onto the back of the chair. He can't sit there since we replaced the old chair with this new IKEA model as the back is too narrow for him to sit there. He also climbs along the back of the sofa and sits or lies there. I think this is a sort of terrier trait as the Jack Russel terriers my parents had liked to sit or lie like this, with their legs either side, even when we drove around in the car, they liked to sit on the back of the car seats. I imagine it gives the a good view of what's going on, being short dogs, they can't see out of the window or get a particularly clear view from ground level.

During the evening Alfie was displaying some body language I've never seen before. I was in the bathroom and he followed me upstairs and he was coming up the stairs with his body very low to the ground, looking almost as if he was creeping up he stairs and when he came into the bathroom, again he couldn't get close enough to me. It's as if he'd been frightened and he wanted me to reassure him that I would look after him. When I was in the bathroom, again, he couldn't get near enough.

I must say it makes me somewhat annoyed that this horrible thing, hallowe'en, has to cause distress to not only humans, but also animals. Poppy, our little westie/shitsu, was terrified of fireworks. She would cower under the most convenient piece of furniture or go under our bed. It seems Alfie is just as bad. He barks whenever a firework is let off (incidentally, what on earth is the point of letting them off in daylight??? Surely they're at their best when it's dark. They are part of Guy Fawkes night, not hallowe'en.) It's irresponsible of people to cause so much upset to pets and humans when they just want to be safe and protected. Banging on people's doors and demanding things is not a good thing, regardless of what people might think. The best way to deal with all this is to ignore it.

A bit later

It's 7.45 a.m. I've been busy since I got up. Put washing on and it's now finished and on the airer in the kitchen. That thing is annoying. Just hate having to slot every item of clothing through the bars on this annoying contraption. Just not well designed. I'd far rather hang stuff on the line in the garden, but it'll never dry properly as the weather is a bit unsettled. Anyway, I was sitting and eating my breakfast and Alfie is attempting to sit on my lap. He starts yapping at me, being very insistent, as he can be. He wanted to show me something. I assumed he wanted to be let out into the garden, so I moved towards the patio doors, but no, he took me to where the dog leads are kept, on a hook in the kitchen. He stood and yapped and it was really obvious that we wanted to go for a walk. I had to sort myself out, put on my shoes and then a jumper, as it's quite cold out first thing in the morning. I grabbed the lead and managed to hook it onto his collar and away we went. Alfie yapping at full voice, as is his usual want. We crossed the road and into the park. I saw a man with his dog across the park but Alfie charged off at full tilt, the other dog not knowing what had hit it. They usually don't as Alfie is like a mad thing, running in circles round the dog. The owner didn't mind, thankfully. Alfie just wants to be friends, but the other dog usually stares at him in disbelief. We walked across the wide grass area where there's some climbing equipment and other exercise items. I saw a woman and some children with a large Alsation-type dog in the distance and didn't want Alfie to run towards it as I really don't trust them so we went back across the grass area. This was long and very wet and I got my feet soaked, unfortunately, and meanwhile Alfie charging about like a mad thing. We walked back to the house and Alfie calmed down, I think the walk did us both a power of good. Just shows how much a little dog can do to make you feel better after the trauma of the past few days.

Bonfire Night

It was November 5th, Bonfire Night last night. If you don't know the significance of this date, because you don't live in the UK, then you won't know why we celebrate this day. It was the day when Guy Fawkes almost blew up the Houses of Parliament when King James came to open Parliament. You would do better than Google 'Guy Fawkes' or 'Bonfire Night' in order to get a better idea of what it's all about. Anyway, effergies of Guy Fawkes are made by children and bonfires built and lit and fireworks are let off.  Also, there is a lot of food available at Bonfire parties, such as baked potatoes, firework toffee and  soup. Poppy, our shitzu/Westie hates the noise of fireworks, and we had a few bangs and crashes outside last night, just as it was getting dark. She hid under the coffee table and wouldn't come out and then sprang onto the sofa where Carol was to get some attention. As a result, Alfie, our Yorkie, couldn't understand why she was hiding and tried to get her to come out of hiding. He doesn't seem to be effected in the least bit by the sound of the fireworks, which seems to be a bit strange. There are likely to be far more fireworks this evening and most likely tomorrow evening as it's a weekend. It seems that Hallowe'en has taken over from Bonfire Night as a celebration in this country. I think it may be something to do with the old health and safety police getting in on the act and prevent people having a bit of good old harmless fun with fireworks and building bonfires. It needs one or two silly people letting off fireworks in the wrong place to get it banned, which is a pity.