What Next?

(Thursday)I'm determined to keep this blog going. It's not always possible to write something and post it every day, but I do try. Just waffle on and hope for the best. If you follow my meanderings then you will know that a lot of what I talk about on here is mundane, but most of life is mundane. Someone said of drama that's it's life with the dull bits taken out. But on here, it's the boring bits, sort of, warts and all. It was Alfred Hitchcock who said that, and he should know as he was such a brilliant film director and made some really awesome films.

It's another warm and sunny morning. Alfie was insistent that I take him out, staring at me as he sat on the sofa next to me.

Someone thinks it's necessary to make a lovely screeching noise, a drill, grinder or whatever, right outside my window. It's really horrible. People that do D.I.Y. can be so focussed on what they're doing that they never seem to realise that it can be an irritation to others. Usually this sort of noise, or hammering endlessly, sawing, such as the individual was was constructing a garden shed.

(Friday) I had another letter from Television Licensing informing me that if I didn't set up my Direct Debit I was likely to get prosecuted for not having a television licence. This is really crazy, because I was paying the thing by Direct Debit and all was going smoothly. I made sure that this was in place well before I moved into Dexter House. I certainly didn't want to be illegal. Well, who would be? Then they wrote to me to tell me I didn't need to have a full television licence, as this is a sheltered housing project. I was never told this when I moved in. I was told by Barbara, the S.H.O (Sheltered Housing Officer.) that I only needed to pay £7.50 a year for the licence (I presume because it is sheltered housing and there is one television ariel or something. I'm not sure exactly, but I assumed on moving in that my flat was a single household and thus requiring a separate television licence.) So, they cancelled my Direct Debit and refunded the money I had already paid from the point I moved in. I was told a few weeks ago by Barbara that I could pay the thing by postal order. Now, who on earth uses postal orders to pay for anything in this day and age? I haven't had one since I was probably 15 years old, well before I had my own bank account. I could also pay it with a cheque, which is another form of payment I haven't used for probably a year at least and then there was the chance of actually finding my cheque book. So, having read the latest missive from Television Licensing, I attempted to ring their callcentre and possibly pay the £7.50 via their website or even pay by giving my card details over the phone. Due to the coronavirus situation they were only operating a skeleton operation (sounds like something from a horror film, giving a sort of vaguely humorous impression to someone of my creative abilities, but let's go no further down that avenue at the moment.) I couldn't even get to speak to someone, so I mentioned this to Barbara, and she contacted someone in Milton Keynes Council and I have now written out a cheque because I managed by some sort of fluke to find my chequebook and have payed the £7.50, so mission accomplished, thank goodness.

The pigeon which sits outside the flat and makes that monotonous sound is making it's relentlessly boring sound as I write this. Pigeons in my opinion have to be the most boring birds known to man. Not just their idiotic, repetitive noise, not so much a song, but sounding, unlike anything remotely intelligent. Also, when they move around, sitting, or at least, standing on the ground and moving their head in a sort of nodding fashion, senseless and as exciting as a dull weekend in Bognor Regis. Why Bognor Regis I can't think. Just the way my mind operates. I don't think a pigeon has anything in it's head because it keeps on nodding it. I don't actually think it's ONE pigeon which comes and makes it's stupid noise outside my window, but several. It must be. One pigeon is very much the same as the next one. They don't have what you might call individual features. They all blend in one to another. I just wish at times that they would just go away and not come back.

Later. I've done my washing this morning.  Yes, I know, the excitement is far too much. I had it all ready and put in the machine to go at around 7.45, but I had forgotten to actually turn on the confounded machine, so when I went to check at around 8.30 the thing was not running so I had to turn the machine on and wait another 45 minutes or so to wait for everything to be washed.

(Saturday) Another day. It's 5.45a.m. I'm sitting here in the lounge, waiting to take Alfie out for his walk. That confounded pigeon is making it's pointless noise outside. The window is open as it has been infernally stuffy in the flat. It has been windy, and the window in the bathroom had to be closed because the draft which comes through makes the doors rattle. You really can't win. I have a shopping list made and it's ready to take with me when I go to Sainsbury's, hopefully before 6 o'clock.

Later. I've been to Sainsbury's this morning. I got there around 7.45.  Oh goodness gracious, some awful faces on other shoppers as we waited in the queue. Just lighten up a bit PLEASE! So gloomy and glum. The British people are a stoic nation. Just think how we got though two World Wars. I'm thinking of the comedy which came out of adversity. 'The Goons,' written  by the brilliant Spike Milligan, was a sort of reaction to his time in the army, blown up, probably accounts for his state of mind, some of the characters created as his way of getting back at authority, stupid, pompous officer class, this seen in another piece of comedy magic, 'Dad's Army,' with the self-important George Mainwaring, played by Arthur Lowe. This show based on Jimmy Perry's experiences in the Home Guard. It just makes me wonder what will be produced as a result of this pandemic. Shakespeare is supposed to have written some of his plays in the midst of the plague which was raging through Tudor London at the time, the Globe no doubt in lockdown, very much similar to today's situation.

A Symphony of Summer

It's hot. Really hot. Probably the hottest day of the year. Who knows? Who cares? Who has a thermometer to check? We've done some washing.  It's been hung out, dried and collected in. It dried in record time. Barely two hours. I've done work in the garden. It's looking a good deal better than it has in ages. It's just too hot to be outside fiddly with cutters, clippers, Strimmers, mowers, and all the plethora of gadgetry needed to keep one's little bit of garden neat and tidy. The kitchen looks tidier. Done washing up. Had suds up to my elbows. Kept my hands soft because Fairy liquid says so. Tidied the work-top. Been shopping in Sainsbury's. Put up with the queues. Been home and put it all away, having lugged several bags-worth of groceries in from the back of the car. Now, having completed all this, a rest was in order. Just laying on the bed, cooling down having had a nice cold drink. Then, to our absolute delight we get, bang, bang, bang! A few doors down. Whirr! Whirr! Clink, bang, thump! Someone's decided to build a shed, a pergola, or some such. Been to Homebase or B & Q. We had the windows open, to keep the house cool. A decent breeze blowing in. But why do people think D.I.Y. is such a good idea on a Saturday afternoon.? Obsessive/compulsive disorder. But, most of all, the question I want answered is- WHY make so much noise? And why make it when all we want to do is have a rest, when it's so hot? What is the idiot doing outside in the first place? Why isn't he watching football? There's hours and hours of it on television? Next week, Wimbledon tennis? Why not wait until then? Madness! Sheer madness. Perhaps the heat has got to the man's brain. Some people just cannot manage to be quiet, if it's revving a car (which someone did the other day. Have they no sense at all? That it's wasting fuel? That's it's environmentally unfriendly? Just think of the exhaust that is being sent out into the air, poisonous, attacking the ozone layer and so on. Not just that, but it's annoying people who are living nearby.) Then there's the idiots who ride motor bikes at speed along the Redway. It's surely not legal. I have an idea that they are youths riding those micro motor bicycles. They look stupid riding something intended for younger children, which should be ridden  only under adult supervision. It's very dangerous to ride on the Redway which are designed for pedestrians and cyclists. There could be a serious accident if someone was to get in the way when they are speeding, or was to walk out from one of the side entrances and get caught out by a speeding motor bike.

Heavy Rain

It's been fairly sunny and warm for the past few days. As I write this the sun is out. We went to Bunnings, the new D.I.Y. store in Winter Hill, Milton Keynes. It was Homebase but they were taken over by this company.  Sainsbury's took over the company who owned Homebase and Argos and presumably sold on Homebase to Bunnings, which I had never heard of this company but it's no surprise really as it's an Australian company and have only recently opened stores in this country. We just had to go and have a look and I must say I'm quite impressed from what I've seen. They have a cafe which Homebase didn't have. When we were there we heard this most amazing sound and could't work out what it was. It turned out to be the heaviest rainstorm and the sound was the rain on the roof of the building. Absolutely pelting down when we walked into the garden area where they were handing out umbrellas to customers.

We drove the short distance to The Range which is just over the road from Bunnings. Carol needed the loo so we went upstairs. On the way in we had to pass a display of hallowe'en rubbish. The usual crass stuff, stupid grinning skulls with bright red lights for eyes and some of the most pathetic ghoulish stuff imaginable. I can't believe people want to buy such stuff, but I suppose companies know that people will buy anything such as this. It's amazing how they start putting this stuff out for sale earlier and earlier each year. The we saw Christmas decorations. We went to Frost's at Woburn Sands yesterday and they had a lot of Christmas stuff already on sale, most of it tat. Lots of space being made for all this stuff. We went upstairs on the escalator at The Range and for some reason we noticed that as you got on the thing it got faster. Did I imagine it? I don't think so. More Christmas stuff upstairs which we attempted to ignore. We had a good browse around the store and looked in particular at the range of Regatta clothing, for example, decent fleeces at good prices which interested me. We would have gone back to the car but at that moment the heavens opened and the rain fell again. We just risked getting a real soaking as we ran to the car in the carpark and drove out. Unfortunately there was an huge queue of cars coming in and out of the road back onto the grid road and it took a long time to get out of Winter Hill.

Workmen Repair Neighbour's Fence

I have been indoors for most of the morning. Working on this blog mostly. Did some washing-up and other things when I heard this noise outside. As we're used to strange sounds from one side, Gary doing D.I.Y., drilling, lawn-mowing, trimming, hammering etc., there didn't seem anything odd about it. But it being a Monday, it seemed even more odd as he would have been at work. I just thought I'd look out of the window to see what the noise was, along with some music, from a radio I presumed, and saw a workman in our garden, digging a hole (the opposite neighbour to Gary and Michelle) the bit of fence which has been looking very un-fencelike for months, perhaps even years, having been removed and Marion (the neighbour that side of us) saying (when I went out to see what was going on) that they were from the Council and were replacing that particular bit of fence. Unfortunately they can't do our fence. When, I wonder, will our beloved landlord get someone to do the work? He keeps on saying that he has a 'friend' who can do it. But what has happened to this phantom 'friend"? If he can't be contacted, surely he could find someone else to do the work. The last time a so-called 'friend'  of his did some work for him in this house, look what happened- it was when the washing-machine was plumbed in. The idiot who did the work had no idea what he was doing. He didn't know that the transit bolts on the rear of the machine had to be removed before the thing was plumbed in. They are there to prevent the drum in the machine moving about when it's being moved and when I came to use the machine the thing came away from the unit it was fixed under and when it spun at speed it pulled away from the piping it was plumbed into and caused no end of damage which included a more or less permanent drip which wasn't repaired until we got a proper plumber in to repair the damage. Just get a professional do do the work. Not some botch-up boy. Anyway, not wishing to complain about the work, but it would have been nice if they'd come to our front door and told us what was going on, as it was something of a surprise, to say the least. The gas boiler still needs a safety certificate. Another thing that the landlord promised to get done but hasn't. It's now well over a year since he took over the management of this house but not having a gas safety certificate is illegal. I suppose he's trying to get another 'friend' to do this. They must be Corgi registered so no wide-boy amateur can do the work, or is supposed not to. I wonder if he's aware of that. I very much doubt it.

The fence was completed. I'm surprised how quickly the work was done and how thorough the workmen were, apart from leaving some of the bits of the old fence behind in our garden. Did they forget to take it, or was it that they couldn't get back into our garden once the new section was built? Perhaps. But it doesn't matter. I just wish the rest of our fence was repaired and to the same standard. The new section looks very solid and secure and it will take quite a strong wind to manage to blow it down like the old dilapidated fence was back in the winter.

Noisy Neighbour . . . quiet at last!

Well, no noise has come from next door for a day or two. We feared another onslaught of the drills, hammers, grinders, sanders et al, but it seems our fears were unfounded. We saw their car arrive back from somewhere such as B and Q or Homebase with something on the roof-rack. Maybe some sort of device to help saw wood, a work-mate or whatever it's called. I think the man devours Black and Decker catalogues and loves sales in these D.I.Y. places so as to try out the latest high-powered drill with hammer-attachment, just to try the patience of his neighbours. We await the next onslaught and if that happens, we'll leave him to it and go out for the day . . .

Noisy Neighbours

Our neighbours don't half make a noise. Not squabbling, shouting, loud music (although they do play a fair bit of music, but it's not loud.) children screaming and shouting or even dogs barking. (sorry to say, ours do their fair share of barking!) The noise is from drills, sanders and other D.I.Y. equipment. As I write this, there is a very loud droning sound coming from next door. It is so annoying that it's beginning to give me a headache. There were some odd clanking sounds coming through the walls the other day, and we were sitting in our lounge and watching television and trying to work out what it could be. We eventually came to the conclusion that they were putting in new central heating, and the clanking sound was the sound of the pipes and probably the radiators being fitted.