Another Day Older . . .

 Friday. 1.50 p.m. I took my car to Anglo Motors to have its MoT. I had booked it via phone last week. I knew the old one would run out yesterday because I went online to check. I drove over to Mount Farm, the home of Anglo, at 11.45. I handed over the keys and then sat in the waiting area. After around 45 minutes, I learnt that it had passed! I'm so pleased, it's another thing to not have to stress about.

Sunday. 8.05 a.m. I woke a good deal later than normal. 

Yesterday evening, I lost Alfie. No, don't laugh. How on earth can you lose a small Yorkshire terrier in a flat this size? I think he was under my bed.

3.30 p.m. We have had extremely loud music emanating from the National Bowl, here in sunny Milton Keynes, both yesterday and today. Our ears were bombarded by the heavy beat of reggae music. Not my sort of music, but the whole area around the Bowl had been cordoned off with traffic cones and those plastic fences you see when there is some sort of incident. On my way to church, I found that Chaffron Way was closed off at the Grafton Street roundabout, which meant I had to make a rather circuitous route around Milton Keynes before I could get to Shenley Brook End.

Wednesday. 10.45 a.m. Where have I been? Why haven't I been writing stuff on here? Simples! Not much is happening around here. Well, this is Dexter House, centre of the universe, full of excitement- not. We need a resident artist here, say, David Hockney or Andrew Lloyd-Webber, doing art, writing music and getting things going. It would certainly liven things up. We should have an Olympic-size swimming pool in the communal garden, along with a gym and cinema complex. I have to say, as you will have noticed, if you read my posts regularly, that I can get carried away with my musings.

I went to Sainsbury's earlier. It was like a version of the Marie Celeste, virtually empty. I didn't get a trolley with a wonky wheel, which drives me nuts. It refuses to push without squeaking or just not moving at all. I think they should spend some time getting them maintained. So the wheels run freely and don't squeak.

Thursday. 8.45 a.m. It's another mild and relatively pleasant morning. I just hope it stays that way.

Yesterday evening, I was part of a Zoom meeting, which was for market research. I won't go into too much detail, just suffice to say, it was very interesting. I've done quite a few of these, some really boring, but this was fascinating, and what made it more interesting was hearing other people's opinions. I will get £60 for doing it, so that's great, and I want to get more of these, particularly when they're on Zoom, as it means you don't have to go anywhere, just sit and chat in the comfort of your own home. It ended relatively late, which means I slept well and didn't wake up until around 7 a.m. Until we had the coronavirus pandemic, I had never even heard of Zoom. I quickly got the hang of using it, and it has paid off to have the ability to use it. My various bits of technology, such as my MacBook Pro, iPad and iPhone, can be used to earn more cash. I have two apps on my iPhone, which I use to scan the barcodes of what I buy, using the phone's camera. I build up points which can be built up and then redeemed for various vouchers, such as Amazon, Argos, Sainsbury's, Tesco, etc. Well worth the effort. Another site I'm signed up to is called Consumer Pulse, which I've been with for years. When you buy clothes and other items, you record each on the site and, again, receive points which can be redeemed for vouchers. 

Oh, What Fun!

 Monday. 6.15 a.m. A new week! But does the week start on Sunday or Monday?

It appears to be quite mild and pleasant. 

10.45 a.m. How wrong can you be! It's been several hours since I wrote the above. I've taken Alfie out. It wasn't pouring rain, but there was a light drizzle if I can use that word.

I have never mentioned here that I do online surveys and earn cash and vouchers. It's not likely that I will earn a great deal, but certainly, I can make perhaps a few hundred pounds a year as well as quite a good amount in vouchers for such companies as Argos, Amazon, Curry's and other businesses. I have been signed up to two of these survey companies, one called Valued Opinions and another called Lifepoints, for several years. You register to join and fill in your demographic details, such as age, employment status, area of the country you live in and various other details, which are then the basis for the type of surveys you are likely to qualify for. You are then emailed and there is a link in the email which you click on to start the survey. At the beginning, the survey will then be on basic details to find out if you are eligible to complete the survey. Quite a lot of the time you won't be eligible, but you need to be patient because eventually, you will be able to continue with the survey get to the end and then receive your reward. Don't expect to receive a great deal, probably in pence, or if you are lucky, a pound or two. There are survey sites which do reward with higher amounts, such as YLive, YouGov and Newvista (this one pays out with a variety of vouchers.) but you have to reach a payout point of around £50 before you get paid, either by cheque or directly into your bank account, although some sites pay using PayPal, so you will need to set up an account first before you receive cash into your account and then set things up so you can transfer cash into your bank account. I am also a member of something called Consumer Pulse, which I've been with for around 10 years. You have to be invited to join this. The idea is that you log in to the site and report items you have purchased, such as clothing, books, CDs, DVDs etc. Each item has a value in points and when you reach a certain amount of points, you can redeem them for vouchers, for companies such as Argos, Curry's and so on. 

There are other market research sites which pay in both cash and vouchers, but many rarely offer you surveys, so it will take you a long time to reach a payout, nonetheless, they are worth signing up to. A couple of the better ones are Opinium, which has a payout of £25 and another called SurveyBods, which has a payout at £15, paid in Amazon vouchers or cash.

I mention all this because I recently had two survey sites payouts, one being Lifepoints, where I received £85 and Valued Opinions, with Amazon vouchers to the value of £100. Mind you, I had to work hard to receive these payments. I think it took me probably six months to achieve these payments. Not without a certain amount of patience and endurance, with quite a few times being rejected, for whatever reason, probably age, gender etc etc.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I purchased a new electric toothbrush, from Argos, and paid with around £40 of vouchers from Consumer Pulse. The Amazon vouchers (not technically vouchers. You get a code which you put into your account on the Amazon website. The cash from the Lifepoints surveys has gone into my savings account. 

I have put the Amazon codes (I should say codes rather than vouchers, which are usually printed.) and then ordered some books which I had already seen on the Amazon website. I was excited to find one book which is about my ancestors, which I think I've mentioned elsewhere in blog posts here. It's called 'The Ascott Martyrs', and edited by Keith Laybourn, and the subtitle is 'Why did the rural establishment imprison sixteen women and two babies in 1873?' This historic event was discovered when doing research on my family history, and this was on my maternal side. Then, two books about William Shakespeare, both written by Shakespeare authorities, David and Ben Crystal, 'The Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary' and the other, 'Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion.' This one will be useful, as it details the words that are obscure and difficult to understand which are used in Shakespeare's work. This book in particular will be invaluable when I read or see performances of the plays and want to find out what certain words mean and where they originate. 

All In A Day's Work

 Friday. 12.20 p.m. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it's true. I kept hearing a strange noise. A sort of whirring noise. I think I may have mentioned this in a previous post but never mind. I thought it was outside, probably a lawn mower or hedge trimmer.  Then I decided to check in the bathroom. It turned out to be my electric toothbrush! I know it sounds crazy, but somehow or other it had turned itself on. It's an Oral B model, and I suppose I've had it for around six years, probably bought around the time I moved into Dexter House. I have attempted to use it, but it now doesn't work, and it has been on charge overnight, this morning I tried to use it, but it just wouldn't work. I presume the battery has stopped charging, but that doesn't explain why it comes on by itself. It really is very odd. So, I came to the conclusion that it needed replacing. I have a lot of Nectar points, collected when I shop in Sainsbury's, so I could spend some of them in Argos, so I checked their website to find out if they sold electric toothbrushes. They do, and then it occurred to me that I could add Argos vouchers from something I am signed up to called Consumer Pulse, whereby you register items you buy, like clothing, books, CDs etc. and you gain points which can be redeemed for vouchers, which include Argos. 

It took me a while to discover how to redeem the points from Consumer Pulse and then input the voucher codes into the Argos website and then add around £5-worth of Nectar points to make up the difference in the price. Quite a long and laborious process, but I managed to do it. But now I have to wait until Tuesday to be able to go to the Argos store to collect my purchase of the Oral-B electric toothbrush!

Saturday. 6.30 a.m. It's a bright and sunny morning here in Milton Keynes. Alfie is curled up in his bed and fast asleep. As the saying goes, 'Let sleeping dogs lie.' 

1.25 p.m. Yet another trip to Sainsbury's. I needed to buy at least a week's worth of food, along with dog food and loo rolls.  These items now come in much larger rolls, supposedly with the idea that they use less packaging as well as the central cardboard core. I arrived in the appropriate aisle, but I couldn't find a pack of just four rolls. You can buy 9, 12 and more, but what is the point of so many, and I don't have the space in the flat to store large quantities. 

I'm having salad for my evening meal, so I bought all the ingredients, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, radishes, lettuce, red peppers etc., along with chicken and potato salad. It should make a change from cooking, so I have already made up the salad, and it's in the fridge and when I'm ready, I only have to put it on a plate and eat.

6.20 p.m. I got a text from Argos at around 4.45 to tell me that the electric toothbrush was ready to collect from their store. I had originally been told it wouldn't be ready to collect until Tuesday morning, so it was somewhat surprising. So I went to collect the thing, as I found out that Argos was open until 8 o'clock. So, I went to collect it and, when I got home, I put the thing to charge, although I discovered that it was already charged.

Freedom Come and Freedom Go

Okay, okay! Blog post title from a Fortune's hit single from 1972. It just seemed appropriate for the current pandemic situation. Are we going to be released from lockdown or not? It appears to be neither one thing nor the other.

So, will things be relaxed today? It's both yes and no, which is going to confuse so many people.

Monday: 6.20 a.m. Phew! What a scorcher! It is excessively not. Even with all the windows open and an electric fan working, the flat is very warm. I woke up in the night really wringing wet. Poor Alfie can't find a place to keep cool. We didn't go out until late yesterday evening, but even at around 7 o'clock, it was bright and sunny and very warm.

3.55 p.m. I may or may not have mentioned the online surveys I take part in. I think I've mentioned Consumer Pulse, where I put into a website everything I buy such as books, CDs, DVDs, and clothes. I have been with several of these online sites for several years and earn vouchers and cash which accrue and can be banked in your current account or your PayPal account. A lot of what I've earned goes into my Nationwide savings account, but some are converted into retail vouchers. One such is Maximiles. Today I had £50-worth of Marks and Spencers vouchers arrive in the post and, with £16-worth of M and S vouchers from two other survey sites, I went into the Milton Keynes M and S and bought two more of their polo shirts and cargo trousers, which I had been searching for elsewhere without success. 

It was great not having to wear a face mask in the shopping centre or M and S! Just make life far easier. I think generally people seemed far more relaxed than on previous visits.

I have an idea that the government is attempting to get the population to get herd immunity by freeing up society by lifting social distancing and not legally being required to wear face coverings. Boris was on television, but he sounded as if he was isolating in a cupboard in Chequers, where he has gone to self-isolate. It just sounded weird. Probably in the bathroom or in a drain.

Tuesday. 5.35 a.m. Yet another hot and sticky night. I had to change my top several times. Alfie settled in next to me. I'm not sure what the weather is going to be like today, but if it's hot I'm staying indoors.

There is an Amber warning from the met office. For the next couple of days, it's going to be extremely hot. For someone like me, who has a heart-health problem, it can be dangerous. So I won't be going out in it, staying indoors.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Tuesday. 8.05 a.m. Well, it is another bright and beautiful morning. We were out around 5.45. Must have been the earliest we've done our routine walking experience. It wasn't cold, and there was still a slight mist, although as I write, it should have dissolved in the sun. On the BBC Breakfast weather forecast, Carol Kirkwood used the words 'haar and fret (cold sea fog, mostly seen on the east coast of England.) Also, the rather unscientific term 'murky.' Probably for those who don't have a good scientific vocabulary (which I don't, but I do like to discover new words and meanings as well as word derivations and origins.)

Later. I've been out with Alfie. I actually wore my shorts because it was so sunny and warm. We were walking along the path on the Evans Gate side of Oldbrook Green when I could hear crunching and vague electrical motor sound and I looked around and there was one of the delivery pods rolling along merrily. It went up onto the concrete path and on and then went into the estate. It fascinates me to know how they know where they are going. I presume they have GPS connectivity, the same technology which is used in SatNavs.

Wednesday. 6.40 a.m. Yet another bright and sunny. Sitting here writing this with my MacBook on my lap and with BBC Breakfast on television. 

There were 'zero deaths' from Covid-19 yesterday, which is a real landmark moment in this confounded pandemic. But the scientists are still coming out with we need 'more data' before we can definitely come out of lockdown on 21st June. I get the impression from the BBC that their reporters would happily endure further lockdowns and not get us out of this horrible situation. I know he's not perfect, Boris Johnson, but he has had to make some very tough decisions. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. We have never been through a similar situation in this country before, at least, not in my lifetime and certainly not in many people's lifetime. After the First World War, there was the so-called 'Spanish Flu' pandemic, where thousands upon thousands died, but there was none of the modern technology we now take for granted, no vaccines or any of the health systems we have now. It's almost like a war situation if there is any sort of comparison to be made.

Alfie sitting on the sofa next to me a moment ago, when I ate my cereal and drank my morning cup of tea. He's waiting for me to finish and have what's left in the mug and bowl. He's somewhat 

Later. I've been to Sainsbury's and done shopping for at least two weeks. Well, I hope so. I'm going to do some more baking, and I have got a really rather nice set of metal mixing bowls on Amazon, look stylish, have red plastic handles and the lids have a hole in the centre so you can grate and slice things like potatoes, or grate cheese straight into the bowl and will be useful to store ingredients in as well as to use to make cake batter or other cooking ingredients in. Also, they have bases made of a rubbery material that prevents them from slipping when in use on a kitchen surface. I got a rolling pin, a set of cookie cutters and a sieve in Sainsbury's, so I am all set to make some scones. 

I have signed up to something called Nielsen Shopping Panel, similar to the other panel I belong to, Consumer Pulse, where I have to report everything such as books, clothes, CDs, DVDs and some other items and in return, I get points which can be redeemed for vouchers. I've been on that for around 10 years and have had quite a few vouchers which have gone towards items such as my Hitachi television set, Panasonic Freeview box and much more. More recently I used some Argos vouchers from this to put towards my Bosch food processor. The Nielsen panel requires you to scan the barcodes on your shopping using an app on your iPhone and the points accrue in a similar way to Consumer Pulse and can be converted into Amazon points or a wide range of products from their catalogue, which is on the Neilsen Panel website. I have scanned my shopping from Sainsbury's as soon as I got in from the shopping trip. It can take a fair amount of time, but like most things, you have to put a certain amount of effort into it to get the rewards.

Just heard the news, first via the BBC News website: 'Holby', that heap of rubbish that they claim is 'drama' is to be cancelled after 23 years. Not sorry in the slightest. I think the BBC could and can do better than this tripe. Kept a few actors busy for all that time as well as scriptwriters and other personnel but can we now have something less soapy? It will run until March next years and is the BBC's start to modernize their drama offerings. I think that it might be something to do with the Licence review which is coming up and attempting to compete with the likes of Netflix and other streaming services. 

Silly Title For A Blog Post!

I can't think of a better name to put in the title of this blog post. And why not? I may think of a better one, but it doesn't really matter.

Wednesday. 10.55 p.m. I was sitting waiting to go out after 9 o'clock this morning and as I waited, the telephone rang and it was the renal unit at Milton Keynes Hospital. My appointment with a consultant there is cancelled. This is a relief to me as it must be due to the consultant there looking at the results of my recent blood test. I was advised by the nice lady I spoke to that I should contact my GP at Central Milton Keynes Medical Centre to discuss where my care will go next. Just a relief that nothing suspicious was discovered.  I then drove to Aldi in Bradwell Common to do a top-up shop. 

I attempted to telephone Central Milton Keynes Medical Centre this afternoon. I could not get through, even after around three attempts. You get through to the appointments line after you get the 'menu of options, but after being held with nothing but a voice telling you which options to select and that you can make your appointment online, I just gave up. Well, I did attempt to make an appointment via the online facility, but for some reason, it has been blocked, so it annoys me that they tell you it is an alternative to the telephone system. I shall just have to have another attempt tomorrow morning.

Thursday. 12.20 p.m. It's a strange sort of day weather-wise. It started out dry and mild, but as I write this the weather has changed for the worse. It's howling a gale outside (just as well not inside!) and I reckon it will rain before the day is over.

At long last, after around half a dozen attempts, I have managed to get through to Central Milton Keynes Medical Centre. I will get a phone call from my doctor on 11th June between 2 and 6 p.m. 

I have bought a food processor. I have spent vouchers I earned from doing online surveys, one of which is something I have been on for around 10 years, where I have to log anything I buy, books, CDs, clothing etc. As you log your items, you earn points and then, when you have enough, you can cash them in for vouchers The site is called Consumer Pulse. The only way you can get involved is to have an invitation, which I did. Over the years I have been able to trade my vouchers in for a Panasonic Freeview box, a Hitachi HD television, a Panasonic microwave oven and several more items. I got most of these items from Argos, and recently I bought myself a new electric kettle, toaster, kitchen knives and more recently the Bosch food processor. I am with other online survey sites, each earning points which can be converted into either cash or vouchers. If Amazon points, it allows me to buy books and virtually anything on their site. I have today ordered a digital kitchen scales which I intend to use to do some baking. I have also done some market research where you chat via Zoom (which is convenient since we were in lockdown at the time.) and earned considerably more than doing the straightforward online surveys. The cash from those has gone into my savings account. I would like more similar surveys.

Later. 2.30 p.m. The post came at around 1.30. I picked it up from the floor after it came through the letterbox. One envelope, with an address window in it. An appointment has been made for me at Milton Keynes Hospital on 21st June. Wait a minute. Didn't I have a telephone call from the hospital to tell me there was no need for the appointment and that it had been cancelled? What is going on here? No wonder the NHS is always in such a financial mess, with this sort of craziness going on. It just seems a waste. A definite case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing.

Flooded Milton Keynes and Bedford

 (Monday) I put BBC Breakfast on at around 6.20 and they were reporting 'live' from Bedford. The centre of the town is flooded and all along the Embankment and around Longholme lake the river has risen and engulfed the fields around the River Ouse, all places I know well.

Although I wasn't able to visit Chloe and family in Worcester over Christmas, I was able to chat with her via Skype, something I haven't done before. It was great to not only chat, but she gave me a guided tour of the extension to the house which is more or less completed. She didn't show me upstairs, because the children were asleep in bed (it was around 7 p.m.). There is a new utility room and the downstairs wet room off the kitchen as well as an office. I hope that probably next week we can have another chat and this time have the boys involved as I haven't seen any of them since last Christmas because of the pandemic.

It's a good deal colder this morning. I was out with Alfie at 7.45a.m and not only was it a good deal colder, but there was a fog hanging over the centre of Milton Keynes which I could see from Oldbrook Green. I am making sure that I wrap up to keep warm, with my Oddballs woolly hat on as well as gloves (which I managed to find.) My hands get really cold and can get so cold they become numb. Something to do with having had a heart attack. Your extremities, such as your toes and fingers, can be affected. I ought to explain that Oddballs is a brand of clothing, utilising brightly coloured and highly patterned clothing, particularly underwear for men and women. Originally set up to sell these items and the profits going to cancer charities, initially for research into men's cancer, particularly testicular and prostate cancer but now also women's cancers. A good cause and I have bought quite a few items, and because of Carol's cancer, I thought it highly personal to me.

I've been out again with Alfie and it was really quite foggy. Well, not too thick that you couldn't see a hand in front of your face, but a good deal thicker than it was earlier.

(Later) I've been watching a documentary on YouTube, called 'The Cult of Doomwatch,' which was an early 1970s drama series which had storylines about what happens when science goes wrong. I remember it quite clearly and it had some really frightening storylines. I have a connection to it as one of the leading actors, Simon Oates, was a guest director when I was at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham in 1969, working as a student A.S.M. I'm desperately trying to remember what he directed. I have an idea that it was 'A Day In The Death of Joe Egg,' written by Peter Nicols. I may be wrong and unfortunately I don't have any way of finding out. I used to have a whole box full of the programmes from plays I worked on. You always got given one on the opening night of the plays I worked on. Some were signed by the cast. It's a pity, as they would be great to look through. I even had production photographs, but they also went astray years ago. I expect they went missing along the way as I've moved quite a few times over the years.

(Tuesday) I've been doing on-line surveys for several years now. You sign up to various sites and give as much detail about yourself and then you get an email with a link to the survey. You have to do a quick survey to show if you are eligible and if you qualify you do the survey, which can take up to 20 minutes and you get rewarded points which accrue and can be turned into cash or vouchers for well-known brands. I usually get Amazon points which you can spend as you wish from their site or else turn the points into vouchers for 'bricks-and-mortar retailers such as Marks and Spencer, John Lewis or any other high street companies. Don't expect to be able to make a great deal from these surveys, but as the Tesco ads tell you 'Every Little Helps.' I am also on a site called Consumer Pulse (you have to be invited. You can't just sign up to this site.) You have to input to their site when you buy products such as clothing, shoes, books, CDs, DVDs etc and the points build up and can be turned into vouchers for such companies as Sainsbury's, Argos, B and Q etc etc. I had reached a good payout of around £100 so I decided to redeem them, turn them into Argos vouchers. You usually get your vouchers sent to you, as paper vouchers, but because of the pandemic, you get them as eVouchers which can be spent on-line. I was expecting them to come in a couple of weeks which is what normally happens, but I was surprised to find they were sent in an email, as a string of letters and numbers. So, I thought I'd spend them. I got to the Argos website and managed to select some items, a new toaster (the old one is beyond repair, frankly, and it took ages to toast a piece of bread.) I found a Breville toaster and decided on that. Then, a new electric kettle. The old one is a Russell Hobbs and it has a Brita filter in it. The one I chose is similar but made of glass. That's ordered, but won't be ready for collection until tomorrow, Wednesday. Also ordered a plate rack for the kitchen sink, bath mats and a 'Welcome' doormat, which might be helpful in preventing mud and other bits and pieces coming into the flat. I got the toaster on Sunday and I had to go to the Argos store in Milton Keynes to collect it. Click-and-collect only and you have to queue up and it took about 20 minutes to get to the check-in. They don't allow you inside the store. A member of staff takes your details, your order number and another code which identifies you as well and the item ordered and it's handed over. 

Another Sunny Day!

The warm weather continues. Milton Keynes in the sun is a great place.

I've been doing on-line surveys for a good number of years now. It's turned out to be quite a lucrative activity. I can't say you can make a living at it, but if you find the right survey sites that offer either vouchers or cash, then the points or cash can soon add up. One such site is called Consumer Pulse, which you have to be invited to join, as I was, some 10 years or so ago. This company wants you to record what you buy, not grocery items, things like clothing, CDs and DVDs, books and so on. I have already managed to purchase quite a few items using the points that I have a accrued and these can be converted into  variety of vouchers for well known stores, such as W.H. Smith, Waterstones, Argos and Currys. We purchased a steam iron, electric kettle as well as put a large amount to the cost of our Hitachi HD television set. I had got quite a good balance of points on Consumer Pulse. Well over £140 and decided that I could use them to purchase a new microwave. I got rid of the old model we had a few months ago because it wasn't in a fit state to use. It had gone rusty and it hadn't been looked after very well. If food is spilt inside when something is cooked and isn't wiped clean, then eventually it will fester and this is exactly what had happened to this model. It just wasn't hygienic, so I took it to the tidy-tip. For a replacement I intened getting one that, hopefully, would be better constructed, and wouldn't rust as quickly. Let's be honest here, many products aren't made to last. They have a sort of built-in obsilescence because the manufacturers want you to buy the latest model. This seems the case with such things as computers and mobile phones. You have to up-grade the software they run on frequently and then, when there are no further up-grades, you will want to change the model for a newer one. I had to decide which model I wanted and within the budget I had set and to then decide which retailer I would order the vouchers for, up to a value of £140. I chose Currys and duly went on the Consumer Pulse website and ordered them. You can only have them in blocks of £10, and I knew, once ordered, it would take around a week before they arrived at my door.

I was pleased when I got the delivery of the Currys vouchers in yesterday's post (Wednesday) because I was expecting them to come by Friday at the latest. I had to sign because the postie knocked on the door and I was expected to sign on a sort of digital device that it's difficult to write on and produce an at least half-respectable and legible signature.

I was hoping to use the vouchers in the nearest branch of Currys, but when I went to their branch and found the model microwave I wanted, I was told that they didn't have it in stock. I discovered that it was in stock at the Bedford branch, but when I asked if the required item could be bought to the Milton Keynes branch for me to collect I was informed that this was not possible. I could purchase the item on-line and use my vouchers to buy it and have it delivered to my home. So, this is what I attempted to do. You have to scratch off the back of the voucher and then put the long code into the website along with the P.I.N., which is the number on the back of the voucher and under the scratch-off area of the voucher. Having done this for five of the vouchers (each vouchers was worth £10, so there were 14 in total, making a total of £140.) But after the fifth voucher, the software told me that no more than 5 vouchers could be used per transaction! As you can imagine I was somewhat annoyed, but I went into the Currys branch in Milton Keynes and they transferred the 14 vouchers onto one voucher and this I eventually managed to put into the Currys website and order the microwave, to have it delivered next Friday.  Thank goodness thats over,

Meanwhile . . . I was told that my MacBook would be ready on Thursday, and that someone would telephone me to tell me if there was a probem, possibly after 12 noon. Nothing. No call, or anything. Just annoying. I forgot to take the charging cable when I took the computer in for them to look at it, so I took it yesterday when I was attempting to get the microwave sorted out. I just hope I get a call tomorrow and that it's ready for me to collect later in the day.

At the beginning of this blog post I wrote that it was sunny and warm. As I write this, looking out of the lounge window I can see that it is definitely not sunny. The wind is quite strong and it's moving the trees about. That's all I need to tell you at this moment in time.