Pouring Rain and Hospital Parking

I woke up last night to hear absolutely torrential rain outside. It seemed to go on for ever. I imagine there'll be flash-flooding. No doubt the road coming round the Four Bridges roundabout near Eaglestone will be flooded. Well, with Carol still in hospital, there's absolutely no chance of us getting out and about as we had planned. I think they are getting to the reason for her health-problems at last. I'm going to see her at 10 o'clock this morning and I'm hoping the doctors will be able to tell us what's going on and how they can sort things out.

I'm appalled by the cost of hospital parking. When we first went the other morning, early, we went in the car and at Milton Keynes Hospital you have to go into the carpark and take a ticket from the machine. When you leave, you have to use the ticket machine across the road. You put your ticket in and you're told how much the charge is. You can use coins or notes (but the machine won't take 5p pieces) and can use your credit or debit card to pay. Trouble is, you can barely read the digital display. It's very faint and rather like some older A.T.M. machines which have displays that are unclear, particularly when the sun shines on them. Also, the screen is very low and not at a height that makes it easy for someone as tall as myself. I was shocked that I was charged £4.50 that first day, even though I'd been at the hospital since well before 6 a.m. Yesterday it was £3.50, and I was only there barely two hours. Considering you don't really want to be at the hospital, it seems a bit of a liberty to charge for parking. It just seems to be just another way to make money. I realise that the carpark needs maintaining, but why does it have to be paid for from car parking? There's even a branch of Costa coffee in the new reception area of the hospital. I suppose it's a good idea and great to have such a facility at a hospital, but I begin to wonder whether it's just another money-making scheme. I presume that Costa pays rent for the site and the hospital takes  some of the profits. Having been to Addenbrook's Hospital in Cambridge, I've seen the mini shopping centre in their reception, with a W.H.Smith and other high street shops.

I don't know whether people who don't know about the parking arrangements at Milton Keynes Hospital that you need change to use the machine or whether you can use your card to pay, but it's a good idea to have enough change to allow you to pay, otherwise if you don't, you'll be stuck in the carpark as you need to put the ticket you got when you entered to get out as there is a barrier at the exit which will only rise once you put the ticket in the machine. You won't be able to get change from anywhere in the hospital and even if you go to reception you won't be able to get change.

Another annoying factor is that they're currently upgrading the hospital. The former reception has moved around to be opposite the multi-storey carpark and it's quite a long walk there from the ground-level carpark. Also, if you're new to the hospital, it's not entirely clear where you have to go as signage is a bit vague or if there is any, it's not exactly prominent.

Outing To Cambridge

Our holiday continues. We are making the most of the warm weather again and this time, we had a trip out to Cambridge. We have been there on a few occasions, but not for a couple of years. We had to put petrol in the car at the Shell station in Grafton Street and then drove away from Milton Keynes, going towards Bedford past the Amazon distribution centre near the M1 junction at Ridgemont. The recently opened stretch of dual carriageway between the M1 and going towards Bedford and eventually the A1 at the Blackcat Roundabout means you no longer go into Bedford at all as it joins up with the Bedford bypass and it takes no more than 20-30 minutes to reach Bedford and then a further 20 minutes or so to reach the A1 and off near St Neots and on towards Cambridge. We soon reached the park-and-ride carpark at Madingley and boarded the bus which took us into the centre of Cambridge. Another relatively short journey and it's so much easier to use the park-and-ride rather than negotiating the centre of Cambridge, looking for a parking space, the frustration that causes, getting stuck in traffic (which, incidentally was quite heavy.) and in the end saving time and money (the cost of a return ticket was £6, not too expensive considering the speed of the journey and the time we spent in the centre of Cambridge.) We got off on Bridge Street, near the Round Church and the walked towards the Market Square and King's Parade. We found a Marks and Spencer's and bought crisps , drink and sandwiches and Carol wanted a coffee so we found a Cafe Nero and bought a take-out latte and then we went off to find somewhere to devour our food and in the end sat on a step in a side-street. I'm surprised there are no more benches that we could have sat on, but never mind. Adequately refreshed we walked to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Trumpington Street and browsed in one of the galleries and looked at some very familiar Pre-Raphaelite paintings which I have only ever seen in books. Also, another favourite painter of mine, Sir Stanley Spencer.
We stood looking at one painting and then a lady, who was viewing the same painting asked us about it. We had a long conversation and it turned out that she was also a teacher, like Carol. She was from Canada, and we then discovered she'd come to England to work with her husband and was working in a school in Milton Keynes and lived only a short distance from where we lived. It seemed quite a coincidence that we should go all the way to Cambridge and then bump into someone who lived only a short distance from us but who worked in another school and was also a teacher! Carol has also worked with several teachers over the past year who came originally from Canada (for example, Kendra, who stayed with us briefly before she moved into her own accommodation.) Just shows what a small world it is.)

We wandered through so more of the galleries before leaving the museum and walking back along Trumpington Street and the centre of Cambridge. Carol suggested we buy some ice cream, which we got from a street vendor and we sat and ate it on the low wall near one of the collages on King's Parade. The place was absolutely teeming with tourists. Cambridge is quite obviously one of the many and various stops that tourists come to when they visit this country.

The Chronophage at Corpus Christi

Carol had said she wanted to see the special clock which is at one of the colleges along King's Parade. We saw it a couple of years ago when we visited Cambridge when we'd been to the botanic garden. It had only recently been installed and we saw it on the local BBC television news programme 'Look East.'It is on the corner of Benet Street, on the outside of Corpus Christi college. It's a large golden clock which has a strange but quite hideous grasshopper-like insect balanced on the top which is made of metal and acts as the escape mechanism and seems to be clawing away time as it moves along. It had crowds of tourists in front of it, making it difficult to see clearly. Mostly Japanese tourists who seemed eager to photograph the thing with either their mobile phones or cameras. It took me some considerable time and effort to get a decent shot as a lot of children would insist on sitting on the sill of the window it was behind. But I eventually managed to get the photograph I wanted.

As much as we love Cambridge, and we've visited quite a few times over the past couple of years, there is one thing that annoys us above all other things. It's those people who throng the main tourist streets, particularly along King's Parade, touting punting trips. We were approached by several as we walked along, minding our own business. These 'trips' aren't cheap, around £20-£30 a time. I'm not sure how exactly they work, but presumably you are taken for a trip, in a punt, controlled (if that's the right word.) by a student or other person, along the Granta or Camb (I'm not sure which name the same river has in the centre of Cambridge. Presumably the Cam. I think it becomes the Granta outside the City.) But to say 'no' to one such tout and then be constantly assaulted (pardon the expression. But it does seem a bit like an assault.) by several more is just too much. Something should be done about it. I think if I, for one, wish to take a punting trip along the river I have a right to choose when I do this, and not be bombarded by these people. The local authority should do something about it, as it's extremely annoying.
We continued on and walked back to Bridge Street to await the arrival of the next bus which would take his back to the park-and-ride car park and our car. 

Weather Wet and Unsettled

After the past week or so of reasonably good weather, today it has changed dramatically. It's wet and over-cast. I just hope it improves before the May Bank Holiday weekend as we hope to go out somewhere. Who wants to be stuck indoors when you can just as easily be out visiting a National Trust property? Trouble is, if we do manage to go out,  everyone else will no doubt be thinking the same as us and wherever it is we end up visiting it's bound to be busy. We have several options as regards National Trust properties, all within an hour and a half's drive. Starting with Stowe Landscape Garden near Buckingham, which we haven't visited for a while. Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, which we went to over the Easter period and found it crowded due to an event there for children. (see a few posts back on here.), Clayton is another which we haven't visited for a few years, not far from Buckingham and Stowe. Wimpole Hall and Farm is near Royston, Hertfordshire, and is actually one of my favourite National Trust properties. It would be worth a visit as the farm is good at this time of year as they're likely to have a lot of newborn animals at the moment. The last time we visited I remember the little piglets running about everywhere. Anglesey Abbey is just off he A14 just beyond Cambridge, although the last time we were out that way we got stuck in really awful traffic jams on the way to my brother Andrew's, who lives in Norfolk. Around four hours stuck in a traffic jam and then we decided to cut our losses and came home as the traffic was so snarled up. A whole day wasted. Ickworth House we visited much more recently and is even further towards Bury St Edmonds and is worth a visit. It is a quite spectacular house and they have a newish part open where you can see the servants quarters. There is something similar at an English Heritage property near Saffron Walden called Audley End House.

I managed to get the grass cut yesterday. Thankfully, because it had been cut only a few weeks ago, the grass wasn't so long and difficult to get the mower to cut and I got it all done in a couple of 'blocks.' The weather was fine and sunny yesterday, but if I'd left it, the wet weather today would have made it virtually impossible.

Odd Jobs

I even worked in a shop at one time. Really odd when I come to think about it looking back nearly 40 years or so. Who really, honestly would employ me in a shop, with my total lack of maths skills?  I was hopeless at maths at school, so the very thought of me on a till doesn't bear thinking about.  How on earth I got the job I will never know. Well, the truth is I did get a job in a shop, and it was called University Audio and Photography. With a name like that it had to have a base in Cambridge.  I know they had a branch in Cambridge, but whether it's still there I don't know. I doubt it somehow. The Bedford Branch was in Silver Street, opposite Debenham's and in a unit which is now (or was, when I used to live there) occupied by a branch of Dolland and Aitcheston opticians. They sold cameras upstairs and audio equipment downstairs (University Audio, not the opticians. Well, of course. That's being just plain stupid to think an optician's would stock such things.) I was supposed to work in the audio department, but for some reason I cannot ever fathom, this was closed when I went to work there and was put in the photography department upstairs.  I imagine I got the job because I did actually have some interest in audio equipment and stereo in particular, but I don't think I made a very good salesman. I think it was closed because it was only open in the winter. And It was during the summer that my brief employment seemed to occur. Strange, but that was how it was and I can't think of any logical explanation as to why. Was it that the company thought that people they wanted as customers didn't buy audio equipment at any time other than during the winter?  Re-arrange the stock. Dust the shelves, make idle banter. Try and look busy and then pounce on the first person through the door who looks as if they might actually part with their cash. Not very likely. So I was stuck in that department. We weren't allowed to sit down during opening hours. Which can be a bit of a strain, standing for a good 7-8 hours without sitting down. It sounds like something out of the sitcom 'Are You Being Served' but certainly not as funny. The manager, one Mr DeWitt (I cannot remember his first name, more like Mr Witless when you read further.) was a real snob in regard to photographic equipment. He really turned up his nose when selling Kodak Instamatics or any of the more popular variety of cameras, mostly those that used the cassette-loading systems that cameras were utilising then (you have to remember that this was a good three decades before the introduction of digital cameras.) For some reason or other the shop never opened on a Saturday, another strange mystical decision that wouldn't happen today. But, on one particular Mr DeWitt DID open the store on a Saturday, when he had a customer for a very expensive camera, which was going to cost well over £600. I'm not sure what sort of camera, but presumably not one using Instamatic technology. Most likely a Nikon or other very top-of-the-range camera. I don't actually recall whether he made a sale. Probably he expected to get commission on the sale, but I'm not sure. The reason being I never found out because I didn't last the week. Boredom and not being able to sit down all day was too much and I left after a week. The store closed down and I put this down very much to the company's strange opening arrangements and not having half the shop available for customers. As regards money and tills, with today's technology you don't even have to work out the change as they can do this for you, and just scan the bar-code on the item for the price to go through the till, so I don't expect it's that difficult. But I'm never likely to have to work in a shop again. I'm not really suited to that sort of work and can get easily bored and it was boring, waiting for customers to come in. I sympathise with anyone who works in a shop, basically for that reason.